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Production: Hal Film Maker
Publisher: Nozomi Entertainment
DVD Release Date: October 1st, 2013
Bored by slice of life shows that are mostly on Earth? Yes? What about shows that are mostly on dry land? Need more dosages of crazy cat characters without the need for a shy girl feeding them expired food? How about an emotionally-compelling show that reminds you of the good in life? Then Aria the Animation is for you. Published in the US by Nozomi Entertainment, Aria the Animation quickly grew on me as an anime that everyone should watch. (Many thanks to Nozomi for the review DVDs.)
Akari Mizunashi has moved from Manhome (Earth) to Aqua (Mars) to become an Undine, a gondolier tour guide in the Aquan city of Neo Venezia (a recreation of Earth’s Venice). During her training, she meets many people and trains alongside Aika and Alice (friends of hers in different Undine companies). They face challenges in their training and Akari has a few mysterious encounters. However, at the end of the day, they all can return home to attempt to become the best Undines that they can be. Together, they learn more about each other and the planet that they live on.
Aria the Animation has become my favorite slice of life series to date. The first in a series of shows, Aria the Animation has quickly carved its place in my heart. While there’s no high-octane action scenes save for gondola rowing, each episode moves your heart and brings a smile to your face. The animation is, especially in the beginning, admittedly a little less than good at times, but even that is used to the show’s advantage. At times, the faces are all over the place with eyes that don’t fit on heads, mouths that are halfway on the neck, and so-on. However, a great majority of these are used for comedic effect.
Speaking of comedic effect, there is a TON of comedy in Aria the Animation. From Akari’s slightly-embarrassing-to-speak-out-loud lines to Aika constantly telling her that those lines are ‘forbidden’, the series uses comedy to give the feeling of family between the characters. Vocal ticks such as Alicia’s “Ara Ara” and Alice’s “Dekkai” are more passive than the previous example, but can create many laughs and is reflected well in the subtitles. President Aria’s fat stomach and President Hime constantly turning down his attempts to court her, as well as President Maa constantly biting President Aria are other examples of the comedy used in the series. At the same time, the show takes a very serious look at daily life in a city made of waterways on a planet filled with water.
From dealing with rising tides and learning how to scull their gondolas, the show sometimes takes a dark nod toward why there are so many people deciding to move to Aqua. While never directly dealt with, Manhome is apparently not as nice to live on as it is in our current age. You cannot swim in the oceans. You cannot grow food in the soil. The planet is apparently so polluted that nothing can grow from the ground. At the same time as showing you how precious your friendships are, Aria the Animation also reminds us that we should take care of the nature around us if we want our descendants to enjoy life as well. This is further showed later in the series when you see how much work and how many hopes were put into Aqua’s development.
On the other hand, Aria the Animation truly pushes the fact that you should treasure even the littlest things in life. Even names can become a source of entertainment, such as the names of the characters in the series. You might have noticed this already, but let’s look at some of them: Akari, Alice, Aika, Alicia, Al, Akatsuki, Athena, Ai, Alan, Akira, Akiko, Aria (series name and name of a cat in one!), and Aqua (yes, there’s a kid named Aqua, too). This show really loves its A-list names. The simplest of things can turn into a moment of laugher and is purposely done to provoke feelings of joy. The entire show is meant to put a smile on the viewer’s face while giving a serious lesson on the importance of friendship and love.
From a personal standpoint, I cannot help but recommend this series to everyone. Absolutely everyone. Watch it with your friends, every year if you can. For the price of $39.99 USD on RightStuf for the DVD Litebox, I really hope that you enjoy the series as much as I did. With my birthday having passed just recently (the 18th of May), I was reminded heavily of just how much I am loved. Finishing Aria the Animation shortly afterwards only makes my heart feel warmer and further reminds me that my years can be filled with happiness.
Lolinia gives Aria the Animation a Drastik Moé Measure of 9.1 out of 10.0 (91).
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MARCO Kwiotek let 43 goals past him as his team SV Vonderort were smashed by their local rivals PSV Oberhausen 43-0.
43 goals.
The score was 35-0 at halftime, and at one point Vonderort, a team that largely is made up of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Guinea, were only able to field eight players. PSV Oberhausen felt so bad about the mollywhopping, they took off three of their own players just to even up the numbers.
Letting 43 goals fly past you is bad enough, right?
Five days later, the police showed up at Vonderort training to take Kwiotek into custody. The police gave no reason for his arrest, and The Sun reports that Kwiotek called out “They just want to clear some things up” as they took him away.
But he hasn’t been seen since!
There’s speculation the goalkeeper could have been arrested for match-fixing, but police have refused to comment on why he was arrested.
At the time of writing, it’s unknown if Kwiotek is still in custody, but no further details have been revealed.
This article originally appeared on Fox Sports US
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Modafinil is an FDA-approved eugeroic that directly increases cortical catecholamine levels, indirectly upregulates cerebral serotonin, glutamate, orexin, and histamine levels, and indirectly decreases cerebral gamma-amino-butrytic acid levels. In addition to its approved use treating excessive somnolence, modafinil is thought to be used widely off-prescription for cognitive enhancement. However, despite this popularity, there has been little consensus on the extent and nature of the cognitive effects of modafinil in healthy, non-sleep-deprived humans. This problem is compounded by methodological discrepancies within the literature, and reliance on psychometric tests designed to detect cognitive effects in ill rather than healthy populations. In order to provide an up-to-date systematic evaluation that addresses these concerns, we searched MEDLINE with the terms "modafinil" and "cognitive", and reviewed all resultant primary studies in English from January 1990 until December 2014 investigating the cognitive actions of modafinil in healthy non-sleep-deprived humans. We found that whilst most studies employing basic testing paradigms show that modafinil intake enhances executive function, only half show improvements in attention and learning and memory, and a few even report impairments in divergent creative thinking. In contrast, when more complex assessments are used, modafinil appears to consistently engender enhancement of attention, executive functions, and learning. Importantly, we did not observe any preponderances for side effects or mood changes. Finally, in light of the methodological discrepancies encountered within this literature, we conclude with a series of recommendations on how to optimally detect valid, robust, and consistent effects in healthy populations that should aid future assessment of neuroenhancement.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.
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(CNN) Donald Trump didn't just stake out a strategy for waging an "extreme" and "vicious" campaign against ISIS on Monday. He also articulated one for reviving his flailing campaign.
In a major address in swing-state Ohio, Trump sought to recreate the strongman persona that powered his political rise. The Republican nominee, reeling from self-inflicted wounds that played into his rival Hillary Clinton's charge that he lacks the temperament to be commander in chief, promised an all-encompassing struggle with Islamic terror modeled on the Cold War.
He demanded tough values tests for would-be immigrants to the United States and pledged to come down hard on American Muslims suspected of radicalism. He vowed to keep Guantanamo Bay open, to join Russia to battle terrorism in the Middle East and to launch a "commission" on radical Islam.
"The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today. I call it extreme vetting. I call it extreme, extreme vetting," Trump declared in laying out the new values-test proposal.
The most important audience for those policies, however, was not in Cairo or Damascus. It was US voters themselves as he sought right his campaign after an erratic performance that has sent him tumbling in the polls.
Having boasted last year that his approval ratings spiked after terror attacks, Trump sought on Monday to harness and intensify a climate of fear and vengeance, and then pin its causes on the current president and his former secretary of state.
He traced a trail of terrorist carnage across Europe -- from Paris and Nice to Brussels and Germany -- that he tied in with attacks on US soil including in Fort Hood, Boston, Chattanooga, San Bernardino and Orlando.
"The rise of ISIS is the direct result of policy decisions made by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton," Trump said.
"The decisions made by the Obama/Clinton group have been absolutely disastrous," he continued, bemoaning a Libya in "ruins," a "disastrous" civil war in Syria and terrorism in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
Trump is facing an urgent need to counter a Clinton campaign charge that could pose an existential threat to his campaign -- the idea that he lacks the knowledge and gravitas to be commander-in-chief -- and to quell panic among Republicans who fear he is driving their ticket into the ground.
As soon as he finished his remarks, Trump's critics pointed to falsehoods, contradictions and doubts that his approach would have any meaningful impact on the bloody maelstrom in the Middle East. But the real estate mogul is banking on his hawkish stance striking a nerve with a scared public looking for strong leadership.
To that end, he built out his plan to temporarily suspend Muslim immigration and to extend that prohibition to anyone from nations where terrorism has taken root.
Trump also called for a beefed up approach on homeland security.
"The support networks for radical Islam in this country will be stripped out and removed one by one, viciously if necessary. Viciously if necessary," he pledged.
And he lambasted Clinton with the same criticism she's leveled at him in trying to make the case that his are the safest hands to steer the country.
"Incident after incident proves again and again Hillary Clinton lacks the judgment ... stability and temperament and the moral character to lead our nation," he charged. "She also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS and all of the many adversaries we face."
The question now for Trump is whether his teleprompter-based assault, which lacked the spontaneity of his earlier stump speeches, can succeed after the serial setbacks of recent weeks.
It may be that his controversial statements over the past month -- including an apparent call for Russia to hack US servers to find Clinton's missing emails, his musings about whether Second Amendment activists could stop her Supreme Court nominees if she were president or claims that Obama "founded" ISIS -- have inflicted too much damage already for his message to resonate.
With less than three months until the election and with battleground state polls showing Trump heading for defeat, even the billionaire has publicly mused that he could lose. But the Democrats certainly don't want to give him any opportunity to recover.
Vice President Joe Biden on Monday hammered away at the GOP nominee.
Campaigning with Clinton in Pennsylvania, Biden pointed to the military officer who follows him around with a briefcase containing nuclear codes.
"(Trump) is not qualified to know the codes," Biden claimed.
Even some critics within his own party jumped on Trump's speech Monday.
Michael Steel, former adviser to former House Speaker John Boehner, questioned Trump's approach on immigration.
"It was a series of slogans without any policy behind it. He favors 'extreme vetting' -- as far as I know that is a skateboarding term," Steel told CNN's Jake Tapper.
Many national security experts were also not impressed.
Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a CNN analyst, said Trump's stance on Muslims recalled US internment of Japanese Americans in World War II.
"That kind of talk just scares me," Hertling said.
But Ed Brookover, a former Trump senior adviser, countered that Monday's speech was the latest step in a steady effort by the Republican nominee to lay out a new national security blueprint for America.
"Mr. Trump has been building his case slowly and surely through the campaign," Brookover told CNN's Brooke Baldwin. "He has been, from day one, outlining different proposals he has had to make America safe, to make us more secure and to avoid this existential threat ISIS (is) posing for us."
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Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers Joins Tesla In War With Dealerships Associations
June 19th, 2014 by James Ayre
Part of this is no doubt coming from the fact that Tesla’s recent successes have seemingly enlivened other far larger established manufacturers to come out against the franchise system, via the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents a significant number of major manufacturers. Said alliance recently publicly noted that dealers currently possess too much power.
Humorously(?), the chairman of the Automotive Trade Association Executives responded to the news that the Alliance was coming out against the franchise system by stating that the whole situation was a “recipe for disaster.” Lol. For who/what exactly? The dealers and probably no one and nothing else? 🙂
The recent statements from the Alliance were pretty blunt in this regard, explaining the nature of the current situation/system rather clearly.
“At the request of local dealer groups, states set up a labyrinth of protectionist laws that make the car-buying experience difficult and costly for our customers,” explained spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist, representing the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
“It’s understandable why Tesla or future competitors would want a simpler sales process. When we look at the big picture, we may be at a tipping point. If dealer groups continue their push for more onerous franchise laws, we will be forced to keep an open mind about how best to serve new-car buyers in the future.”
Boom.
Looks like it’s not just a war with Tesla now. Easy to see why the dealers are becoming very uncomfortable.
On the subject of recent gains, it looks like Tesla will once again be able to sell direct to customers in New York and New Jersey with a pair of successes in those states.
In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a pro-Tesla bill that had passed earlier in the year. And, in New Jersey, the Assembly approved a bill that would make a loophole for direct sales of zero-emissions vehicles. 🙂
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Obamacare has survived a ferocious TV advertising assault from opponents that dwarfs ads defending the law by a 5:1 ratio, according to a new analysis by a media monitoring group.
Spending on campaign and issue ads referencing Obamacare in the three years since the law’s enactment on March 23, 2010, totals a whopping $475 million, Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group found.
Ads mentioning the health care law were “overwhelmingly negative” — coming in at $400 million as compared to $75 million spent portraying the law positively, the study said. Spending on such ads exceeded $250 million in 2012.“The biggest advertisers in opposition to the ACA since its enactment have been Republican outside groups,” the Kantar analysis concluded. “The biggest advertiser in support of the law has been the US Department of Health and Human Services in a nonpolitical (judging from the buy) education campaign.”
Meanwhile, Kantar found, “Democratic candidates for office — including President Obama himself — have spent comparably little on campaign and issue advertising about the law.”
The lopsided nature of Obamacare-related TV advertising may offer some context to the law’s unpopularity in public opinion polls. A CNN survey last week found that 54 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the law, compared to 43 percent who view it favorably.
The gap illustrates the challenges facing the Obama administration and other proponents of the law as they fend off Republican efforts to sabotage the health care law’s implementation. Democrats say they’re increasingly dedicated to making sure the roll out of the law’s major provisions next year goes well.
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President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE on Monday attended the opening ceremony of the summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Manila, Philippines, where Trump initially struggled during a group photo with world leaders ahead of a one-on-one meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
Trump and the other leaders entered the summit around 9:45 a.m. local time. Trump greeted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before the ceremony, according to the pool report.
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The world leaders then posed for a photo, with Trump standing next to Duterte.
Each leader placed his right hand over his left hand as part of the customary ASEAN handshake. Trump had a “false start” with the handshake before doing it properly, according to the pool report.
Photos of Trump doing the handshake quickly went viral.
.@realDonaldTrump joins other leaders in a handshake with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, right, during the opening ceremony of the 31st ASEAN Summit pic.twitter.com/mfqTU8AmUr — Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) November 12, 2017
good luck to whoever has three weeks to get this regional production of Mamma Mia! into shape pic.twitter.com/eCZ81VxbMi — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) November 12, 2017
This is what peak performance looks like pic.twitter.com/BiH7gUMk9C — j.r. hennessy (@jrhennessy) November 12, 2017
In addition to Duterte, who has drawn global condemnation for his ongoing drug crackdown, Trump will hold meetings with Turnbull and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The ASEAN summit in Manila will be the cap-off to Trump's 13-day tour of Asia, which also saw him meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
--This report was updated on Nov. 13 at 7:14 a.m.
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Your San Diego Comic-Con scheduling conflicts may have just gotten a little easier. Nerd HQ — arguably the best offsite at San Diego Comic-Con since it debuted in 2011 — just announced that they won’t be returning this year.
“As many of you know, here at Nerd HQ, every single year, we try to not only present you with Nerd HQ, the event, in San Diego during Comic-Con. We try to make it as excellent as we can, every single year. And every year, we’ve been able to figure out a way – some way, somehow, to be able to provide that to you guys. Unfortunately, this year we have to announce to you with very heavy hearts that we are not able to do NerdHQ in San Diego during Comic-Con in 2017,” Zachary Levi said in the video.
“It is very, very difficult for me to even announce this right now. However, please know that we, collectively, did everything we possibly could to bring you Nerd HQ, like we always want to bring you Nerd HQ. We did everything. We turned up every stone.”
For the uninitiated, Nerd HQ is the brainchild of actor Levi and his The Nerd Machine business partner David Coleman, and has grown over the last six years to be one of the biggest and best offsites at San Diego Comic-Con. They offered fans dance parties, a cool place to hang out, and of course, the annual Conversations for a Cause panels with celebrities – the proceeds of which were donated to Operation Smile.
However, don’t count Nerd HQ and The Nerd Machine down for the count. They certainly aren’t dead — and Levi promised that he was committed to bringing the fans Nerd HQ in whatever form he could. He even teased that, “In the coming weeks, specificially this coming week, there will be a flurry of announcements regarding various things that will be happening in San Diego during Comic-Con. And my hope is that I will be able to provide to you through some of those other things at least a modicum of what we’ve been able to bring to you through Nerd HQ.” So stay tuned.
Here’s a look at the full announcement:
So thanks for all of the awesome memories, Nerd HQ — and we’re confident we’ll be making new ones before too long.
How do you feel about this Nerd HQ news? Let us know in the comments.
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An activist holds a banner during a rally on World AIDS day to protest against government policies, in front of the Russian White House in Moscow in 2010. Credit:Reuters "We're not surprised at these kinds of statements anymore," she tells me from Moscow, where she works with drug users and sees the scale of Russia's growing HIV epidemic firsthand. "It's the usual thing in Russia now to discard science for ideology." There are two models for fighting HIV, according to the RISR report. The Western model, it says, is made of "neoliberal ideological content, insensitivity towards national sensitivities and over-focus of certain at-risk groups such as drug addicts and LGBT people." The Russian model, on the other hand, "takes into account the cultural, historical, and psychological characteristics of the Russian population, and is based on a conservative ideology and traditional values."
The majority of Russia's HIV+ population are injection drug users. Credit:Jason South The Russian model The science says the Russian model isn't working. Addicts shoot up in an AIDS ward in Nizhny Novgorod. Tuesday tv pic, June 19 Guide. Russia Sex, Needles and Roubles Credit:Still from documentary: Sex, Needles and Roubles: Approximately 93,000 new HIV cases were reported in Russia in 2015 - a per-capita rate almost fifteen times that of Australia. A million people in Russia have HIV, including almost one percent of all pregnant women - the threshold for a generalised epidemic.
Dr Vadim Pokrovsky heads up Russia's federal AIDS research centre and is a longtime critic of the Kremlin's HIV policies. Dr Vadim Pokrovsky Credit:Ukraine Business Online "The last five years of the conservative approach have led to the doubling of the number of HIV-infected people" Pokrovsky told AFP last year. The arch-conservative head of Moscow City Council's health committee, Lyudmila Stebenkova, described Dr Pokrovsky last year as a "typical agent working against the national interests of Russia." Not surprisingly, Pokrovsky doesn't think much of RISR's report.
"They use some questionable sources of information and incorrectly interpret the data they present," he tells me from Moscow. "Their arguments are not convincing." The Western contraceptive industry According to Igor Beloborodov, one of the RISR report's co-authors, attitudes to condom use is one of the main factors behind Russia's HIV epidemic. "The [Western] contraceptive industry is interested in selling their products and encouraging underage people to engage in sex," he told Moscow City Council.
He and his RISR colleagues argue in the report that condoms "create the illusion of the safety of sex" and should not be "gratuitously distributed" in Russian schools. The solution, they say, is to completely abstain from sex outside of (heterosexual) marriage. Dr Pokrovsky is dismissive of arguments like these. "This is traditional rhetoric that was used thirty years ago and still used in conservative circles throughout the world. It is not particularly troubling evidence." Pokrovsky also takes issue with the report's argument that "risk elimination" – in other words, completely giving up drugs and extramarital sex – is superior to harm reduction approaches. He stresses that "risk elimination" is actually impossible. "The experts who understand this know that people cannot just give up extramarital sex," he says, "and people dependent on drugs cannot just stop using them."
'AIDS and drugs will solve each other' Even though 60 per cent of HIV-positive Russians are injection drug users, methadone replacement therapy remains illegal in Russia despite clear evidence of its effectiveness. It's an approach that has led some commentators to question if the Kremlin is even that interested in the fight against HIV at all. "I have had conversations with Russian government officials who have said things like 'AIDS and drugs will solve each other,'" Daniel Wolfe, director of the International Harm Reduction Program at the Open Society Foundations (an organisation funded by frequent Kremlin target George Soros), told The Verge. "So I think there's some question about whether or not Russia is actually committed to protecting the lives of everyone, or whether drug users fall into the category of 'socially unproductive citizens' the state might just as well do without." In Moscow, Anya Sarang worries about the impact the "information war" rhetoric from the Kremlin and its allies might have on Russian with HIV.
"It send the completely wrong message," she says of the RISR report. "Basically this report is saying that the HIV problem is something made up by western media." "The Russian population is really psyched up now with this whole anti-Western ideology and discourse," she warns. "People might take this seriously and think 'oh, HIV isn't a Russian problem – it's just a part of the information war.'" Follow Fairfax World on Facebook Follow Fairfax World on Twitter
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In a surprising new direction for one of the world’s most financially successful and critically reviled action directors, Michael Bay is teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio to produce a film about Rwanda’s national biking team. Based on true events, the film promises to have at least 75 percent fewer explosions and jive-talking robots than Bay’s usual fare. So it’s not terribly surprising to learn that Bay won’t actually be directing.
Those duties will be passed on to Orlando von Einsiedel, who directed Virunga, a DiCaprio-produced, Oscar-nominated documentary about gorillas in the Congo. DiCaprio won’t be starring in the film, just co-producing. But fear not, because the movie promises to have what every film set in Africa needs: a white guy in the lead role.
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Yes, the story will focus not on actual Rwandans, but on Jacques Boyer, best known as the first American to race in the Tour de France. After retiring from cycling, Boyer was pushed out of a business partnership and jailed for an affair with a teenager. His life a shambles, Boyer traveled to Rwanda, recruiting boys who had survived genocide and extreme poverty to become the war-torn country’s national cycling team. After competing worldwide in races, one of Team Rwanda’s members, Adrien Niyonshuti, competed in the 2012 Olympics.
No word yet on casting, or when the film is expected to start shooting. Meanwhile, Bay will prepare for this serious drama about political strife and inspiring achievement by directing a time-travel action movie and the conservative fever dream-turned-thriller BENGHAZI!!!!!
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Exciting news for Slayers who have purchased Founder-tier packs. You are now able to choose how you would like your name to appear in the game credits!
If you would like to be included in the credits but have not yet purchased a Founder-tier pack, there’s still time! You can learn more about Founder’s Packs in this article. Now that Founder’s Alpha has begun, we are no longer adding Founders to our Founder’s Credits, if you purchased a Founder’s Pack prior to Founder’s Alpha starting, your name will be immortalized in the Game Credits.
From all of us at Phoenix Labs, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your support and dedication means the world to our team and keeps us motivated to shape the skies of the Shattered Isles every day. We’ll see you there!
Instructions on setting your credit
By default, your listing in the credits is your Dauntless display name. If you know your Dauntless display name and would like to use it in the credits, then you’re all set! There’s nothing else to do. If you would like to use a different name than your Dauntless display name, first log in to your account settings at http://playdauntless.com by clicking on the “Log In” button in the upper-left corner. Log in using your credentials to view your accounts settings. Once you are logged in, click on the “Register Name” button toward the bottom of the page. You will then be sent to a Google form where you can choose your credit!
PLEASE NOTE: It is important that you do not change the Survey Code! Submit the Google survey and you’re all set!
If you have any problems or questions please visit support.playdauntless.com
Guidelines Regarding Credits
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Goreys!I looove calling back old jokes. haha!Many of the articles I read about the book cited the Gorey/Nancy book cover business as the best work I do, which I am uncertain how to take (artists! amirite) but hey, if it's your favorite it's your favorite right? I think that the really good thing about them is that they don't need nor are made better by any previous knowledge of anything else coming in, so everyone reads them the same way. I like that! History and comic book things are fun but it's nice for everyone to be on the same page too.anyhowA Halifax illustrator friend of mine, Sydney Smith, finally made himself a thing on the internet so add that on to your tumblrs and et ceteras.My pal Lizz Lunney has a new book, it's right here, she's a mini comics star but if you ain't heard of her because of her being all the way over in Britain, I forgive ya. That situation is easily repaired by simply clicking links! Isn't the internet grand? The store has three new shirts! It's been a while. But here they are!The book is still available for order on Amazon!Other buying options for the book? Topatoco is selling it, along with a reissue of the first book! There is a pretty good combo deal there.
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Part 1: Only Love Could Be So Cruel
Cast
is a fantastic role-playing game and has the finest story ever written for the computer screen.That's all that needs to be said, really. I feel thatis a truly excellent story and game. Honestly, it's the one thing that gives me hope for the medium as a whole; it's better thanbetter thanHideo Kojima? Ragnar Tørnquist? Forget them, Obsidian Entertainment are the ones to watch.But I don't think I'm doing a very good job of explaining myself, so I'll start again.is a fantastic role-playing game and has the finest story ever written for the computer screen.is the expansion pack toObsidian's second game.was a solid, traditionally epic high-fantasy RPG set along the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It was a good game, maybe not a classic, but it was big and quite funny and it had flashes of brilliance.You may remember (from playing the game or from reading the LP ) thatended poorly. The player character defeated the malevolent King of Shadows, only to be buried alive in a rockfall... a bit of a bummer as you can imagine.picks up almost immediately after whereleft off. We'll be following the same character as they explore a strange new land and uncover a terrible secret hundreds of years in the making. It's a whole new story, so you don't have to be familiar with the events ofbut it helps!All right, so you're still not buying it. Okay, let me put it like this:is a story about truth, and the differences between what is obvious and what is actually real. It's a story about learning and knowledge, and also about ignorance and falsehoods. It's a story about self-discovery.is a story about death, and the dead. It's a story about God, the gods, and the godless. It's a story about what happens to you after you die, and why bad things happen to good people (and the other way around).is a story about love. Not a love story, mind, but a story about capital-LLove of family, love of friends, religious love, love for your country and, yes, romantic love.But enough repetition, on with the show!The Knight-Captain of Crossroad Keep, she (almost) singlehandedly defeated the King of Shadows in mortal combat. Her reward was to wake up alone and half-dead in a cave hundreds of miles away, in the land of distant Rashemen.A Red Wizard of Thay, but unlike others of her kind shea brutal tyrant and enslaver. This doesn't mean she's not morally flexible...A hagspawn shaman and dreamwalker, imprisoned for the crime of being "too handsome." His arch manner and wry witticisms seem simply amusing at first, but there's more to him than meets the eye.A former Doomguide of Kelemvor who converted to the worship of Ilmater, god of martyrs. She's been thrown out of her faith, exiled from Celestia, disowned by her family... and now she's joined our party.First he tries to kill us, then he wants to serve us... We spared the life of the Rashemi god of bears and made an ally out of a former enemy. A shame he can't remember anything of his past - or of this strange new curse of ours.The possessed remains of the fallen bear god, animated by the insane hatred of thousands of murderers, rapists and heretics. One of Many bound itself to our service in the hope of finding more souls to devour and add to its gestalt intellect. For evil characters only, duh.
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Dance Class Without Music?! Oh No!
My students need an iPod to store music to use for class and speakers to play that music.
My Students
To provide music for class I have been using my own personal set of speakers and my iPhone. Recently, one of my 2 speakers blew out so volume is at a less than appropriate minimum. Also, with the large variety of music I like to use, my own cell phone has little space for anything that's not music!
My students are of all shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities but have on thing in common: they want to dance.
We hold class in the auditorium and they change in the bathrooms. They don't ask for anything but to keep dancing every second of the period. They complain sometimes, but I secretly think they all like it. It's impossible to find the right words to describe all that my students are.
My Project
Being able to blare music as loudly and obnoxiously as we please is a great benefit of getting to participate in dance class. Let's be honest, how fun would dance class be without music? Sadly, now my students and I are quickly headed down the dark path to silence! Music literally pumps my students up. Let's imagine being a high school student, slumping into a cold, obnoxious bright room at 7:15 in the morning, or walking into a warm room after lunch with a belly full of food and a brain all but fried, and being forced to contort your body in ways that look and feel plain unnatural. Feel the motivation? Neither do I.. Blaring upbeat and exciting music is just one method I utilize to wake up my sleepy heads each day. Class already feels a lot less lively with music that is now faint in comparison to what we are used to having.
Sacrifices are a given in the field of education.
Rarely ever can anything be completely perfect in every way, but in a majority of situations teachers create magic and make it work. My students can manage without proper leotards, dancing on an old stage under hot lights, changing in bathrooms, and sharing small spaces with many classmates, but a silent dance class? That's one thing I won't let happen to my students. Just as you need words in English and numbers in Math, you need music in dance!
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Adding just one more thing for Bill O’Reilly to be pissed at his old buddy God about, Deadline is reporting that O’Reilly’s agent, UTA, is dropping him from its ranks, shortly after The New York Times ran a piece this weekend revealing a $32 million settlement the former Fox News host paid out earlier this year. (To be clear, this is a separate payout from the five other settlements the NYT reported on back in April, which led to the boycotts that got O’Reilly kicked off the network in the first place.)
UTA announced today that it wouldn’t be renewing its contract with O’Reilly when it expires at the end of the year. It’s not clear if the decision to end the agency’s longtime association with the professional blusterer was specifically inspired by the settlement—which O’Reilly paid to lawyer Lis Wiehl, and which was by far his biggest settlement to date—or because the agency just doesn’t want to be in the cranky podcast host business anymore. In any case, a representative for O’Reilly—who’s called the latest New York Times piece an effort to “maliciously smear” him, and who claims to have unseen proof as to the real, non-“Your horndog tendencies have become a liability even we are unable to countenance” reasons that Fox fired him—has already secured “alternative representation” for himself.
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Join the epic battle against evil! View this email in your browser With great power comes great responsibility. You didn't think we'd let the bad guys have all the glory. This month we have assembled an awesome collection that celebrates the good guys. Items in our crate draw from HEROES in both geek & gamer lore, and thanks to a partnership with our friends at Funko, you'll get a very special exclusive POP! collectible that you will not find ANYWHERE else. Last but not least, our custom box last month was so well received that you'll get another surprise when you open your August one!
Loot Crate Intel!
This month we are happy to announce that we will be bringing you an EXCLUSIVE Funko POP! collectible!
You won't be able to get this special variant anywhere else...
We will also have an exciting sweepstakes for a chance to win an all expenses paid trip to visit the Funko HQ in Seattle.
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Volunteers from Free Food For All distributed 100 bags of food and necessities worth $5,460 to residents at Block 811, French Road.
The charitable organisation received a call from someone who wanted to sponsor a food drive for the needy.
As the donor initially wanted to remain anonymous, Mr Nizar Mohamed Shariff, founder of Free Food For All (FFFA), accepted the donation, and distributed 100 bags of food and necessities worth $5,460 to residents at Block 811, French Road, on Jan 21.
As it turned out, the donor, Mr Francis Lee, 40, is an unlicensed moneylender.
One of the volunteers from FFFA had searched online for Mr Lee's company's name, GT Credit, when he asked for the name to appear on T-shirts worn by volunteers at the event.
But a licensed moneylender that also goes by the name of GT Credit popped up during the search. And so Mr Nizar went ahead with the event.
The New Paper received a tip-off about the charity drive by a reader who had spotted the volunteers wearing the T-shirts.
When contacted, Mr Lee told TNP that his moneylending operation is not licensed.
Mr Nizar said he did not know this.
He said: "I was not aware that the sponsorship was from an unlicensed moneylender. It was our third collaboration with external companies and we are fairly new."
FFFA was founded in November 2014 and registered in February 2015.
When contacted, Mr Lee told TNP: "Chinese New Year was coming and I wanted to give back to society.
"I approached two or three charitable organisations but all of them ignored me."
He added that he had spent his childhood in the area and wanted to give a helping hand to the residents there.
When TNP visited GT Credit, the licensed moneylender, at its Toa Payoh office, an employee said they are aware of Mr Lee's company.
Lawyers TNP spoke to said FFFA did not do anything wrong by accepting the sponsorship, as they did not know it came from an unlicensed operation.
"There would not be any consequences if the charitable organisation did not know their donor was an unlicensed moneylender," said Mr Foo Cheow Ming, a lawyer with Templars Law.
"If the charitable organisation knowingly accepted money from an unlicensed moneylender, then they will be investigated and the money that has been (involved in) crime will be confiscated."
'NO OFFENCE'
Mr Ravinderpal Singh, a lawyer with Kalco Law who is also a board member of several charitable organisations like The New Charis Mission, said: "There is nothing illegal. There is no offence. The food drive is not related to moneylending and they did not do it to promote their moneylending activities.
"It will be difficult to try to make it a criminal offence, especially if the event organiser did not know. It is not like they are banks or financial institutions that have to do their due diligence checks."
But Charity Council chairman Gerard Ee said charitable organisations should do due diligence and conduct background checks on donors or sponsors.
He said: "If the charitable organisations do not have a robust due diligence process, then they will be subject to criticism.
"If they have done their best and could not uncover anything, they should not be faulted."
Mr Ee added: "Even though they may be unlicensed and their business is not legal, it does not mean the people in the company do not have good hearts.
"If you do know about the organisation's background then this becomes a judgement call. Some will take a moral stance...
"Every organisation has to decide the values they want to uphold."
When asked if he thinks accepting the sponsorship from Mr Lee's business was a mistake, Mr Nizar said no.
"At the end of the day, it is still an act of doing good. We should not judge one's background because he is doing a good deed.
"I felt that Mr Lee was sincere and not doing it for public attention," said Mr Nizar.
He said he will be imposing stricter protocols when working with companies in future.
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Apple introduced the new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display in May of this year and is rumored to release another one next year. This MacBook Pro is powered by Intel Core i7 with either 2.2, 2,5 or 2.8 GHz processor, 64-bit architecture and you can choose from 256 GB, 512 GB or 1 TB Flash storage. For the graphics card, it uses Intel Iris Pro 5200 and AMD Radeon R9M370X. This 2015 version of MacBook will be somewhat different from its successor model.
The MacBook Pro 2016 will be armored with NVIDIA GPU plus an external GPU specifically designed for Apple devices which will definitely catch the interest of avid gamers. Gamestream Co-op is also featured in this graphics chipset which enables gamers to load the game on the Internet and stream it to another user. With this feature, other gamers can either watch the game or control the game as if they are in the same room, Yibada said on its report.
According to Christian Today, the new MacBook Pro will be using a Skylake chipset that will power up while lowering the consumption of the battery. This will also allow the technology used by Apple Watch called Force Touch Technology to be working hand-in-hand with Apple laptops that will be released on 2016.
Apple's flagship laptop will be hitting the market with its 13-inch and 15-inch sizes. Other specifications include the operating system OS X El Capitan, a type-C USB port and will be much more thinner than previous models.
Every gamer will be really excited to try and experience the all-new Macbook Pro 2016. And based on a report from Neurogadget, it is rumored to be introduced to the market on October together with the new Macbook Air and a new set of iPads.
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As a cafe in Sydney, Australia came under siege by a hostage-taking gunman on Monday, those nearby attempted to flee the area. Many of them turned to the popular ride-sharing app Uber, causing the demand for cars to skyrocket and in turn, the company's so-called "surge pricing" to go into effect, with fares rising to four times the usual rate. The backlash was immediate and aggressive. It was also aggressively wrong.
The fact that Uber allowed surge pricing during a hostage crisis may lead you to believe that the company doesn't care about you, and you would be correct. But Uber does not have a responsibility to care about you. Uber is not a government entity, and it is not beholden to the general carless public during an unwelcome drizzle of rain or even a time of great distress.
I'm old enough to remember a time before Uber––about four years ago––when people somehow managed to get from point A to point B. It’s hard to believe it judging by how some react when they can't magically summon a car with a few taps of their fingers, but Uber has only existed since 2009, when it was founded as UberCab in San Francisco. Its mobile app launched the following year, and since then it has rapidly expanded from the Golden City to hundreds of cities in 53 countries around the globe. Surge pricing was not unveiled until 2012.
The premise of the program is simple supply-and-demand: when demand for cars increases and supply decreases, Uber's algorithm inflates the fee for rides accordingly, which the company claims encourages more drivers to work, which puts more cars on the road when people are requesting them most.
Surge pricing happens during rush hour and when it rains or snows; it happens on holidays like Halloween and New Year's Eve; and it has happened during states of emergency like Hurricane Sandy in 2012, after which the New York Attorney General stood Uber down and made them agree not to hike up fares during natural disasters––and he was as wrong as any of Uber's customers who complain about their inflated fares.
Agitated Uber passengers often respond to surge pricing by posting screen shots of their astronomical fare estimates or receipts to social media as a means of shaming the company.
During a blizzard in 2013, Jessica Seinfeld, wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, posted her $415 bill to Instagram with the caption, "UBER charge, during snowstorm (to drop one at Bar Mitzvah and one child at sleepover.) #OMG #neverforget #neveragain #real." Recently a woman successfully crowdfunded to pay off a $360 trip taken on her 26th birthday.
But Uber's surges are not price gouging, as some have erroneously claimed. Uber––which is actually not the only method of transportation on Earth, despite what it may seem like––warns passengers about the surge before it allows them to order a car, and if the surge is over two times the normal rate, the app forces users to type it in, just to make sure they really understand what they are getting themselves into.
As the Sydney hostage crisis unfolded, Uber customers and observers alike took to Twitter to complain about the sky-high fares, calling the policy "Marxian" and "downright predatory."
Gawker sneered that Uber is "Ayn Rand's favorite car service."
Uber responded to the PR nightmare by reversing the surge, refunding those affected, and doling out free rides. They shouldn't have.
There is plenty to chastise Uber for––I am a frequent and enthusiastic critic of the company's inadequate background check process––but price surging is not among its sins.
In his stand-up special Hilarious, Louis CK talks about this generation's attitude of entitlement towards technology:
"I was on a plane once about a month ago, and they had high-speed wireless internet on the plane, and they had never done that before. They explained to us that we were like one of the first aircrafts. I opened up my laptop, and I'm online! I'm looking at YouTube and shit while we're flying! And then it broke down, and the woman says, 'I'm sorry, but we have to fix the internet, so it's down for the rest of the flight.' And the guy next to me goes, 'this is fucking bullshit.' Like dude, how does the world owe you something you didn't know existed 30 seconds ago?"
How does the world owe you a private car, priced as you deem acceptable, that didn't exist five years ago?
If you don't like Uber's surge pricing, you are still welcome to travel by subway, cab, bus, camel, horse and carriage, or you can just fucking walk. If none of those options appeal to you, you might consider meandering over to a country with a different economic system.
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A tribute meant to help heal the hurt from the death of a legend and an attack on the homeland started a patriotic tradition.
Patriotism is defined as “an emotional attachment to a nation in which an individual recognizes as their homeland.” Few sights in motorsports are more patriotic than that of Johnny Ray and his iconic diesel big-rig, adorned with a giant American flag, making his way down the Talladega Superspeedway frontstretch during the National Anthem prior to the start of NASCAR races.
The iconic drive-by has become a tradition that has left many emotional and full of American pride – perhaps none more so than the man behind the wheel.
This upcoming race weekend, Ray will once again delight fans with the unprecedented act of patriotism which has been unique to Talladega since 2001.That year, after the terrorist attacks of 9-11 and the tragic passing of Dale Earnhardt, Sr. in the Daytona 500, Ray, along with Talladega Superspeedway Chairman Grant Lynch, searched for something to boost the morale of a country and a fan base that had gone through tough times. They found the answer in Ray’s passion for 18-wheelers and their mutual love of the country.
“The 9-11 attacks had just happened, and Dale had passed away earlier that year,” said Ray, who lives just down the street from the track in Eastaboga. “I had a crazy idea to run my rig out on the track with an American flag attached to the back. It started off as a tribute to the country and to Dale.”
“Johnny’s flag idea really turned out to be something very unique to Talladega. It has become one of the most iconic National Anthem traditions in sports,” Lynch said of the ritual that began in the fall of 2001. “I’ve seen others try things similar, but here at Talladega we have the biggest flag on the biggest track. It can be copied, but can never truly be duplicated.”
Ray, who has owned the “John Ray Trucking Company,” since the early 70’s, actually set the World Speed Record for a semi-truck and trailer around the mammoth 2.66-mile track at 92.083 miles per hour in 1975 - in a powerful Kenworth Diesel that hissed and hummed through the tri-oval at a break-neck speed one fall afternoon. Ray has not always been just a trucker, however – he was a racer. He competed in the Cup Series from 1974-1976, starting eight races, four at Talladega, where he earned a career-best 22nd place finish in 1974 before an accident at Daytona in ’76 ended his driving career.
“I was just starting to get my career going when I had a bad wreck at Daytona,” he said. “I was in the hospital for a while and had a long road to recovery. Safe to say that my driving career was over, but that couldn’t stop my love for racing.”
Ray continued on as a car owner in the Cup Series on a limited basis. In fact, he gave one of the sport’s legends one of his first opportunities - Earnhardt Sr., the 10-time Talladega winner.
“I got a call from an old friend that I raced on dirt with, Dale Earnhardt,” Ray said. “He needed a ride for the upcoming Atlanta race. Needless to say, he rolled the car in turn three and completely totaled it. I was still in a neck brace (from my wreck) when I got to the care center and I asked him, ‘Are you alright?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, sorry about your car.’ I was just glad he was ok.”
Ray’s story at the Superspeedway continued in the form of volunteering. For nearly 40 years, he has been a member of the White Flag Club, a dedicated service group of local businessmen from surrounding communities that assist the track during race weekends.
For Ray, life has given him some amazing opportunities, and because of that he loves to give back, whether it’s driving the iconic big-rig around the track or helping wherever needed. He will always, like his pace-lap, be unique to Talladega Superspeedway.
Photo: In 1975, Johnny Ray set a world record at Talladega Superspeedway on a closed-course for a semi tractor-trailer at 92.083 mph. Ray now volunteers at the superspeedway as a member of the White Flag Club and will take to the track during pre-race ceremonies as he makes the iconic drive-by in his diesel big-rig, decked out with a giant American Flag.
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1850 words
I’ve read a lot of crazy things in my life, though this must be the craziest. Someone really believes that “blacks are less violent than whites“. To believe such a claim, you would have to close your eyes to all of the relevant data. From naming outright falsities to obscuring data to fit his narritive, this article will show and refute a distorted reality, one that the Left wishes to show, to one simply looking for the truth to interracial crime.
Don’t be modest, Caucasians. The Holocaust
The Holocaust is really beyond the scope of this blog, but check out the CODOH Library for the truth on this matter.
This is not unique to Europeans. The Rwandan Genocide (which was due to ethnocentrism) and the ethnic cleansing currently occurring in Central Africa aren’t real? Fact of the matter is, is that every ethnicity has participated in ‘ethnic cleansing’, which is really just protecting genetic interests. This is a non-factor as this has gone on before European colonialism.
colonization of Africa and the Caribbean
Colonialism was good for the native inhabitants of Africa. Speaking of the Caribbean, how well did it end for the Haitians after they defeated Napolean?
Oh? You mean how a majority of the slaveholders were Sephardic Jews? Or how there are reports from New Orleans from their 1860 census that showed 3000 freed blacks owned slaves, accounting for 28 percent of the city’s population? In 1860 Louisiana, at least 6 blacks owned more than 65 slaves, with the biggest number of slaves being 165 slaves who worked on a sugar plantation. How about the Jews’ role in American slavery? Moreover, at the height of slavery, a paltry 6 percent of Southern whites owned slaves, when combined with the North it was 1.4 percent. An estimated 3000 blacks had about 20000 slaves in 1860. But tall is only about the whites who did slavery, and not about the Arabs and how they started enslaving Africans FIRST, in 650 AD.
The Alternative Hypothesis just had a post the other day about the non-genocide of American Indians. Basically, their population was anywhere between 1.5 and 2 million people. Population reduction for the Native Americans was only 0.22 percent!! Doesn’t seem like such a ‘genocide’ to me. If so, that’s the slowest genocide I’ve ever heard of.
People segregate naturally. We’re more segregated now than we were 50 years ago! Must be those residual effects from Jim Crow huh?
But somehow in the media it’s the black man who is portrayed as the savage.
I wonder why??
It’s just not fair. We white folks are so much better at race-based aggression than our darker complected brothers.
More intelligent than them, that’s why.
Just this Wednesday a white guy walked into a historic African American Church in South Carolina, was accepted as part of the service, stayed for about an hour before shouting a spiteful message and gunning down several parishioners! Now that’s some hate right there!
One person does something and that means….what exactly? It shows one person is hateful! Look at averages, not singular events.
Whenever anyone brings up race and violence, the first thing people mention is crime.
Because they are linked to each other. Why wouldn’t the two things be mentioned in the same breath?
There is more black-on-black crime than white-on-black crime, they say. And they’re correct! According to a 2013 FBI Uniform Crime Report, when it comes to murder, 90 percent of black victims were killed by black offenders. However, what people fail to mention is that according to the very same report, 83 percent of white victims were killed by white offenders, too. These numbers don’t show black people are more violent than white people. They show that BOTH white and black people would rather kill within their own race.
Yea they show that both would rather kill within race, however you miss something very important here: Interracial crime!
First, we find that during the 2012/2013 period, blacks committed an average of 560,600 violent crimes against whites, whereas whites committed only 99,403 such crimes against blacks. This means blacks were the attackers in 84.9 percent of the violent crimes involving blacks and whites. This figure is consistent with reports from 2008, the last year DOJ released similar statistics. Perhaps not coincidentally, that was the year Mr. Obama was elected president.
In terms of raw numbers, black people and white people actually commit about the same number of murders. But you wouldn’t know that from the media.
Not really. Per capita rates are more important than raw numbers, luckily we have data on that!
As of 2008, young black men kill at a rate of 7 times higher than white men.
Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008 Annual Rates for 2009 and 2010 pg 11
Is that the same number of murders?? I’m looking at the same stat in a completely different way than you are.
The FBI is charged under the Hate Crime Statistics Act with compiling statistics on spite-based legal transgressions. In its most recent report, for 2013, hate crimes based on race are far more numerous than any other kind.
The FBI is biased towards blacks and ‘hate crimes’. How about all of the countless times we here about blacks attacking whites using racial epithets during the attack? Too many to count. They are, however, not counted as hate crimes by the FBI because it doesn’t fit their narritive. I wonder how those numbers would look if actual hate crimes were included in this data (black on white included).
According to the FBI statistics, 54.5 percent of the reported single-bias hate crimes that were racially motivated in 2013 targeted blacks. Only 16.3% target whites.
Want to talk bias? The amount of black on white hate crimes that are NOT categorized as such. This skews the statistics considerably.
Would our economy really have been so robust without the free labor of all those slaves?
Yes. Whites could have done it, but getting blacks to do it was cheaper and more efficient. Using brains to get ahead is what life is all about. Whites build great societies anywhere. Our economy would have been as robust as it is now without America never having a history of slavery.
Heck! Would we even have a country at all if we hadn’t murdered all those indigenous peoples in the first place?
Is a population decline of 0.22 percent per year ‘murdering all those indigenous peoples’?
So let’s put it to rest. When it comes to hate crimes, white folks kill! But don’t feel too bad, black folks. There are things you’re good at, too. Like nonviolent resistance.
This guy is delusional. Just because MLK preached non-violence doesn’t mean that blacks as a whole are non-violent. Look at crime stats from anywhere in the world.
After all this time, black people have very rarely used violence as a means to achieve their ends, to try to secure the rights and freedoms white America guards so jealously.
Is this guy living in the same America as I am?
In just the past year or so, unarmed black folks have been assaulted or killed for holding toy guns
Go ahead and pick out the real one, then do it from a distance when you get a phone call that there is a kid walking around while waving a gun.
being suspected of selling loose cigarettes
He died due to asthma, obesity, and heart disease, that’s why he couldn’t breathe; he was 350 pounds. He also did not comply with the officers’ orders, which is why he needed to be taken down in such a fashion.
listening to music at a gas station
Dunn did say that Davis said he was going to kill him with a shotgun and that’s when he grabbed his gun out of his glove box.
asking for help after a car accident
Freak accidents happen that get blown up? Damn, that proves whites are more violent huh!?!?
Yea, people still believe that Trayvon got killed for ‘wearing a hoody’. We have jurys for a reason. We have trials for a reason. We have laws like Stand Your Ground for a reason. Trayvon was killed because if Zimmerman hadn’t of protected his life, he would be dead. All of these people complaining about the verdict, if you were put into that same situation, would you allow yourself to be killed for fear of being called ‘racist’?
Listen to police when they tell you to do something. Especially during an investigation. This shouldn’t even need to be said.
1) The Baltimore Six are going to get off for it. They caused no harm. 2) He threw himself around in the back of the van causing his own death.
and now just going to church!
Right. They were killed just for going to Church. eyeroll
And the response from the black community has been pretty darn nonviolent. Yeah there’s been some shouting and looting, but very little beating or killing.
‘Pretty darn non-violent. Which is why immediately after, blacks began false flagging Church burnings in an attempt to pin them on whites. So ‘peaceful’, right?
White folks, can you imagine having to undergo such indignity on a daily basis and NOT responding in kind!?
Can’t tell if serious. Just recently, a beta Trump supporter was thrown down on the ground by a ‘young black male’ and did not retaliate.
No wonder a blonde white girl from a Christian fundamentalist home darkened her skin, curled her hair and tried to pass as black! Sometimes – often really – it’s darn embarrassing to be white! Black folks have the moral high ground.
Because Dolezal is a moron. Blacks have the moral high ground? Please show me where this occurs.
Somehow they live in an American society that heaps hatred on their every move and they respond with dignity and perseverance.
There’s no reason at all for this right? Just good old fashioned ‘racism’?
So why are black people so nonviolent?
They aren’t. See the whole of sub-Saharan Africa to see how ‘non-violent’ they are.
Damned if I know! But I wish us white folks would take a lesson from them.
Yes!! The white man has tons to learn from the criminal black man! Much to learn about taking welfare and not working!!
Blacks have 2.5 to 4.9 percent higher testosterone than whites, which is causes more violence and crime. Beaver (2014) states that blacks who have the MAOA-L 2 repeat allele have significantly highier chances of being shot, stabbed or reporting shootings and stabbings than other genotypes. Blacks also have the highest rate of the 3 repeat allele (53 percent compared to 37 percent for whites) and 2 repeat allele (5 percent compared to .1 percent for whites). Moreover, he didn’t speak about how black violent crime is genetic in nature. This is mirrored in the crime rate and how violent blacks really are.
This is the age of the Internet where we have amassed tons of human knowledge which is readily available with a few hits of a few buttons. If people still want to be ignorant spewing falsities, it’s on them. But the truth is out there for those who seek it.
Blacks are not ‘non-violent’. Go to the nearest ghetto and see how ‘non-violent’ blacks are.
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San Francisco’s Ed Lee — already the highest-paid mayor in the state — just got a $24,000 raise, bringing his salary to $326,527 a year.
Lee’s 7.9 percent raise is more than double the 3 percent that most city workers received this year.
And he’s not alone. As of July 1:
•District Attorney George Gascón’s pay went up $18,814, to $286,015.
•City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s salary rose $20,843, to $269,523.
•Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s went up $6,109, to $247,909.
•Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, up $12,091, to $243,699.
•Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu, up $10,207, to $203,288.
•And Treasurer-Tax Collector Jose Cisneros, up $3,783, to $191,968.
Only Adachi and Cisneros came in under the 3 percent bar.
Lee’s pay hike edges the mayor past Police Chief Bill Scott, who makes $323,076 annually, and Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, who gets $317,408.
Unlike rank-and-file city workers and their department head bosses, whose raises are negotiated with the city, elected officials’ pay is set once every five years by the San Francisco Civil Service Commission. It’s based on the pay of similar positions in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
For example, when it comes to the D.A.’s salary, the commission looked at Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeffrey Rosen — at the high end, $343,760 — and Marin County District Attorney Ed Berberian, bringing up the rear at $229,882. The five-county average determined Gascón’s $286,015 salary.
Because San Francisco is both a city and a county — and because counties do not have mayors — Lee’s salary is figured based on the salaries of Bay Area county administrators. Those range from a high of $359,423 in Santa Clara County to a low of $269,277 in Marin.
Interesting to note: Bay Area counties pay their elected officials and appointed county managers way more than statewide officials.
For example, Gov. Jerry Brown gets $190,100 a year — and he’s the second-highest-paid governor in the country, behind Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.
So now that the Civil Service Commission has done its once-every-five-years salary reset, what happens for the next four years?
The officeholders will be eligible for cost-of-living increases of up to 5 percent a year, every year, until 2022.
Fired up: San Francisco firefighter Jessica Lee had just finished the three-hour drive from her home in Mariposa early Tuesday to start her shift at Station 51 in the Presidio when she got a text from her mom’s boyfriend, saying flames from the Detwiler Fire were bearing down on the town and that everyone was being evacuated.
Lee, 27, jumped in her car to race back home — the second half of a round-trip drive she has made six times a month for the past two years. However, this trip was different. At one point, Lee was forced to make a U-turn when flames began shooting up the hillside over Highway 140.
When she finally arrived, family members had gathered their belongings. But when decision time came, they opted to stay — and Lee climbed on the roof to lay out a hose.
They stayed through the week, without lights but using power from a portable generator to keep the water running and the food from spoiling in the refrigerator. By Friday, after the arrival of several fire crews — including one from South San Francisco — Lee’s spirits were lifted. And the family home was safe.
“I’m supposed to be back to work (in San Francisco) on Sunday, but I’m going to use sick time to be here,” Lee told us when we reached her by phone.
“There were a lot of people who have been devastated, and really we are very lucky,” Lee said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Fly with me: There have been six reports of drones flying into San Francisco International Airport’s restricted airspace since the start of the year.
The latest incident occurred just before noon Monday, when pilots in two planes reported a 2-foot-wide drone hovering 3,500 feet over Hunters Point — well above the 400-foot legal limit.
One of the pilots, flying a Virgin America jet, put the drone at 6 miles north of SFO. The second, unidentified pilot spotted it at 4 miles out.
“Neither pilot reported the proximity of the drone to their aircraft,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor told us. He said “the sightings did not have any effect on operations.”
SFO spokesman Doug Yakel said none of the other incidents this year “resulted in delays or problems.”
And let’s hope it stays that way.
Play ball: While the Oakland A’s ponder a new stadium closer to the city center, team chairman emeritus Lew Wolff and his Southern California business partners have just won city approval to build an 18-story Marriott Hotel and Residence Inn downtown.
The $90 million-plus project at 1431 Jefferson St. would include 276 rooms, ground-floor commercial space and a five-level parking garage. It would be among the first major new hotels in Oakland in years.
“The hard work begins now,” Wolff told us, meaning his group must still finalize drawings and pull together the financing.
If all goes according to plan, construction could begin next spring.
Looks like Wolff will be leaving his signature in Oakland after all.
San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross
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The Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) has received applications for writing grants throughout various waves of organizing over the last two decades. From Zapatista solidarity organizers in the nineties, to anti-capitalist globalization activists in the early ‘00s, Occupy folks over the last several years, and most recently from those working under the banner of Black Lives Matter. In 1996, the IAS was established to do just that. The IAS has offered material support in the form of funds that allow people to take time off work or hire childcare, so they can devote time to reflection and writing.
That the IAS is twenty years old this year is almost unheard of in contemporary anarchism. In a world where the life-span of the average organizer seems to be three to five years of committed work, twenty years is like a hundred. It’s an expanse of time that seems to stretch back before the Spanish Revolution.
Some time in 1995 my friend and comrade Chuck Morse asked me to join a new organization he was forming to support the development of anarchist theory. He was inspired by right-wing think tanks that funded the development and dissemination of their ideas, and thought the antiauthoritarian Left would benefit from something similar. What he envisioned, he explained, was a group that would raise money and award grants to people to devote time to thinking and writing, thereby assisting anarchism to live up to its full potential. He felt that contemporary anarchists needed financial help in the task of elaborating an anarchism that adequately responded to current conditions.
I immediately said “Yes” to Chuck, and became part of the group that founded the Institute for Anarchist Studies. The idea of developing structured, directly democratic organizations was important to us, and founding an institute made sense. Chuck incorporated the IAS as a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and away we went. We raised money through contributions of anything from twenty dollars from movement organizers, to several thousands from well-off radicals, and began soliciting applications for writing grants. The next year we also began publishing our newsletter, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, the name for which came from a brochure Chuck had seen at his bank, Perspectives on Banking.
When the IAS was founded, I was a member of the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation. Love and Rage was an organization involved in local struggles and national mobilizations, with chapters throughout the US and Canada, and one that published Amor y Rabia in Mexico. People starting turning toward anarchism with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it fully came into its own with the mobilizations of the Direct Action Network’s affinity groups and a black bloc at the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. The 1990s gave birth to a resurgence of anarchism, with it becoming a leading tendency on the Left. Throughout this time, the IAS sought to aid a rigorous development of its ideas.
In the summer of 2004, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory merged with a journal, also started by Chuck Morse, a radical review of books called The New Formulation. This established Perspectives as more than an IAS newsletter, becoming a substantial journal of its own. In 2009 a new crew took over Perspectives publication, with Josh MacPhee doing all cover art and design, and has published the last seven issues. In 2017 Perspectives will celebrate its own 20th anniversary.
In 2010 the IAS started a book series with AK Press, called Anarchist Interventions (AI). Since then we have published six well received books, including a basic introduction to anarchism; a history of Movement for a New Society, which showed links between organizers in the 1970s and ‘80s; revolution against climate catastrophe, drawing from the likes of the Frankfurt School and Hannah Arendt; Decolonizing Anarchism, addressing South Asian antiauthoritarianism; undoing borders, decolonization, and anti-imperialism; and Anarchists Against the Wall, by people doing solidarity work in Palestine. We have new AI books in the pike. Last year we began publishing books outside the AI series (though also with AK Press), starting with the best selling sci fi collection of short stories, Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements, and continuing with this year’s Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption, by Walidah Imarisha. Next spring the IAS and AK Press will publish Kevin Van Meter’s Guerrillas of Desire: Notes on Everyday Resistance and Organizing to Make a Revolution Possible, which draws from anarchism and autonomous Marxism.
IAS members on the scene in New York City during the birth of the Occupy movement in 2011 found a need for a common radical language, and produced a series of Lexicon pamphlets, defining basic ideas, including white supremacy, anarchism, colonialism, gender, and power. We raised money to produce 33,000 copies of these pamphlets, which we distributed for free throughout the country. This type of work has continued with support for people organizing in response to the rebellion in Ferguson and elsewhere, and the subsequent movement against the police. One of our members lived in Ferguson for six months, getting to know folks whom she subsequently interviewed for a piece in Perspectives.
In its twenty years, the IAS has given out over one hundred writing grants to people from over a dozen countries. Awarding writing grants has been a largely satisfying process, as we’ve seen ideas turn into wonderful, widely read essays and books, offering insights from organizers and thinkers. We continuously post original, widely read essays through Perspectives on our website, and also maintain a speakers’ bureau, allowing people to bring anarchist writers and organizers to their area to assist in local activist work or to help spread antiauthoritarian ideas.
When the IAS was founded, feminist, queer, and anti-racist anarchists were working to better develop their ideas and presence in the movement. Today we take these connections for granted, but at the time, this was controversial. This is the type of anarchism the IAS supports; one in which we work to dismantle all forms of hierarchy and domination, not just the state and capitalism, while engaging in the hard, daily organizing necessary to get us closer to a new society.
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Anarchism has not yet reached its promise of fully developing theories to help us make sense of the world. We should continue to better implement practical, workable solutions and build lasting organizations. We still need to create motivating visions of alternative futures to counter the increasingly dystopian nature of our lives. And we need to be creative in expressing our ideas through various print, visual and audio media and in face-to-face organizing.
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2.0.0 footage
2.0.0 guide video
Current 2.0.0
This build is discontinued in 2.1 since it works better as a Ranger now. Head over to the Ranger forum to check it out there.
Prefix
This is a burn build.
You're still reading? Cool - because it's not a burn prolif build! Yes, it relies on massive upfront damage but rather than applying it to the weakest target and to proliferate it to the whole screen it actually works by carefully positioning your hit to create a burning cone of death behind the impact zone. Because we have one shot and only one projectile we use burn not as main damage source but as welcome support to our massive upfront damage. The goal is to kill with one hit. If targets survive, they can burn down and we don't have to waste mana on a second shot.
I don't claim ownership of this build, it has been done many times before and the earliest mention of this idea goes back at least seven months since I found this
Anyway credits go out to ADDTasty, JuergenPotzkoten and Alloy_Gentleman since they came first :) but yet again I didn't know that since my build evolved from a stupid trapper idea that I had into what you are about to read next. Enjoy...
Build Synergies
"Clever use of game mechanics"
In PoE more often then not power comes by combining things that seem weak on it's own.
tl;dr
Ice Shot with Chin Sol (100% more) and Point Blank (50% more) with Pyre (100% conversion of cold to fire) and AoE scaling with Hyrri's Bite and Carcass Jack, as well as crit and shocking and pierce gives you a massive cone of fire which deals ~1350% weapon damage to the the whole screen with just one shot fired. Point Blank takes care of reflect since you have up to 100% less damage when hits land offscreen.
The descrption of the gem
Fires an arrow that converts some physical damage to cold on its target and converts all physical damage to cold in a cone behind that target. Creates a patch of ground ice under the target.
This means two things: First, the initial target hit and all targets in the cone receive damage separately (which means scaling area damage would not affect the target where the arrow lands) and second: there's no physical damage left in the cone whatsoever.
What it also implies is that the cone damage is purely based off physical damage but that is, luckily, not true! I had to search for quite some time but finally found this
This means our Added Fire, Hatred, Heralds, added elemental damage on gear, everything will scale our AoE. Pretty cool.
Now if I built an Ice Shot character in Hardcore I would scale phys, cold and freeze for extra crowd control. But for Softcore I want raw damage, which is why I decided to (again) use
1. Fire damage can ignite, dealing 20% of hit damage over 4 seconds, this means your damage increases from 100% to 180%
2. Pyre gives you up to 35% increased burning damage, raising the total damage to ~200%
3. You can still use lightning damage to shock and don't have to worry about it shattering corpses
4. Fire and Cold are combined into fire damage, making Added Fire, Herald of Ash and Hatred (and potentially Taste of Hate) a really potent fuel for your burn
5. It promotes you to go away from prolif ;) because you won't have corpses around to prolif off of
Next, the cone of Ice Shot is very large and with items like
The only "multiple projectile" option that's beneficial is pierce, especially since mobs that are standing right behind each other will take insane amounts of damage due to overlapping cones, see this beautiful illustration by reddit user /u/zeratos:
To make things more ridiculous we're going melee and use both the keystone
We previously said that burning with Pyre has a damage effectiveness of 200% so we can safely assume that if we hit a mob in the face with a huge cone of AoE and trigger an ignite, we will inflict 600% of our weapon damage to basically the whole screen. Pretty cool, huh? Actually it's hot, since we use Pyre, hue hue ....
Point Blank deals double purpose in this build: it greatly enhances the damage when we shoot mobs in the face but it also saves us from offscreen reflect, which is a common threat to every Ice Shot character. As you see from the following image taken from the wiki (click to enlarge):
We're suffering a 60% less damage penalty when the arrow travelled to the edge of the screen. That being said, I was still able to kill myself to a sneaky reflect rare that was just right to enter the top of the screen (where the damage penalty should be around 40% less) but that was mainly due to him being close to a shrine with twenty other mobs...
Last but one mechanical note to this build is the way we ignite. Since we're starved on links (as you'll see later) we won't use chance to ignite but go crit instead. This is a bit of a struggle actually since Chin Sol has only a 5% base crit chance and even with Assassin's Mark and 4 Power Charges and all the crit chance we can get from the tree we will never ever get over 50% chance to crit (I'm sitting at 42% now at level 70).
This is the sacrifice you make when going budget basically. If I could afford it, I would rock a gg four-twenty-no-scope-kappa-keepo 500 DPS
Just to give you a picture, the Chin Sol I have now deals 85-255 phys and 25-50 fire, if I average that it's a combined average damage of 208, so 415 with the 100% more property. With the 1.43 attacks per second this nets me with 593 DPS with Chin Sol. Screw the low crit chance^^
If you crit however, we have a 96% increased multiplier from the tree, netting us wit 295% crit multi without any items or Assasin's Mark. So we can again multipy our 600% weapon damage by 3 and end up with 1800% weapon damage on crit.
Finally, since we're also shocking targets, they will receive 50% extra damage. Which brings our total output to crazy 2700% weapon damage (this whole block needs critization by the way - it's very likely I got the calculations wrong, please let me know where I made mistakes in my train of thought and I will correct them, thanks
Passives
The passives are that of a standard physical bower I'd say (is bower even a word?). I started shadow because I initially wanted to make a burn prolif trapper (booooring) and shadow has better access to the trap nodes. But it turns out that it is also great for leveling this character because you have early access to fantastic notables like Coordination, Sniper, Blood and Soul Siphon, Trickery as well as Blood and Mind Drinker. Early damage and life/mana sustain are not a problem this way. I leveled with Ice Shot all the way and it was always fun and cool to see how it became stronger and stronger over time.
Leveling Process
32 Points (Normal) - Exit through phys damage and get life and mana early. Go through Sniper and Quickness to Mind Drinker to forever solve mana problems, then leave the Shadow area through Blood Drinker and get Acro and Phase Acro for nice early defenses. 51 Points (Cruel) - Pick up Ondars, get some Strength to level up skill gems, then get Quickstep, Finesse and Ballistic Mastery in the Ranger area. 68 Points (Merciless) - Get the projectile nodes in the Duelist area, as well as Art of the Gladiator and the life, then start picking up damage and crit: King of the Hill, the Shadow Power Charge. Get Coldhearted Calculation if you need int for spells - the additional mana regeneration will be needed when going from a 4-link to a 5-link.
Late Game
79 Points - (Level 62) - Get more damage by picking up Heavy Draw and Piercing Shots. Get Point Blank with level 62 when you can equip Chin Sol. 89 Points - (Level 72) - Moar Crit!!!!! 101 Points (Level 84) - Now focus on more survivability, because maps are hard - pick up the remaining life clusters in the area: Herbalism, Thick Skin and Written in Blood. 107 Points (Level 90) - Get moar attack speed, accuracy and even moar crit :D
Final Tree
Level 90, 107 points spent
Here's a graphical representation of how the leveling process looks like:
Bandit Choices
Normal: Help Oak for the 40 HP
Cruel: Help Oak for 18% increased physical damage
Merc: Help Alira for one additional Power Charge
Gems
Here is where things get tricky. There are too many good gems we can use but we only have four (or if you're rich 5) support slots. Fact is, we're profiting the most off physical damage. Scaling that is our best way. Here are the candidates that I think fit best:
Physical Projetile Attack Damage
Weapon Elemental Damage
Increased Critical Strikes
Increased Critical Damage
Increased Area of Effect
Concentrated Effect
Added Fire Damage
So we actually need an 8-link to get everything we want. Make it a 9-link for Life Leech. Or a 10-link for Faster Attacks for convenience. Well, we won't get it. So we have to cut short.
AOE Main skill progression setup
Preferred link colors: GGRBB(R)
My endgame setup is Ice Shot + Physical Projectile Attack Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage + Increased Critical Strikes + Increased Area of Effect.
Not only are those colors easy to roll on a Carcass Jack (Dex/Int base), they also offer easy swapping of WED to Life Leech in reflect maps and Inc AoE to Crit Multi for boss fights.
Don't be fooled or tempted to swap in Conc Effect for bosses! You will only increase the damage of the cone and NOT the initial hit. Usually you will hit the boss with your arrow and not with the cone, except the boss is kind enough to spawn a minion right in front of himself (so if you're fighting Na'em it may actually be good).
I also calculated in
For leveling you can go like this:
A1N-A2N Weaver
Use Ice Shot and link it with Weapon Elemental Damage or Added Fire or Added Cold as soon as you have 2 mana flasks.
A2N Weaver until 4L
Ice Shot + LMP + Added Fire/Weapon Elemental Damage (depends on your mana sustain)
4L Setup with Death's Harp (Level 32)
Ice Shot + Physical Projectile Attack Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage + Mana Leech
(Yes, Mana Leech, the mana cost is crazy until you can use curse on hit Assassin's Mark)
4L with Curse on Hit+Assassin's Mark running
Ice Shot + Physical Projectile Attack Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage + Increased Critical Strikes
Preferred link colors: GGRBB(R)My endgame setup is Ice Shot + Physical Projectile Attack Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage + Increased Critical Strikes + Increased Area of Effect.Not only are those colors easy to roll on a Carcass Jack (Dex/Int base), they also offer easy swapping of WED to Life Leech in reflect maps and Inc AoE to Crit Multi for boss fights.Don't be fooled or tempted to swap in Conc Effect for bosses! You will only increase the damage of the cone and NOT the initial hit. Usually you will hit the boss with your arrow and not with the cone, except the boss is kind enough to spawn a minion right in front of himself (so if you're fighting Na'em it may actually be good).I also calculated in this spreadsheet that Weapon Elemental Damage is 50% more damage over Added Fire. This means if you have a 6-link you can use Added Fire in your sixth or use Life Leech - up to you.For leveling you can go like this:Use Ice Shot and link it with Weapon Elemental Damage or Added Fire or Added Cold as soon as you have 2 mana flasks.Ice Shot + LMP + Added Fire/Weapon Elemental Damage (depends on your mana sustain)Ice Shot + Physical Projectile Attack Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage + Mana Leech(Yes, Mana Leech, the mana cost is crazy until you can use curse on hit Assassin's Mark)Ice Shot + Physical Projectile Attack Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage + Increased Critical Strikes
Single Target setup
In general see "AOE Main skill progression setup" above. The beautiful thing about this build is that we're using one projectile to kill them all. For really, really tough bosses you can hot swap Increaed Area of Effect for Increased Critical Damage.
For reflect however or if we really don't want to get close: GGGB(RG)
Vaal Burning Arrow + Trap + Pierce + Increased Critical Strikes (+ Weapon Elemental Damage + Physical Projectile Attack Damage)
This is unreflectable death. It can one shot most lower tier map bosses and takes reliably care of reflect packs. Trap is another "more" multiplier, you can imagine how well that scales with Chin Sol's 100% more damage and Point Blank's 50% more damage at close range ... which is usually true for a monster that steps on the trap and gets hit by its arrow.
Auras and Buffs
Preferred link colors: GRRB
That'll be Hatred + Herald of Ash + Reduced Mana + Herald of Thunder.
Hatred and Herald of Ash scale our damage as a percentage of our physical damage and are thus better than anything else. Herald of Thunder grants us some lightning damage which enable us to reliably shock targets, further increasing our damage.
Since we're not dealing cold damage, Herald of Ice is not recommended. The added damage is nice but we can never shatter a mob and trigger the secondary effect (the explosion) which is why I think Herald of Thunder is way superior in this build.
Another option that I have tested briefly is to use Herald of Thunder for auto-cursing. It increases the clearspeed a little bit since we have to run close to mobs anyway and we wouldn't have to use Split Arrow so often but it also means it's harder for us to get that first crit+shock+kill. After playing auto-curse for a bit I went back to Split Arrow because SA is also a good alternative attack if you encounter reflect packs and are out of traps.
Curse setup
Preferred link colors: GGBB or BBBR
Split Arrow + Pierce + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark or
Herald of Thunder + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark + Reduced Mana or
Rain of Arrows + Blind + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark
I'm using the Split Arrow option atm and I feel comfortable with it. I must say it's very convenient and easy to get Power Charges and Crits rolling with Split arrow. The damage is also considerably high and it's a good fallback attack when encountering elemental reflect.
Another option which also frees up a gem slot is using Rain of Arrows for Curse on Hit. It removes the necessity to use Pierce but it comes with the drawback of the delay between shoot and hit. More times than not the RoA salvo lands when my Ice Shot has already obliterated the pack. The attack animation for RoA is also slower than Split Arrow so it locks me in place more which caused a death or twice.
Cast when damage taken setup
I actually prepare myself for Enduring Cry being a Warcry and not working with Cwdt so I cast Enduring Cry myself. I'm not running Immortal Call at all since the cast time is just too slow. It's a major drawback of this build and shield charger/rhoas are a frequent doom if I can't get the obliterating shot out in time...
Missing Links (additional gems)
There's actually a lot of room for additional gems when not using a trigger gem setup:
Chest: main attack 5L or 6L
Bow: Vaal Burning Arrow 4L or more
Head: Aura+Buffs 4L
Gloves: Curse on Hit Setup 4L
Boots: empty
We need at least 2 empty slots for:
Enduring Cry
Blink Arrow
Which leaves room for Vaal Haste + Increased Duration (which can also be linked to Blink Arrow for a longer distraction).
Quality Gems
If you are starting fresh then you won't have the option to use quality gems. If you have some spare currency or if you find a gemcutters box with quality, here's a list of gems for this build where quality is really good, medium good or not worth it. The order is from most to least important in my opinion:
Very usefull
Curse on Hit
10% increased effect of cureses at q20, this improves additional crit chance, crit multi, life and mana gain as well as power charge chance of Assasin's Mark so this is a pretty huge buff!
Increased Area of Effect
10% inc AoE at q20, that's 43% at 20/20 versus 33% at 20/0 - huge improvement
Physical Projectile Attack Damage
10% increased physical damage at q20, this is on par with a notable
Weapon Elemental Damage
10% increased elemental damage at q20, this is on par with a notable
Increased Critical Strikes
20% increased critical strike chance at q20, this is on par with a notable
Assassin's Mark
10% increased chance to get a power charge at q20, that's 39% at 20/20 versus 29% at 20/0 - huge boost!
Increased Critical Damage
10% increased critical strike multiplier at q20, that's 79% at 20/20 versus 69% at 20/0, pretty good. If we can get crit multi, we take it!
Immortal Call
0.2s increased duration per endurance charge (0.01 per 1% quality) (8q0 = 0.59s - this is 2,9s with 0q opposed to 3,9s with 20q using 3 charges and a lvl20 increased duration) - this is a massive qol improvment and survivability boost
Life Leech
20% increased life leech rate at q20, this boosts survivability substantially since life is back faster and the next leech can apply earlier.
Rain of Arrows
10% increased attack speed at q20, helps with getting the curse down earlier.
Faster Attacks
10% increased attack speed at q20, same here: helps with getting the curse down earlier.
Usefull but not mindblowing
Herald of Ash
15% increased fire damage at q20, but only of the added fire that comes from Herald of Ash
Herald of Thunder
15% increased lightning damage at q20, but only of the added lightning that comes from Herald of Thunder
Pierce
15% additional chance of projectiles piercing at q20, this is usefull if we only have a level 6 pierce gem but since we already have 40% chance from the tree and 59% from the gem alone this is hardly necessary.
Blink Arrow
30% increased arrow speed at q20, this is indeed helpful to get from point A to B quicker so it helps getting out of sketchy situations.
Vaal Burning Arrow
60% increased burn duration at q20, this creates a 6 second burn which is quite potent but in all honesty - in that time we can also fire again and just kill them with a second shot...
Split Arrow
10% increased attack speed at q20, this is nothing fancy but helps a bit since the wind-up animation runs faster and we safe some time while cursing.
Enduring Cry
10% increased area radius (0.5 per 1% quality)
Increased Duration
10% increased duration (0.5 per 1% quality) (20q0 = 64% - this is 3.9s with 0q opposed to 4.1s with 20q using 3 charges and a lvl8q20 immortal call)
Not usefull at all
Ice Shot (increased chilled ground duration) - not really something we need since we one shot everything
Trap (increased trap laying speed) - we're not relying on the traps so screw it
Hatred - only increases the radius
Reduced Mana - quality does not affect auras and buff reservation costs
Cast when damage taken - increases the damage of supported skills, doesn't gain us anything
Vaal Haste - only increases the radius
10% increased effect of cureses at q20, this improves additional crit chance, crit multi, life and mana gain as well as power charge chance of Assasin's Mark so this is a pretty huge buff!10% inc AoE at q20, that's 43% at 20/20 versus 33% at 20/0 - huge improvement10% increased physical damage at q20, this is on par with a notable10% increased elemental damage at q20, this is on par with a notable20% increased critical strike chance at q20, this is on par with a notable10% increased chance to get a power charge at q20, that's 39% at 20/20 versus 29% at 20/0 - huge boost!10% increased critical strike multiplier at q20, that's 79% at 20/20 versus 69% at 20/0, pretty good. If we can get crit multi, we take it!0.2s increased duration per endurance charge (0.01 per 1% quality) (8q0 = 0.59s - this is 2,9s with 0q opposed to 3,9s with 20q using 3 charges and a lvl20 increased duration) - this is a massive qol improvment and survivability boost20% increased life leech rate at q20, this boosts survivability substantially since life is back faster and the next leech can apply earlier.10% increased attack speed at q20, helps with getting the curse down earlier.10% increased attack speed at q20, same here: helps with getting the curse down earlier.
Quest Rewards - Gem picking
Is this a good build to start it fresh with a new legue? No. The shadow starting gem rewards are awful for this build. This might change with the next patch, but until we know more, here's my recommendation of what to pick when. If you want to start Ranger you will have an easier time with the gems, you will have 8% increased attack speed and a little more accuracy but you will suffer from 53% reduced physical damage versus the Shadow variant. You gain 30% increased projectile damage in exchange but your overall impact damage will be lower.
Quest Reward Gems
Norm A1 Hillock - Fire Trap (for leveling)
Norm A1 Hailrake - Lightning Tendrils (for leveling)
Norm A1 Breaking Eggs - any
Norm A1 Brutus - any
Norm A1 Merveil - Increased Critical Damage
Norm A2 Fidelitas - Assassin's Mark
Norm A2 Weaver - Lesser Multiple Projectiles
Norm A3 Tolman - Herald of Thunder
Norm A3 General - any
Norm A3 Library - Curse on Hit
Cruel A1 Hillock - any
Cruel A1 Hailrake - Pierce
Cruel A1 Brutus - any
Cruel A1 Merveil - Physical Projectile Attack Damage
Cruel A2 Weaver - Increased Critical Strikes
Cruel A3 Tolman - any
Cruel A3 General - Reduced Mana
Cruel A3 Library - any
Merc A1 Hailrake - Added Fire
Merc A1 Brutus - any
Merc A1 Merveil - Faster Attacks
Merc A3 Library - Cast when damage Taken
Gems to look for in gemcutters boxes, to buy from poe.trade, trade chat or your masters:
[spoiler="Gems to purchase"]
also coming soon, but basically all that you read above for the setup but that aren't available as quest rewards
[/spoiler]
[hr]
Gear
coming soon, but Chin Sol, Pyre, Hyrri's Bite is mandatory, the rest can be good, rare stuff with a lot of evasion, life, resists, flat phys and crit chance/multi.
A word on Hyrri's Bite versus Drillneck: We don't have much pierce chance except the 40% from the tree and the 10% implicit on the Drillneck if you don't corrupt it. So unless you're rocking a 6-link and also using the Pierce gem, Drillneck won't be super powerful. Yes, it is a DPS increase (about 1k tooltip) but it's not mandatory. With Drillneck you will average out about 150.000 damage on a crit (the burn included). With Hyrri's Bite it will still be over 100.000 (still have to calculate the exact numbers, I will update this section when I have them) but with the benefit of having a larger Area of Effect. By just running around in mid 70 maps swapping both Quivers for comparison reasons I didn't notice a huge difference!
[hr]
Flasks
This is a separate section from gear since flasks are incredibly important and need to have their own spot in this guide. Without the correct flasks this build is only half as good. The passive skill point choices make flasks even more powerfull so make constant use of them.
The flasks I'm using for leveling (meaning until I can equip my endgame flasks) are:
a) any Life Flask of Heat: to dispell freeze
b) any Life Flask of Staunching: to remove bleed
c) any Quicksilver of Warding: to dispell and be immune to curses
d) any Jade of Reflexes: to have evasion rating up as high as possible
e) any Bubbling Life Flask of Grounding: as instant heal and to dispell shocks
In the endgame setup I try to have 20% quality of the following:
a) Surgeons Ruby Flask of Heat: reflect reduction, dispells freeze
b) Surgeons Hallowed Life Flask of Staunching: high, long duration heal, removes bleed
c) Surgeons Ruby Flask of Warding: reflect reduction, situational curse removal
d) Atziri's Promise: moar damage :D
e) Bubbling Hallowed Life Flask of Grounding: as instant heal and to dispell shocks
I'm not using Divine or Eternal life flasks in this setup because my HP pool is fairly low (3,5k) and the Hallowed Flasks fill up quick enough to use them constantly.
[hr]
Reflect
You die. No matter what.
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Map Mods
coming soon...
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Map Bosses
coming soon...
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Video URLs
Initial Build Video
Gorge Speed Run Attempt
End of Torment League Highlights
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The End?
If you read this far: congratulations! This was a lot of ground to cover. It was certainly as fun to put this guide together as it was playing it. I will continue to work on this guide whenever new patches hit that will affect the build in any way.
If you want to see similar budget builds and PoE content, please check out my youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/r4wb1rdGaming/videos
If you want to see me playing live, head over to http://www.twitch.tv/r4wb1rd and hit the follow button to get notify when I'm going live. I'm a casual player, so don't expect me playing 8h a day, although I wish to do so ;)
Stay safe, exiles!
r4wb1rd
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Frequently Asked Questions
[spoiler="Is this build HC viable"]
No, just no. This is a fun spec and it's not by any means meant to be played in HC. The risk of dying to reflect is simply to great. Having reflect protection would probably require a 6L with quality Life Leech + Vaal Pact + quality Purity of Fire + Inner Force + max fire res from tree + 100% Ruby uptime and it would probably still be too dangerous...
[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Can you show your gear?"]
Sure, it's nothing special, some might even say "No t1 rolls, vendor trash" but this gear carried me all the way. I got super, super lucky finding a Drillneck in a Labyrinth map but this build totally works fine with Hyrri's Bite:
[/spoiler] Welcome Wraeclast Wanderers, it's r4wb1rd again...Current 2.0.0 Skill Tree This build is discontinued in 2.1 since it works better as a Ranger now. Head over to the Ranger forum to check it out there.This is a burn build.You're still reading? Cool - because it's not a burn prolif build! Yes, it relies on massive upfront damage but rather than applying it to the weakest target and to proliferate it to the whole screen it actually works by carefully positioning your hit to create a burning cone of death behind the impact zone. Because we have one shot and only one projectile we use burn not as main damage source but as welcome support to our massive upfront damage. The goal is to kill with one hit. If targets survive, they can burn down and we don't have to waste mana on a second shot.I don't claim ownership of this build, it has been done many times before and the earliest mention of this idea goes back at least seven months since I found this thread but I'm sure it was done even earlier. There's also a guide here but it never got any real attention because noone thought this is close to useful. Bigger attention got ADDTasty for Malibu's Infernal Ice Shot which specced into Chin Sol rather late and is to my best knowledge a Blood Magic + Resolute Technique + Avatar of Fire approach and skill tree wise quite different from mine, and also skillwise it's a huge difference since he uses LMP in his spec.Anyway credits go out to ADDTasty, JuergenPotzkoten and Alloy_Gentleman since they came first :) but yet again I didn't know that since my build evolved from a stupid trapper idea that I had into what you are about to read next. Enjoy..."Clever use of game mechanics"In PoE more often then not power comes by combining things that seem weak on it's own.The descrption of the gem Ice Shot readsFires an arrow that converts some physical damage to cold on its target and converts all physical damage to cold in a cone behind that target. Creates a patch of ground ice under the target.This means two things: First, the initial target hit and all targets in the cone receive damage separately (which means scaling area damage would not affect the target where the arrow lands) and second: there's no physical damage left in the cone whatsoever.What it also implies is that the cone damage is purely based off physical damage but that is, luckily, not true! I had to search for quite some time but finally found this post by Mark_GGG, stating that the cone damage is calculated off the total weapon damage, just that 100% of physical damage from your weapon damage is converted to cold.This means our Added Fire, Hatred, Heralds, added elemental damage on gear, everything will scale our AoE. Pretty cool.Now if I built an Ice Shot character in Hardcore I would scale phys, cold and freeze for extra crowd control. But for Softcore I want raw damage, which is why I decided to (again) use Pyre to convert all cold damage into fire damage. Pyre has several advantages over The Three Dragons or using Ice Shot with cold damage:1. Fire damage can ignite, dealing 20% of hit damage over 4 seconds, this means your damage increases from 100% to 180%2. Pyre gives you up to 35% increased burning damage, raising the total damage to ~200%3. You can still use lightning damage to shock and don't have to worry about it shattering corpses4. Fire and Cold are combined into fire damage, making Added Fire, Herald of Ash and Hatred (and potentially Taste of Hate) a really potent fuel for your burn5. It promotes you to go away from prolif ;) because you won't have corpses around to prolif off ofNext, the cone of Ice Shot is very large and with items like Hyrri's Bite and Carcass Jack , as well as a quality Increased Area of Effect support gem, you can hit an entire screen with just one, single arrow. This means we don't have to use Lesser or Greater Multiple Projectiles or Chain to increase our clearspeed. LMP, GMP and or chain are commonly used in projectile based builds and they are great by design but also lower the damage of a single projectile. Not using it means a more potent initial hit and thus a stronger burn.The only "multiple projectile" option that's beneficial is pierce, especially since mobs that are standing right behind each other will take insane amounts of damage due to overlapping cones, see this beautiful illustration by reddit user /u/zeratos:To make things more ridiculous we're going melee and use both the keystone Point Blank and the unique bow Chin Sol which in combination multiplies the damage of our Ice Shot by three if we're hitting a mob in melee range (100% weapon damage * 100% from chin sol * 50% Point blank = 1 * 2 * 1.5 = 3).We previously said that burning with Pyre has a damage effectiveness of 200% so we can safely assume that if we hit a mob in the face with a huge cone of AoE and trigger an ignite, we will inflict 600% of our weapon damage to basically the whole screen. Pretty cool, huh? Actually it's hot, since we use Pyre, hue hue ....Point Blank deals double purpose in this build: it greatly enhances the damage when we shoot mobs in the face but it also saves us from offscreen reflect, which is a common threat to every Ice Shot character. As you see from the following image taken from the wiki (click to enlarge):We're suffering a 60% less damage penalty when the arrow travelled to the edge of the screen. That being said, I was still able to kill myself to a sneaky reflect rare that was just right to enter the top of the screen (where the damage penalty should be around 40% less) but that was mainly due to him being close to a shrine with twenty other mobs...Last but one mechanical note to this build is the way we ignite. Since we're starved on links (as you'll see later) we won't use chance to ignite but go crit instead. This is a bit of a struggle actually since Chin Sol has only a 5% base crit chance and even with Assassin's Mark and 4 Power Charges and all the crit chance we can get from the tree we will never ever get over 50% chance to crit (I'm sitting at 42% now at level 70).This is the sacrifice you make when going budget basically. If I could afford it, I would rock a gg four-twenty-no-scope-kappa-keepo 500 DPS Harbinger Bow with 9.4% chance to crit. But unfortunately I don't have the Mirror or the 200 exalted orbs to buy that and rather fall back to Chin Sol which cost me 1 single Chaos Orb to acquire ;)Just to give you a picture, the Chin Sol I have now deals 85-255 phys and 25-50 fire, if I average that it's a combined average damage of 208, so 415 with the 100% more property. With the 1.43 attacks per second this nets me with 593 DPS with Chin Sol. Screw the low crit chance^^If you crit however, we have a 96% increased multiplier from the tree, netting us wit 295% crit multi without any items or Assasin's Mark. So we can again multipy our 600% weapon damage by 3 and end up with 1800% weapon damage on crit.Finally, since we're also shocking targets, they will receive 50% extra damage. Which brings our total output to crazy 2700% weapon damage (this whole block needs critization by the way - it's very likely I got the calculations wrong, please let me know where I made mistakes in my train of thought and I will correct them, thanks Almornik for the 1st correction).The passives are that of a standard physical bower I'd say (is bower even a word?). I started shadow because I initially wanted to make a burn prolif trapper (booooring) and shadow has better access to the trap nodes. But it turns out that it is also great for leveling this character because you have early access to fantastic notables like Coordination, Sniper, Blood and Soul Siphon, Trickery as well as Blood and Mind Drinker. Early damage and life/mana sustain are not a problem this way. I leveled with Ice Shot all the way and it was always fun and cool to see how it became stronger and stronger over time.Here's a graphical representation of how the leveling process looks like:Normal: Help Oak for the 40 HPCruel: Help Oak for 18% increased physical damageMerc: Help Alira for one additional Power ChargeHere is where things get tricky. There are too many good gems we can use but we only have four (or if you're rich 5) support slots. Fact is, we're profiting the most off physical damage. Scaling that is our best way. Here are the candidates that I think fit best:So we actually need an 8-link to get everything we want. Make it a 9-link for Life Leech. Or a 10-link for Faster Attacks for convenience. Well, we won't get it. So we have to cut short.If you are starting fresh then you won't have the option to use quality gems. If you have some spare currency or if you find a gemcutters box with quality, here's a list of gems for this build where quality is really good, medium good or not worth it. The order is from most to least important in my opinion:Is this a good build to start it fresh with a new legue? No. The shadow starting gem rewards are awful for this build. This might change with the next patch, but until we know more, here's my recommendation of what to pick when. If you want to start Ranger you will have an easier time with the gems, you will have 8% increased attack speed and a little more accuracy but you will suffer from 53% reduced physical damage versus the Shadow variant. You gain 30% increased projectile damage in exchange but your overall impact damage will be lower. ### r4wb1rd ###
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/r4wb1rd
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/r4wb1rdGaming/
Babel PoE: https://github.com/rowolff/babel-poe/releases Last edited by r4wb1rd on Jan 2, 2016, 9:49:04 AM
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Sea-going oceanographers, like those aboard the R/V Sikuliaq today, have a cautionary principle that they always keep in the back of their minds. When an expensive piece of scientific equipment, the vital infrastructure that makes up most of the budget for an ocean research team, goes over the side of a ship and into the sea you can’t expect for certain you will ever see it again. The oceanographer designs every effort, makes every plan, and works every day to get the equipment and data back, but should never take as given that what goes in the sea will all return.
The ArcticMix mooring stands 3452 meters tall in the middle of the Beaufort Sea and when it was deployed early in September the scientists and crew of the R/V Sikuliaq literally watched as they let slip into the deep over half a million dollars worth of technology. And while there are plans and backup plans for how we will again find this undersea treasure, everyone aboard will sleep better when each meter of wire and scientific baubles are again tied to the deck. Still there is no better way to measure the ocean across its entire depth over a long period of time than employing ocean moorings. These hard-won scientific data from the real ocean are essential to formulating and tuning the global climate computer simulations that inform decision-makers and regularly make the headlines.
The primary study zone for the ArcticMix voyage is right on top of what the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has called ‘a striking feature of the late 2015 melt season’, a period that has ended as the fourth lowest Arctic sea-ice minimum on record. Over 19 days, as the R/V Sikuliaq made additional ocean observations nearby, the ArticMix mooring stood steady listening and learning about its patch of the Beaufort Sea.
The Arctic is a strange place oceanographically, an up-side down version of the normal ocean in that the surface water is cold and fresh while lurking below is a reservoir of warmer, saltier water, heavier than the surface layer due to its high salt content. One hypothesis in a rapidly-changing Arctic is that increasing open water allows storms to mix this deeper ocean heat upward through the generation of undersea beams of energy called ‘internal waves’, in turn melting more ice. The peculiar nature of the Arctic is what makes a hypothesis of a positive climate change feedback based on vertical mixing possible.
In the first weeks of of our voyage the ArcticMix oceanographers witnessed remarkable levels of subsurface mixing. Their sensitive instruments, leashed to the back of the R/V Sikuliaq by high-tech cables wrapped around specialized winches, saw billows of turbulence that looked just like a wave breaking on the beach, but much larger. These underwater waves could easily reach into these regions of warmer water below the ice, possibly moving some of this heat upward when they break.
While the ArcticMix scientists darted across the Beaufort looking for signs of ocean mixing over wider swaths, the undersea mooring witnessed conditions minute by minute at a single location that serves as a scientific reference for the entire voyage. The time comes to return to the scientific backbone of the entire experiment and find both the mooring equipment and all the invaluable data stored on many tiny memory cards, not unlike those in your nice camera except they are 3000 meters under the ocean.
The morning of the recovery breaks with fair winds and calm seas, the decks of the R/V Sikuliaq awash with sun for the first time since we had left Nome over 3 weeks earlier. Best of all there was no ice to be seen. Sea-ice, driven by the wind and currents, was completely out of our control and could easily have moved to cap the sea here, freezing our scientific assets beyond the reach of Sikuliaq. The ArcticMix team won another calculated roll of the dice, as the risk of mooring a five hundred thousand dollar scientific bet in an ice-filled Arctic looked to be paying off.
A button is pushed and a special transducer puts a coded ping of sound into the water. Somewhere, well over two miles below the stern of our ship, another device hears the command and releases its grip on the bottom. The ArcticMix mooring rises slowly to the surface, four feet or so every second, and within 45 minutes it’s at the surface. The top buoy is hooked and bit by bit and inch by inch the mooring is brought aboard in the Arctic sunshine. Instruments are quickly washed and rushed back into the science lab for data transfer. A team of graduate students and scientists swarm over the gigabytes of data filling the ships server and soon the first preliminary plots fill our computer screens. The mooring has witnessed exactly the kind of wind generated internal waves we’ve been looking for.
One of the measurements captured on the undersea mooring is the velocity of currents through a wide range of ocean depths. When these currents are displayed as a long series over time the clear signature of internal waves can be seen. These beams of energy, generated by the storm that passed over the Beaufort Sea weeks earlier, descend into the deeper layers of the ocean where they can “break”, and as we observed elsewhere in the Arctic, heat can be mixed into surface waters a bit like hot coffee in cold cream.
What we have seen so far in the Arctic has certainly not refuted the hypothesis there there could be a positive feedback in regional changes in sea-ice cover that could lead to an increased rate of melting. The marked energetic mixing we have seen here at the heart of the Arctic ice-melt zone could be a key in understanding a potential new climate feedback. But for now the hard work lies ahead of the ArcticMix scientists for they must carefully untangle the complex processes involved to to distinguish typical seasonal melting from longer term change, with the goal of providing new insights that will help improve the accuracy of climate forecasts for the Arctic region.
Thomas Moore, for the ArcticMix team
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Chris Pratt Faith 'Restored' When His Son Was Born 9 Weeks Early
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Actors Chris Pratt and Anna Faris wanted to start their family soon after getting married, but they never planned on a medical crisis bringing them closer together. Pratt recently opened up about the birth of his premature son Jack and how it restored his faith in God.
"We were scared for a long time," Pratt said of the time his son Jack spent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit after being born nine weeks early. "We prayed a lot."
"It restored my faith in God, not that it needed to be restored, but it really defined it," Pratt told People magazine. "The baby was so beautiful to us, and I look back at the photos of him and it must have been jarring for other people to come in and see him, but to us he was so beautiful and perfect."
Fatherhood is something that Pratt wanted to experience and is loving every minute that he gets to spend with Jack, now almost two years old. After Jack was born, Pratt spoke with Ellen DeGeneres about what fatherhood meant to him and how he was embracing it.
"To see a baby get that excited by everything because everything is a first … Everything is a brand new experience. The first time they realize that the sound they're hearing is the thing that they're seeing. An experience for them and I'm reliving all the firsts all over again. The first time he recognizes the first laugh or me, or the first taste of something sweet. We're certainly lucky parents," Pratt said.
"He is such a fighter, he's amazing," Pratt also told People. "He's so open and there's no fear in him no matter what. He is so charming that my plan is just to let him take care of us as soon as he's old enough."
Pratt can be seen in "Guardians of the Galaxy," while his wife, Anna Faris, can be seen in CBS' comedy "Mom."
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It seems like whenever a hole is opened in Siberia, whether by nature or by man, something unusual is inside. That was the case recently in Siberia’s Kuznetsk Basin, Russia, where coal miners found an ancient stone object that appears to be a model of a flying saucer-style UFO.
Located in southwestern Siberia and covering 27,000 miles, Kuznetsk Basin is one of the largest coal mining areas in the world. The location where the strange stone object was found is owned and operated by the Kuzbassrazrezugol mining company. A company crew digging at a depth of 40 meters (131 feet) found two of the stone saucers. One broke as it was being removed but the second came to the surface intact.
The stone saucer is a near-perfect circle with a diameter of 1.2 meters (4 feet) and weighs 440 pounds. Boris Glazkov, the man who found the objects, was mystified.
I have to say it wasn’t hard to see as it was really distinctive and large. I’ve never seen anything like this object, which is obviously man-made out, here in the middle of nowhere before. It is a real mystery.
Archeologists have been brought in to analyze the stone UFOs. So far, no explanation has been given for them. The depth at which they were found (40 meters) is deeper that where the mining company normally encounters mammoth fossils (25 meters), suggesting they’re over 10,000 years old.
If they were made by humans, what were they trying to depict? With all the buzz about drones today, the first thought is that it’s a life-size model of an alien drone. More likely, it’s a scaled down model of UFO, since a full-sized stone statue would weigh tons. While there don’t appear to be carvings or writing on the object, it is similar in size and possible age to the Dropa stones – the engraved circular discs found near Tibet and believed by some to be a record of visits by ancient aliens.
A statue of an ancient spaceship? A message from an alien civilization? UFO hood ornament? A Panini press for mammoth sandwiches? Or is this stone UFO something else?
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Chris Kitching and Joshua Freeman, CP24.com
York Regional Police officers and animal welfare officials are investigating a disturbing case of animal cruelty in Whitchurch-Stouffville.
Police said at least six severed cat heads have been found in public places within a one-kilometre area of Tenth Line and Main Street between Aug. 12 and Sept. 13.
“The concerning thing to York Regional Police and what should be concerning to the citizens of Stouffville is the link to all these events,” Const. Andy Pattenden said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “They all occurred in a relatively short distance.
“All the areas where the heads were located are residential areas. It’s not a rural environment. It’s where people would see or be seen.”
In one of the incidents, a homeowner found her cat’s head outside her home. Another head was found outside a school.
Pattenden said the heads were positioned so that it appeared they had been placed rather than dropped or moved around by a vehicle. He also said there were no blood marks that would indicate an attack by another animal.
“In each of the incidents it appears at this time that it was intentional dismemberment,” Pattenden said.
He said nothing more than the head of the each animal was found in all of the cases but one, in which two legs were found alongside a head.
None of the torsos have been located.
Aside from the one head found by the animal’s owner, it’s not yet clear if the cats were domesticated animals that belonged to someone, or if they were feral.
Pattenden said that while it appears that the heads were meant to be seen, the message or the motive remain unclear.
Speaking at the news conference, Brad Dewar of the OSPCA said that while incidents of animal cruelty are not unheard of in Ontario, this case is cause for concern.
“This particular case is a little bit more concerning because of the number of animals that have been located within such a short period of time and the manner in which they have been found,” Dewar said.
Police and the OSPCA are advising pet owners to keep their animals indoors while the investigation is underway and to be vigilant for anything suspicious in the area.
“Our investigation really depends on the citizens of Whitchurch-Stouffville to come forward and provide us with the information that they may have seen something or heard something and their vigilance from now on,” Pattenden said.
Pattenden urged anyone who may have seen or heard something suspicious over the last few weeks to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
In particular, area pet owners are asked to contact Georgina Animal Control if a pet has gone missing recently.
@ChrisKitching and Josh_F are on Twitter. For instant breaking news, follow @CP24 on Twitter.
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Over the past few years, the rules of the game for PR pros has changed. Instead of addressing specialized targets, local publications, or television networks, they’re pressured to stay on top of multiple sources: a 24-hour news cycle, blogs, and social media — oh my!
We’ve never been more connected. According to a report by Ericsson, there will be 50 billion+ internet connected devices by the year 2020. So, the demand for personalization – reaching the right audience at the right time with the right message – has never been stronger.
We can all agree that the struggle for PR professionals is real. How are they cutting through the digital noise and resonating with the right audience?
For starters, they’ve embraced working with influencers. Influencers help brands stay relevant. They’re like the evolved cool kids from high school. And harnessing the power and trust that people have in influencers can really supercharge your PR campaign.
To help get you started, here are a few of my favorite ways to pull influencers into your PR campaign.
Seek product reviews from influencers
Ever bought something only because a friend told you how much they loved it? Of course you haven’t. We never do things because our friends do.
It actually makes sense, considering 90% of people today trust peer recommendations over company ads. Why? It’s much easier to trust someone’s opinion about a product when they aren’t getting paid to sell it.
CEO of Intuit, Scott Cook, said it best, “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is–it is what consumers tell each other it is.” When an influencer recommends or uses a product, people are more likely to trust them than the company selling it.
Check out how beauty brands like Lancôme and L’Oreal are doing this. Remember that influencers can be anyone, including social media personalities.
Well, Lancôme and L’Oreal work with makeup artist Michelle Phan, who has over 8.5 million subscribers on YouTube, to sell and endorse their products. In her videos, she shows her followers how to replicate celebrity makeup looks.
These partnerships have become so popular that brands are turning to tools like Influenster, a platform that connects them with potential ambassadors to participate in review campaigns.
Reviews are great because they’re very product-centric without being salesy. Influencers can share their own story and experiences, go into detail about using the product, and entertain their audience, while still promoting your product very directly.
Use influencers as brand ambassadors
Influencers have loyal audiences. They’re trusted sources of authority. Aligning with them is a fantastic way of attracting publicity and “piggybacking” off of their brand recognition and loyalty.
There are generally two ways influencers can help promote a brand: the paid way or the unpaid way.
Paid brand ambassadors can be a celebrity or a speaker at an event, and the relationship usually lasts as long as a contract permits. It’s a pretty official partnership where the two parties work closely together on projects.
An unpaid ambassador may promote you through word of mouth, on social media, or wherever they have influence. They’re not always so cut and dry. It may be a more informal partnership or act as more of an advocate or cheerleader than a spokesperson.
I recently saw a great campaign by Skype called the Skype Passion Project. They sought out unpaid ambassadors scattered across the globe to connect and share their passions (music, food, fashion, etc).
The campaign provided more than 100,000 website visits and over 5,000 campaign shares. What’s more, Skype found that 10% of their new visitors downloaded the Skype mobile app. Cheers to that, PR professionals.
Collaborate on content
It’s no secret that influencers love to create great content on topics their followers care about. Partnering to create content together can be a great way to begin a relationship. Here are a few ideas for content campaigns with PR influencers:
Write a blog post or series together.
Record a video or podcast episode.
Hold a webinar hosted by an influencer.
Hold a live online Q&A with your community.
Create a contest with the influencer.
Contests are my personal favorite. There are a number of fashion brands like Modcloth that send new lines to fashion bloggers to review. Sometimes they’ll spice things up with a contest and the influencer’s audience can enter to win the new clothes.
Solve problems in your community
Think about the challenges of your industry and work with influencers to discover solutions together. This is something we are hearing much more about. For example, British Airways was recognized by Forbes for being innovative in their partnership.
They brought together a group of influencers from Silicon Valley to address the intersection of science and technology. The innovative part? They did so at 30,000 feet in the air on a flight from San Francisco to London. In only a few hours, the groups came up with 20+ solutions and four were eventually presented to United Nations ITU Committee.
What are you waiting for?
Influencers are a powerful choice for your next PR campaign. And there are tons of tools out there that help make finding, collaborating, and engaging with influencers easy. For example, our own influencer dashboard.
Note: this post was originally published in June 2015 and has been expanded and updated.
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By David Sloan Wilson
After complaining that economic soul searching taking place since 2008 ignores evolutionary theory, I was made aware of Paul Krugman’s 1996 address to the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy. I had read it before but upon refreshing my memory I see that it provides an excellent opportunity to reflect upon changes that have taken place in my own field of evolutionary science during the last two decades.
Krugman’s address, which is reprinted here with his permission, was titled “What Economists Can Learn from Evolutionary Theorists”. He begins by acknowledging that his audience might know more than he does about evolution in relation to economics, but then demonstrates an impressive command of the evolutionary literature, including major figures such as George C. Williams, William D. Hamilton, John Maynard Smith, Richard Dawkins, and Stephen Jay Gould. He confesses to being an “evolution groupie”, even to the point of reading the primary literature and not just popular accounts.
What is the take-away message of evolutionary theory for Krugman? Mostly, that it affirms “standard economics”, at least in the form that he practices. In his own mind, he is “a maximization-and-equilibrium kind of guy” who has “pushed the envelope, but not broken it”. He identifies four components of standard economics:
1) It’s about what individuals do. “Methodological individualism is of the essence”.
2) The individuals are self-interested.
3) The individuals are intelligent and maximize their self-interested utilities.
4) Economists are concerned with the interaction of such individuals, especially the invisible hand conjecture that the intelligent pursuit of self-interest benefits the common good.
Krugman saw evolution as a “sister field” in these regards except for the third component: “The main difference between evolutionary theory and economics is that while economists routinely suppose that the agents in their models are very smart about finding the best strategy…evolutionists have no qualms about assuming myopic behavior. Indeed, myopia is of the essence of their view.”
In my view, Krugman got many things right and a few things wrong in his assessment of mainstream evolutionary science in 1996. He was right that self-interest was treated as a grand explanatory principle. He was also right that evolutionary theorists make use of equilibrium and optimization models, just like economists. The biggest thing that he got wrong concerned the fourth component. Economists assume that when self-interested individuals interact, they are led, as if by an invisible hand, to benefit the common good. Most evolutionary theorists in 1996 would have called this assumption “naïve group selection”.
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Darwin realized that selection among individuals within groups seldom resulted in behaviors that would benefit the group as a whole, which required selection at the group level. In his 1966 book Adaptation and Natural Selection, George C. Williams agreed with Darwin’s assessment and added that between-group selection, while possible in principle, is almost invariably weak compared to within-group selection. As a result, Williams strongly asserted that group-level adaptations do not, in fact, exist. There is no invisible hand that permutes self-interest into the common good. Instead, life’s a bitch and then you die. Or, as Williams once put it, “Mother Nature is a Wicked Old Witch”.
Inclusive fitness theory and reciprocal altruism offer an assessment that is only a little less bleak. They explain how cooperation can extend to genetic relatives and unrelated individuals trading favors at a small scale, but can’t explain how larger single-species societies or multi-species ecosystems evolve to function as corporate units.
The idea that functional organization exists at lower levels of a biological hierarchy, such as individual organisms, but then ceases to exist at higher levels, such as social groups and ecosystems, was deeply antithetical to the Christian worldview, which assumed that a universe created by God must be harmonious from top to bottom. While Darwin was somewhat muted on this theme, his bulldog Thomas Huxley gave it full throated expression in his essay on Evolution and Ethics published in 1893. Huxley was emphatic that evolution doesn’t make everything nice and that ethical human society must be cultivated, in the same way that gardens must be cultivated to keep out the objectionable species. It is not a coincidence that a 1989 edition of Huxley’s essay included a long commentary by George C. Williams.
If the sister disciplines of economics and evolution part company on the third component identified by Krugman, that’s relatively minor—but parting company on the fourth component is huge. Mainstream evolutionary theory in 1996 provided no warrant for the assumption that “decisions reached individually will, in fact, be the best decisions for an entire society”, as the ecologist Garrett Hardin described the principle of laissez faire in his classic 1968 essay on the tragedy of the commons1.
So much for mainstream evolutionary theory in 1996. Has anything noteworthy happened since? Absolutely, although the new developments have long histories as heterodox views. Let’s begin with cell biologist Lynn Margulis, who proposed in the 1970s that nucleated cells did not evolve by small mutational steps from bacterial cells, but rather as symbiotic communities of bacterial cells that became so functionally integrated that they qualified as higher-level “superorganisms” in their own right. This idea was generalized in the 1990’s by John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary and became known as “major evolutionary transitions”—the conversion of groups of organisms into groups as organisms. In addition to the major transition identified by Margulis, other major transitions possibly include the origin of life as groups of cooperating molecular reactions, the first cells, multi-cellular organisms, social insect colonies—and human societies.
Maynard Smith sided with Williams in the rejection of group selection during the 1960s but changed his mind for major evolutionary transitions. The basic idea is that the balance between levels of selection is not static but can itself evolve. A major transition occurs when mechanisms evolve that suppress the potential for disruptive forms of within-group selection, so that between-group selection becomes the dominant evolutionary force. Note that his formulation admits the existence of forms of within-group selection that are good for the group, which would be favored by group-level selection along with traits that are more overtly cooperative.
Other noteworthy developments include a reassessment of the plausibility of between-group selection (including Unto Others, my 1998 book with Elliott Sober) and the beginning of a theoretical framework for the study of cultural evolution (including the 1985 book Culture and the Evolutionary Process by Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson). Maynard Smith and Szathmary were somewhat timid in speculating about human evolution as a major transition, but subsequent authors have become bolder. To the best of our current knowledge, the key event in human evolution was the ability to suppress disruptive self-serving behaviors within groups, so that between-group selection became the predominant evolutionary force. Most distinctive human traits such as cooperation among non-relatives, maintaining a shared inventory of symbols, and transmitting learned information across generations are forms of cooperation (broadly defined) that evolved by between-group selection. Group selection is an exceptionally strong force in human cultural evolution, regardless of how strongly it operates in genetic evolution. A selection of books conveying these themes will be listed at the end of my essay.
Let’s revisit Krugman’s four components of economics in the light of these developments in evolutionary theory.
1) It’s about what individuals do. “Methodological individualism is of the essence”. Not any more. The late social psychologist Donald Campbell, an early pioneer of the current developments, said this about methodological individualism in 19942: “Methodological individualism dominates our neighboring field of economics, much of sociology, and all of psychology’s excursions into organizational theory. This is the dogma that all human social group processes are to be explained by laws of individual behavior—that groups and social organizations have no ontological reality—that where used, references to organizations, etc. are but convenient summaries of individual behavior.” This dogma might be theoretically justified in cases where selection takes place entirely within groups (in which case group-level effects are coincidental byproducts), but not when groups are the unit of selection. Or, if you prefer, groups become the individuals when selection operates at the group level.
2) The individuals are self-interested. Not any more, at least not entirely. In my newest book, Does Altruism Exist?, I stress that altruism must defined separately in terms of action vs. thoughts and feelings and that a complex relationship exists between the two. When altruism is defined in terms of action and in terms of relative fitness within and among groups, humans are altruistic much of the time.
3) The individuals are intelligent and maximize their self-interested utilities. Krugman already identified a gap between economic and evolutionary theory for this component in 1996. On the economic side, behavioral economists have been closing the gap by calling attention to the many ways that people depart from the assumptions of Homo economicus, although most behavioral economists do not use evolution as a guide to understand the nature of Homo sapiens, as I stressed in my previous essay.
4) Economists are concerned with the interaction of such individuals, especially the invisible hand conjecture that the intelligent pursuit of self-interest benefits the common good. Ironically, and in contrast to mainstream evolutionary theory in 1996, the new developments provide theoretical justification for the concept of the invisible hand, although different than the received economic version. The two criteria of the invisible hand concept are: 1) A society functions well as a unit; and 2) members of the society do not have its welfare in mind. Multi-cellular organisms and social insect colonies offer spectacular examples of the invisible hand concept in nature. They function well as units and their members—cells in the case of multi-cellular organisms and single insects in the case of social insect colonies—don’t even have minds in the human sense of the word. Instead, they behave in ways that have been winnowed by higher-level selection to be good for their group. Put another way, higher-level selection is the invisible hand and if it doesn’t operate, there’s no theoretical warrant for expecting groups to function well as units. The economist John Gowdy and I develop this theme in an academic article3 titled “Human Ultrasociality and the Invisible Hand: Foundational Developments in Evolutionary Science alter a Foundational Concept in Economics”.
In short, all of the components of economic theory that made Krugman regard evolutionary theory as a “sister field” in 1996 require foundational changes in economic theory in 2016.
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I hope that Krugman remains an evolution groupie and wonder if he has kept up with these developments. Either way, I am pleased to provide a short list of books that reflect the developments for anyone who wants to join the action.
I end my reflection with a comment on open-mindedness. It’s easy to lapse into primordial us/them thinking in controversies of this kind. I occasionally yield to the temptation myself (it feels so good!). Krugman’s address to the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy provides a model of cordial open-mindedness among people exploring different perspectives. The need for that has not changed between 1996 and 2016.
Hardin, G. (1968). The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, 162, 1243–1248.
Campbell, D. T. (1994). How individual and face-to-face-group selection undermine firm selection in organizational evolution. In J. A. C. Baum & J. V Singh (Eds.), Evolutionary dynamics of organizations (pp. 23–38). New York: Oxford University Press.
Wilson, D. S., & Gowdy, J. M. (2014). Human ultrasociality and the invisible hand: foundational developments in evolutionary science alter a foundational concept in economics. Journal of Bioeconomics, 17(1), 37–52. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10818-014-9192-x
Suggested readings:
Evolution as a General Theoretical Framework for Economics and Public Policy. 2013 special issue of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Note: JEBO is generously making the lead article of the special issue open access for a 6-month period (go here)
Boehm, C. (2011). Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame. New York: Basic Books.
Jablonka, E., & Lamb, M. J. (2006). Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Haidt, J. (2012). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion . New York: Pantheon.
Henrich, J. (2015). The Secret of Our Success: How culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Nowak, M., & Highfield, R. (2011). SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed. New York: Free Press.
Paul, R. A. (2015). Mixed Messages: Cultural and Genetic Inheritance in the Constitution of Human Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by genes alone: how culture transformed human evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Turchin, P. (2015). Ultrasociety: How 10,000 years of war made humans the greatest cooperators on earth. Storrs, CT: Baresta Books.
Wilson, D. S. (2015). Does Altruism Exist? Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press and Templeton Press.
Wilson, E. O. (2012). The Social Conquest of Earth. New York: Norton.
2016 January 20
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The majority of people know before they get married if they want children or not.
A select few make the decision slowly, like my friend who was married for 10 years before she and her husband finally decided they wanted children and had them when she was 37 and 39.
A Comparison: Life With And Without Children
Within our circle of friends and family, there are only two couples without children. They are dual income and take wonderful vacations, going to Europe for three weeks and flying around to different locales in the United States. They have nice homes and frequently host parties. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that sometimes I envy their freedom and the extra money they have to enjoy their lives.
Everyone else in our circle has children, and while they are doing well for themselves financially, they live a more modest lifestyle than our friends without kids.
Is it any wonder, considering the United States Department of Agriculture recently proclaimed it will take $295,560 to raise a child born in 2011 to the age of 18? (USDA). No, that price estimate does not even include college! Many parents rightly scoff at that report and declare that it costs much less to raise a child, which is generally true.
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The Cost Of Having Children
We are raising three children for much less than that, but we still feel a deep hit to our finances, especially as they get older and eat more and want to be involved in more extracurricular activities. We also pay for private school because we don’t live in a good school district, and now that two children are in school, tuition can get expensive.
I made the decision to quit my job and work from home after our youngest was born. I love being able to work from home while caring for my smaller children, but by doing so, we easily gave up $40,000 a year in income (the difference between what I was making in salary compared to what I am making now). I also gave up an employer-matching retirement savings plan.
Of course, not all of the $40,000 I lost is true loss. I ultimately quit because not only did I want to be a stay at home mom, but the high cost of child care in our area would have eaten up most of our salary. A couple with children must make the hard decision whether both should keep working and pay for daycare or whether one should quit his or her job and become a one-income family.
A couple that has no kids can get ahead financially more quickly because both partners can work.
Making The Decision To Have Kids Or Not
My guess is that people who decide not to have children are not necessarily driven to make that decision by finances, though some may be. It just so happens that a more comfortable lifestyle is often the result of being childless. I would also guess that even when considering the financial trade-offs, most people who want children will still have them, regardless of the financial implications.
My husband and I always wanted three kids; we are now blessed with three children, and though we struggle financially, the struggle is worth it.
We love being with kids, and we enjoy watching them grow up and watching them learn new things daily. We look forward to one day, maybe 20 or 25 years from now, when we will also have grandkids. Even though we sometimes wish to take nice vacations and live comfortably financially, we see our children as an investment, an investment in our family, and we are willing to give up international vacations, new cars, and other material items to care for them.
Did financial considerations affect your decision to have children or not? If you did have children, did finances determine how many children you had?
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Almost three years ago, Greg R. Lawson wrote for the Atlantic Sentinel that the United States should “pivot” on the Middle East’s Shia-Sunni divide. Whether by design or not, the Iranian-led fight against the self-declared Islamic State and a possible nuclear deal with Tehran are pushing America in his desired direction.
Although the Obama Administration is reassuring its Arab allies that any agreement with Iran about its nuclear program will not involve a “grand bargain” with the Shia state, the Sunni monarchs and Turkey are nervous. Any form of rapprochement between Iran and the United States would come at the expense of their perceived role as Iran’s balancers. If the Americans see Iran as less of a threat to stability in the Middle East, there is less of a need to maintain awkward alliances with unsavory regimes on the other side of the Persian Gulf and a now blatantly antisemitic government in Ankara.
The Arabs see the writing on the fall. President George W. Bush toppled the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, removing Iran’s primary obstacle to expanding its influence into the Levant. His successor, Barack Obama, withdrew America’s support from Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and later refused to join Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni states in wholeheartedly backing the opposition against Iran’s Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad.
Iran also expanded its influence in Baghdad during the prime ministership of Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia Muslim who spent decades in exile in Iran when Saddam Hussein was in power.
To the dismay of some American strategists, the United States have since allowed Iran to spearhead the war against Islamic State militants in Iraq as well as Syria. Iranian officers are on the ground aiding their Iraqi counterparts while the Western allies do little more than bombing terrorist targets.
The former American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, warns in an interview with The Washington Post that Iran is ultimately still part of the problem, not the solution.
The more the Iranians are seen to be dominating the region, the more it is going to inflame Sunni radicalism and fuel the rise of groups like the Islamic State.
Gary Anderson, a retired Marine Corps colonel, agrees, arguing in Foreign Policy magazine that effectively ceding this fight to Iran is a mistake, one that will leave it the region’s de facto hegemon and virtually ensure a regional Shia-Sunni conflict zone with global impact.
If Iraq is not a vassal state of Iran, it is certainly a failed state which will effectively be dominated by Iran if the Shiite-led militias triumph.
This is certainly the Arabs’ fear. They worry that Obama will accept Iran’s strategic gains in not just Iraq but places like Lebanon and Yemen as well in order to get a deal that will stop it from building nuclear weapons. In the former, Iran’s Hezbollah proxy is virtually in control of the country. In the latter, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have taken over the former North Yemen and are battling an internationally-recognized remnant state in Aden.
But is it really in America’s interest to stay on the side of the Sunnis instead?
Iran’s clerical regime is a heinous and oppressive one but hardly far more despicable than the Saudis’. Iran exports terrorism but so, writes Ameer Ali in The Australian , does Saudi Arabia. Many of the Middle East’s jihadists either were or are financed and inspired by Saudi sheikhs and Saudi preachers. Iran is the enemy of America’s allies but those allegiances can change. What matters in the end is: does one side threaten America’s core interests so much that there is no alternative to an alliance with the other?
There is reason to doubt Iran is such an incorrigible, mortal enemy. Its aggression can reasonably be construed as a reaction to the security situation it faces in the Middle East, much of which owes to American policy.
Andrew Murray and Sean Matthew Tuohy suggested at the Atlantic Sentinel in 2013 that where the United States have utilized a policy of containment to blunt Iran’s ambitions as a regional power and minimize its ability to interfere with American strategic interests, Iran has pursued a strategy of deterrence, “an approach that is the result of Iran’s perception of its vulnerabilities.”
Its funding of Islamist terrorist groups, notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, is an effort to counterbalance the hegemony of Israel and the United States in the region. The question is, has Iran supported Hezbollah (and others) for ideological and religious reasons or has it done so for geopolitical reasons? Using the realist framework as a basis, it is feasible to argue that Iran uses its position as the only Islamic republic, not only to “promote the revolution” but to form a rejectionist axis against perceived Western imperialism in the Middle East.
To what extent Iranian leaders actually believe what they’re saying is a question Western analysts still haven’t been able to answer decidedly. But it seems safe to assume they care at least as much about their rational security interests as they do about their irrational ideological pursuits.
Iran is also inherently more stable than its competitors, the private intelligence company Stratfor’s Robert D. Kaplan and Kamran Bokhari have argued. Whereas Saudi Arabia is “built around the parched and deeply conservative upland of Najd which has always struggled to subdue the more cosmopolitan maritime peripheries like Hijaz,” Iran is a coherent geographical entity that “straddles the Middle East and Central Asia as well as the two energy producing regions of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.”
Rather than an artificial contrivance of a single family, Shiite Iran — with its relative geographic logic — is heir to Iranian states going back to antiquity, when Persia was the world’s first superpower. Iran encapsulates a rich and eclectic civilization. Even under the present regime, in Iran there is a semblance of a democratic foundation, while in Saudi Arabia there is an utter lack of any sense of democracy.
Ali agrees, writing that the oil kingdoms “lack popular legitimacy and export their puritanical ideology to destabilize the Westphalian world order.”
Surely Iran hasn’t always acted in the best interest of such a stable order, nor in the best interest of a balance of power in the Middle East, but it is at least a proper nation, not a family enterprise like Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.
Withdrawing what Iran perceives to be American threats to its security is unlikely to shake up its behavior. After decades of confrontation and amid an ongoing cold war with its Sunni rivals, Iran is not suddenly going to play nice just because the United States pack up and go home.
Americans should also be under no illusions about the damage Iran can do. Even if Murray and Tuohy are right and its foreign policy is defensive at heart, the consequences of Iran’s ideologically-infested strategy can be horrendous.
The American Interest ‘s Adam Garfinkle pointed out last year that Iran’s hegemonic exertions had “raised an existential threat to the Sunni Arab regimes” and “radicalized heretofore mostly latent sectarian cleavages in the region.”
When the feeble Sunni Arab states proved feckless in responding, the radicalization process, with mischievous help from countries like Qatar as well as Turkey, created the monster that is ISIS. The point? It is not possible to extirpate ISIS unless we also address its source: Iranian power projection through Arab Shia militias (which, by the way, extends all the way to the Houtis in Yemen).
Petraeus is saying more or less the same thing and he is right.
America shouldn’t wish for an alliance with a regime that does such damage. But is not a matter of picking sides.
Indeed, that is the point Lawson was making three years ago. He didn’t suggest that America should shift from an alliance with the Sunni world to an alliance with the Shia state. Rather, he called on the United States to “seize the geopolitical initiative” and be “the decisive weight on the scale of Sunni-Shia relations.”
If Iran and the United States can come to some terms, the ability to tilt between the Sunni Saudi and Turkish regimes and the Shia ascendancy in Iran and Iraq will be possible.
This would no doubt be disconcerting to America’s Arab and Turkish allies and could foment unrest in the short term. But American security is not dependent on stability in the Middle East, nor is its economy anymore.
The Arab Gulf states’ inherent regime instability and the United States’ partisan allegiances in the Middle East’s sectarian conflicts — which make it vulnerable to power shifts — suggest it could altogether do better with Iran than contain it. In the long term, some form of accommodation could help advance American strategic goals.
America and Iran share an aversion to radical Salafism and the religious warriors it produces. Neither wants to see Sunni fanatics establish a state in the heart of the Arab world nor see the fanatical Taliban return to power in Kabul. Nor does nearby India which seeks to strengthen its security ties with the United States in order to balance against China’s rise in Asia but which is also dependent on Iranian oil and gas supplies. American-Iranian discord stands in the way of a great power settlement in Afghanistan as well as closer American-Indian relations.
Moreover, a cornered Iran could seek an alliance with an equally aggrieved Russia, raising the specter of Iranian-Russian domination in the Caspian Sea region and Central Asia — where the two are still more competitors than collaborators — and Russian access to the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, a longtime Russian strategic goal America successfully blocked during the Cold War.
From America’s perspective, it is far more important that India joins its liberal, maritime world order and helps prevent China from establishing a “new type of major power relations” that is based on intimidation and fear than it is to keep the Arabs and Turks happy. It is even more important to stave off any possibility of a Sino-Russo-Iranian condominium in Central Asia that would represent the sum of all American fears: a single, hostile entity dominating the bulk of the Eurasian landmass.
If the price of safeguarding those long-term goals is more trepidation in the capitals of the Middle East, it is a price America is probably willing to pay.
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A Spanish municipal water company employee was fined nearly a year's salary after his employer found out that he had not reported for work in more than six years. Stock photo by Photo by Peter G/UPI/Shutterstock
CADIZ , Spain, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A Spanish man was fined after his employer discovered that he had been absent from work for six years without notifying anyone.
Joaquin Garcia, a 69-year-old engineer at a municipal water company in Cadiz, was fined more than $30,300 after his employer discovered that he hadn't reported for work for six years while attempting to present him an award for 20 years of service.
The maximum fine represents only sightly less than one year of his annual salary of almost $41,600.
His employers at the water company believed he was being supervised by local authorities while deputy mayor Jorge Blas Fernandez thought the opposite to be true.
"We thought he had been supervised by the water company but that was not the case," he told Spanish news outlet El Mundo.
According to the BBC local newspapers have given Garcia the nickname "el funcionario fantasma" or "the phantom official."
Garcia said a combination of office bullying related to his family's politics and a lack of work for him to do at the water company ultimately caused his extended absence. He did not report these condition for fear of losing his job.
He did occasionally report to work for brief periods of time but spent his days at the office studying philosophy.
Garcia wrote to the mayor and requested to not pay the fine and is seeking a review of the court's ruling.
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We could perhaps blame Ronald Reagan for the fact that Laura Ingalls Wilder isn’t better understood. In the 1970s, he told an interviewer that Little House on the Prairie, loosely inspired by one of her novels, was his favourite TV show. He used to well up watching its moralising tales about the homesteading Ingalls family, led by the often shirtless Pa (the star and producer Michael Landon). But the show was far removed from the focus of the eight original Little House novels, in which a girl called Laura recounted her life from childhood to marriage, witnessing the eviction of Native American tribes, the coming of the railroad and the agricultural destruction of the prairies that set in train the ecological disaster of the Dust Bowl. In the 150th year of Wilder’s birth, I headed to her former farmhouse for the annual celebratory Wilder Day to try to assess the writer’s place in modern American identity.
There are Amish men in their horse-drawn buggies along the edge of the freeway as you drive to Mansfield, Missouri. It is still farming territory and according to the US census bureau, one of the 100 poorest towns in the US. In the visitors’ car park of Rocky Ridge Farm museum, Wilder’s fine stone house on a hill, there are large Mennonite family groups – the women in floral home-sewn maxi dresses, their hair in modest buns. This corner of the Ozarks is still defined by the culture of the white pioneer settlers who arrived 120 years ago.
When Wilder and her husband, Almanzo, moved here from South Dakota in 1894, she was still in her twenties. They had lost their original farm as a result of drought and crushing debt in the aftermath of the 1893 Great Panic – a banking crisis far worse than the 1929 Wall Street Crash. With a 100-dollar bill hidden in her writing box – all that they had left – she, not Almanzo, bought the land on which they built Rocky Ridge Farm; and it was here she wrote her novels, intertwining fact and fiction.
Since then the house has become a site of pilgrimage. Many visitors see Wilder as an all-American patriot of traditional values, while liberals claim her as a proto-feminist who refused to say “obey” in her wedding vows, and whose stories celebrated a dark-haired rebellious little girl who hated being “ladylike” and “good” like her angelic, passive sister Mary. There are Wilder sites of interest all over the Midwest, from Wisconsin to South Dakota; she wrote about real places and events, carefully editing out the worst suffering, such as the death of her infant brother Freddy.
Stepping inside the beautiful wood and stone home – the kitchen counter was made for Wilder’s tiny 4ft 11in frame – is profoundly moving. This is a girl who had lived much of her life in poverty; it wasn’t until her sixties that she began writing down her family memories. It was an exercise in what Wordsworth called “emotion recollected in tranquility”. But the timing was anything but tranquil – the Wall Street Crash had wiped out her and Almanzo’s savings for the second time. Between the appearance of her first book, Little House in the Big Woods, in 1932, and her last, These Happy Golden Years, in 1943, she became a bestselling children’s writer, a success partly helped by General MacArthur putting the sixth Little Prairie book, The Long Winter (1940), on a list of postwar reconstruction literature for Japanese and German schoolchildren.
Wilder’s comforting tales proved globally popular during the austerity of the 1940s – the books are full of endurance but also moments of great feasting, and the descriptions of celebratory baking are particularly appealing. A number of schools and libraries were named after her, notable the children’s reading room in Pomona, California, which keeps the original handwritten manuscript for her seventh novel, Little Town on the Prairie. What satisfaction for a woman, still girlish with her silver hair, who had never finished high school.
At the Wilder weekend, I meet many children, especially young girls with bonnets and long, Laura braids, all fans of the books, who’ve come with their parents to watch displays of traditional crafts such as spinning. I meet three generations of one family – grandmother, daughters and granddaughters – who argue playfully over who gets to be Laura. It’s a similar attitude to that described by Chicago writer Wendy McClure in The Wilder Life, written with a sense of self-aware fun in aftermath of the 2008 economic crash, when urban women were rediscovering the world of the Little House books and having a go at quilting and butter making. And it’s the same way that austerity fashion and knitting found a new generation of enthusiasts in Britain.
I spot the actor Dean Butler amid the craft stalls – he played the heartthrob Almanzo in the late Seventies/early Eighties TV show. The Little House series was “never cool”, he says, but he thinks that, like The Waltons, its celebration of family values and decency was valuable in the aftermath of Watergate and the oil crisis. I’m taken aback by the strength of his concern about what’s happened to his country: “I think America needs things like Little House more than ever before. We have become so caustic in our rhetoric to each other. The politics in this country right now are absolutely poisonous. In my lifetime, and I’m 61, I have never experienced the vicious hostility that exists between people.”
Throughout the day I hear traditional folk songs such as “Old Dan Tucker” being played on Pa’s actual fiddle in a fiddle-off contest. This is the power of the stories: the way they bring history alive with a seductive good-heartedness. The biographer Pamela Smith Hill, the author of a 2014 annotated version of Wilder’s original memoir Pioneer Girl, thinks the reason Wilder remains underrated is because of the deceptive simplicity of her prose. She highlights a passage in The Long Winter, Wilder’s darkest novel, in which Laura’s dreamlike state as starvation and the freezing temperature take hold captures the perceptions of a child with hypothermia.
The trouble over Wilder’s legacy is two-fold. First, there’s her family’s politics. Her daughter, the journalist and pulp writer Rose Wilder Lane – hugely influential in the 1930s and 1940s – was one of the so-called “godmothers” of libertarianism along with Ayn Rand. Rose was undoubtedly instrumental in getting her mother published, though she also plagiarised Laura’s manuscripts for her own, now largely forgotten, books and became increasingly unhinged in her rantings about Franklin D Roosevelt, Jews and her love of Mussolini. Most contemporary scholars feel that Wilder was deeply uncomfortable with her daughter’s more extreme views.
But there remains a dilemma over the perspective of the Little House books themselves, as Butler hinted, in an America battling anew over Civil War memorials. As early as the 1950s Wilder amended one phrase in Little House on the Prairie from “no people” to “no settlers” after a reader complained about the line: “There were no people, only Indians.” The Osage Nation, whose land the Ingalls occupied illegally, continues to condemn the novels, which view its expulsion as a romantic farewell.
Professor Frances Kaye, who teaches Plains literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was unusual as a child in the 1950s for rejecting the Little House stories. She remains concerned about the way the novels, with their descriptions of Native Americans as wild savages and their celebration of white Christian manifest destiny, are still held up as moral exemplars to young children. “I think Wilder was writing as honestly as she knew. Pa explains, ‘This is the way it always goes. Settlers move in, the Indians move out.’ And Laura says, ‘Why?’ And he says, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s just the way things are.’ I don’t think she was an Indian hater… But we tend to teach books about race that show normative white views and make white people feel good about themselves.”
Kaye is unimpressed by the feminist defence of Wilder as an important, rebellious voice in pioneer literature. “Certainly in terms of working with the Indians, as missionaries, as matrons, as schoolteachers, white women got a lot of power out of the disempowering of native people. That’s not something that you can be happy about… If we don’t recognise that then we’re still justifying imperialism and colonialism. Native people are still more likely to be in prison. That’s because of this dispossession.”
On the plane to Missouri I looked out and saw the moon and the Milky Way shining over the landscape of freeways and towns that grew up just in Laura’s lifetime. Born in 1867, she died in 1957, a few months before Sputnik. The Little House books capture ordinary lives that were witnesses to a massive transformation. It is possible to love them but also to challenge their underlying mythology. Wilder’s stories will continue to draw readers to the Rocky Ridge Farm, where she is remembered with such love. “They could not be forgotten, she thought,” writing about Ma and Pa at the end of Little House in the Big Woods, “because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.”
Samira Ahmed’s documentary “Laura Ingalls’s America” is on BBC Radio 3, Sunday 10 December, at 6.45pm
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1. Save 10 cents on any beverage by using a Starbucks reusable cup or a paper cup from any Starbucks competitor. Your barista will either fill your personal cup or replace the competitor's cup with their own. If you're buying two cups of coffee a day, 10 cents will save you around 73 dollars a year.
2. Don't waste money on bottled water because you can order water in a tall, grande, or venti cup for free. Just ask your barista for a "water cup" and you won't be charged.
3. Split a venti with your friend, and enjoy a tall drink for less money. This especially comes in handy when you're in the mood for a Frappuccino. A venti Frappuccino can cost $4.95 and a tall can cost $3.95. By splitting a venti, you're getting a tall-size Frappuccino for about a dollar less than you normally would.
Kathleen Kamphausen
4. When ordering an iced beverage, ask for ice on the side to leave more room for coffee in your cup. Typically iced coffee is half ice and half coffee, but by asking for ice on the side, you control how watered down, or not, your drink will be.
5. Ask for your tall order to be poured in a grande cup. When you order a tall and you need room for milk, you're getting less coffee. To avoid this horrific reality, order a tall in a grande cup so you have room for milk without sacrificing any coffee.
Kathleen Kamphausen
6. Create your own latte for the price of espresso. Order two or three shots of espresso either hot or over ice and add your own milk afterward. DIY latte, for less.
7. Order a short cappuccino, which has the same amount of caffeine as a tall but for less money. There's no short size on the menu, but your barista will know what it is. It's slightly smaller than a tall (hence the name, short).
Kathleen Kamphausen
8. Only order a venti when you're ordering brewed coffee; otherwise it's the same amount of caffeine. This chart explains how much caffeine is in each Starbucks drink, and almost every grande and venti has the same amount. So, for instance, when your friend needs a venti PSL because she just can't, she really can just get a grande.
9. Order your iced tea beverage without water so you maximize the amount of tea you're really getting. Starbucks steeps its teas to be extra strong, but when you order an iced tea they automatically water it down. By holding the water you get more tea (and caffeine if your tea is caffeinated) now.
10. Join the Starbucks rewards program and get a free drink or food after every 12 drinks. If you get coffee everyday, you'll get a free drink or snack every two weeks!
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The government's shake up of the GCSE grading system has made sitting the exams "traumatic", Jeremy Corbyn has said.
Launching Labour's education policies for the 2017 general election at an event in Leeds today, the party's leader also said students should not have to rote learn poetry for the GCSE English Literature exam because it would "put them off poetry for the rest of their lives".
Asked about his views on the government's reforms to GCSE grades - which will begin to transition to a new 1 to 9 scale this summer - Mr Corbyn said he felt for pupils "going through the trauma of starting GCSEs".
He continued: "Going through day after day of that very complex matrix of exams and knowing that the grading system has been so changed that they’re going to feel a bit devalued at the end of it.
"That has to be explained, it has to be explained in the publication of the results and it has to be explained to all future employers and universities exactly what it means to have done your GCSEs in 2017 compared to 2016."
"It is a very traumatic time and you think of all the students working really really hard," he said.
Angela Rayner, Labour's shadow education secretary, said the changes had been "chaotic".
“I talk to businesses and they think it’s chaos… half of them don’t even know that this new grading system is coming in.”
"Quite frankly there will be many students that get their results at GCSEs in September and will feel failures and it’s not their failure, it’s this government's failure."
When asked specifically what Labour would do about the situation, Ms Rayner told journalists to wait for detail in the party's manifesto.
Mr Corbyn was asked a question by a pupil whose sister is currently doing GCSE English Literature. She said she had to "memorise 15 poems" when "only one or two was going to appear in the exam".
In response, the Labour leader said he could “probably quote much more than 15 poems actually, because I love poetry".
"But the idea that that you would send the young person into an exam having to remember 15 poems - on the basis of one of them might show up on the exam paper - is going to put them off poetry for the rest of their lives," he said.
"That is not what we want to achieve. I want people to love poetry and be inspired by it, not be put off it."
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Spain headed into the game against Croatia looking to secure the top spot in UEFA EURO 2016's Group D, but they failed to make good on their mission.
The game kicked off without either side clearly dominating over the other, but it was Vicente del Bosque's men who had the edge. Their passing moves, led by David Silva, caused a threat on Danijel Subasic's goal, and Spain opened the scoring through one of them. The Canary Islander perfectly picked out Cesc Fabregas's run between the lines and he clipped the ball exquisitely over the Croatian keeper. Alvaro Morata tapped in from close range to make it 1-0 and put himself on a total of three goals in the competition.
Croatia equalised through Nikola Kalinic before the break. The striker concluded a great move started by Ivan Perisic, with Ivan Rakitic heading the ball on for Kalinic to finish with his heel. The game was level at 1-1 and did not liven up again until Silva went down in the area and Sergio Ramos stepped up to take the spot-kick. Subasic went the right way and kept out the Sevillian centre-back's penalty. With the game being played at a sluggish pace and lacking the usual intensity, Perisic got Croatia's winner by rounding off a counter-attack with a sublime finish late on in the game.
The result means that Rakitic, Modric and Cop's Croatia go through to the last 16 as the winners of Group D, whilst Spain head into the next round as the runners-up. They will face Group E winners Italy at the Stade de France in Paris on Monday 27 June, kickoff at 18:00 CET.
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A mixed-race Canadian poet travels to a poetry festival in Iran and discovers her own voice while opening herself to those of others in the whimsical, animated coming-of-ager “Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming.” Tapping a host of fellow animators to create a visually rich tapestry, director-writer-animator Ann Marie Fleming creates an entertaining, educational, and poignant tale about identify and imagination that is filled with stories and poetry. Overall, the film provides a counterweight to our xenophobic times, proving that human beings are more alike than unalike and that poetry can be relevant across millennia. Mongrel Media will give this popular fest selection a theatrical release across Canada in March 2017.
The only child of a Chinese mother and an Iranian father, Rosie Ming (voiced by Sandra Oh, also executive producer) has been raised from the age of seven by her over-protective Chinese grandparents (voiced by Nancy Kwan and Eddy Ko) in a series of Canadian cities following the death of her mother and the disappearance of her father. Now a naïve twentysomething, she works at a fast-food restaurant and writes poetry that she sings while playing the guitar. As the story starts, Rosie, a beret-wearing Francophile, has just self-published a book, “My Eye Full, Poems by a Person Who Has Never Been to France.”
Although Rosie thinks France is the land of her soul, another country, one where almost everyone is a poet, is destined to claim it, as she discovers when arriving at the international poetry festival in Shiraz. On the narrative level, Fleming completely nails the overwhelming quality of Iranian hospitality that foreigners experience and the great potential for gaffes because of cultural differences. On the visual level, her use of different animation styles and techniques capture Iran’s entrancing colors, sounds, and tastes. For instance, as Rosie opens the window in her hotel to the resonant sound of the morning call to prayer, little flying carpets of color shoot ecstatically from the minaret.
While the narrative of the film is presented in one particular style, the visuals accompanying the poems and the histories of Iranian poets Hafiz and Rumi were created by different artists. They both accentuate and blend the myriad of differences in cultures, philosophies, time frames, and poetry. The variety of styles and techniques also inject humor, such as the “degenerate art” style visualizing the inappropriate poem recited by the arrogant young German poet Dietmar (excellently voiced by Don McKellar).
At the festival, Rosie finds connections to both sides of her heritage. The exiled Chinese poet Di Di (Jun Zhu) provides her with lessons on both recent Chinese history and poetic style as well as the fateful difference between being a simple poet and a political man. Meanwhile, the many Iranians she encounters seek to prove to her that a Persian father could never have willingly abandoned his daughter.
It may be distracting to some viewers that the other characters are more fleshed out visually, while Rosie remains a “stick girl,” but once Rosie dons her black chador, her body is no longer an issue. Stick Girl is a character that Fleming created while in art school and she has appeared in a number of Fleming’s short animations and as an avatar for the director in “The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam,” an animated biography of Fleming’s magician great-grandfather. In a sense, Stick Girl’s unformed quality is perfect for the character of Rosie, who has been kept so isolated from life experience and even from the truth about her own parents.
The powerhouse voice cast assembled by multi-hypenate Fleming also includes Shohreh Aghdashloo as a Tehran U. professor who offers Rosie some wise advice and Payman Maadi (“A Separation”), who delivers a masterful interpretation of Rumi’s Masnevi. Even real-life contemporary poet Taylor Mali contributes a poem that he reads via his toon avatar. The gorgeous Middle Eastern soundtrack from composer Taymaz Saba sets the perfect mood.
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(Please click on the image above to view the video of Paul and Leon’s interview.)
A Father’s Day Letter – From Jen Owen
My husband is one of those “mad scientist” types…you know… the Dad who spends an entire day with the kids making indoor hoovercrafts and ping pong ball machine guns while Mom is away getting groceries…who builds chihuahua powered tanks and remote control bowler hats and steam punk man powered pipe organ backpacks…
He is also the kind of role model that every child should have. One that takes a request for help from a stranger and turns it into something that will not only help that one person…but potentially thousands of others. Who teaches them how to use their gifts and talents – to make a positive change in the world.
About 2 years ago, my husband Ivan owen, opened an email from a carpenter in South Africa who had cut off 4 of his fingers in a wood working accident. The carpenter had seen a silly youtube video of one of Ivan’s “crazy mechanical hand inventions” (A large mechanical hand he had created for our first Steam Punk convention) – and asked him if he would be interested in helping to make replacement fingers for real people.
That email could have been laughed away or sent to the trash can with a “there is no way that’s possible” mindset. But instead, he turned around in his chair and exclaimed “Jen, I need to help this guy. I AM going to find a way to build him new fingers!”
And so began our incredible journey of reaching across 10,000 miles to help a stranger in need.
Hours and hours spent skyping and emailing…designing, testing and reworking. Exhausting nights of frustrations and amazing “ah-ha!” moments. And all the while – teaching our children about the beauty of helping others without asking for anything in return…and more importantly – sharing their gifts with the World so that others can take those gifts and re-gift to the people they love and care for.
Because Ivan and the carpenter decided to share this design with the world, instead of patenting it – other parents are able to create them for their own children and now there are even children who are making them for other children they will never meet!
Paul and Leon McCarthy saw the video of the original story online and decided they would make one of these hands together as a father and son project to create a hand for Leon who was born with no fingers on his left hand. Over the past year, they have not only helped make improvements to the original design, but they have started reaching out into their local schools to teach other families and children about 3D printing and what it is capable of.
Through sharing their story – even more people have found the e-NABLE group and they also continue to inspire many to find out how they can help put 3d printed hands on those in need.
Another father and son team saw the story and together, they also created a new design that they too gave away to the world for free. Peter Binkley created the first Talon hand for his son Peregrine Hawthorne and found their way to the e-NABLE group after Ivan saw their video on youtube. Now not only are they both very active members of our growing global community, but Peter didn’t stop at designing the Talon hand for his son…he has also created another version of the hand for other children and continues to donate his free time and also gives his designs away as open source and free to those that want to use them.
Greg Dennison is another father who found the e-NABLE group and started making hands for his son Luke. He too, continues to work on new designs and shares them freely with the world.
There are many parents who are now making and creating hands with their children and for their children – because two men from 10,000 miles apart came together to create something and give it away to the world for free.
Today I celebrate not only my husband and the beautiful life lessons he is teaching our children, but I celebrate all Fathers and parents who encourage their children to reach for their dreams, find their hidden talents and show them how to use those gifts to make the world a little brighter. Those parents who live what they teach and show our next generation that sometimes what may seem like a “Crazy idea” – can actually turn out to make a difference in ways they never imagined possible.
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High-resolution Bilbo poster for The Battle of the Five Armies
at 9:55 pm by - October 8, 20149:55 pm by Demosthenes
I’ve been a bit out of the Hobbit movies loop since the arrival of the teaser trailer back in July. However, it seems that Warner Bros. has just decided to drag itself out of hibernation (and me with it) and has begun releasing a series of gritty, close-up character posters. I suspect that sort of look will be the continuing theme of this series — and probably is a good hint of the tenor of the last film.
The main one-sheet this time round is a determined-looking Bilbo pointing Sting at someone or something. A high-resolution version has just dropped into my lap, and since folks tend to enjoy seeing these things in the big pixels, here’s a clean version of the poster below.
I noted a fireball flying through the air. It seems that someone may be bringing some siege weapons to BOFA. Not sure what the structure on the right behind Bilbo is: even at max-resolution it’s still a bit indistinct. A tower of some sort above a gate, perhaps.
Click to embiggen to max-res (around 2k pixels x 4k pixels) and all that.
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DEFENSE WITNESSES Dr. Fred Berlin – Director of the Sexual Disorders Clinic at John Hopkins University; Maudsley Hospital in London; DSM-III-R subcommitee for the definition of sexual disorders Dr. Berlin testified that Jeff Dahmer was unable to conform his conduct at the time that he committed the crimes because he was suffering from Paraphilia, or more specifically, Necrophilia, a mental disease. He described Dahmer’s affliction as being a ‘cancer of the mind’, a ‘broken mind’, and thought it facile to insinuate that the man could simply resolve to stop thinking of sex with dead bodies and the thoughts would go away. ‘We cannot always choose what to have on our minds,’ he said.
Necrophilia, he explained, is not a matter of freewill. Prosecutor McCann, in his cross examination, after attacking both the comptetence and integrity of the witness, focused on what he saw as errors in the way Dr. Berlin conducted his evaluation of Dahmer. ‘How long did you talk about family history?’ ‘Fifteen minutes.’ ‘From zero to age eighteen?’ ‘I’m not writing a biography of him.’ ‘What did you then talk about after family history?’ ‘Personal history.’ ‘How long did that take?’ ‘Half an hour. My examination covered five hours in all, maybe six. I’m not trying to be evasive.’ ‘The record indicates four hours and forty-five minutes. If you spent forty-five minutes talking about family and personal history, that leaves four hours, so you spent fifteen minutes on each homicide.’
The cross examination of Dr. Berlin continued in this manner, Mr. McCann eventually getting the doctor to admit that Dahmer was a liar, which, in this instance, was quite beneficial for the prosecution, as most of his conclusions were drawn from conversations with Jeff. During cross examination, Dr. Berlin was given the opportunity to clarify, explaining to the court that one does not have to be ‘dumb or stupid’ in order to be mentally disturbed. Dahmer could be cunning, deceptive, and a liar as well, and still have a mental illness. Dr. Judith Becker – Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Arizona, specializing in the evaluation and treatment of paraphiliacs. Dr. Becker, in her testimony, discussed for the most part Dahmer’s childhood, citing numerous instances that she felt were of severe, and devastating, consequence to him, both physically and emotionally. What resulted, according to the doctor, was a deeply disturbed individual, whose perceptions of the world were distorted, and interactions with the world minimal. Though very insightful, Dr. Becker had little of scientific value to offer. Dr. Carl Wahlstrom Dr. Wahlstrom testified that ‘Mr. Dahmer is a thirty-one year old white male with a long history of serious mental illness which was essentially untreated… His personality structure is extremely primitive,’ and ‘he has bizarre and delusional ideas.’
Dr. Wahlstrom illustrated this last point using Dahmer’s own words, ‘ If they had their own thought processes they might remember that they had to leave, or lived somewhere else.’ The desire to turn a human being into a zombie, who would remain a personal, and life long companion, together with the intention of creating what Brian Master’s termed a ‘power-bestowing’ temple from human remains, clearly indicated that Dahmer was severely delusional, and therefore psychotic. He felt that the mental disease from which Dahmer suffered was severe, and ‘requires continuous treatment.’ PSYCHIATRISTS APPOINTED BY THE STATE The following two psychiatrists, Dr. Palermo and Dr. Freedman, were appointed by the judge for the purpose of providing the jury with an ‘objective’ assessment of Jeff Dahmer’s mental state at the time he committed the crimes. Dr. George Palermo – Forensic psychiatrist, with experience working in both the United States and Italy. Dr. Palermo concluded that, because Dahmer had been teased by his peers as a child, and had chosen never to defend himself, he had internalized feelings of hostility. It was his opinion that, because of his ‘chronic’ inability to form relationships, and his frustrated homosexual desires, Jeff Dahmer had developed into a Sexual Sadist. He stated that ‘Aggressive, hostile tendencies led to his murderous behavior. His sexual drives functioned as a channel through which destructive power was expressed.’ Dr. Palermo denied that there was any evidence to support a diagnosis of Necrophilia, and that Dahmer displayed none of the symptoms of a Necrophile. Dr. Palermo, in conclusion, told the court that the murders were the result of ‘pent up aggression within himself. He killed those men because he wanted to kill the source of his homosexual attraction to them. In killing them, he killed what he hated in himself.’
Dr. Palermo did not believe that Dahmer murdered for friendship, but in order to keep a potential victim silent. ‘He killed because when they woke up they would be angry with him.’ Dr. Palermo also added, however, ‘Strange to say, he’s not such a bad person.’ Dr. Samuel Friedman Dr. Friedman testified that it was a longing for companionship that caused Dahmer to kill. He spoke kindly of Jeff, describing him as ‘Amiable, pleasant to be with, curtious, with a sense of humor, conventionally handsome and charming in manner, he was, and still is, a bright young man.’ He described how Dahmer had gone to great lengths to provide insight as to why he had committed such terrible deeds, but all to no avail. Dahmer, he said, almost ‘pleaded’ with him to provide an explanation. ‘I hope,’ he said, ‘that something can be done to reconstruct this individual, who certainly has the assests of youth and intelligence.’ Despite all of this, however, Dr. Friedman concluded that Dahmer was sane because he had the opportunity to behave differently, and instead, he chose to kill, strategically planning the murders, in order to commit them successfully. On cross examination, Dr. Friedman was asked if it would be possible for a person ‘to make elaborate and logical plans and choices towards the achievement of an ultimately insane purpose.’ Dr. Friedman was not required to answer the question after an objection by Mr. McCann was sustained. However, after a series of similar questions, and questions rephrased, Dr. Friedman did admit that the exercise of free choice did not invalidate a diagnosis of mental illness, and that Dahmer’s personality disorder did, in fact, amount to a mental disease. PROSECUTION WITNESSES Dr. Fred Fosdel Dr. Fosdel testified to his belief that Dahmer was without mental disease or defect at the time he committed the murders. He described Jeff as a cruel, calculating, and cunning killer who prayed on weak and lonely men at the time that they were most vulnerable and in need of anonymous sexual release. Dr. Fosdel portrayed Dahmer as being utterly unconcerned and unaffected by the heinousness of his acts.
On cross examination, Mr. Boyle asked the doctor if he believed that Jeff was a Necrophile, to which he responded, ‘Yes, but that is not his primary sexual preference.’ Boyle then asked Fosdel what term would be used to describe someone that ‘preferred people in a comatose state, knocked out,’ and was told that ‘There’s no name for it.’ Boyle, using a copy of the DSM-III-R, read through the various catagories, getting Dr. Fosdel to admit to all of the disorders that Dahmer did not have and, by elimination, leaving his disorder unidentified. After a long pause, Dr. Fosdel responded by saying, ‘I concede that he has a mental disease.’ He would not, however, concede that Dahmer was insane. According to Dr. Fosdel, the disease did not interfere with Dahmer’s ability to conform. Mr. Boyle then moved on to the following line of questioning. ‘What about his desire to create a zombie? Do you consider that delusional thinking?’ ‘No, it was a very practical and reasonable attempt to achieve his aim.’ ‘Have you ever met a case of home-made labotomy before?’ ‘No, I think this is the first time internationally. Mr. Dahmer is setting some precendents here.’ ‘It couldn’t have worked, could it? You’re a doctor, you must know.’ ‘It’s possible.’ ‘Did you ask him how long he was going to keep the zombie? Do you believe he would have created a zombie, and never have killed again? ‘Absolutely. That would have been the solution to his problem. Absolutely.’ Dr. Park Dietz – Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles. Dr. Dietz testified that he did not believe Dahmer to be suffering from any mental disease or defect at the time that he committed the crimes. ‘Dahmer went to great lengths to be alone with his victim and to have no witnesses.’ He explained that there was ample evidence that Dahmer was well prepared for each murder, therefore his crimes were not impulsive. He felt that Jeff’s habit of becoming intoxicated prior to committing each of the murders was significant, stating, ‘If he had a compulsion to kill, he would not have to drink alcohol.
He had to drink alcohol to overcome his inhibition, to do the crime which he would rather not do.’ Dr. Dietz agreed with earlier testimony that Paraphilia is not something that one chooses, stating, ‘We cannot choose what we find sexy.’ He did not, however, believe that a man afflicted with such a disorder was unable to choose whether or not he would act upon his desires. ‘The Paraphile is as free as any other human being to choose whether to commit a crime to gratify his wishes. Paraphilia provides no more than a motive for what a person would like to do. If you say Paraphiles are compelled, then you have to say that we are all compelled to do what we want.’ Dr. Dietz did not believe that Dahmer could be classified as a Sadist. ‘He did no t torture and took steps to prevent suffering.’ He also offered an explanation for why Jeff would masterbate while holding the severed head of a victim in one hand, ‘It facilitated the fantasy of the entire person, the fantasy of the living person to whom the head belonged, which cut out awareness that the rest of the body was missing and that the head was severed.’ Dietz denied that this was delusional thinking. In regard to the last two murders, Dr. Dietz admitted that Dahmer was not in a state to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law, however. This was ascribed to alcohol intoxication, not a mental disease, and therefore does not qualify, under Wisconsin Statute, as insanity. Dr. Dietz concluded that Jeff’s abnormality of mind did not substantially affect his mental or emotional processes.
Mr. Boyle asked on question during cross examination, to which Dietz was unable to adequately respond. If what the doctor had said was true, that it was alcoholism alone that was responsible for his inability to control his behavior in the month prior to his arrest, and there was no disease which contributed to it, would Jeff have continued to kill had he quit drinking alcohol before he met Tracy Edwards? (Jeff and Tracy met for the first time at a mall. This was approximately one month prior to the night that Tracy escaped from Dahmer’s apartment.)
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Cora Currier, Justin Elliott and Theodoric Meyer write at
ProPublica
On Wednesday, the Guardian published a secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over data for all the calls made on its network on an “ongoing, daily basis.” Other revelations about surveillance of phone and digital communications have followed.
That the National Security Agency has engaged in such activity isn’t entirely new: Since 9/11, we’ve learned about large-scale surveillance by the spy agency from a patchwork of official statements, classified documents, and anonymously sourced news stories.
1978
Surveillance court created
After a post-Watergate Senate investigation documented abuses of government surveillance, Congress passes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, to regulate how the government can monitor suspected spies or terrorists in the U.S. The law establishes a secret court that issues warrants for electronic surveillance or physical searches of a “foreign power” or “agents of a foreign power” (broadly defined in the law). The government doesn’t have to demonstrate probable cause of a crime, just that the “purpose of the surveillance is to obtain foreign intelligence information.”
The court’s sessions and opinions are classified. The only information we have is a yearly report to the Senate documenting the number of “applications” made by the government. Since 1978, the court has approved thousands of applications – and rejected just 11.
Oct. 2001
Patriot Act passed
In the wake of 9/11, Congress passes the sweeping USA Patriot Act. One provision, section 215, allows the FBI to ask the FISA court to compel the sharing of books, business documents, tax records, library check-out lists – actually, “any tangible thing” – as part of a foreign intelligence or international terrorism investigation. The required material can include purely domestic records.
Oct. 2003
‘Vacuum-cleaner surveillance’ of the Internet
AT&T technician Mark Klein discovers what he believes to be newly installed NSA data-mining equipment in a “secret room” at a company facility in San Francisco. Klein, who several years later goes public with his story to support a lawsuit against the company, believes the equipment enables “vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the Internet – whether that be peoples’ e-mail, web surfing or any other data.”
March 2004
Ashcroft hospital showdown
In what would become one of the most famous moments of the Bush Administration, presidential aides Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales show up at the hospital bed of John Ashcroft. Their purpose? To convince the seriously ill attorney general to sign off on the extension of a secret domestic spying program. Ashcroft refuses, believing the warrantless program to be illegal.
The hospital showdown was first reported by the New York Times, but two years later Newsweek provided more detail, describing a program that sounds similar to the one the Guardian revealed this week. The NSA, Newsweek reported citing anonymous sources, collected without court approval vast quantities of phone and email metadata “with cooperation from some of the country’s largest telecommunications companies” from “tens of millions of average Americans.” The magazine says the program itself began in September 2001 and was shut down in March 2004 after the hospital incident. But Newsweek also raises the possibility that Bush may have found new justification to continue some of the activity.
Dec. 2005
Warrantless wiretapping revealed
The Times, over the objections of the Bush Administration, reveals that since 2002 the government “monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants.” The program involves actually listening in on phone calls and reading emails without seeking permission from the FISA Court.
Jan. 2006
Bush defends wiretapping
President Bush defends what he calls the “terrorist surveillance program” in a speech in Kansas. He says the program only looks at calls in which one end of the communication is overseas.
March 2006
Patriot Act renewed
The Senate and House pass legislation to renew the USA Patriot Act with broad bipartisan support and President Bush signs it into law. It includes a few new protections for records required to be produced under the controversial section 215.
May 2006
Mass collection of call data revealed
USA Today reports that the NSA has been collecting data since 2001 on phone records of “tens of millions of Americans” through three major phone companies, Verizon, AT&T, and BellSouth (though the companies level of involvement is later disputed.) The data collected does not include content of calls but rather data like phone numbers for analyzing communication patterns.
As with the wiretapping program revealed by the Times, the NSA data collection occurs without warrants, according to USA Today. Unlike the wiretapping program, the NSA data collection was not limited to international communications.
2006
Court authorizes collection of call data
The mass data collection reported by the Guardian this week apparently was first authorized by the FISA court in 2006, though exactly when is not clear. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, said Thursday, “As far as I know, this is the exact three-month renewal of what has been in place for the past seven years.” Similarly, the Washington Post quoted an anonymous “expert in this aspect of the law” who said the document published by the Guardian appears to be a “routine renewal” of an order first issued in 2006. It’s not clear whether these orders represent court approval of the previously warrantless data collection that USA Today described.
Jan. 2007
Bush admin says surveillance now operating with court approval
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announces that the FISA court has allowed the government to target international communications that start or end in the U.S., as long as one person is “a member or agent of al Qaeda or an associated terrorist organization.” Gonzalez says the government is ending the “terrorist surveillance program,” and bringing such cases under FISA approval.
Aug. 2007
Congress expands surveillance powers
The FISA court reportedly changes its stance and puts more limits on the Bush administration’s surveillance (the details of the court’s move are still not known.) In response, Congress quickly passes, and President Bush signs, a stopgap law, the Protect America Act. In many cases, the government can now get blanket surveillance warrants without naming specific individuals as targets. To do that, the government needs to show that they’re not intentionally targeting people in the U.S., even if domestic communications are swept up in the process.
Sept. 2007
Prism begins
The FBI and the NSA get access to user data from Microsoft under a top-secret program known as Prism, according to an NSA PowerPoint briefing published by the Washington Post and the Guardian this week. In subsequent years, the government reportedly gets data from eight other companies including Apple and Google. “The extent and nature of the data collected from each company varies,” according to the Guardian.
July 2008
Congress renews broader surveillance powers
Congress follows up the Protect America Act with another law, the FISA Amendments Act, extending the government’s expanded spying powers for another four years. The law now approaches the kind of warrantless wiretapping that occurred earlier in Bush administration. Senator Obama votes for the act. The act also gives immunity to telecom companies for their participation in warrantless wiretapping.
April 2009
NSA ‘overcollects’
The New York Times reports that for several months, the NSA had gotten ahold of domestic communications it wasn’t supposed to. The Times says it was likely the result of “technical problems in the NSA’s ability” to distinguish between domestic and overseas communications. The Justice Department says the problems have been resolved.
Feb. 2010
Controversial Patriot Act provision extended
President Obama signs a temporary one-year extension of elements of the Patriot Act that were set to expire — including Section 215, which grants the government broad powers to seize records.
May 2011
Patriot Act renewed, again
The House and Senate pass legislation to extend the overall Patriot Act. President Obama, who is in Europe as the law is set to expire, directs the bill to be signed with an “autopen” machine in his stead. It’s the first time in history a U.S. president has done so.
March 2012
Senators warn cryptically of overreach
In a letter to the attorney general, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mark Udall, D-Colo., write, “We believe most Americans would be stunned to learn the details” of how the government has interpreted Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Because the program is classified, the senators offer no further details.
July 2012
Court finds unconstitutional surveillance
According to a declassified statement by Wyden, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held on at least one occasion that information collection carried out by the government was unconstitutional. But the details of that episode, including when it happened, have never been revealed.
Dec. 2012
Broad powers again extended
Congress extends the FISA Amendments Act another five years, and Obama signs it into law. Sens. Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Oregon Democrats, offer amendments requiring more disclosure about the law’s impact. The proposals fail.
April 2013
Verizon order issued
As the Guardian revealed this week, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge Roger Vinson issues a secret court order directing Verizon Business Network Services to turn over “metadata” — including the time, duration and location of phone calls, though not what was said on the calls — to the NSA for all calls over the next three months. Verizon is ordered to deliver the records “on an ongoing daily basis.” The Wall Street Journal reports this week that AT&T and Sprint have similar arrangements. The Verizon order cites Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the FBI to request a court order that requires a business to turn over “any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items)” relevant to an international spying or terrorism investigation. In 2012, the government asked for 212 such orders, and the court approved them all.
June 2013
Congress and White House respond
Following the publication of the Guardian’s story about the Verizon order, Sens. Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the chair and vice of the Senate intelligence committee, hold a news conference to dismiss criticism of the order. “This is nothing particularly new,” Chambliss says. “This has been going on for seven years under the auspices of the FISA authority, and every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this.”
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper acknowledges the collection of phone metadata but says the information acquired is “subject to strict restrictions on handling” and that “only a very small fraction of the records are ever reviewed.” Clapper alsoissues a statement saying that the collection under the Prism program was justified under the FISA Amendments of 2008, and that it is not “intentionally targeting” any American or person in the U.S.
Statements from the tech companies reportedly taking part in the Prism program variously disavow knowledge of the program and merely state in broad terms they follow the law.
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Mirrored from ProPublica
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West Virginia's Geno Smith is widely considered the top talent among this year's gang of draft-eligible quarterbacks.
If you're waiting for the next Andrew Luck to walk through the door, you're in trouble, but Smith comes equipped with some visible attributes of an NFL quarterback -- along with areas that need work. This according to NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell.
"There's no question that he has an NFL arm -- he's an NFL talent," Cosell said Thursday on the Yahoo! Sports Shutdown Corner draft podcast. "He's got some other issues. He's got footwork issues, but that can be corrected. He plays almost exclusively in the shotgun and he's a bit of a bouncer -- in other words, he doesn't take the snap, drop back, stick his foot in the ground and get ready to go.
"He sort of bounces, so when he decides where he wants to throw the ball, he then needs to plant and deliver. Sometimes he hurries himself doing that if there are bodies closer to him, and at other times, he's a beat late with throws, because he has that extra half-second where he then has to plant and throw. At times, I thought he was a little bit erratic and scattershot with his accuracy, and he left some routine throws on the field."
Cosell was quick to point out that the 2013 NFL Draft class of quarterbacks -- considered an underwhelming collection of passers, to say the least -- shouldn't be judged against last year's wunderkinds.
Jeremiah: Most versatile prospects Daniel Jeremiah spotlights five multifaceted weapons creating a major buzz among evaluators heading into the 2013 NFL Draft.
spotlights five multifaceted weapons creating a major buzz among evaluators heading into the 2013 NFL Draft. More ...
"There are some talented quarterbacks, but they're further from finished products than other quarterbacks have been, like an Andrew Luck," Cosell said. "They all have some flaws, some weaknesses, some things that need to be coached hard, some refinements that need to be made. I think that's what we're ultimately saying."
The problem for these young passers is an issue of patience. After watching Luck, Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson tear up the NFL as newbies, tolerance for slow-cooked arm talent is at an all-time low. Smith and the rest of this class would benefit from time to watch and learn, but the NFL is no longer a watch-and-learn league for first-year signal callers.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
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One of the big announcements at CES 2017 came from HTC Vive in the form of the Vive Tracker and Vive Deluxe Audio Strap. While the Vive Tracker has now become available to purchase, news on the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap has been a little lacking. Today that changes with HTC Vive announcing the launch date for the new device.
The Vive Deluxe Audio Strap will see a global launch on 6th June 2017. As previously announced the product will retail for $99.99 USD/ €119.99 EUR, £99.99 GBP, ¥799.00 at Vive.com and Vive retailers.
Some of the key benefits include a much tidier cable layout, integrated audio and a quick fasten and release system. There’s also more padding for a comfier fit. The HTC Vive blog notes: “The Deluxe Audio Strap’s integrated on-ear earphones offer both height and angle adjustments to best fit your ears and are quick and easy to raise and lower when someone wants your attention outside of VR.”
“For developers and businesses, the Vive Business Edition (Vive BE) bundles every new purchase with the Deluxe Audio Strap. For those that have ordered the BE since Feb 27, orders will begin shipping later in June.”
Pre-orders for the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap should be going live at some point today. For further HTC Vive updates, keep reading VRFocus.
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Dear Judgey McKnows-It-All,
Right now, your due date is approaching, and you’re hyper focusing on a lot of insignificant stuff. I wish you knew that none of what you are worrying about matters. What you need to do is go to bed now and sleep until the baby comes. It could be your last chance to sleep for a few uninterrupted hours for the rest of your life.
What’s that you say? You’re not sleeping well because the pregnancy is making you so uncomfortable? Think again my friend. Soon you will be lying awake at 3AM in a pool of baby vomit, but you won’t want to move a muscle for fear of waking your precious little bundle of “sleeps when held.”
While we are on the topic of useless shit (pun intended) that you are obsessing over, it seems as though you are sitting around wondering if you’ll poop on the table during delivery. Guess what? When the time actually comes, you won’t care if fecal matter ends up on the ceiling as long as they get that baby the hell out of you faster than a teenage boy gets off on the latest Victoria’s Secret catalog.
Oh, and that book you’re reading on natural birth? Quit wasting your time with it and pick up a copy of What the Fuck Do I Do with this Baby? because once you’re actually in labor, you’ll tap out at three centimeters and beg for curbside epidural service as you pull into the hospital. Besides, the delivery is only one day, and the baby will be here for a l-i-f-e-t-i-m-e. Your time would be better spent learning something about child rearing rather than practicing breathing techniques that will do nothing for the pain, although, they might come in handy for your first bowel movement post childbirth.
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Hello 2Kers! For those of you that don’t know me already, my name is Erick Boenisch, Senior Producer on NBA 2K18. Some of you may know me by my online handle, SimBaller. It’s my honor to be the first person to welcome you to NBA 2K18! The team here at Visual Concepts has made some HUGE strides with the game this year, which we will be telling you about in the coming weeks.
For today, I feel privileged to kick it all off with a detailed dive into what we have done with MyGM/MyLEAGUE this year. Without any further ado, let’s get to what you came here for!
Innovation. Authenticity. Engagement.
Those are the exact three words I lead off with last year in NBA 2K17’s MyGM/MyLEAGUE blog. We have used those three words to serve the NBA 2K community well for many, many years now. In a space where other developers continually shy away, the team here at Visual Concepts has once again delivered a robust and thoughtful list of franchise features that will keep you coming back for more.
In the franchise landscape, we have been pushing the envelope for the entirety of the current generation of consoles:
At the dawn of the next gen, NBA 2K14 presented us with an entirely new mode, MyGM. MyGM aimed to personalize the experience of being a GM. It put you face-to-face with your owner, staff, and players. Your actions drove the narrative of your franchise, unlike any mode had ever done before.
NBA 2K15 brought us the wildly popular MyLEAGUE mode; an experience that brought forth the tenet of complete user control and customization.
NBA 2K16 introduced Team Relocation, giving you the ability to relocate your teams to new cities, and create entire new arena/court floor/uniform designs.
NBA 2K17 saw the introduction of the League Expansion feature, Dynamic Rule Changes, the Start Today game mode, the ability to upload and share your created team packages, and so much more.
In NBA 2K18, we are taking MyGM to the next level (and SO much more).
MyGM: The Next Chapter
Not that long ago, you were one of the brightest stars in the NBA. Personal accomplishments long since satisfied, all that mattered to you was getting another ring. On a warm, May night at the 2011 Western Conference Finals in Dallas, it all came to a sudden end. Your knee, it was finished. Now what?
Fast forward six years and you find yourself at the outset of MyGM: The Next Chapter. After a number of interviews over the last couple years, you have just landed a job as the GM of an NBA team. Widely respected for your on-court success, you have finally found an owner that believes the very drive that propelled you to the top of the NBA will help you propel his team to an NBA title.
With NBA 2K18, we are introducing an experience you won’t find in any other game; a narrative-driven story-based franchise experience that maintains all of the user control and team building aspects that you have grown to love from MyGM over the years.
While MyCAREER focuses on your life as an NBA player out to achieve superstardom, MyGM: The Next Chapter aims to view the NBA world from the complete opposite perspective. Centered around you, the GM, you will need to navigate backroom scenarios while dealing with expectations from your owner, your staff, the press, other GMs, and of course, your players.
How your MyGM experience turns out is completely up to you. Your path will be determined by the choices you make and the answers you provide at the many key points in the narrative. Understand, I’m intentionally being a little vague regarding the main plot of the story, as I want you to experience it firsthand rather than through thinly veiled spoilers. Just know that the intent is for an engaging experience that steers clear of the typical sports clichés you may be conjuring up in your head.
As a franchise diehard myself, I understand the importance and integrity of team building to your franchise experience. We’ve designed a story that will delight and entertain without infringing on the plans you have for your roster. Draft, trade, and contract decisions are not spoon fed by the writing. Make the story your own, and build a winner!
Over the past many years, we have added feature after feature to our MyGM and MyLEAGUE modes. During that time, the line between the two modes became fairly blurred, in my opinion. NBA 2K18 provides you with two very unique experiences, that couldn’t be more different from each other. MyGM: The Next Chapter will be the story-based narrative described above, while MyLEAGUE will continue to live and grow as our fan-favorite franchise mode that affords the user complete customization and control over their league.
Pioneering is something that I personally enjoy doing. Delivering new experiences creates a certain energy within the development team, and from this energy, I’m confident that our foray into telling a narrative through a franchise mode will resonate with all of you. Enjoy the ride!
2017 NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement
With the ratification of the new NBA/NBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement, there were a large number of considerations for us to ponder. Supporting the new changes was never a question; our continued aim is to be fully authentic. That will never change. The following are some quick hits of changes that we have implemented to show you the breadth of our coverage of the changes, no matter how minute they may be:
– Super Max Contracts: We all read about Steph Curry’s 5yr/$201M contract this summer. And James Harden’s 4yr/$169M extension that will pay him $228M over the next 6 years. Known colloquially as Super Max contracts, NBA 2K18 fully implements Designated Veteran Contracts and Designated Veteran Extensions, as well as Rookie Scale Extensions into the game this year.
– Exception Amounts: The MLE will increase in value by 45% from the amounts in the 2011 CBA.
– Rookie Scale Contracts: The Rookie Scale will be increased by 45%, with existing rookie scale contracts being amended to reflect the 45% increase (phased in over a 3-year period).
– Minimum Annual Salary: The league minimum contract will rise by 45% starting with the 2017-18 NBA season.
– Annual Increases: Players with ‘Bird Rights’ will now be eligible for 8% annual raises. Non-Bird players are eligible for 5% annual raises.
– Maximum Salaries: Players will have new maximum salaries calculated using the actual Salary Cap.
– Over-38 Rule: Formerly the Over-36 Rule (which we did not support in previous NBA 2Ks), teams are now bound to the contract restrictions of signing a player that turns 38 during the contract.
– Stretch Provision: When a player is waived using the Stretch provision (new to NBA 2K), the team will not be able to re-sign or re-acquire the player until July 1 of the season where the contract ends.
– Roster Minimums: Teams are now required to carry 14 players (up from 13) on the roster at all times, unless granted an exception.
– +More: There are many more rule changes/new features supported in NBA 2K18 including New Timeout Rules, New Trading Deadline date, Player ETOs, Moratorium Period (detailed below), Two-Way Contracts (detailed below), (Ted) Stepien Rule, and more.
Authenticity is a very important word here at Visual Concepts. While some of these changes may be small in nature, the sum of their parts makes them critical to an authentic team-building experience.
G-League Integration
NBA 2K18 introduces the ability for you to send down and call-up your players using the G-League (formerly known to you as the D-League). While the G-League games themselves aren’t user-playable, the feature allows you the opportunity to provide critical game experience for your young players who aren’t getting any court time with the NBA team. Players who have received limited game time in the NBA can potentially accelerate their development as a player with a properly timed send-down. Additionally, the G-League is an excellent scouting tool for young players who might have gone undrafted in previous drafts (they will help to populate the league), as their statistical performance will be a good indicator of what type of player they can become at the next level.
Two-Way Contracts
Taking full advantage of G-League availability are Two-Way Contracts. With the ratification of the new CBA, NBA teams will now have two additional roster spots designated for players on “two-way contracts.” Always aiming for completely authenticity, NBA 2K18 fully supports this new addition to the league. Any player with three or fewer years of NBA service is eligible to sign a two-way contract. A player on a two-way contract can spend a maximum of 45 days with their NBA team (during the G-League season). Once the player has run out of NBA-days, he must spend the remainder of the season in the G-League, unless converted into an NBA minimum contract player. NBA 2K GMs would be wise to utilize this to their advantage as you can more easily keep hold of developing talent, while being able to bring the players up to the NBA team to check in on how they are progressing (and to use them as stop-gaps when injuries hit your roster).
Free Agent Moratorium
Any NBA fan knows the nearly week-long NBA Moratorium period is one of the most exciting times of the year. Rumors are flying on where free agents are going to land. Players are coming to verbal agreements with teams they intend to sign with once the moratorium is lifted. NBA 2K18 introduces a 3-day Free Agent Moratorium period prior to the start of Free Agency. While players can’t officially be signed during the moratorium, you CAN come to binding (no DeAndre Jordan moments, sorry) verbal agreements with players, whose contract offers will be finalized as soon as proper Free Agency starts. This is a fast-paced, dynamic time period that will quickly weed out teams who, as Isaiah Thomas would say, aren’t willing to bring out the Brinks truck.
International Draft Prospect Stashing
The ‘Draft-and-Stash’ is a strategy employed by a number of teams when drafting players, particularly later in the draft. NBA 2K18 introduces this feature for the first time. Select international prospects in draft classes will be flagged with the number of years they will remain ‘overseas’ before they are free from their current professional contract and are eligible to sign with your team. This will create additional intrigue in the draft as there now has to be valuation considerations with respect to how many years the player will be unavailable before he can sign. I’ve really been enjoying this particular addition to the game, as it spices up one of my favorite periods of the NBA season!
Analytics Tool
This new feature can be summed up by the following explanation: The Ultimate Research/Player Scouting Tool. As you can see from the picture, this tool allows you to plot any two data sets against each other to find outliers. For example, I can plot all of the players in the league by their MPG versus their RPG. The resulting data plot will quickly show me players who are pulling in big rebounds in little minutes, or, conversely, players who play big minutes yet are well behind the league curve in rebounding. When looking for players to fill out your roster, the information is invaluable as it allows you to pinpoint the exact player you need.
You can plot players based on raw stats, per game stats, per 36 minutes, or per 100 possessions. From there, you can reduce the data set to last 10 games, last 20 games, home games, away games, this season’s stats, last season’s stats, or total career stats. Additionally, you can create charts by setting items such as salary, age, height, wingspan, and more. This is the type of feature that you will only find in NBA 2K! We are dedicated to providing you the richest and deepest franchise experience on the market, and it’s this kind of feature that exemplifies our intentions.
Trading Draft Rights
During the real NBA Draft, it’s very common for a team to draft a player, only for the rights to that player (as he has not yet signed a contract) to be traded to another team later in the draft. In previous iterations of NBA 2K, you were unable to trade (or trade for) a player that was selected in the current in-progress draft. NBA 2K18 introduces the ability for draft rights to a player to be traded, after the player has already been selected by a team. From personal experience, I can say this feature makes the drafting experience a lot more dynamic and exciting!
Cap Holds/Renounced Rights
New to NBA 2K18 is the concept of Cap Holds and Renouncing Rights to a player. In the NBA, a free agent continues to count as team salary towards your salary cap until they are signed (by your team or elsewhere). This placeholder salary against your salary cap is known officially as a ‘Cap Hold’. Known in some circles as the ‘Michael Redd Rule’, this concept closed a loophole allowing a team to use all their available cap space before re-signing their own free agents. If you know that you are not going to re-sign a given player, you will have the ability to Renounce your rights to that player. Renouncing a player removes the salary hold against your team’s salary cap, but this also forfeits your Bird rights for the player (if applicable). Fortunately, with our free agent setup, we have made it easy for you to renounce the rights to players on a daily basis, as the free agency period progresses. While this may sound a little intimidating at first, I’ve found that it greatly increases your flexibility and the strategy when trying to land free agents. All in the name of authenticity!
Improved Draft Class Generation
We spent a fairly considerable chunk of time early in development this year re-thinking how we generate prospects, particularly with respect to their player types. Looking back on 2K17, we just weren’t satisfied with the breadth of players coming out of the generated draft classes. With NBA 2K18, players now have a more appropriate spread of attributes and tendencies with respect to their given player type. Our new system allows us to more easily update the generation templates outside of the typical monolithic patch release, meaning we can continue to update this logic all season long based on your feedback.
Alternate Uniforms for Created/Relocated Teams
NBA 2K16 introduced our very powerful suite of tools that allow you to create every aspect of a team from the ground up. The designs made by the community have been…stunning (and with NBA 2K17’s addition of team sharing, you now know that as well). One consistent bit of feedback I have received is the desire to create additional uniforms for these teams. NBA 2K18 introduces the idea of an Alternate Uniform into the jersey creation process for your created/rebranded teams. We have also added the ability for you to copy either your Home or Away uniform into the Alternate slot should you do a complete re-design, but want to keep the old design around for ‘throwback’ nights. I’m always reading feedback from our community, so I know how many of you out there are going to enjoy this addition!
Rebranding in Existing Arena
When doing a team rebranding, you can now create a new court floor inside your team’s current arena. What this means is you no longer need to build a new arena just because you want a new floor. Example, if you are the Lakers and you want to design a new court, you can put that new court floor right inside the Staples Center. No more generic arenas for rebranded teams (unless you want to create something from the ground up, that is).
All-Star Selection Experience
We’ve had a lot of different solutions in previous years for how to handle All-Star games. This year, we added a new system that I am really enjoying. After every season, we will pick a new host city for the All-Star game. We built a logic system in the backend that delicately balances things like city prestige, years since it was last hosted in the city, team age (newly created/relocated franchise get a large boost to their chances), and more to boil down which team is appropriate to host the next All-Star game. The announcement of the host city selection is now a formal event in our offseason. As a MyLEAGUE user, you can of course override our selection to anything you want. Additionally, we have modified how we build arenas such that we can put a customized all-star court floor into the host city’s appropriate arena. No more generic arenas for the all-star game. Every all-star game will have its own custom floor with that year’s all-star logo emblazoned on the court.
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All it takes for Hans Dietrich Driftmann, a businessman from Germany's northern Holstein region, to explain the way the world works is a package of muesli -- or at least to explain the way his world, the world of agricultural markets, works.
Driftmann picks up a packet of "Köllns kernige Multikorn-Flocken" ("Kölln's Crunchy Multigrain Flakes") and reads out the list of ingredients: oats, wheat, barley and rye. Then he slips a set of price tables out of a plastic sleeve and does a couple of calculations to illustrate how the prices of the muesli's ingredients have changed: rye has gone up by 55 percent, barley by 70 percent and wheat 90 percent. The price of oats has also skyrocketed -- by 80 percent -- since the last harvest a year ago. This final figure is what really hits home for Driftmann.
For the last two decades he has been the CEO of Kölln-Werke, Germany's top producer of oats and a major player in the muesli market. It's an old family-owned company, founded in 1795 and headquartered in the town of Elmshorn, a place with a skyline dominated by enormous grain silos painted sky-blue. The silos are beacons for truck drivers approaching Elmshorn to unload their grain -- if they come at all these days.
Today Driftmann is grateful for every truck that shows up at his silos. This year's oats harvest, he says, was "miserable." His buyers search the whole world for grain, even in places like Finland and Australia. Price is almost secondary. "The problem is availability," says Driftmann.
Highest Inflation in 14 Years
He ought to be able to achieve significantly higher prices in the negotiations with the giant trading companies. He is convinced that a price hike of more than 20 percent is justified, but he also knows that consumers won't accept such a large increase. Not yet, at least. "We will see quite a few price increases in the coming years," says Driftmann.
This is a new experience for agricultural companies -- and presents a troubling outlook for millions of consumers. For decades, they have become accustomed to stable or even declining food prices. But in September, when consumer discount giant Aldi attracted nationwide attention with its memorable advertising campaign ("Aldi is here to inform you about upcoming price increases"), Germans knew that change was coming. Aldi then raised the prices of about 50 items in its stores, and other chains promptly followed suit.
Meanwhile, almost all supermarkets appear to have raised prices across the board: for bread and butter, milk and cheese, pork and poultry, noodles and chocolate, apple juice and beer. The growing wave of price hikes has pushed inflation to its highest level in 14 years.
Some of those who were born after World War II and never experienced leaner times may only now be learning that food does have a value, even an existential one. Suddenly they realize that food is in fact an indispensable resource, critical for life, and that they can no longer expect it to be available at all times and in all places -- especially not at guaranteed low prices.
Too Much Demand, Not Enough Land
When German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), opened this year's Green Week agricultural fair in Berlin last week, it was under a completely new set of assumptions. For decades, the industrialized world enjoyed the questionable luxury of producing far more milk, butter and wheat than its citizens could ever consume. The surplus was exported, provided buyers could be found, or was placed into indefinite storage or destroyed.
This folly has now come to an end. Europe's mountains of butter have been depleted, its grain silos emptied and its lakes of milk drained. "The era of overproduction is behind us," says Stephane Delodder, an agricultural specialist with Rabobank in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
SPIEGEL ONLINE Food prices are skyrocketing...
Worldwide flows of goods are shifting and becoming reorganized. For the first time, we are seeing the emergence of a truly global agricultural market driven by the underlying force of all economic activity: the scarcity of goods. Wheat supplies, for example, have reached a 30-year low. In only one year, inventories in the European Union have plummeted from 14 million to one million tons.
Given this situation, the meteorological forecast of a drought in Australia, an important
SPIEGEL ONLINE ... as is the price for oil.
wheat exporter, can trigger a minor earthquake on the world's futures exchanges, where commodities prices are constantly hitting new all-time highs. Nothing fuels the fantasies of commodity traders quite as effectively as a bushel of wheat or a hectoliter of rapeseed oil.
Of course, the current uproar over rising food prices revolves around a lot more than consumers paying a few extra euros for milk, cheese and bread. The real issue is how mankind will be able to feed itself in the future -- and at what price.
How can agriculture feed a world that grows by 80 million people each year? A world that is increasingly exposed to climatic extremes? And, most of all, a world that doesn't just need food for people and feed for livestock, but is increasingly consuming fuel derived from plants?
'Desperately Need a Good Harvest'
The problem is that there is too much demand and not enough land. In a world hungry for agricultural products, the dilemma is that each hectare of arable land can only be used for one purpose at any given time. Potatoes can't be grown where corn is cultivated. Where rye is grown, there is no room left for oats. And when rapeseed is converted into biodiesel, there is no seed left to produce rapeseed oil. This fundamental conflict drives up the prices for agricultural crops. There are growing fears that the world could soon face a food crisis, and that the current bottleneck could expand into widespread starvation.
"We desperately need a good harvest to ease the current situation," says Klaus Schumacher, chief economist at Toepfer International, a large agricultural trading company headquartered in Hamburg. "If that doesn't happen, we'll soon face a genuine supply problem."
Kölln CEO Driftmann's assessment of the outlook for agricultural production is even more skeptical, especially in developing countries where a large share of food products has to be imported and where many people live a daily struggle to survive. "I am afraid that we are slipping into a global food crisis," says Driftmann. "And I'm extremely concerned about it."
At the Global Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which began on Wednesday, the world's elites have identified the scarcity of agricultural commodities as a critical global risk. "The world's food production system," say the forum's organizers, "is about to face a true test." The United Nations has already warned that food shortages could lead to unrest in some countries. In Mexico, for example, tens of thousands of people took to the streets a year ago to protest the explosion in the price of corn meal, a staple of the Mexican diet. This "tortilla crisis" signaled the beginning of the distribution battles the planet is about to face -- struggles over the most productive farmland, the most favorable supply contracts and the best seed.
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OTTAWA — Suspended senator Mike Duffy admitted he’s the father of Peruvian woman Karen Duffy Benites, her mother says.
Yvette Benites Ruiz and her daughter Karen, 32, were reached by QMI Agency’s French television station TVA in Peru on Wednesday.
Ruiz said from Lima that her daughter has had two conversations with Duffy this week and a third was planned for Wednesday night.
"He wants to talk to her every night," Ruiz said. "Yesterday (Tuesday) was the second day they talked together and tonight they are going to talk again.
"He said to her things are going to change for them. I think they are going to meet some day," she said in a telephone interview.
Asked if Duffy has acknowledged he’s Karen’s biological father, Ruiz said: "Yes."
"He is the father. He is the only man I had in three years. He is the father."
Asked again if Duffy admitted that he is the dad, Ruiz said: "Yes, he told her that he recognized that … he knew that she was his daughter. He told her he was going to do the papers and whatever."
Karen didn’t want to go into specifics about the conversations, but confirmed the Conservative appointee to the Senate did reach out to her and that they had communicated at length and would continue to do so.
When reached via e-mail, Duffy told QMI Agency to "leave it alone. This is a good thing."
Benites said she met Duffy in 1981 in Canada after serving time in Kingston, Ont., for smuggling cocaine.
In court documents filed in Lima seeking to have Duffy legally recognized as Karen’s father, the mother recounts her relationship with the former television journalist when she was finishing her sentence at an Ottawa halfway house.
She met Duffy by chance through his sister, also serving time, who asked her to deliver a gift to her brother when she arrived in Ottawa, she said.
Benites said she hid the pregnancy from Duffy before returning to Peru, but later attempted to contact him over the years, to no avail. Her daughter sought him out when she was 14-years-old, but also had no luck in getting a response, she said.
Last week when Maclean’s broke the story, Duffy denied any relationship.
"The Maclean’s story contains untrue allegations, made by a convicted narcotics smuggler, and which go back more than 30 years," he told QMI Agency at the time.
It was a challenging week for Duffy.
The RCMP charged him with 31 offences in the ongoing Senate expense scandal investigation, including fraud, breach of trust and a count of bribery.
The latter is related to a $90,000 payment he accepted from former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Nigel Wright, who was not charged.
Duffy is set appear in court Sept. 16. He denies any wrongdoing.
mark.dunn@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @MarkDunnSun
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This is the third article in a series that reviews news coverage of the 2016 general election, explores how Donald Trump won and why his chances were underrated by the most of the American media.
In 2012, President Obama’s advantage over Mitt Romney, although often paper-thin in national polls, was stronger than it appeared for two big reasons. One was that Obama, in stark contrast to Hillary Clinton, was outperforming his national polls in swing states, largely as a result of his popularity in the Midwest. The other is that 2012 featured remarkably few undecided voters: Only about 4 percent of voters went into Election Day not already committed to Obama or Romney. That reduced the chance of a potential last-minute swing. Even if most of the undecideds turned out for Romney, it probably wouldn’t have been enough to vault him past Obama in the swing states.
Just the opposite was true in 2016, and Clinton’s lead was considerably more fragile than it appeared from national polls. Not only was she underperforming in the Electoral College because of the way her demographic coalition was configured (see the first article in this series for more about that) but a much larger number of voters — about 13 percent on Election Day and as many as 20 percent at earlier stages of the campaign — were either undecided or said they planned to vote for third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. Those undecided voters made Clinton’s lead much less safe and they broke strongly toward Donald Trump at the end of the race. Trump won voters who decided in the last week of the campaign by a 59-30 margin in Wisconsin, 55-38 in Florida, 54-37 in Pennsylvania and 50-39 in Michigan, according to exit polls, which was enough to flip the outcome of those four states and their 75 combined electoral votes.
The late shift toward Trump, like other periods of polling instability throughout the campaign, was consistent with a long-term pattern. Historically, the more undecided and third-party voters there are, the more volatile and less accurate the polling has tended to be. The relationship ought to be fairly intuitive: There’s not much a pollster can do when a voter hasn’t yet made up her mind. In 1980, for instance, final polls showed Ronald Reagan leading Jimmy Carter roughly 43-40, with 17 percent of voters undecided or saying they planned to vote for independent John Anderson. Reagan wound up winning in a landslide, 51-41, making for a seemingly massive polling error. But Carter technically didn’t underperform his polls: it’s just that Reagan hugely outperformed his as undecideds and Anderson voters broke his way. A milder example came in 2000, when a relatively high number of voters said they were undecided or planned to vote for Ralph Nader, presaging an upset win in the popular vote by Al Gore (George W. Bush had led by 3 to 4 percentage points in the final national polls). By contrast, the 2004 and 2008 cycles had very few undecided voters and highly accurate polling.
COMBINED UNDECIDED + THIRD PARTY VOTE CYCLE WITH 100 DAYS TO GO ON ELECTION DAY 1972 9.3% – 8.1% – 1976 10.0 – 8.7 – 1980 25.5 – 17.3 – 1984 7.4 – 4.7 – 1988 10.8 – 5.7 – 1992 19.1 – 22.1 – 1996 19.7 – 13.3 – 2000 17.8 – 8.9 – 2004 6.4 – 3.4 – 2008 13.1 – 3.6 – 2012 7.6 – 4.3 – 2016 18.5 – 12.5 – 2016 featured far more undecided voters than recent past elections 2016 estimates are based on FiveThirtyEight “polls-only” national average. Estimates for years prior to 2016 are based on retroactively running the FiveThirtyEight model, except the estimates in 1972 and 1976 with 100 days to go, which are based on a simple average of national polls in July 1972 and July 1976, respectively. (There would not enough polls in these years to properly run the FiveThirtyEight model 100 days in advance.)
FiveThirtyEight’s model accounted for the high number of undecideds, which is part of the reason it gave Trump better odds than other forecasts. I’m somewhat perplexed as to why these voters didn’t draw more attention from other modelers or reporters, however, since they were often key to understanding the progression of the campaign. With a large fraction of voters not firmly committed to either candidate — no doubt in part because of the historic unpopularity of both Clinton and Trump — it didn’t take much to move them from one candidate to the other, and so news events had more impact on the polls in 2016 than they did in 2012.
To the extent reporters considered the high number of undecideds, it was often in focusing on how Trump’s share of the vote was low, without noticing that the same was also true for Clinton. For instance, on Aug. 12, The New York Times wrote that Trump had “been waiting for months for a poll in which he cracks 50 percent of the vote against Hillary Clinton in any of his top battleground states” and suggested he had a ceiling on his support:
For a candidate who once seemed like an electoral phenomenon, with an unshakable following and a celebrity appeal that crossed party lines, Mr. Trump now faces the possibility that his missteps have erected a ceiling over his support among some demographic groups and in several swing states. He has been stuck under 45 percent of the vote in Ohio and Pennsylvania for weeks, polls show, while Mrs. Clinton has gained support.
The flaw in the analysis is that by this logic, Clinton also had a ceiling. Although this article was written at one of the high points of the campaign for Clinton in the midst of her convention bounce, she nonetheless had only 44 to 45 percent of the vote in national polls. A significant fraction of voters disliked both candidates, and Clinton never quite drew enough voters into her column to make her lead truly safe, as it might have been if she’d reached closer to 50 percent of the vote.
Was it predictable that those late-deciding voters would break toward Trump? I tend to think mostly not and that the behavior of the late-deciders was instead mainly attributable to an unfavorable news environment for Clinton in the shadow of the James B. Comey letter to Congress and the Wikileaks dumps. But you could argue the point. A once-popular idea called the “incumbent rule” held that undecideds tended to break toward the challenger (as they did toward Reagan in 1980). There are some big flaws with this idea as applied to 2016: It hadn’t hadn’t held up well in recent years (late-deciding voters broke slightly to President Obama in 2012, for instance) and although Clinton was running as a de facto successor to Obama, she wasn’t technically an incumbent.
Still, if the incumbent rule was iffy, so was the idea that Trump had a ceiling imposed by demographics. All it took was for him to win two-thirds of white voters without college degrees to overcome huge problems with the rest of the electorate. (The Electoral College also helped Trump, of course, allowing him to be elected with only 46 percent of the national vote.)
The undecideds were a warning sign that Clinton hadn’t sealed the deal with quite a wide enough coalition of voters, conversely — especially in the Midwest where undecideds were plentiful. In the states that were the biggest upsets relative to the polls — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — Clinton met or slightly exceeded her share of the vote in polls, but Trump beat his by more.
VIDEO: Yea for peaceful transitions of power
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French National Assembly enshrines state of emergency in constitution
By Kumaran Ira
17 February 2016
Last Wednesday, February 10, the lower house of the French parliament adopted an amendment enshrining the current state of emergency in the constitution, and depriving people convicted of terror-related offences of French nationality. It was adopted by 317 to 199. The amendment is now going for approval to the Senate.
Using the November 13 terror attacks in Paris as a pretext, President François Hollande’s Socialist Party (PS) is giving itself extraordinary powers to rule France as a police state. A week after the attack, Parliament voted a three-month state of emergency until February 26, giving the PS time to design its constitutional reforms. Since the state of emergency was declared, police have conducted more than 3,200 warrantless house searches, imposed 400 assigned residence orders, and closed numerous mosques and businesses.
As amended, the constitution’s new article 36-1 declares: “The state of emergency is decreed in the council of ministers, on all or part of the Republic’s territory, either in case of imminent peril due to serious attacks on public order; or in the case of events that, by their nature or severity, have the character of a public calamity.”
The state of emergency can be renewed indefinitely, requiring parliamentary approval every four months. Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently told the BBC that he would extend the state of emergency “until we have gotten rid of the Islamic State,” which he had previously declared would take “a generation.”
During a state of emergency, the amendment adds, “The law decides what police measures the civil authorities may take to protect against danger or deal with events.”
As amended, however, the constitution would give a blank cheque to the parliament to pass laws giving any powers it wants to the police. This means that police powers under the state of emergency can no longer be challenged before the constitutional council, since the parliament’s right to grant the police whatever powers it pleases is inscribed in the constitution itself.
After the Paris attacks, Valls felt compelled to ask the Senate not to challenge the state of emergency before the constitutional council, fearing that its measures could be struck down as unconstitutional.
These measures have already been denounced by rights groups, as they give draconian powers to the police, and undermine basic democratic rights. Recently, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemned the state of emergency, noting that police have used their extended powers in abusive and discriminatory ways, particularly against Muslims.
Catherine Haguenaud-Moizard, a law professor at the university of Strasbourg, told radio station RFI: “If French people want to live in a State which abides by the rule of law, they should be very worried. Because as soon as the state of emergency is provided for in the Constitution, the government and the police will have extensive powers.”
Hollande has developed a personal friendship with Egyptian military dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who oversaw the killing of thousands of protesters after toppling Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. Haguenaud-Moizard said, “France is going almost as far as Egypt, which is not a democratic country by all regards. It’s very worrying.”
The amendment also gives the state the right to deprive dual nationals convicted of “terrorist crimes” of their French citizenship, endorsing a policy that has long been advocated by the far-right National Front (FN). The Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime applied it during the 1940s, depriving French Jews of their citizenship before deporting them to death camps.
The fact that the PS is proposing such a despicable measure, which has no deterrent impact whatsoever on potential terrorist attackers, underscores the sharp lurch towards the far right of the entire French political establishment. In the past, when former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed to adopt a policy of deprivation of nationality in terrorism cases, it was opposed by the PS, including Hollande and Valls.
While the press have sought to portray the PS’s reactionary law-and-order agenda as enjoying broad popular support, Hollande and top PS officials are again collapsing in the polls. Hollande fell to a record low of 20 percent approval in an Ipsos- Le Point poll this week, four points lower than before the November 13 attacks, and Valls fell to 35 percent support.
By moving far to the right, the PS is bidding to shore up its support in the ruling class. Undoubtedly, one consideration is the expectation that FN leader Marine Le Pen will score very well in next year’s presidential election. The PS and Hollande aim to compete with the FN for support in the ruling class and the security forces by advocating law-and-order measures, and appealing to anti-Muslim racism.
However, the PS’s lurch far to the right is determined by broader political and historical factors. As the PS commits itself to tearing up basic social and democratic rights won by the working class after World War II, in response to escalating economic and military tensions, it finds itself moved to rehabilitate authoritarian forms of rule.
During the debate on the constitutional changes last month, Government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll said, “The president and the government are concerned with obtaining a broad majority on a question that is above all the safety of the French people, and which must therefore go beyond the usual divisions.” That is to say, the “usual division” between the PS, the conservatives, and the neo-fascists are to be overcome, as all of them promoted police-state forms of rule.
The PS and its trade unions allies are preparing unprecedented attacks on social rights and billions of euros in social cuts. The vast police-state measures set a precedent for intimidating and attacking social resistance, as the PS speeds up structural reforms, including the reform of the Labour Code, to dramatically boost business competitiveness at the expense of the working class.
The Labour Code reform that is to be presented to the parliament next month gives sweeping powers to trade unions and bosses to negotiate working time and wages in firm-level contracts that violate the national Labour Code. In short, the protections of the Labour Code are to be effectively wiped out in the face of escalating social anger at austerity in the working class.
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In the past four years alone, local law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin have acquired 32 armored vehicles from the U.S. Defense Department.
Seventeen sheriff departments and 10 police departments have obtained 24 dump truck-sized Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles that saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Wisconsin Public Radio open records request with Wisconsin Emergency Management also came across 8 other armored trucks and vehicles acquired from the Department of Defense surplus equipment program.
Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union director Chris Ahmuty said he understands that armor is sometimes needed in an active shooting situation to protect an officer or the public, but he’s wary of the proliferation of military equipment.
“Those are used because you’ve got an enemy,” said Ahmuty. “We can never let ‘protect and serve’ change into ‘Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, the enemy is before us.’ That mindset is a shift that may be going on in some departments.”
Ahmuty said awareness of what the ACLU calls the “militarization of American policing” in one of its reports has gained traction because of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo.
“People were kind of surprised at that because most citizens want to think of police as good guy or gal on the beat who’s there to help them. But, when instead you’ve got SWAT teams and armored vehicles and assault rifles, really what’s going on there?” said Ahmuty.
Ahmuty said the Defense Department program that offers free armored vehicles and weapons should require guidelines of use by local and state agencies before the hardware is given out.
Correction: The original version of this story erroneously listed the number of vehicles obtained by law enforcement agencies around the state as 36. The correct number is 32.
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A video posted on YouTube two days before April Fool’s Day asks, “Did Sean Hannity call his audience Tim McVeigh-wannabes?”
Well, the answer is… sort of.
At the very end of this video clip taken from a FOX News Channel broadcast on March 30, and uploaded by the website Mox News, conservative radio host and Fox anchor Hannity can be clearly heard telling his audience, “Can I add one thing. I think we won the debate.”
“When you think of the vast majorities they have in Congress, and they had the bribe back room deals, corruption,” Hannity continued, “that’s because of the Tea Party movement, all these Tim McVeigh wannabes.”
So far, at press time, the video has only gotten 1,475 views, but it was mentioned on Thom Hartmann’s radio show this morning and the link is being emailed to news sites such as RAW STORY (A shorter clip with only 345 viewings can be viewed at this link).
Fox News Channel viewers, at the time of its broadcast, wondered why a crowd full of conservatives would cheer being compared to the white supremacist sympathizer who was executed for killing 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing which destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
At a forum for Comedy Central’s Daily Show, viewers from the left and right were taken aback.
Hopefully some staffer has already seen this – or you guys tivo his show to catch this kinda stuff, but…. Just before his commercial break at about 9:10, Hannity praised the crowd for being “Tim McVeigh wannabes.” I couldn’t believe my ears – I still kinda hope I heard it wrong. Palin and her crosshairs are one thing, but this???? For the sake of context… Hannity’s show is in the Reagan “Library” and they started out talking about getting rid of Obama, etc…. …..
Yeah, I heard it to. It knocked me back so far I had to sign up here to get the word out. Still find it hard to believe. ….. I just heard the “Tim McVeigh Wannabes” comment myself on the Hannity replay here in the Midwest at about 11:15. Immediately “went to the Google” to check whether I heard what I thought I heard. I’m about as conservative as they come (I have Ronald Reagan’s picture hanging nearby right now), but I hope that he wasn’t urging on anyone who would even remotely try to emulate McVeigh. …. Yes, as the conclusion to the host and two guests stroking up each others egos in a typical unilateral discussion anger orgy, they said that healthcare was actually a victory and then Hannity thanked the supporters of the victory including the tea party and the Tim McVeigh wannabes. And it gets better.. There was applause and cheering.
Forum user Rusty Bucket speculated, “Well I could see how he might have been trying to use sarcasm – but the only thing is – alot of those people DO want to be Tim McVeigh wannabes. So he may have been sarcastic, but I dunno about some of the fruitbats in that audience.”
An article at Utah’s Ksl.com reveals that Rusty Bucket pretty much nailed it.
The day after the Tea Party Express made a stop in Salt Lake City, a prominent voice of conservative talk radio was in town with a similar message. Sean Hannity broadcast his national talk show from KSL studios Wednesday. He told a small gathering before the show that the Tea Party movement is legitimate and will withstand mounting attacks from its opponents on the left. “We’ve got veterans, we’ve got stay-at-home moms, people who really don’t like the direction of the country. They’re speaking out and they’ve been compared to terrorists, Tim McVeigh-wannabes. They’ve been called un-American. They’ve been called every name in the book. Now, the latest attack is that these people are violent,” he said.
So, Hannity was almost definitely using sarcasm when he referred to his audience as “McVeigh-wannabes.”
However, there doesn’t seem to be any explanation for why Congressman Kevin McCarthy falsely said that no Republicans voted for the stimulus last year. Liberals can feel free to mock that with no fear, since the audience at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California cheered that, as well.
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The Violence Policy Center has just released an update on its ongoing report about shootings committed by individuals with concealed-carry permits and the information deserves to be studied in detail. The issuance of CCW has been a hot-button issue for the "gun-rights" movement ever since Gary Kleck published a study in 1994 that claimed that more than 2.5 million crimes were prevented every year by Americans walking around with guns. The gun industry and its allies like the NRA jumped on this still-unproven argument because, as Wayne-o said after Sandy Hook, "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." And since anyone with a concealed-carry permit is, by definition, one of the good guys, the gun industry and its supporters work overtime trying to get concealed-carry accepted as the law of the land.
The CCW movement has made great strides over the past 20 years. Back in 1990, less than 20 states gave residents concealed-carry permits except in response to applications which cited specific business need (security guards, carrying cash, etc.). Since that time, most state legislatures have passed laws that make concealed-carry no more onerous than what is required legally to keep a gun in the home, and a majority of CCW permits are issued with little or no training required at all. Not only is it easier to get CCW in most states, but a concealed gun can usually be carried into shopping malls, restaurants and bars.
Even though violent crime rates have tumbled by more than half over the last 20 years, there's no necessary connection, despite what the gun-rights lobby says, between this trend and the expansion of CCW, for the simple reason that more than 90 percent of the decline in violent crime occurred between 1993 and 2002, whereas the expansion in CCW took place largely over the last ten years. But what appears to have increased with the spread of CCW are the number of fatal shootings by individuals who were lawful CCW-holders at the time they committed these violent acts.
I'm not surprised if more CCW permits results in more gun shootings. After all, as the novelist Walter Mosley says, "If you walk around with a gun, it's going to go off sooner or later." Where the guns seem to go off sooner rather than later is in Florida, which recorded 68 killings by CCW-holders since 2007. This represents 10 percent of all CCW killings that the VPC was able to document which took place in a state that holds 3 percent of the nation's total population. Admittedly the VPC numbers are incomplete, because like most efforts to understand gun violence, the data is fragmentary and based on partial media reports. VPC's analysis also ignores gun suicides committed by legal gun owners, many of whom no doubt also had CCW privileges before they died.
I know many pro-gun activists who wouldn't dispute the VPC numbers but would argue that an average of 100 fatal shootings each year by CCW-holders is a small price to pay for the thousands of fatal gun assaults that are prevented because law-abiding Americans can walk around with guns. I have been listening to this nonsense since 1994 when Kleck first published the results of his so-called research, but it was the VPC report that made me finally try and test whether this claim is true.
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The two most basic Smoking Guns proving that carbon from fossil fuels is warming the Earth.
by Brian Dunning
Filed under Environment, General Science, Logic & Persuasion
Skeptoid Podcast #549
December 13, 2016
Podcast transcript | Download | Subscribe
Listen:
http://skeptoid.com/audio/skeptoid-4549.mp3
I encourage everyone to listen to this episode, or to read and share its transcript online. Today I'm going to talk about some simple factual observations that anyone can make, that unambiguously prove human activity is driving warming of the Earth. I'm not going to mention climate models, politics, predictions, economics, or how many scientists agree or disagree — any of the topics on which there is debate. I'm only going to share a few of the most solid basics, the results of absolute measurements, over which there is no debate. These are the things nobody disagrees with, but so few people understand. Despite its contentious topic, this episode is intended to be — and should be — completely non-controversial.
I am only going to make two points today, and they are to share two of the "smoking guns" by which we know that this is happening. They are simple to understand, and they are based on basic science that everyone should remember from school. They do not depend on models or predictions, but upon simple direct observations. They are that the rising CO 2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere is definitely produced by human activity, and that that same CO 2 is warming the planet. Nothing in this episode is disputed, or is subject to alternate explanations, but too few people are aware of these facts. So let's begin with:
Proof that the atmosphere's excess CO 2 is human generated
You might think that carbon is carbon, and that if we find there's more CO 2 in the atmosphere, its source can't easily be proven. But chemistry is a bit more complicated than that; there are different kinds of carbon, as there are of most elements. They're called isotopes. One isotope of carbon is carbon-14. Cosmic rays bombard the Earth at a rate that is more or less constant over time. When they do, they strike atoms in the upper atmosphere, kicking out neutrons. These neutrons then collide with the most common atoms in our atmosphere, nitrogen. This collision kicks a proton out of the nucleus and turns the nitrogen into carbon with two neutrons too many: the unstable and radioactive carbon-14, instead of the normal stable carbon-12.
You've heard of carbon dating; this is done by comparing the relative amounts of carbon-12 and carbon-14 in a sample. Living things, like animals and trees, are in equilibrium with the atmosphere. As they eat and breathe and interact, they contain the same proportions of carbon isotopes as the atmosphere. When they die, that carbon-14 decays over a long time, and since the organism is no longer eating and breathing, no new carbon-14 comes in, and eventually the only carbon remaining is carbon-12 (and some carbon-13). Fossil fuels like oil and natural gas come from plants that died millions of years ago and have no carbon-14 left. The CO 2 produced by burning fossil fuels contains only carbon-12.
When a forest fire burns, the CO 2 in the smoke came from living or recently dead fuel, so the smoke contains the same proportions of carbon-12 and carbon-14 as the atmosphere. This is the case with nearly all natural sources of CO 2 . We can carbon date the CO 2 in the atmosphere, and tell exactly how much of it comes from humans burning fossil fuels. It's a direct measurement. It leaves no room for interpretation.
There is one natural source of CO 2 that contains only carbon-12, and which is often pointed out by climate deniers as the real source of all of this new carbon-12: volcanoes. Volcanoes worldwide constantly erupt, both on land and under the sea. They do so at a fairly constant rate. We measure their output, and we know that annually, worldwide volcanic activity averages about 200 million tons of CO 2 added to the atmosphere, all with carbon-12, which is indistinguishable from the carbon-12 produced by burning fossil fuels. However, each year, we measure a total of about 29 billion tons of CO 2 added to the atmosphere. That's more than 100 times the amount volcanoes can account for. The only possible source of all the rest of that new CO 2 is fossil fuel burned by humans.
This, in short, is the "smoking gun" that proves the increase in CO 2 in the atmosphere is caused by humans burning fossil fuel. It's not a conjecture or a model or a prediction, it's a measurement that anyone can reproduce, and isotopes are isotopes, and don't have alternate explanations.
Some have said that 29 billion tons is not a problem, because of how small that is compared to the atmosphere's total existing carbon load. It's true that 29 billion tons is a drop in the bucket compared to the 750 billion tons that moves through the carbon cycle each year, which is our name for the natural processes by which carbon is exchanged between the atmosphere and the oceans and vegetation. Each year, of that 750 billion tons, the ocean absorbs a net gain of about 6 billion, and vegetation absorbs a net gain of about 11 billion. They're only able to absorb about half of the 29 billion we're adding. The other half — about 15 billion tons each year — remains in the atmosphere, after maxing out the Earth's ability to absorb it into its system. These numbers, too, are reproducible measurements; not conjectures, models, or predictions. The system is provably absorbing all it can, but still unable to keep up.
Proof that that human-generated CO 2 is warming the planet
We also do not need models or predictions to directly measure the source of heat in the atmosphere. There are five gases that are primarily responsible for the greenhouse effect. They are CO 2 , methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and ozone. We can tell this because of spectroscopy.
Spectroscopy is a method of detecting elements by looking at how electromagnetic radiation passes through them. Different elements have electrons in orbits at varying energy levels, and this affects the way they resonate. It's the reason why neon lights produce different colors depending on what gases we fill them with. It's also the way we're able to tell what proportions of hydrogen, helium, and other elements are in distant stars: the spectrum of light coming from them has peaks and valleys that are chemical fingerprints of exactly what gases are in them.
The Earth's surface is warmed by the sun, and as a warm globe in space, the Earth itself emits that same heat right back out, as infrared radiation. If we go outside and point a spectrometer at the sky, we can see there are peaks and valleys in the infrared spectrum. Some wavelengths of heat fly right out into space unhindered, while other wavelengths are absorbed by the atmosphere, and that heat stays there, where we're able to detect its wavelength with our spectrometer. And exactly the same way as we're able to identify the elements in a distant star, we're able to identify exactly which greenhouse gases are trapping the Earth's radiative heat. This is how we were able to identify those five main gases. And this isn't new; we've understood this for 200 years. It's a direct measurement that anyone with a spectrometer can reproduce. Not a model, not a prediction, not a guess.
Water vapor, which is the most prominent, defines the basic shape of the greenhouse spectrum. Most of the infrared radiation that escapes the Earth goes through a window left open by water vapor, which we call the infrared window. This window in the spectrum, which is pretty wide, is centered around a wavelength of about 10 µm (micrometers). At higher and lower wavelengths, water vapor absorbs much of the Earth's radiated heat, so the Earth has always relied on this open window in the spectrum to allow the excess heat to escape. One end of the infrared window is overlapped by CO 2 's absorption range, which is centered around 15 µm. The amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere acts like a sliding door which widens or narrows the infrared window. As CO 2 increases, the infrared window is narrowed, less radiation escapes into space, and more heat is absorbed by the atmosphere. At the other end of the infrared window, around 7.5 µm, methane has a similar effect, contributing about 1/4 as much warming as CO 2 .
Spectroscopy is hard science. We don't have to model or predict. Simply by pointing our instruments at the sky, we can, right now, directly observe and identify the greenhouse gases, and measure exactly how much radiative energy the atmosphere is absorbing and keeping here on Earth. This direct, non-ambiguous spectroscopic reading is the "smoking gun" that proves the excess heat energy being trapped in our atmosphere is due to CO 2 . That excess CO 2 is produced by humans burning fossil fuels.
We've also measured the Earth's infrared spectrum from space, looking down from satellites, to see which wavelengths of heat energy are being trapped by gases in the atmosphere, and which wavelengths are escaping. We started this in 1970 with the IRIS satellite, giving us a baseline to compare against future measurements. It was followed in 1996 with the Japanese IMG satellite, and again with the AIRS satellite in 2003, and the AURA satellite in 2004. They paint a very clear picture. We subtract new readings from the old readings to see the delta, to see exactly where in the spectrum any change has occurred. Within that infrared window defined by water vapor, there is one big spike. It is the 15 µm range of CO 2 . This is explicit, unambiguous proof that the increased heat in our atmosphere is due to CO 2 . It has nothing to do with models or predictions; it is a direct observation, it is hard chemistry and basic physics, not guesswork or extrapolation.
As we burn fossil fuels, the CO 2 in the atmosphere increases, the infrared window narrows, less heat radiates away from the Earth, and more heat goes into the Earth's system. These are simple, solid facts.
In this episode, I've tried to limit everything to just facts that are not in dispute. That means I haven't included any estimates or predictions. Why? Because I'm trying to take opinion and ideology-driven spin completely out of the picture. I don't have an answer or a solution for people who prefer to view this particular science question through the filter of an ideology. Earth science measurements and facts are ideology-free, just like astronomy and mathematics and zoology. The impact that human use of fossil fuels is measured to have already made to the Earth system is bewildering. It is from this point, from the non-ambiguous, factual, black-and-white characterization of our atmosphere and oceans, that we must ask ourselves whether any ideological twisting of the facts is truly the best path forward. We have to accurately understand a problem in order to devise a properly informed solution.
Please, if you have any curiosity about any of the topics we've just discussed, see the references section at the bottom of this transcript, where you'll find links to articles and videos that are both thorough and easy to understand. You can go into much greater depth if you're so inclined. What's important is what you choose to do with this information, and that part I will leave up to you.
By Brian Dunning
Follow @BrianDunning
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Widewalls artist of the week is Word To Mother. The upcoming exhibition ‘California Coming Home’ at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco is one reason we decided to feature the British artist as our favorite of this week.
Word To Mother – California Coming Home
The other reason is that this guy has been doing some amazing work throughout his career. He just deserves our fucking respect. That’s what Word To Mother is about:
London-based artist Word To Mother was born and raised in an English seaside town. After attending art school for illustration, and with a background in graffiti, Word To Mother entered into the art world.
Word To Mother creates work that combines many influences into uniquely layered paintings, often atop pieces of salvaged wood. Incorporating hand drawn personal sentiments, emotions and feelings that he executes in the form of loose script, inspired from his experience as a tattoo artist and tight sign written letters, drawn from years of painting graffiti.
Suggestions of nostalgic sign writing and unmistakable WTM figures feature within a salvaged environment where they appear to have existed for years. A beautiful juxtaposition, of fragile and emotive elements shown through subtle textures and washes of color, but with a strength and confidence fused with his signature patterns, architecture & figures. His work is melancholic yet fun and playful. With an earthy ‘London’ palette of grey tones accentuating splashes of brighter ‘seaside’ colors of flour red, pink, yellows and turquoise, which give the paintings an optimistic, feel.
Word To Mother’s recent work invites the viewer to look past the exterior or what is immediately apparent and question what is behind. Referencing popular childhood characters Word To Mother asks the viewer to question the agenda of media that is subjected to us, involuntarily sculpting our values and opinions. Commenting on society being conditioned to worship fame and celebrity status as a way to keep the masses occupied so to keep them from questioning anything. Distractions in the form of everything from fluffy rendered characters to synthesized pop songs and reality television are used as a front to conceal a more sinister agenda. Nothing is as it seems, taking a cynical view of visual language we are confronted with everyday, nothing is literal anymore.
Pictures retrieved from: Stolen Space & White Walls SF
Retrieved from: Stolen Space
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Leeds United are reportedly considering a swoop to sign Getafe striker Emiliano Buendia in January.
The Whites are currently top of the Championship despite suffering their first defeat of the season at Millwall on Saturday and are now among the favourites to secure promotion to the Premier League.
And having already being tipped to sign Japan midfielder Yosuke Ideguchi, the Whites are now being linked with a move for Argentina U20 forward Buendia, who currently plys his trade on loan at Secunda Liga side Cultural Leonesa.
The striker was reportedly close to a move to Swansea back in January, but Getafe refused to sell and the player was recently rewarded with a new five-year deal.
But despite being loaned to Leonesa this season, Spanish publication AS claims Leeds will have a good chance of landing the player when the transfer window reopens.
That’s because Leeds recently set up a sporting partnership with Leonesa, having loaned the Spanish side 24-year-old Dutch midfielder Ouasim Bouy, just days after they recruited the former Juventus prospect on a free transfer.
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Alabama Football G10 at Mississippi State
Mississippi State wide receiver De'Runnya Wilson (1) is checked on by trainers and Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen during the fourth quarter of Alabama's football game with Mississippi state, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015, at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)
Mississippi State wide receiver De'Runnya Wilson did not suffer a "lasting" injury before he was carted off the field during last Saturday's game against Alabama, Bulldogs coach Dan Mullen said Monday.
Wilson suffered an apparent neck injury while making a tackle on an interception midway through the fourth quarter of Alabama's 31-6 win in Starkville. The junior from Birmingham play on the field for several minutes before being helped to a motorized cart and leaving the field.
While Wilson's long-term prognosis is good, Mullen said during his news conference Monday that he wasn't sure if Wilson would be healthy to play this weekend against Arkansas.
"He's going to be fine," said Mullen, who does not typically discuss player injuries in detail. "We'll see this week how's he'll to be. I don't think we'll know until later in the week what his status will be. ... But it's not a threatening injury. ... It's nothing that's going to be lasting for him."
Wilson leads the Bulldogs in receiving yards (664) and touchdown catches (8) and is second in receptions (40). He has 113 receptions for 1,695 yards and 20 touchdowns in his career.
The 6-foot-5 Wilson was a two-sport star at Wenonah High School. He was Alabama's Mr. Basketball in 2013, when he led the Dragons to their second straight state championship.
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In the same fashion the 2017 VLN season started, it ended: with Manthey Racing on the top of the podium. The dominating Porsche 991 GT3R team goes into the winter as the undisputed kings of the Nürburgring, claiming their fifth victory after a four-hour-long dogfight with Mercedes-AMG’s Black Falcon squad.
Truly on fire in the closing months of the racing season, Robin Frijns has established himself this year as a go-to man for Nordschleife glory. The Audi works driver won in his last outing in the Eifel and in the morning of the 42. DMV Münsterlandpokal scores pole position with a sub-8-minute lap around the cold and damp Nordschleife, placing the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 on the front row of the starting grid.
Alongside the Phoenix Audi, however, the ever-strong Manthey Racing Porsche 991 GT3R, or Grello as the green and yellow racer is caressly nicknamed, is surrounded by a small army of Porsche Motorsport and Manthey Racing personnel. Among them stand pilots Fred Makowiecki and Lars Kern—another all-star formation from Weissach has been entered for the season finale.
Manthey Racing is given no gifts at the start: Frank Stippler flies into the first corner and onto the Nordschleife in first place. Makowiecki can only follow, but does so from a close distance. Through the endless wet and damp turns of the Nordschleife Makowiecki stays close, pressing Stippler for a way through. The veteran Audi pilot gives in when he goes in a fraction too deep at slippery the exit of Brünnchen. Makowiecki doesn’t need another invitation: into Eiskurve he slingshots himself around the outside of the Audi.
Until the end of the first stint Manthey Racing carries the lead, running away from the rest of the field with only the Falken Porsche—having steadily climbed up from sixth to second in the opening laps—able to keep up.
Black Falcon deems the time right after three completed laps to switch to intermediates as the track is slowly drying. Hubert Haupt has held his own amongst the clash of world class drivers he has found himself in during the first laps, but is pulled out of the fight to make use of a shorter minimum pitstop time and a clear track ahead. It might be the perfect call, their ticket to victory, but the AMG troops will have to wait and see how the race progresses to be sure.
What is certain, is that the earlier pitstop saves Black Falcon valuable seconds having to wait in pitlane for the minimum pitstop time to tick away. The shorter stop and extra lap in the perfect weather conditions for the chosen rubber hands Haupt the lead over the others after their pitstops, including Manthey who now are the hunters.
Makowiecki draws closer to the back of Haupt near the end of the second stint, making up for ground lost in the first pitstop. Haupt, however, has just enough pace to enter the pits in front of the stalking Grello and hands over the steering wheel to AMG superstar Maro Engel.
In the lap thereafter Makowiecki makes place for Lars Kern. It’s the Porsche test and development driver’s first turn at the wheel of the top-car in competition. The only non-works driver this year to do so in the number 911 Porsche, Kern’s latest Nordschleife lap record in a production Porsche 911 GT2 RS earned the cult hero this drive.
But this is different. There are no hot laps today; all that counts is track position. And if there’s anything that Engel excels at, it’s fighting tooth and nail with whoever stands in his way.
After a little hiccup taking off—Kern stalls the car, losing time and the chance to grab the lead—Grello returns to the battlefront. The Porsche team is still chasing Black Falcon, but with their high-paced pursuit and the absence of rain despite the dark skies and scarce Code 60s throughout the day, the race is pushed to go 28 laps: one too many for Black Falcon to go the distance with just one more stop.
Meandering the traffic on the Eifel mountain course, Kern follows Engel, reeling him in and letting him go, catching up again near the end of the second-to-last stint.
Into the final hour Manthey regains the lead. A quick pitstop—again a lap after Black Falcon, who replaced Engel with Erik Johansson—wins Makowiecki the front position. Eriksson is about 10 seconds behind the Porsche, but needs to double-time it to secure second place. The 21-year-old Swede knows he’ll have to come in on the final lap.
Tagging along with Makowiecki, Johansson wins himself enough seconds to keep the unleashed Robin Frijns—unconcerned with traffic, the Dutchman throws down another sub-8-minute lap—behind after the splash-and-dash with the end in sight.
Easing off for the last leg through the Eifel, Makowiecki brings Grello home for Manthey’s 50th victory. It’s a journey that began in 1996 with three-time VLN champion Olaf Manthey at the helm and has since grown into a fan-favourite, Porsche-owned works squad—one of the defining teams in all of motorsports.
It takes almost a minute for Eriksson to follow the Manthey Porsche across the finish line, while the wait for Frijns takes another 18 seconds, underlining Manthey’s superiority once more.
With five victories out of nine races Manthey closed the year with the same display of power it opened with. The search to get more out of the car, nevertheless, persists: it’s what brought Grello out of the SP9/GT3 class and into SPX when the team went looking for better engine cooling to squeeze even more out of the Stuttgarter grand tourer.
Manthey Racing will be back next year. Will anyone break them come spring?
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Special interests aren’t supposed to run the government, but an alarming trend is giving them more influence than ever before.
In recent years, we’ve seen a surge in the appointment of lobbyists to high-level positions at agencies they recently sought to influence. Many of these lobbyist-appointees have conflicts of interest that could impact policies and the enforcement of existing laws.
These conflicts are worryingly common for many of President Trump’s appointees, and it can be hard to keep track of which interests have their fingerprints on which arms of the government. So we’ve put together this handy guide highlighting the most egregious conflicts of interest in each federal department.
These appointees were registered lobbyists before joining the Trump administration. Now they oversee the issues and agencies they used to work to influence on behalf of special-interest clients.
Department of the Treasury
Drew Maloney, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Legislative Affairs
The next time private equity giant Blackstone Group wants a special legislative loophole, they can call on their old friend Drew Maloney, who now works as a liaison between the Treasury Department and Congress.
Before becoming the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Legislative Affairs, Maloney spent more than a decade as a lobbyist for companies that could be impacted by the financial, trade, and tax policy issues that the Treasury works on. From 2005 to 2012, Maloney was CEO of Oglivy Government Relations, one of the highest-grossing and most powerful lobbying shops in Washington. His clients at Oglivy included major financial firms like Blackstone Group, CIT Group, and Visa.
Since 2012, Maloney has served as the top lobbyist for Hess Corporation, a multinational oil and gas company that has lobbied the Treasury Department on foreign policy issues involving Libya and Russia sanctions.
Conflicts: Blackstone Group, Hess Corporation, CIT Group, Visa, Cash America International, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, and more
Department of Justice
Makan Delrahim, United States Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust
As AT&T tries to finalize their $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner, one of their former lobbyists, Makan Delrahim, is taking the reins of the office that will decide whether or not to approve it. Unsurprisingly, Delrahim has already said that he doesn’t see any major problems with the deal.
Delrahim joins the DoJ as the head of the Antitrust Division after working for years with large corporate clients that routinely lobby the government on antitrust issues. From 2005-2016, Delrahim was a lobbyist for Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck, where “Labor, Antitrust & Workplace” was one of the top issue areas he discussed in meetings with government policy makers.
Besides the AT&T conflict, another of his recent clients, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, had a merger review pending at the DoJ as recently as May 2017 (the Anthem-Cigna merger, which has since been dropped). Delrahim is taking on the job amidst a boom in corporate mergers that need to be reviewed by the DoJ, as well as a growing public sentiment that corporations are growing too large and too concentrated. He will have a profound influence on antitrust enforcement in his new role.
Conflicts: AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Comcast, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Qualcomm Inc, WMG Acquisition Corp (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group), Pfizer, and more
Department of the Interior
David Bernhardt, Deputy Secretary of the Interior
The law firm that David Bernhardt left when he joined the administration, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, owns 200,000 shares in a company called Cadiz Inc. that is seeking Interior Department approval to pump water from beneath the Mojave Desert and send it via pipeline it to California. If the project is approved, the firm will earn another 200,000 shares in Cadiz stock.
Now, as Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Bernhardt will have direct influence over approving the pipeline project and helping his old firm earn their additional shares. And it appears their project is on its way to approval — Cadiz’s pipeline was featured on a list of priority projects that was leaked after President Trump took office.
In addition to working with Cadiz, as the top natural resources lobbyist for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for 13 years, Bernhardt retained a wide-ranging portfolio of clients from the agricultural, oil and gas, and mining sectors that could present conflicts with his work at the Interior Department.
Conflicts: Westlands Water District, Halliburton, Statoil, Active Network LLC, Cadiz Inc., Rosemont Copper Co, Hudbay Minerals, Noble Energy, Cobalt International Energy, Titanium Metals Corporation, and more
Agriculture
Kristi Boswell, Senior Advisor to the Secretary at USDA
When the Farm Bill comes up in 2018, the agribusiness interests that benefit from crop insurance, farm subsidies, and agricultural loan programs will have a powerful ally at the department that advises on these programs.
From 2012 to 2016, Kristi Boswell worked for the American Farm Bureau Federation, one of the largest agribusiness groups in the U.S., as chief legislative lobbyist. Now she is an advisor to Sonny Perdue, the Secretary of the USDA, working on issues that will directly impact the Farm Bureau and its members.
The Farm Bureau has historically fought the government on issues like labeling genetically modified foods, animal welfare reforms, and environmental regulations. They also lobby for agricultural subsidies and crop insurance programs in the Farm Bill. Boswell reported lobbying her new employer, the USDA, on behalf of the Farm Bureau as recently as the second quarter of 2017.
Conflicts: American Farm Bureau Federation
Commerce
Peter Davidson, General Counsel
Part of the Commerce Department’s mission is to create “an infrastructure that promotes economic growth, technological competitiveness, and sustainable development,” yet their new top lawyer, Peter Davidson, just spent 13 years helping Verizon gain a near-monopoly on broadband and fighting against pro-competition policies like net neutrality.
From 2003-2016, Davidson was the top lobbyist at Verizon, where he lobbied the government — including the Commerce Department — on issues including spectrum allocation, broadband privacy, and more. Verizon’s lobbying expenditures exploded under Davidson’s leadership, peaking at more than $16.8 million in 2010. In 2012, The Hill included Davidson on its “Top Lobbyists” list for his role in getting the Department of Justice to approve a controversial, multi-billion dollar deal allowing Verizon to purchase wireless spectrum from the big cable companies. Before working for Verizon, Davidson was Policy Director and General Counsel for former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
Conflicts: Verizon Communications
Department of Labor
Geoffrey Burr, Chief of Staff
Geoffrey Burr, a lobbyist with a history of opposing unions on wage standards and occupational safety issues, now fills one of the most influential policy positions at the agency that oversees those issues.
Burr worked for 13 years as the top lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, the non-union construction industry’s largest trade group. While at the ABC, Burr fought the Labor Department on rules designed to protect workers from exposure to dangerous crystalline silica, ensuring safety for workers in confined spaces, and wage standards for government contract jobs.
In 2015, Burr left the ABC and took a job as top lobbyist for Cablevision, a New York-based cable company. As Chief of Staff he will be DoL Secretary Alex Acosta’s right-hand man, with the power to push policy and manage the Secretary’s outreach with stakeholders in the labor arena.
Conflicts: Associated Builders and Contractors, Cablevision
Defense
Mark Esper, Secretary of the Army
The next time Raytheon wants to sell a new batch of weapons or radar equipment to the Army, they’ll be dealing with a familiar face. Since 2010, Mark Esper has held the job of top lobbyist for Raytheon, the third-largest defense contractor in the U.S. President Trump recently nominated Esper for Secretary of the Army, and once confirmed, he’ll be in charge of, among other things, purchasing weapons systems and equipment from contractors like Raytheon.
Each year Raytheon sells billions of dollars worth of weapons and other services to the government. Their major products include the Tomahawk Cruise Missile, the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System, and radar systems like the PAVE PAWS and the ALE-50 towed decoy. Raytheon spent $5-$7 million per year lobbying the government on “defense electronics” issues while Esper was their chief lobbyist. In 2016 they received $12.6 billion worth of federal contracts.
Conflicts: Raytheon
Department of Health and Human Services
Lance Leggitt, Chief of Staff
Last year, Leggitt worked a lobbyists for health care companies trying to influence policy at the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid. Now he is Chief of Staff at that agency.
Prior to taking the job at HHS, Lance Leggitt was the head of health policy at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, a large and powerful K Street lobbying shop, from 2006-2016. Leggitt helped collect as much as $900,000 in fees each year and represented more than 40 clients from the pharmaceutical, hospital, and health insurance industries.
His lobbying disclosures show that he primarily lobbied on medicare billing and reimbursement issues. Leggitt was also a senior health policy advisor in the Bush administration.
Conflicts: Advanced Infusion Solutions, Alere Inc, All American Medical Supplies, Arthroscopy Association of America, Diabetes Management & Supplies, EO2 Concepts, Global Medical Direct, United States Medical Supply, and more
Transportation
Chris Brown, Associate Administrator for Government and Industry Affairs at the Federal Aviation Administration
The big airlines — notorious for their outrageous fees, cramped seating arrangements, and aggressive passenger removal tactics — could be getting more control over your flying experience. Chris Brown has joined the Department of Transportation following a stint as the top lobbyist for legislative and regulatory affairs at Airlines for America, an airline industry trade group representing United Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue, and other large airlines.
While at Airlines for America, Brown advocated for a plan to privatize the air traffic control system by putting it in the hands of a nonprofit that would be controlled by the big airlines. Now he’s pushing that plan from within the FAA. Brown issued a memo advocating for the privatization on July 12.
Brown has also worked as a staffer for the congressional Subcommittee on Aviation, as well as lobbying firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Manatt Phelps & Phillips, and United Airlines.
Conflicts: Airlines for America, United Airlines
Energy
Andrew Wheeler, Deputy Administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency
The dirtiest energy industry has a new friend at the agency in charge of protecting the environment. Prior to taking over the #2 spot at the EPA, Wheeler was a lobbyist at Faegre Bakers Daniels Consulting, where he represented Murray Energy, the largest privately owned coal company in the United States.
During the Obama years, Murray Energy repeatedly challenged federal environmental regulations, filing more than half a dozen lawsuits, including one that lead to the Supreme Court blocking the EPA from regulating emissions from coal-fired power plants. Besides Murray Energy, Wheeler lobbied for interests from the natural gas, food manufacturing, and electric utilities industries. Wheeler is also a former aide to Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), a leading climate-change denier in Congress and an advocate for the oil and gas industry.
Conflicts: Murray Energy, Xcel Energy, Bear Head LNG Corp, Energy Fuels Resources Inc, Underwriters Laboratories, Domestic Fuel Solutions Group, Nuclear Energy Institute, and more
Department of Homeland Security
Thomas Blank, Chief of Staff, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Immigration enforcement might be about to get more violent. Thomas Blank lobbied the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of taser manufacturers, facial recognition software companies, and other companies for more than a decade before taking his job at I.C.E..
While employed as a lobbyist by Wexler & Walker, Blank represented Taser International (now Axon) in meetings with Homeland Security, where discussions focused on the use of “technologies/electronic control devices by Homeland Security agencies.” Blank also lobbied Homeland Security on behalf of Assuretec Inc., a company that specializes in facial recognition and identity verification systems.
Prior to working as a lobbyist, Blank worked in the Bush administration and helped to develop the Transportation Security Administration.
Conflicts: Taser International (Axon), Boeing, Assuretec Inc., Analogic Corp, Redlen Technologies, Blue Spark Technologies, Intellicheck Inc., Syagen Technologies, and more.
Note: In four federal departments — the State Department, the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Veterans Affairs — no currently active lobbyist/appointees with direct conflicts of interest could be identified.
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By Michelle Fleury
Business reporter, BBC News, New York
Ms Schwab believes a trade deal can be reached in Geneva For anyone in business, the idea of spending seven years trying to cut a deal is hard to imagine. Yet that's how long the Doha round of global trade talks have been going on. So could this finally be the moment of truth. Or will it just slip by? America's top trade negotiator, Susan Schwab is cautiously optimistic, saying: "I do believe it's doable and I believe it's doable next week." Ms Schwab and other trade officials from around the world are headed to Geneva this weekend where the negotiations are taking place. A breakthrough on lowering tariffs and subsidies on farm products, manufactured goods and services could create tens of billions of dollars in benefits, mainly for the world's poorest countries. But while America is hopeful, it's not prepared to do a deal at any cost. The US has made it clear it wants to see countries open their services sectors to more foreign companies. As places like China and India have become more prosperous, demand for services such as finance, telecoms and technology have grown. And the US - which has an advantage in many of these areas - wants to provide it to them. Deal breaker But the issue is not a simple one. In return, developing countries want America to provide more temporary entry work visas for software engineers and other professionals. A hard sell in an election year. Another possible stumbling block is agriculture. America is under pressure to cut trade distorting subsidies to its farmers. The draft agreement proposes limits that range from $13bn (£6.5bn; 8.2 euros) to $16.4bn. Thanks to high food prices, these existing goals look outdated. US farm spending has already dropped significantly. US farmers fear a trade deal could mean less money In the light of that, some developing countries think Washington should go further. But US farmers claim they are being asked to give up more in government support than they would receive in new export income. US Trade Representative, Susan Schwab says the final level will depend on what others are willing to offer: "We need to bring home a package that has some degree of balance in terms of gives and gets." A successful conclusion to the talks requires compromise from all parties. Leadership Many feel that rich countries, like the US should lead by example. Others are worried their domestic markets will be flooded by Chinese exports. China joined the World Trade Organisation in December 2001, after the launch of the Doha round. President Bush's departure from office could spell an end to a deal But it has been a huge beneficiary of open markets and unless they play a leadership role America's trade chief says "it is impossible to imagine a successful conclusion to the Doha round". Whilst obstacles remain, there is a sense of urgency about these talks. With the US presidential election around the corner, there is a desire to fashion some kind of agreement before George Bush leaves office. This may seem odd. The President does not have trade promotion authority (TPA), essential to speed the passage of trade agreements through Congress. Instead, the hope is to get a special one off extension to the President's trade promotion authority or to at least pass on a finished agreement to the next resident of the White House. Trade fears Whoever that is, they may be a lot less committed to trade than President Bush or Clinton before them. For many working Americans trade is a dirty word. Nonetheless, most economists have no doubt that the US has benefited hugely from the global reduction of tariffs and the removal of other trade barriers over the last two decades. Millions of American jobs depend on exports and with things looking shaky at home, they are an even greater driving force for the economy So while Doha might not be the cure all for America's current housing and financial woes, it is nonetheless vital.
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The search for an effective moisturizer is not a new one. In Ancient Egypt, people used sesame, almond and olive oils to care for their skin in the dry climates of the desert. In the late 1800s a patent was filed for pure petrolatum. This household product, now known as Vaseline, is still used worldwide. Over time our understanding of ingredients and the skins natural barrier has advanced significantly. The result: a wide range of products that boast such a variety of benefits, that there is a high potential for confusion and – even worse – miseducation.
As a Canadian skincare company, we are experts when it comes to dry, dehydrated skin. Extreme temperatures are a regular part of our lives in North America and the tendency to turn up the heat in our homes during the coldest months of the year goes hand in hand with the search for an effective moisturizer. In this article we present our research surrounding the causes and cures of dry compromised skin to help you maintain a well-balance radiant complexion year round.
Is it Really Free? It can be so hard to find the right routine to keep our skin glowing and healthy. That's exactly why Dr. Rivers insists on giving new customers a chance to try Riversol with no strings attached. We offer a free 15-day anti-aging sample kit so that you can do just that. Get a free sample kit
What Causes Dehydrated Skin?
The main reason your skin becomes dehydrated is damage to the skin’s natural barrier, which prevents your skin from regulating normal moisture level. Once this natural barrier is compromised the result is often: rough, scaly, itchy, chapped, red, tight and uncomfortable dry skin.
Scientific surveys show that the factors most commonly associated with dry skin include advanced age, frequent bathing, and high temperatures and dry climates often created by home heating in the winter.
How the Skin Controls Hydration
Proper hydration is crucial for normal function of the skin. Hydration is regulated and maintained by the top most layer of the skin. This outer layer – also known as the stratum corneum - protects against dry skin and over-hydration. In order to function in different environments, the stratum corneum must maintain an adequate amount of water. This layer of skin is flexible, absorbent, adaptable and capable of regeneration. The tightly packed cells in this layer create a tortuous path for water molecules to pass. When the stratum corneum is intact and healthy, water is successfully retained and the skin’s hydration is preserved.
The skin is also responsible for creating an efficient, natural, moisturizer referred to as Natural Moisturizing Factor (NMF). Most of the water in the skin comes from the body, but under ideal conditions, the NMF may absorb water from the external environment. There are a number of factors that cause reduced Natural Moisturizing Factor in the skin. Some common causes include the use of the natural age-related decline, inappropriate cleansers, and excessive sun exposure which can stop its production.
Skin Versus the Environment
Humidity
Human skin must adapt to a diverse range of environmental conditions. This adaptability is especially important in North America given the extreme seasonality that most parts of the region experience. The amount of water vapor in the air is one of the most significant environmental factor affecting barrier function and skin hydration. Dry conditions are thought to cause dry skin by reducing the capacity to produce Natural Moisturizing Factor. The body reacts to dry conditions with skin thickening and increasing the molecules that help retain water in order to reduce water loss and the effects of dry conditions. These natural reactions, or compensation mechanisms are remarkably efficient. For example, time spent in a dry environment leads to accelerated barrier recovery when compared to the time spent in a humid environment.
Temperature
Temperature also has an impact on barrier function. Barrier recovery is accelerated while the skin surface temperature is maintained around our normal core temperature (37 degrees Celsius). Outside of this range the rate of recovery is delayed. Despite protective mechanisms, the skin will become damaged and require treatment in extreme conditions. Additionally, protective mechanisms become less effective with age and the presence of disease states.
Water
In addition to affecting the activity of the skin’s defense mechanisms, water is responsible for many of the physical properties of healthy skin. Giving shape to the skin’s layers and allowing for their deformation and suppleness, water is one of the most important components.
Excessive bathing with harsh soap often leads to the depletion of the Natural Moisturizing Factor essential to maintaining the skin’s natural barrier. Hot water is also known to strip the natural oils from the skin. Fortunately, there are some simple and effective solutions to maintain a healthy skin barrier. Showers and baths should be kept short and hot temperature should be avoided. Additionally, the use of appropriate cleansers (see below) should be a priority with the avoidance of excessive scrubbing.
How to Fix Dry, Dehydrated Skin
*While this article was written as an unbiased educational resource, this section highlights Riversol products and their benefits for dry skin.
Use Mild Cleansers
Traditional body soaps are harsh on the skin and can cause damage to the natural moisture barrier of the skin. Soap works by removing natural oils from the skin and with those oils go the unwanted debris. This is problematic because it can cause dry skin to become even drier. Synthetic detergent cleansers or other mild cleansers are preferred. Ideally, cleansers should have a low pH consistent with the normal acidic pH of the skin. These cleansers tend to be less irritating than traditional soaps and have been found to optimize skin barrier function and help to trap moisture in the skin, while removing the surface dirt. There is also evidence to suggest that slightly acidic cleansers help reduce irritation. Information about the Riversol hydrating cream cleanser, formulated specifically for individuals with dry skin, can be found here.
Use the Right Moisturizer Regularly
Daily use of moisturizers, which contain substances that promote skin hydration and/or substances that reduce water loss from the skin, is a crucial component of dry skin management. Moisturizers should be applied immediately after bathing and gentle drying of the skin. Read more about more about selecting an appropriate moisturizer below.
Avoid Excessive and Aggressive Skin Washing
Excessive washing can worsen dry skin, particularly when hot water is used to bathe. Lukewarm or warm water is preferable for bathing, and patients should be instructed to avoid aggressive scrubbing of the skin.
Get a Humidifier
Increasing the humidity of indoor air during the winter is beneficial for patients who are prone to dry skin.
Is it Really Free? It can be so hard to find the right routine to keep our skin glowing and healthy. That's exactly why Dr. Rivers insists on giving new customers a chance to try Riversol with no strings attached. We offer a free 15-day anti-aging sample kit so that you can do just that. Get a free sample kit
Moisturizing Basics
To the average consumer, the term moisturizer may be misleading. One might assume the term implies the product is actually putting moisture back into the skin. However, moisturizers put very little external water back into the skin. Moisturizers simply attempt to slow the rate of water loss and create an optimal environment for the skin to repair itself back to a healthy state. There are four stages commonly used to describe “remoisturization”. In order to ensure the maximum impact of moisturizers, it has become common practice to use them at every stage of the skin-care process. This means that there are moisturizing cleansers, moisturizing bath additives and topical moisturizers which are left on the skin.
Allowing the the skin’s protective barrier to repair itself; the reduction in moisture loss; the onset of moisture movement from the deeper to the top most layers of the skin; and stimulating the production of natural moisturizers.
Moisturizers are formulated to perform one or more of these steps.
Choosing a Moisturizer
*While this article was written as an unbiased educational resource, this section highlights Riversol products and their benefits for dry skin
Facial moisturizing products must be safe and free of stinging, burning or itching. There are countless moisturizers which vary in color, consistency, fragrance and active ingredients. Most fall under the category of either a concentrate, cream or a lotion. They can be differentiated by their physical properties and chemical composition. Concentrates are the thickest of all formulations. Creams are less thick than concentrates yet more occlusive and thicker than lotions. Concentrates are for very dry flaky skin. Creams are preferred for night application and are favored for treating special areas like around the eyes and neck. Lotions contain more water and have lower oil content than creams. Lotions are less occlusive, absorb into the skin easily and are pourable. Many people use lotions in the day time and are often preferred by people with oily acne prone skin.
Oily Skin
Patients with oily skin are often troubled by their appearance, discomfort and a sense of uncleanliness. Harsh over-cleansing to remove excess oil will result in barrier damage and excessive dry skin. Many moisturizers created for oily skin types are also designed to help control oil. This is typically accomplished by adding mattifying agents to absorb oil. See riversol products for oily skin here
Aging Skin
There are a number of features associated with aging. Some are related to chronological age, but many can also be attributed to sun damage over time. Both age and sun damage effect the skin’s natural barrier and its ability regulate moisture. For both aging skin and sun damage the use of either a concentrate or regular cream is recommended. Many anti-aging formulas will include active ingredients like vitamin C, vitamin E or Beta-T to specifically target wrinkles, fine lines and sun damage.
Eye Cream
Eye creams are specially formulated moisturizers used to target eye area concerns including dark circles, puffiness and fine lines. The active ingredient of choice are ingredients called peptides. There are many different types of peptides most which encourage collagen production resulting in firmer younger looking skin. Learn more about the Riversol eye cream here
Conclusion
There are countless options when it comes to the treatment of dehydrated skin. As evidenced above, understanding the causes of dry skin makes it easier to mitigate the effects. Slight adjustments to daily skin care regimens, an awareness of the seasonal effects on your skin and being knowledgeable and practical about your choices of moisturizer(s) will lead to more hydrated and healthier skin.
Authors: Dr. J Macdonald and M Thompson
References
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Poor quality LED street lighting may cause accidents and increase the chances of burglaries, some local residents have complained.
One woman from Derrymacash is very concerned at what she described as ‘the incredibly poor quality and ineffectiveness of the new street lighting’.
She was particularly concerned about the new LED lighting at Foxgrove adding that despite three lit street lights it was almost impossible to see her car which was parked directly under a lamp post. “The amount of light given is terrible.” She called for a resolution before an accident occurs.
SDLP Cllr Joe Nelson said the introduction of LED lighting here is a pilot scheme which the Department of Regional Development planned to roll out across the province.
He has conveyed concerns to the DRD and hoped that there would be a review. “The quality of light is better but the spread is not good. There are significant savings with the scheme but people are finding them hard to get used to.”
Other residents also voiced concern. Kathryn McAlinden said: “They are awful, apart from the obvious safety issue of not being able to see whose walking down the street, they are a sure way of enticing burglars into your house.”
Carole Breen was concerned about the elderly or disabled. “When someone gets hurt or assaulted the powers that be will maybe sit up and take notice.”
Suzie Parry described the lights in Donaghcloney as ‘hopeless’. “Only a matter of time before there is a spate of burglaries.”
A TransportNI spokesperson said: “The Department is required to provide an appropriate level of street lighting and the new LED street lights in the Derrymacash area also offer significant improvement in energy and maintenance costs. It is a notable characteristic of LED lanterns that they provide much better control of the light distribution, where light is directed onto the roads and footways, rather than spilling over wider areas or going skywards as unwelcome light pollution.”
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A row has broken out over student votes after a Green campaign group started handing out proxy voting forms on Falmer campus.
The Students for Caroline campaign for the party’s Brighton Pavilion candidate Caroline Lucas is offering University of Sussex students the chance to sign proxy voting forms already filled in with the details of Green Party supporters.
The supporters would then be able to vote on students’ behalf in the national and local elections on May 7, when most will be back at home.
The group held a stall on campus last Friday, and also has a Facebook group which invites people to use proxy votes if they’re not going to be in Brighton next month.
But the move was slammed by the local Labour party, which says proxy votes are intended to given to people they know and trust, not a stranger on a stall.
And it is concerned the proxy votes will be used in the local elections, which students are traditionally not as interested in, as well as the national.
Tracey Hill, Labour local candidate for Hollingdean and Stanmer ward, which includes the Falmer campus, said that while the practice didn’t break election law, it was highly inappropriate.
She said: “Students are being asked to give their votes to someone they don’t know and have never met. That doesn’t sound right.
“What if the student changes their mind later? They wouldn’t be able to contact their proxy to let them know.”
Caroline Penn, Labour local candidate for the same ward, said: “It has been widely reported that the number of young people registering to vote has fallen significantly since the introduction of the new voter registration rules were introduced.
“However, this seems to be taking things too far.”
And Michael Inkpin-Leissner, also a Labour candidate for the ward, said: “People often vote differently in local elections from general elections.
“But with these pre-filled forms, students are signing away their right to vote in local elections too, without even being able to discuss or communicate with their proxy about how to vote.”
However, a spokeswoman for Students for Caroline said proxy voting was a good solution for those who can’t vote in person or by post.
She said: “Many students are extremely keen to make sure their voice is counted on May 7, and so some, who know they won’t be able to vote in person or by post because of holiday and postal vote timings, are asking instead for a proxy vote.
“Ideally, we hope as many students as possible will be able to vote in person or by post. But where that just won’t be an option for them, proxy voting is a well-recognised solution they’re able to choose if they’d like.
“It’s obviously all led by them – we just make them aware of all the options available, which I think most people would agree is the right thing to do, and we’ve had students approach us directly to request a proxy vote themselves.
“We follow a code of practice which adheres to official Electoral Commission guidance and we check our campaigners are familiar with it.
“We have checked with town hall electoral services to ensure our student voter campaign operates within all election regulations.”
So far, 188 people have registered with Brighton and Hove City Council for a proxy vote.
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Italian Hans Kammerlander and American Jordan Romero have both achieved personal dreams, Kammerlander becoming the first to climb all the second highest summits on each of the continents, while Romero became the youngest "Seven Summiteer".
In early January Kammerlander made only the fifth ascent of Tyree (4,852m) in the Sentinel Range of Antarctica, climbing in the company of Austrians Robert Miller and Christian Stangl.
Whilst it's not clear when or where the original idea of Second Seven Summits was muted, Jon Kraukauer, discussing the Seven Summits fascination in his best seller, Into Thin Air, notes that climbing the second highest peaks would provide a much greater challenge.
Kammerlander climbed K2 in 2001 but only decided to focus on the Second Seven Summits in 2009. That year he climbed Ojas del Salado in Chile (6,893m) and Kenya (5,199m). In 2010 came 5,959m Logan in the Canadian Yukon and Dych Tau (5,204m) in Russia. In 2011 it was the turn of Puncak Trikora (4,730m), the second highest peak in Australasia.
The second highest in Australasia/Oceania still seems to be a question of debate. Nggu Pulu is often quoted as the second highest summit, but it is more a subsidiary top to Carstensz Pyramid than an independent mountain. However, another school of thought suggests Puncak Mandala, a separate peak, has a higher altitude than Trikora.
Tyree was first climbed in January 1967 by Barry Corbet and John Evans via a committing traverse over Gardiner, during the American expedition that made the first ascent of the continent's highest mountain, Vinson.
The second came in 1989 when Mugs Stump made his now legendary solo ascent of the west face, totally raising the bar in Antarctic mountaineering.
In 1997 French Antoine de Choudens and Antoine Cayrel climbed the east face for the third ascent. This line was repeated not long after by Conrad Anker and Alex Lowe.
While the route Kammerlander and partners took to the summit is currently not known for certain, it is most likely to be via the great ice slope of the east face.
In 2008 and 2009 Stangl, who is also on a quest to complete the Second Seven, had tried Tyree. On the second attempt, via the French Route on the east face, he was within shouting distance of the summit when a single falling rock broke his partner's arm, causing the pair to bail.
Kammerlander has climbed 13 of the 8,000ers, but is quoted as saying he has no intention of returning to Manaslu, in order to complete the collection, because he lost friends there early in his climbing career.
Stangl's aim is now to climb the Triple Seven Summits: the first, second and third highest mountains on each continent.
Jordan Romero (born July 1996) climbed Kilimanjaro aged 10 and by the time he was 13 had climbed six of the Seven Summits. His ascent of Everest from the north in 2010 made him the youngest to have stood on top.
With the experienced American guide Scott Wollums, his father Paul, and his stepmother Karen Lundgren, Romero reached the summit of Vinson on Xmas Eve.
Romero now wants to use his profile to inspire a healthy lifestyle amongst American children with a Healthy Eating Challenge; "I've been able to push my body and mind to the summits of all these mountains, because I put good fuel in my body".
Prior to Romero summiting Vinson, the youngest person to have climbed the Seven Summits was the 16-year-old George Atkinson from the UK
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Once Again, 'Defenders Of Copyright' Found To Have No Problem Copying Others
from the funny-stuff dept
We recently discussed UK law firm, Davenport Lyons, which had been criticized widely for running a controversial campaign supposedly to stamp out copyright infringement, but seemed a lot more like extortion to many. Basically it would contract with software companies to enforce their copyright... and would then send out a ton of demand letters (based on questionable evidence) requiring cash payments to avoid being sued. Not surprisingly, many people just paid up rather than risk getting sued -- even if they were innocent. Of course, all the controversy and negative publicity seemed to get back to the company. High profile clients like Atari dropped them . Last month, some noticed a nearly identical campaign, but this time coming from a different company called ACS Law. The only problem? A little investigating suggested that the two firms were clearly related -- with ACS using documents created by Davenport Lyons.Things continue to get more ridiculous, as TorrentFreak noticed that an article apparently published by ACS Law was actually plagiarized from a variety of different sources , basically cut and pasted together with no credit or citations given at all. Remarkably, in some cases, articles with the exact opposite view of ACS Law were copied with paragraphs that just had an added sentence to the end which completely contradicted what the original article said.It really is quite amusing how often those who insist they're big supporters of intellectual property and not "stealing" the works of others always seem to get caught red-handed in plagiarism and copying others' work. In the meantime, how often do we see supporters of more reasonable copyright (or no copyright) get caught doing this? Hmm?
Filed Under: copyright, plagiarism, uk
Companies: acs law, davenport lyons
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'I'm in the water! Somebody help me!' Haunting 911 call made by girl, 17, killed after car plunges into pond and sinks
A 17-year-old girl who lost control of her car and plunged into a pond made a desperate call to 911 from inside her trapped, sinking vehicle.
But police were unable to reach Brianna Coon, from Rockford, Ohio, before the car became fully submerged in the water, killing her.
The teenager lost control of her 1995 Dodge Neon on Saturday night as she drove home from the cinema along a rural road near Ottoville, Ohio.
Scroll down for 911 call
Tragic: Brianna Coon, 17, lost control of her car along a rural road and swerved into a pond. She called 911 but drowned before police could reach her
Authorities believe she may have been speeding when her car flipped over and landed on its roof in the water, according to the 911 call log.
In the frantic call, Brianna is heard pleading with the operator for help.
'I'm in the water! I'm in the water!' the teenager tells the operator. 'I don't know what to do. Please help.'
'Where are you at?' The operator asks. 'Ma'am? Ma'am?'
The line falls silent before cutting off. There was no answer when the operator returned the call.
She was unable to determine the exact location of the cellphone, but the sheriff's office and Highway Patrol immediately launched a search.
Plea: On the call, the teen is heard begging for help before the line cuts out
Family: Brianna's mother rushed to the scene, but her daughter was found dead inside the car. The teenager from Rockford, Ohio, leaves behind four brothers
But it was too late. Two hours later, a trooper found tire tracks, a hubcap and Neon car parts near the pond - where a submerged car was found.
'I'm in the water! I'm in the water! I don't know what to do. Please help!'
Brianna Coon, 911 call
Police contacted Ms Coon's mother, Diana Rissner, who said she had texted her daughter just before 11 p.m. but had not received a reply.
Police accompanied Ms Rissner to the pond. When the vehicle was pulled from the water, her daughter's dead body was on the back seat.
Ohio's Highway Patrol is investigating the accident but do not believe alcohol was a factor.
It is believed Brianna, who had been wearing a seat belt, had driven across a bridge before swerving to the left after breaking quickly.
Location: The teen's Dodge Neon swerved off the road near Ottoville, Ohio
The 911 call log notes that she may have become airborne as she plummeted towards the water.
Brianna attended Parkway High School in Rockford, where she took part in the bowling team and community outreach programs.
The teen, who had four brothers and lived with her mother and stepfather, also worked at a McDonald's restaurant in Van Wert.
Funeral services are being held on Saturday February 11, where her family are encouraging that memorials be given to an educational fund for the teen's brothers.
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Is Wallonia one of Europe’s last bastions against a huge trade deal with Canada?
The region of southern Belgium looks to set to block the CETA deal, which requires unanimous support from member states before it can be written into EU law.
Andre Antoine is president of the Walloon Parliament:
“This treaty is, in essence, for multinationals. When we make a law to protect our fellow citizens, to improve their situation, for example social or environmental conditions, we will have to compensate the multinationals. Between the government proposing, and the parliament deciding we have the multinationals interfering.”
As well as the unanimous agreement of member states, both regions of Belgium must back the deal before it can go ahead.
EU trade ministers are due to vote on the accord next week. Brussels and Ottawa then hope to sign it on October 27.
The European Parliament would also need to vote to allow parts of it to go into force.
Support from Slovenia also remains uncertain.
Austria’s chancellor, however, has struck a conciliatory tone, saying many of his concerns have been addressed.
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But those actively involved in the formation of the LNP almost a decade ago said any push to split the conservative would be vehemently opposed. They said a return to three-cornered contests (between Liberals, Nationals and Labor candidates) would be an even bigger electoral disaster.
"There's nothing wrong with the ship - the ship is sound. The problem is the captain and the crew and the destination plan," a former senior LNP insider told AFR Weekend.
"Does the Labor party tear itself apart after they have a loss or do they just rebuild?"
LNP president Gary Spence said there was no chance of a demerger in Queensland saying the single party delivered record results at the past two federal elections, winning 22 out of 30 seat and 21 of out 30 seats respectively.
"In the last 10 years there's always someone who wants to talk about it, but there is zero prospect of the LNP even considering demerging and anyone suggesting otherwise is mischief making," he said.
The performance of LNP leader Tim Nicholls and the decision not to put One Nation last are being cited as the biggest issues to be investigated in any post-election review.
One Nation's decision to preference against all sitting MPs, including the LNP, resulted in the loss of about 10 seats. If a deal was struck to not preference against sitting LNP MPs, Mr Nicholls might have had a better shot at winning office.
Senior LNP veterans, including former senator Ron Boswell and former state leader Lawrence Springborg, had been warning about any deal with One Nation up to 12 months before last month's election, but had been ignored by the LNP executive.
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The LNP has been out of office for all but five of the last 24 years in Queensland.
Liberal National Party leader Tim Nicholls has refused to concede defeat even though the LNP have so far locked in 38 seats. Even if they picked up the four remaining seats - which is unlikely - they will only hold 42 seats, five short of the 47-seat figure to form government in their own right.
This would require winning over five cross-bench MPs, which could include one Greens MP, to form minority government - a scenario which looks implausible.
Both Ms Palaszczuk and Mr Nicholls did not front the media on Friday.
Of the four seats in doubt, the North Queensland seat of Hinchinbrook is expected to be won by Katter's Australian Party candidate Nick Dametto, giving the KAP a voting bloc of three seats in the new 93-seat parliament.
ABC election analyst Antony Green, who on Friday backed to Labor to win 47 seats and majority government, said he expected the Liberals to take Burdekin and Townsville and the Greens to pick up the inner-Brisbane seat of Maiwar. This would take the LNP tally to 40 seats.
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Defencemen that play for the Anaheim Ducks have been in discussion across the Leafs blogosphere over the past few days. What else is new, though; it’s been that way for the past several months. But as the various drafts near and the Leafs are still supposedly looking for a defenceman, the two sides keep getting linked to each other.
I get it; the teams trade a lot with each other. Just look at their history over the past few years:
January 11th, 2017: Leafs trade Jhonas Enroth for a 7th round pick
July 8th, 2016: Leafs trade Jonathan Bernier for a conditional pick
June 20th, 2016: Leafs trade 1st, 2nd round picks for Frederik Andersen
March 2nd, 2015: Leafs trade Korbinian Holzer for Eric Brewer, 5th round pick
November 16th, 2013: Leafs trade Jesse Blacker, 3rd, 7th round picks for Peter Holland, Brad Staubitz
March 15th, 2013: Leafs trade David Steckel for Ryan Lasch, 7th round pick
It’s safe to say that the two sides have familiarity with each other, and that’s skipping the other 9 trades they’ve made in the cap era and free agents that have jumped from one side to another, and the coaches and front office executives that have gone opposite ways…
It’s only logical to assume that another move will come. It helps especially that the Ducks have a surplus of defencemen that need to be protected in the upcoming expansion draft, which has led many to believe that they’ll have to make a decision soon, leaving someone up for grabs.
But you have to ask yourself three questions before committing to this train of thought.
The first one, to me, is pretty obvious: would any of their core defencemen be ideal fits?
Hampus Lindholm is of the right age, steady in every sense of the word, and has the mobility to keep up with the team. But he’s a left-handed shot; not a total dealbreaker, but given that he’d probably cost the most to acquire, it seems pointless to pay out the nose for somebody who plays in a spot where you already have Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly. Lindholm has a good case for being the best of the three, but it still creates a logjam. Having one of them switch sides is a possibility, but that goes against Mike Babcock’s preference for handedness balance and is believed to have a negative impact on possession.
Much of the same applies to Cam Fowler (the handedness, mobility, and age), but he’s a step down as far as controlling the flow of play. That wouldn’t be the end of the world if he wasn’t due for a monster extension.
12. Cam Fowler prediction: he re-signs in Anaheim for something around eight years and a $6.5 million average. When he slipped to 12th in the 2010 draft, one of the reasons was that he didn’t interview well. He admitted at the time he was uncomfortable with the process. As an awkward 19-year-old myself, I was sympathetic. Have always wanted to see him do well to overcome that, and he’s earned it. [Friedman, 30 Thoughts]
If we’re talking $6.5 million on a long term after giving up assets, you may as well just try the free agent market instead.
This leaves us with Sami Vatanen and Josh Manson. Tyler Dellow of the Athletic covered Vatanen the other day; noticing in particular that he seems to be carried a by his partners. To add to that point, thinking solely from a “how will they get used” perspective, it’s hard to believe that this current Leafs coaching staff is going to put their right-handed hopes into a 5’10, not-overly-physical defenceman unless he’s absolutely racking up points. While Vatanen is good in this regard, he isn’t in the elite tier.
Katya over at Pension Plan Puppets is much more positive about Manson, and she’s far from the only one. If you take the “get into Babcock’s mind” approach that we just used with Vatanen, Manson is a perfect fit. He’s a tough-as-nails defenceman with shutdown elements to his game, he’s big (6’3, 215), and at 25 years old, he’s that perfect in between for deciding whether a player is a “kid” or a “vet”.
My biggest concern there, I suppose, would be buy-in to the Leafs’ style of play. After all, they’re poised to be the fastest, highest event, highest scoring team in hockey over the next few years, and Manson is the antithesis of that. He’s been a relative positive in generating offence (shots/attempts) compared to his teammates, but he seems to do the bulk of that when playing with Lindholm, who has been the best player on the team in that regard over Manson’s career.
It’s enough to make you wonder if he’s capable of generating without a supporting cast, and while that seems unimportant from a shutdown guy, he’d be playing a bigger role in Toronto and with a bigger role comes the necessity to blend in. It can’t be a Matt Martin / Nikita Soshnikov / Brian Boyle situation where the players get to pad defensive stats by playing on a line designed to kill time; you’re not getting Manson to play on your third pair if you’re going to pay premium assets. For what it’s worth, there’s been some gossip that it would take just that; the Ducks like him a lot (hardly shocking on a Carlyle team) and for one more year, he’s a cheap spot on a team up against the cap. Teams have inquired and backed away quickly upon hearing the cost; I can’t imagine being able to slide in quietly and grabbing him cheap.
Which brings us to our next point. How pressed to the wall are the Ducks? This is important to note if you’re going to be bidding for a player; the entire point of going after this group is that you’d be getting somebody below market value, right?
Anaheim’s situation looks rough, so long as you play by the given rules. Having those four defencemen essentially locks them into going the eight skater route, and the Ducks have four players on No-Movement clauses over the age of 30; Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler, and Kevin Bieksa.
This leads many to believe that they’ll have to expose at least one of those defencemen and one of Rickard Rakell or Jakob Silfverberg. But no-movement clauses can be waived at a moment’s notice. Bobby Ryan made us all laugh when he said he wasn’t worried about the draft because his contract wouldn’t be worth it to them. He’s far from the only one who would be lava to the Knights without a sweetener, including two of the players mentioned in the prior paragraph. The Ducks’ situation is simple to solve with co-operation: getting Kesler (5 years left at 6.875M) and Bieksa (1 year left at 4M) to waive their NMC’s would allow them to get this group through the next few weeks, eliminating the degree of urgency.
Last to consider is the return. If they can’t get these players to waive, and one of the defencemen hit the market, what are you prepared to give up for them? You can’t send them a non-exempt defenceman back if they’re going to use this to go 7/3/1 (which also means you’re now against the clock to either move Connor Carrick or lose him), and you can’t send them more than one or two forwards. You have to dive into rookies, prospects, and picks at this point; I’m not completely adverse to that idea, but given that the point of going after a non-elite edition is to avoid doing that, I’m not sure how many would be on board.
Not to mention, this won’t be a single horse race if a player does get confirmed to be for sale. Many teams in the league are in the same boat as far as wanting to upgrade goes; if the Ducks are going to be the most obvious seller, they’ll have multiple people looking to buy, and given what happened last June, it’s doubtful that the league isn’t still in silly season as far as evaluating the typical mid-age, above average but not elite defenceman.
All of this said, it’s still very possible that Toronto and Anaheim end up linking up on a deal. But let’s be realistic about this; Anaheim isn’t up against the wall just yet, there will be other teams involved if they get to that point, and the prizes at stake are nice, but not quite the holy grail. Hyping up a blockbuster between these two as a near-foregone conclusion that gets daily talk might be fun for the water cooler, but it’s not the hill that I’d die on right now.
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Hello Linux Geeksters. It’s official. Fedora 21, using GNOME 3.14 (scheduled for release on September 2014) will be the first Linux system to use the Wayland system compositor as default, instead of the good old X11 server. The Fedora developers have approved the change yesterday at their FESCo meeting.
As you may know, Wayland is a new system compositor created by the Red Hat developers and sponsored by Intel and Samsung, among others. It is also used on mobile devices, the Jolla phone being the first to be powered by Wayland.
Before deciding to create Mir, Canonical also intended to use Wayland on their new Ubuntu desktop and mobile systems.
While the initial plans were to have official Wayland support starting with GNOME 3.12, this was rescheduled for GNOME 3.14. According to this wiki, an experimental version of Wayland for Gnome Shell will be available for Fedora 20, the gnome-shell shipping with mutter in two versions, one for the X compositor and one for Wayland (this happened also with Gnome Shell 3.12).
Also Wayland is under massive works, the latest version available being Wayland 1.5 RC, while the stable version of Wayland 1.5 (and Weston 1.5) will be released this week.
To test Fedora running on Wayland, install Fedora Rawhide (testing) in a virtual machine. While it already uses the under-development version of GNOME 3.14 (for now GNOME 3.13.1), it will be also the first Fedora system to receive the Wayland Gnome improvements.
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The government has spent R60 million on killing 50 000 ostriches in a bid to stop the spread of avian flu, but the virus is still present, it was reported on Thursday.
The Western Cape agriculture department said it was time to admit the policy of blanket killing of entire flocks was not working and to look at other methods, the Cape Times reported.
Agricultural MEC Gerrit van Rensburg said the focus was no longer on getting the export industry reopened but on the survival of the entire South African ostrich industry.
He said killing of the ostriches would be futile as the virus could still be present in the wild bird population.
He wrote to national Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Petterson on Wednesday to urge a "quick response" to the crisis.
According to the report, the export ban, in place for the last 18 months, has cost the industry more than R1 billion.
More than 40% of the producers have left the industry. The size of the national ostrich flock had decreased from a million birds to 250 000.
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Developing countries add more than 50 elements to UN’s draft Paris deal, complaining of bias towards richer nations
By Ed King
Time-pressed talks on a global climate deal faced delays on Monday after the co-chairs guiding the process accepted their proposed draft agreement lacked support from most countries.
UN officials had presented a radically cut 20-page set of proposals earlier this month, but their work was shredded in an intense and angry morning session in Bonn.
Instead of planned negotiations, the text swelled rapidly on a binge of over 50 so-called “surgical insertions” from countries, most ranging between 1-2 pages.
Most submissions came from the Africa Group and G77+ China, reflecting their frustration at what they argued was a text tilted in favour of richer nations.
South African ambassador Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, representing the 134-strong G77+ China group, said developing country views had been excised from the shorter text.
The obligation of rich countries to provide climate finance and help poorer nations cope with expected extreme weather events were specific concerns raised by her group.
Experts say planned greenhouse gas emission cuts from major economies are nowhere near enough to limit warming to below the 2C danger zone, meaning many vulnerable countries could face more floods, droughts and rising sea levels.
Evoking memories of apartheid, she said the document produced by US State Department veteran Dan Reifsnyder and Algeria’s Ahmed Djoglaf had left a potential Paris deal unbalanced and lopsided.
“To the G77 this text seems to rewrite, re-interpret and replace the convention… it jeopardises the interests of developing countries,” Diseko said.
Diseko’s stance found allies across the vast negotiating chamber, and a plenary meeting scheduled to last 30 minutes rapidly spiralled beyond two hours.
“Credit us with a little wisdom,” said Malaysia’s Gurdal Singh. The document was an “injustice” added Amjad Abdulla, chief negotiator for the alliance of small island states (AOSIS).
Cuba, Sudan, Sierra Leone all echoed their complaints. G77 heavyweights India, China and Brazil looked on impassively.
Steve Cornelius, a former UK negotiator now working for WWF-UK, said the language used was some of the strongest since the final hours of the ill-fated Copenhagen summit of 2009.
Harjeet Singh, representing ActionAid, said the rhetoric was a result of a lack of trust in the two co-chairs. It would “seriously hamper” the process moving forward, he warned.
“Most options that G77 put forward were not reflected… adaptation, loss and damage, finance – you don’t see those options,” he added.
“Equity is at the core of it… they have not mentioned it… it does not say who has to do more.”
On twitter – never the most reliable barometer at these talks – rumours the text had been penned by the US State Department reached fever pitch, spawning the hashtag #UStext.
Liz Gallagher, an analyst with the London-based E3G think tank dismissed suggestions of a “super conspiracy”, arguing instead this was the result of pre-Paris tensions.
“It was never going to be a totally smooth process to whittle down the negotiating text; the stakes are so high,” she said.
One reason nerves are on edge is that what comes out of Bonn will be the basis for ministerial talks at the start of November and the heads of state conflab on day 1 of the Paris summit.
“The G77 will be asking to see their previous proposals on adaptation and loss and damage reflected in the iteration of the text that goes to ministers at high level events,” said Saleemul Huq, a Bangladeshi scientist.
One veteran of this process Climate Home spoke to dismissed Monday’s excitement as “nothing new”, but there were evident signs of nerves from the UN and negotiating teams.
Switzerland’s environment ambassador Franz Perrez described himself as “very concerned with how this process is going.”
Trigg Talley, a usually phlegmatic US number 2 negotiator, struck a note of warning, mindful perhaps of the political capital the White House has invested in this process.
“We have 5 days left before Paris… before our leaders come to give us all momentum,” he said.
“I guess I’m wondering to see what the whole picture is… I’m starting to worry we actually will find we get bogged down and will not understand what the full picture is.”
Mindful of the oncoming storm, the outgoing Peruvian president of this process, Manuel Pulgar Vidal, had recorded a greeting message that was played out first thing Monday.
“We have 2 options… the first is to throw into the waste basket what we have in front of us, but all of us know that if we do that we will suffer what we suffered in 2009,” he said.
On that, at least, there was widespread agreement. But the road to Paris remains fraught with difficulties.
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The Canadian singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen has written some of the most eloquent, powerful, and important popular songs of the past half century.
Although many members of the younger generation are only familiar with his modern day hymn “Hallelujah,” that’s really just skimming the surface of Cohen’s brilliance. For the man who wrote “Hallelujah” has also given us “Suzanne,” “So Long, Marianne,” “Anthem,” “Closing Time,” “If It Be Your Will,” and several dozen other songs that musicians will still be covering in twenty, fifty, one hundred years time.
Leonard Cohen is, arguably, my country’s greatest living songwriter—and an artist deserving of a thoughtful, eloquent, and comprehensive biography. Thankfully, my guest today has provided music fans with just that.
Sylvie Simmons is a longtime rock critic and music writer whose 2012 biography of Cohen, I’m Your Man, was the rare hotly anticipated music biography that lived up to the hype.
Written over several years with the support, if not the official endorsement of its subject, I’m Your Man is an engrossing and moving read, inspiring to Cohen fans as well as anyone who does anything creative for a living. Leonard Cohen’s 80-plus years on this planet have been fascinating, occasionally tumultuous, and complex, and his biographer—herself a longtime fan—has honoured and celebrated Cohen’s life with her book.
In today’s episode of Travels in Music, Sylvie Simmons and I discuss her personal encounters with Cohen, what his music has meant to her and so many others, Cohen’s reputation as a ladies man, salacious Canadian journalism, and much more.
I was privileged for her to join me, and I hope you enjoy sitting in on my conversation with the author of I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, Ms. Sylvie Simmons.
Also available via Stitcher Radio
Mentioned in this episode:
I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons (Amazon)
“Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen (Amazon / iTunes)
The Best of Leonard Cohen (Amazon / iTunes)
Sylvie Simmons performing “Famous Blue Raincoat” (YouTube)
Tom Waits interviewed by Sylvie Simmons
“You Are In My Arms” by Sylvie Simmons (Amazon / iTunes)
“Closing Time (Live)” by Leonard Cohen (Amazon / iTunes)
Learn more about Sylvie Simmons at:
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Some Brexiteers are angry. This is not news. This has been true since about 20 minutes after the referendum result was declared. There are some Leavers who have been looking, since 24 June last year, for a new grievance, fresh evidence they are being betrayed and denied, generally by some shadowy group they describe as ‘the establishment’ or ‘the elite’. (Please note that I say ‘some’ Leavers, not all. More people in politics and journalism should distinguish between members of a group and the whole group).
Some of that anger is understandable. For years and decades, anyone who espoused leaving the EU was ignored and marginalised and called a crackpot. I’d be angry too if someone told me my views were illegitimate or mad. But understandable anger doesn’t mean all the expressions of that feeling are justified. Some Brexiteer anger after the referendum, especially last autumn, went beyond the realms of reasonable discourse in a democracy. Questioning the patriotism of people who disagree with you isn’t nice.
Some Remainers have been stupid and horrible too. Internet gags about Leavers all being racist throwbacks are nasty and wrong, and there remains a distasteful undertone in many Remainers’ arguments about Leavers being tricked that implies those voters were just too thick to know what they were voting for. My fellow Remainers should judge less and listen more – and reflect much more on why Remain lost, why it failed to persuade.
Which brings me back to those angry Brexiteers, the ones shrieking about the need to tar and feather and deselect Tory MPs who voted for Parliament to have more of a say on the Brexit deal. It would be easy to denounce them as shrill hypocrites (‘You said you wanted to take back control for Parliament’) and paranoids (‘Calm down dears – we’re still leaving’), but I think it’s more useful to think about why they’re so angry, because that might just make it easier to manage that anger.
And it needs to be managed. The hard-Brexit wing of the Tory Party doesn’t have the votes or the public support to get its way, to command a Commons majority or pick the next Tory leader. But it can still do an awful lot of damage, deepening and directing that sense of imminent betrayal some (that word again) Leave voters really do feel. The European Research Group of Tory MPs cannot form a government of its own, but it can paralyse someone else’s.
So consider why people like Nadine Dorries are so, so cross with (honourable and admirable) colleagues such as Dominic Grieve, Anna Soubry and Nicky Morgan, so cross they think those MPs should be deselected. Calling for deselection, incidentally, is about as serious as it gets in parliamentary spats: it amounts to urging a colleague’s local party association to turn on their MP, which a lot of members consider unforgivably hostile, not to mention plain bad manners.
The question again: why are they so angry? Why the fury about ‘their’ Brexit being taken away? Well the truth – and this is awkward – is that they’re right. Their form of Brexit is being taken away. They are losing. Actually, it’s more accurate to say they have already lost – more than six months ago, in fact.
A lot of people talk about the referendum result as the ‘will of the people’, which is fair enough. The result, in my view, means Britain must indeed leave the EU. But the people get more than one chance to express their will, and in June this year they decided to deny Theresa May the parliamentary majority she said she needed to implement her chosen form of Brexit.
That is the central fact of British political debate on Brexit today, but one that is often overlooked by some Leavers, who seem to think that Mrs May can and should simply continue on the same course she set before the election. Notably, Mrs May doesn’t appear to agree: hence her compromises over money, transition and the ECJ that allowed her to reach an initial agreement last week.
The EU27, incidentally, are also well aware of this central fact; arguably, they have a better grasp of British political and parliamentary dynamics than some of those angry leavers. To be clear, the idea that last night’s vote weakens Mrs May’s position in Brussels today is a bit silly: it was weak to start with, and the EU27 knew that perfectly well. Last night’s vote didn’t tell people in Brussels anything they didn’t already know. Smart Leavers know this too. One senior, sensible Brexiteer told me in August with a wistful shrug that ‘hard Brexit died on election night’. That sort of realism drove many Tory Leavers to swallow the compromises Mrs May made to get her agreement last week. By contrast, the fact that there is no parliamentary majority for the hardest Brexit or a no-deal exit seems still to be news to the angry faction in the Leavers’ ranks. Helping them accept and absorb that fact is now an urgent task.
Probably the worst thing for Remainers, especially Tory rebels, to do now is to act in way that suggests the balance of power in Parliament and the emerging alliance between Tory Remainers, Labour and Lib Dems will led to the outright frustration of Brexit. Living up to the angry Leavers’ fears about the referendum result being negated would very likely drive them (and their electorate) to new levels of anger and damaging behaviour.
Better, I think, for the Remain Alliance to offer the angry Leavers a joint understanding that goes something like this: you need to accept that your argument didn’t win the general election, so can’t have everything you want from Brexit, while we need to accept that our argument didn’t win the referendum, so we can’t have everything we want either. In other words, we’ll still leave, but the manner of our leaving will now be the subject of compromise and negotiation in Parliament, a body that exists for precisely this reason – to reconcile and aggregate competing opinions and desires.
The final outcome will be messy and blurred and will almost certainly leave everyone feeling a bit disappointed and like they didn’t get everything they wanted. But that’s politics, folks: no-one wins outright. Anyone who can’t accept that is probably in the wrong business.
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MANNY Pacquiao’s timing is terrible and with just five and a half weeks to his Suncorp Superfight with Jeff Horn the world welterweight champ is in the worst form of his career.
That’s the opinion of Pacquiao’s esteemed trainer Freddie Roach, who could only shake his head in disappointment as Pacquiao lumbered through his second day of sparring in Manila.
After wowing the Australian media with his fast and flashy work on the punching mitts last week, Pacquiao had all the zest of a mummy as the Los Angeles-based Roach told respected website philstar.com that the sparring session was ``an eyesore’’.
“His second day of sparring today is maybe the worst I’ve ever seen so far. His timing is really, really off,” Roach said after a dejected Pacquiao wrapped up his workout.
Roach arrived in Manila from America on the weekend to take over the champ’s preparation after Pacquiao had spent the preceding few weeks training with old friend Buboy Fernandez.
Manny Pacquiao during a training session at Elorde boxing Gym Source: Getty Images
Pacquiao had a number of days off training leading into what he calls the ``serious’’ preparation.
Roach, who has steered Pacquiao to his most impressive victories, said the champ was ``way behind” in his preparation and it showed in his sluggishness in sparring.
He said Pacquiao hitting peak form was `”not gonna happen overnight. It’s gonna be a process.’’
Pacquiao, who will defend his WBO welterweight title (66kg) against the Fighting Schoolteacher before an expected crowd of 55,000 at Suncorp Stadium on July 2, went five rounds with two Filipino sparring partners and took more than his share of punches.
Philstar.com reported that `”Pacquiao was far from the deadly fighter he’s long been known for.’’
Leonardo Doronio, who has just 15 wins in 32 fights, did two rounds with Pacquiao and landed his share of jabs and left hooks.
Manny Pacquiao during a training session at Elorde boxing Gym Source: Getty Images
Then Sonny Katiandagho, who was stopped in Sydney in April by Irish-born light-welterweight Darragh Foley, did three rounds with the world champ.
In some exchanges, Katiandagho got the better of the man who has earned more than $500 million from the sport.
At times it looked like Pacquiao was deliberately letting his sparring partners hit him.
Roach told leading Filipino journalist Dyan Castillejo, of ABS-CBN News, that he has warned Pacquiao not to underestimate the undefeated Horn.
``This guy (Horn) can punch,” Roach said. “He’s knocked out his last few opponents.
``He’s dangerous with the right, he has a real good right hook, and that’s something that Manny’s been hit with before.”
“We’re fixing all that now, and it won’t be a concern by fight time.
``(Manny) needs to use his speed, his footwork, and his boxing ability.”
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There’s a media mystery developing around the anonymous new owners of the muckraking blog FailedMessiah, and growing signs the site’s harsh criticism of the Orthodox community may be permanently silenced.
Shmarya Rosenberg, who ran FailedMessiah singlehandedly for more than a decade, announced February 2 that he was moving on. Days later, questions about the blog’s new owners are multiplying, and one Orthodox website has suggested that an Orthodox businessman bought FailedMessiah to “pull the plug” on Rosenberg’s hard-hitting reports on the community.
In a post on February 3, the new owners said they were “a group of people dedicated to protecting the reputation of the Orthodox Jewish community,” but did not identify themselves by name.
That post was signed “Diversified Holdings.” There are more than a hundred companies registered under that name in the United States. It’s not clear that any of them is the new owner of FailedMessiah.
Reached via telephone at his home in Minnesota, Rosenberg would not say who the site’s new owners were, nor how much he sold the site for. He said that he did not expect the new ownership group to shut down FailedMessiah.
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“It’s certainly going to change the site in some ways, they’re very open about that,” Rosenberg said. “But no, they’re not going to kill it.”
In their February 3 post, FailedMessiah’s new anonymous owners said they planned to “present articles and conversations that speak to what Hashem truly wants from us” and “continue to pursue and expose people that create a desecration of G-d’s name.”
The only other post since Rosenberg’s February 2 farewell is a brief item about developments in the Florida trial of a 15-year-old accused of murdering an Orthodox rabbi. The post was copied and pasted in its entirety from the website of the local CBS station in Miami.
Under Rosenberg, FailedMessiah was a clearinghouse for news of Orthodox wrongdoing, with an emphasis on efforts by Orthodox institutions to cover up allegations of sex abuse. While Rosenberg was widely read, and his posts at times drove coverage at Jewish and mainstream news organizations, he engendered deep antagonism in some corners of the Orthodox community.
Readers in FailedMessiah’s active comments section have asked since Rosenberg’s announcement of his departure whether the new owners intend to tamp down FailedMessiah’s criticism of Orthodox leadership.
An unsigned post on the Orthodox website OnlySimchas.com reported “rumors” that California nursing home magnate Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz was among the buyers of Rosenberg’s site. Rechnitz, 44, is an enigmatic ultra-Orthodox businessman, a major donor to Orthodox charities and yeshivas, and the son-in-law of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, a leading ultra-Orthodox rabbi who died this January.
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Rechnitz recently made headlines when he bought Powerball tickets for all his employees in his California nursing homes. One nurse briefly thought she won a slice of the $1 billion prize, but it turned out to be a hoax.
Rechnitz has shown a tendency to be gently critical of the Orthodox community. In early January, while accepting an honor at a gala dinner for a Lakewood, New Jersey yeshiva that he had funded, he attacked of Lakewood’s Orthodox schools for excluding some students. Days later, he issued an apology, saying that he had not meant to insult any rabbis or yeshiva heads.
Meanwhile, Rechnitz’s nursing homes are facing heavy scrutiny from state and federal regulators in California, according to a lengthy June report in the Sacramento Bee. According to the paper, three of Rechnitz’s 81 California nursing homes have been kicked out of the federal Medicare program in recent years, a highly unusual and drastic step. In the Sacramento Bee story, Rechnitz says that his regulatory problems are the result of bad relationships with state officials.
In its February 4 post, OnlySimchas suggested that Rechnitz had bought FailedMessiah to throttle its reporting. “The rumors claim that allegedly Rechnitz was simply fed up with the amount of hatred towards his fellow Jews, and simply could not bear to watch it continue,” OnlySimchas wrote. “If Rechnitz had any hand in the deal to have [FailedMessiah] pull the plug, his share in [heaven] will have just grown to an unimaginable level.”
Rechnitz did not respond to messages left at his office and his home.
A spokesman for OnlySimchas said that the site stood behind the post, but refused to elaborate on it or identify its author.
Rosenberg, meanwhile, declined to discuss the new owners of his site.
“I told them they could identify themselves in any way they wanted to, when they thought it was the right time to do it, and that’s what we agreed on,” he said. “I’m holding my end of the agreement up.”
Rosenberg told the Forward that he was planning a new initiative that he said would combat the demonization of poor people. He said that he looked back with pride over his time at FailedMessiah.
“I know I’ve made a difference, “ he said. “I am proud of that.”
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis on Twitter @joshnathankazis
This story "Do Buyers Plan To Silence FailedMessiah.com?" was written by Josh Nathan-Kazis.
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By Dan McGowan, Tim White and Ted Nesi - PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Robert J. "Bob" Healey Jr., a bearded iconoclast whose multiple campaigns for public office included a competitive bid for governor in 2014, has died. He was 58.
Barrington Police Chief John LaCross said police and fire personnel were called to Healey's home on Sowams Road at 9:41 p.m. after "a report of a possible sudden death." A good friend of Healey's met them, saying he'd gone there after not hearing from Healey and becoming concerned. Healey was found in bed under the covers and was pronounced dead at 10.
Barrington Town Council President June Speakman said the town manager told her Healey's death was "not suspicious."
Healey was best known for launching Rhode Island's Cool Moose Party. He served on the Warren School Committee from 1982 until 1986 and then ran unsuccessfully for governor four times and lieutenant governor on three occasions.
During the 2014 governor's race, Healey stunned observers twice: first by entering the race late in place of another Moderate Party candidate, then by capturing 21% of the vote after spending just $35 on his campaign. He finished third behind Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, a Republican.
"It's amazing what $35 can do," Healy told Eyewitness News the morning after the election. "As I've been saying, if we only spent $75, $80, we might've won the race."
Four years earlier, Healey had run for lieutenant governor - and promised to abolish the office if he won it. That time he took 39% of the vote against incumbent Democrat Elizabeth Roberts.
"He showed the rest of us that someone that doesn't look the part can be effective," Speakman said. "He broke the rule that you didn't need to have a lot of money to get involved."
While best known for his anti-establishment appearance, Healey was also recognized for his intelligence and wit, holding a law degree and two master's degrees. He also owned a liquor wholesale business and a cheese store in Warren.
Speakman, who is also a professor of political science at Roger Williams University, said Healey would routinely visit her classes to speak about running for office.
"The students wondered why he would get into politics the way he looked, and his belief was that he could make government better and he urged them to get involved in public life," she said. "My memory is him in the classroom and how wonderful he was with the students."
Healey's death was first reported by the Barrington Times.
Walt Buteau contributed to this report.
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Posted January 1st at 12:00am.
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* THIS OFFER IS BEING ISSUED TO YOU FOR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A CREDIT, CHARGE, DEBIT OR GIFT CARD. OFFER EXPIRES SEPTEMBER 9, 2014. GOOD ONLY FOR NEW PURCHASES OF EA SPORTS NHL 15 (“PRODUCT”) FOR THE PLAYSTATION 3, PLAYSTATION 4, XBOX ONE AND XBOX 360 CONSOLES. CODE INCLUDED WITH PURCHASE GOOD FOR 1 GOLD PACK ENTITLEMENT FOR USE IN NHL HOCKEY ULTIMATE TEAM GAME MODE WITHIN NHL 15 EACH WEEK FOR A TOTAL OF 24 CONSECUTIVE WEEKS. CODE TO REDEEM GOLD PACKS CODES EXPIRES MARCH 3, 2015. LATE CODE REDEMPTION WILL RESULT IN FORFEITURE OF PREVIOUS WEEKS’ GOLD PACK ENTITLEMENT WITH THE NHL HOCKEY ULTIMATE TEAM GAME MODE. CODE MUST BE REDEEMED BY SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 TO RECEIVE ALL 24 GOLD PACKS. Each gold pack contains 12 Ultimate Team items, most Gold items and a mix of player, training, and consumbable items. VALID WHEREVER PRODUCT IS SOLD. OFFER MAY NOT BE SUBSTITUTED, EXCHANGED, SOLD OR REDEEMED FOR CASH OR OTHER GOODS OR SERVICES. MAY NOT BE COMBINED WITH ANY OTHER OFFER, GIFT CARD, REBATE OR DISCOUNT COUPON. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED, TAXED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW. INTERNET CONNECTION AND ORIGIN ACCOUNT REQUIRED TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES. PLAYSTATION 4 AND XBOX ONE PURCHASERS REQUIRES ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT. EA ONLINE PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.EA.COM. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES. EA MAY DISCONTINUE ONLINE FEATURES WITHIN 30 DAYS NOTICE AT WWW.EA.COM/1/SERVICE-UPDATES.
PRE-ORDER DISCLAIMER
** THIS OFFER IS BEING ISSUED TO YOU FOR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A CREDIT, CHARGE, DEBIT OR GIFT CARD. OFFER EXPIRES SEPTEMBER 9, 2014. GOOD ONLY FOR NEW PURCHASES OF EA SPORTS NHL 15 (“PRODUCT”) FOR THE PLAYSTATION 3, PLAYSTATION 4, XBOX ONE AND XBOX 360 CONSOLES. CODE INCLUDED WITH PURCHASE GOOD FOR 1 GOLD PACK ENTITLEMENT FOR USE IN NHL HOCKEY ULTIMATE TEAM GAME MODE WITHIN NHL 15 EACH WEEK FOR A TOTAL OF 15 CONSECUTIVE WEEKS. CODE TO REDEEM GOLD PACKS CODES EXPIRES DECEMBER 23, 2014. LATE CODE REDEMPTION WILL RESULT IN FORFEITURE OF PREVIOUS WEEKS’ GOLD PACK ENTITLEMENT WITH THE NHL HOCKEY ULTIMATE TEAM GAME MODE. CODE MUST BE REDEEMED BY SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 TO RECEIVE ALL 15 GOLD PACKS. Each gold pack contains 12 Ultimate Team items, most Gold items and a mix of player, training, and consumbable items. VALID WHEREVER PRODUCT IS SOLD. OFFER MAY NOT BE SUBSTITUTED, EXCHANGED, SOLD OR REDEEMED FOR CASH OR OTHER GOODS OR SERVICES. MAY NOT BE COMBINED WITH ANY OTHER OFFER, GIFT CARD, REBATE OR DISCOUNT COUPON. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED, TAXED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW. INTERNET CONNECTION AND ORIGIN ACCOUNT REQUIRED TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES. PLAYSTATION 4 AND XBOX ONE PURCHASERS REQUIRES ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT. EA ONLINE PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.EA.COM. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES. EA MAY DISCONTINUE ONLINE FEATURES WITHIN 30 DAYS NOTICE AT WWW.EA.COM/1/SERVICE-UPDATES.
NHL 15 – ULTIMATE EDITION SKU – PS3/Xbox 360
ULTIMATE EDITION CONTENT REDEMPTION CODE EXPIRES MARCH 10, 2015 AND IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR NEW PURCHASES. 2 PACKS DELIVERED WITHIN PRODUCT EACH WEEK FOR A TOTAL OF 25 CONSECUTIVE WEEKS. CODE MUST BE REDEEMED BY SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 TO RECEIVE ALL 50 PACKS. INTERNET CONNECTION AND ORIGIN ACCOUNT REQUIRED TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES. EA ONLINE PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.EA.COM. EA MAY RETIRE ONLINE FEATURES AFTER 30 DAYS NOTICE POSTED ON WWW.EA.COM/1/SERVICE-UPDATES. INCLUDES SOFTWARE THAT COLLECTS DATA ONLINE TO PROVIDE IN GAME ADVERTISING.
NHL 15 – ULTIMATE EDITION SKU – PS4/Xbox One
ULTIMATE EDITION CONTENT REDEMPTION CODE EXPIRES MARCH 10, 2015 AND IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR NEW PURCHASES. 2 PACKS DELIVERED WITHIN PRODUCT EACH WEEK FOR A TOTAL OF 25 CONSECUTIVE WEEKS. CODE MUST BE REDEEMED BY SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 TO RECEIVE ALL 50 PACKS. ACCEPTANCE OF PRODUCT END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT (EULA) REQUIRED TO PLAY. INTERNET CONNECTION AND ORIGIN ACCOUNT REQUIRED TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES. EA ONLINE PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.EA.COM. EULA AND ADDITIONAL DISCLOSURES AVAILABLE AT WWW.EA.COM/1/PRODUCT-EULAS. EA MAY RETIRE ONLINE FEATURES AFTER 30 DAYS NOTICE POSTED ON WWW.EA.COM/1/SERVICE-UPDATES. INCLUDES SOFTWARE THAT COLLECTS DATA ONLINE TO PROVIDE IN GAME ADVERTISING.
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Katawa Shoujo is a visual novel about a high school student with arrhythmia who is transferred to a school for disabled students. There, he can follow a path that can lead to a romantic relationship between 5 of the main female protagonists (in order from the left in the art piece: Shizune, Misha (she is a main character, but a relationship cannot be pursued with her), Lilly, Hanako, Emi, and Rin)It is a fantastic game with very deep plot development, and one of my favorite games of all time.Because of the very diverse characters, I thought it would be a good idea to make the female protagonists into a work of art.This art piece was done with my "scrap-art" style (completely hand-made and meticulously crafted from scrapbook paper).I would really like to thank Mike Inel for giving me permission to use his original digital rendition as a reference point for my art piece! I couldn't have done it without him!Stats:Completed in 7.5 days$8 in scrapbook paperHere's the original:
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Cooper Dean and American Hero Triumph at 2013 US Pony Finals
Cooper Dean and American Hero Win US Pony Finals
By: Claudia Lorena
Lexington, KY – Fourteen year old Cooper Dean finished off the 2013 US Pony Finals with a major victory when he captured the Individual Pony Jumper Championship gold medal aboard his pony American Hero, on Friday, Aug. 8th.
Three phases of individual competition narrowed the field of forty-four down to twenty-three in just three days.
Four returned to jump-off for bronze; Camilla Siekmann aboard Mist Of A Champion, Carly Williams aboard High Hopes, Heather Vaxer aboard Cha Cha Cha and Morgan Gravely aboard Dragon Lair’s Banner. The 4-faulters maneuvered the course, designed by Mark Donovan, making tight turns and posting fast times. Siekmann and Vaxer both had a rail down, but Vaxer’s time of 36.057s beat out Siekmann’s 36.825s and took hold of 5th place with her 15yr old German Riding Pony, Cha Cha Cha.
Williams and Gravely rode great clear rounds, respectively, posting speedy times of 36.927s and 38.25s – a 1.323s difference that placed Gravely and Dragon Lair’s Banner in 4th and granted Williams and High Hopes the bronze medal. It was now time to battle for the gold.
Coming in with no faults was the only pair to jump-off against Dean and challenge him for the winning title – Christina Rodriguez and her 14.2h chestnut mare, A Lotta Moxie. The Florida resident took to the course confidently, but her approach to the second to last fence played out differently than imagined and A Lotta Moxie was unable to clear the fence at the angle and distance from which she took off. Tumbling down over the oxer, Rodriguez came off and injured her shoulder on impact – out of contention for the gold, but still strong enough to take the individual silver medal.
Riding clear in all phases, Dean was the last to jump-off for the championship and, due to the prior events; the odds were in his favor. All of his rides were great and he really built up a fan base for himself. When he landed the final jump and the timer stopped, applause filled the Alltech Arena; “Cooper just won!” cheered a couple of girls standing close by, still wearing their helmets.
While winning a Pony Finals championship is nothing new to 15yr old American Hero (Breanna Holmes piloted him to the 2012 Zone 4 team gold), the win for Dean is one he had been hoping to achieve, but did not expect. Raised in Fayette, AL on his parents’ farm, the 14yr old rider has spent several years putting in time, hard work and dedication in order to compete at this level. 42.953s may not have been the fastest time and surely he would have preferred to go without those 8-faults, but his ride did not fall shy of gold and Dean was also awarded the Pony Jumper Style Award. “This has been the best week of my life,” he says, and the smile on his face conveys just that – victory.
(Cooper Dean and American Hero jumping the final fence in the jump-off)
(Carly Williams and Cooper Dean chatting it up)
(A Lotta Moxie attentively watches Christina Rodriguez with a kind eye)
Watch Cooper Dean and American Hero’s fourth round in the video below…
Photos: © EverythingEq.com
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Israelis spend about 50% of their free time on the Internet and approximately 70% of Israelis have a family WhatsApp group, according to a survey published Sunday by Israel's largest telecommunications group, Bezeq.
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The survey also found that 32% of Israelis met partners through the Internet in 2014.
Tough Choice? Israelis favor Internet over sex, survey shows Sagi Cohen Google Israel poll finds 72% of Israelis would rather give up sex for a month than not have Internet access; 47% of women and 25% of men would give up sex for a whole year in order to stay online. Israelis favor Internet over sex, survey shows
According to the Bezeq figures for 2014, Israel had two million Internet subscribers (excluding cellular subscribers) and around 5.6 million Web users in the past year. The average bandwidth in use in Israel is 40MB, and the average home surfer downloads approximately 2GB of data per day.
Every Israeli household, the survey shows, has an average of five devices connected to the Internet - at the same time, and some 45% of Israelis use cloud services to back up photos and video clips.
Most Israelis look up symptoms on internet before going to the doctor (Photo: Shutterstock)
Around 45% of the respondents said they spend more than five hours a day on the Internet on average, while 63% noted that the computer had become their main platform for watching movies and TV shows (as opposed to the television or smartphone).
Where are politicians being followed?
Around one-third of the respondents said they kept track of the country's politicians via the various social networks, with just 20% citing the television or newspapers as their preference.
The medical world, too, has been influenced by the increase in Internet usage, with 56 of the respondents noting that they go to see a doctor with a complaint only after reading about it on the Web.
According to Bezeq CEO Stella Handler, "When it comes to areas such as medicine, e-commerce and data protection, Israel still has room to grow.
"This is a major challenge for all of us – on the one hand, for the commercial companies and the government, which need to provide the necessary tools and platforms and encourage investment in infrastructure; and on the other hand, for the consumers, who need to take advantage of the innovation in an intelligent manner."
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Honestly, I knew almost immediately upon meeting my husband that I was going to end up married to him. When he proposed to me during a game of poker, I immediately said yes. Then I went and registered domains and Twitter handles with different variations of what would soon be my new name.
What? Isn't that what everyone does nowadays? ;-)
I've had the last name “Hoffman” since about two weeks after I turned 19 years old. Every legal aspect of my life has been with that name. And I spent over a decade building a brand in the SEO and affiliate marketing industry with that name. I knew “changing it” when I got married would be hard to do.
My original theory was to go from “Rae Hoffman” to “Rae Hoffman-Dolan” and then finally to “Rae Dolan” once the industry (and Google) wrapped their heads around me changing my name. I expected this transition to take about six months to a year. I was utterly wrong.
So much of our lives and reputation are wrapped up in the web today. It amazes me that we have such standard and official processes (that work) for changing a company brand or a domain name, but nothing laid out for an individual changing their name via marriage (or divorce for that matter). I'd imagine 20 years ago, I'd have changed the name plate on my desk, my name in the company directory, gotten an updated drivers license and ordered a new set of business cards and POOF, I'd have been Rae Dolan. But that's now how it works in an Internet-based professional world.
In doing a search for “Rae Hoffman,” you'd find that I nearly dominate the SERPs returned. There are universal results and tons of articles that show my (long) history in the industry.
But despite updating my name on every official social and business profile I have, despite having speaker bios and contributing bylines updated, despite putting out new content under that name, Google never figured out that “Rae Hoffman” and “Rae Hoffman-Dolan” were one in the same in the SERPs. They showed everything new that came out and everything I was able to update, but the ten years that I existed in this industry before getting remarried essentially didn't exist in a search for my new name. In short, it looked like “Rae Hoffman-Dolan” only came into existence – and into the industry – two years ago. It took over 18 months for universal SERPs to begin appearing for the latter name.
Not helping matters, many people still referred to me solely as Rae Hoffman. People would write up sessions I did at conferences or reference me in an article – only using “Rae Hoffman” – and I understood why, but it meant that those mentions and articles didn't appear in searches for my new name. Searches for “Rae Hoffman” showed everything – Dolan and not. Searches for “Rae Hoffman-Dolan” only showed results with the latter name attached.
Google simply refused to “put a ring on it” so to speak. About six weeks ago, I made the decision to drop the “Dolan” from my name and return to using “Rae Hoffman” as a result.
This got me to thinking – as the web continually becomes the point of reference and history for an individual's life, how do women in this new era handle getting married and changing their names? It seems we're left with a choice if we don't get married before we have a history and reputation we value – keep our former name or lose our history on the web. I'm not sure why this dilemma isn't talked about more. I'm not sure why it isn't (or doesn't appear to be) on Google's radar.
Google authorship markup is definitely a step in a helpful direction. But even though Google is moving in the direction of allowing us to build trust attached to a single Google profile that we could update the name of, it would only help in regards to the content we've personally authored – not the content that has been authored ABOUT us. And even then, we don't know if authorship will help the issue of combining results for both names in the reputation SERPs.
Women could hire an ORM agency to help update their names, but even that can only help the issue so much. I'll go out on a limb here and say that getting a publication like USA Today to update your name in a three-year-old article because you got married (or divorced) simply isn't going to happen. I could have spent time or money building out links to the more important older articles with the new name, but that acts merely as a (time or money consuming) band-aid to a larger issue.
This is not heavily talked about, but a very real problem that will only become larger the more dependence we as the world have on the Internet to showcase our reputation and career history or let us research someone else's. It's uncharted territory in a new age. How do we handle – and find a solution for – the problem?
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Are you familiar with the MK Ultra program? If you are not, allow us a moment to fill you in. MK Ultra was a program, utilized and funded by the American government, which was based around intense mentalism techniques and psychological programming necessary for brain washing and mind control. We have a thorough 2 part analysis on this topic that you should definitely get acquainted with (Part 1 & Part 2). The government also used LSD and other drugs to help further “break” whoever was involved, making them that much easier to program. While that may sound like an idea straight out of a Philip K. Dick Sci-Fi novel, rest assured, this has been going on around you for years and years.
To help further acclimate you with just how deeply rooted the MK Ultra program is in our daily lives and in American history, we have decided to put together a list of the top ten people who obviously acted (against their will) under mind control. A few of the entries on this list may surprise you, but that is the whole point of putting together a list like this. To shift the way we all think, so that it CAN’T happen to us. Free will and free thought are the first steps for prevention.
10. James Eagan Holmes
That’s right, the Batman shooter, James Eagen Holmes was OBVIOUSLY “activated”. Anyone even slightly familiar with Mk Ultra techniques can see it clearly in his face, but on top of it, read testimonials from other people there and it is quite clear he wasn’t the only shooter, and some even say he didn’t do the shooting at all, and was in his car the whole time, set to take the fall. Proof of this is his three week blackout prior to the massacre.
The kicker here is James Eagan Holmes father was tied up with some very strange happens with a US banking scandal. You know who else’s father was involved with the very same scandal?
9. Adam Lanza
Wow, how strange is that, huh? Some like to call things like this a coincidence, but the reality is, we call something a coincidence when we are all collectively too scared to call it what it really is. This is ANOTHER case of a kid who was from a broken home, had pre-existing mental problems and conditions, and had family tied up in a major case that could cost the U.S millions of dollars. Wake up, people, before they activate you.
8. Sirhan Sirhan
I want ONE PERSON, just one, anyone, to tell me what Sirhan Sirhan’s motives were for shooting Bobby Kennedy? Oh wait, there were none, that’s right.
And what about all those interviews he gave, explaining his reasons. Oh, there were none. And his memories of events leading up to the shooting? There were none. Even the act of pulling this off and then just giving yourself up is insane and unheard of, yet every person on the list shares those exact same “coincidences”.
That’s the beauty of this, people. There ARE no coincidences.
7. Lee Harvey Oswald
That dead-eyed stare is starting to become recognizable, huh?
Do you really know why both Kennedy’s were killed, though? This is why:
When our government is looking for people to program, they often go with former, failed military, because they are already predisposed to the conditioning techniques that MK Ultra utilize to program their sheep. And Lee Harvey Oswald fits into all those categories well, plus, he was a sharpshooter when he was enlisted, which further informed them he would be a perfect participant and fall guy.
6. Ted Zaczynski
Once you see all the patsy’s, side by side on a list, you start collectively seeing what we are saying, all at once. There is a vein of truth that runs through all these cases, and we see it and know something is off, but do we ever question it? Do we ever stand up and ask to hear the testimonials of these people? No, we just digest what mass media is feeding us like the sheep we are, and move on to the next field to graze in, unbeknownst of the terror around us.
You see a unibomber, but I see an American, born and bred, tamed and taught. A grassroots terrorist, created by our own government with a private agenda of fear. And it’s working.
5. Jared Lee Loughner
Another recent example of a madman with a vendetta, or another case of MK Ultra patsy, forced to kill innocents so he could further the private agenda? The main thing to ask yourself in these cases is, why, after weeks of forcing all these stories and tragedies down our throats, do they never do a follow up? They never tells us the outcome of the trials. They never release the person’s statement. They just ram the violence down our throats, then when it comes time to follow up, they throw a new tragedy at us to distract us.
Brilliant, huh?
4. Timothy McVeigh
Remember the Oklahoma city bombing from 1995? You may not, because it was only spoken of for a week or so and then disappeared. What is interesting, though, is everyone was so happy about how they caught supposed bomber Timothy McVeigh, yet no one spoke about stuff like this, or like this, which proved the involvement of U.S agencies.
So strange how all these people have the exact same back story and fit all the same criteria, huh? Glad your thinking is starting to shift.
3. John Wilkes Booth
First off, I will say that I know Wilkes shot Lincoln LONG before MK Ultra was a government sanctioned program, but he set the tone for every person on this list by being the first fall guy. The idea of abolishing slavery (which is the fundamental ideal this whole country was birthed on) terrified our elitists, and so they acted. They found someone no one would question. They did it in a way that made it fool proof, and they set the tone for all the fall guys and pastys yet to come.
You guys REALLY buy that story that Lincoln had a “dream” he was going to die, so he told his wife? Come on, that was his way of letting her know he knew what was coming and there was nothing he could do about it.
2. The Paparazzi (Because of Princess Di)
We bet you’ve never seen that photo, huh? Take a moment to look at the driver’s eyes. That glazed look seem familiar. Scan up and look at the eyes of the shooters if you have any doubts. Same insane look, like no one is inside his body. Insane smile, and look at the obvious fear of everyone else around him. Also, odd they died in the tunnel, huh? With no footage. Very odd.
If you are asking yourself why someone would have her killed, Princess Di was set to take over reign and rule, yet she had left Charles and was dating another man. Also, she was not of royal blood. Not sure if you know anything about British rule, but to the royal family, those were enough no-no’s to warrant snuffing her out, no matter the cost. And who better to blame than (somehow faceless and nameless) paparazzi. Well played, Britain.
I bet America copies this murder blueprint soon.
1. You
While some may laugh at this entry, how can you be sure? Truth is, you wouldn’t even know you had been brainwashed until AFTER you had executed what was needed of you. In other words, you come to with a smoking gun in your hand, yet no idea how you got there. Perhaps we can shift your thinking enough to prevent another tragedy like the ones listed above. Or perhaps it is already too late. That, my friends, is up to you.
Now would you kindly share this article with our friends and family and help spread the word that we have enough sheep in this world, and we need a new Shepard.
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TODAY SHE SAID YES: It took nine tries, but legal pot has now been approved for petition circulation.
An amendment to the Arkansas Constitution concerning the cannabis plant, providing that the cultivation, production, distribution, sale, possession, and use of the cannabis plant and cannabis-related products produced therefrom for recreational and medical purposes may not be prohibited under state law but shall be regulated under state law; recognizing that such activities remain unlawful under federal law; providing for the release from incarceration, probation, or parole of all persons whose only conviction(s) were of state laws pertaining to the cultivation, production, distribution, sale, and possession of marijuana or possession of marijuana paraphernalia, and the expungement of records relating to such conviction(s); dividing cannabis into industrial hemp (containing 0.3% or less THC) and marijuana (containing more than 0.3% THC); authorizing both medical and recreational use of marijuana; providing that anyone 21 years of age or older may obtain a marijuana license permitting the person to cultivate, produce, distribute, and sell marijuana and products produced therefrom; providing that a licensed person may cultivate up to 36 cannabis plants in a location not subject to public view without optical aid; providing that sales of recreational marijuana will be subject to existing sales taxes and an additional 5% excise tax; providing that the state shall not impose any tax on the sale of medical marijuana to patients; permitting medical use of marijuana by a person of any age whose physician has recommended such use in writing; providing that the manufacture, possession, purchase, sale, and distribution of marijuana paraphernalia is lawful under state law; and providing that the amendment is not intended to (a) require employers to permit activities relating to marijuana in the workplace, (b) permit driving under the influence of marijuana, (c) permit the transfer of recreational marijuana to anyone under 21 years of age, or (d) permit anyone under 21 years of age to cultivate, produce, sell, possess, or use recreational marijuana.
It took at least eight previous tries but Mary Berry of Summit, Ark., has received approval from for the form of a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana.The act allows adults (21 and older) to grow, possess and use marijuana for recreational or medical purposes. It sets a 5 percent excise tax on sale of pot; requires release of people in prison for non-violent marijuana offenses, and requires clearing of records of those with nonviolent marijuana convictions.Rutledge approved the popular name,, as submitted, but made additions to the lengthy title to more fully describe the provisions.The effort may now begin to gather 84,859 signatures by July 8 to get the measure on the November ballot. Competing efforts to legalize medical marijuana (one with a provision to allow cultivation, one without) are also underway. A medical marijuana proposal was defeated 51-49 in 2014. The thinking then was that the inclusion of a cultivation provision doomed it.Full-blown legalization? Seems a long shot. But it might not be so far-fetched, with the spread of legalization, huge tax revenue and pot tourism in states like Colorado and Washington.
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GFH Capital’s Deputy CEO, David Haigh, will become the Chairman of Leeds United Football Club should the company successfully complete their long-awaited takeover.
The news comes via a statement from the Leeds United Supporters’ Trust (LUST) who have spoken with representatives of GFH Capital.
LUST contacted GFH seeking clarification on a range of concerns raised by certain members of the press, most notably, Duncan Castles of Middle Eastern newspaper The National.
While LUST failed to get any clarification on GFH’s financial capabilities, the would-be owners insisted they have the funds to make a success of Leeds United Football Club and have no intentions to “flip” (quickly buy and sell) the business for a profit.
GFH also understand that low attendances are a result of supporter dissatisfaction and that bringing the crowds back is a priority. They also wished to make clear that repurchasing Elland Road is considered to be “key aim”.
The timescale for completion of the takeover remains as inconspicuous as ever, but GFH have reiterated their earlier statement that the companies lawyers are not holding up the deal, contrary to the claims of Ken Bates. They also repeated that the takeover is a full purchase of the club and that Ken Bates won’t remain on in any capacity.
For their part, LUST say they’re mostly satisfied with the assurances they’ve received, though they do hasten to add that our potential new owners will be judged by their actions, not their words, and that clarification on GFH’s financial position remains a concern.
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Utilizing the London Bridge terrorist attack (June 3rd, 2017) lead Theresa May to proposition for net regulation, a transparent scapegoat to push a regressive and potentially catastrophic call. The cracks are beginning to widen within archaic organizational forms, largely within democratic hierarchical institutions such as the UK government. Their eyes anxious in the face of political obsolescence, watching with fear as the – in their opinion – intolerable decentralized chimera that is the internet (cyberspace) exponentially grows and mutates within their supposedly air-tight system. Clawing at the last flecks of a systematic reverberation ready to break free. Unable to efficiently mould a tool they once thought would be a footnote in technological history into their antiquated party. Of course those who actually know understood May’s plan for regulation was absurd.
Even to the most amateurishly tech-literate May’s call was ludicrous and short-sighted. With a vast amount if not the majority of businesses, institutions (inclusive of State), educational facilities and personal computers using open source software, alongside a call to ban end-to-end encryption, that which keeps all manner of personal files safe would then be at the whim of any bored hacker. In short her call to make cyberspace cybersafe would in fact act in the opposite direction. The Conservatives currently bearing the 15th century Catholic torch only too awake one morning to find someone has hard-coded a theses into No 10’s door.
Something incomprehensibly large is at stake here, an event of which the only comparison resides with the invention and widespread utilization of the Gutenberg press, or printing press – the wide or wider assimilation and decentralization of the internet, cyberspace and networking (with a strong emphasis currently on the Blockchain) into society and general day-to-day life; pervasive technology at its most viral. This motion or acceleration in its entirety could come to a country-wide not worldwide halt if net-regulation was to pass, transforming the UK into a closed network, a form of network which is incompatible with the future. Net-regulation acting historically as the Pope not banning the printing press per-say, only restricting its usage to a central body. Though by their very nature both the printing press and the internet are destined for decentralization, it is either to destroy them entirely or let them: ‘Do what thou wilt’.
“In the age of information sciences the most valuable asset is knowledge, which is a creation of human imagination and creativity. We were among the last to comprehend this truth and we will be paying for this oversight for many years to come.” – Gorbachev, George Gilder, Economic Education Bulletin, 1991
Fortunately due to the ever-increasing concentration on popularity in politics the chances of UK based net-regulation are now slim (though we do already have the Snooper’s Charter). Ironically the drop in Tory favourability is in large part due to Labour’s understanding and utilization of social media and memery in the recent election.
In short net-regulation would allow the Government – via control of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) – to regulate/control/authorize what it is the population is allowed to see, learn, watch and use. Basically the call for a severing off from the internet into a state-controlled micro-net, away from one of the last truly free ‘spaces’. Away from an internet free of state jurisdiction, kept from an immediate personal freedom the likes of which haven’t been seen since the advent of the printing press.
“It cannot survive without a captive media and educational system, which the Internet will route around. Also, its financial system is a mess and could collapse at any minute. The whole thing will be lucky if it lasts another ten years.” – UR
EFFECTS OF GUTENBERG 1.0
“He who first shortened the labor of copyists by device of movable types was disbanding hired armies, and cashiering most kings and senates, and creating a whole new democratic world: he had invented the art of printing.” – Sartor Resartus, Thomas Carlyle.
The Gutenberg press invented in the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg is the reason you have widely available books, the reason – to an extent – you know what you know: religious texts, school textbooks, political manifestos all owe their popularity to abundance, a feat only achievable via a printing press…in some ways it’s the reason you’re reading this – the ever growing need for literary mobilization and accessibility. (Of course a lot of what you know has its inherent footing in multiple factors: tradition, family, birthplace etc. yet one can clearly see that without the press widespread literacy and ideas wouldn’t hold anywhere near the kind of depth it currently does.). And in many ways the printing press was the second largest factor in the Protestant Reformation which effected your life in an unparalleled manner.
One must however look at the pre-Gutenberg dilemmas/restrictions to truly understand its impact. A time in which texts were written by hand by copyists and scribes, meaning only a few copies of singular texts were ever produced sky-rocketing their value and thus creating a clear divide between those who could afford to be literate (the elite) and those who could not (the serfs). The serfs thus becoming reliant on a travelling scholar or mere tradition for their education which in itself holds inherent restrictive factors.
The key problem with remaining reliant of a single source as a means for knowledge/education is – of course – that your world-view is entirely bias and somewhat controlled by what the elites entitle you to know. A claustrophobic system of knowledge in which what you ‘know’ is moulded by what you’re allowed to know – one can see clear parallels here with the proposed net-regulation. A distinct system of oppression via reduction of a means to understand one’s cage, or that one is even in a cage. In relation to free speech “It is not just the right of the person who speaks to be heard, it is the right of everyone in the audience to listen and hear” (Hitch). Yet with reference to our literary travelling scholars herein lies an inherent flaw, for if one is only given one person to listen to, or a single collective, or a centralized controlled mass of outlets, then the right to listen is merely an illusion of freedom. (Think the difference between BBC, ITV and C4.). This is exactly where your freedoms lie under net-regulation. One can imagine paying a monthly fee for a ‘News Package’ for the internet, or perhaps a higher monthly fee for the ‘Advanced News Package’ etc. etc., yet at their root each package is to go through a form of vetoing process anyway so what you receive need not matter. To receive only what another wants you to receive.
‘If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.’ – Thomas Pynchon
I digress. Prior to the printing press the production of a text was a laborious process. As such ‘events’ such as book-burnings could truly be held as a means to control the flow of specific information, or the movement of a society of religion. Generally speaking scribes and copyists were of religious affiliation and were already under a form of print-regulation themselves, with what it was they were copying/transcribing undergoing strict authorization from the Catholic church, and as such an echo-chamber is created in which only the smallest of leaps are to be made, more than likely via the most minor of alterations to the text. So to invent the printing press was to increase literacy amongst the general public, an entire system of knowledge no longer restricted by capital gain.
“Scholars have long recognized the essential role of the press in spreading Protestant doctrine. Luther himself, in fact, claimed that the invention of printing was a gift from God to reform His church. But Eisenstein argues that print did more than spread the Protestant Reformation: in an important sense, print caused the Reformation. Without access to the printed editions of biblical texts and church fathers, and the worrisome variants on crucial dogmatic issues they contain, Luther might never have been stimulated to develop his revolutionary new theology. And without accessibility to print, Luther might never have spread his ideas not only in the Latin of the scholarly community but also in the vernacular German of the lay community.” – Robert Kingdon, “Review of The Printing Press as an Agent of Change”, Library Quarterly (1980)
It is a mystery to me how my theses, more so than my other writings,. . . were spread to so many places. They were meant exclusively for our academic circle here. . . . They were written in such a language that the common people could hardly understand them.” – Luther addressing the Pope.
The single most drastic and everlasting effect of the advent of the printing press was its utilization by Protestant Reformers in the creation and dispersion of pamphlets (Theses) which in turn pushed towards the Reformation. Which in itself has far, far wider implications than those immediatly apparent in the 16th century.
“ Protestantism sealed a pact with historical destiny – to all appearances defining a specifically modern global teleology – by consistently winning. Individualization of conscience – atomization – was made fate.
When considered as rigid designations, Atomization, Protestantism, Capitalism, and Modernity name exactly the same thing.
Protestantism is a self-propelling machine for incomprehensibly prolonged social disintegration, and everyone knows it.” – Nick Land, The Atomization Trap
I’ve used Land’s piece quite crassly here I have to admit, but to understate the effect of the Reformation and in turn Protestantism on contemporary society would be a grave error. As Land states: “When considered as rigid designations, Atomization, Protestantism, Capitalism, and Modernity name exactly the same thing.” so the advent of the printing press has a lot to answer for, but quite bluntly the Gutenberg Press is the catalyst for modern Democracy as we know it. The vessel which unknowingly sailed swiftly away from any & all forms of socio-political hierarchy and centralization, hierarchal structures which the certain parties often find themselves stuck within. Yet the effects of the press were not seen until 100s of years after its implementation and as such one feels as if we’re still in the wake of Gutenberg’s mutation. There exist here – in terms of the press acting as catalyst – few parallels with the internet, at least those specifically related to inherent technology. For the internet is tech-in-itself, as opposed to the press which is reliant on that which it produces and isn’t inclusive of built-in networking capabilities. The press can only become a ‘faster-horse’, it cannot transform or innovate into an engine.
INTERNET AS GUTENBERG 2.0
In 2016, 85 % of European households had access to the internet from home, as for the world see here. To ignore the prevalence of the internet is to ignore that which will be at the forefront – or more than likely will be the forefront – of the next ‘era’ of human history – in whatever multiple changing forms it holds throughout. It has assimilated into every business, official body, Government program and economic counterpart, alongside its central role in popular society (social media, smartphones, smart-TVs, etc.) It is an accelerative force within itself, growing and evolving each day, at an uncontrollable rate. Therein lies a problem for retrograde forms of government, those who want the state to remain separate from the internet. For a state to say they want to remain separate, or create a separate centralized, nation-based internet is for that state to admit that they do not understand the internet, either you have none, or you have all (and free). One could argue here that North Korea have managed to control their internet output in relation to their public, I would reply by arguing that they’re finding it difficult to control their electricity and as such I can’t imagine the percentage of North Koreans on the internet is vast.
As we’ve seen from history, the single revolutionary theses isn’t the problem (one can burn a single theses in minutes), it is the Internet’s networking (we’ll get onto networks later) ability to spread a single piece of ‘dangerous’ information quickly and efficiently, and once it’s ‘out-there’ it is near uncontrollable. The State’s attempts beyond net-publication become fruitless, for to capture, segregate or ‘ban’ the publisher is only to acknowledge that there’s something ‘out-there’ they don’t like, which urges one all the more to read it.
ACCESSIBILITY AND COST
The statistics I’ve previously linked show the rate at which in the internet is growing/expanding…is accelerating. With access to the internet becoming close to a human right (see Web Junkies for the adverse effects of this). It’s in our homes, our libraries, our schools, our jobs, our pockets etc. there is no getting away from it. In fact those who are ‘away’ from the internet nowadays often do so in a moment of Walden or McCandless-esque romanticism, as if to be away from the net is in itself some feat, like climbing Everest, or running a marathon or…deleting Facebook. Not only this but in terms of affordability there is little competition when it comes to a course of pure knowledge/entertainment, one can buy a used PC for under £100 and subscribe to a monthly line rental for less than £10 per month. One could in fact go as far as to buy a Raspberry Pi, connecting them to the net for under £100. All of this is ignoring Smartphones of course, which are slowly becoming the vast majority’s primary means of networking and communication, allowing for the ability of instantaneous updates whilst mobile. This accessibility allows for the general population – those who’ve become largely disillusioned with their Government – to be at the forefront of not a revolution but a transition:
“Revolutions are relative; if you get mugged by change, it is a revolution. If you were prepared for, or ably adapted to, the change, you may be able to call it a transition.” – Is it a transition or a revolution? – Carl H Builder.
It is of course very unlikely that just by the vast amount of accessibility, smartphones etc. that the population are adapted for a full transition. There is always the possibility of a dark-transition, in which access becomes control, those locked into a pre-monitored social system – especially one under the already passed Snooper’s Charter – are submitting prior to any technological-Reformation, they are complicit with changes either way, whether that be the emancipation of the left, or the authoritative AI control of the right.
SHORT CRYPTO HISTORY & THE BLOCKCHAIN
Before beginning any extensive extrapolation into what networks are I feel the need to ‘briefly’ explain cryptocurrency and the Blockchain, as it will be of the utmost importance in the network section, those of you already familiar with the technology feel free to skip to ‘NETWORK’, seriously, it’s dry.
In late 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown inventor of the now very well known currency Bitcoin, announced he had developed a “Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, the idea of ‘digital cash’ had been around for a while, but up until Nakamoto’s development, no on had been able to create such a thing, at least not a system which avoided the ‘double-spend problem; (I’ll get to that) The most important aspect of Nakamoto’s invention however is not it being ‘cash’ but the fact it is decentralized.
Centralized systems usually have something along the lines of a central server, team, ‘bank’ or middle man to take account of all transactions, accounts and transfers etc. which in turn prevents double-spending (A given set of coins is spent in more than one transaction). This server could then be referred to if disagreements amongst users or within payments came up, the task was to create a system in which this central entity – in this case a server – wasn’t/isn’t needed. If one is to take this idea further however they realise the drastic real-world implementation, a state, economy or world without banks or state affiliated third parties, an economy in which each Blockchain is entirely its own.
So how does this work? Well money, generally, is basically a system of verification: Data-entries, numbers on a screen, proof of transaction, digits within an account etc. So, how do the databases of a cryptocurrency work?
There is a network of peers (Peer-to-peer), every peer on that network has the entire history of every single transaction on that network, and as such, the balance of every account.
Transactions
Meta gives X Bitcoin to Tim; transaction is signed by Meta’s private key; the transaction is broadcast network-wide; the transaction becomes confirmed. This confirmation is key, confirmation means the transaction is set-in-stone and becomes an irremovable part of the Blockchain (which I’ll get to). Miners confirm these transactions: Miners make it clear these transactions are legit, send them throughout the network, and help make them part of the Blockchain: for doing this ‘job’, the miners get rewarded with the currency in question.
Miners
Since the network is decentralized anyone can be a miner, there is no central authority to delegate jobs/tasks. Miners use their computers, or computer’s power to find a ‘hash’ which connects the newly mined block with its predecessor. The miner’s computers are in a certain way working out a puzzle, the difficulty of this puzzle increases with time and as such limits the amount of currency that can be created in a given amount of time. Once the puzzle is figured out the miner adds the block-mined to the blockchain and is rewarded.
BLOCKCHAIN
Put simply: A shared collective history of all transactions on a digital network, a copy of said history is stored on each and every user’s computer (a node), the blockchain itself and all transactions are public and can be viewed by anyone.
Cryptocurrencies are cryptographically stored. They are not secured by humans, or matter, but by maths, which does-not break. I’ll add these descriptions of the Blockchain are very dry, as for their importance and potential for ‘transition’, that will be made apparent in the ‘network’ section.
To use conventional banking as an analogy, the blockchain is like a full history of banking transactions. Bitcoin transactions are entered chronologically in a blockchain just the way bank transactions are. Blocks, meanwhile, are like individual bank statements. Based on the Bitcoin protocol, the blockchain database is shared by all nodes participating in a system. The full copy of the blockchain has records of every Bitcoin transaction ever executed. It can thus provide insight about facts like how much value belonged a particular address at any point in the past. The ever-growing size of the blockchain is considered by some to be a problem due to issues like storage and synchronization. On an average, every 10 minutes, a new block is appended to the block chain through mining. – Investopedia
By design, the blockchain is a decentralized technology. Anything that happens on it is a function of the network as a whole. Some important implications stem from this. By creating a new way to verify transactions aspects of traditional commerce could become unnecessary. Stock market trades become almost simultaneous on the blockchain, for instance — or it could make types of record keeping, like a land registry, fully public. And decentralization is already a reality. A global network of computers uses blockchain technology to jointly manage the database that records Bitcoin transactions. That is, Bitcoin is managed by its network, and not any one central authority. Decentralization means the network operates on a user-to-user (or peer-to-peer) basis. The forms of mass collaboration this makes possible are just beginning to be investigated. – Blockgeeks
Note the decentralized structure below.
NETWORKS
Let’s first take a look at the four basic forms of organizational structure:
“1. The kinship-based tribe, as denoted by the structure of extended families, clans, and
other lineage systems;
2. The hierarchical institution, as exemplified by the army, the (Catholic) church, and
ultimately the bureaucratic state;
3. The competitive-exchange market, as symbolized by merchants and traders
responding to forces of supply and demand;
4. And the collaborative network, as found today in the web-like ties among some
NGOs devoted to social advocacy.” – [link]
[link]
The four basic organizational structures T, I, M, N: “To do well in the twenty-first century, an information-age society must embrace all four forms.”
With a tribe acting as tribal or clan type structure: kinship, blood.
Institutions: classical management structures with leaders and hierarchies.
Market: Acting in this case not as capitalism but as pure ‘exchange’
Network: All-channel network where all member are connected and can communicate with each other.
“For democracy to occur, the framework requires not only the addition of the forms but also a feedback of the latest form, in this instance the market, into the realm of the earlier form, e.g., the state.”
Below the embedded tweet I’ve transcribed Naval Ravikant’s entire thread of the importance and innovation possibility of Blockchain’s with relation to markets and organizational structures in the coming future, it may seem a bit gratuitous to transcribe it in full, however, there was nothing I felt needed cutting.
1/ Blockchains will replace networks with markets.
— Naval Ravikant (@naval) June 21, 2017
“Blockchains will replace networks with markets. Humans are the networked species. The first species to network across genetic boundaries and thus seize the world. Networks allow us to cooperate when we would otherwise go it alone. And networks allocate the fruits of our cooperation. Overlapping networks create and organize our society. Physical, digital, and mental roads connecting us all. Money is a network. Religion is a network. A corporation is a network. Roads are a network. Electricity is a network…Networks must be organized according to rules. They require Rulers to enforce these rules. Against cheaters. Networks have “network effects.” Adding a new participant increases the value of the network for all existing participants. Network effects thus create a winner-take-all dynamic. The leading network tends towards becoming the only network. And the Rulers of these networks become the most powerful people in society. Some are run by kings and priests who choose what is money and law, sacred and profane. Rule is closed to outsiders and based on power. Many are run by corporations. The social network. The search network. The phone or cable network. Closed but initially meritocratic. Some are run by elites. The university network. The medical network. The banking network. Somewhat open and somewhat meritocratic. A few are run by the mob. Democracy. The Internet. The commons. Open, but not meritocratic. And very inefficient. Dictatorships are more efficient in war than democracies. The Internet and physical commons are overloaded with abuse and spam. The 20th century created a new kind of network – market networks. Open AND meritocratic. Merit in markets is determined by a commitment of resources. The resource is money, a form of frozen and trade-able time. The market networks are titans. The credit markets. The stock markets. The commodities markets. The money markets. They break nations. Market networks work where there is a commitment of money. Otherwise they are just mob networks. The applications are limited. Until now. Blockchains are a new invention that allows meritorious participants in an open network to govern without a ruler and without money. They are merit-based, tamper-proof, open, voting systems. The meritorious are those who work to advance the network. As society gives you money for giving society what it wants, blockchains give you coins for giving the network what it wants. It’s important to note that blockchains pay in their own coin, not the common (dollar) money of financial markets. Blockchains pay in coin, but the coin just tracks the work done. And different blockchains demand different work. Bitcoin pays for securing the ledger. Ethereum pays for (executing and verifying) computation. Blockchains combine the openness of democracy and the Internet with the merit of markets. To a blockchain, merit can mean security, computation, prediction, attention, bandwidth, power, storage, distribution, content… Blockchains port the market model into places where it couldn’t go before. Blockchains’ open and merit based markets can replace networks previously run by kings, corporations, aristocracies, and mobs. It’s nonsensical to have a blockchain without a coin just like it’s nonsensical to have a market without money. It’s nonsensical to have a blockchain controlled by a sovereign, a corporation, an elite, or a mob. Blockchains give us new ways to govern networks. For banking. For voting. For search. For social media. For phone and energy grids. Networks governed without kings, priests, elites, corporations and mobs. Networks governed by anyone with merit to the network. Blockchain-based market networks will replace existing networks. Slowly, then suddenly. In one thing, then in many things. Ultimately, the nation-state is just a network (of networks). FIN/ Thank you, Satoshi Nakomoto. And to all the shoulders that Satoshi stands upon.” – (originally split into multiple tweets), Naval Ravikant.
What begins now is my reading of Ravikant’s thread. To replace networks with markets is to begin the transition, to understand that with Blockchains as pure-replacements there begins a deconstruction of hierarchy, a complete removal of third party entities involved with business and transaction. Though it begins a deconstruction of hierarchy in the traditional sense it also allows for micro-states in which a single Blockchain is taken as the network. This is reminscent, but entirely opposite to Mencius Moldbug’s Patchwork:
“as the crappy governments we inherited from history are smashed, they should be replaced by a global spiderweb of tens, even hundreds, of thousands of sovereign and independent mini-countries, each governed by its own joint-stock corporation without regard to the residents’ opinions. If residents don’t like their government, they can and should move. The design is all “exit,” no “voice…A Patchwork realm is a business – a corporation. Its capital is the patch it is sovereign over.” – Patchwork1
DISCLAIMER w/regards to Patchwork: I understand, as many did not, Moldbug’s original Patchwork within the 4 parts rested completely on government control, there was ZERO room for individual constraint, so before someone comments saying I’ve bastardized Patchwork, yes, I have, but in full knowledge of what the original meant.
Blockwork (short/crass):
So, really, as the crappy regressive governments who failed – as Gorbachev stated – to understand that knowledge and data are the single most valuable currency begin to crumble, they will indeed be replaced/naturally split up (via a reversion to archaic organizational structures) by mini-states, micro-nations etc., yet each one of these would have it’s own Blockchain, it is not beyond the limits of technology (as we can clearly see) to alter rules, rights, permissions etc. therefore each countries network/market = Blockchain is their basis for government.
“First, security is a monotonic desideratum. There is no such thing as “too secure.” An encryption algorithm cannot be too strong, a fence cannot be too high, a bullet cannot be too lethal…No cop ever stole my bicycle. And this will be far more true in the Patchwork, in which realms actually compete for business on the basis of customer service.” – Patchwork1
More than likely beginning from the classic decentralized platform in which those who reside in said micro-nation are able to view each vote as it is counted – if that’s their chosen system -, they can view government expenditure, tax expenses, etc. Of course, one could just as easily ‘exit’ to a Zuckerberg fairy-tale UBI land wherein they’re controlled by a dictator-corp, or a fully communist Blockchain wherein equal payments are paid out regularly etc. etc. you get the picture. However, with this concept of micro-nations as underlying Blockchains comes the bringing of the past into the future, for the previous organization structure layout of T,I,M,N, becomes overwhelmed, one could if there was enough people who wanted it, begin a tribal state, or a hierarchal state with a trickle-down Blockchain, or a divine-right system wherein tokens are gifted to those with certain DNA strains…the world is your decentralized oyster after all.
One could (quite easily) argue that with the inclusion of various forms of organizational states security would become but an illusion, yet, in-keeping with the original Patchwork (I’m ready for hell on this one.) the emphasis on security as customer service alongside “exit” over voice allows for those who aren’t receiving the service they feel they deserve to leave, as a meritocracy one can in all transparency view those who have and more importantly have not worked towards the profitability (if that’s the states’ aim) of the Blockchain, one can by all rights move (exit) to a state in which their Blockchain is working, or distributed agreeably to their tastes whether that is an agenda based around: Commerce, tech-innovation, acceleration, monarchy, entertainment, energy etc. if they feel that their current states’ Blockchain isn’t distributing its resources effectively…they can leave, if its system of accumulation doesn’t meet their standards….they can leave. It allows those who feel a compulsion for ‘return’ to do so, and those who feel compelled to accelerate to do so, allowing T, I, M, N to all exist freely, together, or not at all atop a horizontal decentralized -at first – Blockchain.
I digressed…hard. The conclusion(?) will be somewhat of a ramble, I’m not sure I can piece this mess together. Though, in terms of the Gutenberg press, which is where started remember? The internet is its 2nd iteration, not physically of course, merely in terms of its accumlative effects, many of which – I hope – I’ve listed here. It’s world-wide pervasive assimilation can’t come fast enough, for it shall throw us far beyond where we ever thought we’d end up, much like in the 16th century. Those who attempt at net-regulation/control will be severing the artery of the future, with the potential for a full scale national fatality if they don’t heal the wound. Those adhering to hierarchal restrictions are free to do so – once it all comes down – yet it’s more applicable they do so within a micro-state. If you disagree with a top down hierarchal structure – the structures that work by the way- then you are free to exit, head off to grey-shirt Soylent-ville, you are free to do this. You’ll feel cheated when you’re stood in a (soylent) bread line, and the other’s stand out like a Jackson Pollock abstract hanging in Plato’s Academy.
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In addition to releasing the latest iOS 8.4 software update for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and posting the new OS X Yosemite 10.10.4 update for the Mac, Apple has now issued a brand new version of iTunes for Mac and Windows PCs with built-in support for the new Apple Music on-demand subscription music service, Beats 1 global Internet radio and more.
You must install iOS 8.4 on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to enjoy Apple Music. iTunes 12.2 is required to enjoy Apple Music and Beats 1 radio streaming on your Mac or Windows computer.
What’s new in iTunes 12.2
iTunes 12.2 brings support for listening to Beats 1 live Internet radio programming, as well as for streaming songs through Apple Music.
You will notice a brand new For You section which lets you browse songs Apple thinks you’ll love, based on your taste and past listening history. In addition to For You, another section labeled New provides a curated selection of new song and album releases.
Lastly, there’s a Connect section where you can check out additional materials artists may post for music lovers to enjoy, such as lyrics, photo galleries, behind-the-scene videos, additional recordings and more.
The three new sections are also available on iOS 8.4’s revamped Music app.
iTunes 12.2 changelog
Apple has provided the following description of new features in iTunes 12.2:
For You —Get playlist and album recommendations you’ll love, selected just for you based on your musical tastes. The more you listen, the better For You gets.
—Get playlist and album recommendations you’ll love, selected just for you based on your musical tastes. The more you listen, the better For You gets. New —Discover the best new music, handpicked by our music editors. Explore mixes created just for activities like exercising, or find great handcrafted playlists in a wide variety of genres. With Apple Music, you’ll always have the perfect soundtrack for any occasion.
—Discover the best new music, handpicked by our music editors. Explore mixes created just for activities like exercising, or find great handcrafted playlists in a wide variety of genres. With Apple Music, you’ll always have the perfect soundtrack for any occasion. Connect —A single place to connect with your favorite artists. See thoughts, photos, music, and videos shared from your favorite artists. You can comment on or love anything an artist has posted, and the artist can respond to you directly.
—A single place to connect with your favorite artists. See thoughts, photos, music, and videos shared from your favorite artists. You can comment on or love anything an artist has posted, and the artist can respond to you directly. Beats 1 —Tune in to Beats 1, broadcast live from cities around the globe. Enjoy music, interviews, exclusive radio shows, and the best of what’s going on in the world of music. Beats 1—worldwide and always on.
—Tune in to Beats 1, broadcast live from cities around the globe. Enjoy music, interviews, exclusive radio shows, and the best of what’s going on in the world of music. Beats 1—worldwide and always on. Apple Music Radio —Radio has been completely redesigned. Play from Featured Stations, where our music experts hand select every song you hear. Or, start a new station from any artist or song. In addition, it’s now easy to quickly return to your favorite stations with Recently Played.
—Radio has been completely redesigned. Play from Featured Stations, where our music experts hand select every song you hear. Or, start a new station from any artist or song. In addition, it’s now easy to quickly return to your favorite stations with Recently Played. My Music —Find all your music in one place, including iTunes purchases, music you’ve imported from CD, and now songs from Apple Music.
—Find all your music in one place, including iTunes purchases, music you’ve imported from CD, and now songs from Apple Music. iTunes Store—The iTunes Store is still the best place to buy your favorite music, one song or album at a time.
Apple Music is free to try for three months.
Following the trial period, your credit card on file will be charged $9.99 per month to continue enjoying features like unlimited streaming with offline playback and more.
A $14.99 tier for families up to six is available, too.
If you’re going to check out Apple Music, read Cody’s tutorial which explains how to disable the auto-renewal option to avoid charges after your free trial.
How to update iTunes for Mac
First open iTunes on your Mac.
If an update prompt doesn’t show up automatically, choose iTunes > Check for Updates in the application’s menu bar. Follow the prompts to upgrade your copy of iTunes for Mac to the latest version.
Tip: You can also check for an update to iTunes using OS X’s Software Update mechanism. Simply choose App Store in the Finder’s Apple menu, or open Mac App Store from the Dock, and click the Updates tab.
How to update iTunes for Windows
Open iTunes on your Windows PC.
Now select Help > Check for Updates in the menu bar. You’ll be prompted to install the latest version of iTunes so follow the on-screen instructions from that point onward.
Tip: If you don’t see the menu bar, press the Control + B combination on your keyboard.
iTunes system requirements
On OS X, iTunes requires a Mac with an Intel Core processor, OS X Lion 10.7.5 or later, 400MB of free disk space and broadband Internet connection to use iTunes Store.
On Windows PCs, minimum system requirements include a PC with a 1GHz Intel or AMD processor, 512MB of RAM, Windows XP Service Pack 3 or later, 400MB of available disk space and broadband Internet connection to use iTunes Store.
32-bit editions of iTunes support Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8. 64-bit editions of iTunes are available for Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8.
Where to download iTunes from?
You can download iTunes straight from Apple here.
How do you like Apple Music and Beats 1 integration in iTunes 12.2?
Share your early impressions with fellow readers down in the comment section.
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At least Tunisia is not as bad as Egypt -- that is the hardly comforting good news coming out of the country where the Arab Spring began, more than two years ago. The bad news is that Tunisia has come up far short of the lofty expectations set by Tunisians and outsiders in January 2011, when protests finally forced President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali from office. Among the Middle East's post-revolutionary governments, Tunisia still has the best chance of turning into a consolidated democracy, but barriers old and new are making the task far more difficult.
As I discovered during a recent research trip, Tunisians are deeply worried about their country's sluggish economy, worsening security situation, and never-ending political stalemate. The protests that began the revolution centered on the lack of job opportunities, and Tunisians at all levels of society are still demanding economic improvement. Now, however, they are increasingly fearful for their own safety, the assassination of the popular left-leaning and secular politician Chokri Belaid being just the latest cause for concern, and they are growing disillusioned with the country's acute political polarization. Together, the lack of progress on these fronts has left once hopeful observers worrying that if Tunisia, a small, educated, and religiously and ethnically homogenous country, is having so much trouble with its transition, then perhaps every other Arab Spring country is doomed, too.
On the economic front, Moody's and the S&P have both downgraded their assessments of Tunisia's economy in recent weeks; the country's bond rating is now officially at junk status. Tourism, once a main source of income, has not rebounded since the revolution; I was traveling in the off-season, but even so, I was struck by how few European tourists there were in Tunis and Sousse. The age-old economic gap between the coastal regions and the interior continues to grow, a divide that Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, the Islamist group believed to be behind the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis last
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Politics is a dirty business. Its history contains some of the most unsavory and slanderous conduct imaginable. In recent years there seems to have been an escalation by conservative activists who were never able to accept the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States. From Inauguration Day, when Fox News immediately began speculating that Obama was illegitimate because Supreme Court Justice John Roberts flubbed the oath of office, to the present where we see the president still shirking off allegations of treasonous sympathies for Muslim terrorists, America’s right-wingers have orchestrated an aggressive assault on those they consider to be their enemies. Well, we don’t have to lay down and take it. Here are some of the ways we can fight back:
1. Trust, No. Verify, Yes: The easiest way to smack down a conservative is to do some cursory research. In all likelihood whatever they are using against you is filled with errors or is entirely made up. It shouldn’t be too difficult to expose their attacks as vacant smear tactics. Mike Huckabee’s recent assertion that President Obama holds views that are different than the average American due to his "upbringing in Kenya" is a perfect example of right-wing disinformation. It was quickly debunked, which led Huckabee to offer even more ludicrous falsehoods to cover his original deceit. We are fortunate to be blessed with opponents who are, more often than not, idiots. Let’s exploit that good fortune.
2. Mock Treatment: When you’re dealing with the sort of people who vote for former witches for the senate there is sometimes little you can do other than laugh. And while the antics of right-wingers are often indistinguishable from satire, it is still an effective response to their attacks. The latest inanity from Sarah Palin can be addressed at length in a point-by-point rebuttal or a brief skit by Tiny Fey. Which do you think has a more enduring impact?
3. Talk Back: The purpose of most attacks from the right is to influence public opinion, and eventually, social behavior and legislation. They must not be left alone on that field of battle. A concerted effort should be made to inform the media that the attacks are baseless. That means letters to the editor, op-eds, call-ins to radio shows, and speaking out at public forums. The PR response is critical. The latest, loudest assertion is often the one most remembered. Don’t let it be a Tea Partier.
4. Consider the Source: Attacks from the right often emanate from notoriously disreputable characters whose grousing is better ignored. Their hypocrisy is legendary. Why should we care when the corpulent Rush Limbaugh calls Michael Moore fat? And the next time Ann Coulter proposes that the way to deal with violent extremism (or in her view, with anyone of the Muslim faith) is to "invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity," we ought not to pay attention to the violent extremism she espouses. This isn’t giving up. It’s tactical disregard, but it should only be employed against irrelevant figures whose opinions are widely ignored anyway. I know, that’s a pretty big chunk of the rightosphere.
5. Hit the Streets: Nothing has been more illustrative of the power ordinary people have to effect change than the determined and courageous example set by the people of Wisconsin. They have been relentless in asserting their rights to speak, assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. Sadly, their governor and his GOP minions have resisted the will of the people — so far. But this battle is far from over. And the example set by Wisconsin Democrats, unions and citizens, has inspired a national movement in support of working families and the notion that tough economic times require sacrifices from everyone, including wealthy individuals and corporations. This movement has flourished despite scant attention from the conventional media. That’s the power of numbers and a public presence.
SPONSORED
6. Sue the Bastards: This action can only be undertaken by actual victims of right-wing attacks, but it is effective and underutilized. Recently lawsuits have been been filed by Shirley Sherrod (against Andrew Breitbart) and Juan Carlos Vera (against James O’Keefe). These suits can serve as notice that people will not tolerate being slandered or otherwise harmed by spurious attacks. They can also preoccupy conservative evildoers who will have to spend both time and money on their defense. The publicity from these suits can help to advance progressive activism, particularly if they are successful. But just keeping their dastardly exploits in the news has a beneficial effect all its own. It would be great to see more of this from aggrieved parties like Van Jones and George Soros.
7. Get Up, Stand Up! Last, but not least, it is imperative that we coalesce into a culture of pride and conviction for the ideals we cherish. We must cease to buckle under pressure from rightist factions who will oppose us even after we make every concession they demand. Has the criticism of the White House declined since the departure of Van Jones? Did the opposition relent after we removed language from the health care bill that was falsely lambasted as "death panels?" Has there been any let-up on charges of over-taxation and socialism from Tea Partiers despite the extension of Bush-era tax relief for the rich? Of course not. So why on earth would we continue to try to appease an opponent who is insatiable and resistant to compromise?
Our side has to stop firing people just because they were subjects of criticism from the right. That just empowers the other side and highlights our weaknesses. It’s long past time for us to stand up for ourselves and our own. And when we get hit, as we will, we need to hit back. We have a moral obligation to stand up for the principles that we share with the majority of the American people. And now we must augment that with the will to advance those principles even in the face of dishonest, dirty dealing by our opponents.
One more thing: have fun! There is no reason we can’t pursue our goals with a positive demeanor that reflects our hopes and aspirations for a country that cares about its people and the people of the world.
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Report: Bears plan to fire Mel Tucker after season
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Sunday that the Bears are planning to fire Mel Tucker after the season, barring significant improvement in the final three weeks of the year.
Rapoport also reported that the Bears are having a serious case of buyer’s remorse with Jay Cutler and doubt whether he can lead the team to the playoffs.
The Bears are 5-8 and have remaining games at home against the Saints and Lions before finishing the season at Minnesota.
The Bears rank 26th in total defense, 28th in pass defense and 17th in run defense.
Speculation about Tucker’s job security has swirled ever since allowing 50-plus points in back-to-back losses to the Patriots and Packers.
Rapoport said he isn’t convinced head coach Marc Trestman will lose his job.
View Rapoport’s string of tweets on the Bears below:
Barring significant improvement, I’m told the #Bears plan to part ways with defensive coordinator Mel Tucker after this season. — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 7, 2014
From @Rapsheet: Bears having "serious case of buyer's remorse" over Jay Cutler deal. Considered benching him during Tampa Bay game. — NFL Network (@nflnetwork) December 7, 2014
Plenty of blame to go around for #Bears, who will say publicly they haven’t discussed staff changes. I’m told the plan is to have a new DC — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 7, 2014
As for Jay Cutler, there is serious buyer’s remorse. Inside the organization, there is doubt Cutler can lead them to where they want to go — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 7, 2014
Not convinced Trestman is out at this point RT @BearDownNation: @RapSheet Since Trest is walking the plank … Pasqualoni like replacement? — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 7, 2014
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United States Court of Appeals,Ninth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, Tai Loong Hong Marine Products, Limited, Claimant-Appellant, v. APPROXIMATELY 64,695 POUNDS OF SHARK FINS, Defendant-Appellant. No. 05-56274. Decided: March 17, 2008
Before: STEPHEN REINHARDT, RAYMOND C. FISHER, and RICHARD R. CLIFTON, Circuit Judges. Bryan Y.Y. Ho, Esq., Honolulu, HI, for the defendant-appellant. Karen P. Hewitt, U.S. Atty. (when opinion was filed), Carol C. Lam (when brief was filed), Mary C. Lundberg, Asst. U.S. Atty., U.S. Attorney's Office, San Diego, CA, for the plaintiff-appellee.
This case arises from a civil complaint brought by the U.S. Government for the forfeiture of 64,695 pounds of shark fins found on board the King Diamond II (“KD II ”), a United States vessel. Claimant-Appellant Tai Loong Hong Marine Products, Ltd. (“TLH”) owned the shark fins. TLH, a Hong Kong company, had chartered the KD II and ordered it to meet foreign fishing vessels on the high seas, purchase shark fins from those vessels, transport the fins to Guatemala, and deliver them to TLH. The Government seized the fins pursuant to the Shark Finning Prohibition Act (“SFPA”), which makes it unlawful for any person aboard a U.S. fishing vessel to possess shark fins obtained through prohibited “shark finning.” 16 U.S.C. § 1857(1)(P)(ii). TLH does not contest that, on its behalf, the KD II purchased the fins at sea from foreign vessels that engaged in shark finning. Instead, it argues that the KD II is not a fishing vessel under 16 U.S.C. § 1802(18)(B), and for that reason the forfeiture of the shark fins it possessed would violate due process. We agree that neither the statute nor the regulations provided fair notice to TLH that it would be considered a fishing vessel under § 1802(18)(B). We therefore reverse the judgment of forfeiture and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
I. Background
In 1976, Congress passed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (“Magnuson Act”), 16 U.S.C. § 1801 et seq., to conserve and manage fishery resources. 16 U.S.C. § 1801(b)(1). In 2000, Congress enacted the Shark Finning Prohibition Act, which amended the Magnuson Act in an attempt to eliminate the practice of shark finning. Pub.L. No. 106-557, 114 Stat. 2772 (2000), 16 U.S.C. § 1857(1)(P).
The SFPA makes it unlawful:
(I) to remove any of the fins of a shark (including the tail) and discard the carcass of the shark at sea;
(ii) to have custody, control, or possession of any such fin aboard a fishing vessel without the corresponding carcass; or
(iii) to land any such fin without the corresponding carcass.
16 U.S.C. § 1857(1)(P) (emphasis added).
The Magnuson Act, in turn, defines a fishing vessel to include
“any vessel, boat, ship, or other craft which is used for, equipped to be used for, or of a type which is normally used for-
(A) fishing; or
(B) aiding or assisting one or more vessels at sea in the performance of any activity relating to fishing, including, but not limited to, preparation, supply, storage, refrigeration, transportation, or processing.”
16 U.S.C. § 1802(18).
The question we must resolve is whether TLH had notice that the KD II's activities would fall within the definition of fishing vessel in § 1802(18)(B) and thus render it subject to the prohibition on possessing shark fins under the SFPA. The KD II is a United States vessel owned and operated by Tran & Yu, a Hawaii corporation. Tran & Yu purchased the KD II in January 2001. Although Tran & Yu initially registered the vessel with a “Fishery” endorsement, the company redocumented the vessel with a “Registry” endorsement, which “entitles a vessel to employment in the foreign trade ․ and any other employment for which a coastwise, Great Lakes, or fishery endorsement is not required.” 46 C.F.R. § 67.17(a). During the time of the transactions at issue in this case, the KD II operated under this registry endorsement.
TLH is a Hong Kong company that purchases and sells seafood products, including shark fins. TLH chartered the KD II and ordered it to make a voyage in which it would rendezvous with foreign fishing vessels on the high seas, purchase shark fins from those vessels, and transport the fins to Guatemala, where TLH would accept delivery.
In June 2002 the KD II left Honolulu, Hawaii, to begin the charter trip for TLH. During the next two months, the KD II met with over 20 vessels on the high seas and purchased approximately 64,695 pounds of shark fins. On August 14, 2002, United States Coast Guard officials boarded the KD II approximately 250 miles off the coast of Guatemala. On board, they discovered the shark fins but no shark carcasses. The SFPA establishes a rebuttable presumption that shark fins landed or found on board a fishing vessel without corresponding shark carcasses were obtained through prohibited shark finning. 16 U.S.C. § 1857(1)(P). Acting on this presumption, the Coast Guard detained the KD II and escorted it to San Diego. On August 23, 2002, the Government seized the shark fins.
On March 26, 2003, the Government filed a civil complaint for forfeiture of the shark fins. The complaint alleged that the fins were subject to forfeiture pursuant to the Magnuson Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1860(a), because they were taken or retained in violation of the SFPA, 16 U.S.C. § 1857(1)(P)(ii), and its implementing regulations at 50 C.F.R. § 600.1203(a)(2) (formerly 50 C.F.R. § 600.1202(a)(2)). This is referred to herein as the “possession” prohibition. The landing prohibition, set forth in the following subsection of the statute, subsection (iii), is not at issue here, because “landing” applies only to landings at U.S. ports.
The issue in dispute is whether the KD II was a fishing vessel within the meaning of the SFPA and the Magnuson Act. The district court ruled on two separate arguments advanced by TLH. It first held that there was a genuine issue of material fact about whether the KD II was “used for, equipped to be used for or of a type which is normally used for ․ fishing” as defined in § 1802(18)(A), and it therefore denied summary judgment as to that ground. The court then held that the KD II was a fishing vessel as a matter of law under § 1802(18)(B) because it aided or assisted fishing vessels at sea in the performance of activities related to fishing, including “purchase, storage, and transportation.” As a result, the court granted the government's motion for summary judgment on that basis. See United States v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins, 353 F.Supp.2d 1095 (S.D.Cal.2005). The parties then filed an Amended Stipulated Facts and Legal Conclusion “for the purpose of saving the time and cost of litigating the fair market value of the shark fins, as well as to expedite TLH's appeal of an order forfeiting the fair market value of the shark fins to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.” The parties stipulated that the fair market value of the fins at the time of the seizure was $618,956 and that an order forfeiting this amount was a legal consequence of the district court's summary judgment order.
The district court entered a judgment of forfeiture on June 6, 2005. TLH timely appealed.
II. The statutes and regulations did not provide TLH with notice that the prohibition on possessing shark fins aboard a fishing vessel as defined in 16 U.S.C. § 1802(18)(B) applied to the KD II
TLH challenges the district court's ruling, arguing both that the KD II was not a fishing vessel within the meaning of 16 U.S.C. § 1802(18)(B), and that application of that provision of the SFPA to the KD II violated due process. Even if the KD II were a fishing vessel within the meaning of § 1802(18)(B), we conclude that the provision in question would not provide fair notice to TLH that it was such a vessel and was subject to the possession prohibition. As a result, we agree that application of that sub-section of the SFPA to the KD II violated due process.
A. Fair notice
Due process requires that an agency provide “fair notice of what conduct is prohibited before a sanction can be imposed.” Stillwater Mining Co. v. Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Comm'n, 142 F.3d 1179, 1182 (9th Cir.1998) (quoting Newell v. Sauser, 79 F.3d 115, 117 (9th Cir.1996)). As the D.C. Circuit has explained, “[i]n the absence of notice-for example, where the regulation is not sufficiently clear to warn a party about what is expected of it-an agency may not deprive a party of property by imposing civil or criminal liability.” Trinity Broadcasting of Florida, Inc. v. Federal Commc'n Comm'n, 211 F.3d 618, 628 (D.C.Cir.2000) (quoting General Elec. Co. v. EPA, 53 F.3d 1324, 1328-29 (D.C.Cir.1995)) (alteration in original).
To provide sufficient notice, a statute or regulation must “give the person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to know what is prohibited so that he may act accordingly.” Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972). We agree with TLH that a reasonable owner of a cargo vessel engaged in at-sea purchase and transfer of shark fins would not anticipate that its ship could be deemed a fishing vessel under § 1802(18)(B).
1. Plain Language of the Statute
In determining the meaning of a statute, we first look to the language of the statute itself. See Freeman v. DirecTV, Inc., 457 F.3d 1001, 1004 (9th Cir.2006) (“The starting point for [the] interpretation of a statute is always its language.”) (quoting Cmty. for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730, 739, 109 S.Ct. 2166, 104 L.Ed.2d 811 (1989)). In this case, we find nothing in the plain meaning of § 1802(18)(B) that would provide notice to the owners of the KD II that its activities would render it a fishing vessel under § 1802(18)(B).
The district court found the KD II in violation of the SFPA, which prohibits the possession of unlawfully obtained shark fins aboard a fishing vessel. 16 U.S.C. § 1857(1)(P). As explained above, the SFPA relies on the Magnuson Act to define the term “fishing vessel.” The definition includes any vessel that “aid[s] or assist[s] one or more vessels at sea in the performance of any activity relating to fishing, including, but not limited to, preparation, supply, storage, refrigeration, transportation, or processing.” 16 U.S.C. § 1802(18)(B).
The district court held that the KD II was a fishing vessel under 16 U.S.C. § 1802(18)(B) because it aided and assisted vessels at sea in the performance of fishing-related activities. Specifically, the district court found that the KD II's “purchase, storage, and transport” of the shark fins aided and assisted the foreign fishing vessels.
None of these activities would appear to fall within the plain meaning of “aiding” or “assisting” in the circumstances of this case. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines “to assist” as “[t]o give help or support to, especially as a subordinate or supplement; aid.” American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.2000). Similarly, it defines “to aid” as “[t]o help or furnish with help, support, or relief.” Id. As these definitions indicate, “aiding” and “assisting” generally connote doing an act for the benefit of another.
In this case, the charterers of the KD II did not purchase, store or transport shark fins for the benefit of the foreign fishing vessels. Instead, they purchased the fins for their own commercial purposes. The foreign fishing vessels had no interest in the shark fins after selling them to the KD II. As a result, the KD II's subsequent post-purchase storage and transport of the shark fins did not benefit the foreign vessels any more than the purchaser of any other product aids and assists the seller by storing the goods it has acquired in a warehouse or transporting them to the location at which it intends to resell them. Nor does the mere act of purchasing constitute an act of aiding and assisting a seller. Otherwise it would not be necessary in criminal statutes that are intended to punish buyers as well as sellers of illegal substances to specify the former group expressly. It would be enough that selling is proscribed and that a purchaser bought the illicit product. Under the district court's theory, the simple act of purchasing would make a buyer an aider or abettor. This is simply incorrect. Moreover, here, unlike storing and transporting, “purchasing” is not listed in the statute as one of the acts that constitutes aiding and abetting. Under these circumstances, the statutory provision that prohibits “aiding or assisting any activity relating to fishing” does not give fair notice that purchasing fins is prohibited, nor that storing or transporting them after they are acquired is contrary to law.
Similarly, we are not persuaded by the district court's reasoning that purchasing shark fins at particular at-sea locations designated by the foreign vessels constitutes an act of aiding or assisting the foreign vessels. As explained above, the acts of purchasing, and then storing and transporting the shark fins do not in themselves constitute aiding or assisting the fishing vessels. Rather, the charterers of the KD II were at all times acting for their own benefit, not for the benefit of the foreign fishing vessels. That the foreign vessels chose to conduct the sales at sea-even at particular locations at sea-and to transfer possession of the fins at that point, may have been beneficial or even necessary to those vessels' business operations, but the choice did not change the nature of the purchasers' actions in any respect. They still purchased the fins, stored them and transported them for their own commercial purposes. From the standpoint of the purchaser, any benefit to the seller was incidental. In short, the statutory language at issue here does not support the district court's conclusion that the KD II became a fishing vessel because it purchased, transported and stored the shark fins at a location favorable to the foreign fishing vessels.
We also reject the district court's reasoning that the at-sea purchase of the shark fins constituted aiding and assisting because it allowed the foreign vessels to continue fishing for longer than they would have otherwise. The court supported this conclusion by referring to a letter stating that the KD II would save time and expense by having one of the foreign vessels pick up shark fins from other vessels and deliver them in bulk to the KD II. Although the letter relates the time and expense that TLH saved by not having to go from vessel to vessel in each instance, it does not establish that the failure or inability to make such arrangements with respect to all the foreign vessels constituted aiding or assisting those to which the KD II actually went. Surely, purchasing all the shark fins at the dock would have been preferable for TLH (if the cost were to remain the same), and surely the sellers benefited from selling at a particular location, just as they benefited from making the sale in the first place. Nevertheless, wherever the purchase is made, the purchaser is doing no more than making a purchase that it desires to make for its own business reasons. As a result, while the district court's assumption that the seller would benefit from the location of particular sales appears reasonable, it is irrelevant. Thus, nothing in the district court's reasoning persuades us that the plain language of § 1802(18)(B) provides fair notice that a purchaser of shark fins is aiding or assisting the seller by the act of purchasing.
We recognize that Congress enacted the SFPA to “eliminate the wasteful and unsportsmanlike practice of shark finning” and that it explained that “the purpose of this Act is to eliminate shark-finning by addressing the problem comprehensively at both the national and international levels.” Pub.L. 106-557, 114 Stat. 2772 (2000). Although this broad statement expresses an intent to prevent shark finning, it says nothing to suggest that purchasing shark fins or subsequently transporting or storing them for the purchaser's benefit constitutes aiding or assisting the seller and, thus, falls within the ambit of the possession prohibition. Given that the plain language of § 1802(18)(B) nowhere suggests that the possession prohibition extends to the activities of the KD II, the broad purpose of the Act provides no help to the government with regard to the issue on appeal.
Although we find nothing in the plain language of § 1802(18)(B) that would provide notice to the KD II that the possession prohibition extended to its activities, we will next turn to the regulations and to the district court's alternative holding that they provide such notice.
2. Implementing Regulations
The district court concluded that the implementing regulations made clear that the actions of the KD II would render it subject to the possession prohibition. We reject this holding as well.
Pursuant to the SFPA, the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) enacted regulations making it unlawful to:
1) Engage in shark finning as provided in § 600.1204(a) and (I).
2) Possess shark fins without the corresponding carcasses while on board a U.S. fishing vessel, as provided in § 600.1204(b) and (j).
3) Land shark fins without the corresponding carcasses, as provided in § 600.1204(c) and (k).
50 C.F.R. § 600.1203.
The relevant portion of the possession prohibition is defined at § 600.1204(b), which provides:
No person aboard a U.S. fishing vessel shall possess on board shark fins harvested seaward of the inner boundary of the U.S. EEZ without the corresponding carcass(es)․
The relevant portion of the landing prohibition is defined at § 600.1204(c), which provides:
No person aboard a U.S. or foreign fishing vessel (including any cargo vessel that received shark fins from a fishing vessel at sea) shall land shark fins harvested in waters seaward of the inner boundary of the U.S. EEZ without corresponding shark carcasses.
․
As the government conceded at oral argument, the landing provision applies only to fishing vessels (and cargo vessels that receive fins from a fishing vessel at sea) landing at U.S. ports. It does not apply to those vessels landing at foreign ports, such as Guatemala, where the KD II was to land.
To support its conclusion that the regulations make clear that the KD II was a fishing vessel, the district court looked exclusively to the agency's explanation of the regulation prohibiting landing shark fins, the prohibition at 50 C.F.R. § 600.1204(c). The agency explained this provision in the preamble:
The prohibition of landing shark fins without corresponding carcasses extends to any vessel (including a cargo or shipping vessel) that obtained those fins from another vessel at sea. Any such at-sea transfer of shark fins effectively would make the receiving vessel a “fishing vessel,” as the receiving vessel is acting “in support of fishing.” Thus, the receiving vessel is prohibited from landing shark fins without corresponding carcasses under this final rule.
67 Fed.Reg. 6194 (2002) (emphasis added).
Far from making clear that the KD II was a fishing vessel for purposes of the possession prohibition-the prohibition under which the government seized the shark fins aboard the KD II-the language relied on, in context, suggests the opposite. As TLH points out, the quoted language relates to the landing prohibition. While the text of the landing prohibition, 50 C.F.R. § 600.1204(c), explicitly provides that a cargo vessel that lands shark fins after an at-sea transfer is considered a fishing vessel, § 1204(b)-the prohibition on possessing shark fins-includes no such provision. Where an agency includes language in one section of the regulation and omits it in another, it is reasonable to presume that the agency acted intentionally in forgoing the language. Cf. Bates v. United States, 522 U.S. 23, 29, 118 S.Ct. 285, 139 L.Ed.2d 215 (1997) (“[W]here Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally and purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion.”) (internal citation omitted).
In other words, the text of the landing prohibition specifically includes cargo or shipping vessels such as the KD II, while the text of the possession prohibition contains no such language. The obvious implication is that although the landing prohibition defines vessels that simply engage in at-sea transfer of shark fins as fishing vessels, the possession provision does not.
The preamble to the regulation similarly supports the conclusion that vessels engaged in the at-sea transfer of fins will be considered fishing vessels only for purposes of the landing prohibition. Again, the only reference in the preamble to a prohibition on at-sea transfer of shark fins is found in the discussion of the landing prohibition; no such reference occurs in the discussion of the possession prohibition.
Taken together, the regulations and the preamble may be reasonably read to provide notice that vessels that engage in at-sea transfers of fins are prohibited from landing shark fins in a U.S. port, but they do not provide notice that such vessels are prohibited from possessing fins for the purpose of making a delivery to a foreign port. This reading is further supported by the agency's emphasis in the preamble on its desire not to interfere with international trade. See 67 Fed.Reg. 6194, 6195 (2002). As TLH pointed out, the KD II's purchase and delivery of shark fins to a foreign port for resale falls within the ambit of international trade. In the absence of any other indication in the statutes or the regulations, a vessel engaged in such trade has reason to believe that it is not subject to the possession prohibition as a fishing vessel under § 1802(18)(B).
Under the circumstances, a reasonable person would not have fair notice that the activities of the KD II would render it a fishing vessel under § 1802(18)(B). As a result, we hold that the district court's application of the possession prohibition of the SFPA to the KD II as a fishing vessel under § 1802(18)(B) violated due process. We therefore reverse its decision and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
FOOTNOTES
. The SFPA establishes a “rebuttable presumption that any shark fins landed from a fishing vessel or found on board a fishing vessel were taken, held, or landed in violation of subparagraph (P) if the total weight of shark fins landed or found on board exceeds 5 percent of the total weight of shark carcasses landed or found on board.” 16 U.S.C. § 1857(1).
. A fishery endorsement entitles a vessel to work in fisheries and land its catch in United States ports. See 46 C.F.R. § 67.21(a). See also 46 C.F.R. § 67.3 (“Fisheries includes processing, storing, transporting (except in foreign commerce), planting, cultivating, catching, taking, or harvesting fish, shellfish, marine animals, pearls, shells, or marine vegetation in the navigable waters of the United States or in the Exclusive Economic Zone.”).
REINHARDT, Circuit Judge:
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CLARKSBURG, Calif. - A Northern California teacher is accused of stealing medication from her students, reports CBS Sacramento.
Sheri Haselhuhn, a veteran teacher of 14 years who works at Delta Elementary Charter in Clarksburg, was arrested after school officials reportedly noticed prescription items missing from the student "medication room." Surveillance video led them to Haselhuhn, according to the station.
"If they're stealing my kids' medication that would be wrong because that's for my kids, it's not for her," parent Carlos Alvarez told the station.
Linda McCapes' son was taught for years by the 40-year-old teacher.
"She taught my son how to read," McCapes said. "She was nice."
Clarksburg is about 15 miles south of Sacramento. CBS Sacramento went to the teacher's home to get answers, but no one answered the door.
Yolo County detectives would only say their investigation is ongoing
"I think the most important message to our families is that the safety of our children is No. 1 priority, and we want all our families to know that's why we notified law enforcement and took immediate action," said principal Steve Lewis.
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Unidentified people react on December 14, 2012 at the aftermath of a school shooting at a Connecticut elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images
Updated Dec. 15, 2012, 1:42 a.m. ET
A man killed his mother at their home and then opened fire Friday inside an elementary school, massacring 26 people, including 20 children, as youngsters cowered in fear to the sound of gunshots reverberating through the building and screams echoing over the intercom.
The bodies of most of the children killed in the morning remained inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Friday evening, along with the bodies of six adults and the gunman himself, Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance told "CBS Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley.
As SWAT teams surrounded the school, state troopers moved students to safety. Some children were told to close their eyes to protect them from seeing the carnage. The police eventually found the gunman dead from a self-inflicted wound, the police said.
Among the dead was the school's principal, Dawn Hocksprung. One teacher was wounded but survived.
The attack, coming less than two weeks before Christmas, was the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead in 2007.
"This is most definitely the worst thing that we have experienced in town - tragic," Newtown police Lt. George Sinko told reporters.
"Evil visited this community today," Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy told reporters at a news conference attended by Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen.-elect Chris Murphy, who represent the state.
A source familiar with the investigation identified the shooter as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, CBS News investigative producer Pat Milton reports. Law enforcement sources had earlier told CBS News that the gunman was Ryan Lanza, Adam Lanza's older brother.
Brother of Conn. shooter taken for questioning
Ryan Lanza is being questioned by authorities in New Jersey, Milton reports. As of Friday evening, Ryan Lanza was not considered a suspect, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.
Police shed no light on the motive for the attack. The gunman, Adam Lanza, was believed to suffer from a personality disorder and lived with his mother, said a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but was not authorized to discuss it.
Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lanza fatally shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, then drove to the school in her car with at least three guns, including a high-powered rifle that he apparently left in the back of the vehicle, and shot up two classrooms around 9:30 a.m. The New York Times reported that Lanza wore combat gear.
Police audio from Newtown elementary school shooting
Obama: "We have been through this too many times"
Columbine principal: Not again
The shooting took place in two classrooms, Vance told reporters at an afternoon news conference. Eighteen children died at the school, some as young as 5. Two more died after being transported to area hospitals, he said.
A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said investigators believe Lanza attended the school several years ago but appeared to have no recent connection to the place.
At least one parent said Lanza's mother was a substitute teacher there. But her name did not appear on a staff list. And the law enforcement official said investigators were unable to establish any connection so far between her and the school.
The school teaches about 700 students between kindergarten and fourth grade.
On Friday night, hundreds of people packed a Newtown church and stood outside in a vigil for the victims. People held hands, lit candles and sang "Silent Night" at St. Rose of Lima church.
At the vigil, the priest said the altar holds 26 candles, all of which were lit in memory of the victims. Lyrics of the last hymn of the ceremony rang out: "I will raise him up on eagle's wings."
The parish priest, Robert Weiss, said he spent much of Friday with victims of the families but he could not give them any answers about what happened.
David Connors, the father of three triplets at the school, said at a vigil that his children were taken into a closet during the lockdown.
"My son said he did hear some gunshots, as many as 10," he said. "The questions are starting to come out. `Are we safe? Is the bad guy gone?"'
Adam Lanza and his mother lived in a well-to-do part of Newtown where neighbors are doctors or hold white-collar positions at companies such as General Electric, Pepsi and IBM.
At least three guns were found a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols, inside the school, and a .223-caliber rifle in the back of a car, authorities said. A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said some of the guns used in the attack may have belonged to Lanza's family. His mother had legally registered four weapons, his father two.
Authorities also recovered three other guns a Henry repeating rifle, an Enfield rifle and a shotgun. It was not clear exactly where those weapons were found.
President Obama promised action to prevent such tragedies again but did not say what that would be.
"Our hearts are broken today for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children and for the families of the adults who were lost," an emotional Mr. Obama said Friday afternoon in a statement delivered from the White House briefing room.
"Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors, as well," said Mr. Obama. "For, as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children's innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Mr. Obama was informed of the shooting at 10:30 a.m. ET by homeland security adviser John Brennan.
A dispatcher at the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps said a teacher had been shot in the foot and taken to Danbury Hospital.
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As I write this, Hanukkah is in full swing and Christmas is days away. Typically around this time of year you find something in the air that people call “the Christmas spirit,” which is basically something that inspires people to commit small acts of kindness that serve to warm each other’s hearts in spite of the winter chill. One has to wonder why, if being kind feels so good for everyone involved, it isn’t something we try to do all year ‘round. Maybe it’s because it wouldn’t feel as special if it happened all the time. Or it could be because we all like to tell ourselves anyway that we are already the nicest people in the world and our daily lives already reflect that. Sometimes that’s true, but more often than not, it’s all a bunch of bullshit and we could all benefit from being more compassionate.
It’s times like this where I stop and reflect on morality. For instance, why do we get each other gifts? Is it because we feel the need to spend a day at the end of the year thinking of what other people need, or is it because our capitalist society uses holidays like this one to obligate us to stimulate the economy? Why are we nice to each other? Is it because we genuinely feel we should be, or because a religion tells us to be or because it’s expected of us by our family and our neighbors and the people in TV commercials?
Where does morality come from? What is it that taught us right from wrong? A religion or a government? When I stop and question these things in myself, I find that the greater part of my morality comes from comic books. Specifically, superhero comics. Specifically Batman. Now, in recent years it has been shaped heavily by my studying and practice of Zen Buddhism, but it seems to me that even this might just be an extension of what Batman taught me as a kid.
My parents didn’t raise me to be religious or to have any sort of political bias, outside of my Mom telling me early on that hating gay people for being gay is wrong (in relation to a news story about homophobia that came on the radio once) and that war is never justified (in relation to her time growing up during the Vietnam War). I consider myself lucky in that respect, as I’ve seen some very bad examples, especially here in the Bible Belt where I currently reside, of what happens when people raised under fear of deviating from their parents’ often antiquated belief system have to reconcile it with their own adult lives. I was able to decide for myself what my thoughts were on existential and political matters and I knew that whatever I decided, it wasn’t going to change the way my parents thought of me.
I think I was about four years old when I discovered the old Adam West Batman TV series (which was, needless to say, utterly mindblowing for me as a kid). I remember I always wanted to be Robin because I liked the idea of Batman being a mentor or sensei figure. Then right after that the Tim Burton Batman film came out and I saw a less silly version of the Caped Crusader, a version that looked like it could be happening somewhere in real life. At least that’s what I thought at the time. So it all sort of came together for me. Here was this guy with no superpowers who was so determined to live by the rigid standards of his own moral code that he became a superhero, and probably the best superhero at that. And if he ever came across a troubled kid who had their lives affected by the crime in Gotham, he would take them aside and teach them how to turn their loss into a way to help others.
Batman was always a dark character, and lately he’s become a very morose character, but his enduring quality is that he isn’t mean-spirited or psychotic or obsessed with revenge. Underneath all of the demonic trappings and theatrics, he represents two very important pillars of human morality. The first is that you don’t need an authority figure lording over you to do the right thing. If you have the discipline and the strength to do it, and you are comfortable enough with your own dark side to use it to your advantage instead of letting it hinder your actions, you don’t need a law or a police force or a god to tell you when you should and when you shouldn’t help other people (as well as when to not abuse your powers, such as killing in the name of justice).
The other thing he represented was compassion. Batman teaches us that people, regular human beings, aren’t perfect, but through discipline and exercise and mediation, we can find something within ourselves that is perfect, a compassionate nature that in this context is called a “supehero.” In Buddhism it’s called “Buddha nature.” This is the part of you that can go out into the world, whether it’s Crime Alley or your local Walmart, and help people that can’t help themselves. Batman also understands that crime is not a disease, but a symptom, and that the criminals that he fights are still ultimately members of the community that he is struggling to save.
These are some pretty heavy themes I suppose, but the mythology of Batman is so brilliant that his core themes are easily absorbed by the youngest of minds, even if it takes them more than twenty years to figure out that’s what they were learning in between all the “Bap!” and “Pow!” sound effect cards. And as I got older I found that those ideas could be elaborated upon in a more mature manner by studying Buddhism. Now, I don’t mean to say that I have even a tenth of the moral fiber that Buddha had or Batman has, but achieving those heights is certainly not unattainable by me or by anybody, provided the right level of self-discipline is employed.
So that’s what I think about during the holiday season. How Batman made me a Buddhist. Or something like that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a ton of last minute Christmas shopping to attend to. I could really use a butler right about now.
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In a legal test of a state’s ability to subsidize nuclear power plants, a federal court has dismissed a challenge to a decision by Illinois to award incentives to two plants owned by Exelon.
U.S. District Court Judge Manish Shah said the program set up by Illinois falls within the state’s authority over generation facilities and is not pre-empted by other federal statutes.
The case has implications for New Jersey, because PSEG Power, the operator of three nuclear units in South Jersey, is trying to convince policymakers to grant similar or other incentives to its plants to avoid their closing because of falling power prices.
The future of nuclear plants is emerging as one of the biggest questions in the energy sector. Cheap natural gas is undercutting the economics of nuclear power, leading to the premature closing of six plants across the nation. Nuclear energy advocates say the plants are not properly valued as a carbon-free source of electricity, which are critical to combatting climate change.
Without incentives, Exelon had threatened to close two of its plants in Illinois, saying it had lost more than $800 million over the past six years. Faced with the loss of 4,200 jobs, the Illinois Legislature approved so-called zero emission credits to avert the units’ retirement. The credits, ultimately paid by ratepayers, will amount to $235 million over 10 years.
Legal challenge
Independent power producers, including Princeton-based NRG Energy, and consumers challenged the program in court. Both essentially raised the same issue, saying the incentives violate interstate commerce and the Federal Power Act, as well as citing another case that went to the nation’s highest court involving New Jersey and Maryland’s efforts to subsidize new natural-gas plants.
In a 43-page decision handed down last Friday, the court rejected their arguments, ruling the plaintiffs lacked standing and failed to state a claim. The Electric Power Supply Association and some of its members already have filed an appeal of the ruling.
“The larger issue is this: if upheld, the Illinois decision would effectively strip FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) of its authority to regulate wholesale markets, would harm ratepayers, and threaten FERC’s ability to put in place rules protecting competitive electricity markets,’’ said David Gaier, a spokesman for NRG Energy.
The Exelon angle
In a statement, Exelon called the decision good news for the environment and consumers. The zero-emission credits employ the same mechanisms used to support other sources of clean energy, a spokesman said. “These programs internalize the cost of pollution into the market and preserve the most cost-effective source of carbon abatement available to consumers,’’ said Paul Adams, the spokesman.
But Stefanie Brand, director of the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, argued the ruling raises more questions than it answers. “There’s a long way to go before it is determined where ZECs are legal,’’ Brand said. “There are a lot of arguments on appeal.’’
While PSEG has been lobbying for help for its nuclear units, which provide roughly half of the state’s electricity, there has been no legislation introduced similar to that approved in Illinois. The company declined comment on the Illinois case.
While the court’s decision is a positive for companies looking to get help for nuclear plants, Paul Patterson, an energy analyst for Glenrock Associates, said the biggest issue is to convince states to give subsidies to the sector. “That’s a policy question,” he said.
New York also has adopted a program to give subsidies to economically troubled nuclear plants, which also is being challenged in court by the Electric Power Supply Association.
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A Messier marathon is an attempt, usually organized by amateur astronomers, to find as many Messier objects as possible during one night. The Messier catalogue was compiled by French astronomer Charles Messier during the late 18th century and consists of 110 relatively bright deep-sky objects (galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters).
When and where a marathon is possible [ edit ]
The number of Messier objects visible in any one night varies depending on a few factors, including the location of the observer, the duration of daylight and nighttime, and the season (the positions of the Messier objects relative to the Sun varies with the season).
Location [ edit ]
Because Messier compiled his catalog from a northern latitude, not all of the Messier objects are visible from the southern hemisphere. In particular, M81, M82, M52, and M103 make southern-hemisphere Messier marathons difficult, because they are all located at a declination of 60° north or greater. Although a Messier marathon can be attempted from any northern latitude, low northern latitudes are best. In particular, a latitude of around 25° north lends the best possibility to complete a Messier marathon at the right time of year.
Season [ edit ]
At low northern latitudes, particularly around latitude 25° north, it is possible to observe all Messier objects in one night during a window of a few weeks from mid-March to early April. In that period the dark nights around the time of the new moon are best for a Messier marathon.
Other times of year [ edit ]
Less complete Messier marathons can be undertaken at other times of the year, with the actual percentage of Messier objects seen depending upon season and location. In particular, there is a short period around the autumnal equinox when most of the objects can be seen.[1]
The marathon [ edit ]
Typically an observer attempting a Messier marathon begins observing at sundown and will observe through the night until sunrise in order to see all 110 objects. An observer starts with objects low in the western sky at sunset, hoping to view them before they dip out of view, then works eastward across the sky. By sunrise, the successful observer will be observing the last few objects low on the eastern horizon, hoping to see them before the sky becomes too bright due to the rising sun. The evening can be a test of stamina and willpower depending on weather conditions and the physical fitness of the observer. Particularly crowded regions of the sky (namely, the Virgo Cluster and the Milky Way's galactic center) can prove to be challenging to an observer as well, and a Messier marathon will generally budget time for these regions accordingly.
Organized marathons [ edit ]
Marathons are typically organized by a local astronomy organization or astronomical society as a special type of star party. These are usually attempted at least once every year. Some clubs issue certificates/awards either for participation or for achieving a set number of objects.
See also [ edit ]
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Beloit College, via Associated Press
Every year the administrators at Wisconsin’s Beloit College put together a list of information about incoming freshmen that is shared with the school’s professors. It’s not a list of student names, or the books they’ll need to order for class. Instead, professors are told about the “cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall.”
It is called the Mindset List.
The list was first developed in 1998 by Tom McBride and Ron Nief, faculty members at Beloit, with the goal of helping the school’s professors avoid “dated references” and understand the perspective of the next generation.
They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day. — The Mindset List
So how is the class of 2014 different from previous classes? They’re more digital, of course.
First and foremost, few entering college this year have ever written in cursive. And this mobile phone generation has “never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.”
They also rarely use e-mail. Why? Because it’s just too slow. And you can imagine how much they use snail mail: “rarely.”
Another insight that shows how quickly things change is this one: The class of 2014 has “never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.” They don’t own watches and instead use their cellphones to tell the time.
The class also believes that there have always been “hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch” and that “Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.”
In addition to the items about digital habits, the list includes a trove of cultural references that can either make you feel really old or remind you how quickly life moves, especially in this digital age.
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Getty Images
Some things you just can’t make up.
A Las Vegas man on trial for double murder asked the judge for permission to wear his Tony Romo jersey to court. District Judge Stefany Miley was unlikely to grant Thomas Randolph’s request, according to his lawyers. Opening statements were scheduled to begin Friday.
Randolph, 62, made the unusual request “because he’s a Cowboys fan,” one of his attorneys, Special Public Defender Clark Patrick, told David Ferrara of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Most incarcerated male defendants wear a traditional shirt and tie during trial.
Randolph stands accused of hiring a hitman to kill his sixth wife, Sharon Clausse, and then killing the hitman, Michael James Miller. Randolph has waited nearly nine years for his trial. The Cowboys’ 44-6 loss to the Eagles in the 2008 regular-season finale was the last game Randolph saw as a free man.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal said prosecutors plan to tell jurors that three of Randolph’s other wives also are dead, two from apparent illness. Randolph was acquitted in the death of his second wife, Becky Gault, whose 1986 death in Utah was ruled a suicide. He later pled guilty to tampering with a witness for conspiring with a fellow inmate to kill the prosecution’s lead witness against him.
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Barring some kind of Derek Jeter farewell tour miracle, the Yankees aren’t going to the postseason this year. They’ve dug themselves too big a hole without enough games remaining to climb out of it. That’s life. They’re not going to play in October because their play from April through early-September says they don’t belong there. If you’ve watched them at all this year, you know how hard it is to envision them stringing together enough wins to jump three teams and make up five games in the second wildcard race.
Now, even if the Yankees do somehow manage to sneak into the postseason, this year needs to be something of a wake-up call for the team’s decision makers. I mean, last year should have been the wake-up call, but instead the Yankees doubled down on the only thing they know how to do: spend money. They tried to spend their way back into the postseason — spend their way back in while letting their best player and one of the five best in the world walk away, remember — and it failed. Miserably. They’re probably going to lose more games this season than they did last year despite their offseason spending spree.
The season is close enough to being over that we can say, with certainty, the first year of the Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran contracts were disasters. There aren’t enough games left on the schedule to change that now. The Jacoby Ellsbury and Masahiro Tanaka deals have worked out more than fine, at least until Tanaka’s elbow started barking, but McCann and Beltran have not. When you sign a 30-year-old catcher to a five-year contract, you’re doing it under the assumption Year One will be the best. Year One is over now and the Yankees aren’t getting it back. It’s gone. Beltran’s deal is less damaging because it is shorter term but it still hurts. A lot.
For decades the Yankees conducted business the same way they do right now. They bought the best free agents available (or tried to, anyway) and by and large it worked. Free agency started in 1975, they won titles in 1977-78, had more wins than any other team in the 1980s, and dominated baseball in the late-1990s and 2000s. When you’ve got more money than every other team and you can simply buy the best players, why wouldn’t you do it? That’s the advantage of being based in New York.
That financial advantage is shrinking, however, and it has been since the luxury tax was implemented back in 2003. Aside from last year’s $228M outlier, the Yankees have had an Opening Day payroll in the $180M to $210M range since 2004. The average Opening Day payroll of the other 13 AL clubs (not counting the new-to-the-AL Astros) has steadily risen from roughly $60M to just over $100M during the time. Keep in the mind that MLB’s biggest payroll increases over the last few years belong to NL teams — the Dodgers, Giants, and Nationals, specifically. The payroll gap between the Yankees and everyone else isn’t what it once was.
Furthermore, free agency itself has fundamentally changed as teams lock up their best players to long-term extensions years before they’re eligible to hit the open market. The days of landing an in-his-prime star every winter are gone. It was only six years ago that the Yankees were able to pluck a 28-year-old CC Sabathia off the market to satisfy their pitching needs. Nowadays? Forget it. There’s a reason Masahiro Tanaka landed the fourth largest pitching contract in baseball history without ever playing an MLB game. His age. Impact players in their prime are no longer available for just money.
For years we’ve justified huge money long-term contracts by saying you’ll live with the ugly part at the end for the immediate return now. Well, the Yankees have hit the ugly part. They’re at the ugly part of their long-term deals with Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark Teixeira. McCann and Beltran didn’t provide the immediate return either. That has left the team not just with unproductive players eating up a big chunk of the payroll, but little flexibility to replace them. Realistically, what are the Yankees going to do with Teixeira? Nothing. They’re going to grit their teeth and run him out there until his contract ends. That’s the only option.
The Yankees are caught in a cycle of relying on free agency to remain in contention. When the 2008-09 Sabathia/Teixeira free agent class started to fade, there was the 2013-14 Ellsbury/Tanaka class. The Bombers missed the postseason last year and responded the only way they know how, by spending money. The players they invested in did not provide the desired impact — back to the playoffs! — and that means the Yankees are going to do what now? Agree to another $400M worth of contracts this winter? That only continues the cycle with no guarantee of a return to contention, as we’ve learned this year.
Free agency is no longer a one stop shop that can turn a team around in a winter. That doesn’t mean it isn’t useful, it obviously is, but it can’t be everything for the Yankees going forward. Not anymore. The game of baseball has changed these last few years but the Yankees have stayed the same and they’re being left behind. The standings don’t lie. The farm system needs to be more productive, the free agent signings they do make have to be better, and the trades have to be smarter. Remember when they added Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson, both smack in the primes of their careers? Those moves were awesome. Taking on a bunch of money to get Vernon Wells? Not so much.
Personally, I believe the Yankees need to do a better job of focusing on depth, from the top of the roster to the very bottom. No more bad players. No more Brian Robertses and Ichiro Suzukis, who we all know aren’t going to work out the day the contract is signed. Those types of moves have to stop. I know it’s much easier said than done. Believe me. Also, the Yankees should absolutely bury the competition whenever another Tanaka or Jose Abreu comes along. That’s where you flex your financial muscle in free agency. Not tacking on a third year so you can outbid the Diamondbacks for 37-year-old Beltran.
I don’t believe any team with a huge payroll should ever have to endure a prolonged rebuild and, frankly, even if the Yankees wanted to tear it all down, they have little to move anyway. They’ve painted themselves into a corner and getting out won’t be easy or particularly pretty. There is a very strong likelihood things will get worse before they get better. Is Brian Cashman the man to turn things around and get the Yankees back on track? I don’t know but I really have a hard time believing he is at this point. He’s been running the show for an eternity and a different voice may be in order. That doesn’t guarantee improvement, mind you. A new GM could make things even worse, especially if ownership brings in a figurehead GM they can walk all over.
Look up and down the roster and there are five, maybe six players I can buy as being part of the solution and the next great Yankees team: Tanaka, Ellsbury, Dellin Betances, Michael Pineda, Brett Gardner, and maybe Martin Prado. I’d add David Robertson to that group if he wasn’t due to become a free agent in a few weeks and I can’t bring myself to include McCann in that group after the season he’s had. The Yankees’ entire team-building philosophy is going to have to change if they want to get back to being a perennial contender because the game is telling them it has to change. Their old way of doing business is painfully outdated and this winter is the time to start getting back up to speed, postseason or no postseason.
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I left off in my exchange information that I was collecting SNES games like Megaman X and that I was looking for Super Metroid. That was just to give an example of what I like. I DID NOT EXPECT TO ACTUALLY GET THE GAME ITSELF!
Pictures are below, but here is how it all went down...
So the girlfriend and I were stopping by to eat some sandwiches and I grabbed the mail on the way into the house. I noticed a package waiting for me and knew right away it was from this gift exchange.
I set my lunch down on the kitchen table and opened up the gift. First thing I think I said was "NO WAY" followed by "OH MY GAAAWWWD" and so on. I haven't reacted this way since a few Christmases ago where a friend got me a rare Boba Fett Figure.
Anyway, I freaked out so much that the GF was freaking out. It was hilarious. I went to try and play it, but my SNES blew a fuse or something, so for about 2 weeks I had to drive and get a new SNES.
I never thought I would EVER actually own this game until I was an old fart and use the last of the petty cash to buy Chinese food and this game.
You have to understand, from my point of view, I have been looking EVERY WHERE for this game. Once I had Megaman X I was like "Okay, now all I need is Goof Troop and Super Metroid." I got Goof Troop for like $2, but every Ebay listing went up to $100 or more for Metroid.
So thank you Secret Santa. This is the greatest thing I have gotten from these gift exchanges. (Not to say I don't appreciate the gifts). Enjoy my doodles.
I also got a catalog for Victoria's Secret....not sure what that was about.
It's just, I don't have to keep searching all over the net for this thing. No more Craigslist. No more Ebay. NO MORE "GAMERS" STORES.
Just. Whoa.
I gotta sit down for a minute.
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