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When I first broached the subject of permanent, non-hormonal birth control with my gynecologist, I wasn't even considering a tubal ligation. I had originally been trying to decide between the copper IUD and Essure . IUDs (intrauterine devices) are not permanent, but they do last a while. Essure (spring devices that are implanted in your fallopian tubes) is a fairly new procedure that can be performed in your gyno's office but is permanent. I was leaning toward Essure because it was permanent and would only cost an office co-pay until this happened: "If I were you, I would just get my tubes tied." Floored, I asked why. "Well, they'll put you to sleep, then you'll wake up and it'll be over. There's minimal pain with recovery because it's a laparoscopic procedure." So I made an appointment with a surgeon who explained how a tubal would go down. Basically, I should take off work for a week to deal with any side effects from the anesthesia. She told me it was possible my periods would get worse after the surgery. Besides actually having surgery, there was no downside that the other procedures didn't carry as well. Like any good introvert, I took months to decide. Surgery is big deal, especially to someone who has never even broken a bone, so I wasn't about to make the decision lightly. I talked to my husband, I talked to myself, I wrote in my journal, I called my insurance. It was the money that finally pushed me to the decision. I had already met my deductible for the year, which pretty much cut the cost in half. So it seemed the decision to just go for it. Then I had to start telling people. Those were not fun conversations. But somehow by convincing everyone else that I was sure of my decision I became very sure. For me, the question was never, "Do I want children?" The question was always: "Do I want to have surgery?" I've never wanted to have kids. I've never wanted to be a mother. I've always been awkward with children, even more awkward than I am with adults. I've recognized this since I was in middle school. Don't get me wrong. I was young and impressionable, and before I knew myself, I assumed I'd have kids with my high school sweetheart whom I was surely going to marry and also with my college sweetheart whom I did marry. But after we divorced and I realized that pretending to be this person I wasn't was killing me slowly, I decided that anyone in a relationship with me would have to be content with never procreating with me. I've always heard there's some magic to being a parent, some transcendence that you only understand when you join the club. That may be true. I can see from the outside that being a parent changes a person from body to mind. Your needs change, your desires change, your world changes. I see that. I spent most of my life changing who I am, denying who I am, ignoring who I am because I thought I had to, because it was easier than questioning my family and friends all the time. And now… I just want to be me. I don't want to be anyone's mother. I now sport a one-inch red and shimmery scar just below my belly button, the only evidence that I am now blissfully as incapable of having children as biology will allow. I thought the only result of the surgery would be peace of mind if I was a couple of days late for my period: there would be none of that "Oh, God, am I pregnant?" thought process that anyone who has accidentally made a human when it wasn't the best time or place goes through. That's a wonderful peace — but it's not the only benefit. Before the conversation with my gynecologist and before the certainty that came with reassuring everyone that I was sure about my decision, I had this small, teensy, itty-bitty piece of me that thought perhaps I should wait to make such a permanent decision until I was 30. By then, my biological clock would be in full swing, and maybe I would find that I do, in fact, want to have children. I was so fearful of my body making a decision that I didn't want it to, of the universe deciding something for me that it had no right to decide. No one should be afraid of her own body or feel so out of control of her own life. So I made a decision, the best decision for me. I took the possibility out of my future, and something strange happened: the veil of fear that muddled my present and future cleared. As a result, my tolerance for children has increased. I don't automatically scroll past Facebook posts with pictures or videos of children. Sometimes I watch them. Sometimes I even smile and laugh. I am not afraid of those little critters with their too-big heads and loud mouths anymore. Those photos and videos are not forewarnings of my future. They are just cute, little critters that I can watch and then scroll past. I'm sure they are bundles of joy and transcendence for their parents. But for me? Naaaaah.

I took my boys downtown today. That was something I don’t want to do alone again. Downtown Pittsburgh is all done up for the holidays. Lights, Christmas trees, Santa’s “village”, Santa, the “winter gardens” with the hall of Santa Clauses, the ice rink, and everything wonderful about this holiday season. My boys have never been downtown to see everything. They’re only 4. So they’re at that age where they can start loving everything. They already go crazy for Christmas lights and trees. The big tree downtown is surrounded by an ice rink in the PPG Place square. PPG Place looks like a giant, glass castle. When we got to the tree the boys stopped and did a 360. They were amazed at the “castle.” Eli looked up at me and said, “mom, mommy, look it’s a castle!” Despite what some parents may have done, I went along with it and let them believe that there is a giant, glass castle in downtown Pittsburgh. I mean, who am I to dash the kids imagination? So I told them a story. I got them close and knelt on my knee and pointed to the surround “castle”. Me: “Did you guys know that a king, queen, prince, and princess live in that giant castle?” Them: “No way!” Me: “Yes way, and it’s their job to protect the tree.” Them: “It is?” Me: “Yes. They have knights who patrol the area to make sure nobody steals the tree. If something happens to it, than Christmas won’t happen!” Them: “NO!” Me: “Yes!” Them: looking around “Where are the knights?” Me: “Everywhere. When they are out here around us normal people they look like us. They dress like cops, security guards, and even cleaning people. Anybody around here could be a knight.” Them: “Is there a Christmas?” Me: “Well, the tree is up, so yes there is. That’s why Santa has a house right over there. He helps protect the tree. It gives him the power to go all around the world in ONE night.” They were left in stunned silence. You’re welcome downtown folks for making you the coolest people in the world to a couple of 4-year-olds. Maybe I shouldn’t have weaved such an elaborate story to the boys, but ya know what…it made the day that much more enjoyable for them. I like them believing in the unbelievable and being kids. I like sparking their imaginations and creativity. Hell, I spend a majority of my days spinning wild stories for adults to read, why not tell one or two to the boys? And to add to the magical day…we walked past Santa’s House before he was open…the boys saw him through the window. Santa stopped talking to his elf, waved at the boys, and winked. I’m pretty sure he made their entire year.

Recently, it’s been hard for me to get into reading the Bible, but on December 1, I felt compelled to read the tale of Jesus healing a group of lepers in Luke. It seemed appropriate, after all, given that it was World AIDS Day, an international day of awareness around the continuing damage and death HIV/AIDS reaps. On World AIDS Day, we honor the memory of those lost to AIDS, who were more often than not LGBTQ men (and particularly Latinx and black men) who found themselves ignored and abandoned by a president and a government that could have healed them but chose not to simply because they viewed them as low priority. In addition, we keep in mind that AIDS continues to destroy lives today, in America and around the world, especially in economically disadvantaged countries where healthcare is unaffordable or out of reach. Even in America, where medication has allowed those living with HIV to attain normal lifespans, the stigma around the disease persists. “Christ Cleansing a Leper,” by Jean-Marie Melchior Doze, 1864. In the ancient Judaic culture, leprosy — which causes ugly scarring and disfiguring of bodies — represented the physical effects of sin in our world. The lepers were cast out from society by priests, who feared their sin may spread to others. With all this in mind, the tale of the lepers seemed like an especially appropriate reading. Unlike so much of his society, Jesus approached these pariahs in the book of Luke without fear or derision (and let’s keep in mind that he lived in a time where there was effectively no knowledge of how diseases were transmitted, so others may have believed he was putting himself at risk of infection). And then he heals them, as Jesus often did with the sick and disabled. At the end, he states, “Your faith has made you well.” On May 24 of this year, I was diagnosed with HIV. I had gone in the prior weekend for a routine STD test, expecting a clean slate. When the doctor called and asked me if I was sitting down, I knew I had something. Even then, it didn’t feel real when she said I had HIV. I went back into my office and attempted normalcy, but after a failure to get anything done in the next thirty minutes, I gathered my things and left for the day. When I read that passage about the lepers, I started to feel resentful. These men were healed from an incurable disease by their faith? I was faithful before my diagnosis, and I’ve been faithful since, so what does that say about my faith? I don’t quite know how to describe the feeling of being diagnosed with an incurable disease. It’s one thing to say you don’t stigmatize the disease when you’re HIV negative; it’s an entirely different thing once you hear your blood test came back with a big, ugly plus sign on it. The thoughts of what I could have done drive me insane: I could have been on PrEP; I could have used a condom; I could have just not slept with that person. The shame has kept me from seeking out support, seeking out writers and activists and people who’ve been through this before me, who could give voice to my experience. In the same way that leprosy was seen as a spiritual ailment, AIDS was (and in many places still is) viewed as God’s punishment for homosexuality, as the wages of sin. Even in LGBTQ-affirming Christian spaces, there’s a silence around the topic of AIDS — thanks to stigma, respectability politics, and good old purity culture — that prevents me from feeling okay sharing my status. I’ve found myself growing more skeptical of the church’s concern for HIV-positive people since my diagnosis, and I’m not sure how to remedy that. So when I read that passage about the lepers, I started to feel resentful. These men were healed from an incurable disease by their faith? I was faithful before my diagnosis, and I’ve been faithful since, so what does that say about my faith? What does that say about my disease? Honestly, medicine can’t even cure me, so what good is faith going to do? Trauma doesn’t just go away; it merely scabs over, and we learn not to pick at it. I wonder what those men did after they were healed. Of the ten, only one returned to thank Jesus. I assume the other ones returned home to their families and friends. Once there, were they met with excitement or trepidation? Were they welcomed home, or were they kicked out all over again? Did they stay faithful? More to the point: Did their lives really change? We’re not told, but I believe they probably doubted their faith again at some point. I’ll bet they still felt hurt by their families and religious communities, too, even after being welcomed back. Trauma like that doesn’t just go away; it merely scabs over, and we learn not to pick at it. The healing, then, that Jesus talks about wasn’t completed the day he removed their illness. Sure, the physical healing may have transpired, but the spirit has wounds, too. Healing of the spirit is a more mysterious process, a slow and unseen change of heart that can’t be heard through a stethoscope or examined in an MRI. It happens as we move closer to the truth of who we are, as we live our authentic lives, surrounded and uplifted by the love of God, as felt through the love of others. I don’t believe there will be a cure for HIV in my lifetime. There may never be a cure, period. But when I think of what Jesus meant when he said that the faith of the lepers made them well, I’ve started coming back to, of all things, a verse from the Holy Book of Lady Gaga: “If I can’t find a cure, I’ll fix you with my love.” On the days when I feel unclean, I remember that line, and I’m grateful, because I am being fixed by the love of others. This includes people like my boyfriend, who flew out to see me within a week of my diagnosis. It includes people like my friends, who comforted me, fed me and took care of me when I felt too weak and angry to do it myself. It is their faith that makes me well. I have HIV. I will never be physically healed. But the spiritual healing? For that, I’ve got a team of specialists on my side. Not every HIV-positive person has that. But every positive person needs it–and if we truly believe in miracles of healing, we have to start opening the church doors to HIV-positive people like me.

LA’s infamous ‘homeless neighbourhood’ has become a critical location in the city’s attempts to transform its downtown heart. But how do the people who actually live there feel about this blighted, vibrant community? In the centre of one of the world’s most high-profile cities lies a concentration of desperate poverty unlike any other in the developed world. Los Angeles’s Skid Row, a common name for a once-common form of down-and-out quarter in American cities, persists as the last neighbourhood of its kind. Skid Row’s very existence illustrates a major planning mistake the southern Californian metropolis made in the past. The struggles over what to do with it now reveal the extent of the challenge facing LA in its current transformation into a denser, more traditionally urban city. It’s no exaggeration to call Skid Row one of the main battlegrounds for the future of Los Angeles. The neighbourhood went from metaphorical to literal battleground last Sunday when, on a rare rainy day in this city, an altercation with Los Angeles Police Department officers resulted in the death of a 45-year-old resident. Known locally by the name “Africa” or “Cameroon”, he was shot by several officers after allegedly grabbing one of their guns; beyond that, facts about the precise sequence of events have been slow to emerge. Homeless man shot dead by LAPD had a secret past, like everyone on Skid Row Read more We know the victim lived in a tent; he’d pitched it near the corner of San Pedro and 6th street. Every Angeleno has seen these tents – always between the hours of 9pm and 6am, when police look the other way about camping on the streets. One wrong turn out of a trendy night spot or the Disney concert hall and you can find yourself in another world, where encampments of the drug-addicted and mentally ill spill out on to the sidewalk for block after block after block. “The contrast is shockingly stark,” says Brigham Yen, a downtown Los Angeles real-estate expert and chronicler of the area’s revitalisation on his site DTLA Rising. “On one block you can see the new downtown: all these new restaurants and bars and shops. Then you go into Skid Row and it’s the bottom of anything you can think of. The smells — that’s the part that will get you.” Shanks Rajendran’s documentary Los Scandalous offers an up-close-and-personal look at the pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, and hustlers of every type who work Skid Row by night. “Driving through for the first time, I was in complete awe,” says the Australian filmmaker, whose shock at seeing such a place in “America, the greatest country in the world” led him to start recording all he saw and heard there. Rajendran filmed what he calls “the game” of Skid Row, played not just by “the drug dealers and people looking to exploit things” but by the public safety officers “who go around looking for dirty homeless people who have crept out and tell them to go back”, in an effort to maintain the rest of downtown’s new “clean, touristy image”. In Rajendran’s time in the neighbourhood he saw no direct eruptions of violence. Rather, “they all work together to avoid the police” – having long since fallen into the ritual of scattering when patrols passed by and then returning to their usual spots. “It’s sad, because Skid Row residents have accepted their position in society. Everybody in Los Angeles has accepted it, I’d say.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Actor Susan Hayward prepares to film a scene for I’ll Cry Tomorrow in Skid Row, 1955. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis Skid Row is widely regarded as the greatest obstacle to the rebuilding of a first-class downtown in Los Angeles. As of 2014, the downtown area had a residential population of 52,400 and rising, up from just 27,849 in 2000. Skid Row accounts for 17,740 of that total, while estimates put the number of homeless there between 3,000 and 6,000 – an incredible 10% of the current population. Yet downtown Los Angeles has, on the whole, made the most impressive recovery of any American central city in the 21st century. Hollowed out with most of the others by the mass exodus to the suburbs that followed the second world war, its prospects for a turnaround looked the bleakest for decades thereafter. Even Reyner Banham, the architectural historian known for his contrarian enthusiasm for LA, titled one chapter of his much-cited Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies “A Note on Downtown” because “that is all downtown Los Angeles deserves”. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A protester outside LAPD headquarters His book came out in the early 1970s, the era in which a coalition including LA’s then-mayor Tom Bradley and the Community Redevelopment Agency made the fateful decision to concentrate county resources for the homeless downtown, in the area that would become Skid Row. More than 70 non-profit and government organisations participated in this grand project of centralisation in this famously decentralised “city without a centre”, filling that absent centre with shelters, medical facilities, soup kitchens, rescue missions and a host of other services for the truly impoverished. At the time, Skid Row made sense. It corralled all that would attract “undesirables” into a part of the city without much of a population beyond daytime office workers, pensioners, and the homeless and semi-homeless hotel-dwellers already there. It lay far from coastal enclaves like Santa Monica or suburban hinterlands like the San Fernando Valley, which were home to more politically important constituencies. “At that time, downtown was a ghost-town,” says Yen, “a big rug to sweep the county’s homeless problem under.” But now that downtown has become one of the most desirable areas in the region, deserving of a whole book rather than a mere note, all that looks terribly shortsighted. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kokiri Lab, Jinsoo An’s ‘hackerspace’ in Skid Row. Photograph: Andrew Yoon Despite having so far lost about 10 square blocks to encroaching new development, Skid Row shows remarkably little in the way of visible gentrification (apart from isolated projects such as a mild renovation of the King Eddy, supposedly one of Charles Bukowski’s preferred watering holes). But with its predictably lower rental prices, it offers opportunities to young, non-homeless “urban pioneers” such as Jinsoo An, who moved into a San Pedro Street building formerly used by a film production company. In his Skid Row space, An has set up both his home and an operation called Kokiri Lab, a hi-tech “hackerspace” dedicated to the development of wearable technology. From what he describes as his “paradise in the ghetto”, An witnesses firsthand the city’s Sisyphean effort to keep keep Skid Row at least somewhat tidy. “Once a week, a whole army of cleaners come and bulldoze all the trash from the streets and ask the homeless people to pack up their stuff and leave. I’d heard how much it costs to have people living in the street and couldn’t understand why those costs exist. Now I see it in action.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Skid Row Housing Trust’s 102 pre-fabricated modular apartments But An says it doesn’t take long for his street to regain its layer of “garbage, piss, shit — everything combined together ... I never used to look forward to the rain, but now I enjoy walking back to my place most after a storm. It lets me breathe.” Just as a few bold individuals such as An have come to live in or near Skid Row, a few bold businesses have set up shop as well. “Skid Row has actually prevented downtown from becoming too mainstream too quickly,” says Yen. “If there wasn’t a Skid Row, you would already see all the big chain stores. Those are going to come anyway, over time, but I feel like it gives independent businesses that aren’t afraid a chance to take root first.” Of course that small positive of Skid Row, Yen argues, doesn’t outweigh its considerable negatives. “I don’t think it should exist, period – not only for developmental reasons, but for moral reasons. It’s not healthy. If the goal is to get people out of poverty, it doesn’t make sense to have an area conducive to poverty. These people can never escape, because all they see around them is poverty.” Describing the neighbourhood as a zone of “failed humanity”, Yen lays the blame squarely at the feet of Los Angeles County, as “all of Skid Row’s services are provided by county tax dollars, and the county government failed miserably in how they dealt with the homeless issue to begin with”. He sees a decentralisation of Skid Row, and thus a more even distribution of services for the homeless across the county’s 4,751 square miles, as the only way of alleviating both the problems within it and the intensifying friction with the surrounding city. Keeping Skid Row for the homeless does have its advocates – albeit sometimes advocates who live far from Skid Row. They easily forget, Yen says, “that the people they’re ‘supporting’ are living in squalor, dying from diseases, living in the most filthy conditions you could imagine in the United States. They aren’t using their brains; they’re using their hearts. They frame it as the big, bad developers coming into downtown and the evil people who want to live there pushing these victims away. But if the ‘rich hipsters’ hadn’t come in and put the issue back on the political radar, the homeless would continue to live in perpetuity as forgotten people.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Skid Row overlooked by the rest of downtown LA: ‘The contrast is shockingly stark.’ Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP While some express their concerns for Skid Row from afar, others concentrate their efforts right here in the neighbourhood. Pastor Kevin Haah co-founded New City Church, whose congregation consists, by design, of both “Skid Row residents and loft dwellers” and meets just blocks from the site of the recent shooting. The improbable idea to bring these two vastly different, downtown economic strata together in one house of worship came to Haah while he was ministering on the streets of Skid Row in the early 2000s; a time when, as bad as the place can look now, “it was much worse”. “Actually,” says Haah, “Skid Row is not as dangerous as one thinks it is. It’s not controlled by a gang, for example. The whole community isn’t out on the street. Most of them are trying to walk the road to recovery. A lot of them are struggling, but this is a recovery community. Of course, a lot of people are perpetuating in poverty and addiction, but there’s opportunity. There’s a lot of food in Skid Row. There’s not enough housing, but nobody goes hungry.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ex-LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa serves lunch at the Los Angeles Mission Easter celebration in Skid Row Haah remembers that, when downtown Los Angeles began its comeback, “the assumption was that low-income housing would all turn into swanky lofts, squeezing the Skid Row people out. I don’t think that has happened. There’s been building of new low-income housing since — I don’t like to use the word ‘gentrification’. A lot of it looks great, and it’s much more positive in terms of the environment.” Right now, most residents of Skid Row harbour less ire toward the loft-dwellers than they do the LAPD. “When something like this happens,” Haah says, “emotion flares up and a sense of distrust develops.” He characterises the local reaction to Sunday’s shooting as “outrage. There’s a lot of anger. From a lot of angles, it’s difficult to swallow – the multiple shots, the number of officers involved – but at the same time, the facts are more complicated. They’re sinking in, but the emotion is still raw.” Yet Haah expresses optimism about the future of Skid Row and its place in downtown — a future that does not involve its dispersement across all of Los Angeles County. “Skid Row is not going anywhere. It’s the biggest centre of social services in Los Angeles. But it’s going to bleed; the inner section will become less clear.” And as those boundaries between Skid Row and the new downtown continue to blur, Haah emphasises the need “not to see them as one versus the other. We’re in a community together. We need to get along, but my vision is bigger than that: we need to appreciate one another. We don’t need the loft dwellers to help the people of Skid Row, who have amazing things to contribute to the vitality of downtown. There’s more spiritual vibrancy in Skid Row than anywhere else, period.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘In Skid Row there’s street life: people walking, groups congregating, fully utilised parks.’ Photograph: Ted Soqui Photography/Corbis The tension that exists between the stakeholders of Skid Row and the rest of downtown Los Angeles looks unlikely to dissipate by itself. This holds especially true as property values rise not just on all sides of Skid Row but within it, and as the city maintains its historically poor track record of building permanent supportive housing for the homeless — the reason it puts up with Skid Row’s overnight tent villages in the first place. Yet in a sense, says Yen, Skid Row has realised LA’s long-deferred dream of a bustling sidewalk culture. “There’s a lot of people out. Funnily enough, it’s got a scene like you would expect in New York. There’s street life: people walking, groups congregating, fully utilised parks. From this urban standpoint it’s very interesting, but obviously you can’t look at it without seeing the poverty.” “Many people who live in the neighbourhood are friendly,” says Brian Tompkins, director of social enterprise at the Weingart Center, right across the street from where last Sunday’s shooting took place. “They recognise me and say hello. I watch some take care of their little section of street like it was their home. “On the other hand, many things break my heart. Watching people manifesting mental illness, screaming, cursing, flailing, soiling themselves, living out some real or imagined nightmare. Watching young people show up on Skid Row looking ordinary, and then observing them over weeks and months as they become skin and bones, faces pocked with sores, teeth deteriorating. Seeing people deceased on the street.” The first steps that “regular people” have taken back into Skid Row may, to some, make the future look brighter than at any time over its grim past four decades. But the rest of the transition – now surely an inevitability – is going to be painful. The big question that remains, as the community in and around Skid Row deals with the aftermath of its highest-profile tragedy in recent memory, is just how painful it has to be.

Erin McKelvey was getting zero responses to her resume after graduating college. Mack McKelvey, on the other hand, got a 70 percent response rate on applications. Of course, Mack and Erin were actually the same person, just with different names--one of which got her far more success with employers, according to Fortune . It's indicative of a still-widespread phenomena in the working world called name discrimination (though perhaps it's more germane to just call it discrimination, considering the name itself is merely the vehicle for discriminatory assumptions about the person who holds it).It's something that has been documented in numerous academic papers over the years showing that names make a significant difference in determining whether an employer will consider someone's resume and call them in for an interview. This has typically been shown by sending out resumes identical in every way to potential employers and seeing which gets more responses. What tends to happen in these experiments is that the applications with male names get more responses than those with female names. Conversely, another study has shown that, at least in the case of professional musicians, when employers don't know the identity of an applicant, women were hired more often.The phenomena doesn't just apply to sex: name associated with particular ethnicities are similar ly disadvantaged compared to those with more conventional names.With this in mind, McKelvey's change from Erin to Mack makes sense from a professional standpoint. It's a conclusion many others have reached when considering the progression of their careers. But it does raise questions about how employers will react, and whether they will consider it an unacceptable deception when they get a (female) Erin when they expected a (male) Mack.The Fortune article notes that actors and writers use assumed names all the time and no one seems to mind. A discussion in the New York Times , though, is a little more wary, saying small changes are probably okay (Jose to Joe) but avoid outright lying--and if a name change is that important, to make it a legal change. An expert cited in Boston.com recommend against it: the reality of your background is going to be revealed eventually, and it may cause complications when it does. There's also a personal reason against it too, argued in a Guardian article, that comes down to: why should I have to change when it's the companies that have the problem?One way that companies are seeking to address this phenomena, which may make the entire question of whether to change your name moot, is blind hiring . This is when personally identifying information is stripped from the resume, and people evaluate only the qualifications connected to the position itself. In this case, it becomes impossible to discriminate based on personal details, but there are no personal details, so there are more diverse hires. On the other hand, it tends to extent the hiring process, according to the Society for Human Resources Management as well as negate the value of emotional intelligence. However, blind hiring need not be an extreme where not even resumes are used--SHRM notes that more moderate approaches can be taken, such using it only in determining who to call in for an interview, which can then later be used to determine if there is a cultural fit.However, an expert interviewed by NPR brought up a worry that, if companies just institute blind hiring "and call it a day" can make a company complacent in other areas pertaining to diversity. She also was worried it would reduce active recruiting, another way that companies can add diversity.Blind hiring may also produce mixed results, according to The Economist . While some studies have shown it resulting in more diverse hires overall, others have shown it addresses only gender discrimination. The Economist also cites a Dutch study showing few results from blind hiring, and suggested that discrimination took place not in the initial CV evaluations but the interview process.So while blind hiring may be a good start, companies that implement it cannot, as the expert in the NPR interview said, institute it and call it a day.

× North Carolina woman charged with animal cruelty after authorities seize 153 ducks from her home NEW HANOVER COUNTY, N.C. — A North Carolina woman faces animal cruelty charges after deputies seized more than 150 ducks from her property. WECT reported that Cynthia Huber, 56, of Myrtle Grove, faces multiple charges, including nine counts of cruelty to animals. Deputies seized 153 ducks and three cats from her home after executing a search warrant on Dec. 20. The sheriff’s office started investigating after a local veterinarian contacted authorities and said the suspect refused medical care for a sick cat. WWAY reported that the ducks were either disabled or injured and one of them was illegal to have. Two rescue groups in New Hanover County took the animals. The suspect was arrested on Friday and jailed in New Hanover County under a $3,600 unsecured bond and later released from jail. She has court planned for next month.

Over the last 3 months of traveling in Southeast Asia, from the end of June to the beginning of September, I was able to successfully book 43 free hotel nights. Now, not all were 5 star hotels, some were just quaint boutique hotels. I’ve been playing catch up with hotel reviews of some of the hotels I stayed in, but you can find most of them here. The free hotel stays were booked in a combination of ways including hotel Best Rate Guarantees, Hotel Quickly, points earned from credit card sign up bonuses and through free night certificates. It took a bit of work up front, but was it all worth it? Yes, definitely. It enabled me to save money and travel through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Japan—all while staying in luxury hotels on a backpackers budget! Saving money on 43 nights worth of accommodations was a great way to keep our budget on track and be able to not only travel longer, but get some rest after spending days traveling on slow boats and getting around on dusty roads. Of course, Southeast Asia is known for having budget-friendly accommodations and very nice ones at that. However, in my humble opinion free is always better. I would much prefer to spend money going out and exploring the place rather than where I sleep. What I have done is summarize each of the 43 free hotel nights I had during the entirety of my trip along with the method used to get the free night. I also added the hotel info, type of room and whether or not breakfast or club lounge access was included. Angkor Wat is only 15 minutes away from Siem Reap and a must visit! JUNE Bangkok, Thailand: 5 nights at the Crowne Plaza Lumpini Park (Room upgrade to Executive Club Level Room, breakfast included, Club Lounge access). Read my review. These nights were booked during PointBreaks for 5,000 points per night, I earned the points from the IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card. Bangkok, Thailand: 2 nights at the Park Plaza Bangkok Soi 18 (Room upgrade to Executive Room). Read my review. These nights were booked using Club Carlson points earned from the Club Carlson Visa. Siem Reap, Cambodia: 4 nights at FrangiPani II (Breakfast included). The 4 nights at the FrangiPani II were booked using free Hotel Quickly credits from the new customer sign-up bonus (Code RANDY for free $15 – new customer only) and referrals. If you have a link feel free to leave it in the comments below! TOTAL: 11 FREE NIGHTS I loved my stay at the JW Marriott Hanoi JULY Phnom Penh, Cambodia: 2 nights at the InterContinental Phnom Phen (Upgrade to Premium Room). Read my review. These nights were booked using IHG’s Best Rate Guarantee. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: 1 night at the InterContinental Saigon (Breakfast Included, club lounge access). Read my review. This night was booked using IHG’s Best Rate Guarantee. Hanoi, Vietnam: 8 nights at JW Marriott Hanoi (Room upgrade to Executive Club Suite, breakfast & club lounge access). Read my review. These nights were booked using Marriott points earned from the Marriott Rewards Personal and Business Credit Cards. TOTAL: 11 FREE NIGHTS Afternoon tea at the Intercontinental Singapore Club Lounge AUGUST Ao Nang, Thailand: 5 nights at the Royal Nakara (used Hotel Quickly credits) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 2 nights at the Marriott Renaissance Kuala Lumpur (Room upgrade to Executive Club room, club lounge access & free breakfast). These nights were booked using Marriott points earned from the Ritz-Carlton Credit Card. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 1 night at the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur (Breakfast included). Read my review. This night was booked using IHG’s Best Rate Guarantee. Singapore: 2 nights at the InterContinental Singapore (Breakfast included, club lounge access). These nights were booked using IHG’s Best Rate Guarantee. Singapore: 1 night at the Hilton Conrad Centennial (Room upgrade to Business Level room, breakfast included). This night was booked using a free night certificate from my Hilton Reserve Card. TOTAL: 11 FREE NIGHTS The Intercontinental Bali is a great place to kick back at the beach SEPTEMBER Bali, Indonesia: 3 nights at the InterContinental Bali (Room upgrade to Singaraja Room, breakfast included). Read my review. These nights were booked using IHG’s Best Rate Guarantee. Bali, Indonesia: 1 night at The Stones Hotel – Legian Bali, Autograph Collection (Room upgrade to Deluxe Pool View Room, breakfast included). Read my review. This night was booked using a free night certificate earned through Marriott’s new member sign-up promo. Bali, Indonesia: 3 nights at the Loft Legian Bali (used Hotel Quickly credits). Bali, Indonesia: 1 night at the Abi Bali Resort & Villa (used Hotel Quickly credits). Tokyo, Japan: 1 free night at the ANA InterContinental Tokyo (club lounge access). This night was booked using the anniversary certificate from the IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card. Tokyo, Japan: 1 free night at the Hilton Conrad (Room upgrade to Tokyo Bay Room, breakfast included). This night was booked using the anniversary certificate from the Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Reserve Card. TOTAL: 10 FREE NIGHTS In the combined three months, that’s a total of 43 free nights in 5 different countries. That’s more than one month of free hotels which added up to be a huge value—not to mention the average hotel was well above 3 stars. What’s great about the free nights is that a majority of them included free breakfast as well as Club Lounge Access, which means as budget travelers we saved a considerable amount on daily food expenses—not to mention, unlimited complimentary happy hour alcohol (wine, liquor, cocktails, beer) and snacks and appetizers are always a plus! The perks offered are an added benefit thanks to some of the hotel credit cards which offer free elite status. Anyone involved in the miles and points game knows that along with redeeming miles on flights, using hotel points for free stays is at the top of the list. Earning these points can even be easier than earning airline miles given that many hotel programs offer generous promotions. For these free nights we used a mix of credit card bonuses, referrals, and best rate guarantees—here’s a recap of what we used on our trip to book the free nights: Hotel-Branded Credit Cards The bread and butter for our stays on this trip was through earning hotel points via lucrative credit card sign-up bonuses. Co-branded hotel credit cards with large sign-up bonuses are a great way to earn free nights at luxury brand hotels. Some hotel credit cards offer the potential of automatic elite status which typically come with free upgrades and free breakfast with your stay. So there you have it, sign-up for a few credit cards to earn a handful of free nights, plus have the added benefit of elite status which gets you free breakfast, room upgrades, etc. Earn Credits from Hotel Booking Apps We also put hotel booking apps to work on this trip. Hotel Quickly is one that mostly covers hotels in Southeast Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand. The app allows you to earn credit by inviting your friends to join. You’ll earn $1 credit when they sign-up and an additional $15 credit once they book and complete a stay. (If you decide to sign up and want to use my code it’s always appreciated: Randy) Obviously having a blog is a great platform to share referral links. It only takes 20 minutes to get going and it’s never too late to start! Sharing your promo code using Facebook, Twitter or text messaging is another great way to earn referral credits that can go towards free nights. Total hotel nights we booked using Hotel Quickly: 9 nights! If you are traveling outside of Southeast Asia, there are other last minute hotel booking apps that work similarly such as Hotel Tonight. Hotel Tonight offers last minute hotel deals all over the world including the US, South America, Europe, the UK, and Asia. In my opinion, this app is much more flexible since you are not limited to one region, and Hotel Tonight now allows bookings for the day of and up to 7 days in advance. Currently Hotel Tonight offers new members $25 and for every friend who signs up using your code and books a stay, you will receive $25. With some lower-priced hotels this could mean a free night or two. (If you decide to sign up and want to use my code it’s always appreciated: SAKSU2) Best Rate Guarantee On top of the methods I talked about above, some hotels offer a Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) that can help save money on hotel stays. Almost all major hotel programs offer BRG’s, IHG offers the most generous by awarding a free night if you can find a lower rate than what is shown on IHG.com. The thought is that the hotel programs want you to book directly through their site to avoid paying out affiliate commissions, thus they want you to believe you are getting the lowest rate and not search anywhere else. The fact is that you can sometimes find a lower rate on third party booking sites. If this is the case, for instance with IHG, you can submit a BRG request within 24 hours of booking and if the request is valid they will honor a first night for free and match the remaining nights with the lower competitors price. For a step-by-step on how to do this you can read my post about the Basics of IHG Best Rate Guarantee. Over the extent of my trip I was able to book 9 free nights through a BRG claim and all of them were at InterContinentals in some of the most expensive cities along my trip! The real deal maker is when you can BRG a Club Level room or Suite! Last Thoughts In total I stayed 43 free nights in some amazing hotels throughout Southeast Asia. This goes to show that a little planning and work beforehand could payoff huge for any size trip. Of course not everyone is planning to hit the roads for 3 months, but regardless of where you prefer to stay there are strategies to help you earn free stays—from hotels points, referrals, and BRGs. I was actually taken a bit by surprise how easy the IHG Best Rate Guarantees were able to book for this trip. It basically involved a few days dedicated of searching, but you’ll quickly learn that the deals are either there or not. Most often if I cannot find a lower rate or a lead within 10-15 minutes, I’ll move on and check back at a later time. The most rewarding part about these stays were that I would normally not pay to put myself up in a luxury hotel. In fact often times I prefer to stay in a local hotel or hostel. That said, everyone knows that at times traveling is exhausting so being able to unwind and relax in a plush room even for one night can be satisfying. I won’t put a total dollar value on the 43 free nights, but it would have cost an arm and a leg. The point is that it wasn’t that much work to earn them by combining them through various methods including hotel rewards points earned through credit card sign up bonuses, Best Rate Guarantees and last minute booking apps and referrals. ✈ If you enjoyed this post, sign-up to receive blog posts via email (max of 1 email per day) or like us on Facebook! And as always feel free to ask questions in the comments below or email me.

Over the course of a 77-minute press conference Thursday filled with characteristic attacks on the press, President Donald Trump went out of his way to praise the "very honorable people" working at "Fox & Friends." "They hit me also when I do something wrong, but they have the most honest morning show," Trump said during an exchange with CNN's Jim Acosta. "That's all I can say. It's the most honest." The next morning, "Fox & Friends" showed why Trump likes it so much, reciprocating the president's praise and echoing his criticisms of the press. Before he launched his presidential campaign,Trump was a weekly guest on the program, which has long been a reliable steward of the channel's conservative agenda. And with the possible exception of Trump pal Sean Hannity, no one at Fox News is a bigger cheerleader for the current administration than the three hosts of "Fox & Friends": Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade and Ainsley Earhardt. Related: Trump attacks media in lengthy, combative press conference On Friday's edition of the show, Earhardt said her "phone was blowing up" after Trump's shout out at the presser. "I bet he was in a great mood after that press conference because people were saying, 'He's back,'" Earhardt said. The three took turns directing their ire at the members of the media who had a more critical response. They showed a highlight reel of various commentators panning the president's performance, including former George W. Bush aide and ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, who said Trump looked "smaller" at the press conference. "I don't think he looked smaller," Kilmeade scoffed. "Are you kidding me? He looked bigger than the -- I mean, he looked bigger than the superpower which he's representing." "The mainstream media, they can't stand it," Earhardt said. "Well, I think the headline from the Jim Acosta back-and-forth is that CNN is no longer 'fake news,' it's 'very fake news,'" Doocy said, repeating Trump's newly minted insult. (The highlight reel did not include their own colleague, Fox News afternoon host Shepard Smith, who reacted to Thursday's press conference with a forceful rebuke against Trump's attacks on the media.) Related: President Trump's exchange with CNN's Jim Acosta "Fox & Friends" has been a ratings magnet for the channel. It has cycled through different co-hosts over the years -- including Gretchen Carlson, whose sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News founder Roger Ailes led to his ouster last year -- all while consistently maintaining its title of the top morning program on cable news. The show epitomized the channel's adversarial tone during Barack Obama's eight years in office; in 2012, the program ran a four-minute long video that resembled a campaign ad against the then-president. "Fox & Friends" is now a central part of Trump's information feedback loop, often providing fodder for the president's pre-sunrise tweets, which in turn provide fodder for the show. "Fox & Friends" is no doubt a morning staple for many of Trump's supporters, too. A study released last month from Pew Research Center found that 40% of Trump voters said Fox News was their primary source of election news. On Friday, the three co-hosts channeled Trump's anti-media tenor and mocked his enemies. "The mainstream media is freaking out about the president's immigration plans and everything else," Doocy said at one point in the broadcast. Around 7:30 a.m., the hosts conducted a largely softball interview with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who said the "highest levels of intelligence officials" had assured him that a New York Times story earlier this week about alleged contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government was "grossly overstated and inaccurate." When Priebus complained that he spends half his days "putting out phony stories," Earhardt sympathized. "It's like stop, let us work, let us clean up this country," she said. It is rare to hear any of the three "Fox & Friends" hosts criticize Trump, despite his suggestion to the contrary. There were moments on Friday, however, when Kilmeade seemed to be advising the president through the television screen. "He's got so much to do, why is he even watching Don Lemon at 10:00 on CNN," Kilmeade said, referring to the host who Trump attacked at the press conference without naming. Earhardt defended the president's media obsession. "But when most of the media is painting him in a bad light and not giving him a chance, as the president you would want to know that, you would want to watch it because you need to have your finger on the pulse," she said. "But here's the thing about Donald Trump," Doocy chimed in, "television is his business." "No, that's his old business," Kilmeade replied.

A US Navy sailor just out for a morning stroll. WASHINGTON, DC — Following a Pentagon study into homosexual acts committed by sexually-deprived soldiers on deployment, the Navy is quietly rescinding a century-old order commonly paraphrased as “It’s not gay if it’s underway,” sources confirmed today. The results of the study were met with outrage, particularly from the Chief’s Mess, which prides itself as a bastion of naval heritage. “Those daggone suits in Washington just had to go and royally screw a fine Navy tradition,” said Chief John Phillips. “I bet not one of them could even tell you where the term ‘salty’ originated.” Despite the controversy among sailors hoping to maintain tradition, Pentagon researchers have pushed back. “Our research yielded astonishing results,” said Dr. Justin Butts. “Namely, that a homosexual act consummated in a fan room is exactly the same as one performed ashore in the continental United States.” Studies conducted on forward-deployed surface vessels revealed a significant spike in sodomy on “beer days,” which are awarded to crews that have gone in excess of 45 days without a port of call. Linguists now speculate that the origin of the pejorative “two-beer queer” can be traced back to beer days and resultant homosexual activity. “Listen, I’m totally straight,” asserted one sailor speaking on condition of anonymity in mid-thrust. “This is my fourth deployment. You think I haven’t tried to plow any of the chicks around here? They’re all goddamn lesbians. I’m just trying to satisfy my masculine needs.” “Plus, we recycle our water underway,” chimed in the unidentified bottom. “Every guy on the ship is drinking someone’s shower babies anyway.” The study also lent credence to the urban myth that submarines “deploy with a hundred men and return with fifty couples.” “The things we do for our country,” said Seaman Michael Jones while observing a king-of-the-ring mud-wrestling match, unfolding somewhere in the depths of the Pacific. “This isn’t gay at all.” Officials endorsed the slogan, “86 the 69,” to educate sailors about the change. At press time, the Navy was last seen desperately trying to redeem its image with overt acts of machismo, releasing three more films about Navy SEALs, including a documentary that follows SEAL Team members as they conduct a raid on a literary agent for their next book about Hell Week. Meanwhile, think tanks were embroiled in a heated debate over alternative homosexual disclaimers, including: “It’s Straight As Long As It’s a Shipmate,” “It’s Only Queer By the Pier,” “Loose Hips Float Ships,” and “Fuck It – Who Are We Kidding, Anyway?” Jay-B, Mike, Lee Ho Fuk, and Juice Box contributed to this report during a weekend getaway on Paul’s yacht.

Director Kim Jo Kwang Soo, who held his trailblazing public wedding ceremony with same-sex partner Kim Seung Hwan on September 7, submitted his marriage registration form today to Seoul’s Seodaemun District Office and with the world watching, it was accepted. The Seodaemun District Office stated, “After looking over relevant laws, no provisions regarding same-sex marriage were found. Therefore, there are no grounds to deny the submission. We will accept the marriage registration application. As for the family registry, it is something that is processed under the delegation of the court so after the receipt of the marriage registration form, we will leave it up to the court to interpret.” South Korea so far has not recognized same-sex marriage or any other form of legal union for same-sex couples. While the acceptance of the marriage registration form is a historic event, it does not mean that the South Korean state has officially recognized the same-sex marriage. The power to officially register the marriage is in the hands of the district office, but the Seodaemun District is planning to leave it up to the courts to give an authoritative interpretation of whether same-sex marriage will be legal in South Korea. Source (1) (2)

Pressure: David Cameron has been criticised for allowing civil servants to speak out ahead of the EU referendum David Cameron faces his first backbench rebellion over moves to allow unlimited public funds to be spent pushing the Yes campaign in the EU referendum. Ministers have ditched rules which limit the involvement of central and local government and the European Commission in the run up to polling. It frees the way for the entire government machine – and the Commission – to churn out pro-EU messages throughout the final 28 days of the campaign if, as expected, the PM endorses a Yes vote. The elections watchdog said it was ‘disappointed and concerned’ by the decision to scrap long-standing rules used in previous referendums to stop public funds going on political campaigning. The EU Referendum Bill, which will come before MPs tomorrow, also removes the 28-day ‘purdah’ period seen in last year’s vote on Scottish independence and the 2011 referendum on the voting system. Eurosceptic Tories last night demanded ministers should think again, threatening Mr Cameron with his first Commons revolt if he does not change course. Rebels are expected to table amendments to restore the purdah period – leaving the Government, which has a majority of only 12, relying on Labour to quell the rebellion. Former Cabinet Minister Owen Paterson said: ‘I would like the Government to recognise this is wrong and amend their own Bill.’ Anger: Tory MPs say that the EU will be free to pump out pro-Europe propaganda in the run-up to the vote Steve Baker, chairman of the Eurosceptic group Conservatives For Britain, said: ‘The idea that the Government can spend unlimited amounts of public money on this campaign is absurd and in any other election it would be unlawful. ‘There is a clear difference between ministers campaigning and entire government departments actively pushing for this. I would like the Government to amend the law without a great fuss and drama. It may be this was the result of a bit of overzealous drafting.’ In a damning assessment of the Bill, the Electoral Commission said it could mean governments and others being ‘free to spend unlimited amounts of public funds promoting an outcome at the referendum right up until polling day’. Pointing to the restrictions in place in the AV and Scottish votes, it said there was a need to ‘improve the effectiveness of controls on the activities of governments in the lead up to a referendum poll’. Campaign: Owen Paterson, left, and Steve Baker, right, are spearheading a new Conservative group which is likely to call for an EU exit 'Fixable': Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond insisted that Britain does not need to leave the EU It added: ‘We are therefore disappointed and concerned that the Bill includes provision to remove the restrictions on the use of public funds by governments and others to promote an outcome right up until voters cast their vote.’ Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said there would be guidelines to stop public money being spent ‘inappropriately’. He told BBC1’s Andrew Marr show: ‘The Government is clear it doesn’t want to be neutral on this. We hope to be able to achieve a package we can recommend to the British people. ‘The Government wants to be able to engage in the debate but of course it wants to do it in a fair way.’

I circle the giant chess board in awe as Matt Prichard gives me a walking commentary. “There was a lot of upheaval. We had builders in, just drilling. Obviously this place is gonna be redeveloped at some point, so they came in for two weeks just going at the walls and everything, apparently testing for asbestos. But as you can see, they took all of these office ceiling tiles down, and there was a big pile in the corner. We looked at them, and just by chance noticed that one side is black and the other side is white, so that gave us our floor.” I’ve been to this place before – an abandoned floor in a Brick Lane office block that Matt and his Sex Cells bandmate, Willow Vincent, call home – but the chess board is an exquisite new feature. It would provide the setting for the Youth Club Disco music video, a song which Matt describes as a reference to those “crappy discos at school,” where the boys and girls would stand on opposite sides of the floor without entering the middle. “The point was to get rid of that separation in the video,” says Willow. “It’s a boy and a girl both going across the board. They’re going wherever they want and doing whatever they want, as opposed to being really static and trying to be cool.” This kind of behaviour is not exclusive to school discos, however, as Matt disdainfully reveals that many of the fans at gigs they have been to are similarly uncooperative. “You get a lot of the same thing going on – people standing at the back. Thankfully not at the gigs we’ve been playing. It’s not so gender specific, but kind of the same thing.” Willow adds: “And I think we’d noticed that a lot of people were quite apathetic, and thinking more about their own image than actually enjoying themselves. Sex Cells is very much about liking what you like or enjoying what you like, and not being afraid to express it.” Matt and Willow are part of a London Underground music scene that is breaking down the barriers between performers and audiences. They run the Pretty Ugly performance nights at the Off The Cuff bar in Herne Hill, and see first-hand how this kind of interaction is being embraced, as Willow explains: “There’s a good energy at the moment with bands and audiences. There’s a lot of little factions that, even though they’re all doing their own thing, seem to be sharing this spirit that is quite exciting at the moment in London.” Enter Matt: “And then you’ve got the Fluffer pit parties, which we haven’t played at but we go to them. I guess they directly challenge that audience-band separation. They’re basically in warehouses around East London and the band are just in the middle. There’s no stage. The crowd are literally amongst it – circling. It’s a great atmosphere, you know. You feel less like you’re going to stand in front of a band and go ‘Okay’.” I ask them how their own live performances are going down with audiences. Matt seems positive: “People are dancing, which is good. And you can’t make people do that. We can’t force them to do it. It’s a nice reaction.” Sex Cells are continuing to gig around London, and the builders have since left the Brick Lane building (AKA ‘Nightmare Hall’). “We really like how the builders have destroyed our room,” says Willow. “Sex Cells’ presence in Nightmare Hall feels more permanent now and it can’t be taken from us, because there aren’t many people who would want to live in a room where there’s ripped-out ceilings, columns that have been destroyed and dust everywhere. It feels like it’s ours for the foreseeable future.” Find out more about Sex Cells: Bandcamp Facebook Tumblr

Educated men of a certain age often seem to look at college kids with more resentment than is necessary. They criticize the young for not being more like we were (“perfect in every way,” as the song goes). Decades ago, philosopher Allan Bloom complained about young people gyrating to music that appealed only to their bodies without elevating their souls. Just a few years back, ex-Yale University professor William Deresiewicz turned op-eds into a book marketing his disdain for the conformity of undergrads under the label “excellent sheep.” And now Columbia University professor Mark Lilla has followed suit, expanding into a new book his much shared op-ed blaming boutique liberals for the election of Donald Trump. In that expanded version, The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics (HarperCollins), campus politics are ridiculed as “Reaganism for lefties.” Most college towns, he writes “have become meccas of a new consumerist culture for the highly educated, surrounded by techie office parks and increasingly expensive homes.” Lilla wants readers to be by turns annoyed and amused by the irony of leftist campuses breeding bourgeois consumerism, and he probably has a couple of colleges and universities in mind. He doesn’t name any. The book stirs the pot among self-styled progressives who believe that the celebration of difference is the key to creating a more just society. Lilla argues that the scandalous ascent of Trump was only made possible by the “abdication” (a word he likes a lot) of liberals, particularly those who emphasize identity at the expense of solidarity. Unfortunately, Lilla says very little about the white identity politics activated by Trump’s campaign. I found no analysis of those voters who had supported Obama but switched their allegiance to a man who promised to restore their superior status as white Americans. I also didn’t find anything of substance on how white citizens who felt threatened by a loss of status and economic potential were energized by Trump’s brand of identity politics. Claiming that we are in a post-vision America, Lilla devotes little to no effort to examining the vision that led to the Trump victory -- nor does he say much about the vision that had inspired Obama’s two successful presidential campaigns. Instead, Lilla asserts (echoing Walt Kelly’s Pogo character) that “the only adversary left is ourselves,” and condemns campus radicals for abdicating their responsibility to go beyond movement politics and build successful electoral coalitions. Can it be that Lilla chooses to focus on college campuses because he has spent most of life working at them? No, he explains, they are so important politically because they educate the professional classes from which future liberals will be drawn. “Liberalism’s prospects,” he writes, “will depend in no small measure on what happens in our institutions of higher education.” The most important things Lilla has to say concern the kind of political education we are giving our students today and the kind we should be developing -- if there is to be a healthier American democracy. Lilla convincingly shows that under the guise of increased attention to identity, there has been a noxious de-politicization among people who consider themselves progressives. Argument through testimony and confession proceeds by making “the winner…whoever has invoked the morally superior identity and expressed the most outrage at being questioned. Academic trends encouraging students to get in touch with their identities, Lilla writes, “give an intellectual patina to the radical individualism that virtually everything else in our society encourages.” Skepticism about the capacity of government to provide authentic social justice leads to a sanctimonious “plague on all their houses” attitude. That may earn one points as a purist radical on campus, but it leaves the fields of local and state politics open to others with very different values, allowing them to seize power for their own ends. “Evangelism is about speaking truth to power. Politics is about seizing power to defend truth.” Lilla wants colleges and universities to do a much better job of educating students to understand the mechanisms of power and how to engage in electoral politics so as to exercise that power more equitably. Fair enough. Sophisticated skepticism, no matter how intersectional, should not just be an excuse for giving up on the practices of electoral politics. Recalling the “Roosevelt dispensation,” Lilla also longs for new images of solidarity to replace what he thinks of as an unhealthy emphasis on difference. And here’s the rub. I, too, believe that we need to weave together disparate strands of potentially progressive coalitions. But those in higher education who have developed academic fields emphasizing particular groups marginalized by mainstream scholarship have done so because past visions of solidarity have made these groups invisible. Lilla must be aware that the old solidarity came at the expense of all too many, and that thanks to the movement politics he derides, our politics now has the potential to be more inclusive. One can hope, despite the occasional outbursts of intolerance, that students and professors engaged in the study of identity and difference will be more prepared to reject coalition building that replicates the old scapegoating and erasures. It is a core responsibility of liberal education to contribute to the political capacity of our citizens, and the challenges of this endeavor must not be reduced to the twin parodies of fragile undergraduates or politically correct student warriors. Political education at colleges and universities should not be indoctrination into any faculty member’s particular policy preference nor into a professor’s hip indifference to the political realm. Political education should inspire civic participation in ways that allow students to connect with people who share their views and to engage with those who don’t. That’s why intellectual diversity is so important on campus: to give students opportunities for debate and not just sharing. Through engagement with difference -- including intellectual difference -- students will find their own views tested, and their ability to effect change will grow as they learn to work with people with varied vulnerabilities and aspirations. Even if Lilla sometimes caricatures the social justice warriors he says he wants to recruit for a new liberal solidarity, he has raised crucial questions for activists who disdain efforts to connect with people who don’t share their views. But the great issue today facing the once and future liberal is not how to overcome identity politics. The great issue for liberals and conservatives alike is how to overcome inequality. It’s not today’s campus activists who make coalition building so difficult; for decades, economic inequality has been destroying possibilities for solidarity, which means destroying possibilities for democracy. Lilla is right that we need an “inspiring, optimistic vision” for America, but that will be only shallow political branding if we don’t find ways to deal with economic inequality while acknowledging our differences. Finding such ways amounts to insisting that as a polity we “live up to our principles” -- that we try to, in James Baldwin’s oft quoted words “achieve our country.” Without overcoming inequality, America will drift further and further from this task, and we will continue to propagate poverty, addiction, resentment, and the closing down of hope. Education, like democracy, depends on hope -- on a belief that we can find ways to improve our lives in common. Cultivating that belief and making it real are momentous tasks for colleges and universities today.

It is not uncommon for movie stars to become reclusive after a brilliant performance. This is what happened to the Porsche 917 K that played the leading role in Steve McQueen’s “Le Mans”. The motion picture tells the trials and tribulations of the 24 hour race from the perspective of team Porsche. Easily the best motorsports film of all-time, no expense was spared in the casting department. The 1970 Porsche 917 K was built for testing, in order to validate the effectiveness of the racing program. Once filming was over, the car was sold and it faded into obscurity. After decades of neglect, chassis #24 was discovered in 2001 and treated to a complete restoration. The flat-12 engine is essentially two 911 flat-6 blocks sharing a common crankshaft. Safety was a top priority, so the tubular chassis was pressurized in order to locate any welding defects. The 1970 race was the first LeMans victory for Porsche, so if you would like to own this piece of history, Gooding & Company will be happy to help you. As part of their primetime lineup for Monterey, the estimated hammer price is $13 to $16 million. We will be reporting live on Facebook, so tune in on August 18th for all the action.

Royston Ricky Drenthe (born 8 April 1987) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays for hometown club Sparta Rotterdam. Although he primarily plays as a left winger, but also as a left back.[1] Drenthe started his professional career with Eredivisie side Feyenoord in 2005, having graduated from the club's youth academy. He made 37 appearances for the side before switching to Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid in 2007. During his five years in Madrid, he made 65 appearances for the club, spending time on loan at Hércules and English Premier League side Everton, making 19 and 27 appearances for those clubs respectively. He then joined Russian Premier League side Alania Vladikavkaz in February 2013 on a free transfer, making six appearances in a brief spell at the club, before he joined Reading in June 2013. In January 2015, he joined Kayseri Erciyessor, before moving to UAE Pro League side Baniyas Club in September 2015. After being released by Baniyas in July 2016, Drenthe announced his retirement from playing. He has since begun recording music under the name Roya2Faces.[2] After two years, Drenthe has come out of retirement to play for Sparta Rotterdam.[3] Drenthe made 17 appearances for the Netherlands under-21s between 2006 and 2008, and was a member of the team that won the 2007 European Championship. Since then, he has made one appearance for the Netherlands B team, and one appearance for the full national team. Club career [ edit ] Youth [ edit ] Born in Rotterdam, Drenthe joined local side Feyenoord's youth system at the age of 13, playing mainly as a winger during his junior years. After disciplinary issues during a trip to Switzerland with the B-side, coach Marcel Bout wanted him to leave the club, but the issues were resolved after the intervention of Rob Baan, the club's director of football. Bout hardly used Drenthe in his subsequent lineups, and at the end of the season, the 16-year-old was named as one of eleven players whose future at the club was questionable. He eventually moved to Feyenoord feeder club Excelsior. Drenthe improved during the two years he played at Excelsior, with manager Marco van Lochem successfully playing him as left back. After impressing his former side's coaching staff, he was asked to rejoin the club, which he accepted. Feyenoord [ edit ] Drenthe with Feyenoord. In the 2005–06 season, Drenthe was promoted to Feyenoord's first team, managed by his former youth coach Henk Fräser, and had to compete for first-choice status with Mohammed Hammouti. After scoring three goals against Ajax in the Otten Cup – a youth tournament organized by PSV – as a winger, he began training with the main squad, while still appearing for the reserves. In the same week where he helped his club to a 5–1 win at Ajax with the second team, Drenthe was offered a professional contract at Feyenoord. Manager Erwin Koeman handed him his Eredivisie debut against Vitesse at the Gelredome, and the player finished the season with three matches. In 2006–07, Feyenoord signed veteran Belgian Philippe Léonard, while Pascal Bosschaart was also still part of the squad. After the former suffered an injury and the latter was transferred to ADO Den Haag, Drenthe became first-choice as Feyenoord finished seventh in the league. After winning the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship with the Netherlands, and following transfer speculation in the press,[4] Feyenoord accepted a €14 million bid by Real Madrid after Drenthe threatened to take his club to court if they did not want to let him go.[5][6][7] Real Madrid [ edit ] Drenthe was presented as a Real Madrid player on 13 August 2007, alongside compatriot Wesley Sneijder. He made his official debut as a midfielder in the second leg of the season's Spanish Supercup against Sevilla, and scored the 1–1 equaliser from 40 yards out, with the ball hitting the crossbar and crossing the line. The Merengues, however, lost 3–5 at home and 3–6 on aggregate. Drenthe played regularly for Real Madrid in his debut season, in both left-wing positions, but began appearing less after the development of Marcelo, being inclusively dropped from the list of 18 by manager Bernd Schuster in several games. At one time, after being left out for the match against Valencia, Drenthe stormed out of the training ground. He finished the campaign with 18 league appearances (plus four in the season's UEFA Champions League), scoring his first league goal against Real Valladolid in a 7–0 home routing on 10 February 2008. Despite rumours of him leaving the club on loan, Drenthe featured in 15 of Real Madrid's first 18 games of the 2008–09 season. However, he also suffered from anxiety issues after being booed by the club's supporters during a 1–0 home win against Deportivo de La Coruña and did not feature for the club for a period, although manager Juande Ramos offered the player his support and insisted he would help him.[8] The manager later revealed that the player asked not to be picked for the three games after the Deportivo fixture.[9] On 31 August 2010, after having appeared rarely in his third season, Drenthe was loaned to Hércules in a season-long move.[10] He made his debut on 11 September in a 2–0 away win against Barcelona,[11] and scored his first goal for the club on 14 November, netting from a free kick against Real Sociedad in a 2–1 home victory.[12] His performances with the Alicante team were subsequently praised by the Spanish press.[13] However, the player would soon fall out of favour with the club's board of directors and coaching staff after arriving one week after the winter break ended, citing a "loss of confidence in Hércules management", rather than what was previously perceived as "a protest over unpaid wages".[14] On 3 April 2011, in his second game after his suspension, Drenthe scored twice to help Hércules to its first away win since September, a 3–1 against Real Sociedad.[15] He ended the season with 15 starts in 1,299 minutes of action, with his team being finally relegated. Everton [ edit ] On 31 August 2011, Drenthe joined English Premier League club Everton on a season-long loan deal.[16] He made his Premier League debut as a second-half substitute in the 2–2 home draw against Aston Villa, on 10 September. Again from the bench, against Wigan Athletic, he scored in the 97th minute to round off a 3–1 home victory.[17][18] Drenthe made his first start for Everton on 21 September 2011 in a League Cup match against West Bromwich Albion, assisting the winning goal for Phil Neville in the 13th minute of extra time (2–1 home win).[19] On his full league debut, at Fulham on 23 October, he found the net just three minutes into the game in an eventual 3–1 win.[20] On 21 December 2011, after three weeks out of the game due to an ankle injury, Drenthe assisted Leon Osman for the game's only goal at home against Swansea City.[21] On 18 February 2012, in a match against Blackpool for the season's FA Cup, he scored after just 49 seconds in a 2–0 home success.[22] Drenthe started in the next game for Everton, scoring a powerful low drive from 20 yards out for the first goal of the 1–1 away draw against Queens Park Rangers.[23] In March 2012, Drenthe was given a leave of absence on compassionate grounds and, upon returning, he reported late for training. This resulted in manager David Moyes omitting the player from Everton's FA Cup semi-final squad; he was also told to stay away from the club.[24] In a magazine interview published in April, he accused Barcelona's Lionel Messi of racially abusing him on more than one occasion, repeatedly addressing him as "negro".[25] Alania Vladikavkaz [ edit ] Drenthe left Real Madrid after his contract expired on 30 June 2012.[26] In December, he signed a deal with Russian club Alania Vladikavkaz, which came into effect on 2 February of the following year.[27][28] Drenthe made his league debut for his new team on 9 March 2013, against Rostov. After the game, coach Valery Gazzaev called him a "great professional and an example for the youth".[29] On 15 April, in only his fifth game for the club, he scored a hat-trick in a 3–1 home win over relegation competitors Mordovia Saransk. Reading [ edit ] Reading officially confirmed the signing of free agent Drenthe on a two-year contract with the option of a third, on 21 June 2013.[30] On 8 March 2014, Drenthe scored his first goal for the club in a 1–1 draw away at Brighton & Hove Albion after he cut in from the right and fired a left-footed shot into the bottom corner. Drenthe then scored his second goal for the club on 11 March in a 4–2 away win against Leeds United with a free-kick just after half-time. In July 2014, Drenthe was told he could leave Reading after only one season with the club,[31] whilst being stripped of his squad number when the official squad numbers were announced on 14 July 2014.[32] Sheffield Wednesday [ edit ] Drenthe joined Sheffield Wednesday on a six-month loan on 1 September 2014, halfway through transfer deadline day.[33] He made his Owls debut as a second-half substitute for Chris Maguire in the 0–0 away draw against Bolton Wanderers on 13 September. His only Owls goal came in the 1–1 away draw at Charlton Athletic on 1 November. Kayseri Erciyesspor [ edit ] On 23 January 2015, Drenthe joined Turkish Süper Lig side Kayseri Erciyesspor.[34] Baniyas [ edit ] Drenthe joined UAE Pro League side Baniyas Club in September 2015.[35] He was released in July 2016.[36] Retirement [ edit ] Unable to find a club, Drenthe has since then announced that he is 'no longer a footballer', and 'fed up with all the stuff in the football world', dedicating himself to rap instead.[37] Sparta [ edit ] After training with the side for a few weeks, on 6 July 2018 Sparta Rotterdam announced they had signed Drenthe to a one-year deal.[38] International career [ edit ] After his first full season at Feyenoord, Drenthe was called by Dutch under-21 coach Foppe de Haan to be part of his squad for the 2007 UEFA European Championship, which was held in the Netherlands. He was one of the most important players in the second consecutive title of the competition for the Jong Oranje, being chosen by UEFA as Player of the Tournament.[39] The following year, he represented the nation at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[40] On 14 November 2010, Drenthe was selected for the first time for the Dutch senior team, as coach Bert van Marwijk picked him as a late replacement for the injured Urby Emanuelson. Three days later, he made his debut, coming on as a second-half substitute in the 1–0 friendly win over Turkey. Honours [ edit ] Club [ edit ] Real Madrid International [ edit ] Netherlands Youth Individual [ edit ] Club statistics [ edit ] Sources - [41][42] Club Season League Cup[nb 1] Europe Other[nb 2] Total Apps Goals Assists Apps Goals Assists Apps Goals Assists Apps Goals Assists Apps Goals Assists Feyenoord 2005–06 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 0 2006–07 26 0 1 0 4 0 2 0 33 0 Totals 29 0 1 0 4 0 3 0 37 0 Real Madrid 2007–08 18 2 2 3 0 0 4 0 0 1 1 0 26 3 2 2008–09 20 0 0 2 0 0 5 0 1 1 0 0 28 0 1 2009–10 8 0 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 – 11 1 1 Totals 46 2 3 6 0 0 11 1 1 2 1 0 65 4 4 Hércules (Loan) 2010–11 17 4 1 2 0 0 – – 19 4 1 Totals 17 4 1 2 0 0 — — 19 4 1 Everton (Loan) 2011–12 21 3 6 6 1 2 – – 27 4 8 Totals 21 3 6 6 1 2 — — 27 4 8 Alania 2012–13 6 3 0 0 0 0 – – 6 3 0 Totals 6 3 0 0 0 0 — — 6 3 0 Reading 2013–14 23 2 0 1 0 0 – – 24 2 0 2014–15 0 0 0 0 0 0 – – 0 0 0 Totals 23 2 0 1 0 0 — — 24 2 0 Sheffield Wednesday (Loan) 2014–15 15 1 0 0 0 0 – – 15 1 0 Totals 23 2 0 1 0 0 — — 24 2 0 Career Total 156 15 10 16 1 2 15 1 1 5 1 0 192 18 13 Personal life [ edit ] Drenthe's younger brother, Giovanni, is also a footballer. The striker opted to represent Suriname internationally.[43] Drenthe dated Spanish Playboy model Malena Gracia.[44] Drenthe recorded a rap song with his friend U-Niq called "Tak Takie".[45] In 2014, Drenthe opened a clothing store in Rotterdam with Michel Poldervaart.[46] Notes [ edit ]

The shared shortcomings of the American League East’s top teams will add intrigue to the upcoming trade deadline. For all of their offensive firepower, the Boston Red Sox need all the pitching help they can get, which will complicate the next six weeks for the rest of the division. The Baltimore Orioles need starting pitching as badly as anyone, and seem poised to bid against Boston. The Toronto Blue Jays should also be in the market for pitching despite a rotation that’s exceeded expectations so far. Between now and Aug. 1, the search for pitching will shape the race for the AL East… Boston Red Sox It’d be hard to find a team with a more glaring need for starting pitching. The Red Sox essentially have four starters right now: David Price, Steven Wright, Rick Porcello and Eduardo Rodriguez. While Price has pitched better of late and Wright has been a revelation, Boston’s not getting enough production from their rotation. Team Rotation ERA MLB Rank Blue Jays 3.72 7 Rays 4.23 13 Red Sox 4.50 18 Yankees 4.52 19 Orioles 4.89 T-26 The Red Sox have prospects and financial flexibility, the ideal combination for a summer buyer. Unlike last year, they’ve got a good enough team to justify giving up those resources for a shot at another title. Throw in Dave Dombrowski’s history of deal-making and it’ll be a surprise if the Red Sox don’t add a starting pitcher this summer. Then there’s the bullpen, now weaker than expected because of Carson Smith’s Tommy John surgery and Koji Uehara’s up-and-down season. Expect Dombrowski to check in on the top relievers available, too. Baltimore Orioles You could make the case that the Orioles need starting pitching just as badly as the Red Sox. Ubaldo Jimenez lost his rotation spot after posting an ERA of 6.89, and even Mike Wright and Tyler Wilson have ERAs above 4.70. While the Orioles lack Boston’s financial freedom or prospect depth, they should be just as motivated to add to their rotation. The key will be balancing the need for reinforcements with their cost. Three summers ago the Orioles traded Jake Arrieta to the Chicago Cubs for Steve Clevenger and Scott Feldman and the following summer they sent Eduardo Rodriguez to Boston for Andrew Miller. Baltimore knows from experience that trading away high-upside arms for short-term reinforcements weakens future teams. Tampa Bay Rays The Rays are the one AL East team that could sidestep the summer pitching market. While they could tinker with their bullpen, they have enough starting pitching to get by. Plus, it’s just not their style to add veteran arms at the deadline. If anything, the Rays might want to add a player with on base skills to take advantage of their newly powerful lineup (the Rays rank 23rd in runs scored despite having more homers than all but two teams). New York Yankees Four consecutive losses have slowed the Yankees’ momentum and renewed speculation that the Bronx Bombers could actually sell this summer. It’s hard to imagine considering the Yankees’ win-now mandate, but they’ll have to consider moving veterans unless their record improves by the end of July. If there’s a silver lining for the Yankees it’s that Andrew Miller could become the top reliever available at a time that the Chicago Cubs top the list of teams in need of left-handed bullpen help. Set to earn $9 million per season through 2018, Miller can even be considered a contractual bargain. Back in 2014 the Red Sox got a top prospect for two months of Miller. Now he’s pitching even better (1.30 ERA, 51 strikeouts, 3 walks) and is no longer a rental, so the Yankees could reasonably ask for even more. Toronto Blue Jays The Blue Jays will move Aaron Sanchez and his 3.38 ERA to the bullpen later this summer, at which point they plan to replace him with Drew Hutchison, who’s pitching well at triple-A with a 3.12 ERA, 75 strikeouts and 25 walks. Still, it’s worth remembering that the Blue Jays would lose leverage in trade talks if they expressed anything less than full confidence in Hutchison. If he’s in the rotation, they’re an injury away from calling on Wade LeBlanc to start in a pennant race — a possibility that would not appeal to most MLB GMs. Replacing Sanchez on the trade market can’t be ruled out. With Brett Cecil’s lat tear progressing and Sanchez headed to the bullpen, Toronto’s relief pitching could improve meaningfully later this summer. Even so, it makes sense to keep tabs on the relief market in the weeks ahead. The Blue Jays can’t count on a repeat of last year, though. After trading Jeff Hoffman, Daniel Norris and Matt Boyd in 2015, their farm system is thin at the upper levels, and the top prospects they do have look like important long-term pieces. For example, trading Dalton Pompey for a starter would seem counter-productive at a time that outfielders Jose Bautista and Michael Saunders are on the brink of free agency. Realistically, the Red Sox seem better-positioned to trade impact talent, so the Blue Jays may have to get creative.

A tentative deal has been reached between the City of Toronto and one of its major public sector unions, averting a potential labour stoppage that threatened to disrupt garbage collection and other city services. A bleary-eyed Mark Ferguson, president of CUPE Local 416, made the announcement just after 8:30 a.m. at the Sheraton Centre, after an all-night bargaining session that extended well past a midnight deadline. “We are extremely excited we were able to resolve this through direct negotiations, and, quite frankly, my members are pleased that they will be able to continue to provide great public services to Toronto,” Mr. Ferguson told reporters. The union representing garbage haulers, Zamboni drivers, paramedics and other outside workers had to make “numerous concessions,” Mr. Ferguson said, in “one of the toughest labour negotiations in Canadian history.” [np-related] While details of the agreement remain under wraps, Mayor Rob Ford, who spent the night in his City Hall office getting regular updates, was clearly pleased with the outcome. “I can tell you it’s a great day — an absolutely fantastic day — for the taxpayers of this great city,” he said in Nathan Phillips Square Sunday morning. “We do not have a strike and we’re going to keep this city moving.” Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday called it a “a good contract for the union and it’s certainly a good contract for the taxpayer.” Without an agreement, the union was in a legal position to strike as of 12:01 a.m. Sunday, and the city had the option to lock its workers out. This has been a rancorous round of bargaining between the City and CUPE Local 416, which represents about 6,000 municipal employees. The rhetoric reached a fever pitch at points, with the union accusing the Ford administration of seeking to gut its collective agreement, and city officials insisting that changes are necessary to help it better manage, and afford, its workforce. At issue was not how much employees get paid, but terms in the contract that make it difficult for the city to contract out services, change shift schedules and redeploy workers when jobs are cut. Mayor Rob Ford has said he wants to trim 7,000 jobs from a civil service that is 50,000 strong. The offer his negotiators made public on Friday sought to rein in the so called “jobs for life” clause by limiting the number of employees who can’t lose their jobs due to contracting out or technological changes to those with 22 years seniority. With the deadline looming, and no deal in sight, the Ford administration threatened on Friday to impose new work conditions on outside workers if an agreement was not struck by 12:01. The take it or leave it ultimatum appears to have reinvigorated talks, with both parties bargaining hard all day Saturday and through the night. Officials refused to divulge details of the “framework” for an agreement until it is ratified by union members, and approved by City Council. CUPE Local 416 says it will take the next 48 hours to finalize the terms with the city, and, as Mr. Ferguson puts it, “dot the i’s and cross the t’s”. Mayor Ford said he was confident City Council would approve the new contract. Veteran negotiator Bob Reynolds, who led the city’s efforts, agreed that these were “very, very difficult” talks. In the end, the sides “found some middle ground on a couple of key items and that was the turning point.” “Sometimes you have to stand your ground and that’s what we did, and the union did the same to a certain extent … in the end we all came together,” said Deputy Mayor Holyday. The city is still negotiating a new contract with CUPE Local 79, which represents 23,000 inside city workers. National Post • Email: nalcoba@nationalpost.com | Twitter: NPHallMonitor

The International Federation of the Red Cross is asking for $1 million in international assistance to head off a severe food crisis in Niger that threatens more than seven million people. As many as 10 million people across the Sahel region in West Africa are facing food shortages in coming months caused by irregular rains and poor harvests in 2009. Aid workers say Niger will be the hardest hit with more than half of its 15 million people at risk, most of whom live on less than one dollar a day. The International Federation of the Red Cross is calling for almost one million dollars to assist 300,000 villagers in the country's most vulnerable areas; the Diffa, Zinder and Tahoua regions along the country's southeastern border. Red Cross regional representative for Sahel countries, Daniel Sayi, says it is important to act now to head off a repeat of the 2005 food crisis in Niger, during which aid workers say delays in humanitarian relief led to needless deaths. Sayi says in 2005, humanitarian response to the food crisis did not begin until after images of severely malnourished children in Niger appeared in international media. He says today, in 2010, we have not yet reached this point, but all the warning signs for a similar severe crisis are there once this food shortage hits its peak in June, or possibly before. He says we should not wait for a repeat of the images of 2005 in June before we act. Some of the first warning signs came in mid-December when a study by Niger's government revealed that by the end of January, more than half of rural households would have already used up their stores of grain. The U.S. funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network says this January the number of malnourished children admitted to feeding centers in Niger jumped by 60 percent, compared to the same month last year. Red Cross Disaster Management Coordinator for West and Central Africa Youcef Ait-Chellouche, says it is alarming that families were employing these emergency coping mechanisms as early as December, only months after the October harvest. "Now already 20 percent of the population have exhausted their stocks, and they are trying to survive by sending people, part of their family, to other places to work and bring money back or by selling what is not necessary," said Youcef Ait-Chellouche. Ait-Chellouche says even then it is the rich who can afford to travel via buses and taxis in search of food. "The poorest in general stay where they are, and they try to face the situation as best they can, in general with a lot of mortality," said Ait-Chellouche. In February, the International Federation of the Red Cross launched its nine-month relief operation with $200,000 of its own funds to support nutritional centers, distribute seeds and finance cash-for-work projects to boost food production in 120 villages in the three most at-risk regions along the country's southeastern border. Ait-Chellouche says it is a question of intervening early in the crisis to prevent poor families from selling their belongings and leaving their communities in search of food. In the long term, he says it will be important to introduce irrigation and new farming methods to make Niger's agricultural production less vulnerable to climate variability, like poor rainfall, and prevent future food shortages.

Dogs that killed Michigan jogger owned by undocumented immigrant couple are euthanized Valbona Lucaj, 44, and husband Sebastiano Quagliata, 45, are charged with second-degree murder Their dogs fatally mauled Craig of Sytsma, 46, while he jogged along a rural road in Metamora Township, Michigan Sytsma was unconscious when he was taken to a hospital, where he died of his injuries Immigration officials have been trying to deport the couple for four years Authorities say two dogs that fatally mauled a Michigan jogger last month have been euthanized. Lapeer County assistant prosecutor Michael Hodges says the two cane corsos involved in the July 23 attack on 46-year-old Craig Sytsma of Livonia in Metamora Township were euthanized on Monday. Hodges says another adult cane corso that wasn't involved in the attack about 45 miles northwest of Detroit was euthanized on Friday. Valbona Lucaj and husband Sebastiano Quagliata were charged last week with second-degree murder in the attack. Prosecutors say Valbona Lucaj and husband Sebastiano Quagliata might try to flee if they're released on bond. Lucaj, a native of Albania, and Quagliata, of Italy, are undocumented immigrants A neighbor witnessed the vicious attack, and shot at the animals several times until he hit one and scared them off On Friday, the same day they were in court, they agreed to give up ownership of the animals and have them euthanized. Eight puppies will be offered to an animal rescue group. Murder charges against dog owners are rare. Lucaj and Quagliata return to court on Friday of this week. The couple, who are both undocumented immigrants, are being held on $500,000 bond each, as court officials worry they might try to flee the country if released. Lapeer County prosecutors wanted $1 million, saying Valbona Lucaj and husband Sebastiano Quagliata, both charged with second-degree murder, might try to escape. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next 'I will wake up in a better place tomorrow': Missouri man... Man 'sexually abused his girlfriend's children for five... Share this article Share Lucaj and Quagliat have been charged with second degree murder. Mr Sytsma, of Livonia, was attacked by their cane corsos while he jogged along a rural road. Sytsma, 46, was unconscious when he was taken to a hospital, where he died of his injuries, police said. 'It's a horrible tragedy,' assistant prosecutor Michael Hodges said. 'But animal cases get a lot of attention.' Victim: Craig Sytsma, 46, was mauled by two massive cane corsos while jogging along a rural Michigan road The attack was the third since 2012 involving canines from Lucaj and Quagliata's property, officials said. 'He was jogging, doing what everybody else does out there, running and riding bikes,' Metamora Township police Officer Sean Leathers said. According to police, a man mowing his lawn nearby saw the attack, got a gun and tried to shoot at the animals to chase them off. Sytsma was a 'a divorced father of three' and 'had apparently decided to jog after leaving work,' the newspaper reported. Raitanen said he jogged, played hockey, and golfed, as well as regularly riding his mountain bike and playing beach volley ball. A huge music fan who was partial to Santana, the Allman Brothers, and Gov't Mule, he went to several shows a year but still listened to cassette tapes. The two cane corsos that mauled Sytsma were euthanized on Aug. 4 Scene: Sytsma was running on this road when he was mauled by the two dogs But more than anything he was a family man who cherished his children Tyra, 16, Jordan, 23, and Luis, 28. 'He was a dad, he was a family man,' Raitanen said. Son Jordan said that while his father fought cancer at the age of 23, he would rarely speak of it. 'I’d say, ‘I’m here for you, Pop,’ but I wouldn‘t ask questions,' Jordan Sytsma said. In May 2012, there was a report of a dog bite where the animal returned to the same property, Metamora Township Police Chief David Mallett told The Flint Journal. And in November 2013, a man was taken to a hospital after being bitten by a dog that returned to the address. Victim: April Smith, pictured, was attacked by one of the dogs in April 2012 The dogs 'get loose kind of regularly,' Geoffrey Petz told the Flint Journal. 'I've had interactions where I was walking out of my grandma's pole barn and there was a dog standing there with its hair standing up, growling at you,' he told the newspaper. ' When you get that feeling, you can see it in an animal if it's scared or aggressive and you just back right back into the door.' Oxford resident April Smith said that one of the dogs involved had attacked her in May 2012. Smith said she and her sister were walking two dogs when she was bitten. She said she was horrified that the owner still had the dogs.

Share 0 SHARES PRESENTING perhaps more of a threat to Western civilisation than either ISIS or Ebola is the rise of the Feminazi, a term used to describe a woman who refuses to adhere to society’s expectations of her, and who also can’t listen to swooping criticisms of her and her entire gender without going on and on about it. As new reports of rampant Feminazi activity sweep across the internet on a daily basis, we at WWN would like to take an opportunity to bring our readers up to date with this troubling new movement, and introduce the “Feminaxis Of Evil”; the five most dangerous types of female currently posing a threat to the established gender status quo. The Lady You Work With She may have seemed like an alright sort when she gave you a loan of her stapler, and she may seem to laugh along every time you suggest that a change in her temperament is down to “her time of the month”, but the woman you work with could actually be a Feminazi hiding in plain sight. Secret members the Feminestapo have infiltrated key positions in every workplace, across the globe, and are just waiting for an opportunity to complain about not earning as much money as their male counterparts. Avoid at all cost! Use your own stapler! The Girl You Met On Tinder Who Wouldn’t Send You A Picture Of Her Tits That fine piece who went off on one when you asked for some sexy pics ten minutes after matching on Tinder may not just be a deeply closeted lesbian, she’s probably also a vicious Feminazi looking to entrap men into embarrassing themselves before posting the evidence online in a bid to somehow make you feel ashamed of your actions. A more dangerous version of the girl who walks around dressed in revealing clothes, but gets all pissy when you yell at her from across the street, the Tinder Feminazi must be not be given more ammo for her cause, so make absolutely sure that your dating app girl is up for showing you some skin before you ask. We advise chatting for at least a half an hour before you ask, 20 minutes if you absolutely can’t wait. That Woman Who Commented On The Same YouTube Video As You So you watched a YouTube video, and you offered your thoughts on it in the comments section… and then here comes some woman who posts her own comment, which is contrary to your opinion! Truly the work of a hardcore Feminazi, trolling you in a bid to gain more victories for the Feminazi movement and send more men to Feminauschwitz. Allowing her a victory on such a vital battlefield as an online forum could be devastating to humankind as we know it, so be sure to post another comment under hers, using as much violent sexually-aggressive language as you can. Fuck the Geneva Convention; this is gender war! Hold nothing back! That Female Celebrity On Twitter If it’s one thing worse than a Feminazi, it’s a Feminazi with a hundred thousand followers. These high-ranking members of the Femin-S/S are the chief recruiting officers for women who otherwise would let the misogyny they encounter on a daily basis slide. Ranging from actresses to singers, politicians to journalists, the Feminazi on Twitter are quick to react to examples of lads just having a laugh, and will frequently retweet hilarious chauvinistic jokes while somehow suggesting that they aren’t funny, and are in fact dangerous to how women are portrayed in society. Alright, Feminitler! Keep your panties on, Jeeeesus. Your Mum Yes, reader, the most dangerous Feminazi is the one we never think of. Your mum might give off the impression that she’s happy in life, but under the surface she could be a covert Feminazi who hates how you’ve turned out despite her best efforts. Perhaps years of being seen as the lesser of the two genders, your mum could be watching how you deal with women and secretly hate you for it. Perhaps she may even sit you down some day and begin distributing some Feminazi propaganda about respect for women or gender equality. As with all Feminazi’s, your best tactic is to refuse to listen to any point they’re trying to make before yelling at them to “stop being such a Feminazi”. This sentence instantly renders their opinion invalid, while enforcing your own! Use it now! Use it often!

Following the surge in Bitcoin's USD price after the suspension of the SegWit2x hard fork, the cryptocurrency has collapsed as traders exit 'fork dividend' trades. Dennis Gartman had a few words of praise for the bulls right before the collapse... Well “bully” for Those Who’d Gotten It Right: Our “position” on Bitcoin and the other cryptos is clear: we shall have nothing whatsoever to do with them, but “good on” those who’ve been long and right; but be careful… all Bubbles eventually end in tears. As bitcoin fell, Bitcoin Cash - a clone of the original that was generated from another split on Aug.1 - surged, trading up as much as 35%, ahead of this weekend's launch of Bitcoin Gold. This is all happening as CoinDesk reports, Bitcoin gold is set to go live this weekend. In a new blog post, the developers behind the fork of the bitcoin blockchain said that they would release a formal software client for download at 7:00 PM UTC on Nov. 12. Originally set for a public launch on Nov. 1, the project is backed by LightningASIC, a seller of mining hardware based in Hong Kong, as well as a community of relatively unknown developers. As reported by CoinDesk, the idea behind bitcoin gold is to keep most properties of the protocol, but restrict the use of specialized chips for mining, or the process by which new transactions are added to a blockchain (while also creating new tokens as a reward). It's also the latest example of a "airdropped" cryptocurrency that will distribute new coins to anyone who owned bitcoin at the time of the split, or up until the date the ledger of transactions started to differ. Yet in a move criticized by some observers, the team behind bitcoin gold has been mining blocks in insolation since the new network was formally created last month, with a certain amount of coins being set aside to support development. In comments, the team behind the effort sought to send a signal of confidence to the market, perhaps owing to concerns circulating around the effort. "We are extremely grateful for the community around the world who have been contributing hash power to our testnets; besides patiently testing their own mining process, they allow exchanges, pools, wallet developers, and all other service operators to implement and test their support of BTG so that the bitcoin gold community can have a full suite of services at launch time," the project's backers said in a statement. In the days ahead, exchanges will no doubt be watching the launch. Soon after its August release, bitcoin cash, another cryptocurrency that forked the bitcoin network, amassed a nearly $4 billion market value. Exchanges and traders will no doubt be watching to see if history repeats.

This paper proposes a new behavior of chaotic attractors with separated scrolls while combining Julia's process with Chua's attractor and Lorenz's attractor. The main motivation of this work is the ability to generate a set of separated scrolls with different behaviors, which in turn allows us to choose one or many scrolls combined with modulation (amplitude and frequency) for secure communication or synchronization. This set seems a new class of hyperchaos because each element of this set looks like a simple chaotic attractor with one positive Lyapunov exponent, so the cardinal of this set is greater than one. This new approach could be used to generate more general higher-dimensional hyperchaotic attractor for more potential application. Numerical simulations are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results. Creating a chaotic system with one complicated topological structure, such as scroll separates or multi-separated scrolls, has become a desirable task and sometimes a key issue for many engineering applications. However, the multi-scrolls generated in earlier works are not separated. The ability to generate separated scrolls allows us to choose a number of them for different applications. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to generate a new class of hyper-chaotic attractors with separated scrolls. Moreover, the generated scrolls have different types of behaviors. I. INTRODUCTION chaotic dynamics, there has been a strong interest in finding coherent structures in systems generating very complex patterns. Hyperchaos is characterized as a chaotic attractor with more than one positive Lyapunov exponent. 1 1. E. Ott, Chaos in Dynamical System ( Cambridge University Press , Cambridge , 1993). attractors have been discovered in high dimensional dynamics such as the hyper-chaotic Rössler system, 2 An equation for hyperchaos ,” Phys. Lett. A 71, 155– 157 (1979). 2. E. O. Rössler, “,” Phys. Lett. A, 155–(1979). https://doi.org/10.1016/0375-9601(79)90150-6 3 13, 2889 (2003). 3. D. Cafagna and G. Grassi, Int. J. Bifurcation Chaos, 2889 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218127403008284 4 Dynamics and synchronization of a new hyperchaotic complex Lorenz system ,” Math. Comput. Modell. 55, 1951– 1962 (2012). 4. E. E. Mohmoud, “,” Math. Comput. Modell., 1951–(2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcm.2011.11.053 Since the discovery ofthere has been a strong interest in finding coherent structures in systems generating very complex patterns. Hyperchaos is characterized as a chaoticwith more than one positive Lyapunov exponent.Many methods have been used to construct a hyper-chaotic system, and several hyper-chaotichave been discovered in high dimensionalsuch as the hyper-chaotic Rössler system,the hyper-chaotic Chua's circuit,and the hyper-chaotic Lorenz system. attractors, the multi-scroll chaotic attractors have much higher complexity and more adjustability, which make multi-scroll chaotic attractors have a generally applied prospect in various chaos-based information technologies, including encryption and secure communication. 5,6,8–10 5. M. E. Yalcin, J. A. K. Suykens, and J. Vandewalle, Cellular Neural Networks, Multi-Scroll Chaos and Synchronization ( World Scientific , Singapore , 2005). Multi-scroll chaos generation: Theories, methods and applications ,” Int. J. Bifurcation Chaos 16(4), 775– 858 (2006). 6. J. Lü and G. Chen, “,” Int. J. Bifurcation Chaos(4), 775–(2006). https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218127406015179 8. W. Deng and J. Lü, “ Design of multi-directional multi-scroll chaotic attractors based on fractional differential systems ,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), New Orleans, USA , May 27–30 (2007), pp. 217– 220 . A systematic methodology for constructing hyperchaotic systems with multiple positive Lyapunov exponents and circuit implementation ,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst., I 61(3), 854– 864 (2014). 9. C. Shen, S. Yu, J. Lü, and G. Chen, “,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst., I(3), 854–(2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSI.2013.2283994 Designing hyperchaotic systems with any desired number of positive Lyapunov exponents via a simple model ,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst., I 61(8), 2380– 2389 (2014). 10. C. Shen, S. Yu, J. Lü, and G. Chen, “,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst., I(8), 2380–(2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSI.2014.2304655 attractor with multi-scrolls is practically a very attractive but theoretically a quite challenging task. From the classic single and two-scroll attractors, many reports have shown systems capable of displaying hyper-chaotic attractors with n-scroll dynamics. 7 Complex dynamics of a delayed discrete neural network of two nonidentical neurons ,” Chaos 24, 013108 (2014). 7. Y. Chen, T. Huang, and Y. Huang, “,” Chaos, 013108 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4861756 9 A systematic methodology for constructing hyperchaotic systems with multiple positive Lyapunov exponents and circuit implementation ,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst., I 61(3), 854– 864 (2014). 9. C. Shen, S. Yu, J. Lü, and G. Chen, “,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst., I(3), 854–(2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSI.2013.2283994 attractors. Lü and Chen 6 Multi-scroll chaos generation: Theories, methods and applications ,” Int. J. Bifurcation Chaos 16(4), 775– 858 (2006). 6. J. Lü and G. Chen, “,” Int. J. Bifurcation Chaos(4), 775–(2006). https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218127406015179 Compared with the single-scroll chaoticthe multi-scroll chaotichave much higher complexity and more adjustability, which make multi-scroll chaotichave a generally applied prospect in various chaos-based information technologies, including encryption and secure communication.Therefore, creating a hyper-chaoticwith multi-scrolls is practically a very attractive buta quite challenging task. From the classic single and two-scrollmany reports have shown systems capable of displaying hyper-chaoticwith-scrollShenuses polynomial in the Lorenz's system to generate multi-scrollLü and Chenreviewed the main advances in theories, approaches, and applications of multi-scroll chaos generation over the last two decades. However, the multi-scrolls generated in earlier works are not separated. The ability to generate separated scrolls allows us to choose a number of them for different applications. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to generate a new class of hyper-chaotic attractors with separated scrolls. Moreover, the generated scrolls have different types of behaviors. For instance, anyone of these scrolls may be chosen to be used in an encryption or a secure communication system. attractor such as Lorenz attractor and Chua attractor. In Sec. attractors with multi scrolls separated or not separated and nested or not nested or combined by them. In Sec. attractor by Chua's attractor. In Sec. fractal processes. In Sec. attractor with different behavior. In Sec. attractors with multi level of scroll scales. In Sec. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: In Sec. II , we recall the classical chaoticsuch as Lorenzand ChuaIn Sec. III , we give an algorithm inspired from Julia set. In Sec. IV , we introduce the systematic methodology for generating chaoticwith multi scrolls separated or not separated and nested or not nested or combined by them. In Sec. V , we include generation of chaoticby Chua'sIn Sec. VI , we describe several representation examples of separated scrolls using system ofprocesses. In Sec. VII , we present simulation results of nested chaoticwith different behavior. In Sec. VIII , we present generation of nested and separated chaoticwith multi level of scroll scales. In Sec. IX , we conclude this paper by providing a summary of the above finding. II. CHAOTIC ATTRACTOR A. Chua attractor dynamic systems were inspired from Chua circuit such as { x ̇ 1 = x 2 x ̇ 2 = x 3 x ̇ 3 = a ( − x 1 − x 2 − x 3 + f ( x 1 ) ) , (1) where x ̇ , y ̇ , and z ̇ are the first time derivatives, and a is a real parameter. Where f(x 1 ) is a statured function as follows: f ( x ) = { k , i f x > 1 k x , i f | x | < 1 − k , i f x < − 1 . (2) Figure 1 Chua's circuits, which were introduced by Leon Ong Chua in 1983, are simple electric circuits operating in the mode of chaotic oscillations. Differentsystems were inspired from Chua circuit such aswhere, andare the first time derivatives, and a is a real parameter. Where) is a statured function as follows:Figureshows implementation of system (1) B. Lorenz attractor y 1 , y 2 , and y 3 are system states and σ, ρ, and β (Fig. 2 M { y ̇ 1 = σ ( y 2 − y 1 ) y ̇ 2 = ρ y 1 − y 2 − y 1 y 3 y ̇ 3 = ( y 1 y 2 − β y 3 ) . (3) The Lorenz system has become one of the paradigms in the research of chaos and is described by where, andare system states and, and(Fig. Which is chaotic when σ = 10, ρ = 28, and β = 8 3 and displays the famous butterfly attractor with two scrolls for two spirals. III. ALGORITHM OF JULIA PROCESS fractal theory. Over the past few decades, fractal theory has received an increasing attention from many researchers. As we know now, there are several different structures of fractal such as Iterated function system, Iterated complex map, and Lindermayer system. We recall the classical equation discovered by Gaston Julia. In 1919, he put forward the simple iterative map defined either by a quadratic conformal Z-map Z n + 1 = Z n 2 + Z c , (4) or by a real (x, y)-map { x n + 1 = x n 2 − y n 2 − c x y n + 1 = 2 x n y n − c y . (5) We use the same algorithm presented in paper. 12 Multi-scroll and multi-wing chaotic attractor generated with Julia process fractal ,” Chaos, Solitons Fractals 44, 79– 85 (2011). 12. K. Bouallegue, A. Chaari, and A. Toumi, “,” Chaos, Solitons Fractals, 79–(2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chaos.2010.12.005 This section briefly introduces some background knowledge for thetheory. Over the past few decades,theory has received an increasing attention from many researchers. As we know now, there are several different structures ofsuch as Iterated function system, Iterated complex map, and Lindermayer system. We recall the classical equation discovered by Gaston Julia. In 1919, he put forward the simple iterative map defined either by a quadratic conformal-mapor by a real ()-mapWe use the same algorithm presented in paper. A. Algorithm inspired from Julia process This algorithm without constants is inspired from Julia fractal process. Algorithm 1 (y i +1 , x i +1 ) = P J (x i , y i ) 1: if x i < 0 then 2: x i + 1 = ( x i ) 2 + ( y i ) 2 + x i 2 3: y i + 1 = y i 2 x i + 1 4: end if 5: if x i = 0 then 6: x i + 1 = | y i | 2 7: if x i > 0 then 8: x i + 1 = y i 2 y i + 1 9: end if 10: if x i < 0 then 11: y i +1 = 0 12: end if 13: end if 14: if x i > 0 then 15: y i + 1 = ( x i ) 2 + ( y i ) 2 − x i 2 16: x i + 1 = y i 2 x i + 1 17: if y i < 0 then 18: y i + 1 = −y i +1 19: end if 20: end if IV. MATHEMATIC FORMULATION In this section, we study three chaotic attractors using transformation by Julia's process. Our methodology is to generate a chaotic attractor by combining two different chaotic attractors through fractal processes. attractors, respectively: Let us assume that systems (6) and (7) are defined by the following chaoticrespectively: { x ̇ 1 = f 1 ( x 1 , x 2 , x 3 ) x ̇ 2 = f 2 ( x 1 , x 2 , x 3 ) x ̇ 3 = f 3 ( x 1 , x 2 , x 3 ) . (6) The first chaotic system { y ̇ 1 = g 1 ( y 1 , y 2 , y 3 ) y ̇ 2 = g 2 ( y 1 , y 2 , y 3 ) y ̇ 3 = g 3 ( y 1 , y 2 , y 3 ) . (7) The second chaotic system fractal process inspired from Julia's process. As a result, we obtain two outputs as follows: ( u , v ) = P J ( f 1 ( x 1 , x 2 , x 3 ) , f 2 ( x 1 , x 2 , x 3 ) ) . We treat the first system with aprocess inspired from Julia's process. As a result, we obtain two outputs as follows: ( p , q ) = P J ( g 1 ( y 1 , y 2 , y 3 ) , g 2 ( y 1 , y 2 , y 3 ) ) . After, we generate two outputs (X G , Y G ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u − p , v − q ) . Then the second system as follows:After, we generate two outputs ( P J switches between two cases: The first one when f 1 is greater than zero, the second case when f 2 is less than zero. f 1 > 0, the outputs are computed as follows: { u = ( f 1 ) 2 + ( f 2 ) 2 + f 1 2 v = f 2 2 f 1 . (8) If> 0, the outputs are computed as follows: f 1 < 0, the outputs are computed as follows: { u = f 2 2 f 1 v = ( f 1 ) 2 + ( f 2 ) 2 + f 1 2 . (9) If< 0, the outputs are computed as follows: ( p , q ) = P J ( y ̇ 1 , y ̇ 2 ) . Then the second system g 1 > 0, the outputs are computed as follows: { p = ( g 1 ) 2 + ( g 2 ) 2 + g 1 2 q = g 2 2 g 1 . (10) If> 0, the outputs are computed as follows: g 1 < 0, the outputs are computed as follows: { p = g 2 2 g 1 q = ( g 1 ) 2 + ( g 2 ) 2 + g 1 2 . (11) If< 0, the outputs are computed as follows: X G , Y G ), the output vector generated as follows: ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u − p , v − q ) . In the stage, we have four cases of switching: We denote (), the output vector generated as follows:In the stage, we have four cases of switching: case 1: when (f 1 > 0) and (g 1 > 0) case 2: when (f 1 > 0) and (g 1 < 0) case 3: when (f 1 < 0) and (g 1 > 0) case 4: when (f 1 < 0) and (g 1 < 0) We analyze only the first case: f 1 > 0), the vector of (u, v) takes this result { u = ( f 1 ) 2 + ( f 2 ) 2 + f 1 2 v = f 2 2 f 1 , (12) when (g 1 > 0), the vector of (p, q) takes this result { p = ( g 1 ) 2 + ( g 2 ) 2 + g 1 2 q = g 2 2 g 1 , (13) the vertex of (X G , Y G ) { X G = ( u − p ) 2 + ( v − q ) 2 + u − p 2 Y G = v − q 2 ( u − p ) , (14) { X G = ( ( f 1 ) 2 + ( f 2 ) 2 + f 1 2 − ( g 1 ) 2 + ( g 2 ) 2 + g 1 2 ) 2 + ( f 2 2 f 1 − g 2 2 g 1 ) 2 + ( f 1 ) 2 + ( f 2 ) 2 + f 1 2 − ( g 1 ) 2 + ( g 2 ) 2 + g 1 2 2 Y G = f 2 2 f 1 − g 2 2 g 1 2 ( ( f 1 ) 2 + ( f 2 ) 2 + f 1 2 − ( g 1 ) 2 + ( g 2 ) 2 + g 1 2 ) . (15) when (> 0), the vector of () takes this resultwhen (> 0), the vector of () takes this resultthe vertex of ( V. BEHAVIOR OF CHAOTIC ATTRACTOR WITH CHUA'S ATTRACTOR A. Behavior of chaotic attractor with Chua's attractor n scroll chaotic attractors generated from the Chua attractors. Since the nonlinear chaotic Chua's circuits exhibit a wide variety of nonlinear dynamic phenomena such as bifurcations and chaos. The study of this circuit is an important topic for numerous practical applications. 11 Investigation on cubic Chua's circuit via differential geometry ,” Phys. Procedia 24, 412– 417 (2012). 11. R. Yu and Y. Xie, “,” Phys. Procedia, 412–(2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phpro.2012.02.060 This subsection introduces a family ofscroll chaoticgenerated from the ChuaSince the nonlinear chaotic Chua's circuits exhibit a wide variety of nonlinearphenomena such as bifurcations and chaos. The study of this circuit is an important topic for numerous practical applications.In this part, we introduce the approach of how to generate multi scrolls using the methodology presented in Sec. III E be the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system ofinsuch as fractal processes Φ is represented by Φ { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + arctan ( x ̇ 1 ) , x ̇ 2 + arctan ( x ̇ 2 ) ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + β , x ̇ 2 − β ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 1 − u 2 , v 1 − v 2 ) . (16) The system ofprocesses Φ is represented by 3 attractors. Figureshows three different behavior of chaotic 4 attractors with 16 scrolls. Figuredisplays another behavior of chaoticwith 16 scrolls. B. Behavior of chaotic attractor with Chua's attractor and Lorenz's attractor E be the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system ofinsuch as Φ { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + arctan ( x ̇ 1 ) , x ̇ 2 + arctan ( x ̇ 2 ) ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( z ̇ 2 + β , z ̇ 3 − β ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 1 − u 2 , v 1 − v 2 ) . (17) The fractal-processed system Φ is represented by 5 attractors. Figureshows three different behavior of chaotic VI. BEHAVIOR OF CHAOTIC ATTRACTOR WITH SCROLLS SEPARATED attractors with multi scrolls have many practical applications, 6 Multi-scroll chaos generation: Theories, methods and applications ,” Int. J. Bifurcation Chaos 16(4), 775– 858 (2006). 6. J. Lü and G. Chen, “,” Int. J. Bifurcation Chaos(4), 775–(2006). https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218127406015179 dynamics for higher security, multi separated and nested chaotic attractors with multi scrolls could be used for encryption and communication instead of the general topological simple chaotic attractors. It should be pointed out that chaoticwith multi scrolls have many practical applications,for example, broadband signal generation and secure and digital communication. To increase more the complexity of the chaotic behaviors andfor higher security, multi separated and nested chaoticwith multi scrolls could be used for encryption and communication instead of the general topological simple chaotic A. Chaotic attractor separated with the same behavior of scrolls In this subsection, we generate chaotic attractor with separated scrolls. Each scroll looks like a chaotic attractor. We denote this kind of scrolls a new class of hyperchaotic. This class of hyperchaotic has many advances compared to the classical chaotic attractor. We can choose one of these scrolls and we apply some method of cryptography that give it more complexity. We give some simulation results to show the effectiveness of this approach. 1. First example E be the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system ofinsuch as fractal processes Φ is represented by Φ { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( z ̇ 3 + arctan ( x ̇ 1 ) , x ̇ 1 + arctan ( z ̇ 3 ) ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( z ̇ 2 , x ̇ 2 ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 1 − ρ u 2 , v 1 − σ v 2 ) . (18) To generate more separated chaotic attractors, we apply the methodology cited in paper. 12 Multi-scroll and multi-wing chaotic attractor generated with Julia process fractal ,” Chaos, Solitons Fractals 44, 79– 85 (2011). 12. K. Bouallegue, A. Chaari, and A. Toumi, “,” Chaos, Solitons Fractals, 79–(2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chaos.2010.12.005 The system ofprocesses Φ is represented byTo generate more separated chaoticwe apply the methodology cited in paper. 6 attractors containing two linked scrolls: one has the behavior of Chua attractor and the other has the Lorenz's attractor behavior. Figureshows 8 separated chaoticcontaining two linked scrolls: one has the behavior of Chuaand the other has the Lorenz'sbehavior. attractors, we apply the methodology cited in paper. 12 Multi-scroll and multi-wing chaotic attractor generated with Julia process fractal ,” Chaos, Solitons Fractals 44, 79– 85 (2011). 12. K. Bouallegue, A. Chaari, and A. Toumi, “,” Chaos, Solitons Fractals, 79–(2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chaos.2010.12.005 To generate more separated chaoticwe apply the methodology cited in paper. 7 attractors. Figureshows 16 separated chaotic cryptography has become a key topic in chaos theory. 13 Synchronization and an application of a novel fractional order King Cobra chaotic system ,” Chaos 24, 033105 (2014). 13. P. Muthukumar, P. Balasubramaniam, and K. Ratnavelu, “,” Chaos, 033105 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4886355 attractor to secure communication. For the application point of view,has become a key topic in chaos theory.It is possible to use this structure of chaoticto secure communication. 8 We illustrate simulation results of scroll separated combined with amplitude modulation. We can choose one, two, or four scrolls for encryption, see Fig. 9 Fig.shows another simulation results combined with amplitude modulation. In this example, we choose many scrolls for communication. 2. Second example E be the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system ofinsuch as fractal processes Φ is represented by Φ { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( z ̇ 1 + x ̇ 1 , x ̇ 1 − z ̇ 1 ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( z ̇ 2 + x ̇ 1 , x ̇ 2 − z ̇ 1 ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( ρ u 1 − u 2 , σ v 1 − v 2 ) . (19) Figure 10 attractors with four scrolls. The behavior of scrolls can be seen in the bottom bi-scrolls of Lorenz attractor and on the top bi-scrolls Chua attractor. The system ofprocesses Φ is represented byFigureshows chaoticwith four scrolls. The behavior of scrolls can be seen in the bottom bi-scrolls of Lorenzand on the top bi-scrolls Chua ρ = σ), we obtain results in Figure 11 If (), we obtain results in Figure 3. Third example E be the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system ofinsuch as fractal processes Φ is represented by Φ { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( z ̇ 1 + arctan ( x ̇ 1 ) , x ̇ 2 + arctan ( z ̇ 1 ) ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( z ̇ 2 − x ̇ 1 , x ̇ 2 − z ̇ 1 ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 1 − σ u 2 , v 1 − σ v 2 ) . (20) Figure 12 attractors with the same form of separated scrolls. The system ofprocesses Φ is represented byFigureshows chaoticwith the same form of separated scrolls. B. Chaotic attractor separated with the different behaviors of scrolls In this subsection, we generate separated scrolls with different behaviors of chaotic attractors. We give three examples with different structures. Simulation results display the accuracy of the proposed approach. 1. First example E be the complete metric unit, Φ a system of fractal processes of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a system ofprocesses ofinsuch as Φ { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + arctan ( x ̇ 1 ) , x ̇ 2 + arctan ( x ̇ 2 ) ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( z ̇ 2 + β 1 , z ̇ 3 ) ( u 3 , v 3 ) = P J ( u 1 − 2 u 2 + β 2 , v 1 − v 2 ) ( p 1 , q 1 ) = P J ( z ̇ 2 + β 3 , z ̇ 3 ) ( p 2 , q 2 ) = P J ( u 1 − 2 p 1 , v 1 − q 1 ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 3 − 2 p 2 , v 3 − 2 q 2 ) . (21) The fractal-processed system Φ is represented by fractal processes contains two different chaotic attractors. The first one we choose is Chua attractor which is noted with x. The second is Lorenz attractor and is noted with z. Implementation of the fractal-processed system shows result in Figure 13 The system ofprocesses contains two different chaoticThe first one we choose is Chuawhich is noted with. The second is Lorenzand is noted with. Implementation of the fractal-processed system shows result in Figure 13 attractors with fractal and multi fractal scrolls. Figureshows the result of implementation. It contains multi chaoticwithand multiscrolls. 14 attractors with fractal scrolls. Figureillustrates the three forms of behavior of chaoticwithscrolls. 2. Second example E be the complete metric unit, Φ a system of fractal processes of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a system ofprocesses ofinsuch as Φ { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + arctan ( x ̇ 1 ) , x ̇ 2 + arctan ( x ̇ 2 ) ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( z ̇ 2 + β 1 , z ̇ 3 ) ( u 3 , v 3 ) = P J ( u 1 − α u 2 + β 2 , v 1 − v 2 ) ( p 1 , q 1 ) = P J ( z ̇ 2 + β 3 , z ̇ 3 ) ( p 2 , q 2 ) = P J ( u 1 − 2 p 1 , v 1 − q 1 ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 3 − 2 p 2 + β 4 , v 3 − 2 q 2 ) . (22) Figure 15 The fractal-processed system Φ is represented byFigureshows the result of implementation. 3. Third example E be the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system ofinsuch as fractal processes Φ is represented by Φ { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( z ̇ 1 + arctan ( x ̇ 1 ) + β , x ̇ 1 + arctan ( z ̇ 1 ) − β ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + ρ , x ̇ 2 − ρ ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 1 − u 2 σ , v 1 − v 2 ) . (23) Figure 16 attractors with different form of separated scrolls. The system ofprocesses Φ is represented byFigureshows chaoticwith different form of separated scrolls. VII. CHAOS WITH NESTED CHAOTIC ATTRACTORS In this section, several approaches for generating nested chaotic attractor are described. A. First example { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + β , x ̇ 2 + λ ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + β , x ̇ 2 − λ ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 1 − α 1 u 2 , v 1 − α 1 v 2 ) . (24) The fractal-processed system Φ is represented by 17 For system (24) , several simulations have been carried out when the parameter varies (Fig.). B. Second example fractal processes Φ is represented by { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + β , x ̇ 2 + λ ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + β , x ̇ 2 − λ ) ( u 3 , v 3 ) = P J ( u 1 − α 1 u 2 + ρ , v 1 − α 1 v 2 ) ( u 4 , v 4 ) = P J ( u 3 , v 3 ) ( u 5 , v 5 ) = T ( u 4 , v 4 ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 5 − 1 1 + e u 4 , v 5 − 1 1 + e v 4 ) . (25) The system ofprocesses Φ is represented by T = ( − u 1 v 1 v 1 u 1 ) , ( u 5 v 5 ) = ( − u 1 v 1 v 1 u 1 ) ( u 4 v 4 ) . With 18 attractors. The two chaotic are with similar form and behavior. After implementation, Figureshows the result of two-nested chaoticThe two chaotic are with similar form and behavior. C. Third example E be the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system ofinsuch as fractal processes system Φ is represented by { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( y ̇ 1 + β , y ̇ 2 + λ ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( y ̇ 1 + β , y ̇ 2 − λ ) ( u 3 , v 3 ) = P J ( u 1 − u 2 , v 1 − v 2 ) ( u 4 , v 4 ) = P J ( u 3 , v 3 ) ( u 5 , v 5 ) = T ( u 4 , v 4 ) ( u 5 , v 5 ) = P J ( u 5 + 1 , − v 5 ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 6 + 1.75 , − v 6 ) . (26) Theprocesses system Φ is represented by T = ( − u 1 v 1 v 1 u 1 ) . With 19 attractors. Figureshows another behavior of nested chaotic D. Fourth example E be the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system of E in E such as E → E , Φ : ( f 1 , f 2 ) → ( X G , Y G ) . Letbe the complete metric unit, Φ a fractal-processed system ofinsuch as fractal processes Φ is represented by { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( α y ̇ 1 − arctan ( λ 1 y ̇ 1 ) + β , α y ̇ 2 − arctan ( λ 2 y ̇ 2 ) + β ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( α 1 y ̇ 2 + β , α 2 y ̇ 2 − λ ) ( u 3 , v 3 ) = P J ( u 1 − σ 1 u 2 + β , v 1 − σ 1 v 2 ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 3 , v 3 ) . (27) The system ofprocesses Φ is represented by 20 attractors. The four nested chaotic attractors have the same form and size. Figureshows the result of four nested chaoticThe four nested chaotichave the same form and size. 21 attractors. Figureshows the result of four nested chaotic VIII. CHAOS WITH NESTED AND SEPARATED CHAOTIC ATTRACTORS It is believed that this kind of method may have some potential in generating various families of chaotic attractors with fractal and multi fractal behavior. Therefore, the proposed approach may have a good application value in the field of information technology such as secure communication and encryption. A. First example { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + β , x ̇ 2 + λ ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + β , x ̇ 2 − λ ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 1 − α 1 u 2 + ρ , v 1 − α 1 v 2 ) . (28) The fractal-processed system Φ is represented by fractal process. The system will take this form as follows: { ( u 1 , v 1 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + β , x ̇ 2 + λ ) ( u 2 , v 2 ) = P J ( x ̇ 1 + β , x ̇ 2 − λ ) ( u 3 , v 3 ) = P J ( u 1 − α 1 u 2 + ρ , v 1 − α 1 v 2 ) ( X G , Y G ) = P J ( u 3 , v 3 ) . (29) We insert at the end of system (28) process. The system will take this form as follows: 22 attractors, each one contains two nested chaotic attractors between two bi-scrolls symmetry. The two bi-scrolls are similar to Chua attractor with a fractal behavior. Figureshows two identical chaoticeach one contains two nested chaoticbetween two bi-scrolls symmetry. The two bi-scrolls are similar to Chuawith abehavior. B. Second example 23 attractors, each one contains a nested chaotic attractor between two bi-scroll symmetry. The two bi-scrolls are similar to Chua attractor with fractal behaviors. Figureshows two identical chaoticeach one contains a nested chaoticbetween two bi-scroll symmetry. The two bi-scrolls are similar to Chuawithbehaviors. C. Third example 24 attractors, each one contains four nested chaotic attractors with multi-fractal behavior. Figureshows two identical chaoticeach one contains four nested chaoticwith multi-fractal behavior. IX. CONCLUSION In this paper, different techniques of generating new classes of chaotic attractors with separated and nested scrolls are discovered. The main feature of the method is that chaotic attractor with separated and nested scrolls could be constructed by a system of fractal processes. Each scroll looks like a chaotic attractor with one Lyapunov exponent. The set of those scrolls contains more than one Lyapunov exponent. The method proposed in this article provides a systematic way of generating new types of hyperchaotic attractors for more potential application. Many of them are new and interesting in both theory and perspective. Moreover, these hyperchaotic attractors have some novel properties, therefore they deserve further investigation in the future. Some numerical simulation results have been provided to show the effectiveness of the method proposed in this work.

TAMPA — Ryan Fitzpatrick is the first to tell you there are no ugly wins. Not when your team has lost five straight games. Not when you are 34 and wearing your seventh NFL uniform while keeping the seat warm for the injured franchise quarterback. Certainly not when you can beat your former New York Jets club 15-10 and walk off the field and into a victorious locker room, hand-in-hand with your two boys, who aren’t too young to appreciate what the old man did at work Sunday. But there’s not enough cosmetics at the MAC counter at Macy’s to make what the Bucs and Jets put on the field at Raymond James Stadium easier on the eyes. In fact, these two quarterbacks might want to check their vision. Fitzpatrick completed only half of his 34 passes for 187 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The Jets’ 38-year-old Josh McCown passed for 262 yards with one TD and an INT but was sacked six times. Neither team could average even three yards per rushing attempt. They combined for 13 punts. And yet, maybe in his younger days Fitzpatrick would’ve given a darn that it wasn’t an aesthetic triumph. "I mean I played okay," Fitzpatrick said. "I didn’t play great by any stretch of the imagination. But we won the game and I’m getting too old to worry about that other stuff. I’m so happy we won. My job filling in right now is to do the best I can and try to grind out wins and that’s what we did today. "That wasn’t my best effort. I can play better than I did today and I don’t think it has anything to do with getting comfortable or feeling guys out. I just think it’s about me going in there and doing a better job." And now some sobering news for Bucs fans. It appears Fitzpatrick could be the quarterback not just for next Sunday’s game at Miami, but maybe until the fat man and his reindeer come to town. Prior to the Bucs’ win Sunday, which improved the team to 3-6 and gave it a faint hope that maybe not all is lost this season, general manager Jason Licht dropped a bit of a bombshell. Speaking on his pre-game radio segment, Licht said the Bucs are likely to be overly cautious with quarterback Jameis Winston, who is nursing a shoulder injury. "We’re going to give it two weeks here to see how things settle down but there is no time line on this," Licht said. "This may be an extended period. There’s no new information. It’s still the same injury that we’ve diagnosed and had all of our doctors that do a great job with it. But this could be an extended situation. What is best for our future, because he is our future and we’re going to make the best decisions we can medically to ensure that he is our future." After the game, Bucs coach Dirk Koetter looked relieved to say the least. Since Winston suffered an AC joint sprain in his right throwing shoulder in the first half of a 38-33 loss at Arizona in Week 5, the Bucs had gone 0-4 and scored only nine points combined in the first half of those games. Despite an outstanding second half at Buffalo, maybe Winston’s shoulder affected him more than the Bucs realized. You can understand the reluctance to turn to Fitzpatrick any sooner. "It’s hard to win a game in the NFL with your No. 2 quarterback," Koetter said. The Bucs needed three field goals from Patrick Murray and a terrific defensive effort Sunday, especially from Lavonte David, who had eight tackles, two for losses and a fumble recovery. The Bucs put the game away on two plays by Charles Sims. On third-and-15 from their own 39-yard line, Sims took a simple toss to his left and ran 22 yards for a first down. Seven plays later, Fitzpatrick found Sims in the right flat for a 6-yard touchdown pass. "Gritty. I mean, that’s what Ryan is," Koetter said. "He’s a get-it-done kind of guy. He’s going to make some plays maybe you don’t expect him to and he’s going to miss some plays you would like him to make. But he’s a tough guy and he’s a competitor and you can’t have enough of those kind of guys on your team." Fitzpatrick said Sunday’s win was emotional for him because of all the close relationships he still has with the Jets players and coaches. "This was an important win for me," Fitzpatrick said. "It’s always fun to beat your old teams. But in the here and now, just to get the winning feeling back with this team and try to go on a little bit of a run." After the game, Fitzpatrick and his sons, 10-year old Brady and 8-year old Tate, walked from the locker room back onto the field. The kids caught passes from their quarterback dad. They played football with other family members as Raymond James Stadium sat virtually empty. For some reason, maybe it was leftover gunpowder from all the points the Bucs didn’t score Sunday, the cannons started firing from the pirate ship. Boom. A win doesn’t get any more beautiful than that. Contact Rick Stroud at [email protected] Follow @NFLStroud

THE family of a British backpacker missing near Longreach is desperately hoping he will be found safe and well - and will turn up asking 'what's all the fuss about'. Sam Woodhead, 18, was last seen at Upshot Station at around 5.30pm on Tuesday and police fear he has become lost or injured during a run. An owner from the station, where he had been staying for about 10 days, reported him missing Wednesday morning after finding his bed empty. His backpack and a pair of running shoes were missing but belongings including his wallet had been left behind at the station on Bogewong Alroy Rd. Do you know Sam? Contact david.murray@news.com.au A health and fitness fanatic, he may have been injured or become disoriented in unfamiliar territory as daytime temperatures soar to 39C. Search and rescue teams conducted a land and air search of the area surrounding the station on Wednesday but failed to find any sign of him. An aerial and land search resumed at first light this morning. He had spent at least one night, and possibly two, alone and exposed to the elements. Sergeant Dave Perry from the Stock Squad said the property owner contacted police at 10.30am Wednesday. "The owner of the property has gone to probably chase him out of bed because he wasn't out of bed yet," Sgt Perry said. "She went to his room (and) he's not there. "The property missing from his room included a backpack and a pair of joggers." There had been no cause for concern before he went missing. "There's no indication of anything that would cause him to go away," Sgt Perry said. "Hes really into fitness. He jogged on a number of occasions. It is possible he may have been jogging on this occasion and become disoriented. "We're not basing that on anything other than the fact he's been jogging previously." Sam, who is from London and went to Brighton College, had been experiencing the Outback during an Australian adventure that had previously included a visit to the Gold Coast. His sister Rebecca has written on Facebook about the family's concerns. "The helicopter and quad bikes have been out looking for him," Rebecca wrote yesterday. "He has been missing for more than 24 hours and the search has been called off because it is now night time in Australia so he will be out there for another night. "Please please anyone contact me if you hear ANYTHING." In later posts she added: "Thanks so much for all your messages regarding Sam. Still no further news but we have the helicopter going out again in the morning, Aus time, and hundreds of people going on a voluntary search party. will keep you all posted. X. "Would be a great birthday present if my brother would just turn up and ask what all the fuss is about!" Residents from surrounding properties have been using their own light aircraft to assist in the search. The 180cm tall backpacker, who has a muscular build and short dark hair, is believed to have been wearing white shorts and a white shirt. Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Do you know Sam? Contact david.murray@news.com.au An earlier version of this story contained reporting by Jacinda Tutty and Rikki-Lee Arnold

A BNP election candidate advocated the murder of illegal immigrants in the wake of the recent Cumbrian massacre. Right-wing activist Charlotte Lewis, from Thornton Heath, wrote on her Facebook page that mass-murderer Derrick Bird should have come to London and slaughtered illegal immigrants rather than his "fellow British people". Her tirade is the latest in a string of hate-filled rants and calls for violence against "pakis" through her Facebook page. The latest post reads: "Ok, so I may well get in to trouble for saying this - but I've got to get it off my chest. "I wish that Derrick Bird could have come down to London & shot dead some illegal immigrants, rather than killing his fellow British people. "If that offends you then tough; it's my opinion and I'm entitled to it." Her comments refer to taxi driver Derrick Bird, who went on a killing spree in west Cumbria on June 2, shooting dead 12 people and injuring 11 others. Her latest Facebook rant was highlighted by website Hope Not Hate, Searchlight's campaign to counter racism and fascism in elections and beyond. Gerry Gable from Searchlight said: "I think anybody advocating the murder of illegal immigrants should be prosecuted. "People may view Charlotte Lewis as being a bit potty, but the overwhelming interest in firearms of the BNP tells a much more serious story." When contacted by the Croydon Guardian Miss Lewis, 37, questioned why her "innocuous" comments were being treated so seriously. In a bizarre rant she flip-flopped repeatedly over whether illegal immigrants should be murdered or not, before asking why her love of Chandi the dancing dog in Britain's Got Talent was not being treated as a story. She said: "It would be preferable to kill illegal immigrants than fellow British people, because they shouldn’t be in this country." Miss Lewis' true face was revealed in April after pictures were discovered of her swigging from a bottle of alcopops while clad in a burqa during a Halloween party. The Carshalton and Wallington parliamentary candidate, who also ran for Croydon Council’s Shirley ward in the May elections, was snapped revealing her contempt for Muslims by hitching up her costume to reveal her underwear. But what do you think? Is Miss Lewis entitled to her opinion? Or is she simply spreading hatred? Whatever your view, use the form below to let us know...

The Stanford Cardinal (10-7, 1-3 Pac-12) fell to the Washington Huskies (11-5, 3-0 Pac-12) by the final score of 65-60 on Saturday night at home in the friendly confines of Maples Pavilion. Both Stanford and Washington ended with 2 scorers each dominating the game, but in the end the Huskies came out on top. Washington wins their 3rd straight conference game of the season, all of them being on the road. End of the Game Stanford once again managed to show some resiliency at the end of a basketball game closing what was an 8 point lead about halfway through the second half into a 58-58 tie with 3:38 left in the game before failing to take the lead and eventually failed to win the game. After Washington broke that tie Stanford’s Dwight Powell had two wide open looks, one from the elbow and one from the corner behind the arc, to retie and/or take the lead for the Cardinal but he was unable to hit either shot. Instead the Huskies took advantage and from then on out were in control of the basketball game, ending the game 65-60 to start the conference season 3-0, and more importantly all 3 coming on the road. Washington The Huskies were essentially a two-man show throughout the game with C.J. Wilcox dominating the box score playing another 35 minutes and putting up 27 points and 9 rebounds as well as shooting 4-6 from three-point land. His fellow teammate Aziz N’Diaye pitched in with 14 points including hitting 4-4 from the free throw lane, a couple of which broke the tie late in the second half, besting his season average which is under 50% for the season. Leading the team in rebounds was forward Desmond Simmons tallying 13 total off the glass. Stanford The Cardinal were also led by two players throughout the game and conincidentally their two best scorers of the season thus far in Dwight Powell and Chasson Randle. Powell ended the game with 19 points and 4 rebounds while Randle ended with 16 points and 4 boards off the bench behind Aaron Bright who was very unproductive in 33 minutes of play with 0 points, 1 board and 1 steal. Josh Huestis also ended up scoring 8 points during the game but was only able to muster a 3-13 shooting night, and overall Stanford shot an abysmal 39% from the field including 3-17 (a whopping 17.6%) from behind the arc. These stats unfortunately point to the fact that their last game against Washington State was more of an outlier rather than a possible norm as for as the team’s offense goes. One of my key players to the game, Andy Brown, played a pretty solid game but I was still hoping for a little more. He did rack up 8 points and 3 assists but only 2 rebounds in 31 minutes of play for the game. He did have a few great plays at the end of the game when the Cardinal were fighting to stay alive including a great defensive play off of an inbound pass and on the subsequent trip down the floor hit a clutch bucket for Stanford. I’d say he performed admirably and hope he continues to play that way. In the end Stanford reverted back to what it had been doing all season; relying on a few players to have monster games and hope that would carry the team. Well, that strategy hurt them this evening and it led to a loss. Like I said, basketball is a team sport and a team needs to play well together (not just a few players) in order for it to be successful, and that didn’t happen this evening. Look for Stanford to bounce back against at home against the Cal Bears next Saturday the 19th in game three of their three-game home stand.

A group of South Los Angeles clergy and community activists said that rather than being excluded, members of the local chapter of Black Lives Matter were included in meetings leading up to the church forum with Mayor Eric Garcetti that they ended up disrupting. The Rev. Kelvin Sauls, pastor of the Holman United Methodist Church, said Black Lives Matter was part of a round table that met on several occasions, including a planning conference call on Oct. 19 hours before the evening event, which ended up with protesters turning their backs on the mayor before following him and chanting as he walked to his car. "Black Lives Matter has been part of the planning, framing and shaping of the town hall," Sauls said at a Monday morning news conference. "A covenant of trust has been broken." Last week, Garcetti was speaking to several hundred people at Holman when about 50 demonstrators from various groups including Black Lives Matter stood up to protest. Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope, said he saw protesters make verbal and physical threats against the pastor. Members of Black Lives Matter said they were frustrated that the mayor broke a promise he had made to them. Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the national Black Lives Matter movement, said Garcetti kept the group in the dark about the Oct. 19 event despite previously agreeing to work with the activists to host a two-hour discussion. She said the mayor promised to do so in July after meeting with members of the group. "What happened afterward is that Mayor Garcetti had a meeting without consulting us," Cullors said at a news conference at a memorial site Friday near the spot where LAPD officers last year fatally shot Ezell Ford, a black man whose family said suffered from mental illness. Cullors and others said that members of Black Lives Matter learned about Garcetti's first South L.A. forum only days before the event. That's when members reached out to Sauls and he asked them for their input, said Melina Abdullah, an organizer with Black Lives Matter. "They had already been planning for two weeks and the fliers were out and they already had panelists lined up," she said. "From that point, we were pulled in and asked to contribute the conversation." Working together, Abdullah said, they sought to create a community discussion, but because the Black Lives Matter activists joined late in the planning process, they could not create an ideal format. Still, there were some agreements made during the planning process that were violated, she said. At the last minute, a moderator was brought in. Speakers were asked to write comments on cards, instead of speaking from the heart "What we agreed to was not the town hall meeting we got," she said. "We made it clear, if there were disagreements, if we had dissents from what the mayor did then we would make it known." On Sunday, Garcetti planned a return visit to Holman. But Sauls, the pastor of the West Adams church, said that he decided to cancel after the event was leaked online. "I appreciated the intent of the mayor's visit, to come and be with us so we can deepen our relationship," Sauls said. "But in light of the organized social media campaign of Black Lives Matter, I decided it was not strategic." At Monday's news conference, Sauls and the roughly dozen people in attendance said they support the mission of Black Lives Matter and hope to reconcile with the groups. "We are not divided in our message," said Paulette Gipson, president of the NAACP's Compton chapter. "Just in our actions."

The economic effects of the September 11 attacks were initial shocks causing global stock markets to drop sharply. The September 11 attacks themselves resulted in approximately $40 billion in insurance losses, making it one of the largest insured events ever.[1] Financial markets [ edit ] Stock exchanges closed between September 10, 2001 and September 17, 2001. After the initial panic, the DJIA quickly rose for only a slight drop. On Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, the opening of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was delayed after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower, and trading for the day was canceled after the second plane crashed into the South Tower. NASDAQ also canceled trading. The New York Stock Exchange was then evacuated as well as nearly all banks and financial institutions on Wall Street and in many cities across the country. The London Stock Exchange and other stock exchanges around the world were also closed down and evacuated in fear of follow-up terrorist attacks. The New York Stock Exchange remained closed until the following Monday. This was the third time in history that the NYSE experienced prolonged closure, the first time being in the early months of World War I[2][3] and the second being March 1933 during the Great Depression. Trading on the United States bond market also ceased; the leading government bond trader, Cantor Fitzgerald, was based in the World Trade Center.[4] The New York Mercantile Exchange was also closed for a week after the attacks.[5] The Federal Reserve issued a statement, saying it was "open and operating. The discount window is available to meet liquidity needs.".[6] The Federal Reserve added $100 billion in liquidity per day, during the three days following the attack, to help avert a financial crisis.[5] Federal Reserve Governor Roger W. Ferguson Jr. has described in detail this and the other actions that the Fed undertook to maintain a stable economy and offset potential disruptions arising in the financial system.[7] Gold prices spiked upwards, from $215.50 to $287 an ounce in London trading.[4] Oil prices also spiked upwards.[8] Gas prices in the United States also briefly shot up, though the spike in prices lasted only about one week.[5] Currency trading continued, with the United States dollar falling sharply against the Euro, British pound, and Japanese yen.[4] The next day, European stock markets fell sharply, including declines of 4.6% in Spain, 8.5% in Germany,[4] and 5.7% on the London Stock Exchange.[9] Stocks in the Latin American markets also plunged, with a 9.2% drop in Brazil, 5.2% drop in Argentina, and 5.6% decline in Mexico, before trading was halted.[4] Economic sectors [ edit ] In international and domestic markets, stocks of companies in some sectors were hit particularly hard. Travel and entertainment stocks fell, while communications, pharmaceutical and military/defense stocks rose. Online travel agencies particularly suffered, as they cater to leisure travel. Insurance [ edit ] Insurance losses due to 9/11 were more than one and a half times greater than what was previously the largest disaster (Hurricane Andrew) in terms of losses. The losses included business interruption ($11.0 billion), property ($9.6 billion), liability ($7.5 billion), workers compensation ($1.8 billion), and others ($2.5 billion). The firms with the largest losses included Berkshire Hathaway, Lloyd's, Swiss Re, and Munich Re, all of which are reinsurers, with more than $2 billion in losses for each.[10] Shares of major reinsurers, including Swiss Re and Baloise Insurance Group dropped by more than 10%, while shares of Swiss Life dropped 7.8%.[11] Although the insurance industry held reserves that covered the 9/11 attacks, insurance companies were reluctant to continue providing coverage for future terrorist attacks. Only a few insurers continue to offer such coverage. Airlines and aviation [ edit ] Flights were grounded in various places across the United States and Canada that did not necessarily have the operational support in place, such as dedicated ground crews. A large number of transatlantic flights landed in Gander in Newfoundland and in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the logistics handled by Transport Canada in Operation Yellow Ribbon. To help with immediate needs for victims' families, United Airlines and American Airlines both provided initial payments of $25,000.[12] The airlines were also required to refund ticket purchases for anyone unable to fly.[12] The 9/11 attacks compounded financial troubles that the airline industry already was experiencing before the attacks. Share prices of airlines and airplane manufacturers plummeted after the attacks. Midway Airlines, already on the brink of bankruptcy, shut down operations almost immediately afterwards. Other airlines were threatened with bankruptcy, and tens of thousands of layoffs were announced in the week following the attacks. To help the industry, the federal government provided an aid package to the industry, including $10 billion in loan guarantees, along with $5 billion for short-term assistance.[1] The reduction on air travel demand caused by the attack is also seen as a contributory reason to the retirement of the only supersonic aircraft in service at the time, Concorde.[13] It has also been commented that the lack of demand for the Concorde after its service resumption in 2001 could be caused by the death of many regular Concorde travellers resulted from this attack.[14] Tourism [ edit ] Tourism in New York City plummeted, causing massive losses in a sector which employed 280,000 people and generated $25 billion per year. In the week following the attack, hotel occupancy fell below 40%, and 3,000 employees were laid off. Tourism, hotel occupancy and air travel also fell drastically across the nation.[citation needed] The reluctance to fly may have been due to increased fear of a repeat attack. Suzanne Thompson, Professor of Psychology at Pomona College, California conducted interviews of 501 people who were not direct victims of 9/11. From this, she concluded that "Most participants felt more distress (65 percent) and a stronger fear of flying (55 percent) immediately after the event than they did before the attacks." Security [ edit ] Since the 9/11 attacks, substantial resources have been put towards improving security, in the areas of homeland security, national defense, and in the private sector.[5] New York City [ edit ] In New York City, approximately 430,000 jobs were lost and there were $2.8 billion in lost wages over the three months following the 9/11 attacks. The economic effects were mainly focused on the city's export economy sectors.[15] The GDP for New York City was estimated to have declined by $30.3 billion over the last three months of 2001 and all of 2002. The Federal government provided $11.2 billion in immediate assistance to the Government of New York City in September 2001, and $10.5 billion in early 2002 for economic development and infrastructure needs.[16] The 9/11 attacks also had great impact on small businesses in Lower Manhattan, located near the World Trade Center. Approximately 18,000 small businesses were destroyed or displaced after the attacks. The Small Business Administration provided loans as assistance, while Community Development Block Grants and Economic Injury Disaster Loans were other also used by the Federal Government to provide assistance to small business affected by the 9/11 attacks.[16] Other effects [ edit ] The September 11 attacks also led directly to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, as well as additional homeland security spending. The attacks were also cited as a rationale for the Iraq war. The cost of the two wars so far has surpassed $5 trillion.[17][18]

Obama's Jobs Bill: A Reasonable Plan Here are some quick thoughts on President Obama’s jobs plan: – It’s reasonably big, at about 3% of GDP. – It’s reasonably front-loaded. Goldman Sachs says it will raise 2012 GDP by about 1.5%–before any multiplier effects. Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi thinks the effect on 2012 GDP will be about 2%. Expect more estimates in the 1-3% range for 2012; smaller for 2013. – It’s reasonably well targeted. Unemployment insurance extensions will get spent. Infrastructure money gets spent and also builds stuff. As for the payroll tax: Who knows if it gets spent, but the point is to stimulate hiring, rather than spending. – It’s reasonably well designed. The biggest problem with a payroll tax is that firms get it even for employees already on the books. But this time, the biggest payroll tax cut is only for firms raising their payrolls. This will yield a much bigger bang-for-each-buck. Early analyses have yet to realize how important this is. – It’s reasonably timely. The usual argument against fiscal policy is that the spending only occurs by the time the economy is booming again. There’s no chance of that occurring. Perhaps this provides the confidence boost we need to counter double-dip concerns. – It’s reasonably well focused. Tax credits for hiring the long-term unemployed will be very helpful in preventing the current recession doing long-term harm. – It’s reasonably clever, removing the incentive to fire people, rather than reduce hours. (aka “Job sharing”) – It’s reasonably evidence-based. Having the unemployed talk to a jobs counselor before extending benefits can have huge effects at minimal cost. All told, it’s a very real plan and very specific. None of this is magic: Government gets more active when the market fails, and we pay it back when the market booms. This is all standard economics. There’s no gold-buggery, voodoo austerity or laughable Laffer-y. Obama’s not making up economics, he’s using simple tools to solve the obvious problems. And with long-term real interest rates close to zero, there’s no risk of this crowding out private investment But let’s not expect miracles. Without the plan, GDP growth was expected to be so anemic that unemployment was expected to rise through 2012–partly due to the drag of reduced government spending in coming years. Obama’s plan eliminates this fiscal drag, but the economy has still gotta get its mojo back. So perhaps the long malaise turns in to the tepid recovery. But perhaps the Fed can help, too. The biggest risk is that this plan provides another opportunity for Congress to prove itself incapable of addressing real macroeconomic concerns. If it does, watch for confidence to plummet just as it did following the debt-ceiling madness. As for the politics: Ask a political scientist. But I wouldn’t want to have to explain a vote against this to my constituents, who are mad as hell about unemployment.

There’s a common belief shared among most computer scientists: If we manage to create a machine smarter than us, it will also be smarter at creating a smarter machine, which will, in turn, be smarter at the process. Thus, the machine will grow in intelligence, faster and faster, quickly becoming impossible to control. This is called the intelligence explosion. Many also call it the end of the world. Others, our best chance at utopia. Back in the fifties, the idea of creating an Artificial Intelligence (AI) seemed pretty easy to the scientists who were just getting used to the idea of computers. They thought that humanity could create digital life in a few years. But we’re still trying. We may, however, finally be getting close. Following the scientifically exuberant fifties and sixties, where researchers optimistically ploughed on with AI research, the field entered the first ‘AI Winter’ as funding dried up after the ambitious promises of early pioneers failed to materialise. Since then, research has fluctuated, and all the while computers have become increasingly more powerful. Now, with vast improvements in computing, along with huge investments from tech giants and governments, the vision of a superintelligent machine may be possible within our lifetime. Our society is already hugely influenced by artificial intelligence; from search engines, to stock markets and self driving trains. But what we’ve created so far is narrow AI – artificial intelligence that is highly advanced at a narrow task, like playing chess. The AI quest The holy grail that many hope to find is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a computer capable of performing any intellectual task a human can. Peter Voss, head of the AI research and development company AGI Innovations Inc, has been aiming to fill this void his entire career. He believes AGI could be our salvation, fixing the messes humanity made and building a better future. “I think it’s a pity that humans, just as they learn how to live life, die. Just when you get the hang of it. For humans to be able to live a lot longer is an incredibly hard problem, and I think we’ll need AGI to solve that,” Voss explains. But his hope for AGI doesn’t stop there. A super-intelligent benevolent mind would be capable of far greater feats: “I think equally important are problems of civilisation – pollution, energy usage, poverty – that we need more intelligence in order to solve them. I think uplifting life [with AGI] is definitely what I see not just as desirable, but possibly as something necessary. “Maybe we’re not smart enough to handle the level of civilisation that we have. I’m not sure that humans are capable of governing mankind as it gets more complex.” “Maybe we’re not smart enough to handle the level of civilisation that we have. I’m not sure that humans are capable of governing mankind as it gets more complex. So I see AGI as being important generally in uplifting our existence in terms of abundance, in terms of material, living longer, and governance.” Not everyone agrees with Voss. James Barrat, author of Our Final Invention, told me that “when he was young, [British mathematician] I. J. Good believed that we needed super-intelligence to solve the problems of our existence, to solve famine, to solve disease, to solve asteroid strikes, to solve the nuclear arms crisis. He thought we should get a supercomputer to sort things out. “But as he grew old, Good explained that ‘I once wrote that super-intelligence would save mankind, but I don’t believe it now, I think super-intelligence will destroy it. We will be led like lemmings into a technological future we can’t survive.’ So that was a depressing revelation.” And therein lies the great debate between those in the AI field – will our future creations play nice? Morality bytes Voss feels that “increased intelligence leads to improved morality,” in that, “a lot of what we regard as immoral behaviour is out of short term fear and ignorance. Of course better intelligence and reasoning can help to mitigate both of those.” In his vision of the future, we would all have access to an ultra-smart AI that would tell us why we don’t need to go to war, and why we don’t have to do immoral things. “If you basically had better reasoning, and were less fearful, because of the AGI – which is like having somebody with a lot of common sense and being very rational and persuasive – it could talk you through that, and explain to the electorate and the politicians why certain actions probably don’t make a lot of sense, and are not actually in their interest. And I think that will mitigate a lot of moral behaviour.” “AGI does not necessarily need to end in tears, and, in fact, is more likely to improve morality in many ways.” But Barrat doesn’t agree with the notion that more intelligence means greater morality: “That’s absolute nonsense, does he base that on us? Look at how many humans we killed in the last century, look at war. Does pacifism come with intelligence?” His book is recommended reading by groups set up to try to control and limit future AI, such as the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity Institute. Our last chance The fear is, if we create the AI wrong now, create something harmful to humanity, it will be too late to for us to do anything. It could be indifferent to mankind, simply destroying us “for our atoms”, or taking the energy grid offline. “It could happen in so many different ways. It could be a battle between two nations; it could get out of control” warns Barrat. “In the 1920s-30s nuclear fission was thought of as a utopian way to get free energy out of the atom, but the world learned about fission at Hiroshima when it was weaponised. We’re following the exact same trajectory right now,” Barrat continues. “We’ll have the utopia, we’ll have virtual brains the size of computers, it will be wonderful, but then it’s already being weaponised because of autonomous drones and battlefield robots; 56 nations are developing battlefield robots right now.” In the view of Barrat, and the aforementioned institutes, now is our only chance to stop AI getting out of control. “The dystopians like me still believe there’s hope. We’re not complete Luddites, we think there may be ways to mitigate the danger, and part of it is educating people,” Barrat says. “I’m not 100 per cent convinced that we will be destroyed by this technology, I think we have a window now that we’ll never have again, to do hard work, to fight for friendly AI, for transparency, to support organisations that are looking hard at this technology. And be sceptical about what you’re being told.” “Our only chance to control the AI is before it is created.” University of Oxford Professor Nick Bostrom, author of the AI book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies and head of the Future of Humanity Institute, agrees that our only chance to control the AI is before it is created. “If humanity were sane, if we had our global coordination act together, we would work hard on these control problems, and we would not develop AI until we had solved them. Once we thought we had a solution, maybe we would wait another generation or two, just to give time to double check the solution, maybe post enormous incentives for people to poke holes in it. And when we finally had convinced ourselves that we had done everything we could to verify that it would work, then we would launch the AI and live happily ever after.” Control problem Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely that mankind will ever work in a truly coordinated fashion, “rather, people will rush forward and try to do it as soon as possible. So there is this race on between efforts to develop AI and efforts to develop a solution to how to make it safe. “What’s saved us so far is that it turns out it’s really hard to build AI with the same general intelligence that we have; we’re kind of counting on that continuing for a while, to give us enough time to a) work out a solution to the control problem and b) to persuade a larger fraction of the practitioners in the field of the importance of solving the control problem, so that when, finally, some product actually looks like they are on the verge of succeeding, there will be both an understanding of something needing to be done and the tools and principles to do it. “If [AGI] happened right now it would look pretty bleak, we would have to more or less rely on being lucky and the problems somehow turning out to be far easier than they looks.” One of the arguments raised by those hoping for better control of AI is government regulation, but Bostrom believes more work needs to be done to get to that stage. “At the moment, I don’t really see any real way in which government regulation could make a helpful contribution here. I think there needs to be a lot more groundwork, in terms of bringing an understanding of what the problem is and doing some basic science there. “The ultimate role for regulation I see here though, is not that we’d forever have a regulatory regime that would prevent AI from being built, or forever prevent a dangerous AI. It’s more that it would be in place for the first phase of this, until we have developed some mature friendly superintelligence who could then help us police against any other attempts to create unfriendly AI. So it seems important to get the first wave right, and then we can, to some extent, delegate the subsequent problems to these superintelligent minds.” Voss, on the other hand, does not see the need for such safeguards. “The scary stories that are being pushed by places like MIRI – are they plausible? Some of their arguments are so incredibly weak and poor that I’m really surprised that so many smart people are falling for them… It puzzles me.” And, even if Voss thought we needed safeguards, he disagrees that they would be practical, or realistically possible. “I think any safeguards are going to rely on human psychology, and human psychology isn’t safe… it would be incredibly hard for any researcher or company owning an AI to abandon their project. AGI is not going to happen overnight; there will be many AGIs with IQs of 80 or 90 for many months or years. “It’s going to sort of creep up on us – we’re going to be using these early AGI designs and they’re going to get better and better all the time. That’s going to be the period where one has some understanding of the dynamics of it, and hopefully can guide the application of AGI. I think the best we can do is be at the forefront, be rational, try and understand the dynamics as they evolve in the early stages.” Putting a leash on AI The simple fact is that the question of control over an intelligence substantially greater than our own is a difficult one to answer. For example, AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky created an experiment where he, assuming the role of an AI, had to convince someone to release the AI from a controlled box and unleash it onto the internet as a whole. Each time he ran the experiment, he was able to achieve this, and that was with human intelligence. The view of many who cite this experiment is that a superintelligent AGI will inevitably be able to trick or convince its way out of any enclosure. Voss concurs: “I think it’s been pretty well demonstrated that an AGI that is smart enough to cause real damage will be smart enough to persuade people to let it roam free.” If machines don’t overthrow us, convert us into computers, or force us to sign up to Google+, we may reach the technological utopia that AI researchers dream of. Despite not believing in these safeguards, Voss is hesitant to say that AGI will always be friendly, as it depends on who designs it. Military AI, or one created by a corporation for short term gain, could cause harm. The safest way, he says, is to make the AI generally available. “Yes there is a risk, but to say that it will inevitably end in tears, that’s very sad because I hope it won’t lead to a backlash and prevent people moving forward on it.” If we’re lucky, if machines don’t overthrow us, convert us into computers, or force us to sign up to Google+, we may reach the technological utopia that AI researchers dream of. We may live indefinitely, in total luxury, all thanks to a machine vastly more intelligent than us. And for this to happen, we have to give up control. Intelligence explosion It’s a point Barrat and Voss both agree upon, except both view the outcome in different lights. Barrat believes that “we offload more and more of our cognitive abilities now. And it’s great. [But] we’re still in the honeymoon period. I see us gradually ceding power and volition until some point where there’s an intelligence explosion. And then we won’t really have a choice any more; I think it’ll be kind of a bummer.” Voss, meanwhile, is more excited for this future, envisioning a Siri-like personal assistant, but “way more powerful and much more personalised; It’ll be like people who have been married for a long time where, after a while you basically don’t know whose idea something was, because you’ll be consulting your personal assistant all the time for things and bouncing ideas off of it. So, after a while, you won’t know if it was your decision or your idea or your AGI’s. “Initially one per cent of your decisions and memories are external in the personal assistant and, over the years, that becomes twenty per cent, thirty per cent; what if it becomes ninety per cent, and only ten per cent of thinking actually happens in your biological brain? Ninety per cent of your thinking and personality is in the external brain. “That way we’ve really upgraded our intelligence, but the self has either moved into the device, or it’s one and the same. It’s a bit intimidating and scary, that thought, but that’s going to happen and I think it’s desirable.” Voss’ notions may seem startling to many, but the issue is, in his view, just a matter of perception. “We still see it as an ‘us and them’, the ‘iPhone glued to my ear’, but it will truly be an expansion of the self… We won’t be ourselves without the AGI assistant.” So, should AGI become a reality, we will have two possible futures, one where we are wiped out, another where our individuality, self determination and independence has been all but eroded, offloaded onto a greater being. In either circumstance, it’s hard not to think that humanity as we know it is going to become a very different thing entirely. Illustration by Ida Amanda Ahopelto

This was an ugly one. For some reason, the Raiders just can't beat the Dolphins. They have particular trouble in Miami but it's just an overall block that has lasted over a decade. This meeting and the last were blowouts too. No hard fought contests here. Just old fashioned butt whoopin', plain and simple. Some like to point to the heat and humidity in Miami and the Raiders having to wear their black uniforms in it. Others point to the East coast trip with which West coast teams typically have a disadvantage. There may very well have been both of those factors at play in this game. One thing was for certain, the Raider flat ran out of gas by the fourth quarter. The game was still in reach at at the beginning of the fourth. It was 13-21 which is just a one score difference. Then the Dolphins scored touchdowns on their next two possessions and literally ran away with it. There was so much blame to go around, it was hard to find anyone who deserved any credit. Some writers might even just stamp the Buster label on the whole team and move on. Perhaps out of laziness or disappointment. But that wouldn't be fair. Sure, it means my night is longer but so be it. Here are those who deserve a pat on the back and those who deserve a kick in the ass. Ballers Brandon Myers He was the Raiders leading receiver which is a refreshing change after week one when it was a running back who took home the "honor". Although Myers did have the longest reception last week (23 yards). He caught six passes and most of them saw him as a wide open target for Carson Palmer. He finished with 86 yards receiving on the day with his longest going for 21 yards. Mike Goodson In an offense which features Darren McFadden as much as this one, Goodson gets very limited touches. He saw the ball four times in this game and one of those touches was a big one. McFadden left the game for a play after being poked in the eye and Goodson entered to spell him. They called his number and he came out of the backfield, caught a pass five yards behind the line of scrimmage and raced 64 yards for the touchdown. McFadden, SchmcFadden. Honorable Mention Darrius Heyward-Bey He caught four passes for 41 yards including pulling down a high pass from Palmer for a 19 yard gain. Where he earned a mention here was the block he laid downfield to help spring Goodson for his 64 yard touchdown. Continue to the BUSTERS Follow me on Twitter @LeviDamien or befriend me on facebook.

Hurtful, snide criticism by the Simon Cowells of the world. Losing; losing competitions, losing recording contracts if sales aren't up to snuff; and public rejection for everyone to see, perhaps with TV cameras trained on their faces as someone else's name is announced as the winner, following the trail of tears rolling down their cheeks. Losing an election for class president is a valuable experience; losing a damn singing contest on TV at a young age is traumatic. Being regarded as a freak by other children their own age The pressure of doing what they're doing so as not to disappoint the adults in their lives: ambitious parents, the teacher who may be fixated on the vicarious thrill of a student's success; adults with whom they spend most of their time interacting instead of with their chronological peers. I know there are highly-educated, well-intended private voice teachers out there in your community who "specialize" in the vocal training of children and likely come with any number of glowing endorsements and recommendations. Here's my recommendation: if your ten year old daughter has a nice voice, do her a favor and let her take piano or guitar lessons. Then she'll have the solid musical foundation and musicianship skills that will pay dividends when she reaches the age Mother Nature intended for serious vocal study to begin. If that highly educated private teacher gives her simple songs to sing with a modest range, asking her to perform only in studio recitals, you may just scrape by without doing permanent damage. I mean, what's your hurry, anyway? Children sing in church, home and school. Leave the stage and the recording studio to the big bad grownups. Thanks. My new book The Opera Zoo: Singers, Composers and Other Primates is now available from Kendall Hunt Publishing. Order online at www.kendallhunt.com/operazoo or by phone from the Customer Service line at 1-800-344-9034 ext.3020.

Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world A 23-year-old has been found guilty of killing a genderfluid teenager in a brutal, premeditated attack. Jorge “Lumni” Sanders-Galvez kidnapped, suffocated and murdered 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson after he and his cousin discovered that the teenager was non-binary. He will be sentenced next month, but faces mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole. His cousin, Jaron Purham, is in the process of being tried separately for the same crime of first-degree murder. Kedarie, who did not identify as trans, enjoyed dressing in women’s clothes and sometimes went by the name Kandicee. They were found dead in an alley last year, with two bullet holes in their chest and a garbage bag wrapped around their head. Bleach had been poured on the teen’s body in an attempt to destroy the evidence, investigators said. The case was investigated by Donald Trump’s Department of Justice as a hate crime, per the orders of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Civil rights attorney Christopher J. Perras, parachuted in by the government to help with the investigation, said Sanders-Galvez and Purham had thought Kedarie was an attractive girl. He said the teenager – “a friendly high school student with a bright future” – was wearing a pink headband, women’s leggings and hair extensions when the two men saw them. The cousins followed Kedarie, then took them to a home in the small Iowan city of Burlington. During a sexual encounter, they discovered Kedarie was biologically male, the prosecutor said. The court heard that the men became “enraged,” stuffing a plastic bag down Kedarie’s throat and tightly covering their mouth with a ripped T-shirt. The cousins then shot Kedarie to death and dumped their body in the alley, the court was told. After the verdict was read out, the victim’s mother, Katrina Johnson, brought her hands to her face and cried silently, according to The Des Moines Register. As she walked away from the courtroom, down the hallway, she could be heard saying: “Justice was served for my baby.” Johnson’s mother Katrina has said while she “loved” that the government had intervened, “it shouldn’t have taken for a child to lose his life, and for everybody to think it was a hate crime, for them to step up and do something”. The move by Sessions to send a US Attorney seems on the face of it to be a complete u-turn, considering that he has taken multiple steps to damage the LGBT community. Two weeks ago, it was found that the Attorney General has been working with an anti-LGBT hate group. Sessions, a hardline opponent of LGBT rights, has worked over the past monthto undermine protections for LGBT people across the federal government, in a series of decisions reversing Obama administration guidance. He issued a directive protecting “the right to perform or abstain from performing certain physical acts in accordance with one’s beliefs”, granting an unlimited license to discriminate against LGBT people based on religion. Under his leadership, the Justice Department has rolled back civil rights protections for transgender people, and has also made an uninvited intervention into a discrimination case this year to argue against discrimination protections for gay employees. And it emerged that his actions were taken after extensive consultation with Alliance Defending Freedom. This listed anti-LGBT hate group has repeatedly lobbied to undermine LGBT rights across the US. But Sessions has consistently cracked down on hatred against the LGBT community – as long as it’s in the form of crime. In a speech at June’s 2017 Hate Crime summit, Sessions said he would “continue to enforce hate crime laws aggressively and appropriately where (transgender) individuals are victims.”

CANOGA PARK >> When summer heat rippled through her asphalt neighborhood last year, Maria Jimenez and her three young children sweated in their bottom floor apartment with the AC off to save cash. But during one of the worst heat waves ever to hit Southern California this week, the Canoga Park family say they felt much better thanks to the first “cool pavement” street in the state. “It’s cooler,” said Jimenez, whose two daughters translated her Spanish comments outside their Jordon Villa apartment, where they’d set up a portable pool in temperatures that reached a high this week at 104 degrees. “The heat is not so bad. “Last year, it was horrible.” It was late last month that Los Angeles, led by Los Angeles City Councilman Bob Blumenfield of the ultra hot southwest San Fernando Valley, launched an experiment in what could become L.A. cool. • Related story: ‘Cool pavement’ to cut urban street heat gets first California tryout in Canoga Park A light gray seal was splotched across a blistering half-block stretch of Jordan Avenue. Since then, the battleship-gray reflective street surfaces have been added to short blocks in Arleta, Northridge and Hyde Park. Two more are slated to be laid down today in west Los Angeles, among 15 pilot projects across the city. Their goal, city officials say, is to cut road temperatures, cool the insides of nearby buildings, lessen air pollution and reduce the threat of deaths linked to increasingly hotter heat waves. If successful, the CoolSeal coating invented by GuardTop LLC could be added to thousands of miles of pending Los Angeles road upgrades. In a city whose summer temperatures have risen an average 10 degrees in the past century because of miles of asphalt, parking lots, roofs and more, officials say the reflective roadways may help dial down an urban oven expected to be made hotter by climate change. The gray streets could cost between $25,000 and $40,000 per mile and last five to seven years — a cost subject to change pending product and pavement innovation, city and GuardTop officials say. After a week of roasting heat, three officials swooped down late this week to test the narrow street north of the Los Angeles River lined with two-story apartment buildings. By coincidence, each arrived separately after the sun peaked Thursday to gauge the effectiveness of the coating applied May 20. Patrick Carrigan, an assistant engineer for General Services, pointed a handheld laser thermometer at the gray surface darkened by a month of road grime. It read 138 degrees. He then aimed it at the unpainted crossroad at Hart Street and Jordan Avenue. “See look at that: 149 degrees, an 11-degree difference,” said Carrigan, on his second visit to Jordan Avenue, which he tested in addition to the three other reflective road sites. “The total average spread is about a 10-degree difference between black-to-gray.” Blumenfield got similar results, as did a GuardTop executive who dropped by later with another handheld thermometer. Each recorded slightly higher temperatures toward the middle of the gray-painted street stained dark by tires and other road residue. Two years ago, the councilman had passed a motion to test a new cool pavement that, with more trees and reflective rooftop solar panels, he thought could counter longer and extreme heat waves. After rigorous testing of the CoolSeal coating for durability and wet skid potential, it was first applied at a Sepulveda Basin parking lot. Summer surface temperatures fell from 20 to 25 degrees. “It’s great,” said Blumenfield, a former state assemblyman who arrived in a gray suit, blue shirt and fuschia tie. “It’s forward-thinking … it’s a vision for a cooler San Fernando Valley, Canoga Park and Los Angeles. “It means health … life and death for people. It’s not an academic exercise. If we lowered the temperature in this community, it would mean cost savings for everyone inside and out.” Among the rows of aging apartments with names like Jordan Villa, Jordan Casa and Jordan Terrace flanked by blooming magnolias or the occasional palm, residents said they already felt the cool. “Now, it’s a few degrees cooler,” Jimenez said of her apartment. “We like it. If it wasn’t for this street, the heat wave would make my apartment hotter.” “I feel a slight difference on the street and inside my apartment,” said Priscilla Corleto, 24, walking Gatsby, her small white Shih Tzu. “Without the AC, it seems cooler. “It’s good. I like it. I think it’s a success.”

Type Digital, AF/AE single-lens reflex, camera with built-in flash Recording Media SD/SDHC/SDXC card, via external media (USB v.2.0 hard drive, or via Wireless LAN (Eye-Fi card*)) *Canon cameras are not guaranteed to support Eye-Fi card functions, including wireless transfer. In case of an issue with the Eye-Fi card, please consult with the card manufacturer. The use of Eye-Fi cards may not be approved in all regions, or from one region to another; please contact the card manufacturer for status of approval in the country/region of use. Image Format 22.3 x 14.9 mm (APS-C size) Compatible Lenses Canon EF lenses including EF-S lenses (35mm-equivalent focal length is approx.1.6x the lens focal length) Lens Mount Canon EF mount Image Sensor Type High-sensitivity, high-resolution, large single-plate CMOS sensor Pixels Effective pixels: Approx. 18.0 megapixels Total Pixels Total pixels: Approx. 18.70 megapixels Aspect Ratio 3:2 (Horizontal : Vertical) Color Filter System RGB primary color filters Low Pass Filter Fixed position in front of the CMOS sensor Dust Deletion Feature (1) Automatic Sensor Cleaning Removes dust adhering to the low-pass filter. Self-cleaning executed automatically (taking 2 sec.) when power is turned on or off. Manual execution also possible (taking 5 sec.). Low-pass filter has a fluorine coating. The coordinates of the dust adhering to the low-pass filter are detected by a test shot and appended to subsequent images. The dust coordinate data appended to the image is used by the provided software to automatically erase the dust spots. Recording System (2) Dust Delete Data appended to the captured image(3) Manual cleaning of sensor Recording Format Design rule for Camera File System 2.0 and 2.30 File Size (1) Large: Approx. 17.90 Megapixels (5,184 x 3,456) (2) Medium: Approx. 8.00 Megapixels (3,456 x 2,304) (3) Small: Approx. 4.50 Megapixels (2,592 x 1,728) (4) S2: Approx. 2.50 Megapixels (1,920 x 1,280) (5) S3: Approx. 0.35 Megapixels (720 x 480) (6) RAW: Approx. 17.90 Megapixels (5,184 x 3,456) Exact file sizes depend on the subject, ISO speed, Picture Style, etc. Recording Functions Images record directly to the SD card. File Numbering Consecutive numbering, auto reset, manual reset. RAW + JPEG Simultaneous Recording RAW and Large JPEG images are recorded simultaneously Color Space sRGB, Adobe RGB Picture Style Auto, Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, User Defined 1-3 White Balance Settings Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten Light, White Fluorescent Light, Flash, Custom Auto White Balance Auto white balance with the image sensor Color Temperature Compensation White balance correction: Blue/amber bias: ±9 levels Magenta/green bias: ±9 levels ±3 levels, in single-level increments White balance bracketing: Color Temperature Information Transmission Provided Viewfinder Type Eye-level SLR (with fixed pentamirror) Coverage Vertical/Horizontal approx. 95% (TD) Magnification Approx. 0.85x / 23.8° (with 50mm lens at infinity, -1 m-1 (dpt)) Eye Point Approx. 19 mm (At -1m-1 from the eyepiece lens center) Dioptric Adjustment Correction Adjustable from approx. -3.0 to +1.0 m-1 (dpt) Focusing Screen Fixed Mirror Quick-return half mirror (transmittance: reflectance ratio of 40:60) Viewfinder Information 1) AF information (AF points, focus confirmation light) 2) Exposure information (Shutter speed, aperture, ISO speed, AE lock, exposure level, spot metering circle, exposure warning) 3) Flash information (Flash ready, flash exposure compensation, high-speed sync, FE lock, red-eye reduction light) 4) Image information (Highlight tone priority, Monochrome shooting, maximum burst, white balance correction, SD card information) 5) Composition information (Grid, electronic level) 6) Battery check Depth Of Field Preview Enabled with depth-of-field preview button Autofocus Type TTL-CT-SIR AF-dedicated CMOS sensor AF Points 9 points (Center AF point is AF cross-type at f/5.6, Center AF point is vertical line-sensitive at f/2.8.) AF Working Range EV -0.5 - 18 (at 23°C/73°F and ISO 100, based on Canon's testing standards) Focusing Modes (1) Autofocus One-Shot AF Predictive AI Servo AF AI Focus AF (2) Manual focus (MF) AF Point Selection (1) Manual selection (2) Auto selection * Automatically set (2) in Basic Zone modes and A-DEP mode. Selected AF Point Display Indicated by superimposed display in the viewfinder and on the LCD monitor AF Assist Beam (1) Intermittent firing of built-in flash (2) Effective range: Approx. 4 m/13.1 ft at center, approx. 3.5 m/11.5 ft at periphery * With an EOS-dedicated Speedlite attached, the Speedlite's AF-assist beam is emitted instead. * Compatible with assist-beam (intermittent firing) of 320EX, 270EX II and 270EX flashes. Exposure Control Metering Modes TTL maximum aperture metering with 63-zone metering sensor Evaluative metering (linkable to all AF points) Partial metering (center, approx. 9% of viewfinder at center) Spot metering (center, approx. 4% of viewfinder at center) Center-weighted average metering Metering Range EV 1.0 - EV 20.0 (at 73°F/23°C with EF50mm f/1.4 USM lens, ISO 100) Exposure Control Systems Program AE (Shiftable), Shutter-priority AE, Aperture-priority AE, Manual exposure, Automatic depth-of-field, Scene Intelligent Auto, Flash Off, Creative Auto, Programmed Image Control modes, E-TTL II autoflash program AE ISO Speed Range Auto, ISO 100 - 6400 (in whole-stop increments), H: 12800 Exposure Compensation Manual: ±5 stops in 1/3- or 1/2-stop increments (AEB ±2 stops) * Indicated up to ±3 stops in the viewfinder. AE Lock Auto: Applied in One-Shot AF mode with evaluative metering when focus is achieved Manual: By AE lock button Shutter Type Vertical-travel, mechanical, focal-plane shutter with all speeds electronically controlled. Shutter Speeds 1/4000 to 1/60 sec., X-sync at 1/200 sec. 1/4000 to 30 sec., Bulb (Total shutter speed range. Available range varies by shooting mode.) Settable in 1/3- or 1/2-stop increments. Shutter Release Soft-touch electromagnetic release Self Timer 10-sec. or 2-sec. delay Remote Control (1) The EOS Rebel T3i has a remote control terminal for Remote Switch RS-60E3. (2) Compatible with Remote Controller RC-6, RC-1 and RC-5. Built in Flash Type Auto pop-up, retractable, built-in flash in the pentaprism Flash Metering System E-TTL II autoflash Guide Number Approx. 13/43 (at ISO 100 in meters/feet) Recycling Time Approx. 3 sec. Flash Ready Indicator Flash-ready icon lights in viewfinder Flash Coverage Up to 17mm focal length (equivalent to approx. 28mm in 135 format) FE Lock Provided Flash Exposure Compensation Up to ±2 stops in 1/3- or 1/2-stop increments Flash exposure compensation for built-in flash and Speedlite can be set with the camera. External Speedlite Flash Metering E-TTL II autoflash Flash Exposure Compensation ±2 stops in 1/3-stop or 1/2-stop increments FE Lock Provided Drive System Drive Modes Single, Continuous, 10-sec. self-timer/Remote control, 2-sec. self-timer, Continuous shooting after 10-sec. self-timer Continuous Shooting Speed Max. approx. 3.7 fps [TD] (with One-Shot AF or AI SERVO AF) * Same as with Battery Grip BG-E8 loaded with size-AA/LR6 alkaline batteries. Maximum Burst JPEG (Large/Fine): approx. 34 RAW: approx. 6 RAW+JPEG (Large/Fine): approx. 3 * The number of possible shots and maximum burst apply to a 4GB card based on Canon's testing standards. * The image file size, number of possible shots, and maximum burst will vary depending on the shooting conditions (3:2 aspect ratio, subject, memory card brand, ISO speed, Picture Style, Custom Functions, etc.). * "F" indicates that continuous shooting is possible until the card becomes full. Live View Functions Shooting Modes Still photo shooting and video shooting Focusing (1) Autofocus (Same as focusing with Live View shooting) Before shooting a movie, 1, 2, and 3 below are possible. AF during movie shooting is possible with [AF w/ shutter button during video]. When this is set to [Enable], 1 and 2 below are possible: A. Live mode B. Face detection Live mode C. Quick mode * If 3 has been set when you start shooting a movie, it will switch to 1 automatically. (2) Manual focusing * Magnify the image by about 5x or 10x and focus manually. * Magnified view not possible with digital zoom nor during movie shooting. Metering Modes (1) AF point-linked evaluative metering * Used when the AF mode is Face detection Live mode and a face has been detected. (2) Center-weighted average metering * Used during manual focus, when the AF mode is Face detection Live mode and a face has not been detected. Also used in the Live mode and Quick mode. * Metering range: EV 0 to EV 20 (At 23°C/73°F and ISO 100, with 50mm f/1.4 lens) Metering Range EV 0 to EV 20 (At 23°C/73°F and ISO 100, with 50mm f/1.4 lens) Grid Display Two grids provided (not displayed during movie shooting): (1) Grid 1: Pair of vertical and horizontal lines (2) Grid 2: 5 vertical and 3 horizontal lines Exposure Simulation Provided Silent Shooting Not provided Video Shooting File Format MOV (image data: H.264; audio: Linear PCM (monaural)) * Meta information is embedded in the MOV file (no separate THM file) File Size Recording Size: 1920 x 1080 (Full HD), 1280 x 720 (HD), 640 x 480 (SD) Movie-recording Size Total Recording Time File Size 8GB Card 16GB Card 1920x1080 30fps 22 min. 44 min. 330 MB/min. 25fps 24fps 1280x720 60fps 22 min. 22 min. 330 MB/min. 50fps 640x480 30fps 1 hr. 32 min. 3 hr. 4 min. 82.5 MB/min. 25fps * The file system limits the file size of a single movie clip to 4 GB. If the movie clip reaches 4 GB, the shooting will stop automatically. This translates to around 11 min. for 1920 x 1080 and 1280 x 720, and around 46 min. for 640 x 480. * Even if the file size of a single movie clip is within 4 GB, movie shooting will automatically terminate when the movie time reaches 29 min. 59 sec. Frame Rates 24, 25, 30, 50, or 60 fps (30 fps during magnified view) Focusing (1) Autofocus (Same as focusing with Live View shooting) Before shooting a movie, A, B, and C below are possible. AF during movie shooting is possible with [AF w/ shutter button during video]. When this is set to [Enable], A and B below are possible: A. Live mode B. Face detection Live mode C. Quick mode * If C has been set when you start shooting a movie, it will switch to A automatically. (2) Manual focusing * Magnify the image by about 5x or 10x and focus manually. * Magnified view not possible with digital zoom nor during movie shooting. Exposure Control Program AE for video shooting, Manual exposure Exposure Compensation ±3 stops in 1/3-stop increments LCD Monitor Type TFT color, liquid-crystal monitor Monitor Size 3.0 in. (Screen aspect ratio of 3:2) Pixels Approx. 1,040,000 dots Coverage Approx. 100% Viewing Angle: 170° Brightness Control Adjustable to one of seven brightness levels Interface Languages 25 (English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Romanian, Ukraine, Turkish, Arabic, Thai, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese) Playback Display Format (1) Single image display Single image, basic information, detailed information, histogram display 4-image index and 9-image index. 1/10/100 images, shooting date, by folder, movies, stills, rating (2) Index display(3) Jump display (Image jump w/ Main Dial) Highlight Alert On the detailed information and histogram displays, highlight areas with no image data will blink. Image Protection and Erase Protection Erase protection can be applied/canceled for a single image, all images in a folder, or all images in the card. Erase Erase single image, erase selected images, erase all images on folder, erase all images in a card, or erase only unprotected images. Direct Printing Compatible Printers PictBridge-compatible printers Printable Images JPEG images complying to Design rule for Camera File System RAW images printable. Movies cannot be printed. DPOF: Digital Print Order Format DPOF Version 1.1 compatible Customization Custom Functions 11 Custom Functions with 34 settings settable with the camera Camera User Settings Not provided Interface USB Terminal Hi-Speed USB-standard mini-B terminal for personal computer communications and PictBridge. Video Out Terminal (1) Video OUT terminal: NTSC/PAL selectable (2) mini-HDMI OUT terminal Power Source Battery Battery Pack LP-E8 x 1 * With the AC Adapter Kit ACK-E8, AC power is possible. * With BG-E8, two battery packs (LP-E8) can be used. Or six size-AA/LR6 batteries can be used. Battery Life 1) Camera body only: Shooting Method Temperature Shooting Conditions AE 100% AE 50%, FA 50% Viewfinder Shooting At 73°F/23°C Approx. 550 Approx. 440 At 32°F/0°C Approx. 470 Approx. 400 Live View Shooting At 73°F/23°C Approx. 200 Approx. 180 At 32°F/0°C Approx. 170 Approx. 150 2) With Battery Grip BG-E8: Shooting Method Battery Temperature Shooting Conditions AE 100% AE 50%, FA 50% Viewfinder Shooting LP-E8 x 1 Same as (1) LP-E8 x 2 At 73°F/23°C Approx. 1100 Approx. 880 At 32°F/0°C Approx. 940 Approx. 800 Size-AA/LR6 alkaline batteries At 73°F/23°C Approx. 470 Approx. 270 At 32°F/0°C Approx. 130 Approx. 80 Live View Shooting LP-E8 x 1 Same as (1) LP-E8 x 2 At 73°F/23°C Approx. 400 Approx. 360 At 32°F/0°C Approx. 340 Approx. 300 Size-AA/LR6 alkaline batteries At 73°F/23°C - - At 32°F/0°C - - The figures above are based on CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association) testing standards Battery Check Automatic battery level check when power is turned ON. Battery level indicated in one of four levels on LCD monitor. Power Saving Power turns off after the set time of non-operation elapses * [Auto power off] settable to 30 sec., 1 min., 2 min., 4 min., 8 min., or 15 min. Date/Time Battery Built-in secondary battery. When fully-charged, the date/time can be maintained for about three months. Start-up Time Approx. 0.1 sec. (Based on CIPA testing standards) Dimensions and Weight Dimensions (W x H x D) Approx. 5.2 x 3.9 x 3.1 in./133.1 x 99.5 x 79.7mm Weight Approx. 18.2 oz. / 515g (body only) Operating Environment Working Temperature Range 32-104°F/0-40°C Working Humidity Range 85% or less All data are based on Canon's Standard Test Method. Subject to change without notice. 
If a problem occurs with a non-Canon lens attached to the camera, consult the lens maker. Canon, DIGIC and EOS Rebel are registered trademarks of Canon Inc. in the United States and may also be registered trademarks or trademarks in other countries. Microsoft, Windows and Windows Vista are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Mac is a trademark of Apple, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. HDMI, the HDMI logo and High-Definition Multimedia Interface are registered trademarks or trademarks of HDMI Licensing, LLC in the United States and/or other countries. All other products and brand names are registered trademarks, trademarks or service marks of their respective owners in the United States and/or other countries.

Diving Related Career Opportunities As the famous saying goes, choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. Indeed, getting paid for doing something that you truly enjoy sounds great, so why not look for a diving job? Besides, there are so many different career paths within or related to the scuba industry that almost everyone can find a fitting option. Just think about it, you can become a diving instructor, a boat driver, or a repair technician, you can run a dive shop, blend gas mixtures or do deep sea research. The list of possible diving related career opportunities is long and distinguished, but it is important to note, that as exhilarating as it may sound, diving for a living requires a lot of hard work, dedication, skill and training. What’s more, there is a huge difference between enjoying a particular activity and being able to turn it into a thriving enterprise or career. So let us look more closely at the different types of diving related jobs and the things you will need to know in case you decide to pursue one of them. The very first thing you would need to fix upon is whether you’d like to work in the commercial/industrial sector, or in a recreational environment. Recreational Diving Opportunities Recreation is a large sector where most of the scuba job opportunities are. You can work nearly anywhere around the world, including a local dive center, a tropical island resort, a cruise ship or a private yacht. An instructor at a resort is considered to be the most glamorous of all scuba diving jobs. Many think of it as of never ending vacation, however, there is more to the job than meets the eye. Being an instructor is often physically and mentally demanding. You can be asked to lead a minimum of four dives per day, teach classes, as well as perform other tasks, such as filling tanks, loading, preparing, handing out and rinsing the gear, captaining a boat, repairing/maintaining scuba equipment, etc. Most importantly, though, you are also responsible for the safety of those, diving with you, and should any mishaps occur, you will be the first person to take a hit. Some other aspects to consider when looking for a job at a resort are accommodation options and work permit (if you are going to a foreign country). Here your marital status can play an important role. Some resorts may not be able to provide housing for employees with spouses or significant others. As for the work permit, you need to clarify who will be paying for it - you or your employer. You can also try yourself in the cruise industry. Many cruise ships have watersports programs with their own dive staff on board. An instructor in such watersports program is usually expected to do more than teach diving and snorkeling. Your duties on a cruise ship can also include interaction with passengers and work with the cruise director's staff. Thus an outgoing, friendly personality will be a big plus for this type of position. Being able to speak multiple languages will make you more employable on the cruise ship as well. Keep in mind, employees have to sign contracts which typically range from 6 to 12 months. You would work several months on board and then have a week or two off. Jobs on liveaboard dive boats are similar to those on cruise ships in that interacting with the guests is an essential part of the instructor’s duties. Employees are also expected to multi-task and often work long hours. The main difference is that liveaboards are usually smaller in size and more focused on diving. If you want to be a scuba instructor, but stay close to home, there is always an option to look for a job in the local dive center. In case there is a retail store at the center, you will have a chance to gain some business experience as well. Answering phones, doing inventory and ordering merchandise can seem like some pretty mundane tasks, but the skills and knowledge you will gain in the process will be invaluable if you decide to open your own business one day. Another benefit that many dive shops offer is free scuba diving trips for instructors. Normally, if a certain amount of divers sign up for the trip, instructors get to travel for free. The downside of the job is the necessity to work some nights and weekends to fit the schedule of the students. Commercial Diving Opportunities Commercial diving sector is much different from recreational diving, but also offers a plethora of wonderful job opportunities. You can get involved in underwater research, photography, working in the marine construction industry or in the field of marine conservation. You can also join the scuba team in the military or police. Although all of these jobs are very demanding and often require divers to work in different hostile environments, they do pay well for the risk. If you want to get a job in the commercial diving sector, you will definitely need to be qualified in more than just instruction. Excellent knowledge of decompression theory is a must; a good understanding of engineering, underwater surveying and welding will also be a plus. Finally, you have to be extremely physically fit and capable of working underwater for extended periods of time. Here are a few areas of commercial diving for you to explore: HAZMAT (hazardous materials) Diving . This is one of the most dangerous branches of the commercial diving industry. Typical work involves diving into raw sewage or dangerous chemicals, such as paper pulp, liquid cement, or oil sludge. All HAZMAT divers need to go through intensive training, learning about specialized commercial dive gear, different safety and decontamination procedures, etc. . This is one of the most dangerous branches of the commercial diving industry. Typical work involves diving into raw sewage or dangerous chemicals, such as paper pulp, liquid cement, or oil sludge. All HAZMAT divers need to go through intensive training, learning about specialized commercial dive gear, different safety and decontamination procedures, etc. Marine Construction and Deep Sea Research. This type of job involves exploration duties to collect data for research purposes. Research divers can also work with underwater engineers to build different underwater structures. This type of job involves exploration duties to collect data for research purposes. Research divers can also work with underwater engineers to build different underwater structures. Offshore Oil Exploration. The duties of offshore oil exploration divers normally include general and specialized surveying, building, maintaining and repair of platforms, underwater structures and equipment used in offshore oil and gas production, as well as testing for different structural faults in underwater systems. This job is one of the best paid in the industry. The duties of offshore oil exploration divers normally include general and specialized surveying, building, maintaining and repair of platforms, underwater structures and equipment used in offshore oil and gas production, as well as testing for different structural faults in underwater systems. This job is one of the best paid in the industry. Underwater Engineering. Engineer divers normally perform inspection and maintenance projects on different underwater structures. They can also plan demolitions, construct models or even take part in offshore drilling operations. Some of such operations can take place in underwater hazardous environments, and, thus, require appropriate training. Engineer divers normally perform inspection and maintenance projects on different underwater structures. They can also plan demolitions, construct models or even take part in offshore drilling operations. Some of such operations can take place in underwater hazardous environments, and, thus, require appropriate training. Underwater Photography and Entertainment. This is one of the more enjoyable and creative forms of commercial diving. These professional divers can take underwater pictures, film or perform stunts. In addition to being good divers and having great photography skills, underwater photographers need to understand the behaviour of their subjects, and be able to work with different weather. This is one of the more enjoyable and creative forms of commercial diving. These professional divers can take underwater pictures, film or perform stunts. In addition to being good divers and having great photography skills, underwater photographers need to understand the behaviour of their subjects, and be able to work with different weather. Military Diving. Military diving is for military personnel. This is an elite classification that entails extremely high risks and responsibilities. The process required to become this type of diver is quite tough. The duties of military divers include combat and demolition missions, underwater reconnaissance, ordnance disposal, construction, ship maintenance, search and rescue, salvage operations, saturation diving and underwater engineering. Military diving is for military personnel. This is an elite classification that entails extremely high risks and responsibilities. The process required to become this type of diver is quite tough. The duties of military divers include combat and demolition missions, underwater reconnaissance, ordnance disposal, construction, ship maintenance, search and rescue, salvage operations, saturation diving and underwater engineering. Public Safety Diving. Public safety divers provide emergency, rescue and investigative services, such as collecting evidence or performing recovery missions. They can be members of police departments (full-time divers or general water police officers), sheriffs offices, fire rescue agencies or search and rescue teams. Dive Shop / Dive Operator If you are more of a manager, but still want diving to be a part of your career, you can run a dive shop or become a dive operator. You can start with getting a job in a local dive center. Dive shops often hire certified divers to work in the retail portion. Besides sales, you may be assigned such tasks as renting equipment, filling tanks and repairing gear. You can even work up to opening your own dive center. Remember though, retail management is a difficult task that takes time and effort to learn and do well. Diving experience alone is not enough to run an independent business, you will also need to take care of legal issues, marketing, hiring personnel, etc. Diving Job Resources If you decide that a diving related career is something that you really want to pursue, it may be time to start looking for those job listings. In diving, one of the most effective ways to land the job you want is through networking. Many positions are filled by word of mouth and aren't even listed. So, go to your local dive shop, call your instructor, talk to your dive buddies, etc. and ask whether they know of any open positions in the area of your interest. If this is not an option for you, try searching on some online resources. Here are a few websites you may find useful: If you want to become a commercial diver, but lack training or experience, here are a few well known commercial diving schools: You may also want to read:

Not only is CJ Morgan a fine radioman but he is also known for being Austin's premier Wienerman. Everywhere hegoes, his wiener tags along. Miles is a nine year-old dachshund that CJ has had since 2007. Like many dachshunds, Miles fell victim to intervertebral disc disease. In 2011, his disc rupture unexpectedly while sunbathing outside. He was rushed to a nearby vet who performed emergency surgery. Though the procedure saved his life, it left Miles without use of his back legs. Miles still deals with a number of medical issues but for the most part lives a happy life, enjoys treats, coming to work with his father and playing with friends. Many listeners have inquired as to how they can help Miles but CJ has instead asked you raise awareness for and donate money to the Central Texas Dachshund Rescue at ctdr.org. If you see Miles out and about feel free say hello, just be warned that he occasionally bites!

Lance Armstrong's kids were dressed in yellow. He was not. When the seven-time Tour de France champion returned to the Tour podium Sunday, his family was there. His fans were there. And so was rival and teammate Alberto Contador — wearing the coveted and hard-won yellow jersey. Four years after his seventh Tour win, Armstrong capped his return with an impressive third-place finish. He had his clan on hand — son Luke, twin girls Grace and Isabelle, his mom, Linda, ex-wife, Kristin, and his girlfriend Anna Hansen, with their baby Max, sporting bright yellow shoes. They were among the massive crowd that poured out onto Paris' most famous avenue for the finish — Norwegians in Viking helmets, flag-waving Britons and an American in a stars-and-stripes top hat among them. Contador cruised down the Champs-Elysees to win the Tour for a second time Sunday after 2,141 miles over three weeks of racing. He repelled challenges in the mountains, excelled in the two time-trials — winning a pivotal race against the clock in the 18th stage — and won the first Alpine stage. Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, Contador's toughest rival in the mountains, was second overall. Contador said his biggest battle, however, was against his own Astana team. "It has been an especially difficult Tour for me, but I savor it and it is more special because of it," he said after the prize ceremony. The body language on the winner's podium said it all. As the 37-year-old Armstrong climbed onto the stage, he gave a perfunctory handshake to his teammate Contador, then heartily grabbed Schleck's hand with both hands. And as Contador took the victor's bowl, Armstrong cast a long sideways glance at what had long been his spoils; he gave only a cursory glance to his own crystal trophy. Asked on French TV what the hardest moment in this race, Contador replied: "It was in the (team) hotel," without elaborating. Only 26 years old, Contador already is one of cycling's greats, having won all three Grand Tours of France, Italy and Spain. Armstrong's comeback after 3½ years of retirement raised questions about who would lead Astana during cycling's most prestigious race. Those questions remained through much of the Tour as tensions mounted over who was the No. 1 rider. On Sunday, Armstrong and Contador shared glasses of champagne on the ride into Paris. But it seemed to be more about keeping up appearances than a genuine celebration: After a few sips, they tossed away their glasses, half-drunk. "I'm realistic, I did everything I could," Armstrong said before the final stage. "For me, and even more for my kids, it's probably a healthy thing for them to see, because they saw their dad that never lost, and the kids in their class (say) 'your dad never loses,' so it's good for them to see dad get third and still be cool with that and still be happy." By the end of the race, Armstrong, who admitted his form wasn't the best, was talking less of squabbling within Astana and more about Contador's greatness as a rider. Like cancer survivor Armstrong, Contador has rebounded from a brush with death. After persistent headaches, Contador fell in the first stage of the 2004 Vuelta a Asturias race, went to hospital and learned he had a congenital cerebral vascular disorder, cavernoma. Eight months after the surgery, he won the fifth stage of the 2005 Tour Down Under. Today the only reminder of that scare is a large scar running down the side of his head. With Contador's victory Sunday, the Tour has been won by a Spaniard for four straight years — Oscar Pereiro in 2006, Contador and Carlos Sastre last year. Despite the tension, Contador said he was more at ease in this year's Tour than in 2007. Four days from that finish, then race leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was sent home for lying about his whereabouts during pre-Tour doping controls. For the first time since 2000, the Tour got through three weeks with no positive doping cases. But the leader of France's anti-doping agency says not all results are in, and more tests still could be carried out in the weeks, months or even years to come. Contador, who had to sit out last year because Astana was banned because of previous doping scandals, finished in 85 hours, 48 minutes, 35 seconds. The race looped from Monaco, across the Mediterranean rim into Spain, up the Pyrenees, diagonally across central and northeastern France to the Alps, and then down to Saturday's race climax on the dreaded Mont Ventoux in southeast France before the Paris finish. Schleck was 4:11 seconds behind. Armstrong was 5:24 back. After three straight Tours decided by less than a minute between first and second place, Contador's margin of victory was the largest since Armstrong collected his last title in 2005. And Armstrong was the second-oldest rider to reach the Tour podium. Raymond Poulidor of France was 40 he placed third in 1976. The 24-year-old Schleck won the white jersey awarded to the Tour's best young rider. Franco Pellizotti of Italy picked up the polka-dot jersey given to the race's King of the Mountains. And Thor Hushovd of Norway beat the 24-year-old Briton rider Mark Cavendish for the green jersey given to the Tour's best Tour sprinter. Cavendish collected his sixth stage win of this year's Tour in a sprint after the 101.9-mile course ride from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to the Champs-Elysees to become the first rider to win six Tour stages in a sprint. He made it look easy, winning by several bike lengths in the last mad dash, trailed in second by his own lead-out man on the Columbia team, Mark Renshaw. Tyler Farrar of the United States was third. "For sure, winning on the Champs-Elysees is a dream for every single sprinter — to see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance," Cavendish said. "I can't go home from this Tour being disappointed." Neither did Contador, who's already trying to figure out how to win a third Tour. Armstrong's future is set. He'll lead a new squad sponsored by RadioShack. Contador's plans, however, are uncertain. Astana likely will welcome back Alexandre Vinokourov, its fallen former star, after a doping ban. Whether Astana will still have room for Contador, and whether the Spaniard will want to team with Vinokourov, is unknown. What's very clear is Armstrong and Contador already are relishing the chance to face off again next year, freed of the need to paper over the obvious cracks in their relationship. "We are totally incompatible," Contador said. "In the end, Armstrong will go his way, and I'll go mine."

Look away too quickly, and you could mistake this cephalopod for a children’s toy. Last week, marine scientists aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus (E/V Nautilus) spotted a particularly cartoonish specimen off the coast of California – Rossia pacifica, otherwise known as the stubby squid. The discovery, which was broadcast live from Nautilus’ remotely operated Hercules submarine, could provide new insight into the googly-eyed species. And perhaps more importantly, it could also support the research that doesn’t trend so well on social media. The small, mucus-covered stubby squid is not actually a true squid, but rather part of a separate group called bobtail squids. These cephalopods are thought to be more closely related to cuttlefish, but that notion has been debated in recent years. Stubby squids, which grow to be about 2-1/2 inches long, are actually rather common in Northern Pacific waters. They spend much of their time feeding on shrimp in relatively shallow waters, averaging about 1,000 feet below the surface. So researchers were surprised to find a living individual some 2,000 feet deeper. “Encountering this individual significantly adds to what we know about the species, because we now have a record of how deep they can live,” says Stephanie Bush, a postdoctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, in an email to The Christian Science Monitor. “Rossia pacifica spend much of their time buried in the sand or mud, so the fact that the ROV Hercules spotted this animal is a really rare and important find.” The Nautilus crew broadcasts many of its dives – not just for the benefit of amateur scientists and hobbyists, but for researchers back on shore. This network of marine scientists can communicate with the Nautilus team as consultants to new discoveries. In July, a mysterious globular organism was found during a live broadcast. Less than two weeks later, viewers watched from home as scientists discovered a natural whale fall (the carcass of a whale) off the Southern California coast. “You can’t really put very many scientists on-board a ship,” says Michael Vecchione, an invertebrate zoologist with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, in a phone interview with the Monitor. “And when you get into deep water, you need a lot of different types of expertise.” The Nautilus itself is home to a rotating cast of biologists, geologists and archaeologists, all pursuing separate lines of research. Brad Seibel, a professor of biological oceanography at the University of South Florida, has seen the less glamorous side of Nautilus research. During his tenure on the ship, he studied the physiological reactions of marine animals to extreme environments, such as superheated undersea vents. But pop-science sells. So the public is transfixed by adorable mollusks and mysterious floating orbs while the weightier, if unsexy, research goes on in the background. But even though “cute animal” discoveries don’t always directly advance marine science, they can serve an important function. “They can justify the science and the exploration more by appealing to the public,” says Dr. Seibel in a phone interview with the Monitor. “Broadcasting 24 hours from the deep sea is an unusual and important outreach opportunity.” Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Given the precious little known about deep sea life, anything that gets the public excited about deep sea exploration is considered inherently valuable by marine scientists. And squishy, doe-eyed squids might just be the perfect animal for the job. “The public really likes cephalopods,” Dr. Vecchione says. “They like squids and octopods and things like that. It’s one of the types of animals that people seem to be attracted to and identify with, even though they’re fairly alien.”

Businessman from the beginning Lachy teaching a student some programming. Groom was the kid who opened a lemonade stand, started a dog-walking business and by the age of 11 was working with HTML and CSS coding. “My granddad actually taught me HTML, from there I learnt CSS and discovered these two languages were in high demand,” says Groom. It wasn’t long before Groom, who is mostly self-taught, began building websites and in 2008, at the age of 13, he founded his first start-up, PSDtoWP. Working for mostly US and European-based clients, Groom turned PhotoShop documents into web-friendly WordPress pages. Nine months into the project a larger consulting firm bought the company. Always on the hunt for the next great idea It wasn’t long until the Perth native set out on his next project. While on a holiday to Bali in 2011, Groom was reading the New York Times bestseller The 4-hour body. The book outlines a set of supplements dubbed PAGG (Policosanol, alpha-lipoic acid, green-eat extract and garlic) and set off a spark in Groom’s mind. “I got in touch with a manufacturer, set this site up within hours of reading the book,” he says. Within a month PAGGStack.com was produced and selling supplements to customers across the world. When the site was sold five months later in May, it was earning thousands of dollars in revenue every month. The serial entrepreneur’s next venture was so simple, Groom found its success amusing. “I’m a huge Apple fan, everything tech I own is Apple. I had a US friend ship in the latest iPad, took it to school, and pretty quickly a friend dropped it on concrete. Screen cracked. iPad destroyed,” says Groom. “I didn't have any projects on the go at this point in time, and my dad told me to set up a site to get some passive income going. So I did!” Groom quickly set up iPadCaseFinder.com in May 2010. It’s as simple as it sounds. With the aid of a filtering plug-in users are able to search through an array of iPad cases from different sellers and are then directed where to buy them. “All the outgoing links were affiliate links. Amazon pays generously. Within the first few weeks of launch we had 400,000 unique hits,” says Groom. Within a few months the business was yet again picked up and bought. This allowed Groom move onto his next project, which he still owns, Cardnap. Created in April 2011, Cardnap allows users to search for discounted gift cards as well as re-selling their own. The site is currently only available to the US. “I saw an opportunity to become a market place [for gift cards]. It did very well opening week. I still own this site, but may be looking to sell it soon so I can concentrate on getting to the US.” Aside from obvious technology purchases, Groom’s success has allowed him to indulge in trips to places such as London and San Francisco, where he is currently staying on a tourist visa, invest in shares, attend conferences and dine in some of the best restaurants San Francisco has to offer. Managing school and business One of Groom’s biggest fans is his former headmaster at Wesley College in Perth, David Gee. “I think he’s a great example of someone who has followed his passion, hasn’t let age be a barrier and hasn’t said ‘well I can’t do this because I’m 17’,” said Gee. Groom looks back fondly on his time at Wesley College but Gee admits it took a bit of negotiating to get him to complete Year 12. “Right from the beginning of Year 11 he had some clear pictures that school was something he had to do,” says Gee. “His parents obviously wanted him to focus on Year 11 and 12 and Lachy wanted to focus a bit more on the business side and I managed to mediate a common ground.” While Groom was no average student and was devoting a lot of his time to his businesses, Gee says once he made his decision to stay he embraced and engaged in the school’s community, becoming heavily involved in activities like the student council. “I’ve been a head for nine years and he’s one of those young men who will sit in my mind with a sense of admiration for the way that he did manage to do something that wasn’t the norm and wasn’t held back by others,’’ says Gee. “I’m pretty certain one day he’ll be teaching me how I can use technology to be more efficient.” The next step Groom hopes to take his talents to the home of technology start-ups – Silicon Valley. Unfortunately he faces an uphill battle to obtain a visa to work in the United States because of his age and lack of traditional qualifications. Groom completed high school in December last year and despite having obvious talent in the field of technology, he does not qualify for the primary visa used by specialty field immigrants in the US because he does not have a degree. A number of big companies have expressed an interest in Groom. He has been interviewed by big firms including Twitter and Zynga, as well as a number of other San Francisco start-ups. While he continues to garner a lot of interest Groom says the interview process falters because he does not have a work visa. “Various companies have said they'd love to have me - once I have legal work authorisation,” he says. Groom’s best chance of obtaining a working visa will be one based on extraordinary ability in his field. To this end he requires national or international acclaim, usually gained through awards and prizes, which he has neither entered nor won. Despite these challenges Groom remains optimistic about his cause and hopes to move permanently to the land of opportunity. “Australia has nothing like San Francisco, and Silicon Valley. The tech culture there is insane. The demand for skilled workers is incredible. The creativity and innovation is incredible. It's infectious,” he says. Lachy Groom's business tips Anticipatory vs. reactionary - Start a business in reaction to a trend and you'll ride the tail end of the wave. Anticipate the wave and you'll ride it to the end. Lean start-up - A start-up must find ways to get the most out of minimal capital. Lachy runs his ventures by this advice; "'Lean' is the most capital-efficient way to run a business. Lean is the never-ending process of eliminating waste: finding every activity that does not create value for the customer and eliminating it. The two greatest wastes are overproduction (making things the customer doesn’t want) and inventory (making things that aren’t used immediately)." - VentureHacks Validate assumptions - Don't start developing your product before you show it to customers. In the tech and start-up industry we have a term "Minimum Viable Prototype". Develop the bare minimum to get your product in front of your users, and then iterate around their feedback. This will allow you to validate or invalidate your customer hypotheses in the shortest period of time. Sell an emotional experience, not a product - People buy an iPad for the experience that Apple sells them. The revolutionary display, the memory capturing camera. They don't sell you on the specifications. Sell your customers an experience, not a product, not a feature. Tell them a story. Lachy's favourite quote: "Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t." - Unknown Follow this journalist on Twitter @maxepmason

What the new leader of the official opposition could say if.... On Saturday afternoon we will know who the next leader of the Labour party is. This is the speech I hope they give: Conference, I’m immensely humbled to have been chosen as leader. We face huge challenges in the years ahead - and this demands an honest appraisal of our past. The speech I make here today will not be comfortable listening at times, but I believe that a full and open debate is needed about the kind of party we aspire to be. Over the last few months, we’ve heard plenty of old voices from the past urging us to suppress our true values and instincts to appease the wrath of powerful vested interests. This approach has been tried – and it failed. It led us to become remote and detached from the very people we came into politics to represent. Between 1997 and 2010 five million voters deserted the Labour party and our membership halved. We avoided the calamity some were predicting at the election, but we should not be complacent. This was a defeat. It would be exactly the wrong response to sit back and wait for the Coalition’s spending cuts to kick in, in the hope of sailing back into power on a wave of popular anger. If we wish to become an electoral force once more, we must win back the trust of the British people and set out a vision for a fairer and more just society. At the core of New Labour’s electoral strategy was the belief that if you shifted the party to the right, working class voters had nowhere else to go. In 2005 we scraped through against unpopular opposition on a third of the vote thanks to the distortions of our electoral system; in 2010 the same strategy led us off a cliff. Our natural supporters stayed at home or voted for the Liberal Democrats – who were giving a plausible impression of a party of social justice – while many others voted for extremist parties such as the BNP. Only one million out of the five million votes we lost since 1997 went to the Tories. Re-connecting with our values, and re-discovering what it means to be a party of progressive change, isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the only way we can win. So let me say as clearly as I possibly can: "New" Labour is dead and it won’t be coming back. It is time to move on. There are many things we can be proud of from our time in office. We achieved great reforms that many said were impossible: the minimum wage, investment in public services and the arts, rights for gay and lesbian people, the Human Rights Act, Parliaments in Scotland and Wales, the Good Friday Agreement and a Mayor for London, reform of the Lords, Freedom of Information – and, yes, contrary to what one of my predecessors has said, that was a great achievement, of which we can rightly be proud. Britain is a fairer and more democratic country today because of these changes. But the longer we stayed in office the more we lost our reforming zeal. We became too comfortable with power – instead of challenging elite interests, we cosied up to them at every stage. Ultimately, this was our downfall. Three defining issues came to symbolise the hubris of our time in government: the Iraq war, the economic crisis and our approach to civil liberties. Iraq Let us not mince our words over Iraq. This was a truly catastrophic decision: for the one million-plus Iraqis who died as a result of the invasion and the four million refugees, for the stability of the region, for our own security, for the credibility of international institutions and the rule of law, for the health of our finances and for the state of our democracy and public life. Contrary to what some of my fellow candidates suggested during the campaign, this isn’t simply a case of hindsight now that we know Saddam Hussain had no Weapons of Mass Destruction. The late great Robin Cook, who resigned over the war, recognised that Saddam did not represent a threat and that WMD were being used as a pretext for a war of choice by a dangerous right-wing US president. So did the millions who marched against the war in London. So did our closest friends and allies who refused to play any part in the invasion. If elected Prime Minister, I pledge to you, that I will never again take part in a war of aggression. At all times, I will work for peace, justice and human rights, pursuing our aims through international institutions in accordance with the rule of law. And so we must end Britain’s shameful role in selling arms to some of the most vicious regimes on the planet. We must seek a peaceful resolution to the standoff with Iran. We must pursue a political settlement in Afghanistan where our continued military presence only exacerbates the threat of violence. And when it comes to the conflict in the Middle East, which does so much to fuel anger and resentment around the world, we must work through Europe to put pressure on the Israelis to respect the humanity and right to self-determination of the Palestinian people. I don’t pretend that this will be easy, it will require tenacity, perseverance and a willingness to stand up against entrenched interests to defend what’s right. But it’s a worthy price to pay if we are to remain true to our ideals. And one of these is that when we speak to the British people about matters of war and peace we will always speak truthfully. The economic crisis When in power, it can be tempting to take the route of least resistance, to ally oneself with the strong, rather than championing the cause of the weak. Unfortunately, this was the approach New Labour took at home, as well as on the international stage. We were dazzled by the allure of the free market, buying into the self-serving myths of the masters of the universe and their financial alchemy and the supporters in the media. Social justice was sacrificed on the altar of globalisation. The filthy rich were celebrated whilst the poorest in our society were expected to make do with modest redistribution via the tax system. Our natural allies in the trade unions were scorned whilst the pay of the chief executives at the top ballooned. The result of this is that we are a more unequal society today than we were in 1997 - and that is to the lasting shame of New Labour. Our uncritical embrace of globalisation also meant that we failed to regulate the City so that when the financial crisis came we were left dangerously exposed. The bank bailouts saved us from financial ruin, and Gordon Brown deserves praise for his decisive action he took, but the price has been a legacy of debt which it will take years to pay off. And so we turn to one of the central questions in British politics today: how to approach the deficit. The Coalition has embarked on a savage course of spending cuts to which we are told there is no alternative. Cuts of between 25 and 40% are planned across government departments, with devastating consequences for our public services and the economy. Labour has so far failed to make the case for an alternative approach. But make no mistake – George Osborne’s savage cuts are not written in fate; they are an ideological choice borne out of Tory preferences for a limited state and a society in which all must sink or swim. In office, Labour was again too ready to swallow the self-serving arguments of the financial elite that the biggest and most urgent issue we face is cutting the deficit. The problem of the financial crisis, a problem which originated in the private sector, in the greed of bankers, became overnight a problem for the public sector. The issue was no longer how do we reform the financial sector and protect the poorest and most vulnerable from the damage the banks have wrought. It was how do we slash the deficit as quickly as possible, with the Lib Dems promising “savage cuts” and our own Chancellor Alistair Darling saying he will cut deeper than Thatcher. This was a fatal mistake. It handed the initiative to the Tories and killed any chance of using the crisis to rebuild the economy on more sustainable and equitable lines. The truth is that a slash and burn approach to the state won’t just cause immense hardship and suffering, it will destroy our prospects for growth. With the economy emerging from recession, we need investment by government to stimulate production and sustain jobs. All the evidence, both historical and contemporary, shows that withdrawing from the economy so quickly damages growth. There is an alternative, which is both fairer and more economically credible. It is the one Ed Balls so expertly set out in his recent speech to Bloomberg - and that is what Labour under my leadership will be advocating with Ed as Shadow Chancellor. Together we will make the case for protecting jobs and public services and putting the country on the stable road to recovery. We will not be punishing the poor for a crisis caused by bankers. Instead, we will create a fairer, greener and more equal society with investment in education and a Green New Deal for the economy. Civil liberties The third issue we must confront if we are to come to terms with the legacy of New Labour is civil liberties. This is about more than just ID cards, pointless and intrusive though these were, it is about how we understand the state and its relationship with the citizen. Historically, as a party, we have been too uncritical of the state and its power to do evil, as well as good. Since we were in power to represent the interests of the working class, we believed that anything the state did was, by definition, right. This uncritical attitude towards the power of the central state was not the cause of the many abuses that took place under New Labour, but it created the conditions for them. It was wrong to declare that “everything had changed” after 9/11 as if our proud traditions of liberty now counted for nothing. Rights and freedoms are enduring values, common to all of us, not a luxury that can be tossed aside at the convenience of those in power. Yes, we must protect ourselves from terrorism, but when we sacrifice our most cherished values, it hands a victory to our enemies, it fuels anger and resentment in our communities and it paves the way for an all-powerful leviathan state that none of us will be able to bear. The collaboration of our security services in torture, if true, is an abomination and I welcome the Coalition’s decision to open up a full investigation. We are not too proud to learn the lessons of the past and where possible we should work with the Coalition on their Great Repeal Bill. We must never again resort to exploiting fear to appear tough on terrorism. Nor should we fetishise technological change to the point where we discard privacy and freedom. There would be no return of the “database state” under my premiership. Political reform The first task of government should always be to give away power to its citizens, not to hoard it and deploy it against them. Over the coming months I will be setting out a radical programme of political and constitutional reform to empower citizens and replace the broken sovereignty of parliament with the sovereignty of the people. Reform of the constitution was one of Labour’s greatest achievements in government, but it was partial and incomplete and the fundamental principles of our antiquated system weren’t challenged in any serious way. The Coalition has now embarked on a programme of reform that is so timed that it looks more like an attempt to shore up the existing system than deliver democratic change. The Liberal Democrat leadership has lost the radical zeal it once possessed, resigning itself to a timid referendum on AV rather than the proportional representation it once favoured. Although I am not yet convinced of the merits of PR, I recognise that the public deserves a fair choice and will be working with Caroline Lucas MP and others in Parliament to ensure there is a proportional option on the ballot paper. Through these efforts I hope to ignite a debate within our party about the merits of electoral reform and wider democratic change. I plan to develop proposals for a deliberative citizens’ convention that will examine our constitutional arrangements as a whole with a view of taking us towards a written constitution based on popular sovereignty. It will set out the powers of government, our values as a nation and the rights and liberties of the citizen. This is the difference between the illusion of reform and the real thing. It is the difference between change that preserves and strengthens the elite and change that empowers people and communities. When faced with a choice as leader, you can be sure that I will always choose the latter. You may ask, how do I know he can be trusted when so many have said the same and done the exact opposite? Because you will be there to hold me true to my word. Because the party I aspire to lead is a democratic party not a dictatorship. Healthy disagreement and robust debate is a source of strength, not of weakness. To all those people who left the party because they felt they had no voice, I say rejoin us and we will welcome you. We must be the change we want to see –and we will only lead a democratic country once we have a democratic party. Conference, I have given my first speech as leader of the Labour party in the spirit in which I intend to govern: with honesty, openness and an uncompromising dedication to our values. Together let us take us up the urgent and momentous task of building a better alternative for Britain.

Lottery mathematics is used to calculate probabilities of winning or losing a lottery game. It is based heavily on combinatorics, particularly the twelvefold way and combinations without replacement. Choosing 6 from 49 [ edit ] In a typical 6/49 game, each player chooses six distinct numbers from a range of 1-49. If the six numbers on a ticket match the numbers drawn by the lottery, the ticket holder is a jackpot winner—regardless of the order of the numbers. The probability of this happening is 1 in 13,983,816. The chance of winning can be demonstrated as follows: The first number drawn has a 1 in 49 chance of matching. When the draw comes to the second number, there are now only 48 balls left in the bag, because the balls are drawn without replacement. So there is now a 1 in 48 chance of predicting this number. Thus for each of the 49 ways of choosing the first number there are 48 different ways of choosing the second. This means that the probability of correctly predicting 2 numbers drawn from 49 in the correct order is calculated as 1 in 49 × 48. On drawing the third number there are only 47 ways of choosing the number; but of course we could have arrived at this point in any of 49 × 48 ways, so the chances of correctly predicting 3 numbers drawn from 49, again in the correct order, is 1 in 49 × 48 × 47. This continues until the sixth number has been drawn, giving the final calculation, 49 × 48 × 47 × 46 × 45 × 44, which can also be written as 49 ! ( 49 − 6 ) ! {\displaystyle {49! \over (49-6)!}} or 49 factorial divided by 43 factorial. This works out to 10,068,347,520, which is much bigger than the ~14 million stated above. However; the order of the 6 numbers is not significant. That is, if a ticket has the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, it wins as long as all the numbers 1 through 6 are drawn, no matter what order they come out in. Accordingly, given any set of 6 numbers, there are 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 6! or 720 orders in which they could be drawn. Dividing 10,068,347,520 by 720 gives 13,983,816, also written as 49 ! 6 ! ∗ ( 49 − 6 ) ! {\displaystyle {49! \over 6!*(49-6)!}} , or more generally as ( n k ) = n ! k ! ( n − k ) ! {\displaystyle {n \choose k}={n! \over k!(n-k)!}} binomial coefficient and multinomial coefficient. This function is called the combination function; in Microsoft Excel, this function is implemented as COMBIN(n, k). For example, COMBIN(49, 6) (the calculation shown above), would return 13,983,816. For the rest of this article, we will use the notation ( n k ) {\displaystyle {n \choose k}} . "Combination" means the group of numbers selected, irrespective of the order in which they are drawn. An alternative method of calculating the odds is to note that the probability of the first ball corresponding to one of the six chosen is 6/49; the probability of the second ball corresponding to one of the remaining five chosen is 5/48; and so on. This yields a final formula of ( n k ) = ( 49 6 ) = 49 6 ∗ 48 5 ∗ 47 4 ∗ 46 3 ∗ 45 2 ∗ 44 1 {\displaystyle {n \choose k}={49 \choose 6}={49 \over 6}*{48 \over 5}*{47 \over 4}*{46 \over 3}*{45 \over 2}*{44 \over 1}} The range of possible combinations for a given lottery can be referred to as the "number space". "Coverage" is the percentage of a lottery's number space that is in play for a given drawing. Odds of getting other possibilities in choosing 6 from 49 [ edit ] One must divide the number of combinations producing the given result by the total number of possible combinations (for example, ( 49 6 ) = 13 , 983 , 816 {\displaystyle {49 \choose 6}=13,983,816} ). The numerator equates to the number of ways to select the winning numbers multiplied by the number of ways to select the losing numbers. For a score of n (for example, if 3 choices match three of the 6 balls drawn, then n = 3), ( 6 n ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose n}} describes the odds of selecting n winning numbers from the 6 winning numbers. This means that there are 6 - n losing numbers, which are chosen from the 43 losing numbers in ( 43 6 − n ) {\displaystyle {43 \choose 6-n}} ways. The total number of combinations giving that result is, as stated above, the first number multiplied by the second. The expression is therefore ( 6 n ) ( 43 6 − n ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose n}{43 \choose 6-n} \over {49 \choose 6}} . This can be written in a general form for all lotteries as: ( K B ) ( N − K K − B ) ( N K ) {\displaystyle {K \choose B}{N-K \choose K-B} \over {N \choose K}} where N {\displaystyle N} is the number of balls in lottery, K {\displaystyle K} is the number of balls in a single ticket, and B {\displaystyle B} is the number of matching balls for a winning ticket. The generalisation of this formula is called the hypergeometric distribution. This gives the following results: Score Calculation Exact Probability Approximate Decimal Probability Approximate 1/Probability 0 ( 6 0 ) ( 43 6 ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose 0}{43 \choose 6} \over {49 \choose 6}} 435,461/998,844 0.436 2.2938 1 ( 6 1 ) ( 43 5 ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose 1}{43 \choose 5} \over {49 \choose 6}} 68,757/166,474 0.413 2.4212 2 ( 6 2 ) ( 43 4 ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose 2}{43 \choose 4} \over {49 \choose 6}} 44,075/332,948 0.132 7.5541 3 ( 6 3 ) ( 43 3 ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose 3}{43 \choose 3} \over {49 \choose 6}} 8,815/499,422 0.0177 56.66 4 ( 6 4 ) ( 43 2 ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose 4}{43 \choose 2} \over {49 \choose 6}} 645/665,896 0.000969 1,032.4 5 ( 6 5 ) ( 43 1 ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose 5}{43 \choose 1} \over {49 \choose 6}} 43/2,330,636 0.0000184 54,200.8 6 ( 6 6 ) ( 43 0 ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose 6}{43 \choose 0} \over {49 \choose 6}} 1/13,983,816 0.0000000715 13,983,816 When a bonus number is included, the adjusted odds are:[1] Score Calculation Exact Probability Approximate Decimal Probability Approximate 1/Probability 5, bonus not won ( 6 5 ) ( ( 43 − 1 ) 1 ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose 5}{(43-1) \choose 1} \over {49 \choose 6}} 0.0000180208 55,491.33 5, bonus won ( 6 5 ) ( ( 43 − 1 ) ( 1 − 1 ) ) ( 49 6 ) {\displaystyle {6 \choose 5}{(43-1) \choose (1-1)} \over {49 \choose 6}} 0.0000004291 2,330,636 Pick8-32 odds and calculations [ edit ] The Pick8-32 Lottery game by Trillion Coins[2] implements a lotto game ticket where 8 numbers from 01 to 32 are selected in any order and can be repeated. The odds of a play ticket matching all 8 numbers is simple to calculate and is illustrated by the following math. 8 32 ∗ 7 32 ∗ 6 32 ∗ 5 32 ∗ 4 32 ∗ 3 32 ∗ 2 32 ∗ 1 32 = 40320 1099511627776 {\displaystyle {8 \over 32}*{7 \over 32}*{6 \over 32}*{5 \over 32}*{4 \over 32}*{3 \over 32}*{2 \over 32}*{1 \over 32}={40320 \over 1099511627776}} Which means there is a 1 in 27,269,633 chance of matching all 8 numbers. The Trillion Coins lottery is a pay-out-on-every-drawing lotto game. The odds are dependent on the total number of tickets that are played. The player who matches the most of the picked numbers wins. Powerballs and bonus balls [ edit ] Many lotteries have a Powerball (or "bonus ball"). If the powerball is drawn from a pool of numbers different from the main lottery, the odds are multiplied by the number of powerballs. For example, in the 6 from 49 lottery, given 10 powerball numbers, then the odds of getting a score of 3 and the powerball would be 1 in 56.66 × 10, or 566.6 (the probability would be divided by 10, to give an exact value of 8815 4994220 {\textstyle {\frac {8815}{4994220}}} ). Another example of such a game is Mega Millions, albeit with different jackpot odds. Where more than 1 powerball is drawn from a separate pool of balls to the main lottery (for example, in the EuroMillions game), the odds of the different possible powerball matching scores are calculated using the method shown in the "other scores" section above (in other words, the powerballs are like a mini-lottery in their own right), and then multiplied by the odds of achieving the required main-lottery score. If the powerball is drawn from the same pool of numbers as the main lottery, then, for a given target score, the number of winning combinations includes the powerball. For games based on the Canadian lottery (such as the lottery of the United Kingdom), after the 6 main balls are drawn, an extra ball is drawn from the same pool of balls, and this becomes the powerball (or "bonus ball"). An extra prize is given for matching 5 balls and the bonus ball. As described in the "other scores" section above, the number of ways one can obtain a score of 5 from a single ticket is ( 6 5 ) ( 43 1 ) = 258 {\textstyle {6 \choose 5}{43 \choose 1}=258} . Since the number of remaining balls is 43, and the ticket has 1 unmatched number remaining, 1/43 of these 258 combinations will match the next ball drawn (the powerball), leaving 258/43 = 6 ways of achieving it. Therefore, the odds of getting a score of 5 and the powerball are 6 ( 49 6 ) = 1 2 , 330 , 636 {\textstyle {6 \over {49 \choose 6}}={1 \over 2,330,636}} . Of the 258 combinations that match 5 of the main 6 balls, in 42/43 of them the remaining number will not match the powerball, giving odds of 258 ⋅ 42 43 ( 49 6 ) = 3 166 , 474 ≈ 1.802 × 10 − 5 {\textstyle {{258\cdot {\frac {42}{43}}} \over {49 \choose 6}}={\frac {3}{166,474}}\approx 1.802\times 10^{-5}} for obtaining a score of 5 without matching the powerball. Using the same principle, the odds of getting a score of 2 and the powerball are ( 6 2 ) ( 43 4 ) = 1 , 851 , 150 {\textstyle {6 \choose 2}{43 \choose 4}=1,\!851,\!150} for the score of 2 multiplied by the probability of one of the remaining four numbers matching the bonus ball, which is 4/43. Since 1 , 851 , 150 ⋅ 4 43 = 172 , 200 {\textstyle 1,851,150\cdot {\frac {4}{43}}=172,\!200} , the probability of obtaining the score of 2 and the bonus ball is 172 , 200 ( 49 6 ) = 1025 83237 = 1.231 % {\textstyle {\frac {172,200}{49 \choose 6}}={\frac {1025}{83237}}=1.231\%} , approximate decimal odds of 1 in 81.2. The general formula for B {\displaystyle B} matching balls in a N {\displaystyle N} choose K {\displaystyle K} lottery with one bonus ball from the N {\displaystyle N} pool of balls is: K − B N − K ( K B ) ( N − K K − B ) ( N K ) {\displaystyle {\frac {{\frac {K-B}{N-K}}{K \choose B}{N-K \choose K-B}}{N \choose K}}} The general formula for B {\displaystyle B} matching balls in a N {\displaystyle N} choose K {\displaystyle K} lottery with zero bonus ball from the N {\displaystyle N} pool of balls is: N − K − K + B N − K ( K B ) ( N − K K − B ) ( N K ) {\displaystyle {N-K-K+B \over N-K}{K \choose B}{N-K \choose K-B} \over {N \choose K}} The general formula for B {\displaystyle B} matching balls in a N {\displaystyle N} choose K {\displaystyle K} lottery with one bonus ball from a separate pool of P {\displaystyle P} balls is: 1 P ( K B ) ( N − K K − B ) ( N K ) {\displaystyle {1 \over P}{K \choose B}{N-K \choose K-B} \over {N \choose K}} The general formula for B {\displaystyle B} matching balls in a N {\displaystyle N} choose K {\displaystyle K} lottery with no bonus ball from a separate pool of P {\displaystyle P} balls is: P − 1 P ( K B ) ( N − K K − B ) ( N K ) {\displaystyle {P-1 \over P}{K \choose B}{N-K \choose K-B} \over {N \choose K}} Minimum number of tickets for a match [ edit ] It is a hard (and often open) problem to calculate the minimum number of tickets one needs to purchase to guarantee that at least one of these tickets matches at least 2 numbers. In the 5-from-90 lotto, the minimum number of tickets that can guarantee a ticket with at least 2 matches is 100.[3] Information theoretic results [ edit ] As a discrete probability space, the probability of any particular lottery outcome is atomic, meaning it greater than zero. Therefore, the probability of any event is the sum of probabilities of the outcomes of the event. This makes it easy to calculate quantities of interest from information theory. For example, the information content of any event easy to calculate, by the formula I ⁡ ( E ) := − log ⁡ [ Pr ( E ) ] = − log ⁡ ( P ) . {\displaystyle \operatorname {I} (E):=-\log {\left[\Pr {\left(E\right)}\right]}=-\log {\left(P\right)}.} In particular, the information content of outcome x {\displaystyle x} of discrete random variable X {\displaystyle X} is I X ⁡ ( x ) := − log ⁡ [ p X ( x ) ] = log ⁡ ( 1 p X ( x ) ) . {\displaystyle \operatorname {I} _{X}(x):=-\log {\left[p_{X}{\left(x\right)}\right]}=\log {\left({\frac {1}{p_{X}{\left(x\right)}}}\right)}.} For example, winning in the example § Choosing 6 from 49 above is a Bernoulli-distributed random variable X {\displaystyle X} with a 1/13,983,816 chance of winning ("success") We write X ∼ B e r n o u l l i ( p ) = B ( 1 , p ) {\textstyle X\sim \mathrm {Bernoulli} \!\left(p\right)=\mathrm {B} \!\left(1,p\right)} with p = 1 13 , 983 , 816 {\textstyle p={\tfrac {1}{13,983,816}}} and q = 13 , 983 , 815 13 , 983 , 816 {\textstyle q={\tfrac {13,983,815}{13,983,816}}} . The information content of winning is I X ⁡ ( win ) = − log 2 ⁡ p X ( win ) = − log 2 1 13 , 983 , 816 ≈ 23.73725 {\displaystyle \operatorname {I} _{X}({\text{win}})=-\log _{2}{p_{X}{({\text{win}})}}=-\log _{2}\!{\tfrac {1}{13,983,816}}\approx 23.73725} I X ⁡ ( lose ) = − log 2 ⁡ p X ( lose ) = − log 2 13 , 983 , 815 13 , 983 , 816 ≈ 1.0317 × 10 − 7 shannons . {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\operatorname {I} _{X}({\text{lose}})&=-\log _{2}{p_{X}{({\text{lose}})}}=-\log _{2}\!{\tfrac {13,983,815}{13,983,816}}\\&\approx 1.0317\times 10^{-7}{\text{ shannons}}.\end{aligned}}} The information entropy of a lottery probability distribution is also easy to calculate as the expected value of the information content. H ( X ) = ∑ x − p X ( x ) log ⁡ p X ( x ) = ∑ x p X ( x ) I X ⁡ ( x ) = d e f E [ I X ⁡ ( x ) ] {\displaystyle {\begin{alignedat}{2}\mathrm {H} (X)&=\sum _{x}{-p_{X}{\left(x\right)}\log {p_{X}{\left(x\right)}}}\ &=\sum _{x}{p_{X}{\left(x\right)}\operatorname {I} _{X}(x)}\\&{\overset {\underset {\mathrm {def} }{}}{=}}\ \mathbb {E} {\left[\operatorname {I} _{X}(x)\right]}\end{alignedat}}} Oftentimes the random variable of interest in the lottery is a Bernoulli trial. In this case, the Bernoulli entropy function may be used. Using X {\displaystyle X} representing winning the 6-of-49 lottery, the Shannon entropy of 6-of-49 above is H ( X ) = − p log ⁡ ( p ) − q log ⁡ ( q ) = − 1 13 , 983 , 816 log 1 13 , 983 , 816 − 13 , 983 , 815 13 , 983 , 816 log 13 , 983 , 815 13 , 983 , 816 ≈ 1.80065 × 10 − 6 shannons. {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\mathrm {H} (X)&=-p\log(p)-q\log(q)=-{\tfrac {1}{13,983,816}}\log \!{\tfrac {1}{13,983,816}}-{\tfrac {13,983,815}{13,983,816}}\log \!{\tfrac {13,983,815}{13,983,816}}\\&\approx 1.80065\times 10^{-6}{\text{ shannons.}}\end{aligned}}}

There’s something of a frisson going on about the fact that a ‘discovered’ new poem by Larkin turns out to be one that was written by another poet living in Hull, Frank Redpath. Here’s a Frank Redpath poem for those of you that don’t have on your shelves his rather good collection How It Turned Out (Rialto, 1996, edited by John Wakeman with an Introduction by Sean O’ Brien). I think it’s easy enough to see how the poets could be mistaken for one another. They share a preoccupation with the mundane, make sharp observations of the ordinary, and both have that anxiety that life might consist entirely of dullness which was, I think, a feature of the 50s. Something I suspect to do with wanting to bury the horror of the war and the simultaneous flight from the guilt that it had all been rather exciting? Forgive the psychobabble. Here’s a poem. COMING TO Remembering purpose suddenly, hearing the clock, Is always to be lifted from that sailing Utterly unintentioned elsewhere; looking, Feel, between tick and yes-I-thought-so tick, Frank recognition wheedling you to share Whatever reach-me-down events surround you there. Always a shock, but it soon passes. Why, There’s Mrs Body-Language from Dun Brown Taking her dogs out for a crap; that clown Who always parks his car with one wheel high Mounting the kerb; lumping from tree to tree, That lass who jogs and jogs so earnestly. It seems to fill their time. Why shouldn’t he Who sits here, vacant in a cooling car, Get out and do as they do? Check the doors, March up the path, go in and make some tea? He will. He always has. But not without, untrained, The sense of some huge ocean being drained, Some timeless tide retreating, leaving the pier Grey, mussel-crusted, drying; tilted smacks Newly defined and useless; weathered rocks Disarmed, reduced to holding rock-pools; gear For loading, launching, signalling left dry: And more time left than these can justify. Frank was a likeable bloke. He and John Wakeman had been poetry buddies and then friends from the time when John worked as librarian in London. Frank would take the train journey from Hull to Norwich several times a year and could then be found, glass of red wine in one hand, cigarette in the other, in the Wakeman’s kitchen, laughing and gossiping. I think he wore his angst more lightly than Larkin could, maybe had a bit more hope in the soul mix. I’m not sure about Larkin, I feel there’s a coldness in him, something Pharisaical – though that might just be his voice, standard BBC Third Programme enunciation (something that was somewhat swept away by Ted Hughes’ reading style). I wondered about typing in at this point Frank’s poem ‘Miss White’, but it’s a poem about a cat ( I have to admit it is good) and I made a resolution about steering clear of cat poems. So here’s a short, terrific, poem that I think should be widely anthologized. LYRIC Something is happening that never, ever, Happened to anyone before, he thought. This is the moment when the sudden river Breaks through the rocks to flow and end the drought. Sitting straight-backed upon the bedside chair, She took pins from her lips and fixed her hair. Give me just this, he thought, let me for ever Be sitting here with this, without a thought. Ice ages come to freeze the flowing river, Still ponds surround us both to cool the drought. Taking each eye in turn, she painted it Using a brush, a block of black, and spit. M.M. We have a few remainders of the book here, they are the first edition.

For being such a liberal entity the Grateful Dead have been conservative in at least one area: the use of the music by outside entities. When was the last time you heard a Grateful Dead song in a commercial, television show, or a film? It doesn’t happen very often. I have to give the band some respect for keeping a tight rein on their musical legacy. Obviously it’s their choice to do what they want with their music and if they feel that turning it into commercial fodder cheapens its legacy than so be it. I can think of a dozen films that would have been cool to have Grateful Dead music in them, but it’s certainly not something I lose sleep over. The Music Never Stopped was a film that came out a year or so ago that the band did allow their music to be used in. I haven’t seen the film, but it sounds interesting. This isn’t the type of endeavor that was going to yield the band a big payday in music rights either. It would be easy to sell out and plaster their music all over the place. Lord knows there’s a market for it (and some might say the band has sold out when it comes to materials goods. Browse the dead.net store for instance.) But the band’s musical legacy? If you ask me it remains steadfastly intact. Post-hiatus Dead is my favorite Donna era as she tends to deliver the good more consistently. Her singing on The Music Never Stopped is always a treat and this version is no exception. Phil’s bs tone has a rubbery quality to it and he and Keith have a few bursts of energy after the first chorus. I really dig Jerry’s guitar tone in the instrumental bridge too. He’s got just a tinge of distortion and growl there that sets it apart. He’s not even really digging in but it sounds like he is because of how the notes break up. It’s truly a thing of beauty. The main solo brings us more of this as well as some ascending playing that enters the area of “frothing mammal” at points, especially when Phil and Keith really start to dig in. By the end of the song everyone is all-in and its a raucous, yet controlled, free-for-all complete with some trademark Garcia fanning. After this climax the band throws in a $500k ending (that’s a million dollar ending but half as long/intense). Phew! What a ride! Complete Setlist 2/3/78 Previous The Music Never Stopped DFAY Selections Array

Prince Majed bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is accused of doing cocaine, getting drunk and forcing himself on three female members of staff, exclusively obtained court documents reveal A Saudi Arabian prince is accused of a having sexual relationship with a male aide, taking cocaine and threatening to kill women who refused his advances - as well as sexually assaulting a maid – Daily Mail Online has exclusively learned. Prince Majed bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud – revealed by Daily Mail Online yesterday to be son of the late King Abdullah – now faces an extraordinary series of allegations in a civil case brought by three female staff members of his Los Angeles mansion. Court documents seen by Daily Mail Online disclose how he is accused of being drunk and high at his $37 million mansion in Beverly Hills and repeatedly making unwanted sexual advances. The documents were filed by lawyers acting for three female employees of Al Saud. They include a claim that the royal attempted to urinate on the trio while screaming: 'I want to pee pee'. He also threatened to kill one of the women if she refused to 'party' with him and jumped on top of another and began rubbing himself against her in a 'sexual and aggressive manner'. When asked to stop, Al Saud allegedly then yelled: 'I am a prince and I do what I want. You are nobody!' All three of the women claim to have seen the royal having his penis 'stroked' by a male aide and say they were forced to stay in the room and watch as the encounter unfolded. Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, and punishable by flogging, or even execution. Another says she was made to watch while a different male aide bent over and broke wind in Al Saud's face – apparently at his request. Scroll down for video Felony charges against Al Saud (left) were dropped by the Los Angeles District Attorney but prosecutors can now bring misdemeanor charges against him Al Saud rented this $37 million Beverly Hills mansion where it's alleged he threw two back-to-back parties with escorts and forced female workers to watch as a male aide pleasured him The revelations about Prince Majed come a day after it was revealed that Los Angeles District Attorney has decided to drop felony charges against the 29-year-old due to lack of evidence. Instead, the case has been passed to LA city attorney Mike Feur who will now decide whether to pursue misdemeanor charges – which could lead to a year in jail and a $3,000 fine should he be convicted. But lawyers for the women bringing the civil case say they are determined to succeed. 'You are going to go upstairs. I will be there in two minutes and you'll do whatever I want. If not, then I'll kill you.' The women, all of whom are married with children, say they still have not been paid by the prince and are hoping to recover their lost earnings. The women's claims stem from a period between September 21 and September 25 – when Al Saud was arrested – and all took place at the Wallingford Drive mansion. The women had been employed by the prince to care for the house during his American holiday, although he also brought with him three friends and a group of butlers and other staff. On September 21, Al Saud threw a party at the property and arranged for 'multiple escorts' to attend. During the course of the evening, he became 'increasingly intoxicated' and was seen engaging in 'illicit drug abuse' by the three women. According to the women, this was cocaine – a conclusion they arrived at after seeing white powder around the rims of his nostrils and his 'abnormally dilated' pupils. The following evening, September 22, he held a second party where he 'continued to engage in heavy drinking, cocaine use and more escorts came to the residence'. That night, Al Saud is alleged to have 'violently' grabbed the first woman's hand 10 times and shouted 'I like you!' before insisting that she remain beside him at all times. Prince Majed is the son of King Abdullah (center) who died in January at the age of 90 He also threatened her, saying: 'Tomorrow I will have a party with you and you will do everything I want or I will kill you.' The following day came the incident in which he attempted to urinate on the trio but was dragged away by an assistant before he could do so. The women claim they attempted to hide in the dining room but 10 minutes later, found themselves once more subjected to Al Saud's bizarre behavior, including the incident in which he rubbed himself 'in a sexual manner' against the second woman. According to the document, she attempted to reason with him, saying 'I'm a woman', only for Al Saud to turn around and scream: 'You're not a woman, you are a nobody! I'm a prince and I will do what I want and nobody will do anything to me!' The women, by then hiding on a balcony, were spotted by one of Al Saud's assistants who screamed at them to get back to work, adding that they must be with the prince at all times and were not allowed to have breaks. By now in tears, the trio pleaded with the aide, telling them they were terrified of Al Saud, having already seen him physically abuse his butlers by pulling their ears, punching them in the face and by throwing things. Again told to return to work, the second woman then approached Al Saud to pour him a drink – only to be subjected to a violent assault that left her badly bruised. The women then attempted to leave the mansion but discovered they had been locked in by Al Saud's aides and were told they were not allowed to leave. It was then that the royal threatened to kill the third woman, telling her: 'You are going to go upstairs. I will be there in two minutes and you'll do whatever I want. If not, then I'll kill you.' Al Saud then, it is alleged, became even more agitated and began to 'scream and make animal like sounds'. At this point the women managed to leave the house but without their personal possessions – forcing them to return the following day. Once there, they were told that Al Saud had 'slept off' the drugs and alcohol he had consumed and would not bother them anymore. However, after telling aides they did not want to continue working for the prince, they were threatened with forfeiting their wages and were again locked inside the house on the grounds that the royal needed '24-hour service'. When they did finally encounter the prince again, he was, say the women, being masturbated by another man who was 'stroking his penis'. But when they attempted to leave the room, the 29-year-old spotted them and ordered them to stay and watch. 'You're not a woman, you are a nobody! I'm a prince and I will do what I want and nobody will do anything to me!' The first woman was also ordered to stop and watch as a different aide passed wind in Al Saud's face - again after stumbling upon the prince and his retainers in a room at the mansion, the documents say. She was also asked to 'lick my whole body' by Al Saud in exchange for payment and says he became aggressive when she refused. Their ordeal finally ended after police were called to the house where the prince's girlfriend, who he had earlier accused of having sex with another man in the bathroom of a club the previous evening, and the original complainant were found covered in blood, crying and shaking. Al Saud was then arrested and led away by the LAPD, allegedly screaming: 'No news!' at onlookers as he was bundled into a police car. Of the civil case, the prince's lawyer, Alan Jackson, said: 'I will not dignify these salacious allegations - which the District attorney found to be unsupported by evidence - with a response.' Yesterday, he said of the criminal case: 'The decision by the D.A.'s office not to file charges shows that the accuser's stories cannot be substantiated. 'The sheikh is very happy to put it behind him and move on with his life.' Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was the King of Saudi Arabia from 2005 until his death on January 23 However, Jackson's words produced an irate response from the team acting on behalf of the women with attorney Vadim Frish describing his words as 'seriously false and troubling statements'. Plaintiffs were shocked to see witness Al Saud being masturbated by another man. Plaintiffs witnessed a man on his knees (name unknown) kneeling in front of Al Saud... Al Saud noticed the Plaintiffs attempting to leave the room and screamed 'you must watch this!'. Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 3 were forced by Al Saud to watch a man stroke Al Saud's penis Court documents accusing Saudi prince of sexual abuse He added: 'Mr Jackson's statements that the allegations are 'concocted', that this is nothing but a 'shakedown', and that our clients are 'trying to take advantage of a wealthy person' could not be farther from the truth. 'Eventually, the whole truth will surface and Mr. Al Saud will have to bear the consequences of his despicable actions. 'No one, including a member of the Royal Saudi family, should get away with this appalling behavior.' The prince is still in southern California according to his lawyers. However, he has not been seen at his rented $37 million Beverly Glen mansion since his arrest late last month and is thought by neighbors to have fled the country. Al Saud, who was allowed to leave LAPD custody after posting a $300,000 bond, was initially charged with sex offenses including 'forced oral copulation', and battery. LA city attorney Mike Feur is putting together the criminal case and yesterday said a court date will be scheduled for later this year. The claims echo those made during the trial of Prince Saud bin Abdulaziz who in 2009 was convicted of the sexually motivated killing of his Sudanese manservant Bandar Abdulaziz. The prince, 36, subjected Bandar to a prolonged campaign of violence and sexual abuse before beating him to death in a suite at London's Landmark Hotel. Sentenced to life imprisonment by the Old Bailey court in the British capital, he was deported to Saudi Arabia in 2013 under the terms of a prisoner exchange deal and is currently incarcerated in a Saudi jail. Prince Saud bin Abdulaziz (left) was convicted in 2009 of the sexually motivated killing of his Sudanese manservant Bandar Abdulaziz (right) Prince Saud bin Abdulaziz is locked away in a Saudi jail for the beating death of Bandar Abdulaziz at London's Landmark hotel Despite being one of an estimated 35 children born to Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah, Al Saud, who holds no official post, has nonetheless been tasked with high-level duties in the past. In photos taken earlier this year, Al Saud can be seen welcoming dignitaries to Riyadh following the death of his 90-year-old father. One shows him welcoming Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Makhtoum, who also holds the titles of Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, to the Saudi capital. The two are followed closely by 66-year-old Sheikh Mohammed’s son and heir, the popular Crown Prince Hamdan, 32. A further photo shows him greeting Turkey’s controversial president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 61, on the tarmac at King Khalid International. The pictures are significant because they show the esteem in which Al Saud is held in his native land – and by his father and extended family. Saudi Arabia is home to thousands of princes, although those from the royal branch of the House of Saud take most of the high level roles. Regardless, all posts in the kingdom within the gift of absolute monarch King Salman, 79, who has appointed members of his immediate family to key roles since taking the throne. One especially striking appointment was that of Defense Minister – a post handed to his 30-year-old son Prince Mohammed, who was also made deputy crown prince. The current Crown Prince is Mohammed bin Nayef, 55, the Interior Minister and a nephew of Salman’s. With the succession decided for two generations, the chances of Al Saud being given a more prominent role are small – even more so following his arrest last month.

From the crumbling spires of the ancient Runelords in distant Varisia to the bustling merchant kingdoms of the Inner Sea, Golarion is the name of default world of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting and related supplements, modules, and Adventure Paths. There are some really great D&D worlds such as Krynn (Dragonlance), Greyhawk, Eberron and Toril (Forgotten Realms), and I think that Paizo’s Golarion has more than earned an unofficial spot on the list. This week on the Campaign Trail I’m providing some notes on using Golarion for the setting of an adventure or even an entire campaign. If your D&D group has been playing for years in the Realms, take a look at Golarion – it might be a perfect fit. Campaign Setting Overview | Deities of Golarion for D&D 5th Edition Pathfinder & D&D: A Short History Way back in the 1970s a group of friends gathered around a table to play Dungeons & Dragons. Since then, history has found a way to split Dungeon & Dragons players into more and more camps with each new release. Back in 2007, Paizo was a publisher working on Dungeon and Dragon magazines, but Wizards of the Coast chose not to renew their contract. Paizo decided to begin publishing the Pathfinder periodical line as a replacement. When it was announced that D&D 3.5 was being replaced with a 4th edition of D&D and a more restrictive game system license, Paizo decided to develop and playtest its own RPG. In 2009, using the Open Gaming License (OGL), Pathfinder RPG was released as a modified & extended version of the 3.5 edition rules of D&D. Pathfinder even went on to even outsell D&D before the eventual release of the hugely successful 5th edition of D&D in 2014. Where to Start? Pathfinder RPG was released under the Open Game License (OGL), so it’s core core rules are free to use, but its excellent setting books and adventures need to be purchased. Paizo has published a ton of great books, including the following setting books that will give you more than everything you need to run a campaign in the world of Golarion. Beginner Box The Game Master’s Guide details the starting town of Sandpoint (and its surrounding countryside) and provides lots of hooks to keep your adventurers busy. This product is an excellent value and great way to try out Pathfinder and Golarion. The Game Master’s Guide details the starting town of Sandpoint (and its surrounding countryside) and provides lots of hooks to keep your adventurers busy. This product is an excellent value and great way to try out Pathfinder and Golarion. Inner Sea World Guide 320 pages of races, cultural information and history for “more than 40 crumbling empires, expansionist kingdoms, independent city-states, and monster-haunted wildlands of Golarion’s adventure-filled Inner Sea region, with locations perfect for nearly any type of fantasy campaign.“ 320 pages of races, cultural information and history for “more than 40 crumbling empires, expansionist kingdoms, independent city-states, and monster-haunted wildlands of Golarion’s adventure-filled Inner Sea region, with locations perfect for nearly any type of fantasy campaign.“ Towns of the Inner Sea Explore “six small but richly detailed settlements from the Pathfinder campaign setting. Each entry provides insights into the town’s history, culture, and residents, as well as what dangers lurk in the shadows. Numerous adventure hooks, full-page maps, and stat blocks for key NPCs make these towns fully realized settings, ready for” you to use in your own Golarion campaign. Explore “six small but richly detailed settlements from the Pathfinder campaign setting. Each entry provides insights into the town’s history, culture, and residents, as well as what dangers lurk in the shadows. Numerous adventure hooks, full-page maps, and stat blocks for key NPCs make these towns fully realized settings, ready for” you to use in your own Golarion campaign. Cities of Golarion 64-page book details adventure hooks, monsters, politics, history, people and places for six cities to run urban adventures in. 64-page book details adventure hooks, monsters, politics, history, people and places for six cities to run urban adventures in. And many, many other books. This is a rich, detailed setting that I can only brush the surface of in this article, but I’ll try to highlight some of the places and people you can visit. Places to Go The map above is just a small region of Golarion called the Inner Sea (and this map does not even show it all). Like the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms, it’s the area of Golarion that gets the most attention, but there is a whole world to explore. The world of Golarion has a long history spanning thousands of years and contains eight continents separated by huge seas. If you want to run a short adventure or an entire campaign, Golarion has a ton of varied locations for nearly any theme to visit. Each of the locations below is supported with lots of adventures you can run or pillage for ideas and some have setting books too. Like the Forgotten Realms, Golarion has more than just your default fantasy setting if you are looking for something a little more exotic. Here are ten of my favorite settings that can be found around Golarion: Azlant – Atlantis inspired continent that has mostly sunk under the waves – Atlantis inspired continent that has mostly sunk under the waves Mwangi Expanse – Jungle “the jungle is a living, breathing entity, and it’s always hungry…“ – Jungle “the jungle is a living, breathing entity, and it’s always hungry…“ Darklands – Pathfinder’s version of the Underdark – Pathfinder’s version of the Underdark Crown of the World – Frozen Northlands – Frozen Northlands The Shackles – Pirate themed setting of the Skull & Shackles adventure path and card game – Pirate themed setting of the Skull & Shackles adventure path and card game Osirion – Ancient Egyptian themed setting – Ancient Egyptian themed setting Andoran – Colonial America themed setting – Colonial America themed setting Tian Xia – Asian themed setting “Inspired by the fascinating myths and rich histories of numerous Asian cultures and traditions“ – Asian themed setting “Inspired by the fascinating myths and rich histories of numerous Asian cultures and traditions“ Lost Kingdoms – Explore the “shattered remains” of mysterious ancient nations and fallen empires – Explore the “shattered remains” of mysterious ancient nations and fallen empires Realm of the Mammoth Lords – Prehistoric themed setting People to Visit Looking for people to fill Golarion with? The adventures are filled with NPCs, but you can also find more in these books: NPC Codex Find more than 300 “nonplayer characters of every level, from a lowly forest poacher to the most majestic knight or ancient spellcaster.” Find more than 300 “nonplayer characters of every level, from a lowly forest poacher to the most majestic knight or ancient spellcaster.” Inner Sea NPC Codex Another 50 unique NPCs such as assassins, cultists, cabalists, and other characters their players may meet Another 50 unique NPCs such as assassins, cultists, cabalists, and other characters their players may meet Inner Sea Races Histories, cultures, and powers of all the major races that shape the Inner Sea region, “from elves and dwarves to celestial-touched aasimars and subterranean drow, along with new details on a variety of rare and mysterious populations“. The Iconics My favorite thing about Pathfinder is the iconics (seen throughout the Wayne Reynolds artwork in this article). As Pathfinder adds more and more classes, I’ve become a lot less enamored with newest additions, but I feel like I got to know the earlier iconics by playing them as PCs and reading about then in the Pathfinder comics. If you are running a campaign in Golarion, the iconics can be a great resource for pre-generated player characters (level 1, 7 and 12) or why meet a random NPC when you can bump into an iconic. Pathfinder has made it a habit to release an iconic when they release a new class. They just released 6 new iconics to support their Occult Adventures book. Each iconic has a interesting and detailed backstory (yes lots of orphans). Here are four of my favorites that just happen to be available with the Beginner Box: Merisiel (Elven Rogue) was orphaned at a young age and raised by humans in the slums. She’s seen many friends grow old and die in the decades it took her to become an adult, so now she lives life to the fullest, “for you never know when you’ll meet an unexpected end“. was orphaned at a young age and raised by humans in the slums. She’s seen many friends grow old and die in the decades it took her to become an adult, so now she lives life to the fullest, “for you never know when you’ll meet an unexpected end“. Ezren (Human Wizard) decided to abandon his old life and become a wizard, even though he was already middle aged and nobody would have him for an apprentice. Kyra (Human Cleric) swore her life and sword arm to the sun goddess Sarenrae after bandits attacked her village, killing her parents. Since then, Kyra has traveled far powered along by her “fierce will and pride in her faith and skills with the scimitar“. swore her life and sword arm to the sun goddess Sarenrae after bandits attacked her village, killing her parents. Since then, Kyra has traveled far powered along by her “fierce will and pride in her faith and skills with the scimitar“. Valeros (Human Fighter) whose longing for adventure convinced him to flee from an arranged betrothal to a farmer’s daughter. The former mercenary “is famous for his two swords, his love of strong drink, and his appreciation of pretty women“. You can meet each of the iconics on the Paizo Blog starting from 2007 or you can get a copy of character sheets by signing in to download this package from the Paizo Store. Gods and Monsters If you are looking for gods or monsters for a Golarion campaign you are in luck. Gods The Inner Sea region, Dragon Empires, Osirian and other areas of Golarion are well supported with a variety of pantheons for your divine powered PCs to pray to. Gods for specific monsters are provided as well. The popular live play show Critical Role started their campaign using Pathfinder’s rules and moved to D&D, keeping the gods such as Sarenrae (diety of their cleric Pike) when they moved over. If you just need a new pantheon for your world, look and see what Pathfinder has to offer. I borrowed Besmara the Pirate Queen to add some pirate flavor into my campaign’s pantheon. Monsters Pathfinder’s most famous monsters are their mascot like goblins, but there are way more monsters to be found. Paizo has published 4 Bestiaries with a fifth one on the way in November. Each Bestiary is full of hundreds of monsters, many unique to Pathfinder. The monsters aren’t that hard to convert and you might even find a bunch of monsters to send against your players they haven’t faced before. Look to the adventures to provide unique monsters too, Skull & Shackles adventures have provided a few awesome monsters for my own D&D seafaring campaign. NOTE: All links to the Paizo store are provided for convenience to the reader. The links are provided without any affiliate links, so we don’t make a dime if you click and buy. There are some great books mentioned/linked to above, so please check them out and support all the great setting work done by the team at Paizo over the years.

As the US Election drama nears boiling point candidates are pulling no punches. With social bursting with political opinion and savagery, we’ve been following the race closely. While we’ll be covering Clinton in a coming post, the Brandwatch React team took a look at ways tweeters have been describing Republican nominee Donald Trump. A note to sensitive readers – our findings are from the internet and are not filtered. You may find offensive words in this post. Methodology Searching for mentions of “Donald Trump is a” and “@realdonaldtrump is a” for the last week (17-24 August) on Twitter, the team found 3,170 mentions excluding retweets. Spam mentions (accounts tweeting identical strings of text in excess of 20 times) were omitted. The team then took the first 35 characters following those search strings and identified the words mentioned most frequently using an online word counting app. The remaining data included raw mentions of “donald trump/realdonaldtrump is a” in tweets, including anything from tweeted news headlines to general musings. “Donald Trump is a racist” Having conducted the above analysis, “racist” came out as the most common term in the words immediately following “donald trump (or realdonaldtrump) is a” on Twitter. Trump’s alleged racism is one of the key points Clinton is using to attack the Republican, so it’s a stinging result. This chart shows the top 20 nouns used to describe Trump. Tweeters have not held back on voicing their opinions. @realDonaldTrump is a bigot, racist and con artist! Don’t be deceived people! — Toni Bond (@tbonded) August 25, 2016 Donald trump is a different kind of candidate:overt racist, pandering, hysterical, vile. Yea he’s different — Nina Satz (@cocktailgurl17) August 19, 2016 Close behind “racist” is “con man/artist”, well ahead of mentions of Trump as a celebrated business man. Donald Trump is a con man so he has to call someone Crooked. — Lowly Opinion (@LowlyOpinion) August 23, 2016 The word “man” was mentioned nearly 150 times, and not always in a negative context. Whether one of the key Clinton descriptors is “woman” will be interesting to find out in our next post. YES! Donald Trump is a GOOD MAN! He is going to be a GREAT PRESIDENT! https://t.co/6ZI80BGIyq — Peg Gentle (@pjgentle) August 19, 2016 But, again, quite a lot was negative. I wish I didn’t have to vote for @HillaryClinton but to paraphrase Seinfeld Donald #Trump is a very very bad man. — oscarrob711 (@oscarrob711) August 23, 2016 The data’s not all bad, though – “politician”, “republican”, “american” and “candidate” are commonly used words that overtake a lot of the hate (and there was plenty more outside of the top 20). A notable trend in the data was the creativity when it came to insulting Mr Trump. Here’s one of the least offensive nuggets we found. “Donald Trump is a turd tornado.” — ryan ashley waller. (@ryanashley_) August 19, 2016 Bad news? While the words being used to describe Trump here aren’t all favorable, that’s not to say it’s bad news for Trump. He’s been consistent in generating more online conversation than his Presidential competitors and has a dedicated online supporter base. His brazen manner has put some voters off but he’s an incredibly popular man – we’ll wait and see how it pans out. Twitter is known for a more left-leaning user base so it will be interesting to see how Clinton’s mentions compare. Are you a journalist looking to cover our data? We have plenty more. Email us react@brandwatch.com for more information

Description ※ This product is also included in other bundled package. The items offered in this package can be purchased as a single item. Refunds will not be offered for duplicate purchase. Four story experiences. Eight worlds to explore. Thousands of rewards to discover. One Legendary Collection. Includes: - Destiny 2 - Expansion I: Curse of Osiris - Expansion II: Warmind - Destiny 2: Forsaken - Level 30 Character Boost The Destiny 2: Forsaken - Legendary Collection offers the complete Destiny 2: Forsaken experience for new, returning and veteran players. This also includes an instant Level 30 character boost that allows you the option to play the latest content straight away. In Forsaken, you’ll take justice into your own hands and pursue vengeance for your fallen friend Cayde-6. You will explore new regions, awaken new powers, earn a wealth of new weapons and uncover lost Awoken secrets. The hunt is on. Forsaken also introduces an all-new story, new Legendary Bow weapon archetype, nine new Super abilities, new activities, quests, locations, Strikes, a Raid and a wealth of new weapons and gear. 104 GB hard drive storage space required as of September 2018. Subject to change. Online only. Significant elements and functionality require PlayStation®Plus subscription, sold separately. Activision makes no guarantee regarding the availability of online play or features and may modify or discontinue online services at its discretion with reasonable notice at any time. Using the software constitutes acceptance of the Destiny Software License Agreement available at http://support.activision.com/license and the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy available at http://www.bungie.net/eula. Copyright: © 2018 Bungie, Inc. All rights reserved. Destiny, the Destiny Logo, Bungie and the Bungie Logo are among the trademarks of Bungie, Inc. Published and distributed by Activision. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. Purchase or use of this item is subject to SEN Terms of Service and User Agreement. Purchased content or services are not refundable or transferable, and cannot be redeemed for cash or credit.

Tranquility Lane is the Fallout Fanon Wiki - a community where you can create your own stories, characters and places in the universe of the Fallout series of games, using the latest Vault-Tec simulation technology. All of the contents of this wiki are not canon. To read canon information about the Fallout universe, see: Nukapedia; a Fallout wiki, our sister site. However, here you can expand on the canon without contradicting it. Also, you should not add fanon or references to other game series, and do not post your mod ideas here either. Doing so will get your articles deleted. We are currently editing 1,499 articles. All pages can be edited and you are welcome to join us and contribute to this wiki. Everyone is free to create a new page or edit an existing one, but do not edit pages without the author's permission. If you have any questions about the wiki or helping out, you can ask one of the adminstrators, or one of our many helpful users. Please note that only registered users may post articles, articles posted by IP anons will be deleted Remember to read the rules before making an article.

Parents of children found bullying other minors can now end up in jail, thanks to a recently-passed ordinance in one western New York town. The new law, which went into effect on October 1 in North Tonawanda, New York, states that any parent of a child who violates city law twice within a 90-day period could be fined $250 and sentenced up to 15 days in jail. This includes infractions such as bullying other children and breaking the city's curfew. The law is modeled after an ordinance passed in Wisconsin in 2016, which called for steep fines for parents of children who bully other kids. North Tonawanda City Attorney Luke Brown told ABC that he hopes the law will force parents to get involved in order to stop children from repeatedly bullying others. "In reality, what we're looking for is to engage the parents in the process and try and work on a solution," Brown said. More from : Report: Boy with special needs lured, sexually assaulted inside school bathroom Unarmed security guard found Vegas shooter Man shocked by reason power company won't give him an account

President-elect Donald Trump will not pursue an investigation into Hillary Clinton, NBC are reporting. During his election campaign Trump promised to set up an inquiry into Clinton’s alleged criminal activity. >@JoeNBC and @morningmika are reporting that Trump’s administration will not pursue an investigation into Hillary Clinton. — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 22, 2016 BREAKING NEWS on @Morning_Joe regarding CLINTON INVESTIGATIONS. — Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) November 22, 2016 Host Joe Scarborough made the announcement on NBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ on Tuesday. A show source, described as having "direct knowledge of Donald Trump's thinking," quoted Trump as saying Clinton had “been through enough.” When asked about the remarks, Trump's former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said that by making such a decision before his inauguration, "it sends a very strong message, tone, and content." "I think he's thinking of many different things as he prepares to become the President of the United States, and things that sound like the campaign are not among them," Conway said. Conway also told the show that Clinton "still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans don't find her to be honest or trustworthy," but that "if Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps that's a good thing to do." READ MORE: Trump cancels interview with ‘not nice’ NY Times Regarding the Clinton email scandal, Trump had previously said he would instruct the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the issue if elected. This attitude appeared to ease since his election with Trump praising his opponent on ‘60 Minutes’. READ MORE: Trump praises Clintons, vows to keep parts of Obamacare in 1st post-vote TV interview Of Clinton’s phone call to concede defeat on election night, Trump said: “She couldn’t have been nicer. She just said, ‘congratulations, Donald. Well done.’ And I said, ‘I want to thank you very much, you were a great competitor.’ She is very strong. And very smart.” During his campaign he had called Clinton a “nasty woman” with “tremendous hate in her heart.” Allegations of criminal activity relating to her use of a private email server were central to his attacks on her. READ MORE: FBI director: No charges after new review of Hillary Clinton emails

London - Ottis Gibson has agreed to step down from his role as England bowling coach and become South Africa's new head coach, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced on their official website on Wednesday. Gibson, who took up his current role in 2015, will leave after England's third and final Test against West Indies next week. He succeeds Russell Domingo, whose contract with Cricket South Africa expired after South Africa's 3-1 Test series defeat in England earlier this month. "I would like to place on record my thanks to Ottis Gibson for his services to English cricket," England's director of cricket Andrew Strauss said in a press release. "Ottis has been an integral part of the England team in his two stints as bowling coach. His experience, tactical awareness and understanding of bowling in all conditions has benefited our approach and has helped our bowling unit develop greatly across all formats of the game. "He is an ambitious man and when this opportunity presented itself, it was difficult for him to turn down. On behalf of the ECB, I would like to wish him every success in the next chapter of his career." Gibson, 48, is in his second spell working with England's pacemen after four years as head coach of his native West Indies from 2010-14. England head coach Trevor Bayliss said: "Ottis has played a vital role in our progress over the past few years. "His knowledge of the international game and the way he has supported all our bowlers in their development has been immeasurable. "He will no doubt relish the challenge of becoming a head coach once again and coupled with his strong affinity with South African cricket, he will look to take them forward." Gibson's first South Africa assignment will be a two-Test home series against Bangladesh beginning on September 28, which is followed by a four-match one-day series and a two-match Twenty20 series. The ECB said it intends to appoint a new fast bowling coaching ahead of England's busy end-of-year schedule, which includes an Ashes tour of Australia.

Gary Smagh, owner of the Ghazal restaurant in Glen Eden, spoke to Fairfax NZ about his restaurant being shot at, and staff members assaulted. A West Auckland town centre is being plagued by a gang of youths mugging people, vandalising and even shooting the windows of a restaurant with an air gun. Some residents of Glen Eden say they are staying away from their local shopping area because of the youths and a community meeting is to be called to discuss it. Khushi Joshi, a chef from Ghazal Indian Cuisine in Glen Eden, was attacked by a gang of youths on Monday night. Owner Gary Smagh said Joshi left work at 10.45pm to walk home. A couple of minutes later Smagh's wife saw him fall to the ground as the youths surrounded him and screamed for help. Smagh and his wife ran out and took Joshi back inside then called the police. Smagh said the whole incident happened in less than a minute. Joshi told Smagh he was approached by one boy armed with a screwdriver who pushed him to the ground and then told him to "hand over what you've got, or I'm going to f... you up". Chris McKeen/Fairfax NZ A Glen Eden restauranteur stands beside a hole shot into one of his premise's windows by an air gun. Another six or seven boys came and snatched a plastic bag with wine he was carrying and after an unsuccessful wrestle with Joshi for his cellphone, ran off. "My guess was that they had been watching him, and knew what time he leaves work, and that he walked home alone," Smagh said. Police officers flooded the area but could not find the culprits. The incident came only weeks after the restaurant was vandalised by a group of boys who gouged large scratches in several windows when Smagh denied them free food. Smagh has also found two holes shot into a window by a BB gun. The quote for fixing each of the vandalised windows was $1,000, not including GST. A police spokesperson said patrols have been increased in the area following a spate of thefts from parked cars but police are not aware of any recent significant increase in overall youth. But Glen Eden local Shard Hunter said there were issues with a group of youths and it put him off from coming into the town centre as much as he used to. "They always want to start fights, tag, and get in trouble", the 18-year-old said. The troubles in Glen Eden come a year since the killing of shop keeper Arun Kumar when other Henderson retailers said they were suffering repeat vandalism of their store fronts, being confronted by shoplifters and intimidated by youth gangs as they opened their stores in the morning. And in October shopkeepers in the south Auckland suburb of Clendon said they were being tormented by children as young as seven causing problems. READ MORE: * Safety hub makes Auckland's Glen Eden a safer place * West Auckland suburb now feels safer after police tackle youth crime * South Auckland shopkeepers want parents punished for children's crimes The Waitakere Ranges Local Board is arranging a meeting with the Glen Eden community's key stakeholders to discuss ways forward to help people feel secure. Local board member Steve Tollestrup said there are a number of solutions. "At the end of the day, it will come down to not just the policing, but the community working together." The Auckland City Council Quality of Life Survey in 2014 found more than half of the suburb's residents feel unsafe at night. Tollestrup said he was wary of labelling the latest incidents as part of an economic problem or a clash of cultures. "It's really just criminal behaviour of young teens, and it's totally unacceptable." * Stuff.co.nz's Auckland readers can now sign up to get the day's major news sent directly to their smartphones using WhatsApp. Click here for more details.

Share. It helps build the story of the expansion pack. It helps build the story of the expansion pack. Prepare yourselves, Starcraft fans, for a new digital comic book featuring everyone’s favorite Protoss, Artanis. The free eight-page story, by writers Matt Burns and James Waugh and artists Edouard Guiton and Emanuele Tenderini, will be released on October 20 and will help lead into the Legacy of the Void expansion pack for Starcraft II (which hits November 10). We’ve got a sneak peak into the comic, titled Artanis: Sacrifice, before it hits next Tuesday. Take a look: The comic is one of several other lead-ins to LotV. There’s also some free short stories on Battle.net and a video short called Reclamation (watch below). Exit Theatre Mode If you’re looking for the right order to read them in, the chronology goes like this: the short stories, the comic, the Reclamation video short, and then all that brings us to the opening cinematic of the game (also below). Exit Theatre Mode Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Lady Gaga are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Paralyzing injuries suffered by a 16-year-old Twin Cities hockey player Friday are renewing calls to reduce the level of physical contact in youth hockey and teach young skaters how to play the game without hurting themselves or others. Jack Jablonski has regained slight movement in his right arm and shoulders, but still cannot move his legs, a physician said Monday. The Benilde-St. Margaret's sophomore was checked headfirst into the boards during a junior varsity tournament game in St. Louis Park. "This is a very serious spinal cord injury," said Dr. Tina Slusher, who is caring for Jablonski in Hennepin County Medical Center's intensive-care unit. "We are worried because he isn't moving more at this time. You can't say absolutely where we're going to be six weeks, six months down the road, but it is very worrisome." Slusher said Jablonski's spinal cord was severed at the neck and two vetebrae were fractured. The teen's long-term prognosis will be clearer after spinal fusion surgery this week and his recovery over the next six weeks. The severe injury heightens concern about the level of contact in youth hockey and, specifically, about any hockey parent's nightmare: the check from behind that sends athletes flying into the boards. Injury risk is so high from such contact that youth hockey jerseys now have "STOP" signs on the back to remind players not to hit from behind. USA Hockey, which has banned all checking for the youngest players, extended that rule this season to players ages 11 and 12. "This is one of the reasons why USA Hockey legislated checking out of peewee hockey," said Lou Nanne, a former NHL player and general manager considered by many to be the dean of Minnesota hockey. "For all those people who wonder why, now you know why.'' Nanne visited Jablonski on Monday along with Nanne's son, who once coached the youth, and his grandson, who played on a team with Jablonski last summer. A red sea of Benilde teammates and visitors streamed to and from Jablonski's room at HCMC on Monday. College and NHL hockey players nationwide sent their prayers and hopes. "We need a miracle right now. We need prayers," said Jablonski's mother, Leslie. Jack's father, Mike Jablonski, described his own reaction to the incident. "Anybody ... who's ever had a son who played hockey or football, when your son goes down in that type of situation, you say, 'OK, get up.'" But the teen didn't. His father raced down to the ice and crouched close to his son. "Dad," the boy told him, "I can't feel anything." Permissive sport? Jablonski's parents said they don't believe the checks were malicious, and they offered support to the Wayzata players, including one who had been a teammate of their son. "What we're dealing with is beyond belief," said Leslie Jablonski, "but I can imagine what they're dealing with, as well, and it's something they'll never forget. Our heart goes out to them and their families." The Jablonskis and the Benilde coaches nonetheless criticized a permissive hockey culture that allows dangerous levels of contact to persist. "We have the rules against checking from behind. We just have to apply them better," said Ken Pauly, head varsity coach for Benilde-St. Margaret's. "We have to start from a young age. Just like taking a stick and slashing a player across the face is unthinkable, we have to make checking from behind unthinkable." Witnesses said the injury wasn't due to a dramatic shove in the back. Wayzata's junior varsity head coach, Duke Johnson, called it an "odd" play. "It wasn't a booming hit," he said. "Was it a check from behind? Yes," Johnson added. "Did our kid take eight strides and then hit him? No." The Wayzata player got a five-minute major penalty for boarding, which meant his team skated a player short for that time. He also got a 10-minute major penalty, which would bench him for that length of time, and was disqualified from the rest of the game, apparently because the play resulted in an injury. Jablonski is a talented athlete who made varsity tennis as a freshman and pitches on a traveling baseball team. He normally played on Benilde's varsity team, but was moved down for the JV tournament to get extra ice time. Keith Hendrickson, an amateur scout for the Buffalo Sabres NHL team, was at the tournament Thursday. He was angered to learn of Jablonski's injury on Friday because, he said, he had seen similar hits Thursday -- including some that didn't draw penalties. "There's a big difference between hitting and checking, and there is more malicious hitting going on in the last year," said Hendrickson, who resigned last spring after 25 years behind the Virginia/Mt. Iron-Buhl bench. "Nobody condones it, but all I hear from coaches is, 'Body! Body! Body!'''

2014-2015 season’s first Jumeirah Cruisin meet at Bikers Cafe packed out with hot metal By Shahzad Sheikh Early this evening we went down to check out Bikers Cafe Jumeirah Cruisin first meet of the 2014-2015 season, and it got off to a great start, packed out an hour before the official start time of 6pm. In total around 100 cars showed up. So if you didn’t get there on time, you wouldn’t get in – as evidence by the fact that I had to ditch the Porsche 911 Targa that I took along, around the corner! But what a feast of cool metal on display! From hot rods to classic American metal, with a large representation of rear-engined bugs and porkers, plus a small army of classic minis, race cars and others, and of course loads of cool bikes. Check out our album to see some of the highlights of the event on Jumeirah Beach Road in Dubai. Next one probably in December. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for info (facebook.com/MotoringMiddleEast) – make sure you turn on notifications, or you might miss the post!

In previous posts we have looked at using a “cluster” for deploying docker swarm on top of photon controller. Of course, deploying docker swarm via the cluster management construct may not be what some customers wish to do, so now we have full support for “docker-machine” on photon controller as well. This will allow you to create your own docker swarm clusters using instructions provided by Docker. In this post, we will look at getting you started with building the docker-machine driver plugin, setting up Photon Controller, and then the setup needed to allow the deploying of docker-machine on Photon Controller. You can find the software and additional information on github. *** Please note that at the time of writing, Photon Controller is still not GA *** Step 1 – Prep Ubuntu In this scenario, I am using Ubuntu VM. There are the commands to prep that distro for the docker-machine driver plugin for photon controller: apt-get update apt-get install docker.io => install Docker apt-get install golang => Install the GO programming language apt-get install genisoimage => needed for mkisofs Step 2 – Build docker-machine and the docker-machine driver plugin Download and build the photon controller plugin for docker-machine. You can do this by first setting the environment variable GOPATH, and then running “go get github.com/vmware/docker-machine-photon-controller”. I simply set GOPATH to a newly created directory called /GO, cd /GO and then running the go get. Once the code is downloaded, change directory to the “src/github.com/vmware/docker-machine-photon-contoller” directory and then run the “make build” command. This creates the binary in the bin directory. Finally run the command “make install” which copies the binary to the /usr/local/bin directory. Next step is to build the docker-machine binary. The source has been pulled down earlier with the go get command, but you will need to change directory to “src/github.com/docker/machine” and run “make build” and “make install”. Note that you do not run the docker-machine-photon-controller binary directly. It is called when the “docker-machine create” command with -d option is run, which you will see shortly. Verify that the “docker-machine” is working by running it and getting the “usage” output. Step 3 – Get Photon Controller ready You have to do the usual stuff with Photon Controller, such as creating a tenant, project, image, and so on. I won’t repeat the steps here as they have been covered in multiple posts already, such as this one here on Docker Swarm. The image I am using in this example is Debian 8.2 which you can get from the bintray here. There are some additional steps required for docker-machine, and these are the requirement to have disk and VM flavors. These are the flavors I created: > photon flavor create -k vm -n DockerFlavor -c "vm 1.0 COUNT, vm.flavor.core-100 1.0 COUNT, vm.cpu 1.0 COUNT, vm.memory 2.0 GB, vm.cost 1.0 COUNT" > photon flavor create -k ephemeral-disk -n DockerDiskFlavor -c "ephemeral-disk 1.0 COUNT, ephemeral-disk.flavor.core-100 1.0 COUNT, ephemeral-disk.cost 1.0 COUNT" Note the names of the flavors, as we will need to reference these shortly. OK. We’re now ready to create a docker-machine on this photon controller setup. Step 4 – Setup ENV, get RSA key, create cloud-init.iso Back on my Ubuntu VM, I need to set a bunch of environment variables that reflect my Photon Controller config. These are what I need to set up: export PHOTON_DISK_FLAVOR=DockerDiskFlavor export PHOTON_VM_FLAVOR=DockerFlavor export PHOTON_PROJECT=a1b993e6-3838-43f7-b4fa-3870cdc0ea76 export PHOTON_ENDPOINT=http://10.27.44.34 export PHOTON_IMAGE=21a0cbf6-5a03-4d2c-919c-ccf6ea9c432b

Experts tell us that as parents, we need to take time to nurture ourselves as well as our families. That sounds wonderful, but with all that we do, who has the time? When do we fit in meditation, yoga, or even a hot, uninterrupted bath? But what if you discovered something that takes only 15 minutes a day, costs next to nothing, yet reaps enormous personal benefits? Studies prove that expressive writing, or “journaling,” improves both physical and mental health. All you need is paper, pen, and a short window every day. Scientific studies show that people who write in journals report less anxiety, have decreased chronic pain, experience improved immune function, and even visit the doctor less often. Dr. James W. Pennebaker, a pioneer in the study of expressive writing and its effects on health wrote, “People who engage in expressive writing report feeling happier and less negative than before writing. Similarly, reports of depressive symptoms, rumination, and general anxiety tend to drop in the weeks and months after writing about emotional upheavals.” (Writing To Heal.) No one really knows exactly why journaling works. One theory is that putting feelings into words on a page helps the brain to better process emotions. Writing also helps to organize thoughts and bring order to a problem or situation. It’s sort of like talking through a problem with a friend, except that you don’t need to worry about what your journal thinks of what you are saying. The most benefit was found in people who wrote about traumatic or painful experiences, rather than everyday musings. Morning pages Don’t have any trauma to write about? You might not suffer from any major issues, but we all have stuff. Writing daily can de-clutter your brain. Most of us have long mental to-do lists and nagging worries running through our heads. This type of brain clutter can get in the way of our peace of mind. In her landmark book, The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends a tool that she calls “morning pages.” This is simply writing three pages in a notebook, longhand, every morning. She says to write whatever comes into your mind, just keep your hand moving across the page. By keeping your hand in motion, writing becomes a form of meditation. Sarah Ban Breathnach recommends a similar journaling practice which she calls a “daily dialogue.” In her book, Simple Abundance, she compares her daily dialogue to having a conversation with herself on paper, or a “check in” with her authentic self. “What I was doing was not so much recording the events of my life as much as eliminating the mental minutia that was depleting my creative energy and driving me crazy,” Ban Breathnach writes. Whether you call it meditation, therapy, or de-cluttering, it’s easy to begin. Choose a medium that is not intimidating, such as a spiral or composition notebook. If you buy a pretty journal, you might feel obligated to write beautiful prose — which is not the point of this exercise. Set aside 15 minutes each day for this practice. Write continuously for the entire time, and don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, or even if it’s legible. Don’t censor your thoughts or feelings — you can always shred the pages afterwards. In fact, write as if you plan to destroy your pages. That way you will be less inhibited. You may choose to keep pages to look at later — or not — it’s completely up to you. Although Pennebaker allowed typing or talking into a tape recorder in his studies, Cameron believes that writing longhand is more effective, even if typing is faster. “Writing by hand is like walking somewhere, instead of whizzing there in the car,” wrote Cameron in the book The Vein of Gold. “We notice landmarks.” And remember, this isn’t English class! You don’t have to be especially creative or know how to diagram verbs to gain the benefits of journaling. If you don’t have anything in particular that is bothering you, just put the pen to paper and take down whatever comes into your head. Writing quickly and expressively can help to tap into your subconscious. After a few days, you might be surprised at what starts to pop up on your pages. For more information check out: Dr. James W. Pennebaker; Julia Cameron's Morning Pages; The health benefits of journaling A Journal for Everyone Still not sure what to say? Try one of these nontraditional journals: List Journal: You can find these online and in bookstores. Each page contains a prompt to make a list. List things like your five greatest fears, or your five favorite smells. List Your Self by Ilene Segalove is one example. Collage Journal: This requires no more than an artist’s sketchbook or notebook made of heavy paper, scissors, glue stick and a stack of magazines to cut up. Go back to your childhood as you cut and paste images that appeal to you. If you would like to purchase a journal made specifically for this purpose, try The Illustrated Discovery Journal by Sarah Ban Breathnach. Smash by K&Company: This fun journal contains prompts, pockets and a cool tool that is a pen on one end, and glue stick on the other. The pockets are great for storing clippings and other paraphernalia that you plan to use later. You could, for example, paste in a movie ticket stub, and then write about the movie you saw and how you enjoyed the outing. This brand also offers tons of fun accessories available for purchase. Art Journal: This one is pure play! You can make an art journal out of just about anything, but an artist’s sketchbook works well because the heavier paper can take paint. In an art journal you can doodle, paint, paste and even sew on the pages. Even the most non-artistic person can do a multimedia collage. Adding text is optional, you don’t have to write a thing! For a basic overview of art journaling check here. Q&A a Day Journal: There are many versions of these available online. Most have 365 pages, each containing a question. You answer the question by writing in the journal and leave space to repeat the exercise on the same date the next year. After a few years, this result in an interesting view of your growth over time. Example: Q&A a Day Five Year Journal by Potter Style.

The Twitterati are only too happy to take their private moments public. But Silicon Valley's technical wizards are whispering to one another over lunch that the the federal intelligence apparatus wants more, and is taking it. (Update: Twitter denies) Whoever is seeding the restaurant gossip is being fairly specific. A source tells us that a loose-lipped Twitter staffer recently dished at a lunch that the company has allowed a federal agency to set up a tap to monitor a "firehose" of its data, including private details on users, presumably including private "direct messages," IP addresses and account information. The Feds — the NSA would seem the most logical agency —then analyze the data to mine for information they deem of interest. Twitter, it is said, is one of only a handful of internet companies large enough for the Feds to bother setting up such monitoring. We called and emailed Twitter's PR department and the company's director of operations, and have not yet heard back. (Update: See below.) But it's hard to imagine the microblogging company would be happy about such an arrangement. The San Francisco company's top two executives, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, live in SF and Berkeley, respectively, and show every sign of having absorbed the Bay Area's left-field, anti-establishment culture. Of course, the men are also capitalists with a startup to get rich off. But federal monitoring looks no better from that vantage: Twitter has trouble enough running its servers without worrying about maintaining some kind of firehose tap; the company's techno-elite and Hollywood users, meanwhile, would surely lash back hard at cooperation with the NSA, a risky proposition for a young company that has yet to turn a profit. Whether the Valley lunch chatter is accurate or not, Twitter is bound to interact more and more with law enforcement as the volume of direct messages goes up and as public Twitter streams are woven deeper into people's sometimes tumultuous lives. The takeaway for users is even more straightforward: If the NSA or your local police department might get the wrong idea about you message, don't put it anywhere on Twitter. The only truly direct message goes from one person's mouth to another's ear. And even that can end up on the internet. (Speaking of which: If you've heard anything about this, we'd love to hear from you.) UPDATE: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone writes: There is absolutely no element of truth to this allegation whatsoever. (Pic: EFF via hughelectronic)

An F# linter runs as you modify your source code to try to highlight code that could possibly be improved. The linter can be turned off from the F# Power Tools general settings where it is listed as FSharpLint Integration . When a broken lint rule is discovered the first two characters of the code in question are underlined in orange, a mouse-over of these characters will show the lint's suggestion in a tooltip: Each rule can be turned off in the F# Power Tools lint settings under the Rules tab, the checkboxes indicate whether a rule is enabled/disabled. Some rules are grouped in a collection under an analyser, disabling the analyser will disable all of its rules, to enable/disable specific rules expand the analyser to view its rules: Some rules and analysers have additional settings, these can be viewed and updated by selecting the rule/analyser: Hints in the linter provide a way for new rules to easily be added by modifying the configuration alone. They are written in a DSL that appears as a subset of F#, in the format of match expression ===> suggest expression or suggest message . Further documentation on writing hints. Under the Hints tab in the F# Power Tools lint settings existing hints can be viewed, and new hints can be added. When adding a new hints it will be parsed to check for any errors before adding it to the configuration, if the hint could not be parsed the textbox will be highlighted red and a mouse-over will show the parse error. Lint settings are all stored on disk on a per directory basis, lint setting changes from within F# Power Tools will be written out to a lint configuration file titled Settings.FSharpLint . The directory the settings are written to will attempt to default to a directory common to all open projects; under the Files tab you can choose to view/modify the settings for another directory - when you change directory any outstanding changes will be saved. When the lint runs it picks up the settings from the directory the source file is in and its ancestors, the settings in subdirectories taking precedence over any settings found in ancestor directories - this enables solution wide settings which can be overridden with project specific settings.

IDEAS Hale is a Democratic politician from Tennessee; he has been a Catholic nonprofit executive and helped lead faith outreach for President Barack Obama. As goes the Catholic vote, so goes the nation? It sure seems that way. Catholics have voted for the winner of the popular vote in almost every presidential election since Franklin D. Roosevelt. (They just didn’t like Ike in ’52). Whether it’s the Church’s claim on the Holy Spirit or just plain dumb luck, it’s clear that winning the Catholic vote is a crucial part to becoming President of the United States. Donald Trump doesn’t seem to get that. In February, Trump attacked the wildly popular Pope Francis as being “disgraceful” and a “political pawn.” Perhaps that helps explain why Hillary Clinton holds a remarkable seventeen-point lead (56% to 39%) against Trump among Catholics. Among Latino Catholics, the margin balloons to fifty-one points (77% to 16%). So could it get any worse for Trump among Catholics? Absolutely. And it did. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now Trump’s selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence is his latest step in creating what is perhaps the most anti-Catholic GOP presidential ticket in modern history. This is a remarkable turn from 2012, where Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan made a very strong play to the Catholic community throughout the campaign. While introducing Pence as his vice president on Saturday, Trump said he and Pence were both fighters, and that together they would both fight for the religious liberty of Christians in the United States. Pence’s record suggests otherwise. Mike Pence definitely fights hard. But for Christians? Not so much. He fought hard against Pope Francis and the Catholic Church’s attempt to resettle Syrian refugees in Indiana. Citing security concerns after last November’s Paris attacks, Pence tried to pressure the local Catholic Charities into longer welcoming and housing refugees fleeing violence and terrorism in the Middle East. However, Joseph Tobin, Indianapolis’s archbishop, courageously defied the governor’s orders. Tobin said at the time that welcoming refugees “is an essential part of our identity as Catholic Christians, and we will continue this life-saving tradition.” Republicans too have been troubled by Pence’s record on religious liberty. Conservative intellectual David French just accused Pence of throwing religious liberty “under the bus” during his tenure as governor. Donald Trump says when he’s President, Christianity will have power again in the United States. “Christians don’t use their power,” Trump has complained. “We have to strengthen. Because we are getting—if you look, it’s death by a million cuts—we are getting less and less and less powerful in terms of a religion, and in terms of a force.” In typical Trump fashion, he thinks this starts in the marketplace: “I’ll tell you one thing: I get elected president, we’re going to be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ [at department stores] again.” He continued, “Because if I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power. You don’t need anybody else. You’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.” With due respect, Christians do need someone else. Donald Trump doesn’t get it. The heart of Christian “power” isn’t strength and visibility in the public sphere. The central claim of Christianity itself has always been that the rejected, crucified and executed Jesus Christ is somehow Lord of the entire earth. In Trump’s world, those like Christ are the losers. In God’s world, those are the victors. Christian power is derived from our ability to communicate and practice God’s saving love in the invisible spheres of society. Saying “Merry Christmas” at the department store might win an empty-shell public-relations battle, but it does nothing to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If Donald Trump and Mike Pence and Hillary Clinton and her running mate want to fight for Christian values, then ensure this is a nation that fights for God’s dreams of a place where the last are first, the poor are blessed, and enemies are loved. Want to be a champion for the Christian cause? Make sure that this is a nation where mercy reigns supreme, a country where black lives matter, where LGBT lives matter, and so too do the lives of refugees, the imprisoned, the unborn and anyone else who suffers dehumanization, exclusion and injustice. Of course, this is a great way to get a ticket into heaven. But if the last seventy years of American politics mean anything as well, it’s a great way to stamp your ticket to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as well—in short, a win-win. Contact us at editors@time.com.

A livid Gov. Chris Christie blamed Speaker of the House John Boehner and congressional Republicans for the “continued suffering” of victims of Hurricane Sandy on Wednesday after the House failed to bring relief aid legislation up for vote before the session ended. “There is only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: The House majority and their speaker, John Boehner,” Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, in an afternoon news conference. Christie noted in his remarks that it has been 66 days since the devastating storm and “the wait continues” for Congress to pass an aid package. The House adjourned Tuesday night. “Last night, the House of Representatives failed that most basic test of public service and they did so with callous indifference to the suffering of the people of my state,” Christie said. Responding to an email from The Daily Caller, Boehner spokesman Michael Steele said, “The speaker is committed to getting this bill passed this month.” Christie’s press conference came before Boehner was scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon with the Republican members of the New York and New Jersey congressional delegations. Boehner is telling those members that he plans to make the aid package his “first priority” in the new Congress. But Christie was steamed it hasn’t happened already, blaming the delay on “the toxic, internal politics of the House majority.” “Sixty-six days and counting,” Christie said. “Shame on you. Shame on Congress.” Christie said he had been “given assurances by everyone” as late as Tuesday night that the package would be done. “All I can tell you this: It was the speaker’s decision,” Christie said. “His alone.” Christie said he was “given no explanation” when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called him after 11 P.M. on Tuesday and told him the vote was pulled by Boehner. “I called the speaker four times last night after 11:20 and he did not take my calls,” Christie said. While he had harsh words for Boehner, he expressed gratitude for Cantor. “I have to tell you that I think that Eric was working as hard as he could to get this done for us throughout the weekend and early part of this week,” he said. But Christie wouldn’t get specific when asked what internal politics involving the Capitol Hill Republicans he believed had caused Boehner to delay a vote. “I think you’ve seen a lot of palace intrigue down there and, unfortunately, folks are putting politics ahead of their responsibilities,” Christie said. Follow Alex on Twitter

This holiday season, the American Humanist Association has launched a campaign featuring ads on Washington, D.C., buses that proclaim, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.” But a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project found that a majority of Americans say it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values. People in Canada and many Western European countries are much less likely to hold this view, while throughout much of Africa, Asia and the Middle East there is widespread agreement that belief in God is a prerequisite for morality. For the complete 46-country comparison, see the full report at pewglobal.org. Data from the Pew Global Attitudes Project. Exact question wording available in the full report.

If you struggle with self-destructive (dysregulated) behavior, you probably have tried numerous methods aimed at stopping the behavior. You may not have understood how the methods were supposed to work to help you stop the behavior - or even known whether the methods had any actual evidence of effectiveness. You also may not have understood why you had so much trouble resisting the behavior in the first place. However, giving up dysregulated behavior is extremely difficult in the best of conditions. This difficulty can increase if you do not: understand why you find the behavior so compelling, or understand how your chosen method is supposed to work at stopping the behavior (or even know if the method has any evidence of effectiveness). This post is part of a series that will provide evidenced-backed explanations of: why some people find dysregulated behaviors almost impossible to resist, and how can address dysregulated behavior.(You can read previous posts here and here.) The explanations are oversimplified due to space limitations, but they provide a general idea. A review: Dysregulated behavior may help “turn off" uncomfortable emotions, but it is like putting an airtight lid on a pot of boiling water. The steam and pressure (emotions) continue to build – until you may feel almost-constant pressure. Eventually the pot will explode, and then emotions and urges will feel even more intolerable. In contrast, mindfulness practice involves purposeful awareness of and to the present moment – including emotions and (possibly) cravings/urges. Therefore, mindfulness is like poking a hole in the lid of the boiling pot – decreasing the pressure and intensity of the emotions and urges. Today’s post focuses on a second way mindfulness can help decrease dysregulated behaviors. (Warning: I will be mixing metaphors.) Remember: Mindfulness practice involves purposely experiencing and tolerating current emotions, thoughts, sensations, and urges/cravings. Therefore, mindfulness helps a person build emotional muscles. For example: If you gave me a 40-pound box and told me to carry it around everywhere I went, my muscles would feel exhausted by the end of the day and painful for the next several days, because I’m not used to lifting weights. But if I went to the gym and engaged in regular weight training - and then you gave me a 40-pound box and told me I had to carry it around everywhere I went, I still wouldn’t enjoy the experience. (You wouldn’t be one of my favorite people.) But I could carry the box around without feeling exhausted, and without being in pain the next day or the day after. Even though the box weighed exactly the same as it had before, it would feel as though it were much lighter and easier to carry. Because my muscles would be stronger - strong enough that I could carry the weight without it causing additional pain or keeping me from living my life. Let’s face it: We all experience unpleasant emotions – whether they be boredom, irritation, , , and/or sadness -- on a fairly regular basis. Mindfulness practice can help you build your emotional muscles, so unpleasant emotions and urges feel less “heavy” – or, in other words, less exhausting, less disruptive, and easier to handle. When emotions feel less draining and easier to handle, you can experience emotions, cravings, and urges without feeling compelled to engage in dysregulated behaviors that can often: lead you to feel even worse about yourself afterward, and cause the unpleasant emotions to increase in the long run. Instead, you can experience the emotions without straining your metaphorical muscles. You can let the emotions pass without feeling depleted or distressed afterwards. I must add a disclaimer. The above explanation may make the process sound easier than it is. Mindfulness is not magic. Mindfulness is everywhere these days, and its effects have often been misunderstood and/or exaggerated – to the point that some people think mindfulness is a cure-all, and others feel irritated when they even hear (read) the word. Please note that these posts only contain information backed by research. Mindfulness practice will NOT give you the power to stop a dysregulated behavior without feeling cravings/urges. Sometimes these cravings/urges may even feel excruciating – at least at first. Mindfulness also doesn’t exist in a void. Your odds of success will usually increase with the help of a qualified mental- professional, as well as support from important others and/or a support group. To summarize, mindfulness can help: release steam from the boiling pot (decrease chronic pressure and help unpleasant emotions/cravings feel less intense and overwhelming), and build emotional muscles (help emotions/cravings feel less exhausting, more tolerable, and easier to handle). Upcoming posts will discuss additional methods through which mindfulness can help decrease dysregulated behavior. Until then, remember: overcoming dysregulated behavior may often feel overwhelming and excruciating, and you deserve to understand how (and if) methods aimed at stopping the behavior actually work. *Special thanks to Rakhel Shapiro, Martin Viola, Qian Li, and Amanda Reed for their contributions to this series.

The inside of the MiniBooNE neutrino detector A neutrino detector is a physics apparatus which is designed to study neutrinos. Because neutrinos only weakly interact with other particles of matter, neutrino detectors must be very large to detect a significant number of neutrinos. Neutrino detectors are often built underground, to isolate the detector from cosmic rays and other background radiation.[1] The field of neutrino astronomy is still very much in its infancy – the only confirmed extraterrestrial sources so far as of 2018 are the Sun and the supernova 1987A in the nearby Large Magellenic Cloud. Another likely source (3 standard deviations [2]) is the blazar TXS 0506+056 about 3.7 billion light years away. Neutrino observatories will "give astronomers fresh eyes with which to study the universe."[3] Various detection methods have been used. Super Kamiokande is a large volume of water surrounded by phototubes that watch for the Cherenkov radiation emitted when an incoming neutrino creates an electron or muon in the water. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is similar, but uses heavy water as the detecting medium. Other detectors have consisted of large volumes of chlorine or gallium which are periodically checked for excesses of argon or germanium, respectively, which are created by neutrinos interacting with the original substance. MINOS uses a solid plastic scintillator watched by phototubes; Borexino uses a liquid pseudocumene scintillator also watched by phototubes; and the NOνA detector uses a liquid scintillator watched by avalanche photodiodes. The proposed acoustic detection of neutrinos via the thermoacoustic effect is the subject of dedicated studies done by the ANTARES, IceCube, and KM3NeT collaborations. Theory [ edit ] Neutrinos are omnipresent in nature such that every second, tens of billions of them "pass through every square centimetre of our bodies without us ever noticing."[4] Many were created during the big bang and others are generated by nuclear reactions inside stars, planets, and other interstellar processes.[5] Some may also originate from events in the universe such as "colliding black holes, gamma ray bursts from exploding stars, and/or violent events at the cores of distant galaxies," according to speculation by scientists.[6] Despite how common they are, neutrinos are extremely "difficult to detect" due to their low mass and lack of electric charge. Unlike other particles, neutrinos only interact via gravity and the neutral current (involving the exchange of a Z boson) or charged current (involving the exchange of a W boson) weak interactions. As they have only a "smidgen of rest mass" according to the laws of physics, perhaps less than a "millionth as much as an electron,"[1] the gravitational force caused by neutrinos has proven too weak to detect, leaving the weak interaction as the main method for detection: In a neutral current interaction, the neutrino enters and then leaves the detector after having transferred some of its energy and momentum to a target particle. If the target particle is charged and sufficiently light (e.g. an electron), it may be accelerated to a relativistic speed and consequently emit Cherenkov radiation, which can be observed directly. All three neutrino flavors can participate regardless of the neutrino energy. However, no neutrino flavor information is left behind. In a charged current interaction, a high-energy neutrino transforms into its partner lepton (electron, muon, or tau).[7] However, if the neutrino does not have sufficient energy to create its heavier partner's mass, the charged current interaction is unavailable to it. Neutrinos from the sun and from nuclear reactors have enough energy to create electrons. Most accelerator-based neutrino beams can also create muons, and a few can create taus. A detector which can distinguish among these leptons can reveal the flavor of the incident neutrino in a charged current interaction. Because the interaction involves the exchange of a charged boson, the target particle also changes character (e.g., neutron → proton). Detection techniques [ edit ] Scintillators [ edit ] Antineutrinos were first detected near the Savannah River nuclear reactor by the Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment in 1956. Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan used two targets containing a solution of cadmium chloride in water. Two scintillation detectors were placed next to the water targets. Antineutrinos with an energy above the threshold of 1.8 MeV caused charged current "inverse beta-decay" interactions with the protons in the water, producing positrons and neutrons. The resulting positron annihilations with electrons created pairs of coincident photons with an energy of about 0.5 MeV each, which could be detected by the two scintillation detectors above and below the target. The neutrons were captured by cadmium nuclei resulting in delayed gamma rays of about 8 MeV that were detected a few microseconds after the photons from a positron annihilation event. This experiment was designed by Cowan and Reines to give a unique signature for antineutrinos, to prove the existence of these particles. It was not the experimental goal to measure the total antineutrino flux. The detected antineutrinos thus all carried an energy greater 1.8 MeV, which is the threshold for the reaction channel used (1.8 MeV is the energy needed to create a positron and a neutron from a proton). Only about 3% of the antineutrinos from a nuclear reactor carry enough energy for the reaction to occur. A more recently built and much larger KamLAND detector used similar techniques to study oscillations of antineutrinos from 53 Japanese nuclear power plants. A smaller, but more radiopure Borexino detector was able to measure the most important components of the neutrino spectrum from the Sun, as well as antineutrinos from Earth and nuclear reactors. Radiochemical methods [ edit ] Chlorine detectors, based on the method suggested by Bruno Pontecorvo, consist of a tank filled with a chlorine containing fluid such as tetrachloroethylene. A neutrino converts a chlorine-37 atom into one of argon-37 via the charged current interaction. The threshold neutrino energy for this reaction is 0.814 MeV. The fluid is periodically purged with helium gas which would remove the argon. The helium is then cooled to separate out the argon, and the argon atoms are counted based on their electron capture radioactive decays. A chlorine detector in the former Homestake Mine near Lead, South Dakota, containing 520 short tons (470 metric tons) of fluid, was the first to detect the solar neutrinos, and made the first measurement of the deficit of electron neutrinos from the sun (see Solar neutrino problem). A similar detector design, with a much lower detection threshold of 0.233 MeV, uses a gallium → germanium transformation which is sensitive to lower-energy neutrinos. A neutrino is able to react with an atom of gallium-71, converting it into an atom of the unstable isotope germanium-71. The germanium was then chemically extracted and concentrated. Neutrinos were thus detected by measuring the radioactive decay of germanium. This latter method is nicknamed the "Alsace-Lorraine" technique because of the reaction sequence (gallium-germanium-gallium) involved. Gallium and germanium are named after France and Germany, respectively, and ownership of the Alsace-Lorraine territory has historically been a point of contention between France and Germany, thus the nickname of the technique. These radiochemical detection methods are useful only for counting neutrinos; no neutrino direction or energy information is available. The SAGE experiment in Russia used about 50 tons, and the GALLEX/GNO experiments in Italy about 30 tons, of gallium as reaction mass. This experiment is difficult to scale up due to the prohibitive cost of gallium. Larger experiments have therefore turned to a cheaper reaction mass. Cherenkov detectors [ edit ] "Ring-imaging" Cherenkov detectors take advantage of a phenomenon called Cherenkov light. Cherenkov radiation is produced whenever charged particles such as electrons or muons are moving through a given detector medium somewhat faster than the speed of light in that medium. In a Cherenkov detector, a large volume of clear material such as water or ice is surrounded by light-sensitive photomultiplier tubes. A charged lepton produced with sufficient energy and moving through such a detector does travel somewhat faster than the speed of light in the detector medium (although somewhat slower than the speed of light in a vacuum). The charged lepton generates a visible "optical shockwave" of Cherenkov radiation. This radiation is detected by the photomultiplier tubes and shows up as a characteristic ring-like pattern of activity in the array of photomultiplier tubes. As neutrinos can interact with atomic nuclei to produce charged leptons which emit Cherenkov radiation, this pattern can be used to infer direction, energy, and (sometimes) flavor information about incident neutrinos. Two water-filled detectors of this type (Kamiokande and IMB) recorded a neutrino burst from supernova SN 1987A.[8] Scientists detected 19 neutrinos from an explosion of a star inside the Large Magellanic Cloud—only 19 out of the octodecillion (1057) neutrinos emitted by the supernova.[1] The Kamiokande detector was able to detect the burst of neutrinos associated with this supernova, and in 1988 it was used to directly confirm the production of solar neutrinos. The largest such detector is the water-filled Super-Kamiokande. This detector uses 50,000 tons of pure water surrounded by 11,000 photomultiplier tubes buried 1 km underground. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) uses 1,000 tonnes of ultrapure heavy water contained in a 12-metre-diameter vessel made of acrylic plastic surrounded by a cylinder of ultrapure ordinary water 22 metres in diameter and 34 metres high.[7] In addition to the neutrino interactions visible in a regular water detector, a neutrino can break up the deuterium in heavy water. The resulting free neutron is subsequently captured, releasing a burst of gamma rays that can be detected. All three neutrino flavors participate equally in this dissociation reaction. The MiniBooNE detector employs pure mineral oil as its detection medium. Mineral oil is a natural scintillator, so charged particles without sufficient energy to produce Cherenkov light still produce scintillation light. Low-energy muons and protons, invisible in water, can be detected. An illustration of the Antares neutrino detector deployed under water. Located at a depth of about 2.5 km in the Mediterranean Sea, the ANTARES (Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch) is fully operational since May 30, 2008. Consisting of an array of twelve separate 350-meter-long vertical detector strings 70 meters apart, each with 75 photomultiplier optical modules, this detector uses the surrounding sea water as the detector medium. The next generation deep sea neutrino telescope KM3NeT will have a total instrumented volume of about 5 km3. The detector will be distributed over three installation sites in the Mediterranean. Implementation of the first phase of the telescope was started in 2013. The Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) operated from 1996 to 2004. This detector used photomultiplier tubes mounted in strings buried deep (1.5–2 km) inside Antarctic glacial ice near the South Pole. The ice itself is the detector medium. The direction of incident neutrinos is determined by recording the arrival time of individual photons using a three-dimensional array of detector modules each containing one photomultiplier tube. This method allows detection of neutrinos above 50 GeV with a spatial resolution of approximately 2 degrees. AMANDA was used to generate neutrino maps of the northern sky to search for extraterrestrial neutrino sources and to search for dark matter. AMANDA has been upgraded to the IceCube observatory, eventually increasing the volume of the detector array to one cubic kilometer.[9] Radio detectors [ edit ] The Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment uses antennas to detect Cherenkov radiation from high-energy neutrinos in Antarctica. The Antarctic Impulse Transient Antenna (ANITA) is a balloon-borne device flying over Antarctica and detecting Askaryan radiation produced by ultra-high-energy neutrinos interacting with the ice below. Tracking calorimeters [ edit ] Tracking calorimeters such as the MINOS detectors use alternating planes of absorber material and detector material. The absorber planes provide detector mass while the detector planes provide the tracking information. Steel is a popular absorber choice, being relatively dense and inexpensive and having the advantage that it can be magnetised. The NOνA proposal suggests eliminating the absorber planes in favor of using a very large active detector volume. The active detector is often liquid or plastic scintillator, read out with photomultiplier tubes, although various kinds of ionisation chambers have also been used. Tracking calorimeters are only useful for high-energy (GeV range) neutrinos. At these energies, neutral current interactions appear as a shower of hadronic debris and charged current interactions are identified by the presence of the charged lepton's track (possibly alongside some form of hadronic debris.) A muon produced in a charged current interaction leaves a long penetrating track and is easy to spot. The length of this muon track and its curvature in the magnetic field provide energy and charge ( μ− versus μ+ ) information. An electron in the detector produces an electromagnetic shower which can be distinguished from hadronic showers if the granularity of the active detector is small compared to the physical extent of the shower. Tau leptons decay essentially immediately to either pions or another charged lepton and cannot be observed directly in this kind of detector. (To directly observe taus, one typically looks for a kink in tracks in photographic emulsion.) Coherent Recoil Detector [ edit ] At low energies, a neutrino can scatter from the entire nucleus of an atom, rather than the individual nucleons, in a process known as "Coherent Neutral Current Neutrino-Nucleus Elastic Scattering".[10] This effect has been used to make an extremely small neutrino detector.[11][12][13] Unlike most other detection methods, coherent scattering does not depend on the flavor of the neutrino. Background suppression [ edit ] Most neutrino experiments must address the flux of cosmic rays that bombard the Earth's surface. The higher-energy (>50 MeV or so) neutrino experiments often cover or surround the primary detector with a "veto" detector which reveals when a cosmic ray passes into the primary detector, allowing the corresponding activity in the primary detector to be ignored ("vetoed"). For lower-energy experiments, the cosmic rays are not directly the problem. Instead, the spallation neutrons and radioisotopes produced by the cosmic rays may mimic the desired signals. For these experiments, the solution is to place the detector deep underground so that the earth above can reduce the cosmic ray rate to acceptable levels. Telescopes [ edit ] Neutrino detectors can be aimed at astrophysics observations, many astrophysics events being believed to emit neutrinos. Underwater neutrino telescopes: Under-ice neutrino telescopes: AMANDA (1996–2009, superseded by IceCube) IceCube (2004 on) [3] DeepCore and PINGU, an existing extension and a proposed extension of IceCube Underground neutrino observatories: Miscellaneous: GALLEX (1991–1997; ended) Tauwer experiment (construction date to be determined) See also [ edit ] References [ edit ]

On nearly any post about Ubuntu, or Linux in general, the Ubuntu derivative Linux Mint is offered as an alternative, or comes up (multiple times) as a recommendation in the comments. What sets Mint apart? Blogger (and obvious Linux lover) Jeff Hoogland makes five cases for Mint over Ubuntu. The default software picks (Pidgin over Empathy, Thunderbird included), the graphical look, and the general ease of use for newcomers used to Windows are all valid considerations, but we'd consider the default inclusion of "restricted" stuff like MP3 codecs, Java, and Flash to be the true killer app for beginners. What puts Mint over Ubuntu in your mind, or vice-versa? [Thoughts on Technology] Five Best Linux Distributions There are many, many Linux distributions, and a lot of unique reasons to like them. Read on to see… Read more Read

CLOSE The Islamic State claims pre-Christmas suicide bombing of Pakistan church Video provided by AFP Newslook Tourists stroll on Pier 39 at San Francisco Fisherman Wharf Oct. 18, 2017. (Photo11: Daniel Slim, AFP/Getty Images) A former U.S. Marine and expert marksman was charged Friday in a foiled ISIS-inspired attack planned for Christmas on San Francisco's Pier 39, according to federal court documents. Everitt Aaron Jameson, a Muslim convert living in Modesto, Calif., cited President Trump's decision to name Jerusalem the capital of Israel as one of his reasons behind the plot on the famed pier, which the FBI says would have included explosives and guns. Former Marine sharpshooter Everitt Aaron Jameson busted in attempted terror attack at Pier 39. Fellow ISIS supporters turned out to be #FBI employees. @FBISacramento@EDCAnews 4,5,6p @KTVUpic.twitter.com/nRhLarOWkm — Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) December 22, 2017 Jameson first attracted FBI attention after the agency received a tip that he'd been interacting with Facebook posts praising the Islamic State, including one showing an image of Santa Claus in New York and a box of dynamite with the words, "We meet at Christmas in New York...soon," a federal affidavit states. An undercover FBI agent talked with Jameson over the Internet. They eventually met in person and talked about Jameson possibly traveling overseas to fight for ISIS or initiating an attack in the U.S., a criminal complaint states. More: U.N. General Assembly repudiates Trump on Jerusalem decision despite his threat of U.S. aid cutoff More: Backlash, protests continue over Trump's Jerusalem decision Court documents show Jameson told the undercover agent he was "well versed" in the Anarchist Cookbook, a book detailing the construction of explosives. The agent told him "to go home and think about what he was saying," the documents say, but Jameson instead said he was ready and wanted to do something similar to recent attacks in New York and San Bernardino, Calif. Jameson told the agent he wanted to place explosives on Pier 39 and use them to corral people toward a location where he could continue killing. He said Christmas at the tourist attraction "was the perfect day to commit the attack," according to the federal court documents. He said he didn't need an escape plan because he "was ready to die," the affidavit states. The agent asked, according to the complaint, whether he could help get any supplies for Jameson, to which he replied that he'd need a rifle, ammunition, powder, tubing, nails and remote detonators. Two days after their meeting, an FBI employee "mistakenly" called Jameson using a Washington, D.C., phone number but hung up when Jameson answered the phone in Arabic. Jameson called back and got the employee's voicemail, federal court documents show. Later that night, according to his arrest report, Jameson told the undercover agent he couldn't talk and "I also don't think I can do this after all. I've reconsidered." Jameson was then arrested and the FBI got search warrants for his home. Jameson left behind a signed letter citing Trump's decision to name Jerusalem the capital of Israel as one of his reasons behind the planned attack, court documents state. Jameson also wrote, "long live ISIL" and said others will continue to attack because "we have penetrated and infiltrated your disgusting country." Trump's Jerusalem decision, which led to violence and several deaths across the Middle East, was repudiated by the United Nations Thursday. The U.N. instead called for the future of Jerusalem to be decided through negotiations between Israel and Palestine, which also sees the city as its capital. Authorities found three firearms and ammunition in his home, court records show. Jameson faces a charge of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Follow Christal Hayes on Twitter: @Journo_Christal Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2Bo6m3A

Danny Ferry, who officially stepped down as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, told ESPN he has mixed emotions about leaving the team but is relieved that he and the franchise can now move forward. Ferry's departure ends a 10-month indefinite leave of absence that followed the release of an audio recording of a conference call with ownership in which Ferry was heard repeating culturally insensitive comments from a scouting report about Miami Heat forward Luol Deng. "I have mixed emotions, but it's good to have the situation resolved and to be moving forward," Ferry told ESPN in his first public comments on the situation since September. "We've been together for three years. I'll miss being part of it. But I'm also happy for the people who are getting opportunities to move forward. So it's mixed emotions for a lot of reasons." ESPN.com's Kevin Arnovitz reported Thursday that Ferry and the team had agreed to a buyout that will pay Ferry more than the remaining balance on the final three years of contract, according to league sources. Danny Ferry stepped down as Hawks general manager, saying, "It's good to have the situation resolved and to be moving forward." Scott Cunningham/NBAE/Getty Images Coach Mike Budenholzer will assume the role of head of basketball operations under the title of team president, while assistant general manager Wes Wilcox will be elevated to general manager, sources said. "I wish the full context of the call was known, but I made a mistake," Ferry said. "Those words [should not have] come out of my mouth. I have to own that and I have." Ferry told ESPN that he considered the possibility of returning to his job at various points throughout the season but "didn't want to be a distraction" for the Hawks, who won 60 games and placed four players on the All-Star team this season, or for Deng. "I deeply regret it," Ferry said. "I'm sorry that Luol's had to hear this in so many ways and so many places all year long. It had to be really hard and frustrating for him. I feel terrible about that. "I'm lucky that he was willing to talk with me. I don't know that I would've. He showed a lot of dignity and forgiveness just to talk to me." ESPN reported this past weekend that the law firm hired by the team -- Alston & Bird LLP -- conducted 19 witness interviews and reviewed the contents of more than 24,000 emails and found no evidence that Ferry's comments on Deng were motivated by bias. On the call, which occurred June 6, 2014, Ferry characterized Deng as a player who "has a little African in him," and added, "He's like a guy who would have a nice store out front and sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back." Ferry has maintained he was reading from a scouting report prepared by a third party. In documents obtained by ESPN over the weekend, Bernard Taylor, the lead investigator for Alston & Bird, supported Ferry's assertion. "We reported the results of our work to the Hawks," Taylor wrote in a letter to Ferry. "In summary, the facts indicated that you repeated comments that were not your own about Mr. Deng from a scouting report during the call, and there was no evidence to indicate that during the call you acted in a manner motivated by negative bias toward Mr. Deng." An overview of the law firm's findings was reported to Atlanta's ownership Sept. 10, although the firm didn't produce a written report. The audio of Ferry's comments on the conference call became public Sept. 11. While the investigation was ongoing, Ferry said it was "hard to work that summer" on free agency and draft preparations. But he was confident the investigation would support his claim that he read from third-party reports and a check of his emails would not yield anything damaging. "I was not cleared of making a mistake," Ferry said. "I had been cleared of racial animus and so on." After the audio of the conference call was made public, Ferry said he was "balled up on the couch for the first few days. I lost a fair amount of weight early on with the stress." Ferry remained on an indefinite leave of absence following Taylor's findings. The team's release and the letter from Taylor were formally written as a condition of the settlement. Ferry had requested a statement to that effect in September. Asked why it wasn't released sooner, Ferry said: "In September, Bernard Taylor gave his findings to the team. So you're going to have to ask them that. "I do know that a guiding principle for everyone in this was the sale. Getting the team up for sale took a lot longer than everyone anticipated. I think initially everyone was hoping to have the sale done quickly, but because it was a struggle to figure out what was actually for sale and getting the team actually up for sale, the team didn't actually go to sale really until January or February. That's not what I was expecting. But it's the way that it unraveled and it certainly pushed everything back for everybody." Entrepreneur Antony Ressler agreed to purchase the team in April for what sources said is $850 million, including debt obligations. The deal is expected to be finalized Wednesday, when the NBA board of governors meets. In his interview with ESPN on Monday, Ferry declined to name who wrote the scouting report he read from during the conference call. "I know you have to ask, but just like a reporter has sources, we have scouting reports that are done under the idea that they're confidential," Ferry said. "I certainly made a mistake, but it's not something that characterizes who I am." Ferry said he has spoken to and apologized to Deng for what was said and for involving him in the situation. In an interview with ESPN's Michael Wallace in February, Deng said he had accepted the apology and challenged Ferry to bring some good from the controversy. "A lot of people experience racism at different times on different terms," Deng said. "It's helped me from a young age to have a tough skin. I've been through a lot where I just look at it and say, 'It's another chapter. We've come out of much worse than this.'" Ferry said he took a trip to Senegal to participate in an NBA-led coaches clinic, and has spoken with prominent African-born NBA players such as Dikembe Mutumbo and Toronto Raptors executive Masai Ujiri to better understand the situation. He also met with former Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson, who had initially been critical of him after hearing the disparaging remarks about Deng. "He really hit away on couple things," Ferry said of his meeting with Johnson. "One, you need to reconcile with Luol. That's really important. Two, stereotypes about people are really harmful and hurtful when you use them. They hurt a large group of individuals." Ferry also met with civil rights leaders in Atlanta. One of those men was former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who subsequently advocated for Ferry to return to the Hawks. "It really is unfortunate," Young told ESPN, when asked about the resolution to the situation. "What I think of the whole situation is that a basketball disagreement ended up being cast as racial. "I think it was totally unfair to characterize his statements as racial. Winning in sports is 90 percent from the neck up. If general managers cannot analyze egos and personalities and talk about the subtleties of a player, they can't do their job. The fact that Danny recommended Luol Deng [as a free agent the Hawks should sign] was in and of itself an indication that there wasn't a racial bias. "Danny's father brought Manute Bol [who, like Deng, is Sudanese] to the NBA. When Danny was 16, he had to drive him around and be his chauffeur." In its release announcing Ferry's departure, the team characterized Ferry's remarks as "a brief portion of a lengthy conference call without team ownership in which Ferry repeated and paraphrased language form a third-party scouting report" and added that later on the call, Ferry "recommended him both personally and professionally and ultimately tried to sign him to the team." The team also said "the investigation revealed no other negative information on Ferry." Ferry has continued to live with his family in Atlanta throughout the year. "Early on I had a lot of anxiety, not just for me but for my family," Ferry told ESPN. "I have five kids, a wife, a dad and a mom. I felt for all of them as well. But I think it's for other people to judge, but hopefully they look at my whole life and my career throughout 30 years in the NBA and the people who have spoken up for me. Hopefully that influences opinions about me and not as much the one mistake." Days before the recording of Ferry became public, an email written by former controlling majority owner Bruce Levenson in 2012 surfaced, in which Levenson expressed concern that large numbers of black spectators at Hawks games were driving away more affluent, middle-aged white suburban fans. The email was found during the investigation of Ferry's remarks. "My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base," Levenson wrote. In response to the turmoil, Levenson and his Washington-based partners put the Hawks up for sale. Levenson has not spoken publicly since the incident. After the initial chaos and controversy, the Hawks went on to have their most successful season ever in Atlanta, losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals. "This season has proved two things," Hawks CEO Steve Koonin said. "First, Danny Ferry is a tremendous GM. Danny was the principal architect of the Hawks' success in Atlanta. From the hiring of Coach Bud to reinventing the roster, Danny's vision has put us in the tremendous place we are today. Danny acted with integrity and professionalism as he guided the organization through important changes over the last few years. "Second, Danny Ferry is not a racist. Danny showed great leadership in stepping aside in the fall so the season could proceed with as few distractions as possible. He has always put the team first despite the great personal difficulties he endured. Now that the team has identified new ownership, the resolution of Danny's contract with existing ownership is appropriate. We wish Danny and his family only the best moving forward."

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any characters depicted. This is a slight AU story. Events will not fully match up with canon. Cover Art: Official commissioned art for this story done by the amazing Noxypep Ren blew into his cupped hands, and rubbed them together, trying to get his warm breath to give feeling back to his hands as he walked through the snow covered forest of Patch. 'Of course she decided to go out when the snow started to pick up' Ren looked around at the snow starting to pile up on the trees rather quickly. He noticed the trail of footprints that stretched out far past his vision was starting to get covered. Thankfully he didn't exactly need the trail he had been following for the past hour and a half. He already knew exactly where Ruby had run off to. 'You know, some of us don't have speed semblances that get us across the island super-fast Ruby, Some of us have to actually walk through the freezing cold.' A shiver ran up his spine. Ren never was a fan of the cold, he always preferred it to be warm and sunny outside. Much better than wading through ankle deep snow, the cold going through his clothes easily. It didn't help that he was alone, no one there to try and help keep his mind off the cold with conversation. All he had was his own thoughts, the echoing sound of the crunching snow beneath his boots, and his own visible breath, which only served to remind him how cold it was. 'Thankfully she is just at the top of this hill.' Speeding up slightly Ren made his way through a thick patch of trees, the sound of snow crunching beneath his feet dying down the closer he got till his walking was near silent. As he passed the last barren tree, a small amount of snow fell off a branch, landing on the shoulder of his jacket, which he was quick to brush off. He came into a small clearing that lead to the ledge of a steep cliff. Running along the edge of the cliff side was a series of seven stone structures. Each an equal distance apart. Ren remembered the first time he had seen this cliff years ago. It used to be a single gravestone for Ruby's mother. Now six more joined it. The rest of their family and close friends had slowly been given gravestones along the cliff as the years had gone on. Ren could see Ruby standing in front of the ornate stone in the center of all the others. Her hair a mix of its normal color and white from the amount of snow tangled in the locks of her hair. 'Looks like she hasn't moved since she got here.' Ren turned his attention to the stone on the far left. Silently walking over he knelt down in front of the stone, a sad smile on his face. 'It has been awhile since my last visit, sorry I didn't bring any flowers this time' Ren ran his fingers over the name and sygiel engraved into the stone. Nora Valkyrie 'I really miss you Nora," It was the way she was always happy that me missed the most. The way she was always bringing everyone up from their lowest downs. Even if it was inappropriate sometimes. He chuckled to himself slightly thinking about all the crazy things Nora would have to say about the events she has missed over the years she has been gone. Ren was happy that Ruby came out here at least once a week, it was one of the main reasons he so quickly decided to look over Ruby whenever she left the base after Ironwood assigned her to have a watcher. Plus already being her teammate just made things easier. Her coming out here gave him all the more reasons to pay Nora a visit. Suddenly Ren didn't feel so cold anymore. Thinking about Nora brought him a warmth that he had only ever felt when he was around her. 'I always end up thinking about ways that I could have done something more to save you, but I can almost never come up with any.' The thought of Ironwood's meeting came back to him. 'Although now it seems like I might finally have an answer, even if it does sound crazy, I have to give it a chance. If it means seeing you again it will all be worth it.' His gaze shifted over to the brunette still standing stock still in the same spot. 'I imagine Ruby feels more strongly about this than I do. She definitely needs it more that is for sure.' A loud, slow exhale of breath to his right brought him out of his thoughts. "How long have you been here Ren?" Standing up he brushed the snow on his knees away, and stole a final glance at the gravestone in front of him. 'I'll come back soon for a more proper visit, I promise to bring flowers next time.' "Not very long, maybe five or so minutes." He wasn't sure exactly how long he had been kneeling next to Nora's grave truth be told. Whenever he came to spend time with her he always lost tracks of how much time had passed. "I didn't hear you this time, you use your semblance? Or did you just avoid the dreaded branch this time?" The question hung in the air for a few seconds before Ren answered. "I guess you'll never know." A sharp exhale of breath was heard from still woman next to him, her visible breath wafting through the air at a steady pace. "Fair enough.' Her voice held a somber tone that he began to notice. For a few moments neither of them spoke, Ren focused at looking at the other gravestones. Next to Nora's was Pyrrha's gravestone, dead flowers from Jaune's last visit still visible from from under the snow lying next to it. Then was Yang's grave, followed by the one Ruby was staring at, the name Blake Belladonna etched into the center of the stone. The final three stones on the other side of Ruby were out of Ren's view, but he knew that they belonged to the rest of Ruby's family Summer, Qrow, and Taiyang. "Why did you jump so quickly to violence with Weiss back there?" he sighed when the questions was only met with silence for several seconds. "She acts like she understands me, and that she is a better person than me because she hasn't done the things I have done. Her high and mighty act pisses me off, it has ever since we met at beacon, especially when she is right and she knows it. Her bringing up Blake when she has no right to just pushed me over the edge." She replied suddenly. "Ruby you can't keep blaming Weiss for Blake's death, it isn't going to make you feel better, you need to move on, especially since you know as well as I do that Blake…" Ruby held up a hand motioning for him to stop. "Please Ren spare me." After being meet with only more silence Ren began to walk over towards the short woman. "Look Ruby…" "She really would be disgusted by me." The sudden statement was a surprise to Ren. Ruby's eyes looked across all the graves in front of her. "They all would be I am sure, the things I have done, the blood I have spilt would no doubt be a disappointment to them," she looked at him for the first time since he got here. "But I don't regret any of it. I think that is the part they would hate the most…" "You know that you can change that right?" Once again he was met with silence. Ruby brushed the snow out of her hair before walking close to Blake's grave, she knelt down in front of it and began whispering something that Ren couldn't quite hear before standing up and walking back toward the treeline. "Come on let go, we have to get ready for our mission tomorrow." she beckoned him with her arm as she walked away. Ren watched her walk through the snow with ease as she made her way toward the treeline. "What will you do if Adam really is there?" Ruby paused mid stride and looked back at him, "Now that is a silly question Ren…" A sadistic smile coming to her face "I am gonna make sure he sufferers, and then I am gonna end his wretched life…Painfully." "Do you think that will really help you get over Blake's death?" Ruby seemed to ponder the question for a bit. "No probably not, but it sure as hell will make me feel a lot better knowing that I was able to sink Crescent Rose deep into his cold black heart, and I got to watch the blood run down my blade as the last flickers of his pitiful life leave his eyes." With that she pulled her hood up and walked off into the trees. 'And anyone who tries to stop me will wish I simply killed them' "Now let's get going." Ren turned to the grave that Ruby had just left, turning back to watch as Ruby walked off. "She has changed so much since your death. She rarely smiles anymore, she is cold and distant to new people, and she never gets involved in any crazy antics like she used to. The girl she used to be has been replaced by someone who only seems to find pleasure on the battlefield. Although today when we learned about this crazy time travel plan I saw something in her I haven't seen in a long time. I'm sure that you are the cause of it, the thought of seeing you again must be giving her some hope." He once again blew into his hands as the cold finally started to bother him again. Putting his hands in his pockets he began to walk toward the tree line after Ruby. "Let's hope that if we do go back that you can help her, cause I have a feeling you are the only one who has any chance to fill the void in her heart Blake." As he walked off he shouted out to the woman in front of him, "Try and not get into anymore fights with Weiss on this mission." He barely heard the "No promises," she replied with. Weiss stared at the white ceiling of the infirmary room she was in, after Jaune had brought her here a doctor immediately took a quick look at her and said she would be fine, gave her a tissue for her bloody nose and then walked out. Now she had been sitting here for ten minutes longer than she needed to, old memories entering her mind. Yang smiled at her, tears streaming down her face, which somehow did not lose its beauty despite it being caked with dried blood and dirt. "Take care of my little sister for me snow angel." she gestured the the unconscious brunette that was being held by Blake behind Weiss. Weiss wanted to argue more than anything, she wanted to pull Yang into the airship with her and not let go, but she knew it wasn't going to happen, Yang was too stubborn to do it, no matter what she did. She nodded her head, tears welling up in here eyes. "I will, I promise." Yang swiftly pulled her into a passionate kiss. Weiss melted into the kiss, as she got lost in the sweet taste of Yang's lips. A warm feeling washed over her as the world around her vanished, no longer was she sitting in an airship in the middle of a war zone, she was simple there in the arms of the woman she loved. Sadly that moment quickly came to an end as Yang broke the kiss before pushing Weiss further into the airship. As she hopped off the metal floor of the ship and back onto the ground she took one last glance at Weiss a giant grin on her face. "I love you." she then hit the side of the airship, signaling the pilot to take off. Before Weiss could reply the side door to the airship was forcibly slammed shut by the soldier next to her and they were airborne, the soft sound of muffled explosions the only thing Weiss could here. The tears that had been building up finally fell free. "I love you too." "Yang." Weiss said, staring at her metal hand opening and closing it. Weiss was breathing heavy, trying to get air back into her lungs, clutching her stumped hand against her chest, trying to apply pressure so the bleeding would stop. Running her now only hand across her face she wiped off a combination of dirt, blood, and sweat. "Weiss" Turning to her right she saw Blake clutching her lower abdomen, blood seeping through the bandages that had quickly been tied around her waist. She turned to Weiss, a serious look on her face. "I need you to throw me in there." Looking over, Weiss saw Ruby fighting Cinder, the intense heat from the fires raging around them offset the cold feeling of the air and snow that surrounded the area that they currently occupied. Behind them she could see Adam had regained consciousness as he grabbed his sword and slowly stalked toward the two fighting individuals. "Blake," She huffed, "If I do this you are going to most likely die you know that right? you are in no shape to go in there and fight." Blake turned and smiled at her, "I know, but this is the only thing I can think of, please do this for me." "Blake you know that I ca…" Blake limped over to her and wrapped her in a tight hug, tears started to flow from Weiss's eyes. "Blake please don't make me do this. We have already lost so many other, we can't lose you as well. Especially not Ruby." "Weiss please, I need you to do this, you know there is no other way. I need to help her." Weiss thought for a minute, the sounds of the fight getting louder and more intense as time passed, a debating in her head as to what the right choice was. Looking over she saw Jaune and Ren helping each other fight some of Cinder's men, both looking ready to just collapse from exhaustion. Finally after what seemed like an eternity she turned to the raven haired woman next to her. "Fine." She tried to keep her voice steady, but failed to keep it from cracking. A sob getting caught in her throat. Blake smiled at her, "Thank you, Weiss." Weiss said nothing as used the last of her aura to prepare a glyph beneath Blake as she looked towards the fight to make sure her aim was where she needed it to be. "Take care of her Weiss." A simple nod was all Weiss could offer Blake as she tried her best to choke back the small sob from escaping her lips. "Yang, I'm sorry I failed you, I failed both of you." Weiss clenched her right hand tight, the sound of the metal of her fingers and palms scraping together could be heard throughout the small white infirmary room. "I didn't take care of her like I said I would, I just let her go off on her own and become a shadow of herself. I can see it in her eyes, the drive and passion that used to be there is gone, replaced with something much more dangerous and menacing." tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I don't think we will ever be able to get her back." "Dont beat yourself up over this again Weiss." a voice interrupted her rant. Looking over, she saw Jaune standing in the doorway of the room, leaning against the frame. He slowly walked over to her and took a seat next to her on the bed she was currently sitting on. "There is nothing you really could have done Weiss, Ruby started being a loner after Blake died, I doubt she would have let you close again, hell the only reason Ren got so 'close' is probably because he is the only person she can relate to, they both have lost everything." He rested his hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "We lost the same people as well, it isn't like she is alone in that." Weiss anger slowly rising to the surface. "Yet look at the rest of us, we are not all driven by the same burning desire for revenge, it is like a fire that will slowly burn her until she is nothing but the simple ashen remains of who she once was." "No, but I can understand where she is coming from, if only a little." Jaune voice lowered, becoming suddenly more serious. "What?" Jaune turned to look at her, an emotion she couldn't identify in his eyes. "I get where she is coming from, I want nothing more than to see Cinder's head get lopped off by my own sword for what she's done to the world, to our friends, to Pyrrha." The last part he said through gritted teeth. "Yet there is something always holding me back from just going after my desire for revenge." "And what is that." "I still have my family." Jaune reached into his pocket and fished out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it before handing it to her, what she got was a picture of Jaune surrounded by eight women and one other man. All of them were posed in the Beacon courtyard, many other students behind them jumping and dancing in celebration of their recent graduation. "Whenever I think about trying to just go get revenge I see Ruby and see the road it would take me down, and then I think of how disappointed my family would be, and it makes me just sit back and think." Jaune grabbed the picture back from Weiss and put it back in his pocket. "Ruby doesn't worry about such things, because to her, there is no one left to disappoint, and she stopped caring if she disappointed us a long time ago. It is easy to see why she is the way she is now." Weiss sat and thought about what Jaune said, "You are right, yet I can't help thinking that sometimes, maybe had I not listened to Blake back then she wouldn't have had to died. Hell if I had done more back when it was Yang then maybe she would also still..." Her eyes wandering to the floor. Once again she felt a squeeze on her shoulder. "You know as well as I do that if you hadn't done what Blake asked you to Ruby would have been the one to die, Blake wanted to help the person she loved most. No matter what Ruby says, don't go blaming yourself." He removed his hand from her shoulder and leaned back on the bed. "We both know that Yang would have forced you onto the airship had she needed to. She chose to stay behind in Beacon to try and hold off Cinder's forces so we could get away, and you should know better than anyone that once she put her mind to something there was no stopping her." Weiss let out a hefty sigh. "Once again you are right, but that doesn't make it hurt less to think about." "I know how you feel, for the longest time I blamed myself for Pyrrha's death, and I felt so much anger at myself for the longest time. Thinking there was something more that I could have done." A silence formed between them before Weiss decided to speak up again. "I just wish her and I could go back to being friends, but there is such animosity between us that I don't think things will ever go back to normal, especially with how different we are now, we can't see eye to eye on anything." She sighed as she hopped off the bed and onto the floor, Jaune mirroring her movements. Jaune patted her on the back "Come on Weiss I'm sure it will work out in the end you just have to keep working at it, now let's go get something to eat and start packing, we don't wanna get caught up with last minute packing." "You aren't gonna be trying to sing and play that guitar while we pack again are you?" Weiss said with a smile. A blush formed on the tall man's cheeks as he scratched the back of his head. "No, what would ever make you think that?" A nervous laugh came from him. she walked past Jaune and out of the door, whispering as she passed by him. "The walls are not as soundproof as you think, I can hear you practicing." Weiss could hear him stammer nervously to try and find words as she walked out of the infirmary and made her way towards their room. "Hey I have gotten a lot better since our days at Beacon right Weiss? Weiss?" Weiss chuckled to herself 'Somethings never do change' "What do you mean you still haven't found her? It has been over a year." Cinder heard a sigh from the green haired woman behind her as the black clad, red haired man in front of them talked. Cinder held up her hand to signal Emerald to not make another sound and then gestured to the open chair next to a man with silver hair, wearing black and grey, who currently had his feet propped up on the large table in front of them, his hands resting behind his head, and his eyes closed as he took a nap. Emerald ran her hand along Cinder's shoulders as she made her way next to Mercury. Who she quickly elbowed in the ribs as she sat down. Mercury bolted upright in the chair, his legs flying off the table as he woke up. "Hey, what was the for?" "Pay attention." she scolded him. "Pshh, Whatever bitch." he whispered. "What was that!?" Emerald yelled at him Cinder quickly tuned out the argument that started between the two, hoping to avoid the headache it would surely bring. looking back she focused on the Faunus sitting opposite of her at the table. An annoyed look on his face. "To answer your question Adam no we haven't, she and her little resistance have done a surprisingly good job of hiding their whereabouts this time. Our scouts have not been able to find anything, nor have our informants heard anything about their movements in quite sometime." "I want that little silver eyed bitch found." Adam growled, malic laced in his voice. Cinder was about to respond when she was cut off by Mercury. "Don't you have more important things to do that trying to find her like, I don't know, being a leader to your people?" Cinder glared at Mercury who simply shrugged at her before throwing his hands behind his head and once again kicking his feet up on the table. "Killing that woman is a top priority of mine, as a leader of the Faunus Kingdom I have made it my mission to protect my people, and she is a threat." Cinder could hear the composure in his voice slowly slipping. "What, a girl slaughters a few villages and your top priority is to personally take her down, and not just better protect your territory? Seems like a bad leadership decision to me." Adam swiftly stood up knocking his chair over. "Enough, both of you." Cinder spoke sharply, cutting off either of them from taking action. "Mercury stop antagonizing him," Mercury simply held up his hands above his head. "And you, calm down." she pointed to Adam who simply took his hands off his sword but remained standing. "Now we are continuing to gather information, and you will be informed when we find out anything, the minute they make a move I am postivie that we will hear about it, our informant network runs deep, but for now I need you to keep following my instructions to keep everything running smoothly, am I understood?" The bull faunus opened his mouth but quickly shut it as he saw Cinder's eyes flair a brightly, like a fire had been light within them. A small warning to him that keeping the argument going would only serve to anger her. Adam simply scoffed at her, and turned his back as he made his way to the door. Slamming it as he exited it. Cinder sighed as she leaned back in her chair slightly, only having to sit up again as a series of rasps sounded at the door and a red haired man with a white suit and a entered the room, tapping his cane randomly along the floor as he did. "You know I never understood why you keep than animal around anymore, he has such a short fuse. It doesn't really seem worth putting up with all of his bullshit ya know." Roman stated as he slipped into the chair that Adam had just left. Pulling out a cigar he placed it in his mouth as he reached into his pocket to fish out his lighter. "So what is it you called me here for today?" "Straight to the point Roman? How uncharacteristic of you." Cinder jested. Roman simply shrugged at her as he lit his cigar, taking a drag before blowing out the smoke, and once again letting it rest in his mouth. She opened her mouth to speak again only to be stopped by Roman as he held up a hand. Slowly he took another drag of his cigar, sighing as the smoke escaped his lips. "Well you know me, busy trying to lie, cheat, and steal, so I'd like to make haste as to not lose time. The sad and miserable masses of society won't go picking their own pockets you know?" Cinder simply smiled at his antics "That is fine, what I need from you is simple. Meet up with our major informant in Vale and see if he has gotten any information on the resistance, that shouldn't take up to much of your precious time i'm sure." Roman leaned back in his chair, breathing in more smoke before smiling as he realized the breath trapped in his lungs. "Shouldn't be an issue, I do always love an excuse to visit the city, especially if it gets me out of this cold Atlas winter, plus there are plenty of suckers just waiting to be robbed. Ill head out immediately." With that he got up and walked back out the door, signaling to someone leaning against the wall. Cinder could hear him talking. "Let's go, we have a job to do. Oh boy this is gonna be so much fun." she could see a head of pink and brown hair start walking behind the man as the door closed. Standing up she looked over at her two subordinates that had been through so much with her. "You both are dismissed for the day, relax for a bit." Mercury quickly hopped from the table and waltzed out the door. "See ya." waving his hand at them as he walked off. "I'll see you later Cinder." Emerald winked at her as she also slipped out of the door. Cinder leaned back into her chair and looked up at the dark ceiling of the room. 'I might not know where you all are now, but this time when I find you, I will be sure to fully wipe you out.' Cinder thought a menacing smile on her face. 'I'll see you soon, Ruby Rose, and Jaune Arc." Well here is the next chapter, slightly longer than the rest of them. Also with hopefully less grammar errors than last chapter. I made sure to double check this one, last chapter I really dropped the ball on the proof read, so hopefully I got any really bad errors this time. I hope you all are enjoying the story so far, and I just wanna let everyone know that we don't have to many more chapters (Prologues) until the time travel actually comes into play, and the story really gets rolling. I planned on this being a long story so I wanted to establish a few things before jumping into the time travel, and well things just sorta kept getting added onto that. But I will happen soon I promise. I hope I did some of the villains well because this was my first time writing any of them so I am a little nervous about how I did with them. We will be seeing a more of them in the next chapter. Anyway please leave a review and let me know what yall thought of this chapter, and Ill see you next update. ~Redwing~

A Yukon judge has delivered a strongly-worded "wake up call" to Canadian taxpayers, who are now on the hook for another expensive mine cleanup in the territory. Yukon Supreme Court justice Ron Veale approved a clean up plan for the abandoned Mount Nansen mine site, last spring — to be paid for by Ottawa — but issued his written decision this week. He used the opportunity to lambaste the mine's former owner, Toronto firm, BYG Resources, for an "unscrupulous history of ... operational mismanagement" that left a big, toxic mess for government to deal with. 'It is my opinion that an account of BYG's historical activity in the Yukon should be brought to the attention of the federal and territorial taxpayers,' Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale wrote. (Philippe Morin/CBC) "This case stands as a painful reminder of the lasting and egregious damage that unscrupulous and unchecked profiteering can bring about in the mining sector. It is an embarrassment to Canada, Yukon and the responsible mining community," Veale's decision reads. "It is my opinion that an account of BYG's historical activity in the Yukon should be brought to the attention of the federal and territorial taxpayers, who remain fiscally responsible for remediation efforts." 'Raping and pillaging' Yukon resources BYG began mining at the Mount Nansen site, about 180 kilometres north of Whitehorse, in 1996, but then closed shop just three years later after being charged with several environmental violations (the company was guilty of "raping and pillaging" the territory's resources, the Yukon Supreme Court found in 2007). Five years later, in 2004, BYG filed for bankruptcy and the federal government assumed responsibility for the site. Federal lawyers estimate Ottawa has spent about $20 to $25 million since then, just to monitor and control the site. Now, the mine is for sale to whomever is willing to take on a "government subsidized remediation project," according to Veale. A 2011 environmental assessment at Mount Nansen estimated about 55,000 cu. metres of contaminated soil, 300,000 cu. metres of tailings and 500,000 cu. metres of waste rock at the site, all requiring attention. Not the first time Veale also draws a comparison to another environmental "disaster" in Yukon — the infamous Faro mine. "[Mount Nansen] is not the first time in recent Yukon history that a mining company has conducted itself in bad faith, collapsed into bankruptcy and abdicated its responsibilities to the governments of Canada and the Yukon," he wrote. Yukon's Faro mine produced lead, silver and zinc from about 1970 until 1998. The federal government took over the site when the owner went bankrupt. In 2009, the federal and Yukon governments agreed on a plan to deal with the estimated 64,000 hectares of contaminated soil and groundwater. The federal government is financially liable for remediation of the Faro and Mount Nansen sites because mining there happened before 2003, when Yukon's Devolution Transfer Agreement was signed. Yukon is responsible for any mining damage since 2003. Veale says Yukon taxpayers should take note. "The point to be made is that the BYG disaster could happen again and the Yukon, with approximate annual revenues of $1,303,131,000, will be liable for the costs of the environmental cleanup," his decision reads. "This case should be a wake-up call."

TAMPA — A dog bit a young child outside the Hillsborough County Commission building Wednesday morning just before the board approved an ordinance that will regulate dog trainers. The child was taken to an undisclosed hospital for medical evaluation, according to Hillsborough County Pet Resources. A Hillsborough County sheriff’s official said the child is no older than 5 years old. The dog’s owner handed the animal over to Pet Resources, and the dog was euthanized shortly after, said Kara Walker, a spokeswoman for the county. Walker said the incident is under investigation. The dog apparently was owned by Clarke Inghram, a dog trainer and owner of Sit ’N Stay Dog Academy. Inghram could not be reached for comment. The catalyst for the dog training ordinance was a dog death that occurred two years ago at Inghram’s business. The owner of that dog, Lorie Childers, alleges that Inghram’s rough training tactics killed her Shih Tzu-Pekingese. The Inghram family denies that. During a public hearing Wednesday on the dog training bill, Inghram’s daughter and general manager of Sit ’N Stay, Shallingda Inghram, said the dog that bit the child had never been aggressive in that way. "No excuse for what happened," Shallingda Inghram said. "The dog should not have been there. It’s never been aggressive in that light. The energy was crazy. My dad is public enemy No. 1 right now and he’s got people threatening him in the lobby." Marie Kelley of Titusville said she saw the dog shake the child by the head. The dog was only a couple of feet from the child when it attacked, she said. "The trainer, that was his dog," Kelley said. "He told him to let the child go five or six times. The dog did not release." Kelley came to the hearing to speak in favor of the dog trainer ordinance, called Truth in Training, which passed in a 5-2 vote. The ordinance requires dog trainers in Hillsborough County to obtain a license and agree to a training plan with pet owners before instruction begins. Trainers must get liability insurance of at least $100,000. Trainers will also have to provide their credentials to the county for publication and undergo local and federal background checks. No one who is convicted of animal cruelty would be allowed to work as a trainer in the county. The county attorney’s office said the ordinance is the first of its kind in the country. Those against the bill said maybe there’s a reason for that. More than 60 people signed up to speak on the proposed regulations. Opponents out-numbered supporters by a 2-to-1 ratio. Before people spoke, Commissioner Al Higginbotham said the incident with the dog and child was "more evidence" that the ordinance needed to pass. Many local dog trainers argued against the new regulations saying they would inhibit their small businesses and open them up to expensive and frivolous lawsuits. Dog trainers can already be punished under animal abuse laws, they said. "The only way to really combat (bad trainers) in a business sense is through competition," said Daniel Kean, a local trainer. "This ordinance will make Hillsborough County the hardest place in the country to become a dog trainer." But Commissioner Les Miller — who prayed for the bitten child during an invocation at the start of the meeting — said the new regulations just provide more information to consumers. "If you’re a good dog trainer," Miller said, "this shouldn’t affect you at all." Contact Jonathan Capriel at [email protected] Follow @jonathancapriel.

Ending the Shame of Kosovo’s Rape Victims DRENAS, Kosovo — For nearly 17 years, K.T. has been living with a secret. In 1999, during the conflict in Kosovo, she was gang raped by Serbian forces. When her son found out, she says, he had a question for her: “Why didn’t you ask them to kill you instead?” If that was the reaction of her own family, what would the neighbors say? Fearing the humiliation, she suffered in silence. She says she tried to commit suicide. When she talks about that day, she still sometimes says it would have been better if she had been killed. Thousands of survivors of the wartime sexual violence in Kosovo that took place when Serbia fought against an independence movement here in the late 1990s still suffer from stigma like K.T.. So it was a significant step when the country’s parliament moved in 2014 to recognize them as war victims, entitling them to a state pension, after years of refusing to acknowledge them. Nearly two years later, the government is expected to soon form the commission that will begin accepting applications. The country is trying to avoid many of the stumbles that hindered similar laws in nearby Bosnia and Herzegovina, where poor design and implementation meant only a fraction of the victims were recognized and compensated. Kosovo officials spent more than a year designing an application and verification process that is — on paper — confidential, sensitive, and accessible. They consulted survivors, local organizations that work with victims, international experts, and representatives from Bosnia. The result has been roundly praised by local advocates who work with survivors. But it still might not be enough. The shame Kosovar society heaps on victims means many are afraid to apply for benefits, lest they expose their secret. Members of Kosovo’s ethnic Serbian minority say they have been excluded from the process. And advocates say there are signs the government may set the benefit amount much lower — potentially less than half — of what they had hoped. A low pension not only trivializes the suffering of survivors, they say, but increases the chances that few women will even apply because the risk will outweigh the reward. K.T., who asked to be identified only by her initials, said she plans to apply, encouraged by the Center for Promotion of Women’s Rights in the town of Drenas, where she meets with other survivors and receives therapy. In a pink headscarf that’s knotted under her chin and a pleated navy skirt, she looks the part of kindly rural grandmother, which she is. The support that she receives here helped her overcome depression, and now she tries to encourage other survivors to reject society’s blame. But she says many of them are not ready even to come to the center, much less apply for the pension. “I’m trying to convince other women who were raped to register, but very few will do it,” she said. “They’re afraid it will cause problems with their families — many are afraid their husbands would divorce and leave them. They say it’s been 17 years and we’ve gotten nothing, so why register now? The risk is too big.” * * * In 1998 and 1999, Serbian forces fought an ethnic Albanian insurgency in the then-Serbian province of Kosovo. Serbian police, soldiers and paramilitaries deliberately and systematically used rape as a weapon of war, to terrorize the population and aid in ethnic cleansing, according to a report in 2000 by Human Rights Watch (HRW). After a 78-day NATO bombing campaign drove Serbian forces to withdraw, Kosovo’s guerilla forces and Albanian civilians were also accused of raping civilians. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but is not recognized by Serbia. No one knows how many women were raped during the conflict. The HRW report documented 96 cases of rape by Serbian forces, but said the real number of victims was likely far higher. Therapists who treat survivors say that while there are likely thousands, only hundreds have come forward for confidential treatment. Men were also raped, according to counselors working with survivors, but that fact is almost never acknowledged publicly. It took years for Kosovo to include victims of sexual violence on the list of those given government benefits for their wartime service or suffering. The stigma against sexual assault stemming from traditional beliefs that link a man’s honor to the sexual purity and physical safety of his female family members, still runs deep here. In 2013, when an opposition politician advocated such legislation, she was attacked outside her home. In parliament, lawmakers argued the government couldn’t afford to make payments to victims of sexual violence, or that there was no way to prove their claims. When the law finally passed in 2014, the government was tasked with writing the regulations that would govern the application and verification process. And they had a nearby example: At least 20,000 women are thought to have been raped during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia. Both of Bosnia’s political entities, the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, passed laws allowing survivors to be recognized as war victims and receive government benefits. But the application of these well-intentioned laws was full of missteps. One key problem is that the process differed significantly by entity. In Republika Srpska (RS), it was extremely difficult for applicants to gain recognition, and the monthly pension was far lower than in the Federation — most recipients in RS receive 100 marks ($57), though they could receive up to 350 marks ($200), while those in the Federation receive 563 marks ($321). Applicants were required to produce medical documents to prove that they had suffered physical injuries, and had to prove they had lost 60 percent of their physical ability to qualify to be recognized as war victims and received the pension. “If you think about the kinds of consequences that women faced, it’s difficult — how do you quantify, in terms of percentage,” the damage suffered by survivors, said Stephanie Barbour, a war crimes expert who worked on sexual violence issues in Bosnia. “This was something that, anecdotally, kept women from even applying. It was a great hurdle.” Some women didn’t even have medical documents, because at the time they were victimized the stigma or the ongoing conflict kept them from visiting a doctor or police. While it was easier to be recognized in the Federation, the process there was also not without serious problems. Survivors were required to have their cases certified by a victims’ association, which interviewed applicants about their assaults. According to a 2009 report by Amnesty International, those interviews — in which survivors had to recount the details of their assaults to a group of strangers without a therapist present — left many women traumatized. And many women were deterred from applying, because they felt the association’s office was not discreet, and because it raised the possibility of offering survivors’ testimony to a state court for use as evidence in criminal proceedings. Because of the poor state of witness protection in Bosnia and a lack of trust in the justice system, many women did not wish to pursue criminal cases against their rapists. Todor Gardas, a campaigner on Amnesty’s Balkans team, said only around 800 women were recognized as war victims in the Federation. Part of the problem, he said, was “there were no incentives to come forward. The Federation … did not proactively try to approach communities and find victims. So really [victims] were only able to access this through a couple of intermediaries, a couple of NGOs who’ve been there in the field providing psychological support and trauma therapy. But that was very, very limited, so the reach was very limited.” And even those whose applications were accepted, he says, were “marked.” When they approached institutions in the country for medical or other services promised under the law, their status as rape victims was apparent. * * * In Kosovo, officials set out to design a process with as few barriers as possible, and sought input from civil society, international experts, and survivors. Avoiding the re-traumatization of survivors was first priority, said Jeta Krasniqi, a political advisor to president Atifete Jahjaga who coordinates the National Council on Survivors of Sexual Violence During the War, which helped shape the regulations. “We wanted to make sure that we were drafting a document that would be in line with civil society’s requirements, and would heed the ‘do no harm’ principle,” she said. “We needed a mechanism that would be responsible but easy. …. that gains the trust of survivors.” The regulations they drafted create a commission with members from both government and civil society. All members are obliged to have been trained in interacting with victims of sexual violence; survivors can submit written applications that don’t automatically require an in-person interview, and while they may attach supporting medical or police documents, such evidence is not required. If the commission decides an interview is necessary, it can ask the survivor to appear before a three-person panel (rather than the entire commission), and the applicant can bring someone for emotional support. The commission won’t send applicant testimonies to police or prosecutors, and all of the application materials will be classified. It’s too early to know whether regulations that look good on paper will be well-implemented — such failures are a common problem in Kosovo. But organizations working with survivors were emphatic in their praise for the government’s consultative process and the result. “For the first time, the voice of civil society and the victims was heard,” said Feride Rushiti, head of the Kosova Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims. “To a certain extent, I think we need to see the implementation. But we as civil society had full access to interact and intervene.” * * * Yet while organizations working mostly with ethnic Albanian victims say the process was inclusive, members of Kosovo’s ethnic Serbian minority say the opposite. In drafting the guidelines for the application and verification process, the president’s council didn’t invite input from the Serbian community, said Dusan Radakovic, head of the Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture (ACDC). Deep divisions remain between Kosovo’s majority population and its Serbian minority. ACDC is located in North Mitrovica, a majority Serb municipality in north Kosovo where ethnic Serbs still rely on the Serbian government, not Kosovo, for many services. Radakovic said the law to recognize survivors of wartime sexual violence discriminates against minorities because of its time frame — only those raped between February 27, 1998, and June 20, 1999 are eligible to apply. Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo in June 1999, and Radakovic said that many rapes of ethnic Serbs and other minorities by members of Kosovo’s guerilla force, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and Albanian civilians, took place afterward, meaning the victims are ineligible to apply for recognition. Sexual violence against minorities after the withdrawal of Serbian forces was documented in a 2001 HRW report. “If they’re not included, it’s breaking their rights,” said Radakovic. “These women cannot apply for reparation.” He said he sent a request to the president for the time frame to be extended, but received no response. “We would have really appreciated if we had a chance to participate in the council and give our point of view.” Blagica Radovanovic is director of Santa Marija, which works with victims of domestic violence in the majority Serb municipality of Zvecan. She said the organization works with survivors of wartime sexual violence, but that the government in Prishtina hadn’t reached out to include them. “There was a conflict on both sides, not just theirs,” she said, referring to Albanians. “They didn’t take into consideration the Serbian women.” Veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army are widely venerated among the majority population, and accusations against them are highly unpopular. When four former KLA members were charged in 2013 with the rape of two ethnic Albanian women in 1998 and 1999, their trial was met with angry public protests. They were acquitted the following year. Krasniqi, the coordinator of the president’s council, disputes the Serb community’s objections. She said the application process will be open to members of all ethnic groups and outreach will take place in all communities. “When the president formed the council she made it very clear that this is for everyone, women and men and all ethnic groups, not leaving anyone behind,” she said. The president’s council includes an ethnic Serb member, she said, adding that she had personally invited Radakovic to join the council or suggest another member. She points out that the application is available in Serbian as well as Albanian, as required by law for official documents in Kosovo, and that the regulation requires language assistance to be provided for any applicant who needs it, though Kosovo Serbs complain that the Serbian translations of laws are often so poor that they can be difficult to comprehend. Kosovo’s other ethnic communities have not voiced complaints. Medica Gjakova, a group that supports survivors in western Kosovo, including those who belong to Kosovo’s Roma and Egyptian minority communities, has been involved in the deliberations of the president’s council. Fehmije Luzha, head of the psychosocial department at Medica Gjakova described leading group therapy sessions including members of those minority groups and Albanian women without problems, and said she doesn’t anticipate problems for them if they choose to apply for recognition from the Kosovar government. But there are other challenges. As in Bosnia, it will be difficult for the government to reach a large number of victims. It will have to rely on groups like KRCT or Medica Gjakova to act as intermediaries, but most women who were raped have never even approached such organizations. Rushiti says she doesn’t anticipate more than 1,000 applications at the outset. The president’s council plans to hold events throughout the country to raise awareness and encourage survivors to apply, and NGOs are already discussing it with their clients. “We’re working with our clients a lot to try to convince them, telling them that confidentiality is a priority, “ said Luzha. “Confidentiality is their biggest issue.” Many were fearful at first, but have begun to accept the idea. Still, Luzha, a soft-spoken counselor who conducts group sessions as well as individual therapy, said each time she meets with survivors, they come up with new questions about the application process. If they do apply, those who haven’t told their families about the trauma have to come up with an explanation for the sudden extra income. One client told Luzha she’ll tell her husband that her brother, who lives abroad, began sending her money. At the group’s office in Gjakova, a meeting room is warmly decorated with sofas, hand-drawn pictures, and group photos. One of Luzha’s clients is a mother of two who asked to remain anonymous. Her husband was killed during the war, and she raised her children on the pension she receives for war widows. She asked Luzha if the benefit she already received would preclude her from receiving the pension for survivors of sexual violence. Luzha assured her it would not, but she’s still hesitant about applying. One of the fears many women have, she said, is that in opening the bank account and withdrawing the pension every month, they’ll be outed as rape survivors. “They will point at us and say ‘look, she came for her money.’ So the fear about stigmatization is stopping women,” she said. Mirlinda Sada, director of Medica Gjakova, said it’s imperative that the amount of the pension for survivors of sexual violence is identical to another category of victims so they aren’t inadvertently identified. * * * Atifete Jahjaga, Kosovo’s president, has made a small dent in the stigma faced by rape victims through a national campaign to raise awareness of wartime sexual violence. She has visited survivors across the country, speaking out on their behalf, and participated in an art installation in the capital last summer that brought attention to the stigma. Organizers collected thousands of dresses and skirts across the country, then hung them on clotheslines in Pristina’s soccer stadium to symbolize the thousands of survivors. Sada and Rushiti say more women have come forward to seek treatment since the president began raising the issue. Jahjaga’s actions don’t just make survivors feel acknowledged, said Rushiti, but also show they are not to blame. By honoring those who are usually shamed, she elevates their status in society. “She went to Drenas and all the ladies wanted to make a photo with her because they wanted to show it to their families, their husbands, to say ‘look, she cares for us, and you don’t,” said Rushiti. But now Rushiti is worried that progress will be undermined. The government has yet to decide on the size of the pension. But last year it put the monthly benefit for KLA veterans at €130 to €170, and Rushiti says it’s highly unlikely they would give sexual violence survivors more, and may actually give them less. She had been hoping for €300. “I was very optimistic until recently. Now I have little hope,” she said. “For some of them, their lives were broken in that moment. There is no chance for them to rebuild their lives with this amount. With this amount we’re afraid some of these victims won’t even want to apply. … Knowing what victims are facing in daily life, what they fight to go through, this amount is a denigration.” The pension is not just symbolic. Many survivors are living in poverty and dealing with long-term health problems from the violence they endured. K.T., a widow with no income, lives with her sons and is entirely dependent on them for money. Because they disapprove of her visiting the women’s center in Drenas, a 15-minute bus ride from her village, she only visits once a month. With a monthly pension, she could afford the bus fare on her own and decide to visit whenever she likes. Now survivors are left wondering whether the amount will be enough to justify the risk of applying. One of them is M.H., a tall woman with short blond hair who is also from the Drenas area. She was four months pregnant when Serbian paramilitaries raped her, and the assault caused her to have a miscarriage. She was never again able to become pregnant. Her husband knows what happened, and she’s lucky — he’s supportive. But his family doesn’t know. A pension would help M.H. pay for the medical care she requires for problems stemming from her assault. But she says a monthly benefit of €100 or €170 is too little, compared to what survivors went through and what they risk in applying for it. “Every time I do an interview or come to the center, it means [my husband’s family] might find out. And I’m worried about what they would do if they did,” she said “Right now my husband supports me, but no one else. If [his family] finds out, there will be no place for me there.” Yet even if the benefit falls short, she will cherish the recognition. “It’s like healing for us,” she said. “Because it shows we are war victims. Every day we think about it. When we get support, we heal little by little. Maybe the shame will touch us forever, but we know we are not guilty.” AFP/Getty Images

In November, WQED, the local public television station here, decided to reinstall the Neighborhood of Make-Believe set at its studio where Mr. Rogers filmed his show from 1968 to 2001. More than 5,000 people took the tour in the first two days. And another statue, this time a wax figure — also of Mr. Rogers tying his sneakers — will be unveiled at the History Center on Saturday on what would have been his 82nd birthday. None of it seems overdone to Pittsburgh residents. “He’s one of our own, you know?” said Sheryl Strobl, 31, who was visiting the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood play area at the Children’s Museum recently with her 3-year-old son, T. J. “Because he’s not on TV every day, it’s hard for my son to associate him with that. But when we come here, the first thing he wants to do is drive the Neighborhood trolley. He still knows who Mr. Rogers is.” Dave Pastorkovich, 49, a remedial-reading specialist from Pittsburgh who is an assistant basketball coach at Carnegie Mellon University here, is also a fan. Photo “I think he’s important because he worked here and played a large part in many people’s childhoods, including my own,” Mr. Pastorkovich said. “I thought it was rather strange they stopped running the show. There’s still goodness for kids in there.” But building a legacy beyond his hometown could be an uphill trolley ride, said Donna Mitroff, a children’s media consultant, educator and author who has worked more than 40 years in the field, including three years with Mr. Rogers at WQED. In the pantheon of children’s television performers and creators, Dr. Mitroff places Mr. Rogers on a short list with figures like Burr Tillstrom, creator of the “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” show in the 1950s, Buffalo Bob Smith, the host of “The Howdy Doody Show” in the 1950s, Shari Lewis, a puppeteer whose show featuring Lamb Chop replaced Howdy Doody in 1960, and Bob Keeshan, whose “Captain Kangaroo” show ran from 1955 to 1984. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. None of them have any kind of formalized legacy, Dr. Mitroff pointed out. PBS, though, hopes that Mr. Rogers will live on for children — online. Last month, PBS began streaming full-length episodes of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” on both its Rogers site and its PBSKids site. “We think about Fred every single day,” said Lesli Rotenberg, senior vice president for children’s media at PBS. “The PBSKids site is based on a philosophy that I think he pioneered of looking at the whole child.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story But it is another event that begins on Mr. Rogers’s birthday that may mean the most to his national — and even international — legacy as an advocate for responsible children’s entertainment. Starting Saturday at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media will host its first conference, called “Fred Forward.” The last two days of the four-day conference will bring together more than 60 experts in children’s media to explore “creative curiosity, new media and learning.” Mr. Rogers grew up in Latrobe and, before he died, he began to create the center as a place for his archives. The trove of scripts, handwritten music, letters and awards gives a detailed view of how he created the 895 episodes of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” The $15 million center itself, which opened in 2006, sponsors a fellows program to encourage research, the creation of new screen media and new educational materials that use Mr. Rogers’s approach. It is also creating a Learning Network that will provide online tools for raising and educating children for teachers, families and caregivers. “Fred Rogers was a techie in the 1950s who realized how to use the new technology of his day,” said Maxwell King, a co-director of the Rogers center. “Our challenge here, and at this conference, is to find out how to use our new media for the benefit of children. That will be his legacy.”

Final score: Cardinals 26, Packers 20 » Full list of the Top 20 Games of 2015 It was almost exactly 40 years prior to the best game the 2015 season had to offer when Roger Staubach heaved a 50-yard touchdown bomb to help the Cowboys take down the top-seeded Vikings in the 1975 Divisional Playoffs, and a new term in the football lexicon was born. "I was kidding around with the writers," Staubach told the Dallas Morning News. "Then they asked the question. I said, 'I got knocked down on the play ... I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.'" The Hail Mary. The rarest of successful football plays ... and to think Aaron Rodgers hit two of them last year. The second of which only served to push the Packers at Cardinals playoff game from fun matchup to ridiculous game in seconds. Larry Fitzgerald's clutch overtime performance moved this postseason thriller to a firm No.1 on our Top 20 Games of 2015 countdown. This sucker had everything, including: » A beautiful touchdown catch from Michael Floyd to kick off the scoring. » Eddie Lacy carrying 60 excess pounds 61 yards to set up the Packers first touchdown. » Two insane plays called back from penalty; Patrick Peterson returning an interception the length of the field, and Randall Cobb making a one-handed catch that Odell Beckham didn't invent. Spectacular. » Palmer leading the offense on a 14-play 80-yard drive, paid off on a ball caroming off Larry Fitzgerald into the waiting arms of Floyd. » Green Bay failing to connect on fourth down with 2:38 left and everyone thinking game over. » Rodgers completing two deep balls in the final minute that each had about a 1/50 chance of success, the second of which harkened back to the days of Staubach, putting this baby into OT. » Cardinals making their own magic, hitting a Hail Larry in the extra period (see below). All of this served to make that Saturday night at University of Phoenix Stadium special. The fact that most fans had to go online to figure out who Jeff Janis was made it even more so. While Rodgers received all of the credit, Janis was on the receiving end of both plays. The Hail Mary to tie the score at 20-20 was a phenomenal feat by quarterback and receiver, yet no one could argue that Janis high-pointing the ball over Peterson was more impressive than Rodgers lofting it 50 yards in the air. Staubach's 50-yard prayer some decades ago would never have been if not for the waiting arms (and hip) of an undrafted free agent in Drew Pearson. Rodgers' rendition? A seventh-round pick from Saginaw Valley State in Janis. That, as much as anything, made Packers at Cardinals special. For the effort of the loser is as relevant as the spoils of the winner in the NFL's pantheon of greatest games. Historical Symmetry Janis' day was surely unusual. The guess here is that it wasn't in Mike McCarthy's game plan to feature a wideout who had been fifth in the Packers plans at best. Hmm. A Packers wide receiver making a huge, but unexpected, impact in an important postseason game, catching seven passes for two touchdowns ... ... sounds like an up-all-night, hungover-on-game-day Max McGee in Super Bowl I. McGee's line that day: seven catches, 138 yards, two touchdowns. NFL history is cool. Historical Symmetry II So how many times has a player posted 145 yards and two receiving touchdowns on the road in the playoffs like Janis? Only eight. Here are the other seven guys, with some impressive names dotting the list: » Frank Lewis, 1981 AFC Wild Card: 7-158-2 in win over the Jets » Thurman Thomas, 1990 Divisional Playoff: 13-150-2 in loss to the Bills » Michael Irvin, 1994 NFC Championship: 12-192-2 in loss to the 49ers » Randy Moss, 1999 NFC Divisional Playoff: 9-188-2 in loss to the Rams » Steve Smith, 2005 NFC Divisional Playoff: 12-218-2 in win over the Bears » Calvin Johnson, 2011 NFC Wild Card: 12-211-2 in loss to the Saints » Hakeem Nicks, 2011 NFC Divisional Playoff: 7-165-2 in win over the Packers Irvin is a Hall of Fame wide receiver. Moss will be there in 2018. Smith and Johnson have solid chances of ending up there as well. Frank Lewis was a Pro Bowl receiver in Buffalo after winning two Super Bowl rings early in his career in Pittsburgh. Of course, Nicks had his heyday with the Giants, going on to win a Super Bowl the same season as his big playoff game against the Packers. And how about Thurman Thomas, a running back, putting up those kind of numbers in the passing game? That's why he has a bust in Canton, folks. Will Janis enjoy the prolific career like these guys? Who knows? But there is no question his day was special. For a deeper breakdown of his performance, check out my colleague Matt Harmon's Reception Perception piece on Janis. It's a detailed, route-by-route look at where Janis succeeded in getting open in that game and what it might foretell for his future. It's definitely worth a read. (Almost) Play of the Game Rodgers and Janis' connections pushed the best game last season to overtime, giving us all an extra 15 minutes of exhilarating football. Not exactly. The first play was fun, though. On first down from his own 20, Carson Palmer took a seven-step drop looking straight down the field. But inside pressure from Clay Matthews, Jr. and Jake Ryan caused Palmer to scurry straight up the pocket. Moving to his right, the Cardinals quarterback saw Larry Fitzgerald standing by himself on the left side of the field. Pure craziness ensued. Fitzgerald caught the ball and exploded like a 22-year old ... well, a 22-year old Larry Fitzgerald sprinting down the field. Matthews displayed amazing hustle circling all the way behind the pocket, seeing Fitzgerald catching the ball, then hustling 40 yards to try to cut him off at the Packers 45. Fitz felt him, cutting inside the safety jussssst before Matthews could close. Another nice move and two missed tackles later (including Jake Ryan who ran 90 yards downfield after blitzing on the play), the Cards had first-and-goal from the five. Three guesses who scored the game-winning touchdown from there. (Almost) Play of the Game 2 A few plays before Rodgers hit his second Hail Mary of the season, he connected on an "Our Father" to keep the final drive going. Down 20-13 with 55 seconds to go, and no timeouts, the Packer offense was confronted with a fourth and twenty. Good luck with that play call. Rodgers dropped back into the end zone, and almost immediately had to spin out of pressure. Then Green Bay's franchise quarterback made a throw that would make any Bart Starr proud. Brett Favre, too. Throw Lynn Dickey in while we're at it. The man hit Janis in stride on the Cardinals side of the field. Nearly 60 yards, and the Packers were in business. Well, at least in business long enough for Rodgers to launch another (successful) prayer. Head Scratcher Palmer's middling play in this game, followed by a terrible conference championship at Carolina miffed more than a few folks. While he rebounded nicely from his two picks against the Packers (25-41, 349 yards, three touchdowns), he certainly looked off on a few throws. Both interceptions were bad decisions, particularly the red zone pick he threw right to Damarious Randall. Palmer tossed it flat footed. Of course his six turnovers versus the Panthers was a whole 'nother story. Hard to figure, given that Palmer was the prime combatant to Cam Newton for what would be his eventual MVP trophy. The former Bengal and Raider threw 35 touchdowns while finishing third in the NFL in passing. Why This Game is No. 1 This is the sixth season we've done the Top 20 Games series. Despite the fact that NFL competition is closer than ever, and that there exists so few "haves" and "have nots" anymore, selecting the premier game has been rather easy. Much like the "Miracle in the New Meadowlands" in 2010 or Super Bowl XLIX, Packers at Cardinals stuck out as a game that fans will remember for years to come. And although neither of these franchises would find their way to Super Bowl 50, ask even casual fans the most exciting game they watched last season and this overtime thriller will usually come out of their mouth within seconds. My colleagues at NFL Network and NFL.com were no different in that regard. Watch Rodgers' second Hail Mary of the 2015 season tonight at 5 p.m. ET, then tell us this wasn't as entertaining a football game as there's been in years. Visit NFL Game Center for more highlights and analysis from Packers at Cardinals, NFC Divisional Round. -- by Elliot Harrison. Follow Elliot on Twitter @HarrisonNFL.

Narasimha Rao rendered many services to India. But he cannot be absolved of responsibility for the demolition of the Babri Masjid and for several scams, in some of which members of his family were allegedly involved. What happened after V.P. Singh’s exit in November 1990 was roughly the same as that after Morarji Desai’s departure as a result of the Janata’s implosion 11 years earlier. A lame-duck government — headed by Charan Singh in the former case, and by Chandra Shekhar, an old-time Young Turk, in the latter — limped for a while and then yielded to fresh elections. Before propping up Chandra Shekhar’s government, Rajiv Gandhi had to overcome his dislike of “that bearded fellow”, to use his own words. No wonder then, Chandra Shekhar’s government lasted precisely 120 days. An uneasy relationship between the benefactor and the beneficiary snapped when Rajiv suspected that two policemen from Haryana were spying on him. Advertising The key question now was how to fill the vacuum. Rajiv, who was by now a changed man, discussing his past failings and future plans with refreshing candour, opted for a fresh election. Nobody else, including his most ardent admirers and obedient followers, wanted it. They begged him to have a new government of any sorts, perhaps one of “national unity”, but not plunge the country into the ordeal of another poll barely 15 months after the previous one. But he firmly refused. For the Congress, his word was law. Other parties had no choice. As the election campaign progressed, the impression grew that Rajiv was on the comeback trail. Disregarding security precautions and dismissing repeated pleas of his minders, he would rush deep into crowds, much to their delight and to the security detail’s dismay. This boosted his popularity no doubt. But alas, it also drove him to his doom in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, where a woman suicide bomber blew him up as well as herself. She belonged to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whose act of vengeance it was. The LTTE had never forgiven Rajiv for having sent Indian troops to Sri Lanka in 1987. Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao had a meeting with the Chairman National people’s congress Diao Shi at the Fujian hall of the Great hall of people in Beijing on 07.09.1993. (Source: Agency photo) The searing tragedy of Rajiv’s assassination took place when one of the three phases of voting was over. The remaining two were postponed by the Election Commission. Politically, there was high drama with several turns and twists. In the first place, a meeting of the enlarged Congress Working Committee (CWC) unanimously requested his widow, Sonia Gandhi, to take his place as Congress president first, and then as prime minister when the party won the election. The grief-stricken lady understandably refused. The CWC renewed its plea even more strongly and plaintively. This time round, she issued a statement thanking the CWC but reaffirming her refusal firmly. This accentuated the quandary of the party’s decision-makers because the half dozen leaders in the fray just could not agree on anyone from among themselves. Consequently, despite her determination to remain out of politics, it became necessary to seek Sonia’s advice on which of the competing candidates should be chosen. Pakistan President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq with PV Narasimha Rao in the year 1981. (Source: AP) Of these, P.V. Narasimha Rao, a man of great ability who had served as a senior minister in the cabinets of both Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, was generally considered a suitable successor to Rajiv. Here, the dramatic element in the situation was that at 69, and because of indifferent health, Rao had decided to retire from active politics. He had taken absolutely no part in the election. His belongings, after his long stay in Lutyens’ Delhi, were being packed so that he could leave for his home city, Hyderabad, as soon as the elections were over. Even so, as is well known, Rao was not Sonia’s first choice. On the advice of P.N. Haksar, the highly respected mandarin who was once the most powerful principal secretary to Indira Gandhi but had later fallen from grace, Sonia first offered the post to the then vice president (later president), Shankar Dayal Sharma. The message was carried to him by Aruna Asaf Ali, a leftist leader and close friend of the Nehru family, and Natwar Singh. Sharma’s response was that he was “touched and honoured”, but his age and health would not allow him to “do justice to the most important office in the country”. The way for Rao was now clear. On June 21, 1991, exactly a month after the brutal assassination of Rajiv, Rao was sworn in as prime minister. In keeping with the practice established in Indira Gandhi’s time, he held on to both the offices of PM and the Congress president, even though he had promised to vacate the Congress presidency for one of his rivals, Arjun Singh. ‌India’s then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao had a meeting with the Prime Minister of the peoples Republic of Chine Li Peng at the state guest house in Beijing on 06.09.1993. (Source: Radio photo) The timing of Rao’s rise to power could not have been worse. India was facing a foreign exchange crisis of such magnitude that we had to deposit 47 tonnes of gold in the Bank of England to tide over the situation. Rao courageously changed the economic policy to that of liberalisation and globalisation. To pursue it effectively, he appointed Manmohan Singh as finance minister. He had first offered the job to I.G. Patel, who had declined it for reasons of health. The disintegration of the Soviet Union was also a grave challenge; Rao coped with it creditably. He rendered many other services to India. But he cannot be absolved of responsibility for the demolition of the Babri Masjid and for several scams, in some of which members of his family were allegedly involved. Sonia was not particularly fond of Rao in any case. But relations deteriorated because of her feeling that he was not pursuing fully the investigations into her husband’s assassination. In any case, it is manifestly undeniable that in the book of the Sonia-led Congress, Rao is a non-person. Advertising What a quirk of irony it is that the National Democratic Alliance government has taken over a scheme, initially sponsored by Telangana, to build an appropriate memorial for the former PM who ran a minority government for full five years in very difficult times. The Congress party is not only embarrassed but also angry. The heated debates this has led to are revealing murky facts of modern Indian history. The writer is a Delhi-based political commentator.

A man was killed early Saturday after he fired shots at authorities during a high-speed chase, crashed and then ran into a field near Strasburg and engaged officers in a final shootout. The name of the suspect, who was pronounced dead near the Strasburg exit on Interstate 70, has not been released. The Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputy who fired the fatal gunshot has been placed on paid administrative leave pending completion of an investigation by the 18th Judicial District Critical Incident Team, Capt. Jared Rowlinson said at a news conference. “There was a significant danger to the deputy as well as to the general public,” Rowlinson said. “We’re lucky that no officer was hit or injured in this incident.” Meantime, a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy stopped an unrelated chase of a separate fleeing suspect on I-70 just east of Strasburg when that suspect approached the scene of the fatal shooting. That suspect later crashed the car 19 miles away, fled on foot and hasn’t been found. Colorado State Patrol troopers were called at 6:26 a.m. about a silver sedan with New Mexico license plates that had crashed on westbound I-70 about 14 miles east of Strasburg, said Trooper Timothy Sutherland, a spokesman for CSP. Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputies also responded to the scene. At 7:20 a.m. a CSP trooper spotted a man walking beside the highway and stopped the patrol car. The man pulled out a handgun and ran into the middle of the highway in an attempt to flag people down, Rowlinson said. A Chevrolet Tahoe pulled over, and the suspect pointed a gun at the driver and a passenger and ordered them out of the SUV. The suspect took the SUV and sped west. The trooper followed the man at speeds of more than 100 mph, Rowlinson said. “Shots were fired by the suspect during the chase,” Sutherland said. State troopers deployed stop sticks on the highway. The sticks are studded with spikes to deflate car tires. One of the SUV’s tires was flattened. On three wheels, the suspect took the westbound Strasburg exit ramp. While still on the ramp, a trooper rammed the SUV, pushing it down an embankment. “He ran out into the field and fired shots at officers,” Sutherland said. The unnamed deputy returned fire and fatally shot the man, Rowlinson said. Law enforcement officers from the Adams County Sheriff’s Department and the Aurora Police Department also were involved in the case. The suspect in the second car chase was driving a stolen brown Nissan, registered in Longmont, when the Lincoln County deputy began chasing the car. At 8:09 a.m., the deputy stopped pursuing the stolen car 10 miles from Strasburg after clocking the vehicle at 118 mph. Authorities believe a 27-year-old man named Adrian Charles Littlebear was driving the vehicle. Littlebear has not been found. Longmont police charged Littlebear with misdemeanor counts of child abuse on April 3 and violation of a restraining order on April 8. Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kirkmitchell

League of Legends' Lee Sang-hyeok, known as "Faker," is one of the greatest athletes in sports today. If you want to be a stickler over competitive video games versus traditional sports and debate over the word "athlete," fine. Faker, 20, from South Korea, is one of the best competitors in the world today. Really, if we want to make it even more simple: Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok is one of the best people at his job in the world today. However you want to categorize Faker in the world of sports, he's special. Generational talents, regardless of what competition you talk about, don't come by very often. In the world of video games, the South Korean phenom with such nicknames as "God" and "The Unkillable Demon King" might be the greatest of all time. Last Friday night, inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, Faker delivered another of his iconic performances in front of a sold-out crowd of thousands. It was the semifinal of the 2016 League of Legends World Championship, and Faker, the defending champion with his team SK Telecom T1, faced off with their greatest rival for the past two years, fellow South Korean club ROX Tigers, who came in second place last year behind SKT. The series was ripped out of every Hollywood sports movie you've ever watched. Stoic, bulletproof Faker was the villain. The ROX Tigers were the lovable group of misfits who had overcome adversity the past two years to reach the top. The team's star player, Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho, came into the World Championship as the competitor chosen to usurp Faker as the best in the world. In the domestic league of South Korea, SKT had failed to pull off an unprecedented four-peat due to a loss in a semifinals; instead, the Tigers won their first major championship by beating SKT's semifinals opponent. "In the world of video games, the South Korean phenom with such nicknames as 'God' and 'The Unkillable Demon King' might be the greatest of all time." Friday's World Championship semifinal had higher stakes for the Tigers. They had failed time and time again for two straight years to defeat SKT T1 in a major playoff match, and this could have been their final chance to take them out with this particular roster. ROX threw everything and the kitchen sink at the defending world champion, even deploying trick strategies that could be equated to a "Statue of Liberty" play in American football or the "Flying V" formation in "The Mighty Ducks." Although the Tigers pushed Faker to the brink using these crowd-pleasing strategies, even up 2-1 in a best-of-five series, they weren't capable of putting him away. SKT T1 rebounded, inserting veteran member, two-time world champion and Faker's right-hand man, Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong, into the lineup for the final two games. Although the crowd backed the Tigers, urging on the underdog to dethrone its personal white whale -- chants of "LET'S GO TI-GERS!" with rhythmic thunderous clapping raining down from the rafters to the ground floor -- it wasn't enough. Faker and SK Telecom T1 won, and the Tigers sat at their desks, hands in faces, wondering how, after all the planning, after all the tireless work and after throwing everything they had at their enemy, how they didn't couldn't defeat him. The core of the Tigers stayed intact during last year's offseason while receiving bigger offers from foreign clubs. Why did they stay together? They were best friends, more family than teammates, and they wanted to overcome SKT T1 once and for all. In his signature red jacket, Faker faced the press after the matchup, calling it one of the most difficult series he had ever played in. "I'm not really affected by long series, but I did get a little hungry after Game 4, so I had a chocolate bar and was all good," he admitted with a grin, his every word being scribbled down by the worldwide media covering the event. Every simple quote or throwaway line is magnified when coming from "God" himself. Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok is interviewed onstage after SK Telecom T1's victory over ROX Tigers at Madison Square Garden as part of the 2016 World Championship. Provided by Riot Games The difference between the Tigers and Faker is that while the Tigers, one of the best teams to ever play professionally in League of Legends, dreamed of victory, living for the moment they could win it all, Faker doesn't dream. He either believes he is not good enough to win, or he will win. And more often than not, including this year's World Championships, he not only believes he can win it all -- he knows, without an inkling of doubt, he'll win. To understand the legend behind the name, you have to look to the past. The first spark of greatness It's the spring of 2013. Faker's stardom is more of a hope than a reality. Faker is a highly touted prospect signed by SK Telecom T1, Korea's most respected esports organization, and makes his debut in the country's premier tournament League Champions Korea. In his first professional game, Faker plays against South Korea's best mid laner in Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong of CJ Entus Blaze, one of the tournament's favorites. In the 7th minute, Faker secured his first kill as a pro, pouncing on Ambition with the champion Nidalee to solo-kill the South Korean All-Star. SKT T1 would go on to win the game thanks to Faker's immaculate 6/0/7 kills/deaths/assists debut. Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong was the experienced jungler that brought Samsung Galaxy to a world title in 2017. Provided by Riot Games "I had a lot of preparation with Nidalee before the game, so I chose her," Faker said afterward. "At the moment of the solo kill, I felt like Ambition had made a mistake, and that's when I went in and got the kill. After that, I just kept on throwing spears and the game was over." Ambition and Faker will once again meet more than three years after that fateful solo kill in the middle in the 2016 Summoner's Cup Finals. Since the mistake that was seen as a passing-of-the-torch moment between the world's best mid laner at the time and Faker, the one to take the crown, Ambition has changed everything but his ID. He's a grizzled veteran now on the youthful Samsung Galaxy roster that has a 17-year-old rookie starter in the form of Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk. He's also changed positions from mid lane to the jungle, meaning that in the final it will be Ambition's job to protect his mid laner, Lee "Crown" Min-ho, from meeting the same fate he did in 2013 against Faker. Like the Tigers, this could be Ambition's best (and last) chance of getting revenge on Faker and winning a world championship. For Faker, also like with the Tigers, he doesn't mind being the bad guy. He's going for the jugular, and a third world title. Faker turns international superstar Back to 2013. A few months after his debut as a professional, Faker is in his first major finals. He's made the final of the summer season of Champions against the feared KT Bullets roster that played the perfect all-for-one team style. It's a clash between Faker and SKT's individual raw brilliance versus the Bullets and their tenacious objective-focused play that ground teams to the bone. After falling down 0-2 in the series, SKT T1 made a spirited comeback and tied up the series with one game remaining. In the last game, per South Korea's rules at the time, both teams were able to blind-draft whichever five champions they wanted in their composition with no pick or ban phase. Faker and KTB's mid laner Yoo "Ryu" Sang-ook both pick the assassin Zed in the middle lane. At the end of the match, Faker's Zed pulls off the greatest individual outplay in League of Legends history against Ryu, capping off his first championship victory and launching him into superstardom across the globe following the clip going viral online. "After the final, I found out the clip went viral and I got really famous from it, so I was really happy. But I thought it was a bit of luck, as well." Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok When asked about that key play, Faker said, "[That] moment itself wasn't actually significant to the outcome of the game, so all I was thinking about was [beating KT] and winning the final. After the final, I found out the clip went viral and I got really famous from it, so I was really happy. But I thought it was a bit of luck, as well." Faker becomes two-time world champion In the fall of 2013, Faker wins his first World Championship Summoner's Cup on SKT T1 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. A month after the clip that went viral to make him a superstar, Faker journeyed abroad for the first time to make himself known in the Western market. SKT T1 went 15-3 throughout the competition en route to the title, and it swept the final against China's Royal Club in one of the most lopsided major finals in League history. What was that first World Championship final like for him? "Honestly I can't really remember because we had a pretty easy win. The only thing I remember is the stage [at Staples Center]. The crowd was cheering really loud, that's it. [To compare] I still remember how I felt when I won the summer split [against KTB], though." Two years later in Germany, Faker wins his second world title with SKT T1. This time, SKT defeats fellow South Koreans the ROX Tigers in the final. SKT T1 ends up with a record of 15-1 for the entire campaign, and its only loss is the third set of the series against the Tigers. "I don't particularly remember the champions I picked," he said. "The only memory I have about that moment was that me and my teammates did great." The man with no rival Currently, there is no rival for Faker. Smeb, who doesn't even play the mid lane position, was positioned to overcome Faker as the world's best player, having won two straight domestic MVP awards, but he couldn't come up big when it mattered the most. In last weekend's semifinal against SKT, Smeb wasn't the same dominant figure he was when facing other teams in the competition. When Faker's back is pushed against the wall, he shows why he is the greatest. There's almost no suspense. No matter how far someone bends his arm, he finds a way out, repositioning himself and making sure it never breaks. The only team to ever truly beat Faker is the Samsung White club of 2014. The team repeatedly bested SKT T1 and Faker in the middle and late months of 2014, and its victories over Faker in quarterfinals of the spring and summer domestic leagues forced SKT into a last-chance gauntlet to qualify for the 2014 Worlds. Faker failed in the qualifier, and White eventually went on to win the world championship. The one World Championship that was held in his home country of South Korea where he is so revered, Faker didn't make it. Instead, he stewed over his loss, promising he would practice enough to make sure this feeling of defeat would never overcome him again. In the offseason before the 2015 campaign, Samsung White disbanded, the team's players all taking large contracts in China to play in its domestic league. Faker was allegedly offered over $2 million per year to leave SKT T1 and join the Chinese circuit, but he declined, staying with SKT T1. The decision would work out in the end results-wise, at least, with Faker winning his second world title in 2015 while none of the Samsung White players in China made it past the quarterfinal stage. With or without a rival, Faker keeps pushing himself. For many, having someone greater than yourself is what pushes you to be the best. For Faker, mastery of the game, and seeing how far he can go as an individual, with no other human as a measure, is his mindset. Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok of SK Telecom T1. Provided by Riot Games In the world of sports, there are stories that transcend the playing field. The Chicago Cubs versus the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, a matchup between two clubs with a combined drought of 176 years since winning a title; the No. 1 pick in this year's NHL draft, American Auston Matthews, who scored four goals in his first game as a professional on the Toronto Maple Leafs; Norwegian chess world champion, Magnus Carlsen, who at 25 years old will look for his third championship this November against Sergey Karjakin of Russia; 22-year-old baseball wunderkind Shohei Otani, who is currently playing for Japan's championship as not only one of the best pitchers in the league but also as one of its best hitters. Basketball, football, curling, everywhere you look, at one point or another in time, there are stories that transcend sports interest and break through to the mainstream. The 20-year-old video gaming prodigy is on the verge of breaking through that barrier. So come Saturday, regardless if you're a diehard League of Legends fan, a casual watcher, or never heard of esports in your life, do yourself a favor: find a way to watch Faker go for his third world championship. You might not understand the game in full or the nuances that make him great, but from the reaction of the crowd, to how he moves his character, to how his eyes and fingers dart around endlessly like he is performing a life-or-death surgery, you might start to understand his determination. His brilliance. His all-time greatness.

Deputies are on the lookout for three men who broke into a warehouse in Winter Haven and stole $271,000 worth of king crab legs. Authorities arrested 29-year-old Joshua Warner after they say the warehouse worker left the door unlocked in order to allow the burglars inside. Surveillance video captured the moments the three masked men entered the warehouse and started piling the crab onto forklifts, and into a semi-truck waiting outside the building. "This is definitely highly orchestrated. These guys know their way in and around this warehouse," said Carrie Horstman, spokesperson for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. King crab sells for somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 per pound, meaning the team got away with about 10 tons of crab. "They obviously had a large transport vehicle they were putting this stuff into. They've taken it somewhere, they've probably sold it to someone already," Horstman said. Warner, the man who was arrested and charged with cargo theft, said he locked the door and told police he did not unlock it. "I have no idea how it happened. All I know is I did not unlock that door," Warner said. Deputies arrested Warner after they say he had several inconsistencies in his story, and even told deputies he would wear a wire to help catch the men. He then backed off that story, according to an arrest report. "I've never stolen anything, haven't even thought about stealing anything from these people," Warner told Bay News 9. Warner is suspended without pay pending the results of the investigation. "When the truth comes out, I'll be expecting apologies from everybody," Warner said. Warner faces a judge in June to answer to the charges. Deputies say if you have any information on the burglary, contact Crimestoppers.

The Carolina Panthers are approximately $20 million under the 2014 salary cap. Not $13 million, not $29 million -- nor any other number that has been reported and spread. It's unclear where the $29 million figure came from, but it made the rounds and gained traction Tuesday as Carolina Panthers fans salivated facing the promise of retaining Greg Hardy, replacing Jordan Gross and signing a key free agent. That's what $29 million would have meant, but the real figure makes things a little more tricky. OverTheCap.com is currently the most accurate source for salary info and they have the Panthers at $18.23 million under the cap. That number will be increased with cuts, including almost assuredly Charles Godfrey and possible Dwan Edwards. Ultimately it's realistic to expect around $22 million to spend this year after cuts. That's enough to make necessary moves but it's going to be a little more tricky than expected. UPDATE: The NFL salary cap has been raised to $132 million, which increases the available cap to $20M.

For a chance to just look at the rarest modern American coin with his own eyes, David Hall will spend $10,000 — again. Hall, president of Collectors Universe and co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service, says the money is “absolutely” worth it to prove that at least one 1964-dated silver Peace dollar still exists. According to U.S. Mint records, 316,076 Peace dollars were struck at the Denver Mint in May of 1965. But all were condemned to the melting pot in a tangled tale of political maneuvering and silver hoarding. “Legend has it that there may be a survivor or two,” said Professional Coin Grading Service president Don Willis. ” We’d love to determine if one still exists.” Offering a reward to non-numismatists who may unknowingly have millions of dollars in rare coins sitting around at home has worked for Hall in the past. In 2003, Collectors Universe issued a $10,000 reward for anyone in possession of a 1913-dated Liberty Head nickel. Only five were ever struck, and four were publicly accounted for. The possibility of the missing coin turning up was painfully low. But then the heirs of a 1940s coin collector saw an Associated Press story about the fabled coin’s value — a minimum $1 million — and dug it out of their mother’s house in Salem, Va. Hall gave the family $10,000 for the privilege of authenticating the coin. He spent 40 minutes verifying it against the other four 1913-dated Liberty Head nickels in July 2003. “It was amazing, they just had it sitting in the closet — had no clue,” Hall said. “Now I hear they’re going to sell it in April for $3 million to $4 million.” The 1964-dated Peace dollar is different than most rare coins. It was modeled after the 1929-1935 Peace dollars circulated at the end of World War I. But the coins never saw the light of day. On Jan. 11, Hall and the PCGS launched a “Top 100 Modern Coins” promotion and listed the 1964-dated silver Peace dollar as the most sought after coin minted after 1965. The reason for the coin’s scarcity is simple: According the the U.S. government, it doesn’t exist. In a 1998 article for Professional Coin Grading Service, COINage magazine senior editor Ed Reiter explained the complicated history of the 1964-dated Peace coin. President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed to make the coins, despite protests from Congress. Johnson was roadblocked until May 15, 1965, when the he issued a presidential order to begin manufacturing the 1964 silver dollars — which is why the coins are backdated. But a massive silver shortage made the coins more valuable for their silver content — 90 percent — than their $1 face value. Before they were to be released, private collectors advertising offers of $7.50 each spurred worries about hoarding of public currency, Reiter said. “When word of the coins’ production got back to congressional opponents, they angrily demanded immediate suspension of the program,” Reiter wrote. “And Mint officials cheerfully complied.” According the official story, all but two of the coins were destroyed. The survivors were sent to Washington, D.C., where they remained until 1970, where Mint records say they too were melted in the presence of a destruction committee. But Hall and other rare coin experts are not convinced. “Credible rumors” from the underground numismatics culture give them hope. “Supposedly every employee in the Denver Mint at the time received two coins each,” Hall said. “Or employees could have taken them without permission.” Hall said a trusted Denver-based coin collector named Dan Brown claimed he saw one in the 1970s. Today, it is illegal to possess a 1964-dated Peace dollar because they were not released to the public. Any examples of the coin found belong the U.S. government. Hall said he’s willing to work with the terms of whomever actually has one of the coins in order to authenticate it. To claim the reward, he said a person must contact a PCGS chapter. Because of its “non-existent” status, Hall said it’s impossible to say how much a 1964-dated Peace dollar would bring the holder, but guessed the price could top $1 million. “If it exists, it would be one of the great coins of the 20th century,” Hall said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that we could identify it immediately.” Megan Mitchell: 303-954-1223, mmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/megs_report

SF doctor advises against following Kardashian vagina maintenance tips WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 14: Khloe Kardashian attends the House of CB flagship store launch at House Of CB on June 14, 2016 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic) WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 14: Khloe Kardashian attends the House of CB flagship store launch at House Of CB on June 14, 2016 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic) Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close SF doctor advises against following Kardashian vagina maintenance tips 1 / 23 Back to Gallery If it ain't broke, don't fix it – including your vagina. Subscribers to Khloe Kardashian's app (yes she has an app) received some unsolicited medical advice about their private parts from the reality star. "No joke: Vitamin E may strengthen vaginal lining! Moisturize your labia and vagina with Vitamin E oil to combat dryness and soothe irritation," suggests Kardashian. Bay Area OB/GYN Dr. Jennifer Gunter disagrees with one of the designers of the Kardashian (klothing) Kollection by telling The Daily Beast, "I would not recommend this nor is there any study that looks at this for healthy, premenopausal women." Dr. Gunter explores a number of celebrity and fashion magazine theories on her popular blog, including the proper trimming of pubic hair and whether or not thongs are bad news for derrières (they are not). Kardashian isn't alone in her enthusiasm for Vitamin E and its effectiveness for vaginal problems like dryness or yeast infections. The theory is a popular one on the internet, and may help women going through menopause. In fact, legitimate medical organizations like Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center offer online instructions for just how to get that Vitamin E all over your vagina. The local doctor, however, points out to that at 32-years old, Kardashian shouldn't be experiencing problems with vaginal dryness, nor should her target 18-34 year old demographic. Advises Gunter, "If you are 32 and have a dry vagina, see your doctor and try a silicone-based lube." h/t: Your Tango

After a devastating fire at an Oakland warehouse killed 36 people, Los Angeles officials say they will crack down on illegal residential spaces here, reports the Los Angeles Times. “In the wake of the tragedy in Oakland, I think it’s especially important that we be vigilant,” City Attorney Mike Feuer told the Times. Feuer, the city’s fire chief, and the superintendent of the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety will meet next week to consider a plan of action—an “aggressive response”—to dwellings that aren’t permitted for residential use, according to the Times. It’s unclear how many commercial spaces such as the one in Oakland exist in LA. The Oakland collective, known as the “Ghost Ship,” burned down Friday night; one of the victims was 17 years old. News reports have said the space was cluttered, lacked sprinklers, and only had two exits. As an example of the type of building they’re targeting, LA officials point to a warehouse at 931 Pico Boulevard in the Fashion District. The city attorney’s office has filed a criminal complaint against the building’s owner, alleging the warehouse contains “unlawfully constructed residences that had no smoke alarms and inaccessible fire escapes.” None of this seems to have deterred people from wanting to living there. A recent listing for a room in a “loft” in the Pico warehouse notes that it’s “a very well known and high in demand building.” That room, one of four in the shared loft space, was renting for $1,000. In Oakland, many are making connections between the lack of affordable housing and the popularity of unpermitted warehouse living situations. Feuer draws the same connection in Los Angeles.

The next phase of the “Blurred Lines” saga has arrived. On Monday, Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, and T.I. filed a long-rumored notice to appeal a March verdict ordering them to pay $7.4 million (later reduced to $5.3 million) to Marvin Gaye’s family for copyright infringement of the late singer’s 1977 classic “Got to Give It Up.” The ruling befuddled experts like Jeff Peretz, who argued the decision to punish the trio for paying “homage” set a dangerous precedent. “When you make a recording that has samples on it, somebody reaches out to the person who owns the copyright for those masters and cuts a deal. There are already rules,” Peretz told Vulture earlier this year. “The area where there are no rules — and that’s what’s changing as a result of this case — is when somebody like Pharrell goes and reconstructs the rhythm of a track to create a very similar song without sampling.” Consider the song “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow,” a traditional American folk tune with at least 50 versions (including Dylan’s from 1963). It was allegedly first published around 1913 by a Kentucky fiddler named Dick Burnett under the title “Farewell Song,” but Burnett couldn’t be sure he had written it. Historians suggest the song dates back to the early-19th-century English hymn “Christ’s Suffering,” was adapted by the Baptist church, and eventually became the traditional Appalachian folk song we know today. Burnett’s version was the first to be documented in the U.S., but its origins are a tangled web of reinterpretations and edits that may or may not lead back to the same source material. (Producer T Bone Burnett, something of an American-roots-music expert, seems to think the song dates back to Plato.) This was a time when the production of records began en masse, creating new opportunities for songwriters like Burnett — a blind orphan who played music with a tin cup tied to his leg for change — to earn a living. Believe it or not, Burnett’s story has something in common with young musicians and producers today, many of whom are self-taught and eager to take advantage of new technology that can bring their music to the largest possible audience. But there’s also the matter of source material — where it’s found, how it’s used, and who gets credit for it, at a time when songcraft can mean repurposing the work of others, oftentimes without additional musicians. Judith Finell — a Berkeley-educated musicologist who runs a boutique music consulting firm out of Bronxville, New York — is one of the experts who took the stand during phase one of the “Blurred Lines” case. Vulture caught up with Finell to discuss the complicated state of copyright infringement in music today, in hopes of understanding why these disputes are popping up now more than ever. In the YouTube era, a bass line from a random sci-fi soundtrack could end up on a No. 1 hit. Unlike in the 1970s, when George Harrison was found guilty of “subconsciously plagiarizing” the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine” on “My Sweet Lord,” a songwriter denying awareness of music they supposedly ripped off is more complicated in the YouTube age, particularly when the copied work in question comes from lesser-known creators. Historically, as a protection against copyright complaints, record companies were taught to return unsolicited recordings to make it clear they hadn’t been exposed to it. “Now one doesn’t have to go through a publisher or recording label or manager to receive materials,” says Finell. “Now some musician or potential defendant can be sitting around looking at YouTube clips or other forms of electronic conveyance and be exposed to some piece of music by some obscure person who has absolutely no worldwide fame, and no recognition of his name or her name, and then suddenly it ends up on some record, or a portion of it gets sampled and it mysteriously — but not so mysteriously — ends up on somebody else’s recording.” This explains why Osama Fahmy, nephew of Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi, thought he had a case against Jay Z, whose 1999 hit “Big Pimpin’” Fahmy argued illegally sampled his uncle’s 1957 song “Khosara Khosara” (a judge recently threw the case out). Or why, earlier this week, Cutting Edge Music filed a complaint against the Weeknd for stealing a bass line from a little-known 2013 sci-fi soundtrack — which Weeknd producer DJ Mano even admitted — on his No. 1 hit “The Hills.” But the supposed victims of this phenomenon aren’t limited to obscure no-names. In November, Brooklyn noise-pop duo Sleigh Bells accused Demi Lovato of sampling their songs “Infinity Guitars” and “Riot Rhythm” without permission, too. Everyone wants to hit the copyright-infringement jackpot, but few have what it takes to sustain a court case. Just before Sam Smith won Song of the Year and Record of the Year Grammys for “Stay With Me,” news broke that Smith and his label Capitol had agreed to give Tom Petty and “I Won’t Back Down” co-writer Jeff Lynne partial songwriting credits on “Stay With Me,” given the apparent (but totally “coincidental”) similarities to Petty’s 1989 hit. “The Sam Smith case was pretty standard,” says Finell. “The time that Petty decided to strike was pretty obvious in terms of the recent nomination for a Grammy. You’d have to have been on another planet not to have realized why it was set up that way.” As songs rise on the charts, the number of phone calls Finell’s office receives skyrockets, and she often gets multiple calls from different parties complaining about the same song. This is happening more and more often than in the past (thank the internet). “This one will say ‘that big song used my bass line.’ Another one is saying, ‘I submitted a song like that to a record label four years ago with some of the same lyrics.’ People are just watching and they think it’s a big bonus, but they don’t realize how much it costs — time, money, energy, and everything else — to bring about a lawsuit and sustain it through the federal court.” Most musicians don’t have the kinds of finances needed to go up against a large company like Universal in a copyright dispute, and without those resources, major labels can squash a complaint before it ever really gets off the ground. The Petty-Smith case wasn’t precedent-setting, says Finell, but “it could have destroyed Smith’s career if it had waged on. And it certainly would have harmed his credibility as an artist. I don’t know if they agreed that it had been imitated or not, because the musical similarities weren’t universe-shaking as far as I could tell, but it was certainly a very smart move to move ahead.” User-friendly technology has led to a DIY revolution, but that’s part of the problem too. In the ‘60s, reel-to-reel sampling involved physically manipulating tape loops from one original source to another. In the more user-friendly digital environment, all you have to do is push a button — technology that changed sample-based genres like hip-hop, and subsequently led to 1991’s Grand Upright case. In it, judge Kevin Thomas Duffy, who quoted the Eighth Commandment (‘Thou Shalt Not Steal”) at the top of his decision, ruled that Biz Markie’s “Alone Again” had infringed on the copyright of Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally).” Markie took very small portions of O’Sullivan’s song and looped it continuously, but Duffy’s ruling basically said, “There’s nothing that’s too small not to be protected,” Finell recalls. “You made another recording, and you’re going to pay for it. That completely changed things because the myth in the recording industry was if it were very short, only a few notes and a few beats, they could get away with it. This made it clear that they could not.” Flash forward to 2006, when Girl Talk (a.k.a. Gregg Gillis) released his groundbreaking mashup album Night Ripper, a kaleidoscopic menagerie of samples recontextualized for the internet’s hungry, genre-ambivalent masses. Gillis weaved Top 40 with classic rock, Southern rap and indie “hits,” bridging the divide between college-radio snobbery and Big Pop, and in the process making it cool to be a fan of both Merzbow and Britney Spears. Gillis argued that his music was transformative enough to be protected under fair use, and told Pitchfork one of the things that inspired him to create music in the mp3 era was seeing “that guys could just get up there and have no traditional music ability and be in a band.” That DIY ethos, in addition to shirking Duffy’s ruling, created another concern. “Once one understood how to use the software, that went hand-in-hand with musicians being less and less educated musically,” says Finell. “So today, you have very professional, popular music artists who are very successful who have produced many, many recordings and made lots of money, but when you question them in terms of how they created something because there’s a question of whether or not they utilized third-party materials, for the most part they cannot explain what they’ve done. They have absolutely no musical education in any traditional sense. They do not read music. They are not able to describe what they’ve done in a way that would enable one to unravel and understand how the music was constructed. Music has become more or less an assembly of other people’s materials in certain spheres of popular music, and that’s fertile ground for a lot of copyright-infringement issues.” She uses the example of the American Songbook. When that was being written by the likes George Gershwin and Cole Porter, “people sat at their piano, wrote the words, wrote the melody, and wrote their scores.” If necessary, they had a copyist who polished it for publication, but they had the training to know what was written and what was theirs. “It becomes more complicated when someone says, ‘Well, that song just feels like my song.’ Well, what does that mean? How do you enforce that?”

Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? My gripe with Glenn Beck has always been with his absurd attempt to claim a connection to Tom Paine. Ad Policy The furiously self-promotional Fox personality wrote a book last year that he suggested was a contemporary update of Paine’s pamphlet "Common Sense." In fact, Glenn Beck’s Common Sense was short on Paine and long on Beck. And it failed to note the founder’s canon of criticism of organized religion, concentrated wealth and know-nothing opponents of government. But, as silly as Beck’s attempt to claim Paine might have been, his attempt to associate himself with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a radical critic of not just racism but of an economic system left tens of millions in poverty, would be comic if it was not so sad. Beck and his followers say they are out to "reclaim the civil rights movement." Reclaim it from who? Presumably the people who were involved in the civil rights movement. As Martin Luther King III notes: "My father championed free speech. He would be the first to say that those participating in Beck’s rally have the right to express their views. But his dream rejected hateful rhetoric and all forms of bigotry or discrimination, whether directed at race, faith, nationality, sexual orientation or political beliefs. He envisioned a world where all people would recognize one another as sisters and brothers in the human family. Throughout his life he advocated compassion for the poor, nonviolence, respect for the dignity of all people and peace for humanity. "Although he was a profoundly religious man, my father did not claim to have an exclusionary ‘plan’ that laid out God’s word for only one group or ideology. He marched side by side with members of every religious faith. Like Abraham Lincoln, my father did not claim that God was on his side; he prayed humbly that he was on God’s side. "He did, however, wholeheartedly embrace the "social gospel." His spiritual and intellectual mentors included the great theologians of the social gospel Walter Rauschenbush and Howard Thurman. He said that any religion that is not concerned about the poor and disadvantaged, ‘the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them[,] is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.’ In his ‘Dream’ speech, my father paraphrased the prophet Amos, saying, ‘We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.’" That reference to the "social gospel" is a direct rebuke to Beck’s attacks on churches, synagogues and mosques that preach a social justice message. It is another reminder of the fact that the folks at Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Foundation are right when they say: "Glenn Beck is NOT Martin Luther King Jr." The foundation’s new campaign to clarify this point asks Americans to sign a petition that declares: "On August 28th, I will stand with Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a just, diverse and equal society. I do not stand with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and their attempt to destroy and distort King’s vision." By mid-day Friday, 30,000 Americans had signed. One of the signers, Johanna M., offers some historical perspective when she argues that: "When those like Beck & Palin say ‘let’s take back our country,’ that just means they want to go back to pre-1963." My only quibble, as a unsettled reader of Beck’s rethink of "Common Sense," might be with the date. I am afraid that he wants to go back to pre-1763.

Charlotte Smith tells tribunal a member of the Countryfile team claimed she did not 'pass the primetime test' BBC presenter dropped because 'she was not young and pretty enough' A second Countryfile presenter axed from the BBC1 show was told by a member of the production team that she did not pass the "primetime test" because she "was not young or pretty", a tribunal heard today. Charlotte Smith was one of four female presenters who were dropped from the rural affairs show when it switched from Sunday mornings to a new Sunday teatime slot last year. She was giving evidence today at the tribunal in Holborn, central London, hearing an age discrimination complaint from Miriam O'Reilly, another presenter dropped from the show. Smith, who had presented on the show for a decade, told the tribunal that she had light-heartedly suggested she could fill in on the show when it found itself short of presenters last year. "I was told by a member of the team that I would not be able to pass the primetime test because I was not young or pretty," said Smith. The former Countryfile presenter, now 46, was 44 when she was dropped from the show. Smith said the comment had been made by Sam Bailey, an assistant producer and director on the show. Asked by lawyer Jason Galbraith-Marten, representing the BBC, if it could have been an "ironic response" to her lighthearted suggestion, Smith said: "It's possible but I honestly don't think that was how it was meant. "It was obviously discussed a lot by members of the team and it was a reflection of what the BBC more corporately wanted." Smith said she thought the decision to drop her from the show had come from the then BBC1 controller, Jay Hunt. She was told the news by the BBC's head of rural affairs, Andrew Thorman. "I asked if it was worth going to see Jay Hunt to plead my case. He said it was not," said Smith. "I got the impression the decision had been taken mainly by Jay Hunt." She added that there was a general feeling among the Countryfile team that the four female presenters – including O'Reilly (53), Michaela Strachan (42) and Juliet Morris (45) – had been "badly treated". Smith said she and her fellow presenters had been dropped because corporation bosses "wanted the programme to look and feel younger and they felt they could not do it with us". Thorman, giving evidence to the tribunal after Smith, said the impetus to drop both her and O'Reilly had come from Hunt. "It was clear to me that Jay did not think Miriam or Charlotte had the right television profile to go forward. I was quite clear about that," said Thorman. "Jay said Miriam and Charlotte were primarily radio reporters or words to that effect." Thorman, who said in his witness statement yesterday that he had not specifically discussed O'Reilly with Hunt, clarified today that he had a "one-sentence conversation" with the BBC1 controller about the presenter. When O'Reilly's representative, Heather Williams QC, suggested such inconsistencies occur when "people are not telling the truth", Thorman replied: "I find that offensive." When later asked by Williams about the choice of presenters for the new-look Countryfile, Thorman said: "To some extent the appearance of somebody – whether you like it or not – it does play a role ... But not a significant role that rules out other strengths and weaknesses." The programme is now fronted by former Blue Peter presenter Matt Baker and former Watchdog presenter Julia Bradbury. Smith added: "I don't feel the new presenters are doing anything that I am not capable of." The tribunal continues. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

This week, tens of thousands of citizens will gather in midtown Manhattan to demand action to protect Earth’s climate. Timed to coincide with the first UN summit on the climate crisis, the People’s Climate March is being billed as the largest-ever demonstration to combat global warming. The organizers have refrained from attaching demands or even policy proposals so as to cast the widest possible net and present the assemblage as nonpartisan. This strategy has a certain logic, given the Republican stranglehold on the House and the clear possibility that the party will recapture the Senate in November ― although a strong streak of optimism is required to imagine that the GOP would permit meaningful climate legislation to come out of Congress any time soon. Advertisement: Nevertheless, the organizers are inviting marchers to carry signs proclaiming their priorities for the twinned issues of climate and energy. There will be wind- and solar-power advocates urging that those sources’ shares of U.S. electricity production be raised far beyond their respective 5 percent and one-half of 1 percent; fracking opponents decrying the chemical mining of rural landscapes for natural gas, the least-polluting fossil fuel but one whose main molecular constituent, methane, is itself a potent greenhouse gas; anti-nukers who regard the carbon-free reactors that supply nearly one-fifth of U.S. electricity not as climate saviors but as subsidized relics impeding the transition to a renewables-based power grid; and “climate justice” advocates insisting that climate policy not disadvantage the poor ― a class that is growing more numerous even as American energy production reaches record heights. Yet what needs to be the march’s largest contingent may be nearly invisible amid the throng: citizens insisting that a carbon tax be the centerpiece of American and, ultimately, global action on climate. My Carbon Tax Center will be present, under a banner urging a tax on dirty energy, but we’re a small research clearinghouse, and not widely known. The Citizens Climate Lobby will be out in force promoting its “fee and dividend” program to tax carbon emissions and distribute the proceeds pro rata to U.S. households ― an arrangement designed to protect lower- and middle-income Americans without directly involving government. But adherents of carbon taxing remain a niche within the climate movement. And while recent polls indicate rising support for climate action and even for carbon taxes, the same polls show the climate issue lacking the urgency that wins elections and drives legislation. The Appeal of a Carbon Tax The motivating logic for a carbon tax is as elegant as it is powerful: Making emitters pay for their carbon pollution is the only way to bring the climate damage caused by burning coal, oil and natural gas within the arc of the decision-making that determines how much of those fuels society uses. Without a tax on carbon emissions, alternatives won’t dislodge fossil fuels from their central position in world energy supply — or at least not fast enough to keep climate change from spiraling out of control. Humanity is now in its third century of cheap fossil fuels driving industrialization and energizing human progress — a process that enriched Europeans and North Americans and has begun lifting Asians out of poverty as well. For most of this era, the “market failure” by which carbon pollution went unpriced was of little consequence. Only in recent decades has worldwide combustion of coal, oil and gas pushed the volume of carbon dioxide suspended in earth’s atmosphere high enough to elevate the greenhouse effect from a textbook truth to a veritable Cloud of Damocles. Thus, the pronouncement by an economic advisor to the government of the United Kingdom, Sir Nicholas Stern, that “Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure the world has seen,” came not in 1807 or 1907, but in 2007, when the concentration of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere had risen 100 parts per million above the pre-industrial level of 280 ppm. (The World Meteorological Organization reported last week that the level is now just under 400 ppm and rising at a record pace of nearly 3 ppm per year.) Advertisement: In the plainer terms employed by the preeminent U.S. climate scientist James Hansen, an outspoken advocate for a carbon tax and an adviser to Citizens Climate Lobby: “What's certain is that as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy, we will just keep burning them.” How a Carbon Tax Works Administering a national carbon tax is simple, thanks in part to the unwavering relationship between fossil fuels’ carbon content and the carbon dioxide released when the fuels are burned. Wherever coal, oil or gas that has been extracted from the earth (or imported) is first sold, government collects a tax pegged to the fuel’s carbon content and, thus, to the carbon dioxide that combustion of the fuel will release. There are no downstream levies, only pass-throughs of the tax charged at the initial upstream point, of which the entire U.S. has just several thousand. Consider home heating oil, one of a dozen or more “petroleum products” and a minor but illustrative source of CO2 emissions. The carbon tax imposed on the crude oil inputted to the refinery will be passed along to wholesale purchasers of the heating oil (and likewise of gasoline, jet fuel and other refinery output) and down the supply chain to the homeowner. Property owners will be spurred by the higher per-gallon price to undertake measures that have slipped under their decision radar: Modernize the oil burner, replace drafty windows, add insulation to walls and ceilings, digitize thermostatic controls, install supplemental solar-heating, and so forth. Entrepreneurs, seeing business opportunities, will develop products and processes that perform these tasks less expensively and more efficiently. Advertisement: Any of these measures will shrink a household’s carbon footprint, and some can be taken virtually overnight. If they ring familiar, it’s because many of them have been taken since heating oil prices first surged in the 1970s. Empirical evidence is abundantly clear that households, businesses and innovators find ways to economize on energy when its price rises. Indeed, the response to higher real prices for gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel, in tandem with building code standards and efficiency mandates for appliances and vehicles, goes far to explain why U.S. economic activity per barrel of oil consumed has risen by 150 percent since 1973. But unlike petroleum products, which today account for only around 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption and the same percentage of emitted carbon, electricity and natural gas have not been getting more expensive in real terms. Even the climb in petroleum price has been clouded by volatility, with gasoline prices falling month-to-month about as often as they’ve risen. Absent clear upward price signals ― the kinds that a carbon tax could lock in with a legislated schedule of yearly increments ― investments in energy efficiency have mostly been of the micro variety discussed in the heating oil example. Macro shifts with greater reach remain scarce. By and large, purchasing agents for aircraft or freight trucks have not flocked to pay more upfront for ultra-light models that use less fuel; few firms have relocated near supply chains and labor pools to cut transport costs; even the millions of commercial buildings making energy retrofits have stopped halfway, constrained by payback calculations with no line-item for the saved carbon. Advertisement: The one U.S. sector in which decarbonization has made headway with little price spur is electricity. Since 2005, carbon dioxide emitted per kilowatt-hour generated has fallen 15 percent, a rate of 2 percent per year, as coal has lost market share to wind turbines and, especially, lower-carbon fracked gas. Yet electricity is by far the easiest sector to wean off carbon. Unlike, say, aviation fuel, which has no ready low-carbon substitute, electricity can be made via a host of technologies ― wind, solar cells, nuclear reactors, water power ― that emit no carbon whatsoever. Along with lower-carbon electricity have come other carbon-cutting shifts: belt-tightening forced by the prolonged economic slowdown, an uptick in urbanization, vehicle and appliance efficiencies, energy-saving digital technologies, and the relentless offshoring of manufacturing. Nevertheless, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions remain stubbornly high, just 9 percent below their 2005 peak. While any reversal of two centuries’ worth of rising fossil fuel use and carbon pollution is impressive, this single-digit decline ― which stalled out last year, by the way ― is barely a fraction of what is needed. Meeting in Copenhagen in 2009, the United States, China and 40 other countries pledged to restrain production of greenhouse gases so as to limit Earth’s average temperature rise to 2°C (approximately 3.5°F) above pre-industrial levels. Any greater increase, it was agreed, would flirt too closely with “tipping points” that might detonate catastrophic “feedback loops.” (Liberation of methane hydrates frozen beneath Siberian permafrost ― a sort of cocaine injection to our planet’s climate brain ― is one of many postulated mechanisms.) Advertisement: Achieving a 2°C limit, in turn, requires capping atmospheric CO2 concentrations at 450 parts per million, a level that will be reached in a decade-and-a-half, on recent trends. Moreover, some perpetuation of these trends is built into today’s global stock of power plants, vehicles and factories. Unsurprisingly, a deep sense of gloom pervades the latest report on climate impacts from the UN-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with its litany of climate-disrupted agriculture, coastlines and other habitats and warnings of uncontrollable climate collapse. We are facing hard facts with very short time frames. The obligation of Americans is particularly acute, due to our position as the leading cumulative carbon emitter and, thus, the primary instigator of climate change. There is literally no time to waste to banish carbon fuels from our energy system. A Renewables Revolution? What would a zero-carbon economy look like? How would one be fashioned from the incumbent fossil-based economy? Answers to these questions are taking shape in the fields and factories of Germany, and on blackboards and spreadsheets at Stanford University. Advertisement: Largely unnoticed in the U.S., Germany, the world’s fourth largest economy, is transforming its electric infrastructure to low- or zero-carbon renewable sources. This energy makeover — Energiewende, the Germans call it — is nearing critical mass. Not counting hydroelectricity, Germany generated over 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources last year. That share is more than triple the current U.S. percentage. Wind energy accounted for 8.4 percent of Germany’s electricity generation in 2013, biological-based fuels and municipal waste 7.5 percent, and photovoltaics 4.7 percent. Perhaps most notably, Germany, with cloudier skies, a more northerly location, and 1/27th as much land area, produces three times as much photovoltaic electricity as does the United States. All the same, Germany’s carbon emissions have barely budged downward, as the upsurge in wind and solar generation has thus far served only to replace the carbon-free output of reactors forced toward retirement after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, while the national government has resisted pressure to frack the countryside for gas that could substitute for higher-carbon coal. But there is also a deeper issue at work: In Germany, as well as the United States and other economies, six of every 10 tons of emitted carbon emanate outside the electricity sector ― in combustion of fuels for transport, industry and heating. In eliminating use of carbon fuels, converting electricity to renewables turns out to be necessary but insufficient. How many turbines and collectors would be required to convert not just electricity but nations’ entire economies to zero-carbon energy? And what would these wind, water and sunlight devices cost in dollars, materials and land area? Since 2009, a team of engineers and economists led by Stanford professor Mark Z. Jacobson have been publishing their “100%WWS” estimates in peer-reviewed journals as well as popular outlets such as Scientific American. Their figures for New York state ― a jurisdiction large enough to matter but small enough to comprehend ― are instructive. Half of the energy needed to power, heat and drive all of New York state’s lighting, transport, buildings, factories and digital devices, they asserted in a peer-reviewed paper published last year in Energy Policy, could be provided by 17,000 giant wind turbines, mostly sited offshore, where winds are steadier and stronger. The rest of the energy would be produced by 400 “concentrated solar power” plants (10 percent of total requirements); 800 large solar photovoltaic arrays (another 10 percent); rooftop solar cells on several million residences (6 percent) and half-a-million commercial and government buildings (12 percent); 5-6 percent from existing hydroelectric dams upstate; and the final 5-6 percent from new geothermal, tidal and wave generators. Advertisement: Jacobson deliberately oversizes this energy system to absorb the loads from all-electric heating and vehicles. Oversizing also enables surplus electricity to make hydrogen to run large vehicles and aircraft that can’t employ electric drive, while providing redundancy to manage variable wind and solar output. On this last point, Jacobson points to optimization models suggesting that an integrated grid-management measures ranging from dispatchable hydro to storage of electricity in vehicle batteries can enable his dispersed and diverse energy system to maintain reliable electric service. The notion of running all of New York state, including the world’s most iconic city, entirely on renewable sources is tantalizing, and Jacobson’s calculations are a tour de force, particularly his estimate that no more than 1 percent of the state’s land area would have to be given to the new uses. Moreover, manufacturing, installing and maintaining the new equipment would create tens of thousands of new full-time jobs, many of them in chronically depressed upstate counties. What has yet to materialize, however, is the means to actualize either Jacobson’s vision or a U.S. counterpart of Germany’s Energiewende. Notions of a new New Deal or Manhattan or Apollo Project miss the point. Three-and-a-half decades after the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan, distrust of government-directed enterprises is embedded in American political culture. Moreover, the single-point focus of building the atomic bomb or putting a man on the moon is almost antipodal to the task of blanketing New York or any state with Jacobson’s galaxy of clean-energy devices. Nor do analogies to Moore’s Law apply; erecting 15,000 or more 400-foot-tall turbines and solarizing millions of structures are not matters of miniaturizing but of scaling, integrating and financing. Even the Energiewende is not an overnight phenomenon but the accumulation of a dozen synergistic laws and policy directives ranging from price guarantees for renewable energy (via so-called feed-in-tariffs) to rises in energy taxes under the larger rubric of “ecological tax reform.” During the decades in which these policies have been instituted in Germany, the United States has been paralyzed by denialism — both political and psychic. In the foreshortened time frame now available, the only policy tool capable of motivating the investments and actions needed to slash emissions without automatically succumbing to internecine strife is a robustly rising carbon tax. Advertisement: Paths to a Carbon Tax Of course, a U.S. carbon tax is off the table so long as the Republican Party controls Congress and the climate denialists maintain their death grip on the GOP. That is why carbon tax advocates are now turning to the states, much as marriage-equality proponents did half-a-dozen years ago with spectacular success. Their model is British Columbia, Canada’s third most populous province, which began taxing carbon emissions in 2008. The tax rate now stands at $25 per ton of carbon dioxide (Canadian currencies and weights have been converted to American). That is probably close to the limit of what a single state or province can charge on its own without driving carbon-taxed shoppers or businesses to neighboring states. Six years on, the tax is a smashing success. On every indicator that matters ― emission reductions, economic output and jobs ― B.C. is outstripping the rest of Canada. Moreover, for seeing the tax through and making it revenue-neutral, transparent and fair to low-income households, British Columbia’s Liberal Party has been rewarded with continuing electoral majorities. Alas, Canada’s national government is joined at the hip to tar sands petroleum, and no other provinces have followed suit (save for a token carbon tax in Quebec). Nevertheless, British Columbia’s “facts on the ground” have sparked campaigns to pass carbon taxes in Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts as possible stepping stones to consideration by Congress. Advertisement: The False Allure of Clean-Energy Subsidies Then again, why not pursue the politically easier path of subsidizing clean energy? Empirical evidence, for one thing. As I demonstrated in a report to the Senate Finance Committee earlier this year, even a perfectly tailored subsidies regime wouldn’t deliver half as much carbon reduction as an equivalently priced carbon tax. In addition, the subsidies require taxpayer dollars. On a more fundamental level, it’s axiomatic that if the objective is reducing carbon emissions, raising the price to emit carbon will be more productive than lowering the prices of selected means of reducing it. The list of measures anointed for subsidizing will necessarily be small, not to mention politically determined. In contrast, there are as many ways to cut carbon burning as there are human decisions. Moreover ― and this point is central ― although the billions of daily behaviors and long-term decisions pertaining to energy vary greatly as to moment, all of them are affected by the relative prices of alternatives, including available or emerging energy sources and energy-using technologies. To make those decisions lean fully toward less carbon, the prices of carbon fuels must reflect at least some of the climate havoc they create. The same applies to any regulatory push on carbon. Why not simply set mandates to cast carbon out of our energy system, much as we banished lead from gasoline decades ago? For the simple reason that energy is so central to human activity that rather than outright bans the regulations would have to take the form of efficiency standards ― thousands of them, each one bitterly contested. Moreover, by their nature the standards would be reactive, piecemeal and static, as well as binary — unable to reward innovations or actions that surpass the standards. Advertisement: Compare the vaunted “CAFÉ” standards that require manufacturers to sell higher-mpg cars, versus a carbon tax or other policy to tax gasoline more heavily. The CAFÉ standards have indeed made more fuel-efficient autos available and steered consumers toward them. But a robust carbon tax would likely have done that as well by driving cost-conscious car buyers toward more-efficient vehicles. Moreover, by raising the cost to drive each mile, the tax would motivate drivers to take up a host of additional means to consume less fuel: use public transportation more; bike or walk more; ride-share more; seek out closer destinations for shopping, socializing and recreation; forgo the gas-guzzler when another vehicle is available; drive more conservatively; and so forth. While some drivers wouldn’t be able or willing to make these adaptations, others would, and collectively their impacts would register, with the magnitude growing with the tax. In time, the many incremental changes in behavior would set in motion changes at the societal level: municipalities expanding transit systems, school districts siting new schools in town rather than on the outskirts, infill projects getting the nod from developers and easier financing from banks. The guiding principle is that our energy system is so splintered, our economic system so decentralized, and human nature so varied and innovating that neither the best-intentioned system of rules and regulations nor the most enlightened subsidies regime can elicit the carbon-reducing decisions and behaviors that a robust carbon tax can bring forth. The intention is not that a carbon tax should change everything overnight and millions of soccer parents should ride bicycle trailers to the big box store; rather, that the arc of the consuming universe, to borrow a phrase, will begin to bend toward greater economy and efficiency ― while fossil fuels, carbon-priced at last above their “market” price, get progressively swapped out for energy from wind, water and sunlight. Current Landscape and Next Steps As noted, polls report rising percentages of Americans acknowledging that climate change is real, is man-made and warrants action. In response, three bills to price carbon emissions in revenue-neutral fashion have been introduced in the House since May ― two via a steadily rising carbon tax and one through a functionally similar carbon cap. Denialist House Republicans have backtracked to Nixonian “I am not a scientist” rhetoric that appears to fool no one. The White House has chosen a regulatory route. President Obama unveiled in early June a plan using authority vested in the Environmental Protection Agency by the Clean Air Act to require a 30 percent cut in CO2 emissions from the nation’s electric power plants. Almost all of the mandated shrinkage would come from plants that burn coal. The New York Times called the proposed rule “one of the strongest actions ever taken by the United States government to fight climate change.” Yet peeling back the cover reveals the plan to be depressingly weak. The cuts apply only to electricity, they’re measured against a high (2005) baseline, and the states have until 2030 to comply. Though the concessions are defensible on grounds of precedent or politics or both, they whittle down the goal to a mere 7 percent cut in total U.S. CO2 emissions vis-à-vis 2030 emissions absent the policy. And even this meek objective is conditional upon navigating a minefield of litigation. The modesty of the Obama-EPA target stems from its nature. As noted, neither regulatory measures nor clean-energy subsidies can bring about deep, across-the-board reductions in carbon emissions. Only a carbon tax can do that, and of course that requires Congressional approval. Yet the potential payoff is staggering. One of the new carbon tax bills, the Managed Carbon Price Act written by veteran Congressmember Jim McDermott (D-WA), would, by my estimates, cut total U.S. carbon emissions by 30 percent by its tenth year ― a pace seven times faster than the White House’s regulatory plan. McDermott’s bill is a carbon taxer’s dream. His tax starts modestly but rises stepwise to pass $100 per ton of carbon dioxide within a decade. It taxes the carbon content of imported goods at the same rate as domestic goods, protecting U.S. manufacturers from unfair competition from non-taxing countries while motivating those nations to tax their climate pollution. It taxes methane and other greenhouse gases at their CO2 climate-change equivalents. And it would return every dollar of tax revenues to individuals as pro rata dividends, thus placating conservatives and other fiscal hawks who profess to want to contain government spending, while buffering an estimated two-thirds of U.S. households, including most low-income families, from the energy price increases the tax would entail. The text of McDermott’s Managed Carbon Price Act runs a mere 20 pages, making it a veritable Gettysburg Address of climate legislation next to the Edward Everett-like (1,600-page) Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill that passed the House in 2010 only to stall and fail in the Senate. The brevity of the McDermott bill is indicative of the simplicity and transparency of carbon taxation, as well as its singularity of purpose: making carbon polluters pay and guaranteeing every American an equal share of the proceeds. Three realities — the inability of subsidies or regulations to make a big and fast enough dent in carbon emissions, the centrality of price in the myriad of energy-related decisions that collectively determine the magnitude of emissions, and the chronic “externalization” of climate damage from the price of energy — mandate making a carbon tax the central element of U.S. climate policy. In turn, humankind’s dependence on a stable climate mandates making climate preservation a central focus of politics. The organizers of the Sept. 21 climate march may have been wise to steer clear of policy specifics. But henceforth the marchers and the movement they embody must make passage of a McDermott-like carbon tax the focal point of their organizing.

This is a partial list of lakes in Canada. Canada has an extremely large number of lakes, with the number of lakes larger than three square kilometres being estimated at close to 31,752 by the Atlas of Canada. Of these, 561 lakes have a surface area larger than 100 km2,[1] including four of the Great Lakes. Almost 9% (891,163 square kilometres (344,080 sq mi)) of Canada's total area is covered by freshwater. There is no official estimate of the number of smaller lakes. This list covers lakes larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi). BC AB SK MB ON QC NB PE NS NL YT NT NU Map guide for lists of lakes of Canada Canada's largest lakes [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of Canada with an area larger than 1,000 km2 (390 sq mi).[2][3][4][5] Alberta [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of Alberta with an area larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi).[2][9][10] Alberta lakes larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi) Lake Area (including islands) Altitude Depth max. Volume Lake Athabasca[2] 7,850 km2 (3,030 sq mi) 213 m (699 ft) 124 m (407 ft) 204 km3 (49 cu mi) Lake Claire[2] 1,436 km2 (554 sq mi) 213 m (699 ft) Lesser Slave Lake[11][2] 1,160 km2 (450 sq mi) 578 m (1,896 ft) 20.5 m (67 ft) 13.69 km3 (3.28 cu mi) Bistcho Lake 426 km2 (164 sq mi) 552 m (1,811 ft) British Columbia [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of British Columbia with an area larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi).[4] British Columbia lakes larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi) Lake Area (including islands) Altitude Depth max. Volume Williston Lake 1,761 km2 (680 sq mi) 671 m (2,201 ft) Nechako Reservoir 890 km2 (340 sq mi) 853 m (2,799 ft) 305 m (1,001 ft) Atlin Lake 775 km2 (299 sq mi) 668 m (2,192 ft) Babine Lake 495 km2 (191 sq mi) 711 m (2,333 ft) Kootenay Lake 407 km2 (157 sq mi) 532 m (1,745 ft) * "Nechako Reservoir". BC Geographical Names. Manitoba [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of Manitoba with an area larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi).[4][2] New Brunswick [ edit ] Newfoundland and Labrador [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of Newfoundland and Labrador with an area larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi). Newfoundland and Labrador lakes larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi) Lake Area (including islands) Altitude Depth max. Volume Smallwood Reservoir[4] 6,527 km2 (2,520 sq mi) 471 m (1,545 ft) Lake Melville 3,069 km2 (1,185 sq mi) tidal Ashuanipi Lake 596 km2 (230 sq mi) 529 m (1,736 ft) Grand Lake[10] 537 km2 (207 sq mi) 85 m (279 ft) 110 m (360 ft) Lac Joseph 451 km2 (174 sq mi) 512 m (1,680 ft) Atikonak Lake 431 km2 (166 sq mi) 518 m (1,699 ft) Northwest Territories [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of the Northwest Territories with an area larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi).[2][10] Nova Scotia [ edit ] Bras d'Or Lake is the largest lake in Nova Scotia with an area of 1,099 km2 (424 sq mi). The tidal lake has a maximum length of 100 kilometres (62 mi), a maximum width of 50 kilometres (31 mi) and a maximum depth of 287 m (942 ft).[10] Nunavut [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of Nunavut with an area larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi).[4] Ontario [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of Ontario with an area larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi).[2][3][10] Quebec [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of Quebec with an area larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi).[2][10] Saskatchewan [ edit ] This is a list of lakes of Saskatchewan with an area larger than 400 km2 (150 sq mi).[2][4][10] Yukon [ edit ] Kluane Lake is the largest lake in Yukon at 409 km2 (158 sq mi) located at an elevation of 781 m (2,562 ft)[2] International lakes [ edit ] This is a list of lakes shared between Canada and the United States.

The Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah will return for its 12th year with another route that lives up to the seven-day 2.HC race's reputation as America's Toughest Stage Race. The 2016 peloton will take on 1,133km that include 16,139 meters of climbing, including a return to Mount Nebo, the highest point in Utah's Wasatch Range, topping out at 3,635 meters of elevation. Related Articles Tour of Utah suspends 2016 women's race Tour of Utah confirms teams for 2016 race Defending champion Dombrowski headlines strong Tour of Utah field Tour of Utah announces 13 host cities for 2016 The 2016 race will begin amid Southern Utah's otherworldly red rock formations in Zion National Park, one of two national parks featured in this year's route. The race will also visit another national park, two national monuments, four national parks and two state parks for what will arguably the most scenic route in the race's history. The racing will culminate with two traditional stages over the final two days: the Queen stage to Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort on the penultimate day, and the final stage that starts and finishes in Park City. Organisers have added a small twist on the final day, with the stage starting and finishing on Upper Main Street. Stage 7 features 2,402 meters of climbing, including the ascent up and over Empire Pass, a nearly 10km climb with grades averaging 10 percent and reaching 20 percent at points. At the bottom of the technical descent into Park City, organisers have added a small finishing circuit that will provide a final grinding climb to the top of main street. "Now in the 12th year of racing, the Tour of Utah has established itself as one of the most awe-inspiring, rolling postcards in North America for a professional cycling event," said Tour of Utah Executive Director Jenn Andrs. "From the iconic red rock scenery and lush national forests, Utah's spectacular and diverse scenery will shine on the world's largest stage with the sport's best riders, many of them coming from the Tour de France. The opportunity to bring high-caliber racing to our fans and partners here in the United States is tremendous." Stage 1 – Zion Canyon Village to Cedar City, 135km The opening stage promises to be a showstopper. Starting at the southern-most point in the race's history, stage 1 begins in the shadows of The Watchman, one of the most prominent peaks in Zion National Park. A neutral start will take the riders to the east gate of the park, where racing will begin as the peloton exits. The route takes riders into the Dixie National Forest, which tops out at 2,926 meters near the Cedar Breaks National Monument. After two KOMs and one sprint, the riders will fly down a 20-minute descent into Cedar City, where three 4km circuits will lead to the finish on the Campus of Southern Utah University. Stage 2 – Escalante to Torrey, 159.3km The second day will take riders down Scenic Byway 12 as they leave Escalante, a small, picturesque town near the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The peloton will gain 2,875 meters of climbing as it heads toward Torrey, including KOMs on the Hogback and Boulder Mountain. A descent into Torrey leads to two 27km circuits that will take the peloton near the Capitol Reef National Park before the finish. Stage 3 – Richfield to Payson, 191.5km At 191.5km, stage 3 will be the longest day of the week as the race transitions from the red rocks of southern Utah to the forests of the Wasatch Mountains. The climb of Mount Nebo, the only KOM of the day, begins about 80km into the route and tops out more than 20km later before riders descend 35km to the finish in Payson. Stage 4 – Lehi to Kearns, 154.4km The saw-tooth profile of stage 4 offers another tough day that looks tailor-made for a breakaway. Riders will do two laps of the Mountain View Corridor freeway for two sprint lines before dropping down into Kearns for two 6.4km finishing circuits adjacent to the Utah Olympic Oval that was used for the speedskating events at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Stage 5 – Antelope island to Bountiful, 183.4km This stage is a repeat of the 2015 stage won by Axeon's Logan Owen. Starting amid the buffalo heards on an island in the Great Salt Lake, the peloton is in for a day of short, steep climbs. The race will climb the North Ogden Divide before it circles the Pineview Reservoir, then climbs Trappers Loop before heading for the two lumpy 14.5km circuits in Bountiful. Stage 6 – Snowbasin Resort to Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, 183.4km The traditional Queen stage returns, featuring a start at Snowbasin Resort as it did in 2013. The peloton is in for a long day in the saddle as the riders descend into Morgan Valley and Brown's Canyon. The fireworks begin in earnest outside of Park City as the race goes up and over the daunting Guardsman Pass followed by a 22.5km descent down Big Cottonwood Canyon. The race concludes with the climb back up Little Cottonwood Canyon, a 10km ascent that leads to the finish at Snowbird after 3,403 meters of climbing for the day. Stage 7 – Park City to Park City – 125.5km Park City hosts the tour for the eighth time on the final day, with another stage for the climbers. A new start/finish will add even more challenge to the route, which features the category 2 climb through the gated community of Wolf Creek Ranch and the final ascent of the race up and over Empire Pass, which has been heralded as one of the toughest climbs in US racing. A white-knuckle descent into Park City won't be the last hurrah, however, as the new finish on Upper Main Street means more climbing once riders get back into town.

Australia’s overall immigrant detention numbers have steadily declined since 2013, but the number of people held in offshore camps has dropped much less. More than 600 people are still being detained on the small Pacific island nation of Nauru, and more than 900 remain in a camp on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. As public criticism of the camps has increased, the Australian government has tried with little success to resettle asylum seekers in third countries. After just four people were sent to Cambodia under a $29 million agreement reached last year, Australia said this month that it was in talks with the Philippines. That plan has run into questions over the ability of the Philippines to handle any sort of permanent resettlement. On Tuesday, President Benigno S. Aquino III said his country could take refugees only on a temporary basis. “We feel we are not in a capacity at this point in time to afford permanent residency to these people,” he told a forum in Manila on Tuesday. Papua New Guinea said last week that it would begin resettling people held on Manus Island who are considered refugees, meaning that they fled war or persecution. Australia praised the announcement, but it is unclear whether refugees would accept permanent relocation to Papua New Guinea, which has high rates of crime and unemployment. The offshore detention policy is facing a legal challenge before Australia’s High Court, brought on behalf of people who have been taken from the camps to Australia for medical treatment.

SURUC, Turkey — Two months after the United States began bombing militants attacking Kobani in northern Syria, the fate of the obscure border town has become the defining battle of the broader contest with the Islamic State — to solidify, or roll back, its borders and ambitions. For Washington, Kobani is a crucial public test of President Obama’s strategy of combining American air power with local ground forces. For the Islamic State, it is a test of its image of inevitability and invincibility, and a tool for recruiting jihadists. But of all those with an interest in Kobani, there is arguably no party as invested as the fractious Kurdish diaspora, which has pulled together in the hope of creating a homeland among the rolling farms and pistachio orchards that are still technically part of Syria. The town is virtually deserted of all but fighters, with Kurds holding one side of town under American air cover, and militants the other. The United States and its allies have poured more bombs into Kobani than anywhere else in the fight against the group. And the militants’ leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, reportedly sent one of his top commanders, known as the group’s “minister of war,” to Kobani, where more Islamic State fighters have died than on any other battlefield.

Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are forging ahead, despite opposition from a number of countries. And the American elections are almost certain to compromise the deal. EURACTIV France reports. Despite attempts by citizens and several governments to derail TTIP, EU member states have confirmed their aim of finalising the free trade deal with Canada (CETA) and pushing ahead with talks with the United States, despite the approaching elections. France tells EU to get tough on TTIP France has called for the EU to rethink its approach to trade negotiations, while pushing ahead with CETA, the free trade deal with Canada. But free trade is an increasingly thorny subject with European citizens. EURACTIV France reports. Cecilia Malmström, the European Commissioner for Trade, admitted at a press conference in Bratislava on Friday (23 September), that it was “less and less likely” that TTIP would be concluded under the Obama administration. But with both of Obama’s would-be successors publically opposing the deal, the continuation of negatiations appears to make little sense. In this context, the French calls to suspend the talks appear to be a logical response. “If the civil servants want to go on negotiating in the void, they are free to do so,” said Matthias Fekl, France’s secretary of state for foreign trade. Austria and France used last week’s summit in Slovakia to express their reservations to their EU partners. They insisted that the negotiation mandate had to be changed to include the climate objectives, and suggested that the name TTIP, which has become a toxic brand for much of the EU’s population, be changed. “At the Council, for the first time, there was real consciousness of the problems posed by these negotiations. Problems created by a lack of transparency, which I have always opposed, and by the attitude of the United States, which has made no significant concession since 2013,” said Fekl. Suspension by unanimity But the majority of EU countries confirmed their will to press on with the talks. The 15th negotiation cycle is due to start in Washington next Monday (3 October). While the talks remain blocked on a series of unresolved issues, the more optimistic TTIP supporters point to recent progress in a number of areas as proof that they are worth pursuing. In August, France had called for the negotiations to be suspended, saying they had failed due to the Americans’ unwillingness to make concessions. Francois Hollande buries hope of concluding TTIP this year While the European Commission, Barack Obama and Angela Merkel all insist the transatlantic trade negotiations can be concluded by the end of the year, François Hollande has said he is ready to throw in the towel. EURACTIV France reports. But after a certain amount of hesitation, the German left did not support this position. And France is now caught in a trap of its own making over the modification of the negotiation mandate. When the mandate was drawn up, Paris insisted that decisions be made by unanimity, in order to give it a veto over cultural production, which is excluded from the negotiations. As the EU treaties make no mention of a voting threshold for the suspension of trade negotiations, the institutions’ lawyers agree that, by default, the decision must also be taken unanimously. CETA on the home straight The EU’s free trade agreement with Canada will enter into force as soon as it is signed, a final act scheduled for the end of October. But opponents of the deal fear it will act as a “Trojan horse” for American companies, which may be able to benefit from free trade with the EU through their Canadian subsidiaries. French MPs last week demanded that the agreement be enacted only after ratification by the EU’s national parliaments. But the Commission refused to re-open the issue, which has been unresolved for five years. Instead it promised to add clarifications to the CETA document, already 1,600 pages long, to address the most pressing concerns. CETA is scheduled to be signed in October, during the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the EU.

This preview originally published February 13 and has since been updated. It’s a cruel game, really. The better a Group of 5 team performs on the field, the more we talk about the team’s coach leaving. The team’s fans are simply trying to enjoy the present tense, and we end up talking about their miserable future. College football’s mid-major conferences tend to serve as incubators for a lot of guys who will eventually lead power programs. Urban Meyer got his start at Bowling Green, then spent a couple of years at pre-Pac-12 Utah before getting his golden ticket at Florida. Brian Kelly led Central Michigan for three years and won 33 games in three years at Cincinnati before going to Notre Dame. Willie Taggart resurrected Western Kentucky and USF before taking the Oregon job. Et cetera. For a while, it looked like Mark Hudspeth was a slam-dunk future power-conference guy. He took over at Louisiana-Lafayette in 2011 and coaxed a high level out of a program that always seemed to have potential but had never lived up to it. UL-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns Head coach: Mark Hudspeth (46-31, seventh year) 2016 record and S&P+ ranking: 6-7 (102nd) Projected 2017 record and S&P+ ranking: 5-7 (112th) Biggest strength: Special teams and a good run defense should make UL an excellent field position team. Biggest question mark: Can the Cajuns’ run game rebound? They lacked explosiveness in 2016, and that was with since-departed Elijah McGuire and Anthony Jennings. Biggest 2017 game: Georgia Southern at home. The Cajuns will possibly be the underdog in seven road games. A bowl bid will require an upset or two, and it will also require taking care of business in Lafayette. Summary: Hudspeth has raised the bar significantly, but he’s struggled to clear it the last couple of years. Can an experienced team bounce back enough offensively to handle a rugged road slate and reach a sixth bowl in seven years? Since joining the Division I level in 1973, the Ragin’ Cajuns had established an incredible level of consistent mediocrity. They had rarely been awful but had almost never been good. In nearly 40 years pre-Hud, they had won more than seven games just twice. Despite access to a solid base of Louisiana talent, the Cajuns had never bowled. In six years under Hudspeth, they've won 46 games and bowled five times. They've gone 9-4 with New Orleans Bowl wins four times. Hudspeth's won more games in six years than predecessor Rickey Bustle won in nine. Nelson Stokely won 62 games in 13 years; Hudspeth could pass that within nine. He's slowed down, though. Those four nine-win seasons came in his first four years. UL's average S&P+ ranking during that period: 81.3. The Cajuns peaked at 55th overall in 2014, and their offense ranked 52nd or better in Off. S&P+ twice. The last two years: 4-8 and 112th overall in 2015 (109th on offense) 6-7 and 102nd overall in 2016 (118th on offense) In two years, UL barely won more games (10) than it was averaging under Hudspeth before that. The Cajuns have misplaced their offensive identity, eking out a 2016 bowl bid because of defense. They also took a hit from the NCAA for academic misdeeds. We’re not talking Hud for Power 5 anymore, in other words. Still, the team did rebound after 2015’s collapse. And they did it mostly because of a defense that returns exciting pieces. The offense is rebuilding, but it was already pretty bad, so that might not be incredibly costly. And if new blood turns out to be a good thing on O, further improvement could still be on the table. The schedule is unforgiving, however, with road trips to Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Tulsa, and Sun Belt heavyweight Appalachian State. That means the Cajuns will probably have to win six of the other eight games to reach a sixth bowl in seven years. But they’ll have a shot at it. Only having a shot at a bowl and not heading into the season as a conference favorite? The reason that feels underwhelming is because of the expectations Hudspeth himself set. UL’s prospects are interesting right now — better than they were pre-Hud, but worse than they were two or three years ago. That appears to be the secret to keeping a coach long-term at this level. 2016 in review 2016 UL statistical profile. Granted, it resulted in the program’s first New Orleans Bowl loss, but if an actual program turnaround (or turnbackaround, I guess) began last season, it began late. The Cajuns’ defense was good from nearly start to finish, but the offense showed at least a few signs of life in November, and it was enough to salvage a bowl bid. First 8 games (3-5) — Yards per play: Opp 5.2, UL 4.9 | Performance vs. S&P+ projection: -6.7 PPG — Yards per play: Opp 5.2, UL 4.9 | Performance vs. S&P+ projection: -6.7 PPG Next 4 games (3-1) — Yards per play: UL 5.6, Opp 5.2 | Performance vs. S&P+ projection: +7.2 PPG After a 23-13 home dud against Idaho, the Cajuns averaged 7 yards per play in a 33-26 win over Georgia Southern, averaged 6.6 in a competitive loss to Georgia, and produced maybe their best passing day of the year in a 24-19 upset of Arkansas State. (The offense did next to nothing in the regular season finale against ULM, but it didn't need to. Two fumble return touchdowns gave the Cajuns a 21-3 lead in the second quarter, and they went on cruise control.) This was a bowl team because of the defense: UL ranked 34th in Rushing S&P+ and 20th in rushing success rate allowed. But we got a pretty good read of where the offense's bar needs to be set for this to be a bowl-caliber team. The Cajuns head into 2017 tasked with replacing their starting quarterback, their second-leading all-time rusher, two of their top three receivers, and their best offensive lineman. And they’ve got a new coordinator. From a projections standpoint, the effect is obvious. But when the offense is as bad as UL’s was for much of the season, a transfusion isn’t the scariest thought, even after late-year improvement. Offense Full advanced stats glossary. Even when the Cajuns’ offense was good in 2016, it wasn’t particularly good. During UL’s 3-1 regular-season finish, Jorge Munoz’s offense was still averaging below the national average in yards per play, and UL still finished with the 11th-worst Off. S&P+ rating in the country. To his credit, Hudspeth knew he needed to make a change. Munoz moved back to receivers coach. In his place at coordinator: former West Georgia head coach Will Hall. Here are some basics about Hall’s UWG offense in 2016: The Wolves averaged 6 yards per play at the Division II level. Counting sacks as pass attempts, they rushed 53 percent of the time and threw 47 percent. UWG quarterbacks (including Louisville transfer Will Gardner) combined to complete 53 percent of their passes at a pretty explosive 14 yards per completion, with 18 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. The passing game basically consisted of two possession guys (Qa Walker and Thomas Lester caught 60 passes at 13.1 yards per catch) and two big-play guys (Deniko Carter and K.J. Parmer caught 37 at 17.4 per). A trio of running backs averaged 26 carries per game and 6.3 yards per carry. UWG had a solid run game and an all-or-nothing passing game. The “all” might be pretty attractive to Hudspeth because UL had fewer “alls” than most of the teams in the Sun Belt. UL had the second-worst IsoPPP average in the conference. The Cajuns had just 45 gains of 20-plus yards last year, 114th in the country. Meanwhile, they managed just two 30-plus rushes all season. And that was with LSU graduate transfer Anthony Jennings at quarterback as a 2016 stopgap. Jennings averaged 5.4 yards per carry (not including sacks), but the Cajuns still couldn't get star Elijah McGuire into the open field as much as they wanted to. Now McGuire and Jennings are both gone, leaving some interesting athletes and almost no proven play-making ability. At quarterback, Jordan Davis has been a backup for a couple of years, and Dion Ray found a niche in rushing situations in 2017. At running back, sophomore Jordan Wright* and senior Darius Hoggins took most of the backup carries; Hoggins and another sophomore, Raymond Calais, each averaged over 5 yards per carry while Wright mostly struggled. There is athleticism here: Ray was a mid-three-star recruit, and Wright, freshman quarterback Levi Lewis, and freshman running back Trey Ragas* were all three-stars as well. And the offensive line is certainly experienced — center Eddie Gordon is gone, but seven players with starting experience return. Still, UL has gone from having a couple of knowns in the backfield to having none. The good news is, there should indeed be some "alls" in the passing game. Slot receiver and McGuire, the No. 1 and 3 targets last year, are gone, but SMU transfer Ryheem Malone should be able to provide competency in the slot. That could allow two big-play guys to get downfield. Junior Keenan Barnes and sophomore Ja'Marcus Bradley combined to average 15.2 yards per catch with a 55 percent catch rate last year. The return of Devin Scott (12 catches, 202 yards in 2015) from injury might add some more pop, too, and perhaps the biggest get in the 2017 recruiting haul was tight end Chase Rogers. There's potential in the aerial attack, but UL will desperately need run game competence for the pass to blossom. Defense That UL produced its best defense of the Hudspeth era in 2016 was ... unlikely. The Cajuns were 113th in Def. S&P+ in 2015, and Hudspeth fired second-year coordinator Melvin Smith just one game into 2016 (that game: a 45-10 loss to Boise State in which the Broncos averaged 8 yards per play). Mike Lucas, former DC at Sam Houston State and Southeastern Louisiana, stepped in as interim in week two and turned things around dramatically. After a defensive percentile performance of just 3 percent in Week 1, the Cajuns hit 50 percent or higher six times and finished 68th in Def. S&P+ and 34th in Rushing S&P+. Lucas was made the full-time DC in December, and he's got a good news, bad news situation. Good news : Seven of the top eight defensive linemen and six of the top eight defensive backs return. Generally speaking, continuity in these two levels of the defense matter more than continuity at linebacker, where the Cajuns experience some turnover. : Seven of the top eight defensive linemen and six of the top eight defensive backs return. Generally speaking, continuity in these two levels of the defense matter more than continuity at linebacker, where the Cajuns experience some turnover. Bad news: The top three linebackers are gone, and the two starters were particularly good. Tre'maine Lightfoot and Otha Peters not only combined for 20 percent of UL's tackles but also combined for 18 tackles for loss, four sacks, four breakups, and four forced fumbles. Lightfoot and Peters swarmed the line of scrimmage and powered UL's excellent run defense. Replacements like T.J. Posey and Alonzo Brown have clear athleticism, but there will almost undoubtedly be a drop-off at linebacker, which will put a bit more pressure on the front and back of the defense. The line in particular might be up to the challenge, though. Sophomore bandit end Joe Dillon* (12.5 TFLs, 7 sacks) was an excellent freshman pass rusher, and five other returning linemen recorded at least three tackles for loss. Senior tackles Taboris Lee and Kevon Perry (combined: 11.5 TFLs, 4 sacks) are strong, and there’s some exciting youth, in guys like sophomore bandit Terrence Jones and freshman tackle Zi’Yon Hill. The secondary has a bit more to prove. Even with incredible linebacker play and a solid pass rush, the Cajuns allowed a passer rating of 150-plus on four occasions. Granted, three of the four came in the first month of the year (Boise State, South Alabama, Tulane), and the fourth was against an SEC team (Georgia). Still, UL ranked just 105th in Passing S&P+, 103rd on passing downs. In all, the 10 spots on the two-deep in the back could feature up to seven seniors, and two seasoned safeties lead the way. Travis Crawford and Tracy Walker combined for 3.5 TFLs, four picks, and five breakups. Plus, sophomore nickel back Damar'ren Mitchell* seems to have potential despite being a bit undersized (5'11, 185). Special Teams UL has ranked in the top 35 in Special Teams S&P+ in two of the last three years, and all the key players are back from last year's No. 35 unit. Punter Steven Coutts (44.1 average) has a massive leg, and place-kicker Steve Artigue has range into the 40s. They were good enough that UL ranked 35th despite having maybe the least effective kick returns in the country. Shore up the return game, and this is a potential top-20 unit. 2017 outlook 2017 Schedule & Projection Factors Date Opponent Proj. S&P+ Rk Proj. Margin Win Probability 2-Sep SE Louisiana NR 12.1 76% 9-Sep at Tulsa 77 -13.0 23% 16-Sep at Texas A&M 19 -28.9 5% 11-Nov at Ole Miss 26 -26.3 6% TBA Georgia Southern 98 -0.5 49% TBA New Mexico State 124 6.4 64% TBA Texas State 129 12.8 77% TBA UL-Monroe 121 5.8 63% TBA at Appalachian State 62 -18.2 15% TBA at Arkansas State 83 -10.0 28% TBA at Idaho 119 -1.5 46% TBA at South Alabama 108 -4.2 41% Projected S&P+ Rk 112 Proj. Off. / Def. Rk 128 / 62 Projected wins 4.9 Five-Year S&P+ Rk -8.4 (102) 2- and 5-Year Recruiting Rk 116 / 98 2016 TO Margin / Adj. TO Margin* 1 / 5.2 2016 TO Luck/Game -1.6 Returning Production (Off. / Def.) 54% (40%, 69%) 2016 Second-order wins (difference) 6.0 (0.0) If UL can establish a run game, it's easy to talk yourself into the rest of this team. The passing game has plenty of potential, and the defense has athleticism in the front and lots of experience in the back. Throw in a good special teams unit, and you've got a team that can theoretically win a lot of games in the Sun Belt. The schedule really is an issue, though. S&P+ is bearish on UL because of the offense anyway, and the road slate is brutal: The Cajuns are given a 5 percent chance against Texas A&M, 6 percent against Ole Miss, 15 against Appalachian State, 23 against Tulsa, and 28 against Arkansas State. They also have to go to South Alabama (41 percent) and Idaho (46). That is about as rough a schedule as you can have as a Sun Belt team. Even with likely wins against SELA, NMSU, Texas State, and ULM, the Cajuns will have to pull an upset or two to get back to the postseason. They certainly can, but that doesn't mean they will. * Update: These players were among the 13 who were suspended in April over dorm room theft charges. Team preview stats All preview data to date.

A Single Dad And His Unlikely College Roommate Enlarge this image toggle caption StoryCorps StoryCorps In 1996, Wil Smith enrolled as a freshman at Maine's Bowdoin College. At 27, he had recently finished serving in the Navy. But he set off for school with his 1-year-old daughter, Olivia, in tow. Now that she's a teenager, Olivia sat down with her dad at StoryCorps to look back on their "college days" together. "I wasn't planning on having you as my roommate," Wil tells Olivia. "I actually thought that if Bowdoin College knew I had you, they wouldn't let me come to college. So, I hadn't mentioned it to anyone." To help make ends meet, he got a job working at a Staples office supply store, as a cleaner on the night shift. "I had to take you in with me at work sometimes and hide you in the closet," Wil recalls with a laugh. "I think I lost something like 27 pounds, just from stress and not eating, because I didn't have enough for both of us." Wil played for Bowdoin's basketball team. During the 1999 and 2000 seasons, he was the team's co-captain. And to help him focus on his studies, he got some help from his friends. "My basketball teammates were my first baby-sitters," he says. "I just remember coming from class, and there were four giant guys — and then there was this 18-month-old who was tearing up the room." Olivia asks, "Were you ever embarrassed bringing me to class? Or just having me in general?" "I felt a little awkward, but never embarrassed," Wil says. "There were times when the only way I could get through was to come in and look at you and see you sleeping — and then go back to my studies." Wil graduated from Bowdoin in 2000. He eventually became the school's associate dean of multicultural student programs, a post he kept for 10 years. "My graduation day from Bowdoin is a day I'll never forget," he says. "You know, all of my classmates, they stood up and gave me the only standing ovation. " "I remember walking up with you and having my head on your shoulder," Olivia says with a laugh. "Yeah, the dean called both of our names as he presented us with the diploma." "So, technically I already graduated from college," Olivia says. "Nice try," Wil says. "The degree only has my name on it. So you still got to go." Earlier this year, Wil Smith was diagnosed with cancer; he's now undergoing treatment for stage-three colon cancer. He also serves as the dean of community and multicultural affairs at Berkshire School in Massachusetts. "I really admire your strength," his daughter says. "And I love you." "I draw my strength from you," Wil answers. "I always have, and I still do." StoryCorps Bonus: Animated Video In a special StoryCorps animated video, Samuel Black talks with his wife, Edda Fields-Black, about his father, John L. Black Sr. As Black recalls, his father regularly worked long days to provide for his wife and 11 kids: YouTube Audio produced for Morning Edition by Jasmyn Belcher.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS *Are mules a Species? (What is the genus/species name for a mule?) The answer is NO. Mules are not a species, they are a hybrid between two other species - Equus assinus (the donkey) and Equus caballus (the horse). A species is usually defined as a group of animals that can reproduce like examples, and the mule cannot reproduce. Likewise, Tygons and Ligers (crosses between Tigers and Lions) are not in themselves Species. They too are hybrids, exactly like Mules and Hinnies. If you must come up with an approximation of a Latin name for the mule, Equus mulis has been used. However, the correct scientific classification is Hybrid (Equus caballus x Equus assinus). So what is the classification for the Miniature or Mammoth donkey? (we have been getting an alarming number of calls about this. Why someone is trying to say that Miniature Donkeys are an endangered species, we don't know, but here are the plain facts...) ALL DONKEYS - Miniature, Mammoth, Standard, Poitou, Mexican Catalonian, BLM Burro - any donkey regardless of size or color - is Equus assinus. Just DONKEYS. *** *Donkeys in the USA are not grouped by "Breed" but rather by TYPE. They do not have SPECIES and SUBSPECIES (used for WILD ANIMALS)- they have types. Until there ae distinct DNA markers recorded for the different types (ie, that is is possible to take a DNA sample from a donkey and prove that miniatures have different and identifiable DNA markers from Standards or Mammoths) they will continue to be classified by heights and types. So a Miniature Donkey is Equus Assinus (subtype, miniature). The name "Miniature Mediterranean" was coined by the ADMS and Miniature Donkey Registry. The name was voted on in the 1990s by the membership and kept over the suggested "American Miniature Donkey". Miniature Donkeys, Standard Donkeys, Mammoth donkeys ARE NOT endangered. They are domestic animals. They are not exotics. The American Rare Breeds Conservancy still lists Mammoths as "threatened" due to registration numbers. However the numbers of actual animals are far greater than those registered. Update May 2008 - Miniature Donkeys may now be recognized as a breed, that being animals who have a multi-generation pedigree (ie registered with pedigree) and who throw their unique breed traits to their offspring consistently. So why do I see mini donkeys at "exotic sales"? Exotic sales sell, in addition to true exotic animals (like big cats, zoo type animals, zebras, camels) those that are "unusual". Miniature Donkeys are still considered to be "novelties" and "unusual" and are often seen at this type sale. So are pygmy goats. They certainly are not exotic. You do not have to have any kind of special license or paperwork to own or breed donkeys. Any donkeys. Yes, the Poitou donkey is endangered. But only by domestic breeders classification. According to the USDA it's just a French donkey. It's a domestic donkey that has a very small population. It's not an endangered SPECIES, it's an endangered sub-type of the domestic donkey. Miniature donkeys are not endangered or rare in any way. There are over 59,000 registered donkeys in MDR alone (May 2010). We know there are a lot more, probably as many as 65,000 living Miniature Donkeys right now. Endangered means a total population of under 5000 or so. And since they aren't a BREED but just a SUBTYPE, they are counted in the overall whole total of DONKEYS. Where does a zebra hybrid fall? The USDA classifies any animal that is a half-bred offspring of a domestic and wild animal as DOMESTIC. Therefore zorses (zebra x horse) zonies (zebra x pony) and Zebrass (also called zedonk or zonkey, zebra x donkey) are DOMESTIC animals. You do not need a special permit to own them. We do think, however, you should check with your city/state zoning codes. Some have special clauses written in concering horses/mules/donkeys. Scientific Classification : HYBRID, Equus zebra (+subspecies) x Equus caballos (or assinus). *Can Mules Reproduce? Or FERTILE MULES? (Mules giving Birth/Mule gives Birth/Mule has a foal) Do they have normal anatomy? What is the offspring of a horse and a mule called? Can a mule have a baby? Short answer - No, mules (both male and female) are sterile. Both have normal anatomy internally and externally. The males must be castrated, as they have the equipment but do not produce the essential element needed (we're trying to keep this PG here...) Females may come into heat and may need hormone shots if heat is a problem. For those who are following up with "Okay, what about the fertile mule we have read about..." - Fertile mules (hinnies) are a 1 in 1 million case occurance. All known fertile hybrids in the equine world have been female mules or hinnies. Why these few is still scientifically a mystery, and there is still scientific debate over the verification of some "Fertile"; cases. The most well known and documented cases are of Krause, a mare mule with two mule sons, and a fertile hinny in China, who;s offspring, Dragon Foal, is considered unique. The complications for Krause's cases is that her sire, Chester, is also the sire of her sons. However, DNA testing has been cataloged as conclusive that both foals, Blue Moon and White Lighting, are Krause's foals. In most known cases of mule fertility, it has been noted that the mare mule passed on a complete set of her Maternal genes to the foal. Therefore a female mule bred to a horse would produce a 100% horse foal. Thus was the case of Old Beck, who was at Texas A&M in the 1920's;. This mare mule had a mule daughter, Kit. She was brought to TX A&M for observation. She was bred to a saddle horse stallion, and produced a horse son, Pat Murphy Jr. Pat Jr was fertile, and sired horse foals. Beck aborted a third foal, sired by a jack, which although deformed, appeared to be a regular mule. There has more recently been a case of a mare mule in Brazil who has foaled two 100% horse sons. Tests in the future will hopefully prove them to be normal, fertile stallions. Dragon Foal, instead of being a donkey foal from the mating of a hinny to a jack, is a unique hybrid, with combinations never documented before. Visually, she appears to be a strange donkey with some more mule-like features, and her chromosomes and DNA test seem to confirm this. A mare mule in Morocco foaled in 2003 and was genetically confirmed to have been the dam of the male foal. His DNA shows him to be a mixed karyotyped hybrid like Dragon Foal, approximately 3/4 donkey and 1/4 horse. In the spring of 2007 a mare mule in Colorado gave birth to a live foal. DNA from both the mare mule and her foal has been tested by two different labs to date (July 2007). Both labs have thus verified that the foal qualifies as the offspring of the mare mule, and that she (the mother) is a mule and not a donkey or horse. This is just one more case of mule fertility that will be under investigation. Unlike other cases of fertile mare mules, this foal appears to be a mixture of horse and donkey phenotypes (ie, visually he looks more donkey-like than mule-like at this stage). Study of the gene mapping will show later if he is a true mixture, as in the case of the Moroccan mare mule, or Dragon Foal in China. Krause, the fertile mare mule in Nebraska in the 1980s, contributed a complete maternal gene set to her sons, making them pure mules (not a 3/4 donkey 1/4 horse mixture). In the feline world, there are hybrids of Jungle cats and domestic cats, crossed by breeders to have a large cat with the wild markings and still be a pet. The first-generation female hybrids (F-1) are fertile, but the males are not. It is not until the F-3 generation (F-1 Crossed back to domestic cat is F-2, F-2 back to domestic cat again is F-#) that the males become fertile again. There have been no recorded cases of entire male mules (Male mules are always gelded for use and show, no stallion mules are allowed) ever siring a foal. The cases of fertile Mare mules are so low that the F-3 generation has not been documented or verified in order to test this theory. There is one case (which has no scientific backing) of a mare mule whose Mule daughter was also fertile, and foaled a male "hule" (very horselike in appearance but with some mule characteristics) but no testing was ever done on the hule, and it is not known if he was routinely gelded or was left entire. Basically, donkey x donkey is a donkey. Donkey x horse is a mule. Donkey x horse hybrids, called mules or hinnies, are sterile and cannot have babies. Need more info on Fertile Mules? ADMS has a packet available for $3.00 ppd. You may send a check, MO, or use paypal - just send an email or a note with payment to ADMS, PO Box 1210, Lewisville TX 75067 or use paypal address lovelongears@hotmail.com - be sure to include your mailing address! * How can you tell the difference between a Mule and Hinny? Really, there is no reliable way to do so. The mule has a jack father and mare mother. (Mules can be either male or female). Hinnys (also either male or female) have a stallion father and jennet mother. Hinnies are more rare than mules, but for all purposed are grouped together as MULES (for example - horses, donkeys, mules, zebras, zebra hybrids). Most known hinnies - where both parents are known- look just like mules. Some so seem to have slightly more horse-like or donkey-like features, but so do some mules. Not all hinnies are small - the size can be influenced by the parents. However, Draft Hinnies are Extremely rare, while Miniature and Pony hinnies are more common. It is more difficult to breed for hinnies - the fertility rates drop when the chromosome number is lower in the female. The male donkey has 62 chromosomes, the female horse 64, and this is a viable, easy cross. In the reciprocal cross, the horse (64) to jennet (62) the female's count is lower and the conception rate, as well as the live birth ratio, drops drastically. Old wives tales say the hinny lacks hybrid vigor, but no eveidence has been found to prove this. However, modern hinnies are larger than the "Common"; hinny of times past - which would probably have been from a standard jennet (44-48") and a local stallion - not necessarily a good one either!!! One way that some breeders say is reliable to tell a hinny from a mule is to put them in with a mixed pasture - some donkeys and some mules. The hinny will pair with the donkeys, the species that raised it, the mule with the horses. But other than actually knowing the parents for certain, even this is just a "Best-guess" method. * DO ALL DONKEYS HAVE A CROSS? You may have heard the term "Jerusalem donkeys" or "Sicilian" used to indicate a gray-ish donkey with a cross and stripe over the shoulders and back. However, neither of these terms are correct. Sicilian is a bloodline of small donkeys that can trace parentage back to the original animals imported from Sicily. MOST donkeys, regardless of color, and especially non-Mammoths, have a cross and stripe. Even some Miniature donkeys that appear to be black actually have a faint cross and stripe. Mule breeders can tell you that foals from a black jack and sorrel mare are often bay with a cross and stripe (if you have an understanding of genetics you know that bay can result from black bred to sorrel where the mare possesses the Extension gene ). Since most horses do NOT have shoulder stripes, and only some have dorsals, it is logical that the cross comes from the jack, even if it is not visible. There may be some donkeys who do not have a cross, but the genetic marker has not been located to see where it is; or is not and the breeding trial is highly complicated. So for now, the best answer to "Do all Donkeys have a cross" is, NOT VISUALLY. * Can I charge my membership or order books with a credit card? YES!!! We accept credit cards (MC/Visa) for membership, books, and other services. You may even keep a card number on file with us for use in paying ads, membership, registration fees! (You will still need to mail in any transfers or update Original Certificates to us). We also accept paypal for services and books. (To use paypal, go to www.paypal.com - and use our email lovelongears@hotmail.com as the payee - please cut and paste if needed, as one wrong letter in an email will result in payment going to someone else!!! We also accept CCs on our new Online Membership and Registration forms! You may call, write or e-mail if you have questions. Can I register my donkey or mule if I don't have any information on the parents on on a pedigree? Yes, we maintain ADR as an open book registry. Any donkey may be registered as long as it meets the basic confrmation requriements. All mules may be registered, regardless of pedigree. The date for closing of the MDR book is Jan 2009 (after which Miniature Mediterranean Donkeys (MMD's) must have registered Miniature parents to go into the MDR (Miniature Donkey Registry) book. This will mean keeping of pedigrees, filing stud reports, and some form of Permanent ID for MDR donkeys. ALL OTHER DONKEYS (including those that are Untraced in parentage) will be placed in the ADR book. You may still register "Minis" that have only one registered parent, or those with untraced background as American Miniature Donkeys or *Irish/English Miniatures" (Australian, etc) but they will go in the ADR book instead of being registered as Miniature Mediterranean Donkeys. If you do not have information on the animal's background, write unknown in the blank (or Untraced for the parent names, which is more correct). Provide as MUCH information as you can.IF the parents are not registered, still fill in as much information as you can about them. If you know the dam (mother) was Grannie, 34" gray-dun, please fill it in, do not leave it off the form because she was unregistered. If an exact birthdate is known, at least the name, color/size or basic information about the mother must be provided. We cannot use exact birthdates if no parent information is given at all. Please do not create a birthdate. If the mother's name is not on the papers, just a year or month/year will be used . *What is a group of donkeys called? A herd. Although you may have heard the answer "a pace of asses" on a popular "Win money" Game Show, no references ANYWHERE can be found to support this answer. It is certainly not in any of our archival books! We've found a number of websites that list this, and if you like, you can use it as an answer, but the official answer is this: Any group of equines is a herd - whether horse, zebra, donkey, mule, wild ass, or mixed species. A family group might be called a band if you are referring to a specific family - such as Midnight's band, and Blackie's band. Some people would like it to be "a Congress of Asses"- send in your vote!!! *What is the difference between a donkey and a burro? Donkey is the correct term for any of the domesticated Asses. Horses, Donkeys and zebras are all of the family Equus. Burro is a coloquial term for the Spanish or feral type of donkey (wild burros). The term is used almost exclusively in the West. The term is correct only when applied to the mid-sized types of donkeys, and more correctly only those who are wild in descent. (They are STILL domestic animals - feral means domesticated that has gone back to a wild state - not an indigenous wild species!) The term burro is NOT correct in use with Miniature Mediterranean Donkeys (under 36") or in Mammoth Asses (over 56"). A donkey near us had twins. Our vet says he's never heard of such a thing! Are twins common in donkeys? Yes. Twins are ten (10) times more common in donkeys than in horses. Fewer than one in 1000 sets of twins in horses are estimated to be born healthy and alive, in donkeys, one in 100 sets will survive. Twin are far more common in the longeared equines and we hear of at least 10 sets being born and surviving every year. Most of these are standard and Mammoths, but there have been recorded twins in Miniature donkeys as well. In April and May 2001 we have just had reports of two set of Miniature twins. The first set both were born alive, but one died at five days. The second set are fraternal twins (both jacks but different in color and markings) and are both still alive at two weeks. (born 4-27-01) Although some twins appear to be identical, many of the twin cases are graternal (of different colors, or male/female pairs). In 2013 we have already heard of three sets of twins. Mares carrying mule foals may also have twins, and the likelihood of twins surviving is higher than a mare carrying only horse foals. There are also five recorded cases of horse mares who have given birth to one horse foal and one mule foal at the same time. The mare was bred to one stallion, thought not to be in foal, and bred to the other. Suprize! She took both times and rather unusual phenomenon occurred! Unlike in cattle, female twins carried with a male twin are not sterile. This is called the freemartin syndrome, and is common in cattle where the heifer is sterile due to an overload of male hormones from the bull twin. It is not the case in equines, and many twin mares have gone on to have foals of their own - sometimes twins, sometimes not. In 2007, we know of a number of sets of twins born this year - roughly half have had one set stillborn or die very shortly after birth, the other half both survived. In one set of Standard twins, one was spotted, the other solid-colored. *How long does a donkey carry a foal? Horses carry for 11 months, donkeys for 12. A mare carrying a mule foal is usually about 11 1/2 months. However, there are many, many factors that affect the length of a pregnancy. The age of the mare or jennet, previous foaling history/number of foals, sex of the foal, weather, region, infection may all play a part. Some will go 3 weeks less than the norm, a few have even gone early 14 months! (one recorded case of 405 days!!!) (Studies also show that mares grazing on fescue may delay birthing for as many as 30-40 days. Fescue can cause toxic reactions in equines.) A premature foal, one that is actually born early, will need intensive care. Any foal that is healthy at birth is probably full term no matter how long it was carried. BUT...if your jennet has gone past the projected due date, is listless, or losing weight, have your vet check her to make sure the foal is still alive. Carrying a stillborn can result in infection, loss of future fertility, and possible loss of the jennet. Always be safe rather than sorry! What is a baby donkey called? Any baby equine (horse, donkey, mule or zebra) is called a foal. Male foals are colts (or Jack foals in the case of donkeys), females are fillies (or jennet foals). They are grouped as "Foals" up until they are weaned, usually about 6-8 months old, then they are Weanlings. After their firstbirthday, they are Yearlings. They may still be called Colts or Fillies up until they are mature, usually at 3-4 years of age. Breeding males are stallions (horse or zebra) or jacks (donkeys or wild asses). Females are mares (horses, zebras, mules) or jennets/jennies (donkeys or wild asses). Male mules should NEVER be left intact, so stallion mule or jack mule should never be used. Male mules should be gelded before age 2 and are called Horse mules, geldings, or sometimes "johns". (Mare mules may locally be called "molly mules".) go HERE For more on BREEDING, What colors do donkeys come in? How do I get a spotted donkey? The most common colors in donkeys are Gray-dun ( Slate Gray), Brown, and black. There is a variation of red (sorrel), Ivory (blue-eyed white) and a variant of bay. Some donkeys appear to be nearly white with dark skin - these are Frosted Spotted White. (It's like true gray in horses, the frosted/graying covers up the original color. It's a color combination, an overlay over the base color and any other patterns. So a frosted donkey might be brown and white spotted PLUS the frosted overlay, making it look nearly white.) There is a unique donkey roan, and donkey spotted pattern (closest to overo in pattern and genetic working) which can occur with any base color. There is a supposed dilution, which lightens the sorrel to a "pink", but there are no recorded buckskin or Palomino donkeys. The donkey spot pattern may be large frame type patches, or small scattered spots, but there is no appaloosa patterning in donkeys. We are in the process of adding information and updating the genetics pages. DO Donkeys wear shoes like horses? Do they need them? Generally, no. Donkeys have a slightly different hoof shape, and their hooves are a little more durable than horses. However, if your donkey is going to be ridden a lot, work on surfaces (such as rock or pavement) that might cause a lot of wear, or has hoof problems, he or she might need to be shod part of the time. Barefoot is actually best for the pastured equine, and shoes are only used to correct problems or add support to the foot. They don't need shoes as a rule if they are not working. My Farrier is a little unsure about trimming donkey hooves. Aren't donkeys supposed to be "upright"? No not all donkeys have upright hoof angles. Thes best trim for a donkey hoof is to MATCH THE PASTERN angle, as they would on any horse. For an animal that has under-run heels or is coon-footed, there may be some corrective trimming in need, but the general rule is to match angles. Trying to "Stand a donkey on it's toes" may do more harm than good. The basic trim is the same, just the general shape and to a small extent the angles are different - but not that much. Its not something to fear in trimming! ADMS has a hoof trimming packet available for $10.00 ppd. (Expanded in Fall 2007. Now also available in PDF format.) Please let us know if you want it mailed on a CD to you as PDF file, mailed as a printed file, or emailed as a set of PDFs. M donkey has an abcess in the hoof. The farrier has trimmed it, and I have to soak it and keep the foot protected. They recommend using a boot like an Easy-boot (TM) but they don't fit donkey hooves. What can I do? We too, have had hoof abcess problems. Even on a Mammoth, the horse boots don't fit. No chance at all with smaller donkeys or minis (and even some mule hooves, too). Make yourself an inner-tube boot. Get a large inner-tube (not bike-sized). Cut it twice the length of the measurement from the donkey's knee down the ground. Place the donkey's hoof in the innertube. Fold the excess up behind the leg (this will help hold in any liquid as well) and use duct tape around the ankle and cannon. You can just slit the tape to remove the boot, and tape over fresh. If the boot gets too worn they are fairly cheap to replace! How do we get a show sanctioned by ADMS? Sorry, but ADMS does not normally sanction any event because we are not involved with them directly. When an association sanctions and event, the public tends to hold the association responsible for things that go wrong or are not up to par. We have no control over most events, so do not sanction them. The Show Committee is actually in charge of holding a show, which rules will be used, location, choosing a judge, classlist preparation, and is responsible for the running of the show in general. Any time you see problems with a show, or have questions directly regarding a show, or what happened at a specific show, you should address those issues first to the show committee. ADMS is happy to answer general questions about shows and showing, but is not responsible for activities or specific shows. What about an ADMS National Show? Please address any concerns in writing, so that they may be passed along to the Board member in charge of that committee. The ADMS office staff is unable to answer any questions regarding the future of a National Show. All inquiries will be forwarded to the special committee. "I saw this statement on the internet that "More People are killed by donkeys that in airline crashes each year. Now my spouse doesn't want me to get a donkey! Is this true? Help!" NO, this statement has been plagueing us for several years now. It first appeared somewhere as a "factoid", but it, along with several others on that list, is TOTALLY FALSE. (We now hear that the National Geographic channel is using it in a commercial!) Until recently, we had absolutely NO IDEA where they got the so -called fact to base this rumor on. We have now found out that it was spawned due to the numbers of auto accidents caused by loose donkeys in Mexico and the Middle East! We often hear of people being INJURED by their donkeys, but can't yet name one case where someone in the USA was killed by a donkey-and there have certainly been hundreds of people killed each year in plane crashes. You'd think that several hundred people killed by donkeys each year would be publicized better somewhere OTHER than a "factoid sheet". People contact the ADMS for all sorts of reasons, but having searched the archives, we cannot find any notices of members or people killed by a donkey. ( In Nov 2005 we found one headline of a man in Egypt being killed by his donkey - he had beaten the animal and it savaged him. ) In truth more people are bitten by their family dog! Being killed in an auto collision with a loose donkey is not being killed by a donkey - it's being killed in an auto collision, which happened to involve a donkey. Help us to dispell this awful rumor-mill factoid - it's not true, it's bunk, treat it as such. Please don't let this statement stop you from getting a donkey or any other animal if you wish to own one! We're getting a donkey as a pet. What should we get? NOT A JACK. Jacks are not pets. Get a jennet or gelding, and if you do not really have a lot of prior horse/equine experience, you probably want to start with an older animal, before you go through the joys of learning about donkeys and babies at the same time!!! Getting a pair of donkeys is fine, but please do not get a mature jack unless you intend to breed donkeys,you have the facilities to keep a jack, and you have the experience to handle one Some jacks may be fine around kids, but jacks are not pets and children should ALWAYS be supervised around jacks and any other large animal. When can my donkey start being used as a livestock guardian, or breaking a steer to lead? Can a mini be a guard donkey? Only mature animals should be used in these tasks. That is, animals at least three (3) years old. A donkey under that age is still a "Teen", still growing, and still developing in mind and body both. Younger geldings are usually too rough on stock (never use a jack!). A young animal could also be injured trying to teach a bigger, heavier animal to lead. Miniatures are not suitable as guard donkeys - against one coyote, they may be fine, but put two large dogs in an attack situation and your small donkey will be the loser. Standard donkeys, or some large standards, are recommended for guard duty. I sent my original papers to the old Denton address. But the PO hasn't returned them to me as undeliverable, and you don't have them either!!! Unfortunately, the forwarding order for the PO is only good for six months. We actually had a 6-month forwarding order, then a 6-month "notify of address change" period. But after that.... well.... The old office in Denton was in a house. It was sold, and may have changed hands again. It is also on a street that is being completely changed from 2-lanes (2 way) to 3 lanes-one-way. There may not even be a mailbox at that location. If you send anything to the old Elm Street/Denton address, you should consider it lost. If the PO left it there, they consider it delivered (return address or not). We moved almost 12 years ago, and posted on the internet and in the magazine about the new address as soon as we had it. You will need to resubmit copies of anything to the Office (Lewisville address) and/or have lost papers reissued. Sorry, but there is nothing more we can do about this - and we have tried!!! They will NOT let us put up a notice at the other location saying "don't leave stuff for ADMS here!!!" Have you seen the "Bad-ass Mule" (one tough mule, mule vs. cougar, mule vs. mountain lion) photos ? (The cat was already shot, the mule simply acted on the carcass.) Yes, we have seen the photos and have no doubt they are genuine. It is this very typical behaviour, inherited from the donkey's natural dislike of dogs, that makes many donkeys good herd/flock guardians. Please help us by not sending the photos to our inbox (they are rather large!) and we have seen them many times now. Thanks! How Do I order the Hoof Packet for myself or my Farrier? You may order the Donkey Hoof Trim Packet (Donkey hoof packet, how to trim a donkey's hoof) from ADMS by sending a request to lovelongears@hotmail.com (including your name and postal mailing address) and we can send it to you with a billing slip. Or you may paypal $10 to lovelongears@hotmail.com (again, please include your postal mailing address or let us know if you want this emailed to you as a PDF) and request the Hoof Packet. We can now also email the PDF files directly to you! I am looking for a donkey/mule but can't seem to find any in my state. Where can I find a list of people who have donkeys and mules for sale? ADMS has a large database of people who are members, who have animals for sale, and may not advertise on the internet. We create a printed list on demand and mail it to anyone interested in finding donkeys or mules for sale. We will sort the list for you by type of animal, and by state. Please send a request to lovelongears@hotmail.com, asking for a Breeder's List. Please state what type of animal you are looking for (ie miniatures, Mammoths, mules, spotted jacks at stud, etc) and your full postal mailing address. We will send you your state, and if the list is small, any surrounding ones. We appreciate a small fee for this service, to cover postage, and may include a billing slip (usually only $1-$3). A full National list of all breeders who have asked to be included may also be obtained for $6-$10, please call the office for information. At what age should I separate the foals out? When does a jack become fertile? Jack and jennet foals should be separated at weaning (between 5-7 months old). Most young jacks can become fertile after age 12 months, but we know of confirmed cases of several 9-month old and one 6 month-old jacks settling jennets. It has also been noted that a 12 month old jennet, while rare, can become pregnant. Think teen-age moms. Jennets should ideally not be bred until over the age of 36 months (3 years). Yearling jacks should be penned away from females - especially their mothers and sisters. What is the walking speed of a donkey/Mule? How far (how many miles) can a donkey or mule travel in one day? ADMS worked in 2007 with a historian who was researching how the Roman army could have moved, fed and housed thousands of troops and mules. The logistics of moving pickets, feeding, watering, grooming and caring for in general took months of correspondence. Horses, mules, and donkeys (equines) move at a walking pace of about 4-5 miles per hour. A fast trot can be as much as 9 mlp, a gallop 20 or more. However, a gallop cannot be sustained all day, the animal would have to alternate with short bursts of speed and then periods of just walking or trotting. Terrain and weather conditions, as well as the amount of total weight the animal was carrying (whether a person in the saddle or a pack on their back) would all factor in to daily pace. A lightly loaded animal can move faster and uses less energy (and therefore feed) than a heavily loaded one. Given that you would probably only travel in daylight hours under normal circumstances, you might average 8-10 mph for 8 hours of travel. Add in the factor that the human tailbone isn't designed to site comfortably on the equine back, even with a saddle. Saddle sores are REAL and they are painful. If a person is on foot and leading an animal instead of riding, you then figure travel time based on the human, not on the animal (as the human is the slower-moving in the equation). What is your mailing address??? PLEASE MAKE CERTAIN ALL MATERIALS GO TO THE CORRECT ADDRESS!!! ADMS, PO Box 1210, Lewisville TX, 75067. Our phone and fax number is 972-219-0781. e-mail lovelongears@hotmail.com (Please do not send packages by any kind of early AM delivery if you are using Fed Ex or UPS. We ask you to call for the physical address if you must send a package by any means other than regular mail. We will remind you at that time NOT to use early am delivery - it will not get to us in a timely manner!) Do not send anything to the old Denton address. It will be lost, we will not get it. How Long until I get my papers back? Provided they arrived at our Lewisville address and all the paperwork is correct, our average turnaround time is 5-6 weeks. However, at busy times of the year (such as right before the peak of Show season, and in Nov-Dec each year) our volume of incoming mail can double. With the changes to the registry books in Jan 2009, we are also seeing a great increase in volume from October 2008 and expect to see some for a few months. In May 201 our turnaround time is10-12 weeks. While we are working very hard to stay under this timeframe, you can help us greatly by making sure your papers are done correctly and that you keep a copy of what you send. We do not deposit your check until your papers are mailed to you. (We don't cash them, so if the check has not cleared the papers are in progress unless they are the odd ones that do not make it here.) If you must inquire about an animal, PLEASE make certain to let us know 1) when you mailed it, 2) the exact FULL NAME including prefix of the animal being registered and 3) what was to be done - new registration, transfer, update, and if there were other animals in the packet. Missing any of this information can slow our processing time down greatly while we have to search ! Since as of Nov 19th 2008 we have over 2000 registrations in the office in varying stages of completion, that's a lot of paper (and computer records) to have to sort. Your help in advance is greatly appreciated. I'm bummed because I can't register my donkeys - I don't want to microchip them! YOU MAY still register donkeys! They do NOT have to have a Microchip. ANY form of Permanent ID is acceptable. This can be a lip or ear tattoo, freeze brand, DNA on file, or a microchip. ADMS will not dictate which brand or even the location. Use whichever form of permanent ID you are comfortable with. Just inform ADMS on the registration application what form you used, the unique ID (number of the microchip, brand or tattoo) and the location. If you are doing DNA on file, please inform us which lab it is on file with so we may place the information on the papers! Perm ID is required on donkeys going in the MDR book. No ID, no parentage, et, it can still go in our ADJR book. How much does it cost to register a jack? A jennet? Register and transfer? Alll of the pertinant info is printed on the pack of the original Applications for registration. If your seller did not photocopy BOTH the front and the back to give to you, you are missing vital information about registry procedure. Please refer to both the RULES pages and the FEES pages here on the website. How tall is the Tallest Donkey in the World? IN Feb of 2013, Romulus, owned by Phil and Cara Barker Yellott of Waxahachie TX, was measured at 17 hands tall. His case is was confirmed in May 2013 by the official Guinness Book of Records. This breaks the previous record of 15.3hh. What about the smallest? There is no official smallest donkey, but there are known 25" mature Miniatures, and reports of a mature 24 1/2" tall in Mexico.

“Why don’t scientists just get together and figure out what’s going on?” It’s a common question we hear about global warming. The answer is simple: “They have.” The largest effort to pull the relevant research together is the series of assessment reports commissioned by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The latest IPCC report on renewable energy was released yesterday, and will no doubt be open to much criticism. But will it be justified? A mammoth effort Given the amount of talk that goes on about climate change, it is perhaps surprising that so few people are aware of the IPCC, and the ones that do know so little about it. The IPCC was set up by the UN in 1988 to assess the science for policy makers, releasing its first Assessment Report in 1990 and its fourth in 2007. Each successive report has articulated more confidently that humans are changing the climate by emitting greenhouse gases, and that our current trajectory will bring much greater warming. The warming predicted in 1990 has, so far, transpired on schedule. Finding the facts, suggesting solutions One thing many people don’t realise is that each report is actually in three volumes. The first tackles the basic science: how much the earth has warmed, how much of it we caused, and what climate change to expect in the future. The second concerns impacts and adaptation, for example impacts on crop yields or actions needed to protect coastal areas. The last is about mitigation: how much it would cost to deal with the problem (or not to), and how might various policy and technological approaches pan out. Each is written by a separate team of 200-plus authors and review editors chosen on the basis of their scientific accomplishments by an international nomination and evaluation process. They must serve on top of their “day jobs” as academics or other demanding positions. These reports are massive, resembling a set of telephone books (though with flashier covers). Receive, review, rewrite, negotiate, then start again Their task is huge: to fairly and accurately assess all of the many thousands of peer-reviewed articles that have come out since the last report. These are from a wide range of relevant scientific and technological disciplines including atmospheric physics and chemistry, oceanography, geology and economics. Because it is an assessment, authors have leeway to express doubts about published work that is not deemed credible by the community. Each report goes through several iterations of peer review. The 2007 report attracted 90,000 review comments, each of which required an individual response. Preliminary drafts of the 2014 report have already been written but await two more years of revision and review. The final step includes negotiations between scientist authors and non-scientist government representatives on the text of the report summaries (the parts non-scientists usually read). Some authors have described these negotiations as harrowing, with a few governments driving hard to water down the findings. Asking the experts While climate contrarians often question the objectivity of the IPCC, the extensive review procedures leave little room for its conclusions to stray from those dominating the main scientific literature. Each new report gets a different batch of expert authors - by now more than two thousand individuals have contributed. Hardly a cabal of extremists, this is a hefty share of the world’s most qualified experts. Several well-known contrarians have been authors, but constitute a tiny fraction of qualified experts and have therefore been unable to steer the conclusions (nor do they quibble with most of the contents anyway). The range of reasonable views, discrepancies in published results, or lack of evidence on some issues are taken into account via the probabilistic language attached to report conclusions, although no claimed degree of uncertainty will ever satisfy everyone. Nothing is claimed with absolute certainty, especially projections of the future. Media hype hides the real story News stories in 2010 hyped an error concerning Himalayan glaciers found on page 493 of the 2007 impacts volume. There are probably more such errors buried in the main text, much of which is reviewed by only a few experts, but none has been reported in the important summaries, which receive far more scrutiny. Nor have any errors been found in the volume of the report dealing with the basic science. Another embarrassment came when the so-called “Climategate” emails seemed to show collusion among a few authors to exclude certain papers. While these authors were hardly alone in doubting the validity of the papers in question, the papers were still ultimately included in the report, which if anything shows the report to be inclusive. An InterAcademy Council Review of the body in 2010 suggested improvements, and criticised the impacts volume in particular, but did not find fundamental problems with the IPCC. It’s hard to imagine a report free of any such glitches, but these have fuelled calls by conservative politicians in the US for an end to the IPCC. An imperfect science, but an important one Are the assessment reports alarmist, or too weak? Instances can be found to support either view. Conclusions can be weakened by the need to accommodate contrary views whether well-founded or not: for example, the 2007 report judged the 20th-century rise in CO2 only 90% likely to be human-caused, when the full brunt of evidence leaves no rational doubt of this. And 11th-hour negotiations have on some occasions turned clear predictions of harm into meaninglessly vague ones. On the other hand, many of the IPCC’s claims on current or future climate impacts rest on weak foundations or emphasise the worst possibilities. To some extent this reflects the literature itself, the great difficulty in pinning down impacts rigorously, and perhaps, a feeling that we really should be looking at the worst possibilities. It is (to use the IPCC’s uncertainty language) “highly likely” that the IPCC will continue to be criticised, mainly by those opposed to emissions reductions. Its reports will never be perfect. But they remain the ultimate compendia of climate knowledge, an unparalleled resource for scientists, students and punters alike, and are almost certainly the most thoroughly vetted scientific documents in history. This author would be very happy to hear of a better alternative.

Acrosser’s “AND-G420N1” compact headless networking appliance runs Linux on a quad-core 2GHz AMD G-Series SoC, and offers SATA-II storage and six GbE ports. Acrosser refers to the AND-G420N1 as a desktop networking microbox, as well as a “cost-effective niche solution.” The networking appliance runs Ubuntu or Fedora Linux on an AMD G-Series GX-420MC SoC The quad-core, 2GHz GX-420MC has a reasonable 17.6W TDP for such a powerful processor, in part due to having no GPU to expend resources on. What it does have, is Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) technology, which Acrosser says makes encryption faster on the AND-G420N1 than it would with DES technology. Acrosser AND-G420N1, front and back (click images to enlarge) AND-G420N1 rear panel details (click image to enlarge) Processor — AMD Embedded GX-420MC G-Series SoC (4x Jaguar cores @ 2.0GHz), 2MB L2 cache, 17.6W TDP, no GPU; AES encryption RAM — up to 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM via 2x SODIMMs Storage — SATA ii port with 2.5-inch HDD bay; CompactFlash Type II socket Networking — 6x gigabit Ethernet with 2-pair LAN bypass (Intel I210-AT) Other I/O: 2x USB 2.0 2x USB 3.0 Console serial port (RJ45) 8x GPIO on header Other features — watchdog timer; optional WiFi kit; optional rackmount kit Power — 12V DC @ 60W input Operating temperature — 0 to 40° C Dimensions — 242 x 149.5 x 44mm Operating system — Ubuntu with Linux 3.13 or Fedora with Linux 3.11 The AND-G420N1 supports up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM, with storage handled by a SATA-II HDD bay and a CompactFlash socket. Six gigabit Ethernet ports are provided, with 2-pair LAN bypass. There’s also a console port, GPIO, and four USB ports, two of which offer USB 3.0 are brought out to the rear panel. One of the other two USB ports is likely the source for the optional WiFi kit.Specifications listed for the AND-G420N1 include: Further information AND-G420N1 samples are available upon request at an undisclosed price. More information may be found in Acrosser’s AND-G420N1 product page.

Bikes > GeorgeWashingtonMobsDeep > Unknown LV1 Peace out buddy. Frame: Unknown LV1 2013 (55 cm) Fork/Headset: Nashbar Carbon Road Fork | Unknown Headset Crankset/Bottom Bracket: Origin8 Trackstar Crankset (165mm) | Shimano UN55 Pedals: Origin 8 Track Lite Pedals | MKS Toe Clips | Dimension Leather Straps Drivetrain/Cog/Chainring/Chain: 17t Retrogression $1 Cog | Origin 8 Trackstar 46t | KMC K710 Kool chain (1/8") Handlebars/Stem: Masi 44cm c-c Drop Bars | Silver Flat bars w/ Cult Vans Grips | Felt 80mm -6 Degree Stem Saddle/Seatpost: San Marco Concor Team | Kalloy Laprade SP-243 Seatpost Brakes: Shimano BL-R550 Break Lever | Nashbar Caliper Front Wheel/Hub/Tire: Hpluson Archetype | Miche High-Flange Track Hub | Bontrager Race-Lite Hard Case (28c) Rear Wheel/Hub/Tire: Hpluson Archetype | Miche High-Flange Track Hub | Bontrager Race-Lite Hard Case (28c) More Info: I stripped the frame and repainted the fork before I sold it Bike History Click a link below to see past stages of this bike. Initial Front rack! Update 9.28.14 SOLD 1/5/15 Current Stage Info: Sold my Beloved Unknown LV1. It's in the hands of a good owner now and it's legacy and history may live on. I'll miss ya bud. Added almost 5 years ago by GeorgeWashingtonMobsDeep. Last updated about 4 years ago. As of about 4 years ago, GeorgeWashingtonMobsDeep has indicated that they no longer own this bike.

ANALYSIS/OPINION: ANALYSIS/OPINION: President Obama had another tough week in a second term filled with bad news and blunders — and he’s only 10 weeks in. While the White House suddenly decided to drop its budget Friday in an effort to control the news, there was no covering up the disastrous jobless numbers: 90 million Americans out of the workforce, the highest level since 1979; another 663,000 joining the ranks of the long-term unemployed; a measly 88,000 jobs “created.” But what seems stuck in the craw of a lot of you readers out there was last week’s column on the Obamas’ 1 percent lifestyle — the endless ski and beach vacations for the couple and their daughters, Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s nights in London and Paris that cost you more than $1 million, even the president’s 118th round of golf while in office. “My kids asked me a couple of years ago why we never went on family vacations,” wrote Steve Gibson. “I told them that we had to pay all of our expenses first and there wasn’t any money left over for a family vacation. Then I keep seeing … stories about the administration taking trips everywhere and I don’t know what to think. I have been laid off twice in the past year and am currently in the job search mode again.” Eric Zundell is in the same boat: “As someone who has not been able to afford a vacation for my family in the last 12 years (but pays his taxes ;)), I highly applaud the message delivered by your article.” Ron Kaye agreed that “this is not about the girls, it’s about the money, which looks worse and worse every month. But the Obamas don’t care what it ‘looks’ like. They ARE the first family and by G-d they’re going to go when and where they want on as many planes as it takes; taxpayers be damned.” Charlene Sanders echoed Mr. Kaye — with a Marie Antoinette twist. “He doesn’t give a damn about us. He’s the president and by god he’s going to do what he wants … to hell with whatever anybody else thinks. Seems like a ‘Let them eat cake’ attitude to me.” Tim Mascara was puzzled by the sudden media silence. “I vaguely remember Michael Moore calling Bush out for golf and vacations. Where is the outcry now [for] this guy?” Barry Kahn juxtaposed the first couple’s lavish lifestyle with the president’s decision to cancel all White House tours. “Their extravagance boggles my mind. Why is it that they can get away with this stuff? The White House is closed to tours for supposed security reasons and they can globe trot with security in tow and the media says nothing?” Scott Hord was flat-out disheartened. “I used have to some measure of respect for the Office of the President, regardless of who was in command, but this current President has truly left a bad taste in my mouth.” Jason Lockwood also sounded fed up. “Thanks for pointing out the Obama/Biden high falutin’ lifestyle. I’m continually amazed that our country continually allows these narcissistic ***holes to live such lavish lifestyles at the expense of the rest of the hard working ‘Joes.’ I’m printing off a copy and sending it in with my quarterly payment to the IRS.” Steve Hunt was succinct: “Obama and his wife are grade A hypocrites and no friend of the poor they say they represent.” Yet Johann Ritter took issue with the column: “Aren’t you being a little rough on the first family? I mean, if you were running a company that is losing about $114 million an hour, wouldn’t you need some really serious vacation time? I would have given up on fixing the problem and find a reason to stay out of the office.” Funny, two days later, Mr. Obama decided to forgo 5 percent of his salary. Coincidence? Of course not. Americans are fed up with the royal lifestyle the Obamas live while they work double shifts to get by. Like Amy Jett. “People like to say how hard the man works and how he deserves his vacations, blah, blah, blah. Such nonsense only insults hard-working taxpayers all over the country — of which I am one,” she wrote. “I am a nurse, mom to a large brood, teacher, wife and caretaker for special needs children. We are just trying to scrape by, while this administration and our politicians have just hiked our taxes and health-care costs up and made life that much harder. We have not been on a single vacation in almost ten years. You know where we go on the few days we take off from work? Doctor’s offices is our most constant destination (although with Obamacare even that may have to be somewhat curtailed). We can’t afford a vacation. We have to pay a mortgage, hospital bills, car repairs, etc., etc., etc. We have to pay for the Obamas to go on trips, have parties, and so on. And then they pretend to understand our pain while they lecture us about ‘shared sacrifice’ and ‘fairness’? Disgusting.” • Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times and is now editor of the Drudge Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and @josephcurl. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Elizabeth Crowe recently learned that the red couch in her family's living room holds a toxic secret -- hidden inside its foam filling is a toxic chemical that was removed from kid's pajamas more than 30 years ago due to health dangers. Today, her 16-year-old daughter, Hannah, spends countless hours lounging, playing guitar and watching movies on top of the contaminated cushions. "I think about her developmentally and all of these toxic land mines that we're dodging every day," said Crowe, director of the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, who lives in Berea, Ky. "To have something like a piece of furniture providing this constant toxic dose to her is so disconcerting." Crowe, who had been careful to choose her family's couch from an eco-friendly line at a popular retailer, participated in a study published on Wednesday, which found that 85 percent of 102 couches tested across the U.S. contained toxic or untested flame retardant chemicals -- at levels up to 11 percent the weight of the foam. The newer the couch, the more likely it was to be treated with the chemicals. Many of the older couches tested by Duke's Heather Stapleton, along with her colleagues, had been treated with polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE), a flame retardant widely employed after the ban of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the 1970s. When PBDE was discovered to be just as harmful, and phased out in 2005, the industry looked again for swappable chemical cousins to continue meeting California's furniture flammability standard. Crowe's couch contains one of these alternative flame retardants, chlorinated Tris, now believed to be associated with health problems including cancer, hormone disruption and neurological problems. Other newer couches carried a chemical concoction called Firemaster 550, recently linked to obesity, early puberty and heart disease in lab animals. As the public becomes increasingly aware of particular poisons in household products, companies are responding with a line-up of substitutes. These alternatives, however, tend to go through just as little safety testing as their predecessors. And today, many are proving equally toxic, if not more so, said Arlene Blum, a University of California, Berkeley chemist and co-author on the study published Wednesday. "Unknown chemicals that were claimed to be safe and then turned out to be toxic are then banned and replaced by other unknown chemicals that are claimed to be safe and turn out to be toxic -- that's the drill, I think," said Blum, who points to the outdated Toxic Substances Control Act as a contributor to this problem. The 36-year-old law essentially assumes a chemical is safe until proven guilty. Flame retardants are just one class of chemicals that appears stuck on this toxic treadmill. Plasticizers such as phthalates and bisphenol-A are another. Bisphenol-S, for example, is now common in BPA-free products. Researchers recently found that up to 95 percent of these alternative plastic products leeched hormone disrupting chemicals, just like BPA does. "That's obviously scary because BPA has been linked to what seems like everything -- from obesity to brain cancer and to pretty much everything in between," said Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, a blogger and mom of three in Los Angeles who writes about environmental safety for children and parents. Joel Tickner of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell recognizes the difficult position of today's consumers -- and of manufacturers. "Folks are looking for that drop-in substitute, that next available thing that will work and that is cost-effective," Tickner said. "But those things tend to look a lot like the things we're replacing." He sees the same story playing out with alternatives in a host of chemical products, including stain repellents and dry cleaning solvents. "These new chemicals might be marginal improvements," he said. "But I think flame retardants have really shed a light on the unintended consequences of banning one thing without really understanding whether what's replacing it is better." Bryan Goodman, spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, an industry group, told The Huffington Post in a statement that the new couch study by Stapleton, "confirms what we would expect to find: Furniture manufacturers use flame retardants to meet established fire safety standards, which help save lives. There is no data in this study that indicate that the levels of flame retardants found would cause any human health problems." Stapleton, a Duke University chemist, also co-authored a study published last month on Firemaster 550's potential health effects. She found baby rats born to mothers exposed to even tiny amounts of the chemical concoction turned out to be heavier and more aggressive, and hit puberty earlier than pups of unexposed rats. As chlorinated Tris is now expected to be phased out from furniture, some experts forecast Firemaster 550 to become the most widely used flame retardant. People, especially children, tend to be exposed to toxins by inhaling or handling, and subsequently consuming, chemical-laden dust. (Washing hands frequently may help reduce some of that exposure.) A corresponding study also published on Wednesday found samples of house dust -- filled with chemical flame retardants including PBDEs, chlorinated tris and Firemaster 550 -- originating from couches, as well as treated carpets, computers and TVs. The majority of homes tested had at least one chemical above federal health guidelines, noted co-author Julia Brody, of the Silent Spring Institute. A pending update to California's fire standard, however, could cut down on exposure to these toxic chemicals, as well as fire hazards, according to advocates who point to evidence that the fire safety benefit of flame retardants is minimal at best. It's just one of the efforts underway in the state to rid products of what Debbie Raphael, director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, calls "regrettable substitutes." Before even looking for a safer alternative, Raphael explained that other proposed state legislation poses the question to manufacturers: Is it even necessary? Can a couch -- or carpet, or lipstick -- be constructed differently so that chemical additives aren't needed in the first place? Many moms are going through that same thought process. Sarnoff, the family environmental safety blogger, uses glass instead of plastic to store food. Crowe, the Kentucky Environmental Foundation director, avoids canned products as much as possible. And while the Crowe family still has some older BPA-free plastic bottles, they have mostly switched to stainless steel.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. lawmaker expressed a new willingness to support legislation establishing ground rules for when technology firms should grant authorities access to their products, after Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said it would fight a court order to unlock an iPhone linked to the San Bernardino shooting rampage. A woman uses her mobile phone, an iPhone 6 by Apple in Munich downtown, Germany, January 27, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that the “complex issues” raised by the Apple case, as well as the prevalence of strongly encrypted devices and communications, “will ultimately need to be resolved by Congress, the administration and industry, rather than the courts alone.” Two weeks ago, Schiff told reporters he considered a legislative approach to the issue neither “feasible or even desirable.” On Tuesday, a federal judge in Los Angeles said that Apple must provide “reasonable technical assistance” to investigators seeking to unlock the data on an iPhone that had been used by San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook, who, with his wife, killed 14 people on Dec. 2. Apple said it would fight the court order, which it said would set a dangerous precedent that could ultimately undermine the security of its iPhones. While lawmakers are far from a consensus on the issue, Schiff said, “the court’s decision will likely accelerate our consideration of how to weigh the competing privacy, security and competitiveness issues.” Schiff’s pivot could signal renewed interest from lawmakers in an encryption debate that so far has found little traction in Congress. The House Judiciary Committee is planning to hold a hearing on encryption on March 1 and has invited Apple to attend, according to a congressional source. Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate intelligence panel respectively, have said they want to pursue encryption legislation, though neither has introduced a bill yet. The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported on Thursday that Burr was working on a proposal that would levy “criminal penalties” on companies that did not comply with court orders to decrypt communications, though it said negotiations were still fluid. However, Burr’s spokeswoman Becca Watkins told Reuters he “is not considering criminal penalties in his draft encryption proposals.” Momentum for a law that would require companies to provide government access to the contents of encrypted devices relevant to a criminal investigation faltered last summer when the White House stopped pushing for a bill amid intense opposition from technology companies and privacy advocates. It is difficult to gauge the Apple case’s impact on Congress, as both the Senate and House of Representatives are on recess this week. But congressional aides say any encryption legislation likely still faces a steep climb. That is especially true in the House, which in 2014 passed an amendment to a defense funding bill that would have barred the government from forcing an organization to build a technical “backdoor” into its products. The measure was later removed during negotiations. Federal officials have privately dismissed a theory that the Apple case was choreographed to stir up support for encryption legislation. But Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said she believed the U.S. Justice Department is pursuing the case in California with one eye on Congress. “It’s a win-win for them,” she said. “If they prevail in court, they don’t need a law. And if they lose, they have it set up to go to lawmakers and say: This is what we need, the courts didn’t give it to us, so we need a new law.”