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Media playback is not supported on this device Alan Shearer predicts 'tight' title race Premier League champions Chelsea "will still be the team to beat" this season, says ex-England captain Alan Shearer. The Blues won their fifth league title by a comfortable eight-point margin ahead of Manchester City. "Chelsea won at a canter last season, certainly from February on, but it will be tighter," Shearer told BBC Sport. The former Newcastle striker also said Manchester United have "work to do", while Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is under "huge pressure". In a wide-ranging interview looking ahead to the new Premier League season, Shearer also discussed: The battle for the Premier League top four; How "something smells" at Liverpool; Newcastle United's ambitions under new boss Steve McClaren; The challenges for the promoted sides. How will the top four look? Manchester United have brought in Bastian Schweinsteiger from Bayern Munich to bolster their midfield Shearer - the Premier League's top scorer with 260 goals - predicts the same top four as 2014-15 but "not necessarily in that order". To better last campaign's finishes: "You cannot tell me Raheem is worth £49m," said Shearer. "He's a good player, he's got potential, he's lightning quick, but I still think he needs to improve on a lot of aspects. Will he improve Manchester City? Yes. For £49m? No. "Cech will be very, very good and improve Arsenal by a number of points, but I think they still need a top-class centre forward at least to go that one step further and win the title. "I still think there's work to be done for United. I don't think there's a lot between City and United, they'll be pushing Chelsea all the way. I still think they might lack just one or two players." 'Something smells' at Liverpool The Reds endured a disappointing season, finishing sixth having come runners-up the season before. Following an end-of-season review, assistant manager Colin Pascoe and first-team coach Mike Marsh left the club. Rodgers has brought in England midfielder James Milner on a free transfer, Brazil playmaker Roberto Firmino for £29m, and used a chunk of the Sterling money on the £32.5m signing of Belgium striker Christian Benteke from Aston Villa. "Brendan's spent a lot of money again," said Shearer. "He has to achieve success this year, he has to win something," "Also, with the change of his backroom staff, the way it happened... I'm not sure that you have a trusted lieutenant right throughout your career and then you come to the end of the season and because you've had a poor season say 'we're going in a different technical direction'. "That doesn't sit easy. Something smells a little bit there. Brendan will be under huge pressure." Can McClaren change Newcastle's fortunes? McClaren left Derby in the summer, taking over at Newcastle from caretaker John Carver, who was sacked at the end of the season Shearer hopes "attitudes change" on Tyneside to reward the fans who have renewed their season tickets despite the "truly dreadful" second half of last season, which saw them finish 15th. "Newcastle will improve, having said that it shouldn't be too difficult," said Newcastle's record goalscorer and former captain. "Steve McClaren is a good coach and a good manager, but I hope he's allowed to manage and coach. "Let's be realistic, Newcastle are not going to finish in the top four. There's only two things Newcastle are going to win - and that's the League Cup and the FA Cup. "I would dearly love to see them have a go in one of them and play their strongest team. Let's hope that changes." How will the promoted sides do? Watford returned to the top flight for the first time since the 2006-07 season, while Bournemouth are there for the first time. Norwich are back following a season's absence. "Traditionally what happens and what will always happen is they'll have a struggle," said Shearer. "Watford have signed so many players it is going to be difficult to integrate them all and for it to work. "Bournemouth will probably be like Burnley and try and do it the right way and everyone will continue to praise them because of the way they play, their work ethic... but they might just come up short. Norwich may be similar as well. "Those three will struggle, but Leicester might, Aston Villa might because of the players they've sold, and Sunderland. "And, dare I say it, if Newcastle have signed two or three players, that would worry me, because they might sell one or two as well."

Movable Web Panels We have been looking at your recent feature requests for 1.14 and picked out one of the requests with the highest number of upvotes, an Option to reorder websites that are in Web Panel. So for today’s Snapshot we implemented exactly that! Thanks JuniorSilva30 for asking for it and all of you who upvoted it. We will continue to look through your requests and do what we can. Remember this is your browser, as much as it is ours. Oh, and if you are new to Web Panels, they are a fantastic way of keeping up to date with social media, messaging your friends and family, or for watching a video whilst you work on something else, without the need to constantly switch tabs. Vivaldi’s panel support is unique, in a modern browser. You can seamlessly and easily add any page you like as a panel and we will even do our best to present it in a way that is optimized for panel viewing. To learn more, check out our Web Panel help page. P.S. As an extra bonus (since we like to go the extra mile), you can now also reorganize the built in Vivaldi panels too! Download (1.14.1038.3) Changelog

Michael Snyder Economic Collapse November 7, 2013 Did you know that 40 percent of all American workers make less than $20,000 a year before taxes? And 65 percent of all American workers make less than $40,000 a year before taxes. If you work on Wall Street, or have a cushy job with the federal government, or work for a big tech firm out on the west coast, life is probably pretty good for you right now. But the truth is that most Americans are not living the high life. In fact, most Americans are just trying to figure out how to survive from month to month. For many Americans, making a choice between buying food for your family and paying the light bill is a common occurrence. But if you don’t live in that America, hearing that people actually live like that may sound very strange to you. After all, if everyone around you has expensive cars, the latest electronic gadgets and million dollar homes, the notion that America is in the midst of a very serious “economic decline” may seem very bizarre to you. On Wednesday, the Dow hit a brand new record high, and Wall Street celebrated. Since the financial crisis of 2008, stocks have been on an unprecedented run. The top performers in the market have not just made millions of dollars – they have made billions of dollars. Luxury apartments in Manhattan and beachfront homes in the Hamptons are selling for absolutely astronomical prices, and it seems like life in the good parts of New York City is one gigantic endless party these days. Meanwhile, life is quite good down in Washington D.C. as well. The wealth is spread more evenly, but on average the D.C. region actually has the highest standard of living of any major U.S. city. The reason for this is the obscene growth of the federal government. Over the past couple of decades, the U.S. government has ballooned in size and so have government salaries. During one recent year, the average federal employee living in the Washington D.C. area received total compensation worth more than $126,000. Out in the San Francisco area, Internet money is flowing like wine right now. As I wrote about yesterday, top employees of companies such as Facebook and Twitter can make millions of dollars a year. And if you were lucky to get a piece of the ownership of one of those companies at a very early stage, you are essentially set for life. And with the Twitter IPO coming up, Internet euphoria is once again reaching a fever pitch. For example, just check out what a 56-year-old administrative assistant said this week about why she is going to buy Twitter stock… “I’m just buying because everybody’s talking about Twitter,” she said. “I’m just gonna take a chance.” Is that how we should make our investment decisions from now on? Just buy a stock because everybody’s talking about it? That is the kind of insanity that is going on in “wealthy America” right now. Unfortunately, the gap between “wealthy America” and “poor America” is greater than ever before. If you live in “wealthy America”, what you are about to hear next will probably sound very strange. CNN recently profiled a 44-year-old overnight prison guard named Delores Gilmore. She works really hard, but a lot of times she simply does not have enough money to pay all of her bills… “The first of the month, I pay the rent,” she said. “The next check, I pay my light bills. Sometimes I won’t pay my rent and I pay the light bill from last month — if they cut if it off. Then I pay the rent the end of the month.” Her life consists of going to work, taking care of her children, going to sleep, and then getting back up and repeating that same cycle once again… “I’m not fooling anybody,” she told me. “I don’t have any friends. And that’s sad. … I go to work, come home, take them where they gotta go, if they gotta go somewhere, come back home, lay down, go to work. “That’s what I do. All day, that’s what I do.” Sadly, the truth is that tens of millions of Americans can identify with what she is going through on a daily basis. In millions of families, both the husband and the wife work multiple jobs and it is still not enough. If we truly did have a free market capitalist system, the entire country would be a land of opportunity and things would be getting better for everybody. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all. The following are 21 facts about “wealthy America” and “poor America” that are hard to believe… #1 The lowest earning 23,303,064 Americans combined make 36 percent less than the highest earning 2,915 Americans do. #2 40 percent of all American workers (39.6 percent to be precise) make less than $20,000 a year. #3 According to the Pew Research Center, the top 7 percent of all U.S. households own 63 percent of all the wealth in the country. #4 On average, households in the top 7 percent have 24 times as much wealth as households in the bottom 93 percent. #5 According to numbers that were just released this week, 49.7 million Americans are living in poverty. That is a brand new all-time record high. #6 In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined. #7 Household incomes have actually been declining for five years in a row and total consumer credit has risen by a whopping 22 percent over the past three years. #8 According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. #9 The homeownership rate in the United States is at an 18 year low. #10 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have as much wealth as the bottom one-third of all Americans combined. #11 18 percent of all food stamp dollars are spent at Wal-Mart. #12 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before. #13 It is hard to believe, but right now 1.2 million students that attend public schools in America are homeless. That number has risen by 72 percent since the start of the last recession. #14 One recent study discovered that nearly half of all public students in the United States come from low income homes. #15 In 1980, CEOs at S&P 500 companies made 42 times as much as their employees did on average. Today, CEOs at S&P 500 companies make 354 times as much as their employees do on average. In fact, there are many CEOs that make more than 1000 times what the average employees in their companies make. #16 U.S. families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent. #17 At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less. #18 Today, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does. #19 Approximately one out of every five households in the United States is now on food stamps. #20 The number of Americans on food stamps has grown from 17 million in the year 2000 to more than 47 million today. #21 At this point, the poorest 50 percent of all Americans collectively own just 2.5 percent of all the wealth in the United States. So which America do you live in? Please feel free to tell us what is going on in your neck of the woods by posting a comment below…

Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) Searchers have now recovered both so-called black boxes from AirAsia Flight QZ8501 and may have located the fuselage of the plane, an Indonesian official said Tuesday, adding more pieces to help solve the puzzle of what caused the disaster. The fuselage, or main body, of the plane is believed to have been found by a ship scanning for wreckage northeast of where the tail section was previously discovered, said Supriyadi, an operations coordinator at Indonesia's national search and rescue agency who goes by only one name. But he said he hasn't seen the full report on the reported discovery yet -- and it hasn't been confirmed so far by the head of the search and rescue agency. The discovery of the fuselage would be a significant development as officials have suggested that many of the bodies of those on board the plane are likely to be found with it. Forty-eight bodies have so far been recovered from the sea, some of them still strapped into seats. But more than 100 remain missing. The overwhelming majority of the people on Flight QZ8501 were Indonesian. There were also citizens of Britain, France, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Black boxes contain the what and the why On Tuesday, divers retrieved the cockpit voice recorder, which is designed to retain all sounds on a plane's flight deck. The device is expected to help investigators understand what went wrong aboard Flight QZ8501, which went down in the Java Sea last month with 162 people aboard as it was headed toward Singapore from the Indonesian city of Surabaya. On Monday, searchers recovered the plane's other key information source, the flight data recorder , which stores a vast amount of information about the aircraft's performance, including air speed and cabin pressure. The flight data recorder tells investigators what happened on a plane, but the cockpit voice recorder tells them why, said Mardjono Siswosuwarno, a senior official at Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, which is leading the investigation into the disaster. "The why is mostly in there," he said of the voice recorder, which captures conversations between pilots as well as other sounds in the cockpit. Analysis of data to take months The two flight recorders have been taken to a lab in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, for analysis. Investigators say they have successfully downloaded the contents of both devices. But Mardjono cautioned that interpreting the information requires much more time. After the download, investigators should have "a pretty good idea within a couple of days" of what happened aboard the plane, Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said this week. The flight data recorder usually contains hundreds of parameters and thousands of data points, she said, that look a bit like an electrocardiogram when they're printed. Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Crews remove the fuselage of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 from a vessel at the Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday, March 2. AirAsia Flight QZ8501 was en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore when it lost contact with air traffic control on December 28. There were 162 people on board. Hide Caption 1 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 The fuselage is lifted from the Java Sea during the recovery mission on March 2. Hide Caption 2 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Indonesian search and rescue personnel unload recovered bodies at the Kumai seaport on Sunday, February 8. Hide Caption 3 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Workers load the tail of the plane onto a truck February 7 at the Kumai seaport. Hide Caption 4 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Crew members inspect body bags on the deck of a ship in the Java Sea on Friday, January 23. Hide Caption 5 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 A police officer stands guard near pieces of the plane's wreckage at a warehouse in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, on Monday, January 19. Hide Caption 6 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 This photo, taken by a remotely operated underwater vehicle and released Wednesday, January 14, by Singapore's Defense Ministry, shows part of the plane's fuselage lying on the floor of the Java Sea. Hide Caption 7 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Indonesian officials remove the cockpit voice recorder from AirAsia Flight QZ8501 on Tuesday, January 13. Indonesian divers retrieved it from beneath the wreckage of the plane. Hide Caption 8 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 A flight data recorder was retrieved from the Java Sea on Monday, January 12. Hide Caption 9 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 An Indonesian worker cuts part of the plane's tail January 12 after debris from the crash was retrieved from the Java Sea. Hide Caption 10 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 A portion of the plane's tail section is seen on the deck of a rescue ship after it was recovered from the Java Sea on Saturday, January 10. Hide Caption 11 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 An Indonesian rescue helicopter flies during search operations in the Java Sea on Friday, January 9. Hide Caption 12 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Search personnel unload the body of a victim upon arriving at the airport in Pangkalan Bun on January 9. Hide Caption 13 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Members of the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency carry pieces of the jet in Pangkalan Bun on January 9. Hide Caption 14 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 There was a major breakthrough in the search for the wreckage on Wednesday, January 7. Indonesian search and rescue officials released an image of the plane's tail section as seen on the floor of the Java Sea. Hide Caption 15 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Writing could be made out, showing the AirAsia insignia and other identifying features. The find is important because the plane's flight recorders were located in the tail section. Hide Caption 16 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Divers were sent to take images of the section after metal detectors identified large objects in the water where officials were searching for the lost plane. Hide Caption 17 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Search and rescue personnel carry seats from the flight on Monday, January 5. Hide Caption 18 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 An Indonesian navy member holds a piece of window panel that was recovered during search operations. Hide Caption 19 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Crew members in an Indonesian air force helicopter look out of the windows over the Java Sea during a search operation on Sunday, January 4. Hide Caption 20 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Members of an Indonesian search and rescue team carry items recovered from the search area in Pangkalan Bun on January 4. Hide Caption 21 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Members of the Mawar Sharon Church attend a prayer service for the relatives of lost loved ones January 4 in Surabaya, Indonesia. Hide Caption 22 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Indonesian navy officers coordinate the recovery of bodies taken to the vessel KRI Banda Aceh during recovery operations on Saturday, January 3. Hide Caption 23 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Members of the Indonesian navy return to the vessel with remains recovered from the crash area. Hide Caption 24 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Recovered victims are placed on the deck of the Indonesian ship on January 3. Hide Caption 25 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Members of an Indonesian search team carry a coffin at Iskandar Air Base on Friday, January 2. Hide Caption 26 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Relatives and friends grieve as they attend a ceremony January 2 in Surabaya. Hide Caption 27 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 A member of the Indonesian Red Cross prepares coffins at a hospital in Pangkalan Bun on January 2. Hide Caption 28 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Members of the National Search and Rescue Agency and Indonesian soldiers carry coffins containing bodies of victims in Pangkalan Bun on January 2. Hide Caption 29 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 This photograph released by the Singapore Defense Ministry shows the front and back of a piece of debris that resembles an aircraft window panel. Hide Caption 30 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Members of a search and rescue team carry the body of a victim in Pangkalan Bun on Thursday, January 1. Hide Caption 31 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Marine divers prepare their gear on the deck of a ship before searching for passengers and debris January 1 at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun. Hide Caption 32 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Indonesian soldiers carry a victim's coffin upon arrival at an air force base in Surabaya on Wednesday, December 31. Hide Caption 33 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Indonesian soldiers carry coffins of crash victims on December 31. Hide Caption 34 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Relatives of passengers pray together inside a holding room at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya on December 31. Hide Caption 35 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Indonesian air force personnel show debris, including a suitcase, that was found floating near the site where the AirAsia flight disappeared. Hide Caption 36 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Debris floats in the Java Sea on December 30. Hide Caption 37 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 A member of the Indonesian navy monitors a radar screen during a search operation over the waters near Bangka Island, Indonesia, on December 30. Hide Caption 38 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Family members of missing passengers react at an airport in Surabaya after watching news reports on December 30. Hide Caption 39 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Debris floats in the Java Sea on December 30. Hide Caption 40 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Relatives of missing passengers comfort each other December 30 at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya. Hide Caption 41 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Relatives gather at Juanda International Airport as they wait for news on December 30. Hide Caption 42 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 An Indonesian military airman looks out the window of an airplane during a search over the waters of Karimata Strait on Monday, December 29. Hide Caption 43 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Members of Indonesia's Marine Police pray before a search operation on December 29. Hide Caption 44 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Military personnel perform a search operation on Sunday, December 28. Hide Caption 45 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Sunu Widyatmoko, CEO of Indonesia AirAsia, gives a press conference in Surabaya announcing that the flight lost contact with air traffic control. Hide Caption 46 of 47 Photos: The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 An official from Indonesia's national search and rescue agency points to the position where AirAsia Flight QZ8501 went missing. Hide Caption 47 of 47 Mardjono said he expected a preliminary report to be released within a month of the crash, which happened December 28. But it's unclear how much information the initial document will contain beyond what's already been made public. The final report containing investigators' full conclusions will take months, Mardjono said. The agency's final report into Adam Air Flight 574 -- which crashed in Indonesian waters on New Year's Day 2007, killing all 102 people on board -- came out more than a year after that disaster. Mardjono said the AirAsia plane's flight data recorder was in good condition after being pulled out of the water from under the debris of a wing Monday. Did plane break apart on impact? The recovery of the flight recorders took place after the plane's tail was lifted from the waves Saturday. Observers have suggested that the locations of the different parts of debris indicate the plane broke apart when it hit the water, not when it was still at a high altitude. Supriyadi, the Indonesian search official, said Monday that the debris patterns suggest the aircraft "exploded" on impact. But the country's transportation investigators said it was premature to say what had happened, and one expert questioned the search official's choice of words. "The word 'exploded' I think maybe loses a little bit in translation," said David Soucie, a former Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector. "I think really what he's meaning is a rupture from the impact itself. "As with any hollow object hitting something very hard, the pressure differential between the outside and the inside is very significant, and it'll actually tear apart the aircraft on the top," Soucie said. "That may be what he's referring to."

As the first pictures of Ford's second-generation S-Max are revealed ahead of its Paris motor show debut next month, we talk to the firm's director of exterior design, Stefan Lamm, about the task of following up the best-selling original. How big a challenge was it to create a successor to the S-Max? It’s an important product for the brand, after inventing the segment in 2006. We’ve sold 400,000 since, and it still mixes sportiness, dynamism and value like nothing else on the market. So under this premise it was a challenge, particularly when the current car still looks so fresh. Would you describe it as a big visual leap for Ford? It’s very clearly part of the new design we showed with the Evos in 2011 and will introduce with the new Mondeo. But as it is a European model, we’ve been able to put even more Evos in it. The S-Max shows Ford still has expertise in white space vehicles. Why has the switchgear been reduced so much inside? We’ve listened to feedback from our customers. We’ve overloaded centre consoles in the past, and are now simplifying it on our vehicles. Our interiors are now easier to use, they're simplified and more functional. The S-Max is a European model in a range of global Fords. Would it be fair to call it your flagship? Yes, you could say the S-Max is Europe’s flagship. It’s our model with the highest conquest rate for sales. Customers love it as it's prestigious and fun to drive, and there’s nothing else like it. Could the S-Max become a global car?

Well, I did stay up until 3am finishing this book so there must have been something about it that I really liked- just can't figure out what exactly. The overall theme is kind of similar to Twilight- very rich, very powerful, very attractive vampire trying to prevent the very innocent girl from falling in love with him because it's for the best- and I don't mean that as a compliment. In a Vampire novel the vampires make or break the story and Silvanus didn't really do it for me. He's supposed to be this incredibly old, powerful vampire that was more then ready to kill Sarah just for summoning him (like a dog) but at the last minute he changes his mind and spends months helping her because... She's special? The book spends a lot of time talking about how special and awesome and amazing Sarah is and how she's so unique and special but it doesn't really show it. We're just supposed to understand that she's so special, so unique, (enough to win over the super bad ass, super jaded vampire in mere moments) but we don't really see why. We're told she's really special, numerous times, quite bluntly, but there's really nothing about her that seems to explain why Silvanus would be so captivated by her. Oh, and if you like your vampires "traditional" this one isn't for you. Sun has no effects on him (at least he doesn't glitter), he eats real food, he breathes, sleeps, and he doesn't have fangs. Yup, no fangs, just a very sharp knife. I have a feeling that if it wasn't important for Silvanus to not age (so that Sarah can catch up) he wouldn't have been a vampire at all. Surprisingly, Sarah, as a protagonist didn't annoy me. It's hard to get the female lead right because it's a fine line between damsel in distress and a brainless nitwit, between a strong women and a stubborn nitwit. But then, it's hard to be annoying when you're not really there. I don't know if it makes much sense but, despite the fact that this book is all about Sarah she's not really... there. Physically, she's there, I mean, things are happening to her, she's saying things, etc. But it isn't so much about Sarah as a person but about feeling tormented by devils, feeling gratitude towards a vampire, a crush on a vampire, feeling abandoned by someone you love, etc. The main character in the novel is this feeling of love and longing for a vampire that just happens to be attached to a shell of a woman named Sarah. I once read a theory that Twilight is so popular because Edward and Bella are so poorly defined that it's easy for the reader to project themselves (and their love/crush) onto the characters and live out the fantasy in their head. Maybe that's what this author is doing? As for the whole 13 year old girl and a "35" year old Vampire aspect... The author makes it VERY clear that she is VERY mature for her age (look and personality wise). She also makes it VERY VERY VERY VERY clear, NUMEROUS times, quite bluntly, that Silvanus DOES NOT find Sarah sexually attractive when she's young... though he totally will soon because she will grow up to be a stunning woman. She kind of beats you on the head with that to a point where I'm surprised she didn't just interject a disclaimer that read "ATTENTION READERS: THE 35 YEAR OLD VAMPIRE DOES NOT FIND THE 13 YEAR OLD GIRL SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE, AT ALL, LIKE NOT EVEN A LITTLE. HOWEVER, I DO WANT TO HAVE THEM FALL IN LOVE WHEN SHE'S OLD ENOUGH SO I WILL HAVE HIM TALK ABOUT SEX AND STUFF SO THAT WHEN HE DOES FALL FOR HER (AT AN APPROPRIATE AGE!) IT'S NOT COMING OUT OF NOWHERE. PLEASE DO NOT MISTAKE THE SEX TALK FOR SEXUAL TENSION." I know this review sounds overly critical and, to be frank, I could go on some more (like how all the characters sounds the same and there's very little personality difference between the main players). But, I have to say, it's not a bad story; I mean, I did stay up all night finishing it (though I did skim through a lot of the back half because that whole thing in Italy... I don't know...). I still don't know what it is that kept me up late just to finish the book but kudos to the author for creating that need to finish. I wouldn't be spending this much time on a review if I just straight up didn't like it. The story has some great bones but the characters are so nondescript they don't stay with you after the book is done. It's like the author just really didn't want to turn anyone off so she made the characters as universal and vague as possible. I couldn't even tell you what the characters are supposed to look like; I just know they're supposed to be very attractive. Silvanus is barely a vampire, I'm not familiar with witches but Sarah didn't seem that "witchy", and I'm surprised there isn't some watered down werewolf thrown it (or is that what her dog was supposed to be?).

Share “Likes” on Facebook are now protected by the First Amendment, thanks to a ruling by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled on the side of Bobby Bland, a former deputy sheriff from Hampton, Va., who says he and other employees were fired for ‘liking’ the Facebook page of his boss’s opponent. Their boss, sheriff B.J. Roberts, won his race and promptly fired the dissenting employees. He said the firings were the result of budget cuts and the workers’ disruption of office dynamics. Suspecting that the dismissal had less to do with the budget and more to do with disliking the “likes,” Bland and his fellow Facebook mutineers took the case to court. In 2012, The U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia didn’t buy their argument that the termination violated their First Amendment rights, and dismissed the case. Judge Raymond Jackson noted that Facebook posts were protected, but didn’t think “likes” made the cut. “Simply liking a Facebook page is insufficient. It is not the kind of substantive statement that has previously warranted constitutional protection,” he wrote in his opinion. But a different judge saw the situation from another perspective. Chief Judge William B. Traxler Jr. saw no difference between a “like” and actually writing that you like something. “”On the most basic level, clicking on the ‘Like’ button literally causes to be published the statement that the user ‘likes’ something, which is itself a substantive statement,” he wrote. The ruling reinforced the argument of one of the plaintiffs, Daniel R. Carter Jr., who explicitly defended himself by saying a “like” fell under protected speech. This is an important decision for the First Amendment because it extends free speech protections to a simple click of the mouse. It’s a common sense ruling, since publicly “liking” something on Facebook is a clear endorsement, even if it is one that requires zero creative thinking. The line of thinking the judge used to arrive at this decision would protect all sorts of actions on social media, such as “favoriting” a tweet or pressing the heart button under an Instagram photo. Of course, you may be wondering why this case was brought to court at all — why shouldn’t a sheriff be able to fire people who work for him who expressed support for another candidate? While employees in the private sector can be fired for comments deemed inappropriate, public servants often have more robust employment protections in place that safeguard their jobs if they express their political views. That may be the case here.

CLOSE The city is taking down several of the monuments after a 6-1 city council vote on their removal. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said they belong in a museum "with context." USA TODAY A file photo shows the Robert E. Lee statue at Lee Circle in New Orleans. (Photo11: Gerald Herbert, AP Images) NEW ORLEANS — The 16-foot-tall bronze statue of Robert E. Lee in New Orleans was removed Friday from its perch high above St. Charles Avenue where the Confederate general had stood watch for 133 years. The removal of the last, and perhaps most iconic of the city’s four Confederate-era monuments drew dozens of people to Lee Circle, where it is located, late Thursday and early Friday. By mid-morning, activity began at the site as cranes and backhoes were used. The statue was lifted from its pedestal early Friday evening. The largely anti-monument crowd burst into cheers and song. “I cannot believe that it’s down,” said a choked up Rev. Marie Galatas, a civil rights leader who was instrumental in the movement to remove the monuments. “This is the one I was focused on ... there had been monumental obstacles against me from ’73 until now, but they are down now.” Lee Circle has been a focal point for citizens of the city for more than 130 years, with many not paying attention to the historic significance or controversy of the monument to the general that led the Confederate Army against Union troops. That history has become a focus for both pro and anti-monument groups. A crowd of perhaps 200 people were gathered at the circle Thursday night. There were several Confederate battle flags, some American flags and a small band of drummers who led the anti-monument people with a chant of “Take ‘Em Down.” Without the barricades to separate the two groups, the drummers and dancers edged close to the pro-monument crowd, who remained stoic. “We want him to stay here,” said Robert Bonner, a supporter of the Lee statue. “We know he’s going to come down, but that’s not going to stop us. We want a voice.” “I wanted this to be seen with their own eyes,” said DeMirah Howard, who supports the monuments being removed. “It’s not good for our children to view it (the memorial).” Read more: For his part, Bonner, who said his family has a long lineage in New Orleans, and whose father fought in several wars, said he believes the takedown of the monument will be emotional. “I tell you what it felt like with the other ones,” he said. “I cried… Where’s it going to stop?” By the time crews arrived, much of the overnight gathering had thinned to just a few onlookers. During the night, dozens of people had spirited exchanges that, for the most part, stayed civil. There was one arrest after a man went past the barricades and climbed atop the stairs leading to the column. Police tried to get the man to come down peacefully, but eventually they handcuffed him and removed him to some cheers and jeers. Erected in 1884, Lee’s is the last of four monuments to Confederate-era figures to be removed in accordance with a 2015 City Council vote. The most recent removal of a statue happened Wednesday morning, when the 102-year-old bronze statue of Confederate Gen. P.G.T Beauregard was removed from the entrance to City Park. The statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis was removed last week and a monument memorializing a deadly 1874 white-supremacist uprising was removed in April. Unlike the first three statues — which were removed under in the dark — city officials moved to take Lee’s statue down during the day. In an interview with The Associated Press, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the change was made to ensure the safety of the workers because of its proximity to electrical wires and New Orleans' famous streetcar lines. It would be impossible to do the removal "at dark and maintain the safety of the construction workers," he said. In a news release obtained by The Associated Press, the city said the statues were “erected decades after the Civil War to celebrate the ‘Cult of the Lost Cause,’ a movement recognized across the South as celebrating and promoting white supremacy.” Of the four monuments, Lee's was easily the most prominent, with the bronze statue alone being close to 20 feet tall. It's an image of Lee standing tall in uniform, with his arms crossed defiantly, looking toward the northern horizon from atop a roughly 60-foot-tall column. It towered over a traffic circle — Lee Circle — in an area between the office buildings of the city's business district and stately 19th-century mansions in the nearby Garden District. The city has received offers from public and private institutions to take individual monuments, so it will solicit proposals on where they will go through an "open and transparent selection." Only non-profits and government entities will be allowed to take part, and the city said the process will not include the Beauregard statue because of legal issues. The city said those taking the statues cannot display them outdoors on public property in New Orleans. Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Danny Monteverde on Twitter: @DCMonteverde Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2qzt6vf

The realization of the importance of the gut microbiota in health and disease has been one of the most exciting areas in biomedical research over the past 5 years. We are teeming with microrganisms in and on our body, having >150 times more microbial genes (the microbiome) than mammalian genes. Studies are revealing how variations in the composition of the gut microbiota influence all aspects of physiology, including brain function and even behavior. In terms of neuroscience and psychiatric disease the field is still very much in its infancy, but evidence is accumulating that it has a key role. Factors that shape the bacterial landscape include being born by Caesarian delivery, not being breastfed, environment, gestational age, host genetics, exposure to infections (both maternal and infant), and antibiotic usage. Moreover, stress, especially that in early life and prenatally, can have marked effects on microbiota composition (Borre et al, 2014). A variety of strategies have been used to investigate the role of this so-called microbiota–gut–brain axis in health and disease. Germ-free mice (mice that never have been exposed to any bacteria) have been used to show that microbiota is crucial for hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function. Moreover, these mice have widespread neurodevelopmental changes in the brain, including alterations in monoaminergic neurotransmission and behavioral changes in anxiety (Foster and McVey Neufeld, 2013). More recently, we have shown that these mice also exhibit autism-like traits, such as deficits in sociability, social cognition, and increased repetitive behaviors (Desbonnet et al, 2014). Interestingly, as in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, these effects are much more pronounced in males than females. Moreover, studies in germ-free mice can be expanded to enable research on the ‘humanization’ of the gut microbiota, that is, transplanting faecal microbiota from specific human conditions or from animal models. Indeed, it has been shown that behavioral traits can be transplanted between strains of mice (Collins et al, 2013). Administration of various potential probiotic strains in rodents or humans has also been shown to have beneficial effects in rodents. Major strain and species differences occur in terms of their ‘psychobiotic’ effects. Studies have shown that some Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli species as well as Bacteroides fragilis can have positive effects on anxiety, depression, cognition, and autism-related behaviors (Hsiao et al, 2013). Prebiotics, nondigestible food ingredients that promotes the growth of beneficial gut microorganisms, are also being shown to affect brain BDNF levels. Human studies of prebiotics and probiotics have lagged behind to date, although there is interesting neuroimaging studies emerging clearly showing that such bacterial-based dietary interventions can affect brain function. Finally, perturbation of the microbiota by administration of antimicrobial drugs can allow for a temporally controlled and more clinically relevant tool to assess the role of the gut microbiota on behavior. Antibiotics in adulthood and early-life can reverse both antipsychotic-induced obesity (Davey et al, 2013) and increase visceral pain (O'Mahony et al, 2014) responses, respectively. Further studies focused on the mechanisms on how these gut microbiota signal to the brain are now warranted. To date, it is clear that the vagus nerve, immune signaling, and the production of bioactive metabolites are strongly implicated in communication across the microbiota–gut–brain axis (Figure 1). Figure 1 Key pathways involved in microbiota–gut–brain signaling. There are many potential direct and indirect pathways exist through which the gut microbiota can modulate the gut–brain axis. They include endocrine (cortisol), immune (cytokines), and neural (vagus and enteric nervous system) pathways. The gut microbiota and probiotic agents can alter the levels of circulating cytokines, and this can have a marked effect on brain function. Both the vagus nerve and modulation of systemic tryptophan levels are strongly implicated in relaying the influence of the gut microbiota to the brain. In addition, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are neuroactive bacterial metabolites of dietary fibers that can also modulate brain and behavior. Harnessing such pathways may provide a novel approach to treat various brain disorders. Full size image Download PowerPoint slide FUNDING AND DISCLOSURE The authors are funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), through the Irish Government's National Development Plan in the form of a centre grant (Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre Grant Number SFI/12/RC/2273); by the Health Research Board of Ireland (Grant Numbers HRA_POR/2011/23 and HRA_POR/2012/32) and received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme Grant MyNewGut under Grant Agreement No. FP7/2007–2013. The Centre has conducted studies in collaboration with several companies including GSK, Pfizer, Alimentary Health, Cremo, Suntory Wellness, Danone-Nutricia, Wyeth, and Mead Johnson. The authors thank Dr Roman Stilling for assistance with graphics. References Borre YE, O'Keeffe GW, Clarke G, Stanton C, Dinan TG, Cryan JF (2014). Microbiota and neurodevelopmental windows: implications for brain disorders . Trends Mol Med 20: 509–518. Collins SM, Kassam Z, Bercik P (2013). The adoptive transfer of behavioral phenotype via the intestinal microbiota: experimental evidence and clinical implications . Curr Opin Microbiol 16: 240–245. Davey KJ, Cotter PD, O'Sullivan O, Crispie F, Dinan TG, Cryan JF et al (2013). Antipsychotics and the gut microbiome: olanzapine-induced metabolic dysfunction is attenuated by antibiotic administration in the rat . Transl Psychiatry 3: e309. Desbonnet L, Clarke G, Shanahan F, Dinan TG, Cryan JF (2014). Microbiota is essential for social development in the mouse . Mol Psychiatry 19: 146–148. Foster JA, McVey Neufeld KA. (2013). Gut–brain axis: how the microbiome influences anxiety and depression . Trends Neurosci 36: 305–312. Hsiao EY, McBride SW, Hsien S, Sharon G, Hyde ER, McCue T et al (2013). Microbiota modulate behavioral and physiological abnormalities associated with neurodevelopmental disorders . Cell 155: 1451–1463. O'Mahony SM, Felice VD, Nally K, Savignac HM, Claesson MJ, Scully P et al (2014). Disturbance of the gut mirobiota in early-life selectively affects visceral pain in adulthood without impacting cognitive or anxiety-related behaviors in male rats . Neuroscience 227: 885–901. Download references Rights and permissions To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.

Keep Us in the Loop Well, that doesn’t seem to have gone very well. Over the past week, the United States and its allies have begun to make their case for a limited military strike against the Syrian government. The United States, the United Kingdom, and France have all released documents claiming that the Syrian army conducted a chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21 in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, which the United States claims killed more than 1,400 men, women, and children. President Barack Obama, Prime Minister David Cameron, and President François Hollande have all given speeches (although Cameron’s did not have quite the effect he anticipated). And on Sept. 3, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey trudged up to Capitol Hill to persuade reluctant senators of the merits of a military response. In light of these developments, I believe two things — and suspect a third. First, that the Syrian government gassed its own people on Aug. 21. Second, that the United States should conduct a limited military strike to degrade Syria’s ability to launch further attacks and to punish the Assad regime. But third and most importantly, I suspect that all these documents and speeches haven’t persuaded anyone who did not already believe the first two things. After the United States and Britain released documents claiming that Assad used chemical weapons, I complained that they were disappointing. The approach of the documents, as well as senior officials, has been one of smug assertion, livened up with purple prose about the horrors taking place in Syria. The United States asserts that the Syrians have chemical weapons, used them on Aug. 21, and killed more than 1,400 people. In some cases, U.S. officials deign to assert that certain types of evidence exist to support these claims. What the United States has not done is provide the evidence itself — the satellite images, communications intercepts, and other data that would allow a fair-minded observer to reach the same conclusion on more than blind faith in the competence and integrity of our political leaders and intelligence services. On the whole, the United States and its allies have failed to provide new evidence beyond the awful videos available on YouTube and the testimony of nongovernmental groups such as Doctors Without Borders — evidence that, I hasten to add, I find compelling, if circumstantial. If anything, the recent performance by Kerry, Hagel, and Dempsey convinces me that the administration’s approach will not change despite growing complaints that the evidence is too thin to convince reluctant interventionists. (And, no, curating these inadequacies at a little website doesn’t count.) The Obama administration does not understand the two important ways that public opinion has changed since 2003. First, the sales job that preceded the Iraq War generated a level of popular cynicism about our political leaders and the intelligence community that is astonishing. (And, over the past decade, our political leaders haven’t exactly behaved in ways that might have restored a sense of public trust.) It is hard to demonstrate how fundamentally the invasion of Iraq damaged our collective faith in our political institutions. One way is to ask, "What do we find funny?" There is a strong relationship between humor and those truths that are hardest to express plainly, which is why we describe both as being painful. There haven’t been many films in recent years funnier than Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop, which recounts the madness of the effort to sell the Iraq War from a British perspective. In the Loop is funny precisely because we suspect our political leaders are crass and venal, even on questions as important as war. Yet, I don’t think our political leaders understand that is how many people view them. You should watch the real Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair’s chief spin doctor, confront his fictional alter ego, Malcolm Tucker, in a special viewing arranged for him. As Tucker spins Britain into war, much to the horrified delight of moviegoers, Campbell sits stone-faced. He does not find Tucker nearly as funny as the rest of us, which I think is very telling. The truth hurts. The second problem relates to the amount of information we have at our fingertips. We have become accustomed to a deluge of open source information, not the dribs and drabs offered by intelligence communities worried about sources and methods. The press is agog over a fellow named Eliot Higgins, who blogs under the name Brown Moses. Higgins has been documenting the appearance of a new Syrian artillery rocket that seems to be linked to many purported chemical weapons attacks. The Guardian, Channel 4, and CNN International have all carried stories on this man, who started blogging about Syrian armaments when he "knew no more about weapons that the average Xbox owner." (That’s his description, by the way.) Other sites maintained by N.R. Jenzen-Jones and Jean Pascal Zanders, independent researchers in Australia and Europe, also offer a level of detail that goes well beyond what the security trolls allow to appear in official documents. Most readers expect that the "real" intelligence paid for by tax dollars will be much more compelling than the stuff they get for free on various blogs. When the official stuff doesn’t measure up, readers can get sort of surly. So what to do about all of this? Well, one thing we should not do is cram another horrible litany of lies, half-truths, and distortions into a PowerPoint presentation. I don’t think many people are going to be persuaded by something that overtly resembles such a low point in U.S. foreign policy. Besides, I don’t think we can persuade Colin Powell to agree to star in the sequel. For better or for worse, people don’t hold our political leaders in much esteem, nor are they much impressed by the sort of de minimis unclassified statements on offer. So here is a modest proposal: Why not just release the vast majority of the evidence? We have a transcript of some Syrian army officer being ordered to gas Ghouta? Release it. (Newsflash: The Syrians know we monitor their communications.) We have satellite images of the units in place during the attack? Release them. (Another newsflash: Other countries know we have imaging satellites with very high resolution.) Release the vast majority of data, with basic information and commentary that would allow the rest of us to make up our own minds. The purpose of such a data dump is to let independent nongovernmental organizations and private citizens to independently assess what happened in Syria. One of the nice things about having a vibrant civil society is that there are experts all over the country who have something to add to this conversation. I know people at the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations, Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and, of course, the Monterey Institute of International Studies who would read every word, look at every picture, and listen to every audio recording. Of course, so might old ladies in Dubuque and unemployed Frank Zappa fans in Leicester. That’s okay — you might be surprised by how much they know. This shouldn’t be so difficult for the "most transparent administration in history" right? Yes, that’s sarcasm. I know how hard and long American officials fought each other before the Obama administration declassified the number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile in 2010. The administration tied itself in knots over the release of one measly number — something it did once and never again. The bureaucratic barriers to transparency remain significant, almost comically so. The administration, for example, just released a heavily redacted intelligence report on Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities — from 1985. (I suppose the good news is that we can send Airwolf to take out the sites.) The point of a significant data dump — excluding, of course, information from human sources who are still in Syria and therefore could be put in danger — is that it would be the opposite of a sales job. What the administration needs at this point isn’t more overwrought language about the horrors in Syria, but credible and independent validators. There are a fair number of people who’d like to turn their eyes away from what’s happening in Syria. These people won’t openly endorse the various conspiracy theories floating around the Internet, but they wave their hands about seemingly minor differences in the data — or claim inconsistencies that don’t exist — as an excuse to air deeper suspicions that the government might be making all this up. That seems pretty irresponsible to me, but it goes to a deeper problem. After Iraq, lots of people do worry the government might be making this all up. That’s paranoid, of course, but there has long been a streak of the paranoid in American politics. Building a consensus behind acting in Syria requires more than the government saying "trust us." It requires engaging civil society and the public at large to demonstrate the depth and strength of the intelligence. My suspicion is that doing so — by releasing the data — would not disappoint but instead mobilize a significant number of independent voices that would support the administration’s case for acting in Syria.

Prepare for the next update in the Reboot trilogy: Harness the power of the mind with the new playable character class, Kinesis! Use Psychic Points and telekinesis to attack monsters and control objects. Then, visit the newly updated Mu Lung Dojo, and fight through 41 floors of monsters to receive a ranking and earn Mu Lung Dojo points. One of our GMS-exclusive dungeons, Star World, is returning and you can earn chairs and other rewards. The holiday celebrations continue with new events in which you can collect snowflakes, or countdown to the New Year! All this and more, in the Kinesis update! V.169 - Kinesis is live on December 16! Table of Contents NEW PLAYABLE CHARACTER: KINESIS Overview CLASS : Kinesis EQUIPMENT TYPE : Magician MAIN WEAPON : PSY-Limiter SECONDARY EQUIP : Chess Piece MOBILITY : High HP : Mid MP : None PRIMARY STAT: Intelligence New Age of Maple Heroes Kinesis was a normal student attending the School for the Gifted in the real world. One day he mysteriously gained telekinetic powers. With a strong sense of justice, Kinesis quickly put his newfound power to good use by helping people in need. Around the same time that Kinesis gained his powers, strange occurrences started happening around his town, always preempted by a mysterious message from someone online calling themselves 'WM'. While following one of the leads from the mysterious WM, Kinesis was pulled into a catastrophic sinkhole that also destroyed a large part of the city. Kinesis was saved by the magician Nero and brought to Maple World. Kinesis now must train in Maple World so that he can gain enough power to return home and save his world. Uncover the mystery behind Kinesis' powers and become a true hero in both worlds! Kinesis starts at Lv. 10. Kinesis's Character Card will increase INT by +10 on 30, +20 on 60, +40 on 100, and +80 on 200. Kinesis will be able to participate in the Sizzling Santa event however, they will not receive the Burning Santa effect. Instead Kinesis will receive 2x EXP Coupons for 1 hour (x3). Skills Kinesis Basic Skills Attack Skill Psychic Attack : Damage: 100% / Number of Attacks: 1 / Max Enemies Hit: 1 / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 1 Passive Skill ESP : At Master Level: Max HP: +20% / Critical Rate: +10% / Speed: +10 / Weapon DEF increases as much as 30% of Magic DEF / Master Level: 6 Judgement : Link Skill: At Master Level: Min Critical Damage: +8% / Master Level: 2 Active Skill Return : Returns you to Kinesis's Hideout: Cooldown: 90 sec / Master Level: 1 Kinesis 1st Job Attack Skill Kinetic Crash : At Master Level: Damage: 140% / Number of Attacks: 2 / Max Enemies Hit: 4 / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 20 Psychic Force : At Master Level: Damage Over Time: 20% / Max Enemies Hit: 4 / Duration: 6 sec / Damage Increase During Damage Over Time: 10% per sec / Final damage received from Kinesis attack while Damage Over Time is applied: +10% / Cooldown: 1 sec / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 10 [Passive Effect] Magic ATT: +10 Ultimate - Metal Press : At Master Level: Damage: 120% / Number of Attacks: 10 / Max Enemies Hit: 12 / PP Cost: 7 / Master Level: 10 Passive Skill Mental Fortitude : At Master Level: Max HP: +30% / Magic ATT: +10 / Jump: +10 / Speed: +10 / Max Speed: +10 / Master Level: 10 Active Skill Mental Shield : Skill can be toggled on or off: Damage Received: -60% / PP Cost: 1 per hit / Master Level: 1 ESP Booster : At Master Level: Attack Speed increased by 2 levels / Duration: 180 sec / Master Level: 10 Kinetic Step : Can jump twice when used while jumping, and can move up when pressing the up key / Master Level: 5 Kinesis 2nd Job Attack Skill Kinetic Piledriver : At Master Level: Damage: 280% / Number of Attacks: 2 / Max Enemies Hit: 8 / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 20 Psychic Drain : At Master Level: Damage : 150% / Max Enemies Hit: 5 / Duration: 6 sec / Cooldown: 5 sec / PP Recovery: 1 per hit / Master Level: 9 Ultimate - Deep Impact : At Master Level: Damage: 170% / Number of Attacks: 7 / Max Enemies Hit: 4 / PP Cost: 5 / Targets hit have all buffs removed / Master Level: 10 [Passive Effect] Ultimate - Metal Press Damage: +130% Passive Skill ESP Mastery : At Master Level: At Master Level: Psy-limiter Mastery: +50% / Critical Rate: +10% / INT: +40 / Master Level: 10 Psychic Blast : Activates by holding down and using Psychic Force: At Master Level: Damage Over Time: 40% / Max Enemies Hit: 6 / Duration: 6 sec / Damage Increase During Damage Over Time: 25% per sec / Final damage received from Kinesis attack while Damage Over Time is applied: +15% / Cooldown: 1 sec / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 10 [Passive Effect] Magic ATT: +10 Mental Strength : At Master Level: Max HP: +20% / Magic ATT: +10 / Jump: +10 / Speed: +10 / Max Speed: +10 / Master Level: 10 Active Skill Psychic Armor : At Master Level: Weapon DEF: +300 / Magic DEF: +300 / Avoidability: +20% / Duration: 180 sec / Master Level: 10 Pure Power : At Master Level: Damage: +20% / Duration: 180 sec / Master Level: 15 Kinesis 3rd Job Attack Skill Psychic Grab: Lift up to 3 enemies or objects to be used in a Psychic Smash: At Master Level: Damage: 340% / Number of Attacks: 3 / Max Enemies Hit: 8 / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 20 Mind Tremor : Can also be used by holding up and using Psychic Force: At Master Level: Max Enemies Hit: 5, DEF Reduction and Received Final Damage: +10% / DEF Reduction and Final Damage Increase is Double the amount of monsters effected in the area / Duration: 10 sec / Cooldown: 10 sec / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 10 Ultimate - Trainwreck : At Master Level: Damage: 120% / Number of Attacks: 6 / Max Enemies Hit: 5 / Duration: 12 sec / Ultimate - Trainwreck Damage during damage duration: -5% / Master Level: 10 [Passive Effect] Ultimate - Metal Press Damage: +140% [Passive Effect] Ultimate - Deep Impact: +100% Passive Skill Psychic Assault : Activates by holding down and using Psychic Force / At Master Level: Damage Over Time: 75% / Max Enemies Hit: 8 / Duration: 6 sec / Damage Increase During Damage Over Time: 50% per sec / Final damage received from Kinesis attack while Damage Over Time is applied: +20% / Cooldown: 1 sec / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 10 [Passive Effect] Magic ATT: +10 Kinetic Combo : Chance for an additional attack when using certain skills: At Master Level: Damage: 350% / Activation Chance: 70% / Master Level: 10 Psychic Bulwark: At Master Level: Weapon DEF: +500 / Magic DEF: +500 / Stance: +100% / Master Level: 10 Third Eye : At Master Level: Critical Chance: +20% / Minimum Critical Damage: +20% / Maximum Critical Damage: +20% / Master Level: 20 Transcendence : At Master Level: Abnormal Status Resistance: +20% / Elemental Resistance: +30% / Master Level: 10 Mitigation : At Master Level: Damage Taken: -15% / Master Level: 10 Active Skill Psychic Reinforcement : At Master Level: Magic ATT: +10% / Duration: 180 sec / Master Level: 10 Kinetic Jaunt : Move up quickly and in selected directions: At Master Level: Cooldown: 10 sec / Master Level: 4 Kinesis 4th Job Attack Skill Ultimate - Psychic Shot : Shots out enemies and objects lifted from Psychic Grab: At Master Level: Damage: 300% / Number of Attacks: 3 / Enemy DEF: -15% / Duration: 10 sec / PP Cost: 5 / Master Level: 30 / Requires Mastery Book Ultimate - B.P.M. : Skill can be toggled on or off: At Master Level: Damage: 150% / Number of Attacks: 7 / Enemies Hit: 3 / Cooldown: 3 sec / PP will continuously drain while skill is active / Master Level: 20 / Requires Mastery Book [Passive Effect] Ultimate - Metal Press Damage: +310% [Passive Effect] Ultimate - Deep Impact: +270% [Passive Effect] Ultimate - Trainwreck: +100% Mind Break : At Master Level: Damage: 1000% / Number of Attacks: 4 / Final Damage: +1% for each enemy hit, Damage Cap: 20%, Boss Counts as: 5 / Duration: 30 sec / Cooldown: 30 sec / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 30 / Requires Mastery Book Passive Skill Psychic Clutch : Improves Psychic Grab: At Master Level: Max Enemies Lifted: 5 / Damage: 470% / Number of Attacks: 5 / Max Enemies Hit: 8 / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 30 / Requires Mastery Book Mind Quake : Improves Mind Tremor: At Master Level: Can also be used by holding up and using Psychic Force: At Master Level: Damage: 500% / Number of Attacks: 1 / Max Enemies Hit: 5, DEF Reduction and Received Final Damage: +10% / DEF Reduction and Final Damage Increase is Triple the amount of monsters effected in the area / Duration: 10 sec / Cooldown: 10 sec / PP Recovery: 1 / Master Level: 20 / Requires Mastery Book Awakening : At Master Level: Final Damage: +20% / Ultimate Skill Critical Rate: +20% / Master Level: 20 / Requires Mastery Book Supreme Concentration : At Master Level: Buff Duration: +20% / Master Level: 20 / Requires Mastery Book Critical Rush : At Master Level: The gap between the minimum and maximum damage decreases a fixed amount every time you get 30 combo kills / Master Level: 20 / Requires Mastery Book Mind Scrambler : At Master Level: Ignore DEF: +25% / Master Level: 10 Mastery : At Master Level: Weapon Mastery: +70% / Minimum Critical Damage: +10% / Maximum Critical Damage: +10% / Master Level: 10 Active Skill President's Orders : At Master Level: All Stats: +15% / Duration: 900 sec/ Master Level: 30 / Requires Mastery Book Psychic Charger : At Master Level: Charges 50% of the remaining points to reach maximum PP when used / Cooldown: 45 sec / Master Level: 15 [Passive Effect] Boss Damage: +30% Clear Mind : At Master Level: Clear Status / Cooldown: 180 sec / Master Level: 10 [Passive Effect] Abnormal Status Resistance: +20% Telepath Tactics : At Master Level: Magic ATT: +50 / Damage: +20% / Duration: 180 sec / Master Level: 20 / Requires Mastery Book Kinesis Hyper Skills Passive Skill Boost Psychic Grab - Boss Point : Req Lev: 143 / Doubles Psychic Points charged Psychic Grab - Reinforce : Req Lev: 162 / Psychic Smash and Psychic Shot Damage: +20% Psychic Grab - Steel Skin : Req Lev: 183 / DEF: +100% / Duration: 10 sec Mind Tremor - Overwhelm : Req Lev: 149 / DEF reduction rate doubles Mind Tremor - Reinforce : Req Lev: 168 / Damage: +20% Mind Tremor - Persist : Req Lev: 189 / Duration: +10 sec Mind Break - Reinforce : Req Lev: 155 / Damage: +40% Mind Break - Cooldown Cutter : Req Lev: 177 / Cooldown: -20% Mind Break - Enhance : Req Lev: 195 / Final Damage increase amount increased by 2 Active Attack/Buff Mental Tempest : Req Lev: 150 / Damage: 400% / Max Projectiles: 16 / Final Blow Damage: 1500% / Final Blow activates Critical Damage with Ignore DEF: +50% / Invincible during casting and Psychic Forceincreases to Maximum after casting / Cooldown: 120 sec Mental Shock : Req Lev: 170 / Damage: 2100% / Number of Attacks: 1 / Max Enemies Hit: 15 / Stun Duration: 20 sec / Cooldown: 180 sec Mental Overdrive : Req Lev: 200 / Reduces PP consumption by half while restoring PP continuously / Duration: 20 sec / Cooldown: 180 sec ADDITIONAL UPDATES Beasts of Mu Lung Requirement: Lv. 105 or above The Mu Lung Dojo has been revamped to become the Beasts of Mu Lung Dojo. A new ranking system has been implemented that will change the previous single rankings to a 3-tiered system, each with their own leader boards. Depending on how you rank within your tier, you'll receive points that can be spent at the Mu Lung Dojo Point Shop. Rules and Requirements: You must be Lv. 105 or above to enter the dojo. The dojo can be reached through each town's Quick Move or the Dimensional Mirror. The dojo can be challenged 3 times per day. The dojo has a total of 41 floors. You will move onto the next floor after every monster on each floor has been defeated. The new rankings are split into three tiers: Entry Level, Mastery, and Expertise. You can also compare yourself to others of the same class on the Expertise tier. The rankings are reset every Monday at midnight Pacific time. Depending on your ranking, you will be rewarded gloves and titles. These gloves and titles can also be purchased with points in the Mu Lung Dojo Point Shop. Beasts of Mu Lung Dojo There are 41 floors, each with its own monsters to challenge! For every floor that you clear, you'll earn 10 points. You'll be awarded an additional 100 points when you clear floors 10, 20, 30 and 40. Floor 1: Mano Floor 2: Mushmom Floor 3: Stumpy Floor 4: Blue Mushmom Floor 5: Zombie Mushmom Floor 6: King Slime Floor 7: Dyle Floor 8: King Clang Floor 9: Faust Floor 10: Von Leon Floor 11: Metal Golem Floor 12: Eliza Floor 13: Jr. Balrog Floor 14: Nine-Tailed Fox Floor 15: Deo Floor 16: Zeno Floor 17: Timer Floor 18: Snack Bar Floor 19: Tae Roon Floor 20: Hilla Floor 21: Papa Pixie, Luster Pixie Floor 22: Alishar, Black Ratz Floor 23: Lord Pirate, Captain Floor 24: Deet and Roi, Neohuroid Floor 25: Frankenroid, Mythril Mutae Floor 26: Chimera, Homunscullo Floor 27: Poison Golem, Mixed Golem Floor 28: King Sage Cat, Sage Cat Floor 29: Crimson Balrog, Taurospear Floor 30: Arkarium Floor 31: Manon Floor 32: Griffey Floor 33: Snowman Floor 34: Papulatus Floor 35: Ani Floor 36: Leviathan Floor 37: Dodo Floor 38: Lilynouch Floor 39: Lyka Floor 40: Magnus Floor 41: Mu Gong Beasts of Mu Lung Ranking The new rankings are divided into 3 tiers: Entry Level, Mastery, and Expertise. The highest tier, Expertise, is also separated into 'Overall Ranking' and 'Job Ranking'. Entry Level: Lv. 105 - Lv. 140 Mastery : Lv. 141 - Lv. 180 Expertise: Lv. 181 and above Your ranking on the leader board is dependent on the highest floor that was cleared, and the total amount of time spent. The higher the floor, the higher the ranking. And the lower your time spent, the higher your ranking will be. If you have cleared the same floor as someone else, the player with the lower amount of time spent will have a higher ranking. If you have the same overall time as someone else, the player who received that time first will have the higher ranking. The Mu Lung Dojo will be closed every Sunday from 11:30 PM to Monday at 12:30 AM Pacific in order to compile the results for the week. During this time, you won't be able to receive any rewards or check the rankings. Ranking Rewards Entry Level Rewards First Place Rewards Expert's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +15, INT +15, DEX +15, LUK +15, Weapon ATT +5, Magic ATT +5, Weapon DEF +100, Magic DEF +100. One with 60 Years of Inner Power - Attack Power/Magic ATT +2, All Stats +3, MMP/MHP +100, 7-day duration Second Place Reward Expert Apprentice's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +10, INT +10, DEX +10, LUK +10, Weapon ATT +2, Magic ATT +2, Weapon DEF +50, Magic DEF +50. Potential Stats: Damage +6%, All Stats +6%, Boss Monster Damage +5% Third Place Reward Expert Apprentice's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +10, INT +10, DEX +10, LUK +10, Weapon ATT +2, Magic ATT +2, Weapon DEF +50, Magic DEF +50. Potential Stats: Damage +6%, All Stats +6%, Boss Monster Damage +5% Mastery Rewards First Place Rewards So Gong's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +20, INT +20, DEX +20, LUK +20, Weapon ATT +10, Magic ATT +10, Weapon DEF +150, Magic DEF +150. Potential Stats: Damage +12%, All Stats +12%, Boss Monster Damage +15% One with 120 Years of Inner Power - Attack Power/Magic ATT +4, All Stats +5, MMP/MHP +200, 7-day duration Second Place Reward Expert's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +15, INT +15, DEX +15, LUK +15, Weapon ATT +5, Magic ATT +5, Weapon DEF +100, Magic DEF +100. Potential Stats: Damage +9%, All Stats +9%, Boss Monster Damage +10% Third Place Reward Expert's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +15, INT +15, DEX +15, LUK +15, Weapon ATT +5, Magic ATT +5, Weapon DEF +100, Magic DEF +100. Potential Stats: Damage +9%, All Stats +9%, Boss Monster Damage +10% Expertise Rewards Overall First Place Rewards Hero's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +30, INT +30, DEX +30, LUK +30, Weapon ATT +20, Magic ATT +20, Weapon DEF +250, Magic DEF +250, Accuracy +200, Avoidability +200. Potential Stats: Damage +20%, All Stats +20%, Boss Monster Damage +40% One with 600 Years of Inner Power - Attack Power/Magic ATT +9, All Stats +15, MMP/MHP +400, Boss ATT +10%, 7 Day Duration Job Ranking First Place Rewards Mu Gong's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +25, INT +25, DEX +25, LUK +25, Weapon ATT +15, Magic ATT +15, Weapon DEF +200, Magic DEF +200. Potential Stats: Damage +15%, All Stats +15%, Boss Monster Damage +25% One with 300 Years of Inner Power - Attack Power/Magic ATT +7, All Stats +10, MMP/MHP +300, Boss ATT +5%, 7 Day Duration Job Ranking Second Place Reward So Gong's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +20, INT +20, DEX +20, LUK +20, Weapon ATT +10, Magic ATT +10, Weapon DEF +150, Magic DEF +150. Potential Stats: Damage +12%, All Stats +12%, Boss Monster Damage +15% Job Ranking Third Place Reward So Gong's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +20, INT +20, DEX +20, LUK +20, Weapon ATT +10, Magic ATT +10, Weapon DEF +150, Magic DEF +150. Potential Stats: Damage +12%, All Stats +12%, Boss Monster Damage +15% Mu Lung Dojo Point Shop Points earned from challenging the dojo and rankings can be used to purchase items from the Mu Lung Dojo Point Shop. You'll be able to purchase items including: Mini Mu Lung Dojo Chair - Untradeable Mu Lung Scarecrow Chair - Untradeable So Dong's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +20, INT +20, DEX +20, LUK +20, Weapon ATT +10, Magic ATT +10, Weapon DEF +150, Magic DEF +150. Potential Stats: Damage +12%, All Stats +12%, Boss Monster Damage +15% Expert's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +15, INT +15, DEX +15, LUK +15, Weapon ATT +5, Magic ATT +5, Weapon DEF +100, Magic DEF +100. Potential Stats: Damage +9%, All Stats +9%, Boss Monster Damage +10% Expert Apprentice's Gloves - Untradeable, Potential stats cannot be reset, expires after 7 days. STR +10, INT +10, DEX +10, LUK +10, Weapon ATT +2, Magic ATT +2, Weapon DEF +50, Magic DEF +50. Potential Stats: Damage +6%, All Stats +6%, Boss Monster Damage +5% Mu Lung Dojo Unidentified Belt Box - Untradeable. Use to obtain a random 7-day belt with Potential. Mu Lung Dojo Unidentified Gloves Box - Untradeable. Use to obtain a random 7-day gloves with Potential. Unidentified Traits Growth Box - Untradeable Special Medal of Honor - Untradeable, expires after 7 days. Use to gain 10,000 Honor EXP. Mu Gong's Honor EXP Guarantee - Expires after 7 days. Use to consume 10,000 Honor EXP to create a Special Medal of Honor. (This Special Medal of Honor is tradeable.) Pendant of the Spirit - Untradeable, expires after 3 days. Equip this to gain an EXP boost. The longer you wear it, the greater the effect becomes: 1 hour - 10% additional EXP 2 hour - 20% additional EXP 3 hour - 30% additional EXP Unity Training Center Entrance Charms - Expires after 7 days. A charm that grants entry to the Mu Lung Dojo Unity Training Center. Available in 30-minute, 1-hour, 3-hour, or 6-hour durations. Epic Potential Scroll 50% - Untradeable, expires after 7 days Bonus Potential Scroll 50% - Untradeable, expires after 7 days Prototype Soul Enchanter - Untradeable Spell Trace Mu Lung Dojo Damage Skin - Expires after 7 days Scarecrow Summoning Sacks - Untradeable Oak 100% High DEF/Reduced Element Oak 75% Normal DEF/Reduced Element Oak 25% Low DEF/Reduced Element Straw 100% High DEF/Reduced Element Straw 75% Normal DEF/Reduced Element Straw 25% Low DEF/Reduced Element Mu Lung Dojo Unity Training Center The new Mu Lung Dojo Unity Training Center allows you gain EXP over time based on your character's level. Enter the Unity Training Center by talking to So Gong in the main hall You must use a Unity Training Center Charm to enter the training center. Unity Training Center Charms can be purchased from the point shop. Each Unity Training Center Charm has a specified amount of time, which will allow you to enter the training center for that amount of time. Once the time is expired, you will automatically exit the training center. If you choose to exit the Unity Training Center before the time expires, you will lose any remaining time. Scarecrow Summoning Sacks Using a Scarecrow Summoning Sack will summon a Scarecrow in place that can be attacked. Scarecrows can only be summoned in town and can only be summoned one at a time. The level of the scarecrow can be set by the one who summons it. The scarecrow has a high amount of HP and will not be defeated easily. However, it will disappear 15 minutes after it is summoned. NEW EVENTS Kinesis Level-Up Support Event December 16 - January 12 Requirements: These quests are only available to Kinesis characters and can be completed once per account. Accept the quest from the Event quest notifier on the left side of the game window. Reach levels 30, 50, 70 and 90 to receive Kinesis-specific rewards! Level 30 Rewards: Master Craftsman's Cube (x3): Tradeable within account, Duration: 7 days Unagi (x50): Untradeable Green Jester : Untradeable, INT: +2, Weapon DEF: +12, Magic DEF: +40, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Black Mage Robe (M) : Untradeable, INT: +3, Weapon DEF: +28, Magic DEF: +14, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Green Fairy Top (F) : INT: +1, MaxMP +10, Weapon DEF: +21, Magic DEF: +15, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Green Fairy Skirt (F) : MaxHP: +5, MaxMP: +5, Weapon DEF: +16, Magic DEF: +12, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Black Lutia : Untradeable, INT: +2, Weapon DEF: +12, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Black Magic Shoes : Untradeable, INT: +2, Weapon DEF: +12, Magic DEF: +5, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Trial Psy-limiter: Untradeable, Weapon ATT: +27, Magic ATT: +43, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Level 50 Rewards: Master Craftsman's Cube (x5): Tradeable within account, Duration: 7 days Unagi (x50): Untradeable Aqua Golden Circlet : Untradeable, INT: +2, LUK: +1, Weapon DEF: +24, Magic DEF: +55, Number of Upgrades available: 5 White Calas (M) : Untradeable, INT: +4, LUK: +1, MaxMP: +20, Weapon DEF: +44, Magic DEF: +22, Number of Upgrades available: 5 White Calaf (F) : Untradeable, INT +4, LUK: +1, MaxMP: +20, Weapon DEF: +44, Magic DEF: +22, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Dark Penance : Untradeable, INT: +3, MaxMP: +30, Weapon DEF: +20, Magic DEF: +3, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Green Goldenwind Shoes : Untradeable, INT: +3, Weapon DEF: +19, Magic DEF: +9, Number of Upgrades available: 5 First Psy-limiter: Untradeable, Weapon ATT: +39, Magic ATT: +63, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Level 70 Rewards: Master Craftsman's Cube (x10): Tradeable within account, Duration: 7 days Unagi (x100): Untradeable Dark Infinium Circlet : Untradeable, INT: +4, MaxMP: +25, Weapon DEF: +36, Magic DEF: +65, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Dark Requiem (M) : Untradeable, INT: +5, LUK: +2, MaxMP: +30, Weapon DEF: +60, Magic DEF: +30, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Dark Requierre (F) : INT: +5, LUK: +2, MaxMP: +30, Weapon DEF: +60, Magic DEF: +30, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Dark Lorin : Untradeable, INT: +4, LUK: +1, Weapon DEF: +28, Magic DEF: +7, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Gold Lapiz Sandals : Untradeable, INT: +3, LUK: +1, Magic ATT: +1, Weapon DEF: +27, Magic DEF: +13, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Engaging Psy-limiter: Untradeable, Weapon ATT: +51, Magic ATT: +83, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Level 90 Rewards: Master Craftsman's Cube (x10): Tradeable within account, Duration: 7 days Unagi (x100): Untradeable Black Oriental Fury Hat : Untradeable, INT: +5, MaxMP: +30, Weapon DEF: +48, Magic DEF: +75, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Black Oriental Fury Coat (M) : Untradeable, INT: +6, LUK: +3, MaxMP: +40, Weapon DEF: +76, Magic DEF: +38, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Black Oriental Fury Coat (F) : Untradeable, INT: +6, LUK: +3, MaxMP: +40, Weapon DEF: +76, Magic DEF: +38, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Dark Pachone : Untradeable, INT: +5, LUK: +2, Weapon DEF: +36, Magic DEF: +11, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Dark Neli Shoes : Untradeable, INT: +4, LUK: +1, Magic ATT: +1, Weapon DEF: +35, Magic DEF: +17, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Mad Psy-limiter: Untradeable, Weapon ATT: +63, Magic ATT: +103, Number of Upgrades available: 5 Catch a Snowflake December 16 - December 30 Requirement: Lv. 33 or above Accept the quest from the event quest notifier or by speaking to NPC Cassandra. Collect 300 Snowflake Thrones a day from monsters around your level range. Turn them in to Cassandra to receive a Snowflake Chair. Each Snowflake Chair will have a different amount of Snowflakes for you to sit on. Collect all 12 Snowflake Chairs and speak to Cassandra to receive a Twelve-Chair Bag. Rewards: First Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Second Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Third Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Fourth Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Fifth Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Sixth Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Seventh Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Eighth Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Ninth Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Tenth Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Eleventh Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Twelfth Snowflake Chair : Untradeable Twelve-Chair Bag: Cannot be traded after use December Big Spender Event December 16 - December 31 Note: This event will begin after the maintenance on December 16. For a limited time in December, spend your NX Prepaid and NX Credit in the Cash Shop and earn extra Maple Reward Points! The more NX you spend during the event period, the more Maple Reward Points you'll receive! Please note that you will only receive one set of rewards depending on which spending tier you place in. The rewards will be given out after the January 7 scheduled maintenance, and you will be able to pick them up by clicking the gift box icon on the left side of the screen. Only one character per account can receive the rewards. Rewards: Spend 50,000 NX - 69,999 NX and receive: 5,000 Maple Reward Points Spend 70,000 NX - 109,999 NX and receive: 10,000 Maple Reward Points Spend 110,000 NX or more and receive: 15,000 Maple Reward Points Star World Event Dungeon December 16 - January 13 Requirement: Lv. 33 or above. Characters who have participated in the Star World event previously will be able to participate again. Accept the quest '[Star World] Doorway to the Night Sky' from the event quest notifier. Speak to NPC Staria to assist the creatures of Maple World. Star World is split up into four different seasonal worlds, each with three Maple World creatures to assist. Springtean - Speak to Planeton to start the following quests: Minar Monsters Hunt monsters and collect 100 Slimy Scales and Sturdy Sticks Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Papa Don't Charge Destroy Lyka Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Making Friends Hunt monsters and collect 100 Fresh Veggie and Sea Fruit Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Once completing the quests above, the quest 'Monsters in Springtean' will be available. Destroy 200 Starbound Curse Eye and Starbound Oniony Reward : Star World Coins (x7), EXP based on level Summeron - Speak to Staria to start the following quests: Complicated Wish Answer the Mysterious Magicians correctly Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level I'm Not Lion Hunt monsters and collect 150 Raw Meat and 50 Flint Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Perfect Pair Go buy 100 Lemons, Oranges, and Apples from a Potion Shop. Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Once completing the quests above, the quest 'Monsters in Summeron' will be available. Destroy 200 Starbound Beetle and Starbound Harp. Reward : Star World Coins (x7), EXP based on level Autumist - Speak to Meteorus to start the following quests: Confessions of the Rich and Famous Hunt monsters and collect Pricey Minerals Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Higher Ground Reach the top of the map! Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Everlasting Youth Hunt monsters and collect 100 Monster's Vitality and Land Vitality Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Once completing the quests above, the quest 'Monsters in Autumist' will be available. Destroy 200 Starbound Rabbit and Starbound Green Hobi Reward : Star World Coins (x7), EXP based on level Wintersia - Speak to Galaxiana to start the following quests: Lost Innocence Destroy Gryphons to gather 150 Dry Grass and hold onto the Dry Grass for 30 minutes. Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Wetwork Buy 200 White HP Potions and Blue MP Potions from a potion shop. Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level A Hidden Talent Catch 50 Burning Anxiety Reward : Star World Coins (x20), EXP based on level Once completing the quests above, the quest 'Monsters in Wintersia' will be available. Destroy 200 Starbound White Fang and Starbound Hankie Reward : Star World Coins (x7), EXP based on level Star World Coin Shop: Aries Chair : Untradeable Taurus Chair : Untradeable Pisces Chair : Untradeable Gemini Chair : Untradeable Cancer Chair : Untradeable Leo Chair : Untradeable Libra Chair : Untradeable Scorpio Chair : Untradeable Virgo Chair : Untradeable Sagittarius Chair : Untradeable Capricorn Chair : Untradeable Aquarius Chair : Untradeable Star World Traveler : Untradeable, All Stats: +5, ATT/MATT: +6, HP/MP: +600, Jump: +10, Speed: +10 Night Sky Damage Skin: Untradeable Collect all 12 Star World chairs and accept the quest from the event quest notifier to obtain the following Andromeda rewards! Andromeda VIP Medal : Untradeable, All Stats: +12, ATT/MATT: +7, HP/MP: +700, Jump: +12, Speed: +12 Andromeda Chair: Untradeable Winter 2x EXP & Drop Weekends December 19 - January 3 Requirement: Available for all levels MapleStory will be continuing 2x EXP & Drop weekends through the rest of the winter holidays! Be sure to mark you calendars so you don't miss out on this! Dates: December 19 - 20 December 26 - 27 January 1 - 3 Times: 12:00 AM - 4:00 AM Pacific (3:00 AM - 7:00 AM Eastern) 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM Pacific (5:00 PM - 9:00 PM Eastern) Winter Solstice 2x EXP & Drop Marathon December 22 - December 25 Requirement: Available for all levels We'll be having a 2x EXP and & Drop marathon to celebrate the Winter Solstice! Be sure to catch 4 straight days of 2x EXP and Drop for 4 hours a day (2-hour slots at a time). 12:00 AM - 2:00 AM Pacific (3:00 AM - 5:00 AM Eastern) 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM Pacific (7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Eastern) Cassandra's Christmas Present December 25 Requirement: Lv. 30 or above 'Tis the season for mayhem! For one day only on Christmas Day, Cassandra has a present for you, but nothing in life is free. Accept the quest from the Star icon on the left side of the screen, or see Cassandra in the Event Hall. She wants you to destroy 300 monsters in your level range (10 levels below you, and 20 levels above you). Once you've completed that, she'll give you a present with a shiny bow! This quest can only be completed once per account, and the present must be opened by 1:00 AM Pacific (4:00 AM Eastern) on December 26. Rewards: Christmas Present (An extra item will be included if the character completing the quest is level 200 or above) Level 30-199 Merry Christmas : Medal, Untradeable, All Stats +4, MaxHP and MaxMP +100, Weapon/Magic ATT +2, Weapon/Magic Def +50, Accuracy +50, Avoidability +50 Merry Christmas Damage Skin : Moveable within the account Gingerbread Man Cookie (x300): Untradeable Level 200+ Merry Christmas : Medal, Untradeable, All Stats +4, MaxHP and MaxMP +100, Weapon/Magic ATT +2, Weapon/Magic Def +50, Accuracy +50, Avoidability +50 Merry Christmas Damage Skin : Moveable within the account Gingerbread Man Cookie (x300): Untradeable Christmas Miracle : Medal, Untradeable, All Stats +5, MaxHP and MaxMP +300, Weapon/Magic ATT +5, Weapon/Magic Def +300, Accuracy +100, Avoidability +100, Speed +10. Jump +10 Hot Time December 19, 2015, at 2:30 PM Pacific (5:30 PM Eastern) Requirements: Lv. 33 or above to receive and open the gift box. Zero characters must have completed Chapter 2 in order to participate in the Hot Time event. Once the time reaches 2:30 PM Pacific (5:30 PM Eastern), a quest will appear in the event quest notifier called ‘[Winter Hot Time] Do you want your Hot Time participation reward?’ Accept the quest to receive your rewards below! One gift box per account. Once the reward is received, it is able to be opened after 3:00 PM Pacific (6:00 PM Eastern). The gift box will disappear if unopened by 11:59 PM Pacific on December 19 (2:59 AM Eastern on December 20). Please note: to ensure you receive the Hot Time box, make sure you are in a Major Town (such as Henesys, Leafre, Orbis, etc.), not in the Cash Shop, Star Planet, Cross World PQ, Boss Arena, etc. Hot Time Rewards: Selectable Cube Box : Use the box to select either 4 Red Cubes or 2 Black Cubes . These cubes will expire 3 days after obtaining and are untradeable. Lucky Meso Bag : Untradeable, expires 3 days after obtaining Spell Trace (x2000): Tradeable Reboot Hair Coupon : Use to select 1 of 5 Hair Coupons Male Hair Coupons: Barista Hair Coupon (M) Valentine Hair Coupon (M) Bless Hair Coupon (M) Power Edge Hair Coupon (M) Antique Hair Coupon (M) Female Hair Coupons: Innocent Hair Coupon (F) Sweet Nectar Hair Coupon (F) Fluffy Cloud Hair Coupon (F) Upturned Pigtails Hair Coupon (F) Glossy Hair Coupon (F) 2,000 Maple Point Coupon : Untradeable, lasts for 7 days Reboot Coins (x50): Untradeable Hot Week December 21 - December 27 Requirement: Lv. 30 or above. Once daily per account. During the event period, log in and click the gift box icon on the left side of your game window to receive a Gift Box, and then double-click the box in your inventory to open it. The Gift Box can be obtained once every day until midnight , and can be opened until 1:00 AM Pacific (4:00 AM Eastern) of the following day. If you obtain a Gift Box every day from Monday to Saturday, then on Sunday—in addition to Sunday's reward—you can select another gift! You can select one from all of the items that were given out from Monday to Friday. You are not required to have received each day’s Gift Box on the same character in order to be eligible for the extra gift, but it does have to be with characters in the same world (multiple worlds in World Alliances don't count). Reward items for each day's Gift Box are listed below. All rewards are untradeable. Gift Box (Untradeable): Monday, December 21 - Special Medal of Honor (gives 10,000 Honor EXP) and Reboot Coins (x10) Tuesday, December 22 - Epic Potential Scroll 100% (7-day duration) and Reboot Coins (x10) Wednesday, December 23 - 1 Hour 2x EXP Coupon (x3) ( 7-day duration ) and Reboot Coins (x10) Thursday, December 24 - Equip Tab 4 Slot Coupon and Reboot Coins (x10) Friday, December 25 - 2,000 Maple Reward Points and Reboot Coins (x10) Saturday, December 26 - Use Tab 4 Slot Coupon and Reboot Coins (x30) Sunday, December 27 - Reboot Coins (x20). And if you received a Gift Box every day this week (with characters in the same world, not world alliance), then you can also select one additional reward from the items given Monday through Saturday! NEW YEAR'S EVENTS New Year's Countdown December 31 - January 1 Requirement: Lv. 33 or above Come celebrate the New Year in MapleStory. We will be counting down to 2016 and we hope that you'll be able to join us for a great time! Accept the quest '[Countdown] Together, Good-bye' from the event notifier or by talking to NPC Cassandra in the Event Hall. Move to Good-bye Hill through the Dimensional Mirror or by talking to Cassandra again. While at Good-bye Hill, you'll see everyone there as well as the countdown board. Just sit back and relax and enjoy your time. You can always leave Good-bye Hill and come back while the event is running. But be sure to make it back in time! Once the countdown is finished, a Special Shop will appear for 1 hour from 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM Pacific (3:00 AM - 4:00 AM Eastern) selling some items for mesos. These are limited quantity items. Get the goodies before someone else does! Special Shop: Premium Hair Wax : 200 Available, No Limit per character, Untradeable Premium Carrot Juice : 200 Available, No Limit per character, Untradeable Snake Bone Soup : 200 Available, No Limit per character, Untradeable Extra Strength Hand Sanitizer : 200 Available, No Limit per character, Untradeable Cafe Latte : 200 Available, No Limit per character, Untradeable Premium Cologne : 200 Available, No Limit per character, Untradeable Cherry Chocolate Cupcake : 200 Available, No Limit per character, Untradeable White Candy Cupcake : 200 Available, No Limit per character, Untradeable Strawberry Cupcake : 200 Available, No Limit per character, Untradeable Power Elixir : 1000 Available, Limit 100 per character, Untradeable All Cure Potion : 1000 Available, Limit 100 per character, Untradeable Onyx Apple : 200 Available, Limit 10 per character, Tradeable within Account Explorer Random Face Coupon : 100 Available, Limit 1 per character, Tradeable within Account Explorer Random Hair Coupon : 100 Available, Limit 1 per character, Tradeable within Account New Year's 3x EXP Coupon : 200 Available, Limit 5 per character, Untradeable Happy New Year! (Buff): 200 Available, Limit 10 per character, Tradeable Happy New Year! Permanent Coupon (Mount): 200 Available, Limit 1 per character, Tradeable Happy New Year! 90 Day Coupon (Mount): 200 Available, Limit 1 per character, Tradeable The Kiterunner January 1 - January 26 Requirement: Lv. 33 or above Accept the quest '[New Year's] The Kiterunner' from the event quest notifier on the left side of the screen. Once queued up with enough players, you will be moved to the Kite Runner map. Race to get the most points within 5 minutes. Different types of New Year's food will drop from the sky for different amounts of points! Along with the different types of food, the sky will also change colors to give different effects. Blue Sky : Different types of food will be dropped with no bonus effect. Strange Sky : Spoiled foods will drop from the sky that will subtract 300 points for each one you eat! Bright Sky : All the different types of food will give double the amount of points. Cloud Sky : Stuns players for 2 seconds. Reversing Sky : The player with the lowest amount of points will absorb 500 points from surrounding players. Emerald Sky : 3,000 points are awarded to players that are in a specific location. Winners of the Kite Runner will be moved to a bonus stage map where they will be able to collect New Year's Coins from the Thief Crows. Each player who participated will be rewarded Oversized Luck Sacks based on the number of player participation and rank. Rewards: 5-Player Rewards: 1st Place : Oversized Luck Sacks (x6) 2nd Place : Oversized Luck Sacks (x4) 3rd Place : Oversized Luck Sacks (x3) 4th Place : Oversized Luck Sacks (x2) 5th Place : Oversized Luck Sack (x1) 4-Player Rewards: 1st Place : Oversized Luck Sacks (x5) 2nd Place : Oversized Luck Sacks (x3) 3rd Place : Oversized Luck Sacks (x2) 4th Place : Oversized Luck Sack (x1) 3-Player Rewards: 1st Place : Oversized Luck Sacks (x4) 2nd Place: Oversized Luck Sacks (x2) 3rd Place : Oversized Luck Sack (x1) 2-Player Rewards: 1st Place : Oversized Luck Sacks (x3) 2nd Place : Oversized Luck Sack (x1) 1-Player Rewards: 1st Place : Oversized Luck Sack (x1) Open the Oversized Luck Sacks to obtain one of the following: Incredible Chaos Scroll of Goodness 20% : Untradeable, limited to 3 per day Chaos Scroll of Goodness 30% : Untradeable, limited to 3 per day Miraculous Chaos Scroll 40% : Untradeable, limited to 3 per day Chaos Scroll 60% : Untradeable, limited to 3 per day Reboot Coin : Limited to 3 per day Kite-Flying Cushion : Untradeable New Year's Kiterunner Coin : Limited to 3 per day New Year's Bit Box <Blue> : Untradeable, expires after 3 days Ancestral Wisdom : Untradeable, expires after 3 days Reindeer Milk : Untradeable Power Elixir : Untradeable Sunrise Dew: Untradeable Get the Glowing Ghost January 1 - January 26 Requirement: Lv. 33 or above Accept the quest '[New Years] Get the Glowing Ghost' through the event notifier, or by talking to NPC Cassandra in the Event Hall. Help Cassandra get back her shoes from Glowing Ghosts. Hunt Glowing Ghosts that randomly appear in various maps around Maple World. Some Glowing Ghosts are disguised as Ghostly Glow Bells which can be found by hunting various monsters. Use these to summon Glowing Ghosts. Defeat Glowing Ghosts until they drop Cassandra's Tiny Shoes. Turn in her shoes to get a Glowing Ghost Bundle. Glowing Ghost Bundle - Contains random rewards, including: 2016 Mega Luck Bit Box : Untradeable, expires after 7 days Dark Scroll for One-Handed Weapon ATT 40% : Untradeable Dark Scroll for One-Handed Weapon Magic ATT 40% : Untradeable Dark Scroll for Two-Handed Weapon for ATT 40% : Untradeable Dark Scroll for Armor STR 40% : Untradeable Dark Scroll for Armor INT 40% : Untradeable Dark Scroll for Armor DEX 40% : Untradeable Dark Scroll for Armor LUK 40% : Untradeable Scroll for Armor STR 60% : Untradeable Scroll for Armor INT 60% : Untradeable Scroll for Armor DEX 60% : Untradeable Scroll for Armor LUK 60% : Untradeable Potential Scroll : Untradeable Advanced Potential Scroll : Untradeable Special Potential Scroll : Untradeable Melting Cheese : Recovers 4000 HP, Untradeable Reindeer Milk: Recovers 5000 HP, Untradeable Glowing Ghostbusters January 1 - January 26 Requirements: Lv. 33 or above. Repeatable 10 times per day. Help Cassandra collect Fine Sifters to protect her shoes from monsters. Accept the quest '[New Years] Glowing Ghostbusters' through the event notifier or by talking to NPC Cassandra in the Event Hall. Collect Fine Sifters by hunting monsters in your level range. Turn in 30 Fine Sifters to Cassandra. Rewards:

Sabesp, the state water utility, has taken drastic measures. It has dipped into an extra 10.6 billion gallons, available under the Cantareira, by pumping it out from deep below ground with three kilometers of specially built pipeline. "What are we supposed to do without water? We can't shower, wash dishes, do laundry. I have a sink full of dishes because there's no water coming out of the tap," Flávia de Souza Carvalho, 53, a housewife from São Paulo told VICE News. Peak capacity at Cantareira is 264 billion gallons. But after a year without adequate rainfall and scorching hot temperatures that have baked the landscape, capacity has fallen as low as three percent. São Paulo is experiencing its worst drought in over eight decades. Its largest reservoir, known as the Cantareira system, is on the brink of running dry, putting eight million of São Paulo's 20 million residents at risk of losing their primary water supply. Read more São Paulo is experiencing its worst drought in over eight decades. Its largest reservoir, known as the Cantareira system, is on the brink of running dry, putting eight million of São Paulo's 20 million residents at risk of losing their primary water supply. Peak capacity at Cantareira is 264 billion gallons. But after a year without adequate rainfall and scorching hot temperatures that have baked the landscape, capacity has fallen as low as three percent. "What are we supposed to do without water? We can't shower, wash dishes, do laundry. I have a sink full of dishes because there's no water coming out of the tap," Flávia de Souza Carvalho, 53, a housewife from São Paulo told VICE News. Expect more violence as the world gets hotter. Read more here. Sabesp, the state water utility, has taken drastic measures. It has dipped into an extra 10.6 billion gallons, available under the Cantareira, by pumping it out from deep below ground with three kilometers of specially built pipeline. Another 28 billion gallons is being extracted from deep under the reservoir by a second emergency pumping system and water from five other reservoirs are being pumped into the Cantareira. The state has announced it will send 20 tanker trucks to Itu, a city of 165,000 residents who say they have been hit the hardest by water rationing. The shortage has been affecting them for at least eight months, with residents saying they have had to go days without water, and has led to protests and confrontation with police. The tanker trucks will cost the government $2 million reais (US $815,000) for one month of emergency use, with the possibility of renewing the contract for another 30 days, if necessary. 'Environmental education and awareness needs to be improved.' On October 15th Sadesp President Dilma Pena said without heavy rainfall water supplies would run out in November. The agency, seeming to want to head off a controversy, issued a statement the following day saying water would not run out in November. An audio recording of Pena speaking at a Sabesp meeting earlier this year, however, was released on Friday by Brazil's largest daily newspaper, Folha de S.Paulo, in which she stated that it was "a mistake" to withhold the state's dire water situation from the public for so long. "Citizens, save water. That should have been repeated in the media, but we have to follow instructions. We have superiors and this was not the guidance given," she says in the recording. "It's a mistake. I am absolutely sure of it and I tell people who I talk to about this issue, even my superiors." 2014 on track to be warmest year ever recorded. Read more here. Marcos Heil Costa, a professor and researcher in atmosphere-biosphere interactions at the Federal University of Viçosa, agrees that earlier awareness could have saved São Paulo from ending up in its current state. "Environmental education and awareness needs to be improved. Not many people economized on water at the beginning of the drought," Costa told VICE News. "If we had saved water since the beginning of the year, we would be in a far better situation." Reports that Pena has been asked to resign have been circulating in local media this week, citing comments by São Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin, who has received harsh criticism for his handling of the water crisis. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Alckmin has asked her to stay until at least December. Alckmin had denied water rationing was underway. But as news reports emerged of people turning on their taps and being unable to draw water, he could no longer deny it had begun. The City of São Paulo has seen water pressure reduced at night and residents who cut back on use by at least 20 percent receive deductions on their monthly water bill. In some neighborhoods, and in other surrounding cities, water has been completely cut off for hours or days at a time. The Colombian farmers taking on oil giant BP in a British court. Read more here. Reelected at the beginning of the month with almost 60 percent of the vote, Alckmin has been accused of remaining silent on the matter in order to win at the polls. "If the drought continues, residents will face more dramatic water shortages in the short term," Vicente Andreu, president of Brazil's National Water Agency told reporters in São Paulo earlier this week. "If it doesn't rain, we run the risk that the region will have a collapse like we've never seen before," he later told state lawmakers, according to Bloomberg. In order to avoid such a collapse, Costa suggests taking a look back at Brazil's 2001 energy crisis, which was also water-related. He notes that people adapted their habits and used less energy per capita in order to help the electricity system adjust and depend less on rainwaters. "What we need to do now is something similar," Costa said. "[We need to] adapt our consumption patterns and our reservoir system to this type of weather event, which everything indicates will repeat itself in the future." Follow Jill Langlois on Twitter: @JillLanglois

Last year some of Russia's leading web firms including Google and Vkontakte wrote an open letter to the entertainment industries telling them to back off on claims they are responsible for file-sharing committed by their users. Now Russia's Communications Minister has announced that the big web companies will have their way, with actual infringers taking responsibility for their own actions. For the past several months the international entertainment industries, desperate to stop the illicit sharing of their movies and music, have increasingly insisted that Russian web companies should keep their systems free from copyright works, if necessary by employing teams of people to do so. The focus of this attention has fallen on some of the country’s biggest web companies – Google, mail service Mail.ru, social networking site Vkontakte (which was named by the RIAA as one of the world’s most notorious ‘pirate markets’ for illicit music), and search engines Yandex and Rambler. Via an open letter to both the entertainment industries and lawmakers last year, the five companies insisted that it is impossible for them to monitor millions of users to ensure their every act is legal. Furthermore, it is the actual infringers who should be held liable for their own copyright breaches, the companies said. Now, according to a statement by Russian Communications and Press Minister Igor Shchyogolev reported by Vedomosti, it appears these web giants will have their way. In future, Internet users – not service providers, will be held accountable for making available copyright infringing media. While Google welcomed the announcement, it and other web companies won’t be completely absolved of responsibility when it comes to infringing material held on their servers. While placing the main burden on the shoulders of the main infringers, Shchyogolev reminded web firms that they too have responsibility and must remove content from their servers once they are advised by copyright holders it is unauthorized. This manoeuvring on liability by both the entertainment industries and service providers is an attempt to influence a bill currently being drafted by Russia’s communications ministry. The bill will regulate intellectual property rights disputes on the Internet which are often perceived as operating in something of a legislative vacuum. But not everyone welcomes the change. “It is not up to the communications ministry to regulate intellectual property rights,” said Irina Tulubyeva, IP lawyer and head of the Russian Organization for Intellectual Property Rights. Tulubyeva says that while protecting service providers, the law will damage the interests of rightsholders and hold the average Internet user to blame, all while the big web companies continue to make advertising money. “With this new law, piracy will reign,” Tulubyeva said.

Scientists in Israel have demonstrated a new vulnerability in computers, with a hack that makes PCs leak sensitive data encoded in the subtle (or not so subtle) whirring noises of their hard drives. The attack, called DiskFiltration, is the latest technique to show that even PCs that are completely disconnected from the internet and any local networks – known as air-gapped computers – aren't necessarily safe from hackers. "An air-gap isolation is considered to be a hermetic security measure which can prevent data leakage," Mordechai Guri, a security researcher from Ben-Gurion University, told Dan Goodin at Ars Technica. "Confidential data, personal information, financial records, and other type of sensitive information [are] stored within isolated networks. We show that despite the degree of isolation, the data can be exfiltrated (for example, to a nearby smartphone)." Once a computer is infected with DiskFiltration, data that's been stolen by the malware is encoded and then relayed – simply via the noises the computer's hard drive generates – to an intercepting device in the immediate vicinity. "[M]alware installed on a compromised machine can generate acoustic emissions at specific audio frequencies by controlling the movements of the HDD's actuator arm," the researchers write in their paper, referring to the component that reads data off a hard disk platter, much like a needle on a vinyl turntable. When you boot your PC and your hard drive whirs to life, it's the sound of the platter spinning and the actuator physically engaging with it that makes all the noise. By manipulating that interaction, the researchers have shown that it's possible to relay a code to any malicious devices nearby that are designed to 'hear' that code in audio form. "Digital Information can be modulated over the acoustic signals and then be picked up by a nearby receiver (e.g. smartphone, smartwatch, laptop, etc.)," the team explains. It's not the first time we've seen security researchers show how audio vulnerabilities can be used to covertly transmit data. The same team responsible for DiskFiltration demonstrated a similar PC vulnerability back in June called Fansmitter, where the whirring noises of your computer fan could be used to broadcast the same kind of sensitive information. And researchers from the University of California, Irvine announced in April that the noises 3D printers generate actually makes it possible to reverse-engineer the design of any object being produced – potentially putting the intellectual property of 3D printing designs at risk. The limitations of DiskFiltration are similar to that of Fansmitter. Both approaches require the air-gapped machine to already be compromised. In other words, you can't hack a PC with the malware, but if the computer gets infected by other means – by, say, employees not being too careful with their USB keys – then any data on it could be at risk. But you'd still need an intercepting device like a rogue smartphone in close proximity to interpret the hard drive noises. That device needs to stick within 2 metres (about 6 feet) to adequately hear the audio. And the data transmission is also glacially slow — just 180 bits per minute, which means it would take forever to relay a large amount of data. But you could transmit things like passwords and cryptographic keys in short order. That's why the researchers think that it's still a valid security threat – at least for machines not equipped with a solid state drive, which has no moving parts with which to make these kinds of noises in the first place. The research documenting DiskFiltration hasn't been published in a scientific journal just yet, but is available to view on pre-print science database arXiv.org, to give other researchers the opportunity to poke holes in it ahead of the formal peer-review process. The researchers explain more about the technique in the video below.

When the leader of Turkey’s main secular opposition party began a march for justice from Ankara to Istanbul, it caught everyone by surprise. But as the protest nears its endpoint, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces tough options. ADVERTISING Read more In a country that has seen a silencing of virtually all forms of opposition against the government, a startling spectacle has been unfolding in Turkey over the past few weeks. Since June 15, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of Turkey’s main secular opposition CHP (Republican People’s Party), has been leading a daring 450-kilometre protest march from Ankara to Istanbul. Since he took over the CHP in 2010, the dull, retiring Kilicdaroglu has been widely considered an ineffective politician, a personification of Turkey’s emasculated opposition helplessly watching Erdogan win every round of the Turkish political game. Suddenly, the former bureaucrat-turned-politician appears to have found his political mojo, catching most Turks off-guard. Holding a sign printed with a single word, “Adalat” -- or “justice” – Kilicdaroglu has been leading thousands of protesters on foot through the blistering Anatolian heat in a display of resistance that has been likened to Mahatma Gandhi’s famous “Salt March” against British India’s colonial masters. Kemal Kilicdaroglu (third from left) leads the Justice March on June 26, 2017. (Photo: CHP press office, AFP) As he clocks the miles en route to his Istanbul endpoint, the 68-year-old politician is finally firing up the opposition, drawing in demonstrators who are joining the march with one simple rallying cry: “Rights, law and justice.” Making progress on Justice March - 3/4 of the way through. Destination: Maltepe prison where #CHP MP #Berberoglu held pic.twitter.com/0hLBkfq7yN — Mark Lowen (@marklowen) July 3, 2017 Nearly a year after a coup attempt that saw the imposition of a state of emergency, rights, law and justice are on the wane in Turkey today. Following the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, Erdogan’s promised “cleansing” of Turkey’s state institutions has seen hundreds of thousands sacked from their jobs or jailed. On April 16, the country narrowly approved a constitutional referendum that will change Turkey’s political system to an executive presidency granting Erdogan sweeping powers. Through it all, Kilicdaroglu’s leadership of the opposition has been marked by an absence of vision and strategy. So, when the CHP leader started his “Justice March” last month, the odds didn’t seem in his favour. “A lot of people, myself included, have tended to write off Kilicdaroglu as an inept opposition leader,” said Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey expert at St. Lawrence University and nonresident senior fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED). “He’s been such an easy figure to ignore, or dismiss as incompetent that suddenly when he does something good, it’s hard to break out of the old narrative.” Stakes, and emotions, rise But with just days to go before the end of the march on July 9, the stakes -- and the emotions -- are mounting. On Saturday, Erdogan accused Kilicdaroglu of staging “protests to protect terrorists and those who support terrorism”. At a weekend meeting of his ruling AK party, Erdogan said the CHP’s latest stance “had gone beyond being a political opposition and taken on a different proportion". Responding to Erdogan’s accusations, Kilicdaroglu said they were “fitting for a dictator”. But when it comes to timing and symbolism, Erdogan was not entirely wrong in noting that Kilicdaroglu’s march was taking the display of public dissent to a different level. “Erdogan is gearing up for the anniversary of the coup attempt. For him, that’s the defining moment of his presidency, resistance to the coup representation of the national will and his own legitimacy. Now the Justice March comes along at that moment of celebration; it really raises the stakes for him,” explained Eissenstat. Blowback from a parliamentary vote The Justice March began a day after CHP lawmaker and former journalist, Enis Berberoglu, was sentenced to 25 years in jail on charges of leaking information of Turkish intelligence services supplying arms to Syrian rebels to the press. The editor of the newspaper that published the report fled into exile in Europe last year. Under normal circumstances, Berberoglu, as a CHP MP, should have enjoyed parliamentary immunity. But in May 2016, Turkey’s parliament voted to lift immunity for lawmakers in a move widely believed to target Kurdish politicians from the opposition HDP (People’s Democratic Party). Ironically, a number of CHP parliamentarians voted in favour of the measure, underscoring the fractious divides within Turkey’s opposition and the failure of the main secular party to stand up to Erdogan. The vote enabled the government to arrest the pro-Kurdish HDP’s charismatic leader, Selahattin Demirtas, who has been in prison since November 2016. “When Demirtas went to prison, most Turks saw the HDP as ‘terrorists’ getting their comeuppance -- which is absurd, but that’s the perception,” explained Eissenstat. “But arresting the CHP leadership would be an entirely different matter.” Lessons from a controversial referendum But Berberoglu’s conviction, Eissenstat noted, was “the catalyst, not the cause” of the Justice March. The controversial April 16 referendum, which handed the government’s “Yes” camp a narrow win, has played an important role in mobilising the opposition. The referendum “finally made it clear that the traditional, institutional game of politics is no longer operational for the CHP", explained Eissenstat Given the unprecedented display of opposition from the CHP, all eyes in the next few days will be on Erdogan’s response to the Justice March. His options range from letting the march end in Istanbul in a peaceful protest, blocking access to the final demonstration, allowing pro-AK party thugs to descend on the protesters or ordering a security crackdown. Coming as it will, just days before the July 15 2016 coup anniversary, these are options Erdogan will have to carefully weigh. “The Justice March is going to leave Erdogan with some unsavory possibilities,” noted Eissenstat. “It forces him to either allow the opposition to oppose him on the streets or forces him to use force. But if it comes to seeing Kemal Kilicdaroglu in shackles that would be politically explosive. None of the options work out well for him.”

Little sisters with Maya Linda Wolf met with Maya Angelou to talk with her about how she came to forgive and love herself, after having gone through so many dark moments of the soul in her own life. Portions of this interview were originally printed in In Context magazine, Issue #43. Dr. Maya Angelou, author and professor of American studies at Wake Forest University, has been hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. Linda: There’s a girl in one of our groups who was molested by her father when she was young. She’s never told anyone, even her mother, and he is not hurting her now. She says that even though he is a small man and that what happened to her was a mild thing, she is still afraid of him. Dr. Angelou: No, no, those are two mistakes. There is no “mild molestation” and no brute is ever small. The man or woman who is brutalizing somebody could be four foot tall, but the molester is never small and no molestation is ever mild. It attacks the very spirit. I can only say to her, “I feel with you,” because once one is molested it’s very hard to feel clean again. Very hard. I spent almost seven years not talking [after being raped]. So tell her you feel with her - not for her or to her but with her. And I would encourage her to get counseling as soon as possible. Linda: After all you’ve been through, including being raped as a child, how did you continue to have good feelings for yourself, to like yourself? Dr. Angelou: I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes - it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, “Well, if I’d known better I’d have done better,” that’s all. So you say to people you think you may have injured, “I’m sorry,” and then you say to yourself, “I’m sorry.” If we hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can’t see what we’re capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you, when a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thick or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach. Linda: You’ve done a lot of things in your life that most people would judge as wrong. You’ve smoked pot, taken drugs, you were a madam for lesbian prostitutes, a teenage mom, a table dancer - you didn’t follow the straight and narrow. All these experiences gave you a rich life? Dr. Angelou: Yes, but I wouldn’t suggest it for anybody. I mean, if you happen to fall into that sort of experience, what you have to do is forgive yourself. If you’re in the very gutter, see where you are and admit it. As soon as you admit it, you can be like the prodigal son, the prodigal daughter. Get up and go home - wherever home is. Get up and go to a safe place, someplace where your spirit is not kicked and brutalized and your body not misused and abused. Get up. But you can’t get up unless you see where you are and admit it. I wrote about my experiences because I thought too many people tell young folks, “I never did anything wrong. Who, Moi? - never I. I have no skeletons in my closet. In fact, I have no closet.” They lie like that and then young people find themselves in situations and they think, “Damn I must be a pretty bad guy. My mom or dad never did anything wrong.” They can’t forgive themselves and go on with their lives. So I wrote the book Gather Together in My Name. Meaning that all those grown people, all those adults, all those parents and grandparents and teachers and preachers and rabbis and priests who lie to the children can gather together in my name and I will tell them the truth. Wherever you are, you have got to admit it and set about to make a change. That’s why I wrote that book. It’s the most painful book I’ve ever written. Linda: Do you see hope for this world? Dr. Angelou: Oh, yes Linda: What do you tell young people who see nothing but the world falling apart? Dr. Angelou: It seems terrible. There’s racism and sexism and ageism and all sorts of idiocies. But bad news is not news. We’ve had bad news as a species for a long time. We’ve had slavery and human sacrifice and the holocaust and brutalities of such measure. We can’t imagine what Attila the Hun did or the cruelties of the period when the church, the great Inquisition, sliced people open from their heads to their groin and gutted them. And women were burned at the stake and stoned to death, as were men. We can’t imagine it. Today we say, “Ah, how horrible.” But the truth is, we have had bad news a long time. Yet, amazingly, we have survived. And while on the one hand we have the brutes, the bigots, and the bullies, at the same time we have had men and women who dreamed great dreams. We’ve had Galileo and Aesop, Paul Laurence Dunbar and W.E.B. DuBois. We’ve had Sholem Asch, and Shalom Aleichem - great dreamers. We’ve had women who stood alone, whether it was Harriet Tubman or Mother Jones. We’ve had Margaret Sanger. We’ve had women who have stood in the gap and said, “I’m here to try to save the world.” You have to think who we are. If you made a map five miles long and five miles wide of the universe, Earth would be smaller than a pin-head. I think it may have been Durant who said if you make a model the size of the Empire State Building, and flat on the top of the spire you put a postage stamp, the model would represent how long Earth has been here, the spire would represent how long life has been here, the thickness of the stamp would represent how long human beings have been here, and the thickness of the ink would represent how long we’ve been sentient. So we’re the newest group on this little blob of spit and sand. This is what young women and men should know. They should know that we are carnivorous, yet we have decided somehow not only to not eat our brothers and sisters, who may be delicious, but to accord them some rights and to try to love them and look after them. I don’t want young men and women looking around and saying, “Oh my God, oh mea culpa, it’s so awful.” It’s bad but it’s also good, and it’s up to each one of us to make it better. Every one of us. We deserve our future. Linda: What advice do you have for girls? Dr. Angelou: To laugh as much as possible, always laugh. It is the sweetest thing one can do for oneself and one’s fellow human being. When people see the laughing face, even if they’re jealous of it, their burden is lightened. But do it first for yourself. Laugh and dare to try to love somebody, starting with yourself. Linda: It’s hard to love. Dr. Angelou: It’s hard because people think they have something to lose and the truth is they have everything to gain in trying to love somebody. You must love yourself first, of course, and you must protect yourself when you can. Protect yourself so that nobody overrides you, overrules you, or steps on you. You say, “Just a minute, I’m worth everything, dear.” If you really realize that, you realize everybody else is worth everything. Everybody. Fat and thin and plain and pretty, white and black and rich and poor, thick and slow and brilliant. Everybody is worth everything. Start with yourself, though.

Spring 3 has brought some excellent features to the table but one that really shines is its REST integration. You may or may not be wondering what REST really means, I know I did when I heard it banded about for the first time. My first thought - and one that remains today - was that it's another "web 2.0" like marketing phrase that doesn't really mean anything; not entirely fair perhaps, not everyone's as cynical as I. REST, in essence, means using the HTTP specification properly. For a while now POST has been used as a 'catch all' approach for development, when as per section 9.5 of the spec. it's purely for creating data and is an idempotent method i.e. it shouldn't be used for everything and there are other methods for specific purposes (OK there's more to REST than this, but let's start on familiar ground); The POST method is used to request that the origin server accept the entity enclosed in the request as a new subordinate of the resource identified by the Request-URI in the Request-Line So what this basically says is: the server should take the contents of the request body and create an item as it sees fit. You may think this is what we're doing all along, but when - speaking hypothetically - you submit a form to delete a user from your CMS app, POST isn't the right method, DELETE is. Part of REST is also about abstracting resources so that the data model doesn't matter - a resource will accept JSON, XML or AIML, it's all the same - and behave in the same way. This further opens the door for cross-device interoperability. One example would be to utilise the Accept header from the client to determine how to respond; a request for application/xml would return an XML document. Similarly, your service could respond based on file extensions - .pd, .json, .html and so on. Spring therefore has extended its annotation based MVC API to provide REST support out of the box, and it's wonderful. For any given controller, you can annotate a method as you would normally but with additional touches you can treat a JSON or standard request the same. @RequestBody This annotation, applied at the method parameter level, maps the request body to a type of your choosing. Taking JSON as an example, and a simple bean whose getters & setters (encapsulating your fields) match the properties of the request, Spring will map the request into your bean without any interference your end. It's very neat and tidy. Something like the following would work nicely (in fact, having this and only the mvc:annotation-driven element plus context scanning in my dispatcher-servlet.xml was all I needed to get up and running; @RequestMapping(value = "/user", RequestMethod.POST) public String addUser(@RequestBody User user) { // do something with user.name, user.email; etc return "success"; } @ResponseBody Much the same as @RequestBody, this serialises the response as necessary. If the client sent its Accept header containing application/json then Spring will convert the response - say a UserBean - to a JSON message ready for the client to consume. All you'd need to do for this is use @ResponseBody on your method's return value - lovely and simple. Path Variables, Atom, RSS and more That's not all that's in Spring's bag of RESTful treats (pun?!), most notably of which would be its path variable support. If you've used frameworks in Ruby or Python then this is old hat, but forus Java developers it's not so common. Given a URI, you include the identifier for the resource you're referring to. So, if you wanted to retrieve an employee you might use a URL structure like "/employee/" and instead of using GET parameters you include the identifier you need e.g. "/employee/alex-collins" or "/employee/1337". This makes for a very customisable site. Here's how you'd use it in an annotated controller: @RequestMapping(value = "/employee/{id}", RequestMethod.GET) public @ResponseBody Employee getEmployee(@PathVariable long empID) { Employee employee = employeeService.getByID(empID); return employee; } All very fun stuff of course, and there's more. You can get more info over at the Spring documentation. In the mean time - what's your opinion? Like Spring 3? Using something easier or much more fun? Have you utilised Spring MVC in your organisation for a similar purpose?

The first round of talks in what the U.S. and EU trade representatives intend to be the largest bilateral trade agreement ever have begun. The governments call it TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Everyone else calls it TAFTA, the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement. Whatever the name, it will regulate all U.S. and EU trade, or around 30 percent of world trade in goods. And according to the first leaks of negotiation documents, it threatens to be yet another trojan horse for copyright and internet issues. We have been following developments since Pres. Barack Obama announced his intention to create a U.S.-EU agreement at his State of the Union address earlier this year. Now, it seems that our concerns were warranted: a newly leaked document from La Quadrature du Net shows how EU delegates intend to set rules around liability for Internet Service Providers and regulations over the transfer and processing of users’ personal online data, as well as rules to set a “uniform approach” to cyber security across the region. While the document makes no mention of copyright enforcement, other statements lead us to believe that it will also be included. U.S. and European delegates will negotiate TAFTA secretly, mirroring the same undemocratic processes that led to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, TAFTA’s objective is to address a wide range of cross-border regulatory issues under one overarching agreement. In March, EFF joined 44 other U.S. and EU organizations in calling for transparency in the process and to ask our trade representatives to leave copyright, patent, and trademark issues off of the drafting table. In light of the recent revelations, La Quadrature du Net says TAFTA is bound to threaten freedoms online: The precedent of ACTA shows that industries can have tremendous (if not total) influence on the content of such an agreement, and that EU negotiators from the Commission can hardly be trusted to defend general interest […] The same goes for U.S. negotiators. Lobbyists paid by the concentrated wealth of special interests currently dominate the objectives of our national trade policies—such as Internet companies that would prefer lax privacy controls, or entertainment industry companies pushing for copyright crackdowns. The creators and users of new, decentralized technology, who exercise their right to free speech and association over the Internet, have no voice at the table. This results in agreements, like ACTA or TPP, that uphold the concerns of a few powerful private interests at the expense of the present and future public interest and the civil liberties of Internet users worldwide. Given how trade delegates have reacted so far over this latest transatlantic agreement, there is no doubt that established corporate interests from both sides of the Atlantic will do the same to influence TAFTA. If the process were open and transparent, we would at least know if and when problematic language was being included in this agreement. Until there are more leaked documents, we can only guess what kinds of specific proposals trade negotiators are developing inside these closed-door meetings. Last week, European leaders publicly complained that TAFTA was impossible given the revelations that the U.S. spies on its Europe's negotiators. That now looks to have been political bluff. It seems that surveillance by trade partners will continue to be acceptable, as long as the negotiations themselves are concealed from the general public.

EU knew they were lending Greece money that no one could pay back, and there was no plan B for Greece except from austerity measures, former Greek MP Eva Kaili told RT. RT:Why does the government keep doing what the Troika tells it? Eva Kaili: Well, I think it is too late for that to have already implemented a lot of austerity measures. I think, now we are reaching at the point of no return, We move on with the layoffs and I do believe that after that we try to figure out the growth plan. Something that should have been done instead of taking this austerity measures that led us to this point, unemployment at 27 percent. The Troika experimented in Greece, I do hope that the rest of Southern countries will not suffer the same problems that we did. RT:Where is all this bailout money going? EK: Well, nobody believes that 300 billion would be viable debt. So the money has been spent to the rates and paying off this debt. As you can tell, no money is getting inside or being invested in Greece or in a growth plan that would after a few years improve so that we could pay off everything that we owe. The thing is that all the books were open to the EU so it’s not that we surprised them or they did not know where they were lending money that no one could pay. That was not viable, that everybody knew about it but the plan, the austerity measures, the recipe followed failed. We knew that, remember we said it was supposed to fail, everybody knew that. There was no plan B and I know that Germany does not want to take a step back, it’s in elections, we are waiting for results and let’s hope that after the German elections it’s going to be a debate about whether to write off a big part of the debt. RT:When you were an MP you said the measures of the Troika were brilliant, and the end was near. EK: I never said what Troika did was brilliant, I said that they left us no choice, they did not let us decide whether to create a growth plan or take austerity measures, they just tried to soak our country with these measures, without planning anything, without trying to implement the changes in the way that out country is working. So I never said that, I said that we had no choice. RT:You were very optimistic about the future of Greece and ultimately with these billions coming to the country. I’m not starting an argument here but you were very optimistic, perhaps you were playing a role of a politician as you were. EK: No no no. We were seeing that we did an improvement, we had huge problems with corruption, tax evasion and we were just trying to get some time to apply the reforms. I think we have made improvements, we are getting there, we have reduced the cost of Healthcare by one third. We are trying to make it more viable debt but as you can tell it’s like an amount we cannot afford. I think we had enough time to prove… RT:Do you think it’s better for Greece to be out of the eurozone? EK:I don’t believe it would solve anything, but yes, I do believe, that we should reset our existence inside the eurozone and I do believe that the eurozone should try to find new balances between South and North, because we have two different speeds. And now, as you can see, Germany is the only one that decides and the power game should be reset.

This will be used to justify so much: controversial security laws the Abbott government has already passed, the metadata retention law waiting in the wings and heaven knows what other laws may now be dreamed up in the aftermath of the shocking deaths in the Lindt cafe. Dealing with Man Haron Monis never needed fancy new security laws. He has been on the radar of police – and probably Asio – since at least October 2009 when he turned up at a police station in Sydney’s western suburbs trying to report a bogus terrorist attack. He was charged, instead, with writing menacing letters to the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. From that point until yesterday’s terrible events, police and Asio had all the authority they needed to keep track of a man who revealed himself over the years to be really nasty and really crazy. Old laws allowed police to bug his phones, intercept his emails and place him under surveillance. They didn’t even need a warrant to access his metadata and track down everywhere Monis had been and everyone he was talking to year after year. They didn’t need fresh laws threatening journalists with 10 years’ jail for revealing Asio’s newfangled “special” operations. Look at the superb cooperation the press displayed during the siege: forgoing scoop after scoop to follow the police strategy of denying Monis the oxygen of publicity. In the months ahead, with due acknowledgement for the skill they showed in the siege, a failure of policing will have to be faced. Despite having all the powers they needed at their disposal, and despite Monis’s erratic behaviour over so many years, the Australian federal police, the NSW police and Asio weren’t able to prevent him putting into effect his crazy plan. The cry will now go up for fresh powers. We’ll hear that old freedoms have to be curtailed and traditional restraints ditched in the interests of public security. There will be a clamour for grim legislation. If new laws are needed, let’s have new laws. But these demands by politicians and police must be interrogated. And the questions that need to be asked should be absolutely practical: what new powers would have prevented that man from taking those hostages in Sydney on 15 December? This is not a time for blanket new anti-terrorism laws. More facts may yet emerge, but Monis seems not to have been part of any terrorist operation. He wasn’t under orders. The horrors in the Lindt cafe seem to owe as much to Hollywood as terrorist manuals. All we know for certain is that Monis was a terrorist in his own crazy imagination. Had he lived he would now be facing trial for terrible crimes. No gaps in the criminal law would have allowed him to escape punishment. No new statutes would be needed to send a man who did what he did to prison – almost certainly for the rest of his life. It’s all there. Australia was not changed in the early hours of this morning. But it may be changed if these terrible events in Sydney are used to drive another agenda altogether: the criminalisation of the press and the needless extension of surveillance into the lives of all of us all in the name of fighting terrorism.

Vitamin E (α-tocopherol) is recognised as a key essential lipophilic antioxidant in humans protecting lipoproteins, PUFA, cellular and intra-cellular membranes from damage. The aim of this review was to evaluate the relevant published data about vitamin E requirements in relation to dietary PUFA intake. Evidence in animals and humans indicates a minimal basal requirement of 4-5 mg/d of RRR-α-tocopherol when the diet is very low in PUFA. The vitamin E requirement will increase with an increase in PUFA consumption and with the degree of unsaturation of the PUFA in the diet. The vitamin E requirement related to dietary linoleic acid, which is globally the major dietary PUFA in humans, was calculated to be 0·4-0·6 mg of RRR-α-tocopherol/g of linoleic acid. Animal studies show that for fatty acids with a higher degree of unsaturation, the vitamin E requirement increases almost linearly with the degree of unsaturation of the PUFA in the relative ratios of 0·3, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 for mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta- and hexaenoic fatty acids, respectively. Assuming a typical intake of dietary PUFA, a vitamin E requirement ranging from 12 to 20 mg of RRR-α-tocopherol/d can be calculated. A number of guidelines recommend to increase PUFA intake as they have well-established health benefits. It will be prudent to assure an adequate vitamin E intake to match the increased PUFA intake, especially as vitamin E intake is already below recommendations in many populations worldwide.

B’nai B’rith decries the reprehensible remarks made on Venezuelan state television on October 26, in which a guest denied the Holocaust and repudiated Zionism. On the show “Contragolpe” (in English: “Counter-Strike”) host Vanessa Davies interviewed Argentine professor Saad Chedid, who was reportedly in Venezuela to give a lecture titled “Philosophic and Semantic Analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Cause for Concern? ADL poll: Anti-Semitic attitudes on rise in America Yitzhak Benhorin Nationwide survey of the American people released Anti-Defamation League reveals that anti-Semitic attitudes have risen slightly in America ADL poll: Anti-Semitic attitudes on rise in America While giving a preview of his lecture, Chedid stated among other things that Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, was a “sick and paranoid person,” even implying that there was close collaboration between the Nazis and the Jews to create the “implanted” State of Israel. Referring to the Holocaust, Chedid denied its existence, saying: “Holocaust is a word that means strictly the total burning of an animal—from a pigeon to a bull—so there’s no Jewish Holocaust. The Jewish ideologues have a weird ability to hide things through the use of another word. For example the Yahweh, which is the god of the Jews, cannot be named…” “This kind of raw anti-Semitic material can unfortunately be found regularly in the state-owned Venezuelan media and in direct violation of a promise Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made last year to curtail such rhetoric,” said B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs. “In May 2011 B’nai B’rith passed a resolution calling on Chavez to immediately end anti-Semitic expressions. We continue to call for such action now.” Chedid went on to talk about a 1907 report that purports to prove that Great Britain was planning the establishment of a Jewish state more than 100 years ago, with the intention of preventing Arabs from uniting to win their independence. 'Government directly sponsoring hate' “The content of this and other programs on the state-owned media clearly underscores that the government freely allows anti-Semitism in Venezuela,” said B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin. “These remarks made on state-sponsored television clearly lead to the conclusion that these vitriolic anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments are given approbation at the highest levels of the Venezuelan government and must not go unchallenged. We call on the international community to denounce these outrageous claims.” This is not an isolated incident. The Venezuelan public is frequently subject to this kind of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda. A few months ago, the director of the Venezuelan National Radio recommended that people read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a fraudulent, anti-Semitic text that described a Jewish plan for achieving global domination). B’nai B’rith International has offices in Latin America and says it will continue to monitor these developments.

The Training and Work of The Solo Magician with Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki TBA Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki is the director of The Servants of The Light (SOL) magical training school. Readers of my book, The Rainbow Machine may be familiar with The Servants of The Light name as I reference SOL in the appendix of the book. This workshop sets out a personal curriculum of dedicated Mystery work for someone who is largely working alone but possesses a basic understanding of The Mysteries. It includes: Solo Working with the Elements, and the Kabbalah. Setting up a portable Temple. Solo Working with the Quarter Powers, God-Forms and Angelics. Creating your Solo rituals and path-workings. Invocations. Casting the Sun Circle and Moon Circle. Led by the director of The Servants of The Light, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, this workshop will give an outline on how this kind of work might be attempted. It gives an outline of what needs to be studied, how to study, and the basis of ritual work and above all the importance of bringing the Four Selves Physical, Astral, Mental and Spiritual together, without this, magic can be a very tricky path indeed. Who is Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki? * Servants of The Light * Facebook * From Wikipedia we can learn that: “Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki (Born 1929) is a British occult author, psychic, and esoteric practitioner. An associate of Walter Ernest Butler, she succeeded him as Director of Studies of the Servants of the Light. […] During the 1960s, she and her husband Michael Nowicki entered the Fraternity of the Inner Light, an esoteric order founded by occultist Dion Fortune. In 1965 she became associated with Walter Ernest Butler, and with Gareth Knight and the Helios Course in Practical Qabalah which, in 1971, became the foundation of Servants of the Light School. In 1976, when Butler retired, Ashcroft-Nowicki became Director of Studies of the SOL, a position she holds to this day. Perhaps her most important contribution to modern occultism has been her popularization of pathworking as a training tool for the study of the Qabalah.” [robo-gallery id=”222″] Books by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki Illuminations First Steps in Ritual Highways of the Mind The Ritual Magic Workbook The Shining Paths The Forgotten Mage (by Col. C.R.F. Seymour, edited by DAN) Inner Landscapes The Sacred Cord Meditations The Tree of Ecstasy The New Book of the Dead Daughters of Eve Building a Temple The Officers of the Temple Magical Use of Thoughtforms (With Herbie Brennan) The Initiate’s Book of Pathworkings Your Unseen Power (book and audio mini-course) The Singing Stones The Door Unlocked – An Astrological Insight into Initiation (with Stephanie V. Norris) An Anthology of Occult Wisdom (8 volumes, including material by W.E. Butler, Rev. Robert King, Gareth Knight, and others) Share this: Twitter Facebook Google Tumblr Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit Pocket Skype

Rockstar has issued GamesRadar an official response to today's announcement by the BBFC that it hasrejected Manhunt 2 for ratingin the UK. Here's the statement in full: "We are disappointed with the recent decision by the British Board of Film Classification to refuse classification of Manhunt 2. While we respect the authority of the classification board and will abide by the rules, we emphatically disagree with this particular decision. "Manhunt 2 is an entertainment experience for fans of psychological thrillers and horror. The subject matter of this game is in line with other mainstream entertainment choices for adult consumers. "We respect those who have different opinions about the horror genre and video games as a whole, but we hope they will also consider the opinions of the adult gamers for whom this product is intended. We believe all products should be rated to allow the public to make informed choices about the media and art they wish to consume. The stories in modern video games are as diverse as the stories in books, film and television. The adult consumers who would play this game fully understand that it is fictional interactive entertainment and nothing more." See also: Manhunt 2 banned in the UK This is why Manhunt 2 was banned Manhunt 2 rated by ESRB June 19, 2007

Replace the Business Cycle with Permanent Poverty The lethargic performance of the U.S. economy going back decades and plunging into an embedded depression, since the financial meltdown of 2007, has caused permanent damage. The business community and the financial press have yet to acknowledge that prospects are not going to improve. It does not take a commercial genius or an academic professor to look around at the shrinking middle class and conclude that the lessons of the preverbal business cycle no longer apply. In order for any economy to prosper, the fruits of commerce must improve the financial conditions of the producing contributors. Ever since the globalist plutocrats have taken over the international economy, a prime objective has been to contract if not eliminate a viable domestic commerce sector. In a previous era the notion, whether real or imaginary, was that down turns will eventually be reversed and prosperity will return. Not so anymore. A key consequence of systematically marginalizing the merchant economy results in the wholesale elimination of good paying jobs. The small business entrepreneur has a bullseye on their back as the government deploys legions of snipers taking target practice. When a public sector job becomes the preferred if not the only gainful employment, the producing workers who create the real wealth are retired into oblivion. Under such circumstances, how can it be possible for a business cycle rebound? The net result is that the purchasing power of the average family will continue to sink. Wages do not have the prospects to rise, because the consumer economy has run out of disposable money to buy non essential items. The cost of living continues to pressure the diminished resources of workers. Multiply this negative effect with retirees whose savings earn zero interest rate returns, and the crisis deepens. Both of these legs cannot be balanced by the third limb, from government welfare recipients and bureaucratic officials. Nowhere in this formula are the prospects of a rising tide lifting all boats! Government dependent freeloaders and state employed sycophants are the main supporter of the current system. The mega rich and supra elites want the present economic structure to be totally integrated into the global command and control neo-feudal gulag. Such a matrix does not allow for a robust and energetic business environment. Most people refuse to admit or face the reality that a productive business economy is necessary to improve conditions for the greatest number of citizens. The fundamental distinction is to separate the corporatist economic model from the independent and individual ownership method of commerce. The former has driven down wages, slashed benefits and blocked upward mobility. The later offers opportunity, growth and innovation for both the consumer and the producer. The era of secure and high paying jobs are over as long as the internationalist global economy is allowed to dominate the domestic economy. When a country exists with a constant balance of payment deficit, it is impossible to grow your way out of a negative outflow. There is no cycle reversal possible in this trade outpouring of real money. Misinformation that Free Trade will reduce this hemorrhage is a total hoax. This pattern of policy has been developed over decades and designed to intensify the dependency society. Keeping the globalist game going rests upon fiat created money and central banking tyranny. An economy dependant on monetization of debt to finance the next rollover of bonds proves to be a fundamental impediment to unleash the business community for taking the risk to expand. Adding to this obstacle, factor in the destructive government regulations and social policies of the Obama administration and ask a very simple question. Name one example of a beneficial initiative under this administration that has grown jobs and advanced the economic prospects of Middle America? Cooking the unemployment books by factoring out millions of potential workers no longer looking for employment, illustrates the terminal nature of irreversible bleak business prospects. The net result forecasts a permanent poverty that will destroy any chance for bettering one’s condition. As the economy further fragmentizes into varied levels of relative regional disparity, the internal social conflict will intensify. Urban vs. rural economies will separate even further. Such conditions certainly will derail any meaningful bounce in economic activity. All this without a major false flag incident, an unexpected financial crisis or an intended implosion in world markets, eliminates necessary conditions to boost productive business activity. Remember the true and proven method of investing in the stock markets? Real returns over the long haul were the hallmark of confidence in risking capital. Are you one of those brave investors just waiting to follow the professional insiders in a greedy frenzy to make a quick buck? Lost in this mix is that little Wall Street money is used to finance actual business ventures that make tangible products, employ unemployed workers and infuse capital to purchase from suppliers. This function and justification for allowing an elite financial cabal to pick and choose ventures that will be granted money is OVER. Only the crony internationalists of the political policy class get the green light to cache their government subsidies and continue their rape and pillage of the true economy. So explain just how a traditional business cycle can rebound? Good times cannot happen when business employment is based upon a minimum wage, restricted hours (because of Obamacare), and unstable market conditions. Where is the confidence? Obviously, it has evaporated for every sensible reason that scares every business person. Without the buoyancy of daring risk takers, no business would operate, much less grow. The band of criminals that have long labored to destroy our independent and prosperous economy and replace it with a subsistent level existence has done the impossible. They have eliminated the business cycle. This substitute has all the signs of an enduring basic need survival economy. Only the masters of the universe profit from a permanent and contracting downturn activity. Who else can short markets with such ease as they withdraw liquidity from the financial system? James Hall – July 8, 2015 Subscribe to the BATR Realpolitik Newsletter Discuss or comment about this essay on the BATR Forum

First Look: Texas Wave Park from Above Aerial shots show the first artificial waves breaking at NLand Surf Park in Austin, TX By Dashel Pierson Published: July 8, 2016 July 8, 2016 Views: 4,305 First Look: Texas Wave Park from Above Aerial shots show the first waves artificial breaking at NLand Surf Park in Austin, TX. 1 Related Here it is, folks -- the first waves breaking during a test period at NLand Surf Park. The Austin, TX surf lagoon is slated to open later this summer. Photo: Austin Business Journal The Lone Star state is waiting – As America’s first artificial surf lagoon powered by Wavegarden technology, the Austin facility will resemble the preexisting Surf Snowdonia in Wales. And like the Welsh location, the Texas iteration has hit some snags along the way. Originally, it was supposed to open in spring. But the grand opening was pushed back to sometime this summer, mainly due to weather issues. “It’s been a wet spring,” NLand’s Head of Media, Chris Jones, As America’s first artificial surf lagoon powered by Wavegarden technology, the Austin facility will resemble the preexisting Surf Snowdonia in Wales. And like the Welsh location, the Texas iteration has hit some snags along the way. Originally, it was supposed to open in spring. But the grand opening was pushed back to sometime this summer, mainly due to weather issues.“It’s been a wet spring,” NLand’s Head of Media, Chris Jones, told Surfline . “[We’ve had] about 26 inches of rain over the last three months, and we usually get about 32 a year in the Austin area.” Coors coupled that with a statement of his own: “Since the beginning of this journey, we've been beset by many challenges. From Mother Nature doling out two 100-year rainfalls in 2015 to a microburst and historic rainfall in the Spring of 2016, our team has tackled each event with grit and optimism. The cows are “coming home” soon, but in early summer vs. late spring. I can assure you, nobody wants to open this park more than the talented team at NLand. We sincerely believe the experience will match the anticipation and we appreciate you taking this ride with us.” But the visual proof from the Austin Biz Journal shows that the end is nigh – this time it appears that NLand will soon open for real, the wait for waves in the middle of Texas will finally be over. +++++ More stories by Dashel Pierson: Whale Carcass Washes Ashore in L.A. WSL Hires Shark Surveillance for J-Bay Kelly Slater's Bizarre, Daredevil-Inspired Breathing Technique Pope Francis Converts to the Church of Surf Matt Wilkinson Hangs Up His Dancing Shoes Coors coupled that with a statement of his own:But the visual proof from theshows that the end is nigh – this time it appears that NLand will soon open for real, the wait for waves in the middle of Texas will finally be over.+++++ teeth gritted, britches bundled. They’re patiently preparing for Doug Coors – heir to a no-frills beer dynasty turned artificial wave connoisseur – to open NLand Surf Park, the first manmade wave lagoon in Austin, Texas.And while the wait continues, those itching to surf deep in the heart of Texas can now have a glimpse at what’s to come, courtesy of the Austin Business Journal . Aerial photos show the massive lagoon that spans the equivalent of more than nine football fields. The hydrofoil wave-maker lines the middle of the lake – some shots show testing underway and A-frame waves breaking through the pool.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren, left, laughs as Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby listens as they speak to reporters after the second day of the Big 12 sports conference meetings in Irving, Texas, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/LM Otero) By Phil Stukenborg of The Commercial Appeal IRVING, Texas — Officially, Big 12 expansion discussions are expected to continue through the end of the summer as the conference presidents and chancellors analyze data received from consultants this week. But prospects for adding to the 10-team league seem to be somewhat guarded based on comments from league officials at this week's spring meetings at the Four Seasons Resort and Club. For the University of Memphis and American Athletic Conference brethren Cincinnati, Houston, UCF and UConn — schools generally considered, along with BYU, the top candidates to join the Power Five league — the tone is disheartening. From Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, Texas athletic director Mike Perrin and Oklahoma president David Boren, there's a sense that 10 might be a more workable number than 12. "I think you all interpreted that I have a theological dogma about (being an expansion proponent)," Boren said Thursday night. "It really relates to other broader questions of putting us in a competitive and good economic situation. We want to make sure there's absolute (value)." Perrin said Wednesday he thought "the prudent thing" for the conference to do was remain at 10 teams, adding he didn't think "the Big 12 has to do anything right now." "I think we are positioned well in all respects — well positioned on television, well positioned on the playoffs." Boren, who was on the league's composition, or expansion, committee said the prospective candidates must be carefully analyzed. "How do they fit athletically? What is their fan base? What media markets are they in?" he said. "Obviously, we want to look at where do they stand academically. What's their level as a research institution? To use a financial term, we want to make sure they're not dilutive." Earlier in the week, Bowlsby, after meeting with the league's athletic directors, said there was "a lot riding on playing a full round-robin (schedule) in football (with 10 teams) and a double round-robin in basketball." "I think we're going to be a little bit slow to depart from that," he said. "We now have the data analysis in front of us to know a little bit more about what structure is optimal for us in terms of getting teams in (the College Football Playoff). But we walk away from a lot when we move to some of those structures." Those structures, according to consultants hired by the Big 12, indicate the league would have a 10-15-percent better chance of placing a team in the CFP if it expanded from 10 to 12 teams and had a league title game. Expansion, a conference television network and a league title game have been on the agenda this work. "I think it's appropriate to go slowly on (expansion) and to make that decision in conjunction with some of the other things we have to consider over the coming days and the next few weeks," Bowlsby said. "There's an awful lot riding on the way we conduct our competition in our major sports. We don't want to give that away in any sort of way that doesn't provide at least equal, or more, rewards." Despite the less-than-encouraging outlook for expansion hopefuls, a CBS Sports report Thursday provided promise. The report indicates the Big 12 could earn an additional $1 billion through expansion over the course of its remaining television rights deal if it adds four teams. Two teams would add $500 million over the course of the contract, which runs through 2024-25. That report was not addressed by Bowlsby or Boren at the early evening press conference. "When it comes to expansion, my principal concern is keeping us in a very competitive position with the other conferences, not only a competitive position athletically but also academically and financially," Boren said. "What are the methods of doing that? Expansion is one potential method, it's not the only method. I have no theological position on expansion."

Complete madness! So started the up-in-arms Facebook post I read last week - one of many deriding police action in recent days to crack down on cyclist behaviour and safety in NSW and Queensland. media_camera Neil Keene, an avid cyclist, says no road user, on two wheels or four, should be above the law The first hot winds of contempt started blowing on Wednesday after it emerged, shock-horror, that police were finally starting to treat cyclists like the equal road users they have long lobbied to be by enforcing signposted speed limits and a stop sign in Centennial Park. From today, new fines have come into effect meaning cyclists will be penalised to a similar extent to motorists, althought they have won a battle to delay the requirement for them to carry ID. “F--k the police!” cried one cyclist on Facebook, beneath a story link outlining the action. The post was a reference to the NWA song made famous recently by the acclaimed film Straight Outta Compton. NEW CYCLING LAWS COME IN TODAY That outlaw bikie echoed the sentiments of many complaining about this affront to freedom and common sense. Others said the park’s 30km/h speed limit was ridiculous, and that the intersection in question didn’t require a stop sign at all. Cyclists urged their brethren to contest any fines issued in court, both to avert the financial penalty and to clog up the justice system in a show of two-wheeled solidarity. OTHER NEWS: ‘ANGRY’ ACTORS PAID TO TEST NSW RAIL STAFFERS But since when did personal opinion give road users the right to flout the law? Motorists have long been penalised for not sticking to seemingly silly speed limits, or running through stop-sign intersections at a snail’s pace with not another car in sight. Welcome to life on the road. As far back as 2014, The Daily Telegraph reported an average two cyclists were being hospitalised every weekend after accidents in Centennial Park. media_camera New laws kick in today seeing cyclists fined at a similar rate to motorists. Picture: John Grainger Cyclists were being clocked at the time travelling almost 50km/h in the park’s 30km/h zone. I’m a frequent and avid cyclist, though admittedly not of the lycra-clad variety. Often, I have my four-year-old son riding along in a child seat on the back of the bike. Increasingly, he’ll be weaving drunkenly beside me on a scooter or on his own bike supported by trainer wheels. I’ve lost count of the times we’ve had a near-miss with clusters of much faster cyclists approaching silently from behind on our local shared bike/walking track, before overtaking at pace. A simple ring of a bell would have been sufficient both to warn us of their approach and move us to the far left of the path. But they don’t have a bell! In their unending quest for streamlined efficiency (and image, I suspect), the cycling elite remove the bell their bike came with, or fail to install one on those models that don’t include them. media_camera A number of cyclists have expressed outrage at attempts to crack down on safety and cyclist behaviour This is against the law in NSW and Queensland, but it is the absolute norm. It came as no surprise this morning that there’s equally hot-headed upheaval about Brisbane police issuing fines to cyclists whose bikes don’t have bells. These people will argue that a shouted warning is equally effective. From personal experience, I can tell you it’s not. If it were, cops would probably drop the lights-and-sirens business and just start yelling out their highway patrol windows. I hear a voice directed at me, and I instinctively turn my head to see who is talking. I hear a bell, and I know it’s a warning. I don’t resent cyclists – I am one. But I do resent when other road users – on two wheels or four – think they are above the law, or think they are being victimised simply because they’re not sticking to the rules. AU NSW: Sydney Cyclists Rally Against Compulsory ID Laws February 18 0:57 Bicycle riders gathered at Sydney’s Martin Place on Thursday morning, February 18, to protest against new laws that force them to carry identification. Around 200 cyclists rallied in front of New South Wales Parliament on Macquarie Street, carrying signs that read “Higher fines and rider ID = making riding criminal” and “#RideIDFree”. The new laws, which come into effect on March 1, impose a $106 fine for cyclists without the required photo ID. Other cycling fines will also be substantially increased, such as not wearing a helmet (up from $71 to $319), running a red light (up from $71 to $425) and riding dangerously (up from $71 to $425). Credit: Bicycle Network AU NSW: Sydney Cyclists Rally Against Compulsory ID Laws February 18 Originally published as ‘F..k the police’: Cyclists rage at being treated equal

$1.5m anti-gay marriage campaign slammed for 'half-truths' Rachel Oswald Published: Thursday April 9, 2009 Print This Email This A new television ad against same-sex marriage is being slammed as deceptive and full of "half-truths" by gay rights groups. According to one report, $1.5 million will be spent to air the ads in four Northeastern states, which are considering gay marriage bills. The National Organization for Marriage's ad depicts individuals, from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, standing against a backdrop of stormy clouds. With lines like --- “The clouds are dark and the winds are strong” and “They want to bring the issue into my life,” and “My freedom will be taken away” --- the ad is filled with ominous hints that gay marriage advocates seek to impose their values on others. Freedom to Marry Director Evan Wolfson told RAW STORY the ads were nothing more than “the same kinds of scare tactics and half-truths that they’ve trotted out before but obviously, produced in a slick, deceptive wrapping.” Another prominent gay rights organization, Human Rights Campaign, dissected the assertions made in the ad which include: (1) A California doctor who was forced to choose between her religion and her job, (2) a New Jersey church group that was punished by the state for not supporting gay marriage and (3) a Massachusetts parent upset that her son's school is teaching that same-sex marriage is alright. "All three examples involve religious people who enter the public sphere, but don’t want to abide by the general non-discriminatory rules everyone else does," HRC fired back in a release. "Both (1) and (2) are really about state laws against sexual orientation discrimination, rather than specifically about marriage. And (3) is about two pairs of religious parents trying to impose their beliefs on all children in public schools." Freedom to Marry's Wolfson, author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry, said, “What they’re really saying is that laws that ensure people have the opportunity to participate in society without discrimination based on sexual orientation that those laws somehow interfere with their ability to discriminate and shouldn’t be allowed." After suffering a serious setback in November with California voters’ passage of Proposition 8, gay rights advocates have enjoyed a slew of victories in the last week. The victories include an Iowa Supreme Court verdict in favor of gay marriage, the Vermont legislature’s legalization of gay marriage and a vote by the District of Columbia city council to recognize other states’ same-sex marriages. Coming so soon after the gay marriage setback in California, the anti-gay marriage movement has been surprised by these gay rights victories. Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, told The New York Times that his organization was caught of guard by the court ruling in Iowa. With legislatures in New York, New Jersey, Maine and New Hampshire set to consider gay marriage bills this year, Brown said his group decided to move up the start date of its multi-million dollar ad campaign. The New Hampshire House of Representatives has already approved a gay marriage bill that is now awaiting consideration in the state's Senate. Maine’s legislature is set to begin committee hearings on its gay marriage bill this month and the governors of New York and New Jersey have both said they will sign gay marriage bills if their legislatures pass them. “It’s a bad day for the country," Brown told The Times. "There is a palpable sense that something has changed and people need to get active." On the other side, Wolfson believes the gay rights community has found new reserves of motivation in the wake of Proposition 8. “Proposition 8 was very much a wake-up call,” Wolfson said. “I think a lot of people, both gay and not gay, woke up after election day shocked that the freedom to marry had been temporarily stripped away in California and they vowed that they weren’t going to sit on the sidelines the next time.” Just because the gay marriage movement has enjoyed some victories does not mean that there won’t be more losses down the road, warned Wolfson. The most important thing that supporters of gay marriage can do now, according to Wolfson, is to actively reach out to their friends and family members and explain to them why gay marriage is important. “The recipe for social change is information plus time. We have to give fair-minded-reachable-but-not-yet-reached-people, who are wrestling with this question, the information they need to rise to fairness and that information is the truth about how the denial of marriage harms gay [couples],” Wolfson said. “We have to talk about the legal and economic consequences of being excluded from marriage.” Get Raw exclusives as they break -- Email & mobile Email - Never spam:

Montevideo, Uruguay (CNN) The youngest ones already have learned conversational Spanish with a local accent. They have also made some friends in school. When a CNN team arrives, a girl called Khitam grabs the microphone from the reporter and pretends to do an interview in Spanish with one of the boys. "How are you doing in school?" Khitam asks. "Good" is the answer. They also seem to be adjusting well to the local culture. One of the teenage girls says she no longer wears the head covering know as hijab and is dating a local boy. But the parents of these Syrian children are not happy. Last year five Syrian families, 42 people in total, were welcomed in Uruguay as refugees. They were fleeing from war and violence in their native country. Two births in the past 12 months have increased their number to 44. The government of the small South American nation provided for their needs and helped with resettlement. But now most of the adults complain that Uruguay is very expensive. They also say they're afraid they won't be able to make ends meet once the government aid runs out in a year. The Syrian families gathered Tuesday at Independence Square, the main public space here in Uruguay's capital. The square is in front of the Executive Tower, where the Uruguayan President's office is. Maher al Dees, a Syrian refugee who arrived in Uruguay last year with his wife and four children, said he is concerned about their financial future. "They're giving us housing assistance for two years, but I'm afraid we're going to be homeless at the end of this period," Al Dees said, with the help of an interpreter. "They had promised they would help us indefinitely," Aisha al Mohamed, 18, another Syrian refugee who arrived in Uruguay with her mother, took courses to become a makeup artist but has yet to find a job. Al Mohamed said she likes life in Uruguay but her mother, Karima, a widow, is determined to return to Syria in spite of the conflict. At least 7.6 million other people have been displaced inside Syria, according to the United Nations refugee agency. That means more than half of all Syrians have been driven from their homes by the war , which has killed more than 200,000 people. "My mother doesn't like it here. She doesn't want to live here anymore. She wants to move back to the Middle East, maybe Lebanon or back to Syria," al Mohamed said. Uruguayan Human Rights Minister Javier Miranda said his government has done everything possible to help the families, even though the situation is not ideal. He said the story of a Syrian family who flew to Serbia in August only to be deported back to Uruguay for not having a visa has made the rest of the families fearful. "I think it's completely understandable if they say that they haven't been able to adapt to life here in Uruguay and want to move to a different country," Miranda said. "They have every right to leave if that's what they want to do." Representatives of the families were received by a government official at the President's office after their protest and promised an answer to their demands and concerns within 48 hours. "We would prefer that they wouldn't protest and that they would sit down to have a conversation with us as we have done in the past. They can stay in the resettlement program," Miranda said. While the adults talk, the children keep on playing on the grass in Montevideo's Independence Square. Khitam, the girl playing reporter, is still holding the microphone. "Why did you come to Uruguay?" she asks a boy. "Because they're at war back home," the boy answers. "Do you like war?" "Little." "Why are you here at the square?" "Because we want to go back to Syria."

THE son of the Labor kingpin Eddie Obeid is poised to avoid paying a $16.6 million debt his company owes to the City of Sydney council. Although they are owed only a fraction of his company's total debt of $17.5 million, some of Moses Obeid's company's creditors - who include family, friends and associates - will today vote to accept between less than 1¢ and 3¢ in the dollar in full settlement of the money they are owed. Debt ... Moses Obeid. Credit:Kate Geraghty This means that, despite being the largest creditor, the council is likely to be outvoted and then will receive as little as $150,000 in total settlement of the $16.6 million it is owed. Mr Obeid's company Streetscape had a licence from the council to manufacture multifunction poles, which hold banners, street lights and traffic lights on the one pole.

Game Dev Tycoon modding is taking off! Since we announced modding support for Game Dev Tycoon late last year we have seen a great deal of interest in modding and in a short time the community has created some impressive mods. To check out some of the best mods have a read through our first Game Dev Tycoon Modding Spotlight. Here’s a summary of these mods: The EPM mod adds many more topics, platforms, events and even some advanced features like the ability to create your own PC’s or to set your own sales price. The Cheat Mod finally allows you to cheat to your hearts content without endangering your save files by manually editing them. The Tweak Mod supercharges the settings menu, allowing you to speed up the game and gives you even the power to turn some of the notifications into less invasive text popups. The InfoStatMod adds more statistics to the game. The Camelot Expansion pack adds a whole lot of additional game options and UI tweaks (check out the feature list through the link). There are also a few experimental mods with a promising future: The Platform Randomiser turns your real world market knowledge useless and offers a greater (albeit currently some times extremely unfair) challenge. The Competitor Mod adds virtual competitors to the game. The Multiplayer Mod allows you to compete with other real players. If this list doesn’t impress you then check out our full mod list. To learn about how to install mods check out the modding FAQ. Please be aware that mods can turn your current save files inoperable so be careful when you install mods. Introducing The Ultimate Suite Today, we are not just celebrating a whole lot of awesome mods but it is also my pleasure to introduce the Ultimate Suite, a mod editor and mod library created by our veteran modders Francesco Abbattista (aka @alphabit) and Chad Keating (aka @SirEverard). Ultimate Mod Editor The Ultimate Suite includes the Ultimate Mod Editor or UME for short. With the UME anyone can produce Game Dev Tycoon mods by using a simple wizard mod creation tool. No coding experience or JavaScript knowledge required! UME not only allows you to add custom topics, platforms, engine items and events but also allows you to add your own achievements and lab researches. How cool is that? Answer: Substantially! Ultimate Lib While the Ultimate Mod Editor is a great tool for novice modders, the Ultimate Suite also gives more power to advanced modders through the release of the Ultimate Lib. The UltimateLib essentially expands on the features offered through our official modding API and provides many more additional features. Supporting our Modders Clearly our community has embraced modding in a big way and we can’t wait to see what’s next. Given the interest our fans have shown we think we have also a responsibility to further support modding. Last month we already published changes in our Modding Agreement that allow modders to accept donations. For good measure, and as a small thank you, we have made some donations to prolific modders ourselves and have other surprises planned. We have also dished out some ‘Advanced Modder’ titles on the forum and are working on a badge system for our forum to further give modders the recognition they deserve. Finally, we have started working on Steam Workshop support. At the moment this is in early stages but we are looking forward to giving our modders more exposure through the Steam community.

Git on the Command Line — Improving the Experience Sean Landsman Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 6, 2017 Git is great. Git was a breath of fresh air for those of use who came from a background of SVN, Perforce, ClearCase or…*shudder*, CVS. We at ag-Grid love open-source, and our VCS of choice is Git, with Github our choice of host. Although I live most of my time in my IDE (IntelliJ FTW!) when it comes to version control I almost always drop down to the command line. The support for Git in most IDEs is great — it’s more of a personal preference. I can script common tasks from the command line (although of course you could execute these script from the IDE), and don’t have to worry about synchronizing the IDE to the state of the file system (a rare problem to be fair). What the command line tells me is the truth — if I want to know what the state my project is git status tells me, in a quick to parse information dump. Familiarity and habit may also play a large part of my love of the command line though… Out of the box Git is great, but without too much effort the command line experience can be improved a great deal. With a bit of colour we and a few icons we can, at a glance, get most of the information we commonly require from Git. Do we have modified files? Check. Do we have files that are untracked? Check. What branch am I in at the moment? Got that covered. And so on. At the end of my playing around this is what I now use day to day here at ag-Grid: At a glance I can seee who I’m logged in as ( seanlandsman ), which host I'm on ( MPB ), the current directory ( ag-grid-dev ), what branch ( master ), the number of modified files ( +1 ) and the number of untracked files ( +1 ). If I happened to be in a non-Git controlled directory then the branch and file status information would not be shown. Adding Colour to Git — The Basics You can add colour to Git output by modifying ~/.gitconfig . The following will add colour to the main Git commands: [color] branch = auto diff = auto status = auto [color "branch"] current = yellow reverse local = yellow remote = green [color "diff"] meta = yellow bold frag = magenta bold old = red bold new = green bold [color "status"] added = yellow changed = green untracked = cyan This is great and already helps visually distinguish between the different pieces of information — a good start! Information… Without Asking The above helps, but relies us executing Git commands to get the current state of play. This is fine of course, but if like me you’d like a gentle reminder of what’s going on, and where you are, then we can improve on this. bash-git-prompt bash-git-prompt is a shell script maintained by Martin Gondermann which adds information to the command line for us. As with any any executable from the web there is a risk. I’ve read through the script and am happy with what it’s doing, but please ensure you’re happy with it before trying this too! You can install this either via Git clone, or via Homebrew. I work primarily on OSX and found the cloning method easier, but both should work. cd ~ git clone https://github.com/magicmonty/bash-git-prompt.git .bash-git-prompt --depth=1 This will create a directory within your home directory called .bash-git-prompt , which does the work of executing Git status commands and returning the results in a format with icons and colours - all of which is configurable. Next we need to ensure the script is run when we’re in the terminal. Add the following to ~/.bashrc: GIT_PROMPT_ONLY_IN_REPO=1 source ~/.bash-git-prompt/gitprompt.sh GIT_PROMPT_ONLY_IN_REPO=1 will ensure that the Git output will only be done in Git managed directories. As the terminal opens a login shell, your .bashrc may not get excuted in new windows. While experimenting you may want to add this to your .bash_profile to ensure your changes are picked up each time you open a new terminal window: [[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source ~/.bashrc The default configuration would give you an output something like this: This is a good start, but all of this is configurable. For my use case I’d prefer to keep the output a little terser, partly as when I’m working exclusively on my laptop screen real estate becomes a premium. I also (occasionally) work on remote hosts and it’s a good reminder to know what and who I am when I’m there, so I’d like to have this shown too. Finally, although nice I don’t really need to know the status of the last command excuted (the little green tick at the start indicates this). Themes are how bash-git-prompt allows for user configuration of the output. There are a number of themes provide with bash-git-prompt and I'd encourage you to try them to see what's possible, but in my case I decided to tweak the output to something bespoke. git_prompt_make_custom_theme Default The above will create a new theme file ( ~/.git-prompt-colors.sh ) based on the Default theme. I won’t list the entire file contents here, but will highlight the parts I’ve changed: That’s it! With these small changes in place I’m done — I have the output I wanted with very little configuration. I encourage you to give this a go, and experiment with the provided themes — you may find one of them already does want you want. I’d also encourage you to read the docs in the bash-git-prompt page — there’s a lot of good information there.

Thousands Protest Against Marriage Equality in France Waving pink and blue flags, at least 340,000 protesters flocked to Paris to fight against the president's support of same-sex marriage and adoption. Several hundred thousand people gathered at Champ de Mars Park at the Eiffel Tower in Paris today to protest against President Francois Hollande's plan to legalize same-sex marriage, according to Reuters. Anywhere between 340,00 and 800,000 protesters joined in (according to police and organizers, respectively), many of them waving blue and pink flags showing a man, woman,and two children. According to Tom Heneghan of Reuters, the protests were strongly backed by the Catholic Church officials, anti-gay comedian Frigide Barjot, political conservative groups, as well as some Muslims, evangelicals, and "even homosexuals opposed to gay marriage." Hollande's office told Heneghan that while the turnout was significant, it would not change his commitment to marriage equality. "The French are tolerant, but they are deeply attached to the family and the defense of children," said Daniel Liechti, vice-president of the National Council of French Evangelicals, told Heneghan. According to Reuters, support for marriage equality has actually dropped below 55% since opponents began their campaign, and "fewer than half of those polled recently wanted gays to win adoption rights." Many protesters expressed their belief that same-sex couples should have civil rights, but that children deserved "to have a mother and father." Many protesters also carried signs carried with slogans including "marriagophile, not homophobe," "paternity, maternity, equality," and "all born of a father and mother."

This is one of those sad times when The Onion realizes it has badly, and permanently, missed its IPO window. Just released from the Department of Justice Former Federal Agents Charged With Bitcoin Money Laundering and Wire Fraud Agents Were Part of Baltimore’s Silk Road Task Force Two former federal agents have been charged with wire fraud, money laundering and related offenses for stealing digital currency during their investigation of the Silk Road, an underground black market that allowed users to conduct illegal transactions over the Internet. The charges are contained in a federal criminal complaint issued on March 25, 2015, in the Northern District of California and unsealed today. Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag of the Northern District of California, Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson of the FBI’s San Francisco Division, Special Agent in Charge José M. Martinez of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) San Francisco Division, Special Agent in Charge Michael P. Tompkins of the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General Washington Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Lori Hazenstab of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General in Washington D.C. made the announcement. Carl M. Force, 46, of Baltimore, was a Special Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Shaun W. Bridges, 32, of Laurel, Maryland, was a Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service (USSS). Both were assigned to the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force, which investigated illegal activity in the Silk Road marketplace. Force served as an undercover agent and was tasked with establishing communications with a target of the investigation, Ross Ulbricht, aka “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Force is charged with wire fraud, theft of government property, money laundering and conflict of interest. Bridges is charged with wire fraud and money laundering. According to the complaint, Force was a DEA agent assigned to investigate the Silk Road marketplace. During the investigation, Force engaged in certain authorized undercover operations by, among other things, communicating online with “Dread Pirate Roberts” (Ulbricht), the target of his investigation. The complaint alleges, however, that Force then, without authority, developed additional online personas and engaged in a broad range of illegal activities calculated to bring him personal financial gain. In doing so, the complaint alleges, Force used fake online personas, and engaged in complex Bitcoin transactions to steal from the government and the targets of the investigation. Specifically, Force allegedly solicited and received digital currency as part of the investigation, but failed to report his receipt of the funds, and instead transferred the currency to his personal account. In one such transaction, Force allegedly sold information about the government’s investigation to the target of the investigation. The complaint also alleges that Force invested in and worked for a digital currency exchange company while still working for the DEA, and that he directed the company to freeze a customer’s account with no legal basis to do so, then transferred the customer’s funds to his personal account. Further, Force allegedly sent an unauthorized Justice Department subpoena to an online payment service directing that it unfreeze his personal account. Bridges allegedly diverted to his personal account over $800,000 in digital currency that he gained control of during the Silk Road investigation. The complaint alleges that Bridges placed the assets into an account at Mt. Gox, the now-defunct digital currency exchange in Japan. He then allegedly wired funds into one of his personal investment accounts in the United States mere days before he sought a $2.1 million seizure warrant for Mt. Gox’s accounts. Bridges self-surrendered today and will appear before Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James of the Northern District of California at 9:30 a.m. PST this morning. Force was arrested on Friday, March 27, 2015, in Baltimore and will appear before Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sullivan of the District of Maryland at 2:30 p.m. EST today. The charges contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The case was investigated by the FBI’s San Francisco Division, the IRS-CI’s San Francisco Division, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General in Washington D.C. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also provided assistance with the investigation of this case. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn Haun and William Frentzen of the Northern District of California and Trial Attorney Richard B. Evans of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. * * * * * Some additional, and simply epic in their stupidity details from the criminal complaint: The full criminal complaint can be found here.

Getty Images Updates From Tuesday, Feb. 18 According to Ed Werder of ESPN, the Rams are still open to extending Bradford's contract: Original Text St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford hasn't quite lived up to the hype since being selected No. 1 overall in the 2010 NFL draft. Considering the massive investment the franchise made in him and the minimal returns to date, Bradford's future with the organization may be in jeopardy. Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com released a league-wide report on Monday concerning the potential salary-cap casualties of the 2014 offseason and stated that the Rams have "no intention" of extending Bradford: With $27M owed to him over the next two years, the Rams have absolutely no intention of extending QB Sam Bradford—contrary to a midseason NFL report—but must decide if they still want him around since he's already received all of his guaranteed money. Yet later in the evening La Canfora painted a much different picture of how the Rams view Bradford's future with the Rams: A source says the Rams are open to an extension for QB Sam Bradford, who is due $27M over the next two years. A longer deal would still be a surprise to many, because adding guaranteed money beyond the current deal would make it cumbersome for the team to part with Bradford. Yes, Bradford was the last QB to get such an exorbitant payday before the league restructured rookie contracts, which alleviates some of the damage of misfiring on a quarterback or other player in the first round of the NFL draft. Now that his guaranteed money—all $50 million of it (h/t Spotrac.com)—has been paid off, St. Louis could release him to save cap room. BlackSportsOnline.com founder Robert Littal believes the Rams should sever their ties with Bradford, who will be an unrestricted free agent in 2016 under his current deal: Although he was playing well in 2013 before tearing his ACL in his seventh game of the season (90.9 passer rating, 14 passing touchdowns to just four interceptions), Bradford hasn't consistently shown the capability to be the face of the Rams' franchise. At age 26, there is still time for Bradford to prove himself, but it seems St. Louis' patience is wearing thin. Bleacher Report's Aaron Nagler weighed in on the situation, implying that Bradford has to perform immediately: Despite the major knee injury, Bradford expressed confidence that he'll be ready for training camp, per a Jan. 17 report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jim Thomas: Barring any major setbacks, I feel very confident for camp. From everything that [athletic trainer Reggie Scott]'s told me, he feels like that's an attainable goal. He feels really good with where we're at right now, and the progress that we've made in these first eight weeks. I think as long as we continue on this track, I'm confident that will be a reasonable thing. Yards per attempt has been a weak point for Bradford in his four years as a pro, with a career average of 6.29 in that category. He does have better athleticism than he often gets credit for, but Bradford's mobility is likely to be limited as he readjusts to the heat of gridiron competition. Releasing a player of Bradford's potential before he's had a strong enough supporting cast to play at an elite level would be a risk. The team has been patient with him all this time with bad offensive lines, underwhelming receiving targets and new systems. Considering the Rams have the Nos. 2 and 13 overall selections in the upcoming draft, offensive improvements can be had. If the Rams have a strong 2014 draft, perhaps Bradford will play at a higher level than ever before. Kellen Clemens served as a decent fill-in for Bradford this past season, but he's not the long-term answer. In the increasingly tough NFC West division, there is a clear sense of urgency within the Rams organization to build a competitive team despite the inherent youth on the roster. Whether it's Bradford, a top 2015 draft prospect or someone else, though, St. Louis won't be a viable contender until its quarterback situation is resolved.

The world of work for women is changing. A popular new Barbie construction set — yes, building pink mansions! — may help girls expand their view of what occupations are open to them, and that's welcome. But tradeswomen are taking action today: President Obama will soon be hearing from women electricians, plumbers, ironworkers, and carpenters about what it takes to succeed in the world of skilled trades work. In April over 650 tradeswomen gathered in Sacramento, California, for the “Annual Women Build California and the Nation Conference.” Iron workers and plumbers met with carpenters, electricians, and laborers. They cheered women leaders like Liz Shuler, Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO; the first woman and the youngest person ever elected to that position. The women listened to Ed Hill, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who called for equal treatment on the job site and in the union hall. Cement mason Alise Martiny, business manager of the Greater Kansas City Building Trades Council, offered her story of women’s leadership. These women are “leaning in" in ways Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg might not imagine. For one weekend tradeswomen from all over the country shared their stories and learned from each other. Most return to worksites where they are the only woman. The isolation of their day-to-day work lives is in stark contrast to the gathering. Some of these women are brand new apprentices, others are seasoned journey-level workers, the most skilled in their trade. Some have become apprenticeship directors and union officers. These are women who work alongside men to build our houses and hospitals, our bridges and roads, to connect our power lines and solar panels. They work with their hands and their heads. The jobs are demanding, rewarding, and often dangerous. But why are there still so few tradeswomen? What can be done to make these highly skilled, good paying jobs available to more women? Thirty-five years ago, President Jimmy Carter expanded Executive Order 11246 to prohibit sex discrimination in employment by government contractors. He established goals and timetables and outlined ways to reach out to recruit and train women for all jobs. An early goal was for women to be 6.9 percent of the workforce on federally funded construction projects. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs was established to oversee the enforcement process within the Department of Labor. There was active outreach, training, and oversight. Women began to enter apprenticeship programs. When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980 the enforcement effort slowed to a crawl from which it has never recovered. The OFCCP has half the staff today that it had in 1978. SPONSORED Women have shown that they are interested in this work and fully capable of performing the most difficult and dangerous tasks. Many have overcome hostile supervisors and co-workers, sexual harassment, and isolation. There have been grievances, complaints, law suits, and consent decrees. Many have also found male mentors, good job training programs, and support. Their stories have been documented most recently in books like Jane LaTour’s Sisters in the Brotherhoods. According to author and tradeswoman Susan Eisenberg, however, for the few women who get into the trades it is still not uncommon to hear stories of inadequate training, biased evaluations, unsafe assignments, and sexual assaults. Thirty-five years after the Executive Order demanded affirmative action and almost 50 years after Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination in employment based on sex, women remain pioneers on construction sites. Today only 2.5 percent of trades jobs are held by women. According to the latest reports of the U.S. Department of Labor, while women are almost one-third of doctors and lawyers and over 14 percent of our armed forces, they remain barely 1.6 percent of carpenters, 1.8 percent of electricians, and 1.3 percent of operating engineers. The numbers are worse for women of color. The problems are complex, and cultural stereotypes persist. The education and job training systems continue to track young women into traditional and low paying jobs. We need to reach young girls at an early age to make them familiar with tools and technology. On that front some hope maybe found in the new Barbie construction set and a Lego line promoting pastel construction toys called Friends. Twenty-nine year old Stanford engineer Debbie Sterling has introduced “Goldie Blox and the Spinning Machine." Designed to interest 5 to 9 year old girls, Goldie takes apart her ballerina music box to figure out how it works and weaves instructions for how to build a belt drive into the story. But what of those 650 women gathered in Sacramento? While their percentages are small, there are in fact over 175,000 women working in construction related jobs nationwide. In 2005, before the recession decimated the ranks of women and men in construction, there were slightly more women in skilled trades, 274,000, than there were women doctors, 268,000. There are thousands of women who can tell employers, unions, and government agencies what needs to be done; for example, update the regulations and increase the budget for enforcing the laws. Actively recruit women for apprenticeship and train male managers and coworkers in ways to end discrimination and harassment. In March Pat Shiu, director of the OFCCP, told participants at a New York summit on women in construction that the sector is growing again. 306,000 jobs were added in the last two years; half in the last five months. She has recommitted her agency to ending “systemic, pervasive and persistent discrimination” because “It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the law.” She has hired more investigators, improved training for the compliance officers, and increased the number of construction reviews per year from 238 to an average of 525. Reviews are focused on “mega projects” worth more than $25 million and first-time contractors. The number of violations tripled for things like not having a strong recruitment program, not ensuring an harassment-free workplace or not validating tests used for hiring. But, she reports, finding concrete examples of discrimination is more challenging. Initial data is often missing, small construction companies may have moved on by the time the OFCCP review is complete. Workers don’t complain for fear of retaliation and those who do complain often face a daunting process. Shiu concluded that the “key to getting more women and minorities in the construction trades is strong enforcement. And the key to strong enforcement is sound policy, updated regulations and a collaborative effort by government, industry and advocates to connect workers with available jobs.” To that end, the Department of Labor is to issue proposed changes to the Registered Apprenticeship Equal Opportunity Regulations in June and to the Construction Contractors Affirmative Action Requirements in October. There will be a time for public comment and tradeswomen’s voices are critical. Tradeswomen in Sacramento agreed to tell their stories. They are stepping up to email the White House about their trade, their union, and why they love their work, but also talk about the challenges they face, the barriers that continue to keep many women from following in their footsteps, and the solutions they see to these problems. They can take to Twitter and YouTube to let the world know why these new regulations are important and how they can help women and men succeed in securing good jobs, good pay, and satisfying work. And we can “like” and “share” their stories, supporting tradeswomen and the government officials trying to make a difference. It’s time for contractors and unions to step up too and collaborate in the fight to end discrimination and provide equal opportunities for women in the trades. As First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said, “We can’t just talk. We have got to act.”

What DW started decades ago, just keep's getting better, while staying "one step ahead" of the future, these pedals are always on the cutting edge, DW's the original, and the best crafted. Their commitment to excellence is epitomized by each "new" generation of the original, and they are the true Pioneers when it come's to the DBL pedals,, and they've been "building a better mousetrap" for 37 years. Each Series Model, (the 5000, 7000, 8000, and the sic 9000 series) affirms their dedication to give us drummers and percussionists the best equipment to express our craft..It is said that we (drummers) speak with our hands, and also, for quite some time now, when the music demands or inspires, many of us speak with our feet, too. Depending on your preference, any model number you choose or prefer, will become a crucial extension of "our Drumspeak" vocabulary. These are the original, and the best, and if your musical chops demand the dbls, don't settle for any others, get the originals, the best on the Planet, Get your D-Dub's on.... Read more

Appearing today on Good Morning America, Republican presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio may have unintentionally admitted something to host George Stephanopoulos: When asked why he seems to have changed his stance on immigration — he used to be a prominent supporter of comprehensive immigration reform — Rubio responded: Yeah, because it can’t pass. We’re not going to pass comprehensive immigration reform in this country. We’re not going to pass it after a migratory crisis on the southern border where minors were being sent here unaccompanied, after two unconstitutional executive orders. I’m being honest. They’re the ones that are not being truthful. The only way forward is through a series of steps that begins with border security. And it’s funny the Democrats attack Republicans for not doing what they didn’t do. When they had a majority in the House, a super-majority in the Senate, Barack Obama in the White House, they did nothing on immigration. And now they attack Republicans for not doing what they themselves didn’t do when they had the power, because this issue cannot be tackled in one massive piece of legislation. The senator may have a point when it comes to Democrats dropping the ball back in 2009, but seeing how the U.S.-Mexico border has never been more secure in its whole history, anyone who imposes border security as a first step is only setting up imaginary roadblocks to immigration reform. When Sen. Rubio says “we’re not going to pass comprehensive immigration reform in this country,” what he conveniently omits is “so long as I and Republicans have the power to stop it.”

BANGALORE: The Karnataka government appears reluctant to host a chip fabrication facility , two of which received in-principle approvals from the Centre on Thursday. The two together will involve an investment of Rs 50,000 crore.Bangalore is one of the world’s major chip design services hubs. The state was the first to enact a semiconductor policy. Yet, it sees a chip fab as an indulgence.I S N Prasad, who was the state’s IT secretary till recently, was quoted as saying (when he was with the IT department) that the fab would place an inordinate demand on water resources, which the state could not afford. The new secretary, Srivatsa Krishna, is less categorical, but non-committal nonetheless. “The issue will be reviewed after taking into account the specifics of the Union Cabinet’s approval and the Karnataka government’s requirements and priorities,” he said.So, for now, it looks like the two proposed projects - one by the consortium of Israel’s Tower Semiconductor, IBM and Jaypee Associates, and the other by the consortium of ST Microelectronics and Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp - could go to Gujarat and Noida.“The investments in these fabs are so huge that promoters cannot hope to take too much risk. So they will go to states that are the most hungry for them,” said P V G Meon, president of the India Electronics & Semiconductor Association ( IESA ).Fabs indeed require huge amounts of high quality water and power, and any state that hosts them will be expected to significantly subsidize such resources, because no fab can hope to compete globally and become profitable in the absence of government support.“But they also create an extensive eco-system that can potentially create plenty of both high-skill and low-skill jobs,” said Guru Ganesan, the India MD of Arm, the British semiconductor design company whose architectures dominate the mobile device space.The Centre’s decision on Thursday was widely and heartily welcomed by the semiconductor community, given that almost all chips and most electronic products are currently imported. “Setting up of such a high value manufacturing industry as semiconductor chip fabrication will have a truly transformative effect on the overall electronics industry. The historic significance of this approval will be felt for many years to come. Manufacturing in India will soon witness a new frontier,” said Aninda Moitra, the India MD of Applied Materials, which makes equipment for semiconductor manufacturing.“It will be a technological game-changer,” said Menon. He said a fab would bring other eco-system players, including equipment suppliers like Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA-Tencor and Teradyne, those who specialize in creating clean rooms and high tolerance HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), sophisticated supply chain players (the industry requires transport and storage of rare gases, for instance).Ganesan said if the government could simultaneously incentivize and create 30-40 local chip design houses that design chips for India and the world, the fabs would be better utilized and also create a more innovative environment.For Karnataka, the question is whether the water concerns outweigh these eco-system benefits. “If government desires, it can find solutions to the water and electricity issues,” said Ganesan. Another industry observer noted that Vietnam, a country poorer than India, hosted Intel’s biggest chip plant, as also some of Samsung’s chip facilities. “If Vietnam can do it, why not Karnataka?,” he asked.

Before introducing any legislation the Democrats hold hearings on the state of health care in this country. They bring in the top health care industry executives and ask them to answer for these grave injustices and in efficiencies: a. The practices of denying people care through rescission and denying people coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Rescission is where insurance companies will let people die because of a technicality. As soon as you have a serious, life-threatening condition (in other words, an expensive one, the kind you bought insurance for), they will go back over your original forms and see if there is any way they can deny you coverage. They have been known to deny treatment for cancer because someone didn't report they had acne -- literally. Then the Democratic congressmen and senators would get on all of the cable shows and pronounce that they are shocked to find out that private health care insurance companies kill people for a profit in this country. Of course, the reality is that they do. In fact, it is their fiduciary responsibility to do so. They must maximize profits, and in health care, one way to do so is to deny coverage for the most expensive treatments and conditions. b. Then the Democrats would ask the CEOs of these companies how much money they make. The CEO of UnitedHealth Group would have to concede that he has three quarters of a billion dollars in stock options. Then a Democratic congressman would lean in toward his microphone with great gravity and ask, "You mean to tell me that you deny people the life-saving procedures they need because it costs too much money while you personally are set to make over $750 million?" c. Then you bring out family members of people who have died because they were denied insurance coverage either for pre-existing conditions or because an insurance company executive had found some technicality in their forms. Ask them how it feels to go on without their loved ones and how they felt about the practice of rescission. Finally, ask them how they feel about the millions of dollars the CEO of the company that denied the coverage makes. d. Bring out the private insurance bureaucrats who deny people coverage on a regular basis. Not just the people who practice rescission or find pre-existing conditions, but also the people who decide what procedures you can and cannot get based on your coverage. Have them explain what bureaucratic standards they use to get between you and your doctor. e. Bring out the accountants of these private health care companies and have them explain how much money they spend on overhead, advertising and executive salaries. Ask them how much they have increased premiums over the last ten years -- the answer is a stunning 119%. Ask them to repeat how much money they spent on advertising and executive compensation. f. Bring back the CEOs and show them pictures of the people who died because their companies wouldn't cover their medical expenses, as they had promised. Then show them pictures of their own houses/mansions and yachts and jets. And ask them, one simple question: "Was it worth it?" After the hearings announce with serious concern and appropriate gravity that something must be done about this! The problem is undeniable and there has to be something that Congress can do to help protect the American people. Introduce single-payer legislation. Say that anything less would continue the rapacious system of private insurance for profit in this country. You wouldn't leave fire protection in the hands of private bureaucrats who get to decide who lives or who dies based on how much money their CEO is going to make. So, why would you do the same in health care coverage? No, it is an essential duty of the government to protect the well-being of their citizens. Announce that you must do the will of the people by voting as a Democratic bloc. The American people voted for 60 Democratic senators, and 60 Democratic senators they should have. Anything else would be a slap in the face of democracy. If they wanted the Republicans to be in charge, they could have easily voted that way. If they wanted the Republicans to be able to block legislation with filibusters, they could have given them 41 senators. But the American people in their infinite wisdom chose not to. They chose to give the Democrats an unstoppable coalition so that they could bring the real change they were promised. Treat the Republicans as the irrelevancy they are. Let them cry in the corner, but under no circumstances should you allow the press to consider them a pertinent part of this debate. Remind the press at every turn what they said and what they wrote when the Democrats were in the minority -- that the Republicans represented mainstream America and that the Democrats should not be covered because media coverage is about what will actually get done. Now that the Democrats have much larger majorities than the Republicans ever had, the opposite must also be true -- Republicans are an irrelevant minority party and the Democrats are the mainstream. If absolutely necessary, compromise with some of the more conservative (read corporate controlled) Democrats and settle for a public option. Then make an enormous deal out of how reasonable and magnanimous you are for coming up with this middle ground approach. Then brag about how you delivered on your promises, got the American people the change they voted for, and you still did it in a moderate and centrist way. Now, back in the real world, we know that the Democrats would never have the fortitude to do things this way, but you have to wonder why. What is missing in the politicians of this party that makes them incapable of putting together a strong argument for their own side? A spine or other body parts might be mentioned. But how long can people go on voting for a party that they know is constitutionally weak and almost never does what they promise? Especially when we know it's because they're too timid to? But it's not just a matter of having the courage of your convictions, you also have to question how savvy Democrats are. Why have they not realized in all of these years how the media game is played? Can they not see that everything in politics is framing? That it's not the answer, but the question that's most important. If you ask the question "can government run health care in this country?" you're having a different debate then if you ask the question "should we allow private health insurance companies to make decisions on who lives or dies based on how much profit they're going to make?". It's all in the question. So, I have one last one for the Democrats: How long can you keep getting outplayed by the Republicans, not deliver on your promises and continue to ask for our votes? Watch The Young Turks Here

Ed-note (Sabba) – This is the future king of England. This needs to be emphasized because from the outside, it is very easy to mistake him for the king of the jews. He was circumcised by a jewish rabbi (was ‘metzitzah b’peh’ performed on him?), he had his son George circumcised by a jewish rabbi (was ‘metzitzah b’peh’ also performed on baby George?), he broke a glass at his wedding to jewess Kate Middleton, making thus a vow to never forget the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and to do all he can to help rebuild it. But despite all this, he is not the the future king of of the jews but the future king of England and a hero to all white nationalists in the UK.

Ponting: a competitive series loss is the best Australia can hope for in India Ricky Ponting has given Australia little chance of upsetting India on the subcontinent, saying a competitive loss in the four-Test series will be a satisfactory result. The former Australian captain says spin-friendly wickets will see India’s recent dominance on home soil continue when the sides meet for the first Test in Pune, starting 23 February. “I think they’ll struggle. Every team that goes there struggles,” Ponting told Sky Sports Radio on Friday. “It’s become harder and harder for visiting teams. They’re probably making wickets to suit them more than ever before.” “Even looking at what happened in Sri Lanka, whenever the Australian team tours the subcontinent, you’re guaranteed the wicket’s going to turn on day one of the game.” David Warner and Travis Head set up Australia for ODI win over Pakistan Read more On their last Test series on the subcontinent, Australia were uncompetitive in a 3-0 loss to Sri Lanka. Ponting said he would be happy if the tourists showed some fight against world No1 India. “Unlike what happened in Sri Lanka, as long as they can find a way to be really competitive through the Test series ... I don’t think it’ll be that big a deal (if Australia lose),” he said. “It’s a really learning curve for our guys to find a balance between playing the Australian way, the Australian style, and adapting that to Indian conditions.” Meanwhile, Ian Chappell says Australia’s chances in India rest on star batsman David Warner turning around his modest record on the subcontinent. Opening batsman Warner, the recently-crowned Allan Border medallist, bounced back from a below-par Test series against South Africa to return to career-best form this summer. But his performances on the subcontinent have been less impressive, where he averages less than 26 runs in seven matches against India and Sri Lanka. “I would almost go as far to say that if he doesn’t fire in India, I don’t think Australia’s got much chance,” Chappell told Sportsday. “But if he does, he’ll make it a lot easier for the other guys coming in behind him. Plus, he will give the Indian spinners something to think about, because if he’s there, he’ll be attacking them. That’s something they probably haven’t experienced a lot.”

NEW DELHI: In what could boost National Investigation Agency’s probe into cases of Islamic State operatives of Indian origin, Karen Aisha Hamidon — named in radicalization of Indian recruits — has been arrested in the Philippines The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) of the Philippines arrested the prominent female online recruiter who has been acting on behalf of the IS on several social media platforms.Hamidon, widow of Philippines-based terrorist leader Mohammad Jafaar Maquid , gained international notoriety in 2016 when Indian agencies found that she used Facebook, Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups to recruit ‘foreign fighters’ from India and other countries.Since then, she is wanted by intelligence agencies of over a dozen countries.NIA had sent a letter rogatory (a judicial request) last year to Philippines seeking details and evidence on Karen. In its request, NIA had provided her address in Diego Shilang village in Taguig City, Metro Manila, along with her phone numbers and her identity as Karen Aisha Al-Muslimah with her ID as @KarenAishaHamidon.Now, sources say, NIA will approach Philippines once again seeking access to her, so that she can be questioned about her links with ISIS operatives from India, who are yet to be traced. NIA may request to question her, either by video conferencing or by allowing a team to travel to Manila, added the source.Karen was arrested by the Phillippines agency two days back from Manila.Two Indian ISIS operatives – including an Indian Oil Corporation manager Mohammad Sirajuddin, arrested from Jaipur, and 23- year-old computer engineer from Tamil Nadu Mohammad Naseer, deported from Sudan — had claimed they were influenced by Karen.NIA had even named her in two of its chargesheets last year. She reportedly influenced many Indians through Facebook, Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups meant for IS supporters in countries like the US, the UK, India, the UAE, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh etc.According to NIA, she managed large online groups – “IslamQ&A” and “Ummah Affairs” — where IS members shared Caliphate's ideology and jihadi material and expressed a desire to travel to the territory.Some of the Indian IS operatives who were in touch with Karen reportedly came from Mumbai, Tiruchirappalli, Hyderabad, Srinagar, Sopore, Kanpur, Kolkata and Jaipur.In its chargesheet against Sirajuddin, NIA had claimed last year that he joined one of the WhatsApp groups namely “Ummah Affairs” using his mobile number.Interestingly, Karen had blocked Sirajuddin at one point from the WhatsApp groups and Telegram channels run and administered by her as she had differences with him. Sirajuddin, who was in touch with another IS online recruiter identified as “Mad-Mullah”, felt that Karen was a traitor and spread information about her that she was from a rival group.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to produce six-monthly public reports examining the state of the market Australia’s competition watchdog has been directed to monitor the liquefied natural gas industry as part of efforts to force more transparency in the gas market, with the government expressing concern current supply guarantees from the industry are insufficient. Malcolm Turnbull said at the conclusion of talks with gas chiefs in Canberra on Wednesday the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had been directed to use its inquiry powers to compel the gas industry to provide information that would “shine a light on transactions with the Australian gas market and help it operate more fairly and efficiently”. The monitoring regime will run over the next three years and the ACCC will produce six-monthly public reports examining the state of the gas market. Reserving natural gas for Australian market wouldn't have 'good outcome', says Matt Canavan Read more The prime minister said in a statement the government remained concerned “that the east coast export LNG operators have not yet clearly articulated how Australian households and business will get adequate supply at reasonable prices”. “The government has asked the exporters to provide further information, in the context of possible regulatory options to address the short-term market issues.” Wednesday’s talks in Canberra follow an emergency meeting in mid-March where the prime minister warned the LNG industry he would use the commonwealth export powers “in the national interest” if the companies did not deliver explicit guarantees of more supply to the domestic market. The ongoing discussions between the government and the LNG industry were triggered by a public warning from the Australian Energy Market Operator earlier this year that there would be shortages of gas domestically by next summer if the government failed to intervene. The AEMO attended Wednesday’s discussion, which included the prime minister and three cabinet ministers. In a separate statement, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, said imposing monitoring on the industry would allow the ACCC to compulsorily acquire information, providing the government and the public with a complete picture of how the gas market operates, including prices and volumes. “The ACCC will be able to identify impediments to efficient supply and where the use of market power may exist – and propose measures to address any issues found,” Morrison said. “This monitoring will hold the gas suppliers to account with respect to their commitments to make more gas available to the domestic market and LNG exporters with respect to their commitment to be net domestic gas contributors.” The government has signalled it could be open to facilitating gas swaps, in which export contracts are fulfilled using overseas gas, to reserve more product for Australia’s domestic supply.

This a lighting mod that tries to recreate the look of Velen and Novigrad city from the E32014 trailersMany thanks to hodilton for the video!Update 1.4-Lots of changes in Velen(I hope you like them)-Almost all the bugs are fixed reported in previews versions-Nights are brighter because in some quests it and areas Lighting was almost blackUpdate 1.3-Updated Pictures to represent the new changes (except swamps they are still the same)-Fixed glowing trees in the distance (please send screenshot if you notice any more of those)-Fixed nights being too dark in some places (did not make nights brighter)-Changed Color of the grass and trees a bit, in Velen and outside of Novigrad to match E3 ones even moreUpdate 1.2-Fixed line Artifact in the sky-Added a bit more AOIS not Compatible with any other lighting mods!! However you can request merge and i will upload it as an optional file.The Mod is a work in progress so any feedback is more than welcome, Hope you enjoy it!Credits:special thanks to rmemrMade with the Witcher III Modding Tool, developed and released by CD PROJEKT RED for use with The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. © 2014 and ™ CD PROJEKT RED. All rights reserved.

The 22nd edition of The List Eating and Drinking Guide is out now David Kettle 22 April 2015 This year's award-winners include Aizle, Ox and Finch and Mother India's Monir Mohammed The 22nd edition of The List Eating and Drinking Guide is published today. Covering 950+ eating and drinking venues across Edinburgh and Glasgow, freshly reviewed for 2015-16 by a 90-strong team of locally based reviews, it charts the ever evolving and constantly improving eating and drinking scene in the two cities. Revealed inside are the winners of the annual Newcomer of the Year and New Bar of the Year awards. Selected from restaurants opening in Edinburgh and Glasgow over the past 12 months, the Newcomer of the Year winners are chosen by the Eating and Drinking Guide’s experienced team of reviewers and editors for the promise, innovation and quality they bring to the local eating scene. Edinburgh’s Newcomer of the Year winners are: Aizle: for sparking new ways to appreciate Scottish good food. Opened in spring 2014, Aizle offers not a menu but a list of ingredients, based around seasonal trends and foraging finds, from which Stuart Ralston and Krystal Goff create an inventive and expertly balanced five-course tasting menu that showcases both Scottish food and contemporary, open-minded cooking. Victor & Carina Contini Cannonball: for helping to reclaim the Royal Mile for good food. Victor and Carina Contini have built on their success at Centotre and the Scottish Café within the National Gallery of Scotland with a spectacular, three-storey food hub bringing together Scots-Italian heritage, classy cooking and warm hospitality. Glasgow’s Newcomer of the Year winners are: Ox and Finch: for bringing innovative and exciting food to an informal setting. Jonathan MacDonald’s understanding of global flavours is apparent in the imaginative sharing plates coming out of his open kitchen in his first restaurant, where texture, colour and appearance are as important as taste. Hutchesons: for a unique partnership blending heritage and fine dining. Restaurateur James Rusk has worked with the National Trust for Scotland on rejuvenating the A-listed Hutcheson’s Hall in the Merchant City, and the result is one of Glasgow’s most impressive restaurant spaces. The New Bar of the Year Award recognises Edinburgh and Glasgow’s hottest drinking spots, as well as their focus on good food, craft beers and a welcoming atmosphere. Edinburgh’s New Bar of the Year Award winner is: Spit/Fire: for its elemental fusion of good drink, food and atmosphere. The team behind Lothian Road’s Hanging Bat offer a stripped-back, atmospheric vibe in a warren of basement rooms in the New Town, curating one of the city’s best drinks lists alongside a menu of snack and comfort food. Glasgow’s New Bar of the Year Award winner is: The Vintage at Drygate: for destination drinking and dining in an East End brewery. Unlike any other place in town, the Vintage’s impressive industrial interior features a bar, beer shop, gig space and outdoor terrace, and its kitchen serves up small plates that offer bold flavours to complement the expertly crafted beer list combining global brews and local creations. This year’s Special Award goes to Monir Mohammed, founder of Mother India, which has restaurants and cafes in Glasgow and Edinburgh, for setting a standard for Indian dining in Scotland that is yet to be surpassed. Get The List Eating and Drinking Guide 22nd Edition.

With five minutes to go in the Pistons game, the Warriors were clinging to a 87-84 lead. GSW then push the lead out to 94-85 with the help of Draymond Green and his excellent defense, along with the work of the other switching Warriors. GSOM’s Thomas Bevilacqua wrote: After missing the previous game against the Hornets, Draymond Green returned to the starting lineup to play in front of his hometown crowd (having grown up in nearby Saginaw, Michigan and attending Michigan State University in East Lansing). Though he struggled as a scorer against the Pistons (totaling only two points), Green filled all the other areas of the stat sheet in this game. The Warriors forward tied a career high with 6 blocks, Here is a video analysis of that stretch, co-starring Kevin Durant, Nick Young and Shaun Livingston and his rear end. Draymond Defends vs Detroit Watch Draymond Green make great defensive plays along with the other switching Warriors, helping GSW pull away from DET. Co-starring Kevin Durant, Nick Young, and Shaun Livingston's butt. Posted by Golden State of Mind on Monday, December 11, 2017 (alternate YouTube link)

Note: although it is a simple matter to discover the true identity of “John”, the internet being what it is, I’m not going to blatantly do so here, as there is an indefinite court order prohibiting naming either of the boys. This is another entry into my series of a behind-the-scenes look at the episodes I write for the podcast Casefile. These posts will explain how and why I choose each case and the research that goes into writing the stories. This one is about Case 104: Mark and John. Note there are spoilers below. I have a penchant for internet-related cases, so when I first read about the Mark and John case, it was a no-brainer that I was going to do it. Read the rest of this entry »

It was almost like an episode from Bloggingheads.tv. On the one side was President Obama speaking on national security in a measured and statesmanlike way. On the other side was former vice-president Dick Cheney trying to speak on national security in a measured and statesmanlike way. It wasn't even close. Obama deftly wove his own personal saga and faith in American values with its future. His indictment of the Bush administration wasn't something that Obama wanted to deliver--as he made it clear, he wants to move on. Cheney's campaign to hail his own record forced Obama to recount, once more, why it was that the Bush administration besmirched America's Constitution, why "enhanced interrogation" didn't enhance American security but directly jeopardized it. Once again, Cheney, by contrast, offered a deceptively consoling vision of an America that can't lose its moral bearings because any measures that are deemed necessary to protect it are, by definition, just and righteous. Why is anyone even listening to him? The failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy has been patently obvious--a morass in Iraq, a resurgent insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan--note that Obama did not include Iraq as part of the struggle against terrorism--and the collapse of American standing around the globe. But since even Democratic Senators seem to be cowering before the idea of shuttering Guantanamo, it's worth briefly examining Cheney's modus operandi once again. In his speech at the American Enterprise Institute, which the Weekly Standard first posted, Cheney deployed a number of familiar tactics. First, he revived the bogus claim that Saddam Hussein was working hand-in-glove with al-Qaeda: "We had the anthrax attack from an unknown source. We had the training camps of Afghanistan, and dictators like Saddam Hussein with known ties to Mideast terrorists." Second, he depicted the Democrats as woefully out of touch with reality, trapped in a law enforcement approach when it comes to national security: "You can look at the facts and conclude that the comprehensive strategy has worked, and therefore needs to be continued as vigilantly as ever. Or you can look at the same set of facts and conclude that 9/11 was a one-off event - coordinated, devastating, but also unique and not sufficient to justify a sustained wartime effort. Whichever conclusion you arrive at, it will shape your entire view of the last seven years, and of the policies necessary to protect America for years to come." But as Obama pointed out, the Bush administration didn't really have a strategy, but an ad hoc policy towards prosecuting terrorists. Furthermore, Obama has not, and did not, say that 9/11 was an isolated event. In fact, he courageously noted that he cannot promise that another attack will never take place. But he also made it clear that stopping terrorism is his number one priority. Does that sound like someone who is asleep at the switch? Like a president, who, when listening to a CIA briefer warning about a looming al-Qaeda attack, says, "All right. You've covered your ass now." Third, Cheney claimed, "Our government prevented attacks and saved lives through the Terrorist Surveillance Program, which let us intercept calls and track contacts between al-Qaeda operatives and persons inside the United States. The program was top secret, and for good reason, until the editors of the New York Times got it and put it on the front page. After 9/11, the Times had spent months publishing the pictures and the stories of everyone killed by al-Qaeda on 9/11. Now here was that same newspaper publishing secrets in a way that could only help al-Qaeda." But what operatives and persons inside the United States did this program ever expose? Fourth, Cheney made it sound as though the Bush administration never embraced torture. The problem was confined to a few low-level, rogue guards: "At Abu Ghraib, a few sadistic prison guards abused inmates in violation of American law, military regulations, and simple decency. For the harm they did, to Iraqi prisoners and to America's cause, they deserved and received Army justice. And it takes a deeply unfair cast of mind to equate the disgraces of Abu Ghraib with the lawful, skillful, and entirely honorable work of CIA personnel trained to deal with a few malevolent men." Fifth, Cheney ridiculed the notion that the Bush administration's tactics boomeranged: "This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the President himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It's another version of that same old refrain from the Left, "We brought it on ourselves."

Advertisement Britain is preparing for a wet rather than white festive season this year as Storm Eva passed over the country leaving behind downpours set to intensify late on Christmas Day. The UK is preparing for up to six inches of rain as the already saturated county of Cumbria braces itself for yet more flooding, though the worst of it is not likely to hit until late Christmas Day. There is also a yellow ‘be aware’ warning for heavy rain from Christmas Day to Boxing Day across a wide area of north-west England - a fragment of 100 flood alerts and warnings in place for England, Wales and Scotland. Storm Eva roared in across Ireland and western coasts of the UK yesterday, bringing strong winds of up to 75mph and heavy downpours - and almost 2,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland are without electricity today after the fifth named storm of winter damaged power lines. The Met Office said rain will spread northwards across Cumbria during the afternoon and evening of Christmas Day. Then, during the early hours of Boxing Day, the rain is likely to turn heavy at times and then persist through most of the day. It has also put out an amber ‘be prepared’ severe weather warning for up to 150mm (5.9in) of rain in the county on Boxing Day. But meanwhile Britain is on track to break the record for its warmest December since records began in 1910 while some areas have seen their wettest. Danger: Waves crash over the promenade in Blackpool, Lancashire, today as the Met Office warns of 80mph winds and torrential rain Despite the chilly winds and brief spells of sunshine Lyme Bay, Devon, saw today, the country is bracing itself for a wet Christmas Day A lone seagull navigates its way along the coast the end of Chesil Beach, Dorset, this evening as sunset falls over the choppy seas A rare Christmas Eve full moon is pictured alongside the Shard in London which is lit up for the festive season The stunning full moon tomorrow night will be the first Christmas Day full moon since 1977 Crashing in: Storm Eva lashes the coast of Blackpool this morning as Britain prepares for yet more heavy rain over the Christmas weekend Spray: The storms moving off the Atlantic are expected to dump another six inches of rain in Cumbria. Pictured: High waves in Blackpool Windy: A cyclist attempts to overcome the heavy rain and high waves as she cycles along the seafront at Blackpool as the storm sweeps in No play today: Keswick Rugby Club in Cumbria is underwater as the weather-battered county prepares for another soaking this weekend Wet and windy: A man walks his dog along Harrington Promenade in West Cumbria as Storm Eva hits the region today Tricky stuff: Sophia Hurdman, six, from Caerphilly, pushes her doll's pram on the beach during stormy conditions at Tenby, South Wales The latest temperatures for December 1 to 22 show the mean temperature for the month in the UK so far has been 8.1C. The Met Office says this is 4.2C above the long-term average for the month and well above the previous record of 6.9C set in 1934. Following the unseasonably mild spell, bookmakers have slashed their odds on tomorrow being the warmest Christmas Day ever. However, forecasters believe temperatures may fall a couple of degrees short before creeping upwards again on Boxing Day. A William Hill spokesman said: ‘The odds suggest we are set for the hottest Christmas Day and December on record.' MeteoGroup said the warmest Christmas Days ever were 15.6C (60F), twice – once in Edinburgh in 1896 and again in Killerton, Devon, in 1920. Today, the Environment Agency has nine flood warnings and 36 alerts for England, while Natural Resources Wales has two warnings and 25 alerts out. Meanwhile the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has five warnings and 27 alerts - making a total of 40 warnings and 66 alerts for the UK. Shut: The Hampton Court Palace ice rink has closed to the public due to the warm weather melting the ice and making skating impossible Sign: This sign told disappointed customers how the temporary ice rink at Hampton Court Palace in South-West London had been closed Forceful: Strong winds hit the waves on the South Beach at Tenby in South Wales on Christmas Eve today Blue sky: There was plenty of sunshine at Portland Bill as the lighthouse stood proudly on the Dorset coast today Sir James Bevan, chief executive of the EA, told BBC Radio 4's The World At One that ‘we will stay on the job’ to help people ‘for as long as it takes’. He said today: ‘My promise is that we will do everything we can to help people recover from the recent floods and to prevent more flooding.’ Sir James, who added that the EA will ‘minimise the impact if and when that happens’, was asked if the EA can ever do enough to prevent flooding. ‘I don't think you can ever prevent all flooding at all times against all properties,’ he said. ‘Our goal is to make sure that we provide the maximum protection for the maximum number of people and their homes and their businesses.’ He said that after the latest run of bad weather the EA will talk to the communities affected to look at how they can be better protected in the future. Cover: Brighton is hit by heavy rain and wind today as the few people who venture outside on Christmas Eve shelter under their umbrellas Crashing over: A car is parked on Harrington Promenade in West Cumbria as Storm Eva hits the region today Last-minute: Shoppers in Windsor, Berkshire, dash through the rain as Chrismas Eve gift buying was made tougher by the conditions Inside out: The strong winds and rain caused havoc for last-minute Christmas shoppers in Windsor town centre in Berkshire today Family outing: Yorkshire came in for a lashing as well, with shoppers in Leeds city centre having to shelter themselves beneath umbrellas Protection: A man walking through Windsor shelters himself beneath a hood and an umbrella as the rain comes down in the Berkshire town Forecasters warned residents in the county to ‘be prepared for river and surface water flooding to occur with disruption to travel possible’. The Met Office said 60mm (2.3in) to 80mm (3.1in) of rain is likely to accumulate during Boxing Day, with up to 150mm (5.9in) possible over high ground. And more rain was due overnight in flood-hit Cumbria, where locals have been clearing up after the second deluge in three weeks. Towns in Cumbria, still dealing with the damage from Storm Desmond three weeks ago, were flooded for the third time in a month on Tuesday. Glenridding, Keswick and Kendal were all hit again, and localised flooding was caused in Appleby after the River Eden burst its banks once more. A flood warning siren prompted dozens of local people to rush to help - before the stone bridge over the river was closed as a precaution. Hundreds of staff from the EA are being used to help deal with the crisis, as well as troops who have been assisting since it began. MeteoGroup forecaster Matt Martin said: ‘Eva has come in across Ireland and western coasts of Britain bringing rain and gusts of wind. Here she comes: Storm Eva begins to batter the west coast of Wales at Cardigan Bay in Aberystwyth on Christmas Eve today Hitting the bay: Huge waves strike the west coast of Wales in Aberystwyth on Christmas Eve as wind gusts of 75mph hit at Capel Curig Gloomy outlook: A dog walker goes on a morning walk as moody and dark skies surround Plymouth in Devon today ‘There have been gusts of 75mph in Capel Curig in North Wales during the evening. ‘During the night the band of rain which has been affecting Ireland will push across Britain, and the winds will strengthen. ‘We can expect three to six hours of heavy rain in Cumbria overnight. 'And looking further ahead, rain will be persistent there throughout the day on Christmas Day.’ Martin Stephenson, a councillor for Appleby, said: ‘We are not looking forward to the arrival of Eva, the next storm... having had two floods already. ‘The first flood on December 5 was exceptional, it over-topped the defences. That was quite a blow. This second flood has been a normal flood. 'It is very prone to flooding, Appleby is noted for flooding, but normally just in the Sands area. ‘Residents and businesses get used to the fact that flooding is a risk nearly all the time. ‘Over the years they have built resilience to that. Even more resilience may need to be built into those areas looking forward. ‘We had what was called a one-in-100-year flood two weeks ago. 'We seem to be getting far more of these severe floods. You then have to ask questions, do you need to do anything more?’ Sandbags and flood defence barriers stood in doorways while skips lined the main streets as council lorries cleared drains and gullies of debris. Alert: Met Office rain warnings for Christmas Day (left, yellow for 'be aware') and Boxing Day (right, yellow, and amber for 'be prepared') Incoming system: Storm Eva roared in across Ireland and western coasts of the UK overnight bringing strong winds of up to 75mph Watch out: Nine flood warnings and 36 alerts in England, two warnings and 25 alerts in Wales and five warnings and 27 alerts in Scotland On the roads: Delays in the run-up to Christmas on Monday - with the grey area showing the normal time, and the coloured area the delay On the rails: Services in the South East will be hit by disruption over Christmas, especially those to Gatwick and Heathrow airports A low wall around 3ft high, built in 1995 and equipped with hydraulic gates to seal off the centre of the town, has prevented flooding many times - but this did not prevent the deluge earlier this month, Mr Stephenson said. Environment Secretary Liz Truss yesterday chaired a meeting of the Government's Cobra committee on the issue. She said: ‘We are doing all we can to support Cumbrian communities during this difficult time as we face unprecedented levels of rain and possible further flooding over Christmas as more rain falls on heavily saturated ground. I have huge sympathy for those affected. 'It's a terrible situation for already hard hit communities and is tougher still because of the time of year.’ The meeting of Cobra was to ensure every resource available was being deployed in the right place, she said. ‘The weather reports and river levels are constantly being updated and we are adjusting all of our plans to fit the most up to date information so we protect communities in the best possible way. ‘We have over 700 Environment Agency staff ready to respond to flooding, alongside armed forces personnel, as we prepare for all potential scenarios. Around 85 per cent of the country's temporary flood barriers are now in the county, many more sandbags are being delivered to areas shown in the latest forecasts to be most at risk. ‘More than 20 extra pumps are in the north of England, four of these are high volume pumps capable of moving one metric tonne of water per second. EA staff are also working round the clock checking and maintaining flood defences, clearing blockages in watercourses and monitoring water levels. ‘Our priority continues to be protecting lives, protecting homes and protecting businesses. The flood minister Rory Stewart is in Appleby from this morning to ensure the right help is getting through. ‘When I visited the area last week I saw for myself the fantastic community spirit and the incredible work of high vis heroes on the frontline - that work continues. ‘We have already put forward £60million to help these communities get back on their feet since the floods first hit earlier this month - we will continue to do what it takes to keep people safe and help the area recover. ‘In the longer term we have established the Cumbrian Floods Partnership to consider what more can be done to protect these towns and villages from future flooding. While it's too far out to predict precisely what the weather will do, we know there will be further storms on Boxing Day. ‘People should continue to look at EA advice over the coming days as a clearer picture emerges.’ Generous Daily Mail readers have so far raised more than £750,000 for our Christmas Appeal which supports charities in Cumbria and Lancashire aiding people whose homes have been devastated by the floods. Today, two Irish Ferries sailings from Dublin to Holyhead were cancelled and a third delayed due to bad weather on the Irish Sea. WARMEST DECEMBER ON RECORD FOR BRITAIN: PARTS OF NORTH WEST HAVE ALSO HAD RECORD RAINFALL Britain is on track to break the record for its warmest December since records began in 1910 while some areas have seen their wettest. The latest temperatures for December 1 to 22 show the mean temperature for the month in the UK so far has been 8.1C. The Met Office says this is 4.2C above the long-term average for the month and well above the previous record of 6.9C set in 1934. Meanwhile December has been dull and wet across the UK, with sunshine well down on the long-term average and precipitation above. Cumberland has seen 310.9mm of rain, beating the 2006 record of 248.2mm, while Westmorland has had 474.4mm (365.1mm in 2006). Meanwhile Dumfriesshire has had 314mm compared to 307.5mm in 2013, and Carnarvonshire has had 441.3mm (376.6mm in 1965). Mild Britain: The latest temperatures for December 1 to 22 show the mean temperature for the month in the UK so far has been 8.1C Wet wet wet: December has been dull and wet across the UK, with sunshine well down on the long-term average and precipitation above Hounds and riders set off on traditional Christmas Eve hunt as 250,000 prepare to support the countryside pursuit on Boxing Day Hounds and riders have set off on a traditional Christmas Eve hunt as 250,000 prepare to support the countryside pursuit on Boxing Day. Riders with the Beaufort Hunt were pictured today arriving at the Volunteer Inn for their hunt in the Wiltshire village of Great Somerford. The Countryside Alliance claims the 11-year-old Hunting Act is 'in tatters' as record numbers of supporters will attend Boxing Day meets. And they're off: The hounds lead off as riders set off on the hunt from the Wiltshire village of Great Somerford for the Beaufort Hunt Big event: The hounds arrive as riders gather in Great Somerford, Wiltshire, where the Beaufort traditional Christmas Eve hunt is meeting Ruff weather: Hounds look around as riders gather in Great Somerford for the Beaufort traditional Christmas Eve hunt It says more than 250,000 people will support about 300 registered hunts, who will be trail hunting on the busiest day of the season. The group claims that not one hunt has been prosecuted in the past year, and the last private prosecution collapsed earlier this month. Some 378 people have been convicted of Hunting Act offences from 2005 to 2014, but only 24 of these were with registered hunts, it said. Tinsel on her hat: A young rider sets off on the hunt from the Wiltshire village of Great Somerford for the Beaufort Hunt today Fancy a glass of red: Drinks are handed out as riders gather in the Wiltshire village for the Beaufort Christmas Eve hunt Playful: Children enjoy stroking the hounds as riders gather in the Wiltshire village of Great Somerford today The Act outlawed the chasing and killing of wild mammals with dogs, but it is not an absolute ban on fox hunting and allows some forms. The League Against Cruel Sports claim an an 'overwhelming majority' of Britons do not want hunting with dogs to be made legal again. Earlier this month it was revealed that RSPCA has dropped its controversial policy of carrying out private prosecutions against hunts. Lifeboat crews present two boys with their helmets after saving them during Cumbria flooding Lifeboat crews have delivered a special Christmas treat to two terrified boys they saved in the Cumbria floods. Sebastian and Jacob Holmes, aged five and three, were among six members of the same family carried out of a bungalow near Kendal. Royal National Lifeboat Institution crew members saved them in the early hours of December 6 as flood waters rose dangerously through the property. Christmas present: RNLI Flood Rescue Team volunteers Elissa Thursfield (left) and Guy Williams (right) with Sebastian and Jacob Holmes RNLI volunteers found Sebastian and Jacob, who were staying at their grandparents' house, taking refuge from flood water on top of their bunk beds. Rescuers encouraged them out by promising them their own Flood Rescue Team helmets once they were safe. Volunteers from the same RNLI teams travelled from Wales to the boys' home in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, to deliver the helmets for Christmas. The boys' father Alan Holmes, who was not with his sons when the floods hit, said: ‘Sebastian and Jacob said they had been promised helmets. Special gift: Ms Thursfield (left) with fellow RNLI volunteers Vince Jones (centre left), Mr Williams (centre right) and Martin Jones (right) ‘But I just assumed it was something the RNLI guys said to coax them out of the house because they were so scared. ‘But to take the effort to come up here and meet the boys in person and deliver them in time for Christmas is a fantastic gesture.’ The RNLI team also rescued the rest of the family and two dogs from the remote bungalow in the Levens area. They had been stranded for 12 hours and were using flash lights to signal for help while standing on kitchen tops and bunk beds to escape the water. Happy with their helmets: The Flood Rescue Team with the Holmes family - including Sebastian and Jacob Holmes, aged five and three Volunteers from Welsh RNLI lifeboat stations at Abersoch, Moelfre, Beaumaris and Rhyl travelled to meet the Holmes family and deliver the helmets. The boys' mother Helen Holmes said: 'In order to get my terrified children into the life raft, the RNLI volunteers had to promise the boys their helmets. ‘But we never thought they would turn up on our doorstep with them in time for Christmas. 'I am indebted to [the RNLI], not only for putting their lives at risk to rescue my family, but for being awesome human beings.'

Utility boring has started at the future “Gateway” connection, a planned path that will connect Historic Fourth Ward Park with the Eastside Trail. Georgia Power, Comcast, and AT&T will bury the utility lines near the Angier Springs access point to the Eastside Trail in preparation for the Gateway. The existing lines will be wired down the utility pole on Angier Springs, go underneath the Eastside Trail, and down the hill on the other side. The rig for burying the utility wires will feed the lines from down the hill into a small pit that will be dug just east of the trail without crossing the trail itself. The utility work will take approximately 3-4 weeks and will not impact trail use. Construction on the Gateway is anticipated to begin before the end of the year, weather permitting, and will provide access from the Eastside Trail to Historic Fourth Ward Park connecting the 2.25 mile trail with 12 acres of greenspace, a lake, and a modern playground. Visit the Atlanta BeltLine website for other construction updates as they are posted.

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Yuval Noah Harari about meditation, the need for stories, the power of technology to erase the boundary between fact and fiction, wealth inequality, the problem of finding meaning in a world without work, religion as a virtual reality game, the difference between pain and suffering, the future of globalism, and other topics. Yuval Noah Harari has a PhD in history from Oxford University and is a professor in the Department of History at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He specialized in World History, medieval history and military history, but his current research focuses on macro-historical questions: What is the relation between history and biology? What is the essential difference between Homo sapiens and other animals? Is there justice in history? Does history have a direction? Did people become happier as history unfolded? He is the author of two blockbuster books, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.

Published by Steve Litchfield at 21:03 UTC, November 21st 2016 Two new glossy videos have popped up today on HP Business's YouTube channel, with high production values, each looking at the Elite X3 system (phone/Continuum/docks etc.) from a different viewpoint. One takes the side of a typical company IT manager, while the other looks at the Elite X3 from the point of view of an end user in a similar company environment. In each case the concepts are the same - using the 'one device that's everything' approach. They're a little gushing, it's true, but they also put over the X3's unique selling points very well. See what you think. From the HP Business video channel: and Great to see such effort and production money being put into telling the Elite X3 story. As for AAWP, we still have our review Elite X3, but there's not much more to report on in the review series until the HP Lap Dock (shown briefly in the videos above) finally appears in real life. The videos make a good starting point for anyone questioning the 'point' of the Elite X3, especially with regard to its pricing. The first one talks about the system, including HP Workspace, in the context of 'saving money', showing how the X3 system can work out cheaper than having a multi-device configuration to manage for each employee. PS. See also our first four review parts and the Gallery from yesterday.

Where Confederate battle flag replicas once flew at Washington and Lee University in the chapel above Robert E. Lee’s tomb, controversy now hangs as Virginians prepare to observe the January 19 birthday of the Confederate general-turned-college president. Almost 150 years after the end of the Civil War, the skirmishing over how to remember the most famous rebel general continues even at a Virginia college named, in part, for him. About half the students and alumni polled by a campus magazine opposed the decision to remove the flags this summer. Fortunately, the university officials who made the call can draw on the example of an improbable and imperfect champion: Lee himself. Shortly after surrendering the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865, Lee became president of a war-torn school known then only as Washington College. The same day he took office, he took an oath to “henceforth” support the U.S. Constitution. He advised fellow former Confederates to do the same. Far from being relics of Lee’s tenure, the Confederate battle flags only arrived in the college chapel decades after Lee’s death and were later replaced with the historically meaningless reproductions that hung until recently. Lee did not want such divisive symbols following him to the grave. At his funeral in 1870, flags were notably absent from the procession. Former Confederate soldiers marching did not don their old military uniforms, and neither did the body they buried. “His Confederate uniform would have been ‘treason’ perhaps!” Lee’s daughter wrote. So sensitive was Lee during his final years with extinguishing the fiery passions of the Civil War that he opposed erecting monuments on the battlefields where the Southern soldiers under his command had fought against the Union. “I think it wiser moreover not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavoured to obliterate the marks of civil strife and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered,” he wrote. Admirable as that advice sounds today, it can, of course, be taken too far. An eagerness for reconciliation can easily become an excuse for revisionism, a danger that Lee himself demonstrated during his own postwar attempts at writing history. Lee wanted to prepare a history of his battles but struggled to obtain the records needed to compose it. He instead authored a short biography of his Revolutionary War hero father, Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee. What worried the younger Lee most about the project was that his commentary on the past would stir controversy in the present. “I do not wish to revive any partizan feelings or to incite party criticism against the book or to stir up sectional animosity,” Lee wrote. “I would rather allay such feelings.” Using that noble sentiment as cover, Lee took license to avoid topics that cast his own actions during the Civil War as contrary to the will of the Founding Fathers. For example, the final version excluded a line from an early draft conceding that his father had “zealously opposed” a series of resolutions whose arguments for states’ rights served as important milestones on the road to secession. The editing looks especially self-serving when coupled with the knowledge that Lee himself had scorned secession before the war because, as he put it then, “the framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labour, wisdom and forbearance in its formation … if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will.” Only after reluctantly resigning his commission in the Union army and following his native state of Virginia into rebellion did Lee attempt to argue that the “the leading men of the country” had always sanctioned secession. In his twilight years, Lee sometimes lost sight of the difference between mending a divided country and amending history. If his good intentions provide a model for defusing controversies today, his flawed implementation must also provide a cautionary tale about how trying to be too politically correct can lead one to be historically incorrect. To its credit, Washington and Lee University has struck a better balance than its latter namesake. While removing the tacky replicas of the Confederate battle flags from the chapel, it will show the originals on a rotating basis in the place where they belong: a museum exhibit dedicated to remembering a sad chapter in American history. Jonathan Horn is a former White House speechwriter and the author of a new Robert E. Lee biography, The Man Who Would Not Be Washington (Scribner).

Whoever the new USA Men’s 15s Coach is in 2016, he will have some extra work to do. While all national team coaches are expected to scout for talent, in the USA, tracking those pieces of talent is tougher than in most nations, and so more work falls on the desk of the Eagles coach. The teams are spread all over, and you don’t have a specific pipeline from the younger levels to a small number of top pro teams you can watch from your couch every weekend. Add to that the fact that college rugby is a bigger deal in the USA than in other nations, and young players stay with their college teams (usually) rather than getting tracked into a pro team or academy, and you’ve got a difficult environment for channeling the best players to the top. So a USA Head Coach has to do a little more digging to find players. In addition, and this is the really hard part, he has to keep track of, and in touch with, potential Eagles. That may seem that I am asking too much, and it might also seem like I am implying that previous coaches have not done this, and I am. It is too much, but it has to be done. Coaches have missed the boat on this. During every coach’s tenure since I began writing about the USA team in detail in 1997 has come under criticism for not communicating with players. Sometimes it’s just one or two players, often with a hint of sour grapes thrown in for flavor. Sometimes it’s systematic. What I know for certain is that the problem isn’t going away, and I also know that as international rugby becomes more of a young man’s game (just talking the men’s team here so I can be gender specific), it’s those young men I worry about. Look at the recent crop of U20 and HS All American players: Some of them have gone quickly into the Eagles setup in 15s or 7s - Titi Lamositele, Madison Hughes, Mike Te’o - so everyone knows where they are. But others who are potentially national team players are not in the loop. Maybe the Eagles scouting staff know what their plans are for Hanco Germishuys, Kingsley McGowan, Calvin Whiting, JoJo Tikoisuva, Steven Branham, Christian Weissing, Alex and Austen Taefu, but is can tell you that those players don’t know. While we’ve seen the likes of Ben Pinkelman, Moto Filikitonga, Seth Halliman, Nick Barrett, and Teli Veamatahau get some time in camps, there are others who are just kind of waiting and wondering. Louis Mulholland, a former HS All American scrumhalf now playing in the Bath setup, was named to the larger 2015 Eagle player pool, but that turned out to be a complete surprise to him. You’d think, with Mike Petri nearing the end of his wonderful career, you’d want to be on top of every scrumhalf - Tom Bliss, Michael Reid - out there. Suwaiter Poch, a bruising former HSAA hooker with skills and strength, is not in a high-level rugby environment at the moment. He needs guidance. Justin Allen, a 6-10 lock who was on the HSAA team is playing low-level club rugby in England. Tikoisuva is at a crucial crossroads. Somebody, in my opinion, needs to be on the phone and in email contact with these types of players. Then there’s football. And for every Thretton Palamo or Brett Thompson, players who went from rugby to football back to rugby again, there are many others who don’t have as smooth a journey. That, again, is because, I believe, those players aren’t watched, tracked, or contacted. Think of Aaron Mitchell (San Diego Mustangs Rugby, Fresno State Football), or Psalm Wooching (Kona Bulls Rugby, University of Washington Football), or Reggie Corbin (Gonzaga Rugby, Illinois Football) just to name three, players who might return to rugby after a successful football career and might be a benefit to a club, a development academy, or a national team. Consider that some of the USA’s most promising big forwards coming out of high school, like Cameron Griffin, Leki Fotu, and Liam Jimmons, are now in DI college football programs Here’s the thing - too many at the leadership levels think that playing for the USA is such a great honor that someone should automatically drop everything to play. Sometimes a job, school, family, or something else gets in the way, and if that player only knew ahead of time what might be required of him, he would have been able to change things. Too many think that rugby is so magnetic that an athlete will return to it. But there’s a paying job, or the fact that one’s local rugby club is a steep dropoff from a DI football team, that makes it less desirable. I’m not saying give someone special treatment. All I am saying is, if a guy has talent, call him, and tell him you want him. Being wanted means a lot. Telling him what the expectations are means a lot too. I spoke at length with USA Rugby HP Director Alex Malgeby about this, and he touched on some of these issues. USA Rugby now has the BridgeAthletic app working that allows players to track and be tracked in their athletic metrics. That’s very useful, although the part of BridgeAthletic that allows for coach comments (say, after a National Tracking Camp), is, according to reports, woefully under-used. The numbers and the standards are useful, but what about coach feedback? The National Tracking Camps are also a way to at least get players on a list and in the system, said Magleby. And players have already been found through the NTCs. For the record, the list of NTCs on the USA Rugby website is http://usarugby.org/usa-rugby-national-team-olympic-recruitment-camp However, if you’re a young athlete looking to get to the next level, and you go to usarugby.org, you don’t see anything that immediately tells you about the NTCs. You’ve got to go under National Teams, then click on one of the teams listed, and click on “Become an Eagle” (even if you aren’t that good yet and don’t think you are national team level, you have to be able to realize that “Become an Eagle” is the link to click) and then click on the link within the article about Talent Identification. Whew. Or just go here. http://usarugby.org/usa-rugby-national-team-olympic-recruitment-camp Now, my hope on the NTCs is that there are more. This past year was the rollout time for the NTCs and nine were held. But they held only nine, of which most were on the coasts and in the north. See the graphic below. There were two NTCs held south of the big blue line. There was only one held inside the green box. The wavy-line boxes represent areas with strong athletic histories where no NTCs were held. Hawaii … event Eddie “circle-the-wagons” O’Sullivan went to Hawaii. So USA Rugby should do more, and I expect they will. If holding NTCs is important to the pathway, they have to be made available. Magleby, then turned to the role of the Head Coach of the USA, saying that historically, player identification “has been done, or not done as the case may be, by each individual coaching staff. It’s unacceptable for an athlete on the radar to not know where he or she stands and what her/his work-ons are to get back into the team. We have been asking more of our coaches to implement that immediate feedback and pedagogical loop. Hopefully some of the systems we are putting in place (BridgeAthletic, for example) can help make this process more effective for the coaches and players.” There is a ton of data, and long, long lists of players. And he’s right, it’s been done, or not done, but the Head Coach. Now is the time for it to be done. Key in this, is that the job of keeping players in the communication loop is up to the Eagle coaching staff. This is part of the job. If the Head Coach doesn’t want to do it, assistants have to do it. And they have to do it not just with the 30 guys in an assembly, but the next 70 or so who weren’t picked, and the guys who are a year away. It’s not negotiable. It has to happen. I spend a ton of time in these pages talking about talented young rugby players, and while we in America depend on coaches in high schools and colleges and development academies and clubs to get young players up to the standard, the players need to know where they stand. And not just from their regular coach, who might be saying “you’re the best there is and I don’t know why they didn’t pick you - probably politics.” USA Rugby, and especially the next Men’s 15s Head Coach, needs to get in front of that, and on the phone with the next generation of players. Now.

This Wall St. Journal article also says that despite the cutbacks in teaching jobs even for programs like Teach for America, the number of students working toward teaching certifications is rising: Jacqueline Frommer thought her career path was set when she landed her dream job last summer teaching fourth grade in Pompano Beach, Fla. Last month, she got laid off. Ms. Frommer, 25 years old, said in college she was told teaching was among the steadiest jobs around. Now "there is no job security anymore," she said. In a sign of how severe the employment downturn is getting, even schoolteachers, an occupation once viewed as recession proof, are feeling the pain. Education jobs grew steadily in recent years amid rising enrollment and government efforts to reduce class sizes. Now the increase in teaching positions has leveled off as school districts struggle with budget pressures. The demographic bulge caused by children of baby boomers -- the so-called echo boom -- has also begun to wane. Los Angeles Unified School District laid off 2,500 teachers this spring. Broward County, Fla., Ms. Frommer's district, cut 400 school jobs. Rochester, N.Y., laid off 300 teachers. Other districts have avoided cuts by negotiating pay reductions and enacting furloughs and hiring freezes. In June, education jobs actually ticked up 0.5% nationally to just under 3.1 million on a seasonally adjusted basis. But the number of education-related jobs has declined in six of the past 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That contrasts with annual growth of about 3% over the past 15 years in the education field. In the past year, education jobs have grown at about half that rate. Most in demand are teachers in math, science and special education. College instructors have also been in high demand. Many of the layoffs came in June as teachers prepared to say goodbye to their students for summer. Union and state rules require schools to give teachers notice before the end of the school year if their jobs won't be there in the fall. Heather Clutter, an elementary teacher in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., learned 15 minutes before the end of the last day of school in early June that she was one of 200 teachers being laid off in the area -- just weeks after learning she was pregnant. "You always think of teaching as a safe profession. Once you get in, you're there, you'll be able to retire," she said. "Not so much right now."

Arthur Coningham was a dependable allrounder - a left-hand batsman and fast bowler - who played only once for Australia, against England at Melbourne in 1894-95, although he also toured England in 1893. But he was undoubtedly one of the game's more colourful figures and was once described as having "the audacity and cunning of an ape and the modesty of a phallic symbol." His sole Test was memorable as he was no-balled, and in anger he deliberately hurled the next ball at AE Stoddart, England's captain. On his tour to England, during which he was awarded a medal after saving a boy from drowning in the Thames, he reportedly started a fire in the outfield during one match "to keep warm". A chemist by profession, he was made bankrupt, but once discharged became a bookmaker, carrying a satchel embossed with "Coningham the Cricketer". But perhaps his most famous moments came in 1900 when he conducted his own (unsuccessful) defence in a divorce case when he accused the private secretary of Cardinal Moran, head of the Australian Catholic Church, of adultery with his wife. The trial and retrial enthralled the public, and although Coningham lost, the priest, Francis O'Haran, was guilty. Coningham's wife subsequently admitted that the couple's third child was O'Haran's. The couple emigrated to New Zealand where Coningham worked as a book salesman until being sentenced to six months in prison for fraudulent conversion. In 1912 his wife divorced him after he committed adultery in a beach shed. He returned to Australia and died in a mental institution. His son, Sir Arthur Coningham, was a World War Onew flying ace and went on to become an Air Marshall. Martin Williamson Arthur Coningham played for Queensland and New South Wales and in 1893 came to England but did nothing noteworthy. His highest innings was 151 for Queensland against New South Wales. In a match at Brisbane in 1891 for Stanley against Alberts in the Aitchinson Ale Trophy competition, all Stanley's 26 runs were made by Coningham. A left-hand batsman and bowler, he ranked high at home as an all-rounder. A first-class runner, rifle shot, billiards player and oarsman he also played football. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

Last week, the New York Times featured long-time NHL enforcer Donald Brashear's current lot in life: "playing in the rough-and-tumble Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey because he still loved the game." The story chronicled a brawl involving Brashear and opponent Trois-Rivières goalie. "It was just like I told you," a calm Brashear said in the same corridor afterward, "things got out of hand." Here's video of the time things got out of hand. And that video up top? Well, that's from JT at 25Stanley, "The Finger Licking Sportsfeed." Whether in English or in French, it shows Brashear drinking, ass-wiggling and pounding the air and his beer. It's difficult to discern whether these are the actions of a guy just livin' the dream or a stubborn sad clown. Friend Donald Brashear Friend, Raise Your Glass, Raise Your Glass [25Stanley] (H/T JT) Advertisement Fighting to Stay in the Game [New York Times] The Official Site of Don Brashear [DonBrashear.com]

October 16, 2017 A Fair Accusation of Sexual Harassment or a Witch Hunt? “In an interview with the BBC published early Sunday, director Woody Allen addressed the wave of allegations against Harvey Weinstein, calling it ‘tragic for the poor women’ but also warned against a ‘witch hunt atmosphere.’” — New York Times, 10/15/17 - - - 1. George is a middle-aged man who works in an office with a younger female colleague, Annie. The female colleague wears a short skit one summer day to the office. George comments, “Nice gams, Annie” and gives her a wink. Annie files a complaint with HR. Is this: A. A witch hunt B. A fair accusation of sexual harassment 2. In the year 1693 in Salem Village, Sarah Good is a woman living in poverty and disliked by the townspeople. A jury of men decide that she was a witch after forcing her to confess that she signed her name in the “Devil’s book,” a thing that does not exist. She is hanged several days after giving birth to a daughter. Is this: A. A witch hunt B. A fair accusation of sexual harassment 3. Lucas is a photographer in New York. He often comes in contact with models and sometimes when directing — whoops! — he gives them a quick pat on the bum. Several models have reported him, but nothing has been done. Is this: A. A witch hunt B. A fair accusation of sexual harassment 4. Sarah Osborne doesn’t go to church like the townspeople of Salem expect her to. Because of this, a group of men decide she is a witch and is accused of using dark magic to pinch several young girls in town with invisible knitting needles. They arrest her, put her in prison, where she dies. Is this: A. A witch hunt B. A fair accusation of sexual harassment 5. Anderson manages a restaurant. He hires a new server, named Ella. While rubbing her shoulders he tells her that if she wants more tips she should wear a lower cut shirt. Ella does not feel comfortable around Anderson, but needs a job to pay her rent, so she only mentions this to her friend who says he’s done it to her, too. Is this: A. A witch hunt B. A fair accusation of sexual harassment 6. Tituba is a woman from Barbados, but is now enslaved by white people in the town of Salem. She continues to practice her religion, which the people of Salem don’t understand. They assume it means she is a witch and beat her until she confesses and rambles about black dogs and riding on sticks, then imprison her, despite no evidence that witches actually exist. Is this: A. A witch hunt B. A fair accusation of sexual harassment - - - Sexual harassment: 1, 3, 5 Witch hunt: 2, 4, 6

Getty Images Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson might be risk-averse anyway. But with just six draft picks, and a stated need to “really hit this out of the park,” he might become even ore conservative when it comes to character concerns this year. “It’s tough to stay disciplined because when you see players on film that are quote, unquote ‘game wreckers,’ you want those guys,” Grigson said, via Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star. “You want those guys that pop and can make an impact. We’ve gotten burned even in the later rounds with those types of guys. So, why the heck would we go early and take a guy like that?” While he didn’t mention him by name, that could preclude the Colts from filling a pass-rush need with a player such as Noah Spence, who was kicked out of Ohio State and eventually banned from the Big Ten for multiple failed drug tests. He could clearly help the Colts if he’s eligible, but after whiffing on first-rounders recently, Grigson can’t afford a big mistake. When first-rounders have been spent on Trent Richardson, Bjoern Werner and a yet-to-produce Phillip Dorsett, the chances that Grigson will make a safe bet are safer than they’ve ever been.

Midway juncture in the Six Nations and Ireland need to deliver against France. Otherwise Cardiff and England’s visit to Dublin will disappoint as we rely on the ‘English factor’ for the final match. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest Ireland will hit their straps on Saturday. Johnny Sexton’s return, if it happens, will be an obvious boon. Also, the backrow trio have shown enough in their individual displays to expect an outstanding collective showing. This cannot be understated because Louis Picamoles and Kevin Gourdon are playing as well as any backrowers out there. Like all teams, Ireland look very pedestrian when denied momentum at key breakdowns. But slow the All Blacks possession and they torpedo Julian Savea over the gain line. Same for England with any number of their humongous men (including Ben Te’o). Murray is so important to everything Ireland seek to do that maybe he can use this game to refocus on what he loves, attacking with the ball in hand, letting others take on more responsibility France? They can catapult Picamoles or a Fijian winger at the defensive line and are rediscovering the traditional ability to offload to the supporting runner. Robbie Henshaw has been doing something similar all this season but Iain Henderson and Sean O’Brien are not making the crucial yardage (it’s almost unfair that we judge them by their own high standards), not yet anyway, in this Six Nations. No reason why this won’t change on Saturday. Seanie has enough minutes banked now, and despite making couple of bursts in Murrayfield, he has been snagged by tackles with his trailing leg tending to be held long enough for the second man to deny an all out charge. Also, Conor Murray has yet to repeat the complete performance we saw in Chicago. This might be coming. He is so important to everything Ireland seek to do that maybe he can use this game to refocus on what he loves, attacking with the ball in hand, letting others take on more responsibility, like the kicking via Johnny, Zebo, Kearney or Jackson. He will benefit enormously from Sexton’s return. Murray is arguably the best scrumhalf in the world right now, certainly he was in November, so his fitness and form is crucial to Ireland beating France. What Murray has done for so long, just not in his last two matches, can be used to exploit slow moving French forwards. His ability to dart through the smallest gap created by tardy defending is not what France are expecting from Murray or Ireland at this moment. Show them the Irish playbook, shape up a predictable way, then do something different. Murray can do almost everything required from the modern half back and maybe this is a chance to re-establish why he is so good. Kieran Marmion also has a fantastic eye for a break. If he features at all I see Schmidt empowering him to go out and do what he does best - fresh legs to attack a defence already drained by a rejuvenated Murray. One of the many benefits Joe brings is his ability to inspire players, especially the untested, to make them better. Asking Marmion to box kick like Murray or get to every ruck could place an unbearable burden on his shoulders. Marmion could be tactically deployed and allowed to do what he does best; sniping puts the onus on others to maintain the momentum he creates. That means a winger will need to step in to get the ball away, or whoever arrives after the possession is secured, be it Tadhg Furlong, Jack McGrath, whoever. They are all comfortable throwing off the ground. That’s just one example of Joe’s Ireland preparing for any scenario, of turning what seems a glaring weakness caused by losing our most important player, into an attacking weapon in the final 20 minutes when we must keep playing with tempo. That’s how Schmidt would see it; don’t ask him to play like Conor Murray, play like the scrumhalf who helped Connacht win the Pro 12 title. And anyway, the best place to hurt any defence is to funnel through the hole created. Both our scrumhalves are experts at this. France will probably concede a penalty just to stop the bleeding. Attack them where they are sluggish. I remember hearing that Carlos Spencer had a trigger word to yell at Justin Marshall whenever he saw a front rower in his path. The call would mean Marshall zipped the ball in front of Spencer’s chest. Scotland outhalf Finn Russell did exactly that when he saw Uini Atonio lumbering to his feet in Paris. Russell zipped past the tighthead and a penalty advantage came from the next contact. A phase later Stuart Hogg was gliding over. There is a misconception out there about Schmidt being an hard taskmaster. There is no fear of the man himself – Joe is an affable guy, good company – but the worry for players comes from failing to hit the markers he demands. Because Schmidt will find someone who can. That motivates the group. It certainly did when I was there. It focuses the individual mind to achieve excellence in a collective performance. Even a superstar who refuses to correct his defensive positioning or entry into rucks will not survive long in a Schmidt team. There are plenty of them in this French squad. Craig Gilroy looked really impressive running in three tries against Italy. Afterwards, Joe described his performance as a mixed bag. That will make Gilroy a better international winger because instead of basking in what he did well he must look to improve his positioning in defence. The contrarian will always say isn’t that his job? Yes it is, but the modern winger needs to score tries in his sleep and be a jack of all trades elsewhere. Scoring tries, while obviously important, is usually the end product of other players graft. For Ireland under Schmidt, the focus is on all round value to the team. That is a key message. The really hard work is done so I imagine from afar – despite being less than two seasons out of the game it already feels like some distance – that Schmidt will have challenged his players to pull all the pieces together against France. The best game plans are based primarily on deception. Because France, for all the signs of progress or a return to traditional values, will seek to beat Ireland up. An attritional approach is how they know they can win in Dublin, if the flair they so desperately seek ignites, then great. The direct approach has been the French blueprint in every game against Schmidt’s Ireland. Granted, Noves was not always the coach. This aggression must be met, for the large part, yet the trick is to know precisely when to avoid it. How to strike a balance? This is where the coach shows his worth, proves he can outfox a bigger, more powerful, albeit sluggish team. Put France on the back foot, avoid an all out, direct conflict and play to maximise our resources. What else will France do? For starters, they will counter attack at every opportunity. We saw how dangerous they can be in Twickenham. In the toughest moments of Schmidt’s time in charge, Ireland have been exposed but what has made them so successful has been their ability to bounce back from adversity, accuracy in the coaching and his ability to catch the opposition off guard. The Ireland playbook has a myriad of alternatives. We have been playing a lot of set up rugby this campaign; hitting the middle of the field and working possession off this. Noves has seen this so the simpler options are gone. For the first time a French coach has the benefit of keeping his players in camp during the gap week so they will be prepared for how Ireland attacked in Edinburgh and Rome. So the obvious option will be harder to execute. Expect something new, something to spark Ireland’s Six Nations. Keane the right man to take Connacht, and Aki, forward Rugby roots have taken hold in Connacht. Pat Lam compiled a quality squad, using whatever means available, and delivered a Pro12 title before convincing vital players into signing new contracts, which should make the handover to Kieran Keane this summer the smoothest in the province’s history. There is never a better time for a coach to move on than after success, so Keane for Lam may be what the province needs to ensure sustainability. The 63-year-old Kiwi seems like an astute appointment. Bundee Aki has been given free rein on the field under Lam, which has worked wonders. Aki has been the cornerstone of so much positivity in Connacht’s play, be it an inspirational break or jarring hit in midfield. Keane would know all about him because he knows all about the underage talent in New Zealand over the past 20 years. He certainly coached against him so he’ll have an idea how to get the best out of him and the rest of them. I see no reason why, with a bit more direction from a no nonsense taskmaster like Keane, who understands twentysomething Kiwi players, that Aki cannot become an even better player. This could be as harmonious a transition as the Cheika-Schmidt situation in Leinster, building on a strong foundation and polishing an already strong culture with a new voice.

Details Written by Erich Wetzel Erich Wetzel Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews Created: 15 July 2016 15 July 2016 Note: Measurements can be found through this link. At $4300 USD, the Moon Neo 330A is Simaudio’s lowest-price power amplifier. It’s primarily meant for use as a stereo amp, for which it is specified to output 125Wpc into 8 ohms or 250Wpc into 4 ohms. Or two of them can be used in bridged mono, each producing 400W into 8 ohms. Like all Simaudio products, the Moon Neo 330A is designed and manufactured at the company’s headquarters in Boucherville, in Quebec. It is a companion to the Moon Neo 350P preamplifier, which I reviewed in March and thought bettered the sound of my own reference preamp, Hegel Music Systems’ P20. I wondered if the Moon Neo 330A would impress me as much. Description The Moon Neo 330A ships in high-quality packaging of cardboard, foam, and plastic. Included are a heavy three-pronged power cord, a spare 6A fast-blow power fuse for my 120V version, a single 12V trigger cable, an owner’s manual in French and English, and registration documentation to extend the standard one-year warranty to ten years (nontransferrable) at no additional cost. The Neo 330A’s dimensions are identical to the Neo 350P’s: 16.9”W x 3.5”H (including feet) x 14”D. It weighs 33 pounds and feels fairly dense. The Neo 330A shares the visual styling used for most of Simaudio’s current models: thick, shapely, curved “cheeks” at either end of an even-thicker flat center panel, for a look more sculptural than that of the usual rectangular box. My sample was black across the center, with black cheeks -- the silvery feet contrasted nicely with it. The other options are all silver or my favorite, two-tone: black center with silver cheeks. From top to bottom on the vertical midline of the almost empty faceplate are the Simaudio Moon logo, a blue power LED, and a small, round, silver Standby button. The vented top panel is made of a heavy-gauge, textured, black metal; the screws securing it are the only visible connectors. The side panels are deep-finned heatsinks of black-anodized aluminum. In fact, the Moon Neo combo of 350P preamp and 330A power amp is very attractive to look at. In the Neo 330A’s published specifications, Simaudio states that it operates in true class-A for the first 5W of its claimed power output, then shifts to class-AB. Other specs: The frequency response is 10Hz-125kHz, +0/-3dB, and the signal/noise ratio at full power is 100dB. The power consumption at idle is low, at 36W. The Neo 330A never produced significant heat when I used it, but was warm to the touch during loud listening. Simaudio says that such cool running results in less stress on parts and “longer life for the component as a whole.” The Neo 330A also has high-quality proprietary bipolar transistors to, Simaudio says, expand bandwidth, lower distortion, and provide “unprecedented gain linearity.” Custom toroidal transformers are used to ensure “excellent sound quality under all conditions,” and to match the most difficult speaker loads. There is zero global feedback, for “more accurate musical reproduction with respect to tonality -- no colorations,” and to widen the dynamic range. The connections on the rear panel are typical for a power amp, with enough space between them for easy connection of all cables and interconnects. On the left are 12V SimLink proprietary trigger in/out ports for connection to other Simaudio gear, and an RS-232 jack for custom installations. On the right are the IEC-compatible power-cord inlet, the main on/off switch, and the fuse slot. In the center section are two pairs of speaker terminals with nuts of clear, knurled plastic; they accept banana connectors, have convenient slots in their plastic bases to guide bare wires or spades, and are easy to grip and tighten for a secure connection. The terminals are flanked by single-ended (RCA) and balanced (XLR) input jacks. Installed at the factory are removable jumpers that join pins 1 and 3 of the XLR jacks; leave these jumpers in place if you use the Moon Neo 330A unbalanced. Setup I generally used the Moon Neo 330A and 350P together to drive my Paradigm Reference Prestige 95F loudspeakers. To make comparisons, I swapped in my Audio Research D300 amplifier for the Neo 330A, leaving unchanged all other components and connections. Simaudio’s long but nontechnical explanation of balanced operation in the Neo 330A’s manual subtly recommends balanced over single-ended connections. I tested both and heard no notable differences in sound, but took Simaudio’s advice and used balanced connections for my listening. Listening I’ve had the Stranglers’ 1984 album, Aural Sculpture (16-bit/44.1kHz AIFF, Epic), for ages, but had never given its sound quality much thought -- until “Laughing” came on one night while iTunes was running on random and the Moon Neo 330A was powering my speakers. A lucid reproduction of the band’s performance of this song appeared in my room -- the voices, and especially transients, were crisp without being harsh, and firmly anchored in space. End-of-word s sounds were reproduced without sizzle, and there were accurate reproductions of the sounds of singers’ mouths opening and closing at the beginnings and ends of words. I found myself pulled into the music, and focusing sharply on the recording’s clarity and its room-filling soundstage. Around the lead vocal are a variety of electronic percussion and keyboards, supported by bass and electric guitar. The bass guitar provides a firm underpinning, while the keyboards added typical 1980s melodies, supplemented by rhythm guitar. Each instrument and sound was clearer than I’d ever heard it before, and distinct from its neighbors on a huge apparent soundstage. I could easily envision an appropriately sized group of musicians and instruments, spread across and filling the width of the stage from left to right. None of the sounds was confined to the positions of the left or right speakers; instead, the soundstage was suspended freely in my room, thoroughly detached from the speakers. Next I tried “Leather and Lace,” from TimeSpace: The Best of Stevie Nicks (16/44.1 AIFF, Modern). The extreme detail that the Neo 330A was, by now, obviously capable of revealing gave me insight into nuances of this recording I’d never noticed. The introduction is played on acoustic guitar with a bit of airy keyboard. The guitar sounded accurate, but a little larger than I’d been used to hearing -- the 330A seemed to reveal more musical information. Each strummed chord was clear enough to let me discern individual strings -- as if a friend were playing an acoustic guitar in my room, but my room was now somehow bigger and more reverberant. Voices were similarly clear, but they, too, sounded unusually bigger and more present than before. Don Henley’s voice in this duet was revealed as having an underlying scratchiness I’d never before noticed in this recording -- and the soundstage was, again, huge, spreading beyond the physical boundaries of my room, the images on that stage very tangible. I felt that, with the Neo 330A, I was hearing the full content of this recording for the first time -- before, the details I was now noticing were masked. Enya’s ethereal sound has always been big -- really big. Artificially big. Given what I experienced with the other recordings, it should be no surprise that the Neo 330A reproduced the illusion of an enormous soundstage with “Caribbean Blue,” from Shepherd Moons (16/44.1 AIFF, Warner Bros.). The fade-in began small and centered, then grew and grew until it seemed to occupy a space larger than the speaker end of my listening room. The bass frequencies that underlie this piece were reproduced extremely clearly, with no bloat or overhang -- really tight. Subtle, high-pitched, harpsichord-like sounds in the melody were also exceptionally clean and tonally natural. Enya’s highly processed, multitracked vocals in this song wander from left to right and from front to back, and I was impressed with how easy it was to follow her voices as they glided gracefully about the soundstage. Carl Orff’s Carmina burana is a large-scale work for orchestra, vocal soloists, and chorus. The recording of its well-known opening section, “O Fortuna,” that appears on The Power & the Majesty: Essential Choral Classics, with Robert Shaw conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (16/44.1 AIFF, Telarc), has a wide dynamic range that can tax an amplifier’s power-output capabilities. It requires both ample power and sufficient accuracy to control the combination of very deep fortissimo sections bracketed by highly detailed pianissimo sections. The cymbal crashes near the beginning of “O Fortuna” were presented as well as I’ve heard outside the concert hall: loud and forward, without sounding like white noise. The mallets whacked against kettledrum heads were vividly rendered, with fabulous slam. The timpani’s sounds were appropriately huge and tremendously deep without exhibiting any of the softened impact that lesser amplifiers display. The Neo 330A kept all low-frequency sounds under total control. Recurring passages in the double basses and cellos had a strong, clear presence. Deep-bass sounds that often lose the instrument’s nuance and sound sloppy through lesser gear didn’t faze the Neo 330A at all. A second performance of “O Fortuna,” from a 1969 recording of Carmina burana by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Seiji Ozawa, demonstrated different sorts of details (16/44.1 AIFF, RCA). With the Neo 330A I had a new experience: I could make out the voices of individual choristers. In this recording, the chorus is more forward; the orchestra is in more of a supporting role. Throughout this entire “profane cantata,” as Orff called it, I could easily discern individual choral voices and orchestral instruments. With equal clarity, the Neo 330A presented highly detailed reproductions of the vocal soloists in the quieter arias, and deep, powerful, full choral passages. Loud or soft, there was never a hint of sounds smearing together. Overall, I found the Moon Neo 330A to be neutral -- utterly faithful to the signals fed through it, it added and/or subtracted nothing. There were no colorations. I found the same behavior in the matching Moon Neo 350P preamplifier I recently reviewed. With both Orff recordings, the Neo 330A’s neutrality let the recordings reveal themselves fully, without embellishment. William Ackerman’s Conferring with the Moon: Pieces for Guitar (16/44.1 AIFF, Windham Hill) captures some great, highly detailed guitar playing. “Lago de Montañas (Mountain Lake)” has a close-miked sound for the two main instruments. The resonances of the charango’s strings and wooden body vividly presented the sound of this small Andean lute at what seemed the appropriate size. When he played quietly, I easily envisioned Ackerman’s deft, soft touch, while also noting the clear, subtle sounds of his hands moving on the strings. Similarly, the chuffing of the flutist’s breath was alluring because it was so similar to the instrument’s sound when being played in concert. Each instrument came forward at differing times to take the lead, then retreated to support other instruments. The Neo 330A’s clarity and neutrality presented this very convincingly -- it sounded as it would at a live performance, when a player steps forward to take a solo, then, when finished, steps back. I like to hear if an amplifier can show its power with recordings that beg to be turned up loud -- it’s a bonus when an amp can play really loudly and still fully control the speakers. Judas Priest’s “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” is one of those numbers that seems designed to be played at the Nigel Tufnel-approved volume of “11.” I selected it from the compilation Metal Works ’73-’93, released in 1993 (16/44.1 AIFF, Columbia). The driving force of the pulsing kick drum and rapid rhythm-guitar riff at the rear of the mix was taut, laying a firm foundation for the rest of the band. The entrance of the lead guitar was exceedingly clear and very strong. Higher-pitched guitar solos screamed, each note clearly articulated without coalescing into a chaotic, rapid-fire mess, as happens with inferior amps. And Rob Halford’s aggressive, slightly overwrought singing overlaid the whole thing. When I pushed the volume to levels verging on the dangerous (to my hearing), the Neo 330A kept everything in order as well as it did at more sedate levels. The solidity of the bottom end was awe inspiring, and the top never turned shrill. Everything just kept getting louder, as requested. The midrange remained in balance with the highs and lows, and kept the lead vocal clear and precisely enunciated. The sound was vibrant without being bright -- played LOUD, it made this track terrific to hear. Comparison My reference amplifier is a vintage Audio Research D300, designed and built when the company was based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, a few minutes’ drive south of its current location, in Plymouth. The D300 is from a time when solid-state amplifiers were definitely bigger, on average -- the D300 is about twice as tall as the Neo 330A, with deep vertical heatsinks running down both sides. But despite the D300’s size, its claimed power output is only a little higher than the Neo 330A’s -- 160Wpc into 8 ohms -- and it ran a little warmer. I estimate that the surface area of the ARC’s heatsinks is at least three times that of the Neo 330A’s, which surprised me. In comparison to the Neo 330A’s, the D300’s sound is laid-back. Judas Priest was less in-my-face in the fairly forward-sounding “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’”: When I turned up the volume, the bass and accent drums had a lower level of immediacy, and a slight added boominess that wasn’t present with the Neo 330A; snare drums sounded less tight than the Simaudio’s precisely rendered impacts of sticks on drumheads. Ackerman’s “Lago de Montañas” sounded more distant via the D300; the flute and charango were slightly blurred and not as precisely positioned in space as their vivid renderings by the Neo 330A. The timpani in Orff’s “O Fortuna” boomed through the ARC, compared to its taut slam through the Simaudio. Chorus voices were somewhat smoothed over by the D300 rather than sounding clear and precise, as they had through the Moon Neo 330A. I was taken aback by how much smaller soundstages were through the D300 -- this was true with every recording I played, but was most noticeable with Enya’s “Caribbean Blue,” which felt compressed in all dimensions compared to the Neo 330A’s enormous stage. Stevie Nicks’s “Leather and Lace” was slightly veiled through the D300, with a bit of softness reminiscent of the rolled-off sound of tubes. However, when I again played this track through the Neo 330A, I realized by comparison that all that smoothness had come with a loss of resolution. Distinguishing separate sounds on the soundstage was more difficult with the D300; I had to put more effort into listening to hear all the same details. Now I know why the sound of the Stranglers’ “Laughing” surprised me -- it sounded so much more striking through the Neo 330A because of the ARC D300’s somewhat dark sound and lower resolution. The deeper I dug into my music collection and listened to it through the Moon Neo 330A, the more I felt I was hearing what was actually on the recordings -- no more and no less. The Neo 330A presented more of my music than I’d ever heard before. Conclusion Magnificent and palatial soundstages, coupled with neutrality, made the Simaudio Moon Neo 330A’s sound in my system wonderful to behold. Its combination of high-quality electronic parts, high precision of construction, manufacturer reputation, ten-year warranty, sexy looks -- and, most important, its beautiful reproduction of every recording I played through it, regardless of musical genre, pace, or playback volume -- easily exceeded all of my needs. When the Moon Neo 330A arrived, I wondered if it would impress me as much as had the Moon Neo 350P. It did -- and more. . . . Erich Wetzel erichw@soundstagenetwork.com Associated Equipment Speakers -- Paradigm Reference Prestige 95F -- Paradigm Reference Prestige 95F Headphones -- Bowers & Wilkins C5, NAD Viso HP50 -- Bowers & Wilkins C5, NAD Viso HP50 Preamplifiers -- Benchmark Media Systems DAC2 HGC, Hegel Music Systems P20, Simaudio Moon Neo 350P -- Benchmark Media Systems DAC2 HGC, Hegel Music Systems P20, Simaudio Moon Neo 350P Amplifier -- Audio Research D300 -- Audio Research D300 Source -- Apple iMac running iTunes -- Apple iMac running iTunes Digital-to-analog converter -- Benchmark Media Systems DAC2 HGC -- Benchmark Media Systems DAC2 HGC Speaker cables -- Transparent MusicWave Ultra -- Transparent MusicWave Ultra Interconnects -- AudioQuest King Cobra (XLR) and Ruby (RCA), Dynamique Shadow (XLR), Transparent MusicLink Super (RCA), generic optical (TosLink), Monoprice digital (USB) Moon by Simaudio Neo 330A Stereo/Mono Amplifier Price: $4300 USD. Warranty: One year parts and labor; ten years with product registration. Simaudio Ltd. 1345 Newton Road Boucherville, Quebec J4B 5H2 Canada Phone: (450) 449-2212 Website: www.simaudio.com

Indiana has one of the nation's highest per capita rates of accidental shootings involving children, ranking seventh behind states such as Alaska and Louisiana. Over a recent 2½-year span, 40 children were killed or wounded across the state. Another five cases involved kids accidentally killing or wounding an adult, including a 6-year-old boy who unintentionally shot and killed his own father at their home last winter. The Associated Press and the USA TODAY Network analyzed the circumstances of every death and injury across the nation from accidental shootings involving children ages 17 and younger from Jan. 1, 2014, to June 30 of this year — more than 1,000 incidents in all. These are shootings in which children unintentionally shot themselves, other children or were accidentally shot by adults. Using information collected by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan research group, news reports and public sources, the media outlets found the deaths and injuries are happening at a pace that far exceeds the scope revealed by limited federal statistics. Here is a closer look at the issue in Indiana: Forty-five shootings, 29 children wounded, 11 children killed. In five of the shootings, a child pulling the trigger wounded or killed an adult. Per capita, there were nearly seven shootings per million people, which was about twice the national rate of just over 3.4 shootings per million people. Conforming to a national trend, many of Indiana's shootings involved toddlers. Ten child victims were age 2 or 3, while seven others were 12 or 13 years old. Eleven of Indiana's accidental shootings involving children happened in Indianapolis. Gary was next, with five. The remaining 29 shootings were scattered throughout the state. In at least 25 of the Indiana shootings, the weapon involved was a handgun. That matches the national pattern showing handguns are the most common weapon in these types of shootings. One shooting involved a rifle, and another a shotgun. In 18 cases, the firearm type was listed as unknown in the data. Nationally, the shootings happened most often at the children's homes, with handguns legally owned by adults for self-protection. In Indiana, 30 of the shootings, or well over half, occurred at the children's homes or another residence. Five were in a car, six in a public area and two at a location identified as "unknown" in the data. "MY LITTLE BROTHER IS NOT A KILLER." In the tiny southern Indiana town of Hartsville last February, James Lonaker had just returned from a night out, setting down his gun and getting ready for bed. Out of sight, his 6-year-old son picked up the .38-caliber revolver and shot him. Sheriff's deputies found the 62-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his upper body. He died in a helicopter on the way to the hospital. Sheriff Matt Myers appealed to residents to keep firearms unloaded and safely stored away from children. One of Lonaker's adult children, Juli Lonaker, tearfully told a TV interviewer of their struggle to console the boy. "Some of the headlines have used the word killed," she said. "My little brother is not a killer. My little brother is a little boy that likes to play and have fun and he is a good, good little boy." Associated Press

Story highlights Bill Weld and his running mate Gary Johnson are divided when it comes to Clinton Weld wants the Libertarian Party to earn at least 5% of the popular vote in this election Washington (CNN) Libertarian vice presidential nominee Bill Weld once again stuck up for Hillary Clinton, just days before his third-party bid finally faces off against her at the polls. "One of the issues in this campaign has been: Do you like the two-party monopoly? ... We don't," Weld said in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper. "Having said all of that, I do see a big difference between the two other candidates." Weld said he wanted the Libertarian Party to earn at least 5% of the popular vote in the general election and thus qualify for federal funding and increased ballot access. But he also made sure to hammer home his problems with Donald Trump and his deep-seated respect for Clinton. He called Trump "totally unfit to be president" and said Clinton was "a perfectly reputable, professional, responsible candidate for president of the United States and deserves to be treated as such." Read More

Shortly after Dart2js outperformed hand-written JavaScript, the latest Dart VM now beats JVM 7 64-bit Server, and other versions, in the DeltaBlue benchmark. Nikolay Botev has ported the DeltaBlue benchmark from Dart to Java and run the benchmark against Dart-22416 (latest stable release) and Dart-22577 (a nightly build), and against several Java client versions, posting the following results on his blog: The fist column contains the time in us needed to run one iteration of the test while the second column represents the number of runs/sec, being the DeltaBlue score charted above. We have also run the same tests on a 8-core AMD FX-8350 machine with SSD, but this time against JVM 7 64-bit Server, getting the following average results after 10 runs of each test: VM Average Time (us) Score Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 1.7.0_21 23.21-b01 1808.18 553.04 Dart-22416 1885.02 530.5 Dart-22610 1610.48 620.93 In our test, Dart VM shows 12% better performance than the JVM, which is consistent with Botev's findings. Greg Lowe posted his results on running DeltaBlue on JVM and Dart VM a couple of months ago, but his benchmark uses Sun’s original DeltaBlue code written in Java which includes a warm-up time: Lowe’s results show better performance for Dart up to 1,000 iterations of the test, while Java performs better after 10,000 iterations. In the light of Botev’s latest tests, which uses a newer Dart VM, Lowe commented on a Dart group: I had a quick look at this. It appears the DartVM is now beating the JVM even at 100,000 iterations (Previously Java edged out Dart at higher iterations). 100,000 iterations takes ~45 seconds to run on my computer. At a lower number of iterations the DartVM beats the JVM by a significant margin. While we cannot draw final conclusions based on a single benchmark, we can safely say that Google has enhanced Dart VM’s performance to the point where it becomes a serious contender.

Mock up of the original Hall of Presidents, scanned image from a 1971 Disney annual report Disney As the red curtain rises, subtle blue light bathes 43 presidents. After a few words from America's most illustrious founding father, all heads turn (some more smoothly than others) to our current commander-in-chief as the spotlight shines on his familiar visage. "The American dream is as old as our founding," begins robot Obama, "but as timeless as our hopes." After the president finishes his short, uplifting speech, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" swells and an animated American flag waves in the background. The red curtain falls. This is the patriotic crescendo to Disney World's Hall of Presidents , a 22-minute salute to all 43 leaders of the American people (remember, Grover Cleveland went twice). Come soon, a 44th president will join them . The Great Robo-Emancipator This robotic inauguration got its start more than 60 years ago. Shortly after Disneyland opened in California in 1955 to not-so-rave reviews , Walt Disney and his engineers began preliminary plans on a section of the park called "Liberty Street"—a recreation of Revolutionary-era Philadelphia. Inside one of the halls, Disney planned a "living experience" with talking wax figures signing the Declaration of Independence and having a presidential roll call. However, building this many robots—or to use Disney's term, "audio-animatronics"—was prohibitively expensive, and the tech was still in its early stages . The 1964 World's Fair in Queens may have saved the project. The story goes that Robert Moses, New York 's powerful city planner, flew out to convince Walt Disney to help him with the fair's attractions. Disney introduced Moses to a moving, standing, head-nodding robot Lincoln. While the president was just a prototype, Moses was so impressed that he said he wouldn't open the World's Fair without Disney's Abraham. The mechanisms that were used to get the president to move had never been attempted before, which was exactly the problem. Disney wanted to go bigger. In a typed proposal to Moses , Disney pitched a show he called "One Nation Under God," in which the finale includes "the 34 presidents of the United States...assembled in a common conclave for the first time in history....[with] the figure of Abraham Lincoln [rising] to deliver an address." Unfortunately, there wasn't time or money to create all 34 presidents for the World's Fair, which had to settle for only Honest Abe. "There's no way on God's green earth that 34 animatronics would have been done in time for the World's Fair," says Len Testa, co-author of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2017 . "It took them every second of time they had to get Abe running." Even so, the great emancipator was racked with problems. "This is the early, early days of audio-animatronics," says Jim Hill, Disney historian and co-host of the podcast Disney Dish. "I remember talking with [Disney's in-house engineer] Bob Gurr about it. He had to figure out how to fit all the gears in Lincoln's body to make the character work, so he asked 'can he wear a stovetop hat because we could cram a lot of crap in there?'" According to Hill, Lincoln's beard was also a convenient hiding place for gears. The mechanisms that were used to get the president to move had never been attempted before, which was exactly the problem. Essentially, each individual Lincoln movement was controlled by a hydraulic or pneumatic actuator and guided by a particular audio tone from a magnetic tape machine (or Binloop machine). Each machine played 14 tracks of analog audio simultaneously on the 1-inch wide magnetic tape which kept everything in sync, explains David Feiten who was Disney's chief animation producer during the 80s and 90s. From brochure introducing 'Mr. Lincoln,' 1965. Disney It worked, but there were glitches. At times, Lincoln would have spasms or just stop unexpectedly. Once, a broken valve leaked red hydraulic fluid , staining the president's shirt crimson and calling to mind the president's assassination. Disney immediately had engineers replace it with clear fluid. Even though mechanical problems delayed the robot's premiere nearly two weeks, Lincoln was a huge success. Because Disney molded its face from Lincoln's actual 1860 life mask, Lincoln looked incredibly lifelike. The robot's creators even fitted the president with dentures and glass eyes from a local mortician. Kids were so convinced it was an actor and not a robot that they flung ball bearings (a popular giveaway at the fair) at the animatronic to see if it would flinch. They chipped the dentures which then had to be replaced several times. In 1965, with a few tweaks after the World's Fair, "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" debuted at Disneyland. But despite his death from lung cancer in 1966 , Walt Disney's original vision for a complete collection of robotic presidents was still brewing. Real or Robot? When the Magic Kingdom opened on October 1, 1971, the Hall of Presidents was one of its inaugural attractions. Featuring all 35 former presidents (LBJ was added), the experience had much better animatronics and a film played before the presidents' big reveal. While the show script itself didn't change much until 1993, the tech certainly did. David Feiten spent more than two decades improving robot presidents' animations. When he joined Disney Imagineering in 1979, his team helped develop a computer program called DACS (Digital Animation Control System) that worked with the Anicon-Animation Console . This allowed the Imagineers to control the animatronics in realtime, instead of pre-set moves. David Feiten while working at Disney Disney However, as the Hall of Presidents reached its 10-year anniversary, the animatronics began to show considerable wear and tear. "All of these figures have to run all day long, about 16 hours day, 7 days a week," says Feiten. "That's a lot of work for a robot." So, Feiten and his team helped develop a new software program setting called "Compliance." In short, it took pressure off the rest of the robot's body during a single movement. Before, when an animatronic arm moved too fast, the whole body would shake. This new tech "took the shake out of the figure" by acting as a shock absorber, allowing for quicker and smoother movements. It revolutionized animatronics. As the years passed, the Hall has kept up with history by adding new presidents, all sculpted by Disney legend Blaine Gibson . For Obama, Gibson's protégé Valerie Edwards took over sculpting, and in 1993, for the first time, an actual presidential voice was added with Bill Clinton supplying his recognizable Arkansas accent to his robot effigy . Since then, Bush and Obama have also recorded voices for their robots. Update: President Trump has been added to the Hall of Presidents in December 2017. The New York Times reports that Trump says “Above all, to be American is to be an optimist — to believe that we can always do better — and that the best days of our great nation are still ahead of us.” When Hall of Presidents shuts down in January, a new robot executive will make its debut in late 2017 and will continue working toward making its robo-presidents more and more human. "So much of what convinces you that this is a successful reproduction has nothing to do with talking," says Hill. "It's how they hold themselves... how Trump shifts his weight, how Hillary turns her head...There's so much subtle programming going on." This post was originally published November 4, 2016. It's been updated with new information.

Peachtree Road is one of Brookhaven’s busiest streets, but some are hopeful that the thoroughfare may one day provide better access to people traveling by bike or by foot. At background sessions leading up to a four-day charrette, Brookhaven residents began sharing their vision for the redevelopment of the Brookhaven-Oglethorpe MARTA station. The planning and brainstorming event, known as a charrette, was scheduled for Oct. 21-24. The charrette brings together architects, urban planners, transportation experts, and stakeholders to discuss ways to make “transit-oriented development” at the MARTA station a reality. The Brookhaven-Oglethorpe MARTA station is one of several stations around Atlanta with underutilized parking lots that have been identified as strong candidates for redevelopment with a mix of residential and commercial uses. Robert Reed, Communities Design Director with Southface, an environmental nonprofit organizing the events, said the purpose of the charrette is to help the community zero in on what it wants before a developer is selected for the project. “One of our deliverables is a quality development guideline,” Reed said. The Brookhaven community has long been interested in focusing more resources around the MARTA station, located at the intersection of Peachtree and North Druid Hills roads. A Livable Centers Initiative study conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission in 2006 identified the MARTA station as a centerpiece for a future Brookhaven town center that would include a mix of office, retail and public spaces. But Reed said people must be able to safely walk to and from the MARTA station before a transit-oriented development can be successful. “We have to have a pedestrian-friendly Peachtree Street,” Reed said. The goal is to improve safety and usability along Peachtree for pedestrians, bikers, and other alternative modes of transportation. “Everyone complains about car traffic, but there’s more than one way to get around,” Reed said. Some residents voiced concerns about traffic along Peachtree. They said the road is already congested without future development around MARTA and the new apartment buildings under construction along Dresden Drive. Reed said making roads friendlier for alternative transportation lessens the impact of development, but won’t solve current traffic issues. “I’m not saying this development is going to make it better, but this development is going to happen one way or another,” Reed said. Bob Munger, president of the Augusta Greenway Alliance, shared information about low speed vehicles. His organization promotes sustainable transportation, including the use of golf-cart-like, low-speed vehicles, which he said are an environmentally friendly option. He said the vehicles can be used on roads with low speed limits and on multi-purpose trails. Unlike electric cars, he said they can be charged at home without a special charging station at a cost of about 2 cents per mile. “We emphasize it because we feel we have an excellent way to get around that’s underutilized,” Munger said. “The vehicles are very economical to own and operate.” Dan Reuter, with the Atlanta Regional Commission, said more dense, urban development is the trend in the region. “Our region is going to continue to grow,” Reuter said. “People are moving back into urban places, particularly young people.” Rent is higher in walkable, urban areas, which benefits local economies, he said. “These urban places have really been run up in the past five to 10 years. They’re very desirable places to live,” Reuter said.

Health providers, patients, grass-roots organizers, and concerned New York residents participate in a Die-In against Trumpcare on June 4 in New York City. Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images As it is currently written, the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act would increase the ranks of the uninsured by 22 million. At least that is the best estimate of the Congressional Budget Office. Many of those rendered uninsured would be older low-income people in some of America’s poorest states, places among those hit hardest by the opioid epidemic, violence, and other public health problems. By rendering millions of people uninsured and reducing the quality of insurance coverage for millions of others, BCRA would harm millions of people. An estimated 48 percent of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion population reports that they have disabilities, chronic illnesses, or are in fair or poor health. Many of these people need care they will not receive if they go uninsured—or for that matter, if they are placed into a cheap but essentially unusable high-deductible plan. The famed Oregon health insurance experiment identified some of the benefits of insurance that BCRA would snatch away. Men and women who won a lottery to gain Medicaid coverage experienced reduced depression, less trouble managing personal debts, markedly improved self-assessed health, improved management of diabetes and other chronic illnesses, and improved screenings for cancer and other serious diseases. Not everything got measurably better. The OHIE yielded no statistically significant improvement in blood pressure, cholesterol, or blood sugar levels. Still, the benefits found in OHIE match the personal experience of many doctors and nurses I know. So many have seen patients die or experience horrible health outcomes or be financially devastated because they lacked health coverage. But OHIE involved too few participants for too short a period to rigorously investigate whether Medicaid prevented people from dying. That’s not because researchers were incompetent. Mortality is a rare outcome that arises from many different causes. The consequences of becoming uninsured depend greatly on your ability to access safety-net care from some other source, too, such as a free community clinic or generous public hospital. The survival benefits of insurance are just really hard to pin down. Conservative polemicists and wonks seize on these uncertainties, seeking to frame the debate as if the public health argument for expanded coverage, particularly for expanded Medicaid, require airtight experimental confirmation of the most difficult outcome to directly study in this way. If you want to understand the extent of statistical illiteracy, tweet that significant ACA impact on mortality rates is unproven. — Charles Murray (@charlesmurray) June 25, 2017 This political framing is fairly ridiculous when you step back to think about it. Snatching coverage from millions of people will cause many to experience severe financial problems, declining mental health, and poor management of disabilities and chronic diseases. The human and policy arguments against doing so are hardly nullified if this only hurts people and makes them worse off without actually killing them. However illogical this framing may be, it is a shrewd polemical gambit. Taking refuge in these specific statistical uncertainties allows conservatives to adopt the pose as dispassionate empiricists who just want to understand the data. Not coincidentally, it allows BCRA supporters to avoid confronting the bill’s brutal distributive realities, diverting attention from the many harms associated with losing health insurance that are more readily studied and thus more solidly grounded. This framing also allows bill supporters to lambast liberals for uncivil fearmongering and for allegedly making hysterical claims that “MILLIONS WILL DIE!” I haven’t seen people saying that. But it’s easy enough to punch down on social media by finding hysterical-sounding people who exaggerate the numbers, rely on anecdotal data, or misinterpret observational studies. I’m very open to thoughtful critiques of the Senate bill from the left. “MILLIONS WILL DIE” is not it. — Avik Roy (@Avik) June 23, 2017 There’s only—or at least—one problem here. Existing research, for all its flaws, indeed suggests that thousands of Americans will probably die needlessly every year if BCRA is passed. That’s not inflated rhetoric. That’s what any reasonable person would predict based on the available data. My own favorite study examined the survival benefits of implementing Romneycare in Massachusetts. Other studies compare populations that for one reason or another gained access to expanded Medicaid to populations that did not. Not surprisingly, different studies of different insurance changes applied to different groups find diverse effects. The Massachusetts study suggests that one death is prevented for every 830 people newly insured. Writing at Vox, Ann Crawford-Roberts, Nichole Roxas, and Ichiro Kawachi note that Medicaid coverage thus rivals widely accepted clinical interventions such as screening colonoscopy. If that 1-in-830 finding generalizes BCRA, rendering 22 million people uninsured would imply about 20,000 deaths per year. Now, existing studies might not fully generalize. Let’s say the Massachusetts study overstates the impact of BCRA by a factor of two. If so, BCRA would still cause around as many annual deaths as firearm homicides. Just as plausibly, the Massachusetts and Oregon studies could actually understate the survival benefits of Medicaid. Both states offer relatively generous medical and social services, including to the uninsured. In Massachusetts, the biggest and clearest mortality effects of Romneycare were found in the lowest-income counties. Medicaid expansion probably matters a lot more in rural West Virginia or Portland, Maine, than it does in southern Massachusetts or Portland, Oregon. We have strong reason to believe that uninsuring millions of people would cause thousands of them to needlessly die every year. We can debate the magnitude of this effect and how we might measure it. But the burden of proof does not rest with liberals to defend this sensible proposition, nor to prove that the likely harms associated with BCRA will definitely come to pass. Rather, the burden resides with BCRA supporters to show why we can be confident that snatching coverage from low-income people will not bring serious harm. Bill supporters have not come close to meeting this standard. Writing in the Washington Post, Charles Blahous writes: “Rhetorically assailing lawmakers as heartless brutalizers in the process will only make our national politics more debased and more dangerous.” I believe Blahous has this backward. An unworthy Trump administration and Republican ideologues in Congress have debased American politics by pursuing a shambolic and rushed legislative process to pass a poorly crafted bill we have every reason to believe will cause immense harm. People are rightly angry because BCRA will hurt millions of people. It may be uncomfortable, but it is neither alarmist nor uncivil to call that out.

No wonder so many children are terrified of Saint Nick. If any of these Santa Claus characters were part of my childhood I would be screaming and crying not to sit on his lap too. You may want to take your kids from the room before viewing this list of the Top 10 Most Unintentionally Scary Santas. It brings a whole new meaning to the words, “He knows when you are sleeping.” Chilling. 10. Angry Dwarf Santa Claus Wow, this little guy will haunt your dreams and push out any thoughts of sugar plums. He is small so he will fit into the duct work, wear he waits…for you. Photo by ilovecoffeeyesido 9. Santa Claus as Michael Myers from Halloween…with Rouge I can hear the music to the movie Halloween when I see this frightening visage. The sheer terror in the little girl rivals anything Jamie Lee Curtis could act out. 8. “I’ll Get You Kids” Santa This imposing Santa is even scarier because of his Godzilla-like size. He could easily eat your child. Photo by leshville 7. Santa Taking a Very Large Stinky Dump And after he has eaten you, he poops you out. What really creeps me out about this defecating Santa is the pure evil poop-eating grin. Photo by Langston McEachern, uploaded by mikerosebery 6. Evil Under Lighting Santa This Santa sits at the entrance of a building. I can see the sign below. “Lose Hope All Who Enter This Place of Evil”. Photo by jdtate101 5. Santa With His Sack…of Vengeance! I can hear this Scary Santa saying, “Who has been a good boy this year? I’ll tell you who, no one! Now, into my sack of pain!” Photo by iluvmesomefreaks 4. Drunk Molester Santa Out For A Stroll Awww, Santa looks so cute, bumbling around clumsily. Wait, he’s drunk and he is after me. Run while you still have your child-like innocence. Photo by Bryan Collins 3. “You’ve Been Naughty…Time to Die” Santa This large, scary Santa is obviously angry about all the naughty boys and girls. He has the size and the attitude to make your Christmas a Christmas to dismember! Photo by wir-click-wir 2. Evil Asian Santa Who Had Too Much To Drink This red-cheeked Santa is too drunk to care who he hurts. The only gift he is giving is the gift of life-long therapy. Photo by nailmaker 1. Creepy Santa That Guards the Door…To Hell The most disturbing thing about this diminutive Santa reject, besides his freakish cone head, is his oddly splayed fingers. Almost as if the pinky was broken in some dwarf tossing related bar fight. Hopefully, you can still have a Merry Christmas after viewing this collection of terrifying and scary Santas. Editor’s note. Thanks to a friend of mine, I now own this very scary Santa stuffed doll. Yay me! Photo by Konketsu I made a music video and posted it on Youtube.com. Liked it? Take a second to support Toptenz.net on Patreon! Other Articles you Might Like

CHICAGO -- Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany believes change is coming to college sports. Change could happen, Delany said, within a year. In a 23-plus-minute opening statement that ranged from a history lesson to a state of the Big Ten, Delany outlined a four-point plan of issues important to him, which he thinks could help straighten out the issues within the NCAA. "We've done more complicated things than this," Delany said. Delany offered potential solutions for what he believes are the main issues in college athletics as a whole, not limited to the NCAA. The following ideas are some of the things that are "lost" in the conversation, he said. Point 1: An educational trust Delany would like to see schools commit to allowing athletes to return to school after their playing days if they did not finish their bachelor's degree. If an athlete chooses to do so, the school would pick up the tab for the rest of that player's education. "What I would like to see is explicit commitment by higher education through conferences for funding, that if you come up short in your four years, whether you turn professional or drop out, we'll stand behind you," Delany said. "When you're ready to get serious, when you're ready to have the time, we'll support your college education to get your degree for your lifetime." Point 2: Time commitments Delany recognizes the 20-hour-per-week rule which limits athletes' time to spend on their sport during the season is not realistic. He spoke to his coaches about juggling that and being a full-time student. "I want to make sure that our rules and regulations and constraints and standards are properly balanced," Delany said. "Once a student is admitted, he or she has the opportunity to do what they need to do academically to continue to move forward." Point 3: The at-risk student Delany stopped short of calling for freshmen to return to being ineligible in their first year, but he appears to be in favor of a hybrid model. Students who are "at risk" would get a year of residence in college while giving them their four years of eligibility and a scholarship. "Let's make sure we haven't shortchanged anyone or exploited anyone because we've taken at-risk students and haven't given them adequate time to prepare to transition educationally," he said. Point 4: Miscellaneous expenses This is a topic Delany has mentioned for two years now, essentially a look at paying athletes a stipend in addition to their scholarship "up to the cost of education." The Big Ten commissioner, though, isn't sure what that number would be. Delany wants to make sure any stipend would be Title IX compliant, so all male and female athletes on full scholarship are eligible for the same benefits. "I'm talking about a stipend of miscellaneous expense that meets Title IX rules and federal law," Delany said. "And no exemptions for football and basketball." Delany's four-point plan came in advance of any comments he made about NCAA president Mark Emmert, who has been criticized by his colleagues in other conferences over the past two weeks. In some ways, Delany defended Emmert, noting that many of the issues facing the organization appeared before he took over in 2010. "There's been a lot said about Mark Emmert," Delany said. "My view is Mark has done some good things and Mark has made some mistakes. Let me tell you this: Running the NCAA is real challenging. "Most of the problems we see today preceded Mark Emmert, so the fundamental challenges to institutions and conferences and the NCAA were here before Mark Emmert walked in the door." Delany also touched on the NCAA's scrutinized enforcement group, telling ESPN.com that the group has been "a lightning rod within a lightning rod." As a former NCAA investigator, he plans to study the situation further and provide some suggestions going forward. "I would like to see the people who make the mistakes pay the price and see the institution pay a lesser price," Delany said. "I would like to see it clearer when an institution is in jeopardy on institutional control that that's reserved for the worst of the worst. And I want to make sure if you make a mistake, there's a process. ... We should be able to communicate better which are the major [infractions] and which are the not so major ones."

by Raymond Neupert WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) -- A case of 'maybe a little bit too early' on Monday after Santa Claus came to Franklin Elementary in Wausau. It was not in fact Santa Claus, but a young man handing out Beanie Babies to kids through the playground fence. One of the school attendants chased him off and later called police. Officers caught up with the man a short time later and it turns out he's a Salvation Army bell-ringer who'd been handing out the toys to kids putting change in his donation bucket earlier in the day. Children on the playground spotted him walking home and called him over, and he proceeded to hand out the rest of the toys. Officers say nothing untoward was taking place, and have advised the man to get permission from the school to hand out toys in the future.

Bogus FEMA 'reporters' promoted despite role in fake press conference Jason Rhyne Published: Friday November 30, 2007 del.icio.us Print This Email This Two FEMA public relations staffers who posed as reporters during a staged news conference about the California wildfires last month no longer have their jobs -- but only because the disaster management agency has promoted them to better ones. Despite their participation in the bogus presser, FEMA's former deputy director of public affairs, Cindy Taylor, and another employee, Mike Widomski, are both receiving the promotions they were earlier promised, Washington Post columnist Al Kamen reports. "On Oct. 23, the day of FEMA's now infamous phony news conference, the agency's former external affairs chief, Pat Philbin, announced plans to promote a number of people in the shop as part of an effort to build a 'new FEMA,'" writes Kamen, who originally broke the news about the fake press event. Kamen cites an email from Philbin stating that Taylor was to be tapped to head the organization's Private Sector Office, and Widomski would be bumped up to assume Taylor's former position. "After our item, and an investigation of what Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called 'one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government,'" Kamen reports, "we're happy to announce that Taylor and Widomski appear to have been disciplined, FEMA-style. They've received the promotions they were in line to get." According to the current External Affairs Weekly report, he says, the two employees are both listed as holding their new jobs -- Taylor as director of the Public Sector Division, and Widomski as deputy director of public affairs. "Heck of a job," Kamen concludes. FEMA had originally instructed its own public relations staff to pose as reporters when no legitimate members of the media arrived in time for a hastily arranged briefing. "We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute," Widomski told the Post at the time. Philbin, who orchestrated the event, had also been in line for a promotion -- as head of the PR office at the Department of National Intelligence -- but was later denied the job after news of his role in the embarrassing incident broke. Earlier this week, RAW STORY reported on another press conference controversy. In 2006, Julie Myers, the head of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, took a question from a spokeswoman for that agency who was posing as a reporter. Myers is currently under scrutiny for awarding a prize to a white employee who wore dark makeup and a prison uniform at an ICE Halloween party.

Country music star Carrie Underwood is recuperating from injuries sustained in a fall on steps outside her home. In a statement Sunday on Twitter, Underwood thanked her fans for messages of support following her fall Friday night. The Tennessean reports Underwood was treated and released from a hospital for a broken wrist, cuts and abrasions. Carrie Underwood is recovering after suffering a broken wrist and other injuries Her husband, retired NHL hockey star Mike Fisher, traveled to Nashville to be with her. Underwood wrote: 'I'll be alright...might just take some time...glad I've got the best hubby in the world to take care of me.' A statement from an Underwood spokesperson says she will miss a benefit concert Sunday in Nashville for victims of the October 1 Las Vegas shooting and hurricanes in Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Allan Watkiss, a presenter on UKCountryRadio.com shared the views of many of his listeners,' I'm sure Carrie's fans will have every sympathy with her. 'Thank goodness it happened after her big gig of hosting last week's CMA Awards,' Watkiss said.

There have been "Jewish terrorists" before. Today we consider many of them heroes, says this writer, who gives the side of the hilltop youth. Lenny Goldberg The writer lives in Kfar Tapuach in Samaria. He was a long time aide to Binyamin Zev Kahane, H"yd and teaches in the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea in Jerusalem. He is the author of "The Wit and Wisdom of Rabbi Meir Kahane". More from the author ► The writer lives in Kfar Tapuach in Samaria. He was a long time aide to Binyamin Zev Kahane, H"yd and teaches in the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea in Jerusalem. He is the author of "The Wit and Wisdom of Rabbi Meir Kahane". Meir Ettinger is much more than the latest Jewish "terrorist" and prime target of the Israeli authorities. He is more than just the grandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane. He is a humble Torah scholar in his own right, and at just 23 years old, has been the unofficial leader of the hilltop youth for several years now. Besides his activism on behalf of Jewish settlement, his sharp pen cuts to the core of the conflict between a Jewish state and what he sees as a Hellenist, secular one. When someone is termed a "Jewish terrorist", that should ring a bell in our minds. Yair Stern and David Raziel, leaders of the legendary Jewish undergrounds in Israel's pre-state days, were also called hooligans and terrorists by the same Jewish establishment. When Jewish blood was being spilled by Arabs in the 20's and 30's, they bombed Arab marketplaces, killing Arabs, and thereby breaking the "havlaga" (self-restraint) policy of the Jewish leadership when Israel was under British rule. Today, they are considered Jewish heroes. It is only through the reflection of history where one can gauge the true perspective of the daily events that occur. Ben Hecht once said: "Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock." History will judge these young men, and not the hysterical headlines of cheap tabloids or sound bytes of cheap politicians. People like Meir Ettinger have come to the conclusion that if we continue down the same path we have been heading, there is no future for the state of Israel. They feel that if we want a true Jewish state, it's just not happening through the Knesset. Can you imagine a Knesset vote to build the Beit HaMikdash, to vanquish the Arab enemy, to establish Jewish education in all the schools? Let's face it, they say: this country is going in the opposite direction, and it doesn't matter how many MK"s are wearing yarmulkes. It's pretty obvious that the Knesset is not the mechanism that will bring the blessed change they yearn for. And here, it's proper to mention Meir's grandfather, Rabbi Meir Kahane. He tried, through the existing mechanism, to become a leader of Israel through democratic means, and might have succeeded if he weren't banned from running in the elections of 1988. Let us never forget how hundreds of thousands of Israelis were disenfranchised by that shocking Knesset vote which was upheld by the Supreme Court – for it exposed the bluff of Israeli democracy and also represented the last chance of trying to effect change in this country through the vehicle of the Knesset to those who supported him. And so, what are we supposed to do? Continue to vote every few years in this sham of "right wing" vs "left wing" election as the country - in our view - just deteriorates? Can you blame idealistic Jewish youth, who take Judaism seriously (unlike many of their elders), and sincerely believe it is our duty to build an authentic Jewish state (with all the ramifications of what that means) for wanting to rebel? This, of course, does not excuse taking the law into their own hands, or committing acts of violence, but that has not yet been shown to be attributable to them. Still, being called "Jewish terrorists" puts these youths in pretty good company. It's true that in the days of David Raziel and Yair Stern (Irgun and Lechi) we were under the British mandate. But there was also the Jewish establishment (the "yishuv") back then, which sided with the British and created the policy of "havlaga". Yes, we have the IDF today, thank G-d, but what can one do when their hands are tied and Jewish blood is still cheap? I would suggest, that instead of only expressing shock and dismay over Meir Ettinger, instead of the recent violence, we start to read what he has to say. He may be right.

Update (Oct. 27): Kismet is now available for the PlayStation VR, for a reasonable $6.99, and everything we enjoyed about the experience made the trip over. It's actually pretty amazing how much of the game's graphical fidelity and detail the team at Psyop was able to cram into the PlayStation 4. Kismet is one of the few non-gaming programs released for the PlayStation VR, so it may have an uphill battle ahead of it on a console designed for gaming, but we hope you'll at least give it a shot. Original story: How much would you pay to know the future? Kismet is a virtual reality divination program that uses both the tarot and astrology to read your fortune and no, the team behind it isn't joking. An ancient art "In the astrology section, Kismet is able to recognize actual current celestial events like eclipses, moon phases and planetary transits, so the information provided will be different and relevant every calendar day," David Chontos, Kismet's writer and director, told Polygon. "The fortune cards that are provided after your reading are an homage to similar cards that may have been dispensed from a mechanical Zoltar arcade machine," he continued. "There are hundreds of unique fortunes, each lovingly penned by my very own writer-mother, Jacqueline Chontos; who better to dish advice?" It was important that the divination and fortune telling "feel" real, he explained. "I spent a lot of time doing research about both the tarot and astrology mechanics," Chontos said. "Luckily the system of a three-card tarot reading is relatively straightforward, especially when limited to the 22 cards of Major Arcana. Each card has a specific meaning in its respective position, but there are also adjacent combinations that can alter the interpretation of both cards involved. Writing and considering all of this, as you can imagine, was very time-consuming but incredibly satisfying for the problem-solver in me." I've never believed in astrology or fortune telling, but the original pitch for coverage was surprisingly earnest and sincere. I wanted to give the program a shot and, to my surprise, I found the process of having my tarot read both calming and helpful for my mental health. It gave me a few minutes every day to think about the most pressing thing on my mind, and to have someone else talk about it, even if it all happened inside a headset. It was a quiet moment for contemplation and mindfulness. "The concept of psychic advisers has maintained a profound importance in human culture for thousands of years, and has a rich and beautiful history of art and craft that I have always found captivating," Chontos told me when I brought this up. "I do not believe in the supernatural of any variety, but I do believe, however, that a reading from a talented intuitive can be some of the best advice you may ever get," he continued. "I consider it to be hyper-natural that someone can be so tuned into your physical and emotional micro-reactions to words and symbols that they can actually offer you valuable feedback on what's going on in your life at the moment." The game obviously doesn't have a way to see you, and only asks you to "focus" on a particular question, but the tarot readings are an interesting combination of actionable advice and general notes about life. I had no illusions about my interaction with the program, but by thinking of one question or problem and thinking about how the reading may pertain to that issue, I was able to look at it in a slightly different way. "I tried my best to walk the fine line between sweeping generality and over-specificity," Chontos said. "We also employed the help of an incredible intuitive and tarot card reader, Marcella Kroll, to make sure we were as accurate as possible, and most importantly, respectful of her craft." The cards seem like living things There's also the fact that the game's environments are so immediately striking. The butterflies under glass slowly flap their wings. The cat on the table to your left sleeps with one eye open. You're sent to a swirling, expansive version of the solar system when you're hearing about yourself astrologically. It's a comfortable, often wondrous tour through the options the game offers. The tarot cards themselves have an interesting sense of depth of detail, and each one comes with its own internal animations. They seem like living things, and invite you to lean forward to explore their construction. It's one of the best parts of the game. "One of my favorite artists, Edmund Liang, and I designed the deck together, and he hand-painted every single gorgeous card," Chontos said. "We wanted to add depth and animation to them, so we imagined them as living, paper doll cutout dioramas. If you lean in close to them, you can even hear them." The design of the fortune teller herself is based on classical automatons, and she'll even play a fun, dice-based game with you if you'd like, complete with another detailed background. Kismet is available for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive right now through Steam, and it's been one of the most pleasant surprises I've found yet in VR. It's a calm, contemplative way to add a bit of peace and magic into your day.

An alligator was recently caught scratching at the front door of a South Carolina family's home as if it were attempting to ring the doorbell.The unusual sight was recorded on video Monday morning in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, according to ABC affiliate WCIV. A man named Gary Rogers had been walking his dog when he suddenly saw the gator casually wandering around the residential neighborhood, the station reported."The gator was not aggressive at all," Rogers told WCIV. He said that the gator "looked like he was really trying to make an attempt to get over the fence and into this woman's pool in the backyard" but then "it went over to the house...up around the doorbell."But no one was home to answer the door, and the gator eventually left.Homeowner Jamie Bailey said she was at work when a neighbor alerted her to the gator visit, but she did find plenty of scratches on the front door when she got back home."I thought it was a joke," Bailey told WCIV. "I mean who would have thought? An alligator!"

Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and Shaykh Ahmad Vahid Houston Ranjbar Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 23, 2016 With the rise and havoc caused by groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban many are somewhat familiar with the term Wahhabi and the Islamic theology which underlies the foundation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This theology was founded by Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab in the mid 1700’s. What is not commonly known is that there is a striking counter point to this ideology born only 50 years later also in present day Saudi Arabia. It was founded by Shaykh Ahmad. Shaykh Ahmad took Islam down a profoundly different road from Wahhabi theology and paved the way for the birth of a radically progressive form of religion known as the Baha’i Faith. Image of unidentified Saudi Scholars from 19th Century. (The second and fourth from left figures have in many articles been mistakenly identified as Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, however as he passed away in 1792 before the invention of photography no photos could exist) Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and Shaykh Ahmad were born about 370 km apart near Riyadh and Al Hoff respectively, in present day Saudi Arabia. Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab was born in 1703 and Shaykh Ahmad was born 50 years later in 1753. Both founded powerful new movements which purported to reform Islam, however their ultimate trajectories and fruits of their philosophy couldn’t be more different. Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab saw it as his mission to restore a more purer and original form of the faith of Islam. Thus, those who espouse his theology refer to themselves as Salafists after the as-salaf as-saliheen (the earliest converts to Islam) or Muwahhidun, meaning, “the monotheists." Towards this aim he proposed a more radical version of monotheism which condemned and waged war against the veneration for anything or person outside of the singular God. Thus the tombs of saints or the progeny of the prophet Muhammad were targets to be destroyed. Anyone who didn’t adhere to this interpretation were considered polytheists worthy of death, including fellow Muslims (especially Shi’ite who venerate the family of Muhammad), Christians and others. He also advocated for a literalist interpretation of the Quran and its laws. So for example some of his first actions on attaining authority with the ruler of the town of al-Uyayna was to destroy a sacred tomb revered by locals. He also ordered that an adulteress be stoned to death, thus reintroducing a practice which had fallen out of favor. These actions created enemies and he eventually had to flee al-Uyayna. However he ultimately found strong patronage with Muhammed Ibn Saud, a chief of desert raiders in Najd, Ibn Saud. Together they formed a pact which placed the chief as head of the political matters. Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab as head of theological matters, declared the rulers of Hijaz (holy Land of Arabia) to be non-Muslims due to their more tolerant practice of Islam and therefore worthy of attack and occupation. Thus the dynasty of the house of Saud eventually conquered most of the Arabian peninsula, and with the discovery of oil and the influx of wealth, projected this ideology around the world. Shaykh Ahmad Shaykh Ahmad belonged to the Shi’ite sect of Islam, and as such venerated and adhered to the teachings handed down by the Shi’ite Imams. They believed that the first Imam appointed by Muhammad to succeed him was ‘Alí, his cousin and son-in-law, and the first to be his disciple. Shi’ites regarded him as the Guardian of the Faith of Islám and its spiritual head. This appointment, however, was not in writing and there is no mention of it in the Qur’án. It was made verbally to a great number of his followers assembled at a place called the Pool of Khumm. As a result when the prophet passed away, the appointment of ‘Alí was challenged by ‘Umar, who later became the second Caliph of Islám. He campaigned against ‘Alí, repudiating him and his position as the ‘Interpreter of the Qur’án’, purportedly saying: ‘The Book of God is sufficient for us.’ He effectively rallied the people instead around the old and venerable person of Abú-Bakr who was installed as the first Caliph. Thus outside of the Shi’ite sect, ‘Alí’s appointment was not considered conclusive or binding by the majority of the followers of Muhammad. Shaykh Ahmad believed in the eminent fulfillment of the prophecies in the Qur’án. He also taught in a non-literal symbolic interpretation of these prophecies. He saw it as his mission to prepare the world for the coming of the Al-Qa’im or Al-Mahdi and the return of Christ. Contrary to the Wahhabi view, he espoused an extreme veneration for the saints and Imams (decedents of the prophet Muhammad). Ultimately he also achieved much influence in present day Iran and the patronage of the ruling Persian Qajar dynasty. He preached that the day judgement should be understood in a non-physical manner and that the rising of dead was in terms of their spirit. Sayyid Kázim Rashtí was appointed by him to succeed him and carried his teachings forward after Shaykh Ahmad’s passing in 1826. Sayyid Kázim clarified many of Shaykh Ahmad’s ideas. He also heightened Shaykh Ahmad’s expectations of fulfillment, even devoting much time in describing the attributes of the coming promised one, delineating such details as his linage, age and comportment. Sayyid Kazim did not leave a successor, but before his death in December, 1843, he had counseled his followers to leave their homes to seek the Mahdi, who according to his prophecies would soon appear. Interestingly this expectation also corresponded with predictions of Christian millennialist movements which were sweeping across America and western Europe. It was then in May 22 1844 that a relatively unknown merchant named Sayyid Ali Muhammad assumed the title of the Bab or Gate and claimed to be the promised one. Actually his first disciple Mullá Husayn, was one of the chief followers of Sayyid Kazim, who on the death of his leader, set out to search for the promised one. This declaration attracted a number of the more illustrious followers of the Shaykhi school, Including the famous poetess and female disciple Fatima Baraghani, named “Solace of the Eyes”(“Qurat-ul-Ayn”) by Sayyid Kazim. Facsimile of the Bab’s tablet written to Tahirh The Bab taught that he was preparing the way for another greater messenger of God who would usher in the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. The Bab’s piousness, intoxicating presence, and ability to reveal Arabic writings of profound beauty and depth without premeditation won over many. This despite the fact that he was not from the educated clerical class. This movement spread like fire throughout Persian society attracting converts from all classes of society. However opposition from the ecclesiastical and governmental authorities hardened especially after the famous incident in the Iranian town of Badasht. The early followers of the Bab had gathered together there to decided on how they could liberate their imprisoned leader the Bab. At this meeting was present Qurat-ul-Ayn. During a sermon she gave, she threw off her veil to shock and terror of the assembled men present and announced “I am the Word which the Qá’im is to utter, the Word which shall put to flight the chiefs and nobles of the earth!” This event was so shocking that a few of the believers renounced their faith and fled, another slit his own throat in terror at this sight. This act for Babis signalized the termination of old Islamic sharia law and the birth of a new divine law, which demanded equality for women. Interestingly this coincided with events on the other side of the planet, the first conference to address the emancipation of women was held in Seneca falls New York near the same time. Later tales of this incident and the wanton immorality such an act implied, were used by the clerical establishment to excite the populace against the Babis. It was also at this conference where Qurat-ul-Ayn was given yet another new name, Tahirh (The pure one) by another prominent Babi and nobleman, Mírzá Ḥusayn-`Alí who would be known as Baha’u’llah (Glory of God). Baha’u’llah would years later in 1863 announce that he was the one foretold by the Bab. The overwhelming majority of Babis accepted Baha’u’llah and became known as Baha’is. In 1852 Tahirh would be executed via strangulation with a silk scarf and thrown into a well on orders of the Shah and clergy. Her last words were reported to have been “You can kill me as soon as you like. But you cannot stop the emancipation of women!”

A coordinated campaign by fundamentalist Islamic groups has led to Facebook shutting down a number of Arabic atheist pages, according to The News Hub. The site reported that the social media platform has removed more than 16 Arabic-speaking atheist pages due to "violations" of its 'Community Standards'. The closure has left more than 100,000 atheists in Muslim dominant countries without a platform to share with other non-religious people. A campaign under the tag #FacebookVSFreeSpeech has been launched to challenge Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg by Atheist Alliance – Middle East and North Africa (AA-MENA). Pixabay Facebook has an automated system based on the number of complaints to decide whether to remove a page or group. The social media platform does not usually police reports of violations of Community Standards as they will vary around the world. Instead the site makes an automatic decision based on the number of complaints. If a post or groups gets enough reports of violations, Facebook will shut down the content and delete it. This leaves vulnerable groups open to being targeted by so-called "cyber jihadists" who urge their large following to flood Facebook with complaints. Newsletter Sign Up It is part of a wider online campaign in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to quell expressions of atheism or anything other than the socially conservative Islamic norm. But the abuse is not just online. Yemeni activist Omar Bataweel was shot outside his home on April 22, according to The News Hub. The outspoken critic of Islam had shared his views on Facebook, which led him to receive death threats prior to his killing. His case remains open. The AA-MENA campaign has tracked the tracked the progress of Arabic-speaking atheist groups and pages and frequently criticises Facebook's approach to freedom of speech. The group has three goals for its campaign; reactivate the pages, convince Facebook to respect the rights of irreligious people in the MENA region and; convince Facebook to reform its procedures so a just evaluation is made of any alleged violation of Community Standards. Maryam Namazie, spokeswoman for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, tweeted she had been blocked by Facebook after she shared an ex-Muslim's page that depicted Zuckerberg as an ally of ISIS. Blocked for 7 days by @facebook for criticising its censorship of ex-Muslim/Arab atheist pages @rayhana @CEMB_forum pic.twitter.com/aD02zImSx7 — Maryam Namazie (@MaryamNamazie) April 21, 2016 There remains a severe punishment for renouncing Islam in many Middle Eastern countries. Even if it allowed legally, ex-Muslims often face severe persecution and harassment from family and locals.

7 years ago Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) - Five members of the Occupy the Caucus movement in Des Moines Iowa were arrested this morning while blockading the entrance to Ron Paul's campaign headquarters. Using their iconic mic-check speaking style, the protestors spoke out against Ron Paul's campaign pledge to close the Environmental Protection Agency if elected. Sitting arm in arm, the members of the Occupy movement chanted; "We are fighting for the future generations. In order to live we need clean air, clean water, and safe food. Don't dismantle the EPA. We won't allow this business to open before our demands are met." Police gave the protestors the opportunity to move from the private entrance to the public sidewalk twenty feet away. Some complied, but five refused to move and were arrested. Many of the occupy demonstrators claimed sympathy, if not outright support for the ideology of Ron Paul, which made this protest especially uncomfortable for both the occupiers and the campaign. One of the arrested protester's named Clark Davidson claimed to be a Ron Paul precinct captain as he was led away in handcuffs. "I don't believe with Ron Paul on every single issue...I came to stand with my sisters. I came to address that with the campaign and I just got arrested," Davidson said. No one from the Paul Campaign was immediately available for comment.

URMIA, Iran – The Iranian government has approved a plan to counter the critical fall in the levels of Lake Urmia, once one of the world’s largest salt lakes, in northwestern Iran. Muhammad Bagher Nobakht, a government spokesperson, said an estimated 1.1 trillion tomans (some $400 million) will be allocated to revive the lake, which has recorded its lowest water levels since 1984 due to extreme temperatures and lack of rainfall. “There are nearly 90 different projects that will be implemented to prevent further drought in the lake,” Nobakht said, adding that another 800 billion tomans (about $280 million) were needed if the projects were to be done more speedily. Sandwiched between Iran’s Azeri provinces to the north and Kurdish regions to the south, Lake Urmia has long been in critical condition due to hot weather and growing water use by local farmers. It was the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth largest saltwater lake on earth before drastic ecological transformations in the late 1990s. Nobakht said the allocated budget would be used mainly for water management and ecological restoration.

Game UI Faceoff: Doom vs Dishonored 2 Akhil Dakinedi Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 25, 2016 I have this obsessive habit of screenshotting UI’s in every video game that I play, and this is one way of putting them to good use. I joked in an earlier case study about how I could run an entire blog specifically about the UI choices in video games, so here’s a start. The Games Instead of critiquing the UI of one game, we’re going to be comparing the interfaces of two different games, as this does a better job of providing more insight into why different design choices were made in each game. The games are Doom and Dishonored 2, two of the best games to have come out in 2016 (and I can personally recommend both of them). The hellish landscape of 2016’s DOOM remake Doom is a modern remake of the classic 1993 first-person shooter that the industry has come to revere for pioneering the genre. It’s a fast-paced, gory, and bloody action shooter that pumps the adrenaline up to maximum and never slows down. Developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks in May 2016, the remake was met with critical acclaim upon release for its authentic singleplayer campaign that stayed true to the feel and gunplay of the original game. Eavesdropping on civilians while perched upon a tree in Dishonored 2 Dishonored 2 is a sequel to 2012's beloved stealth-action game Dishonored. Its gameplay primarily revolves around sneaking and using supernatural powers to neutralize the opposition. The game gives players full freedom in how they approach this — either lethally or non-lethally, which in turn affects the game world and story outcome. Developed by Arkane Studios and also published by Bethesda Softworks in November 2016, Dishonored 2 was praised for its stellar level design and creative gameplay that it encouraged. Both these games are different yet similar enough to be compared for their UI. They both contain isolated “missions” that the player must go through and they share a similar foundation to some of their gameplay elements. They’re both triple-A titles from the same publisher and were both extremely well-received upon release. They set a good benchmark for the current state of UIs in game design, so let’s dive right into it. Disclaimer: I played both these games on PC with a keyboard and mouse. 01: The Start Screen First impressions matter, and it’s the job of the start screen to deliver it. It may or may not be accompanied by a splash screen beforehand. This is the very first screen the player sees that sets the tone of the game. There are many different approaches that games can take in terms of what to display here — and it primarily depends on whether the game wants to focus on setting the tone of the experience or whether it wants to focus on getting the player in-game as quickly as possible. Doom’s original start screen during launch Doom likes to go big and bold with its start screen. It has a very iconic logo and the UI displays it proudly, with the logo taking up over 80% of the screen. Note that there’s no artwork here whatsoever. It’s just the logo, icons, and buttons. The tone setting is done purely through the logo (at least visually): it’s hard, edgy, and gritty. There’s a strong brand identity associated with the logo and the screen makes sure to takes full advantage of it. Some flame animations in the backdrop accompanied with the low bass beat of thumping metal assist in establishing the tone as well. As the player is getting a feel for this, they are asked to choose between one of the game’s three modes. Doom’s updated start screen, now with artwork and update copy for each gamemode A couple months after releasing, Doom’s start screen got an update. The logo shrunk. The three different options got their own artwork, along with additional content notifying the player of recent updates to the game and what’s coming up. It’s an interesting change. By this time, most players had completed the campaign and had stopped playing the game. In order to get more players into the multiplayer and to get them to try out the map maker (Snapmap), the game started highlighting this information on this screen to attract the attention of new players booting up the game for the first time. It’s a simple way of stating “Hey, look at all this other stuff that we’re doing aside from the campaign and what we’ve got planned for it!” It’s a successful UI update and definitely gives the player more context as to how the different modes of the game are changing over time. While the original start screen is cleaner and more to the point, this update still retains the identity of the Doom logo while also giving each game mode a unique visual identifier through the thumbnail artwork. Keeping the player informed about recent updates and upcoming content is also a great way to increase player engagement. Now let’s see how Dishonored 2 fares. Dishonored 2’s splash screen Dishonored 2 has a splash screen before the start screen. Right off the bat, we know this game cares more about establishing a tone than Doom does simply due to the presence of a splash screen. It also relies a lot more heavily on its artwork to establish the tone than Doom does. This screen is a reflection of the game world, with both playable protagonists literally taking center stage. The framing and composition of the shot is very intentionally centered on the subjects, not on the logo of the game. There’s distinctly more emphasis on character and atmosphere here. Once the player presses any key, they are taken to the menu on the actual start screen. Dishonored 2’s start screen With a striking transition, the camera zooms and pans closer to the characters as the main menu appears into view. The player gets closer to the main characters as they go deeper into the menus — a nice touch. Dishonored 2 only has one game mode (the campaign), so the rest of the options are additional game settings. The aesthetic for the main menu is controversial — it’s messy, it’s using a different font for each option, and the highlighted state is extremely stark. And yet, it works. This futuristic-grunge style is a central aspect of the interface’s look and feel, as we’ll see with all the menus for Dishonored 2. The game world in Dishonored 2 is one filled with chaos, disorder, and corruption. The UI here mirrors that by angling all its text, having offset justification on all text labels, and using asymmetric splattered brushstrokes for both the background of the main menu as well as the highlighted state. There’s also some very subtle movement and blurring to all the UI elements as they slowly pan and rotate around their central axis, reinforcing the notion of an ever-changing power struggle within the game world. Paying a visit to the “Void” in Dishonored 2 The inspiration for the UI here comes from the “Void”, a mysterious dimension within Dishonored 2’s game world where immaterial black objects twist and turn, bending reality into something eerily strange and beautiful. Just as the story in the game creates narrative arcs around the game’s overarching themes, the UI personifies the same themes through stylized visual design. 02: Getting Into The Game An often overlooked aspect of game design is how the player actually resumes their game from where they left off. How many clicks or button presses does it take from when the player decides to start playing the game to when they’re actually in-game? How easy it it for them to navigate through them? The experience of this flow is very crucial, so let’s take a look at how you go from the start screen to in-game in Doom. The Load Game screen in Doom that shows up when the player hits “Campaign” from the start screen The loaded game options, from where the player must hit “Continue Game” to resume their game Doom makes the player select their game slot and offers up further options within that game slot. It’s very straightforward and extremely simple. A screenshot of the current level serves as an identifier of what mission the player is currently in. It’s a minimalist design with only the essentials. The goal here is clearly to get the player in-game as quickly as possible. In terms of aesthetics, Doom tries to preserve the futuristic sci-fi vibe of its world. They could’ve gone all-out with the hell theme but they stick to the clean layouts and simplicity of modern futurism. There’s little to no stylized elements and as a result, the interface doesn’t stand out in any way. Dishonored 2’s Load Game Screen With Dishonored 2, we have a more stylish menu where the game prompts the player to either continue where they left off or load a specific save file. Dishonored 2’s Load Game Screen With a more complex game comes a more complex UI. Dishonored 2 offers two playable protagonists, both of whom are separately identified visually in the campaign slots. There’s different chaos levels for each playable protagonist and of course, different types of saves (auto-save and quick-save). This screen does a stellar job at identifying all these differences between the save files and makes it very easy for the player to pick the playthrough that they want to resume. It’s a very scalable design built to work for save files for seven or seventy simultaneous playthroughs of the game. So while Doom goes for a somewhat bland and generic load game screen, Dishonored 2 goes for a flashy and robust load game screen full with categorized playthrough options. The game world is again mirrored within the UI in Dishonored 2 — a trend that will carry across all of its screens. 03: In-Game HUD What does the player need to know at all times? How much “stuff” needs to be crammed into the four available corners of the HUD? When and how do contextual notifications show up? These are all problems that the HUD can solve through the use of clever design. Health and ammo. These are the two things every first-person shooter needs to inform the player about. The health bar changes the play style of the gamer by informing them how aggressive or safe they can be. The ammo bar tells the player whether the weapon they’re wielding can carry them through the next wave of enemies, whether they need to swap weapons, or if they need to scourge for more ammo. Doom’s HUD forces the player’s eye to the bottom left and right of the screen Doom retains its futurist aesthetic in its HUD with the information displayed as overlays. Health on the left, ammo on the right. Shields are simply an additional buffer to health and is highlighted in a differentiated color. Ammo is on the right as a number. Doom continues the trend of ultra-minimalism by not displaying the type of rounds or ammo that the weapon uses. In the heat of battle, this information is irrelevant to the player. All the player needs to know is that the higher the number, the safer they are for the coming fight. The weapon silhouette, secondary rounds, and equipment (grenades, etc) are all a beneficial touch that provide additional context to the player at all times. Dishonored 2 forces the player’s eye to the top-left of the screen If Doom goes for sci-fi, Dishonored 2 goes for surreal fantasy, even with its HUD. The most crucial information in Dishonored 2 is health and “mana” — the amount of magical power the player has to cast supernatural powers. It does this by color: red for health and blue for mana, mirroring the colors of the items that provide health and mana. Both these bars take the form of stylized arcs on the screen that un-fill as the levels go down. Dishonored’s equivalent of Doom’s weapon silhouette is the illustrated icon art for the currently equipped power. When this is replaced by a weapon, the ammo remaining is displayed in this circle as well. Sunlight filters through an abandoned manor in Dishonored 2 In both these games, the star of the game is the environment. They’re beautiful, dark, twisted, and captivating. Cluttering the screen with another overlay of HUD elements would take away from the immersion, so both these games try very hard — and succeed — at keeping the player’s attention fixated on the environment and their goals. 04: Main Objectives How well does the UI inform the player know what they’re supposed to be doing? What is their goal and how far away are they from accomplishing it? What have they done so far and what’s left to do in this level? Players like to wander and get lost in large open-world games, sometimes for hours on end. Keeping the player on-point with their main goals through the mission goals UI requires clear directions digestible in the quickest way possible. Best practices here are to not handhold too much but subtly nudge them towards their objective. Doom’s Mission Objectives screen At first glance, Doom’s Mission Objectives screen can feel a but overwhelming. There’s lots of information overlaid on a massive interactive map of the level. When we look at it more closely, this approach actually makes perfect sense. At its core, Doom knows the main problem that its players will face: navigating its complex levels. The game features large non-linear maps which can be intimidating to players. There’s frequent back-tracking involved and many hidden items stashed away in secret rooms of the level. So the player needs a map, and a useful one at that. The game allows toggling the map between 2D and 3D, zooming in and out, and offering a large range of pan and highlight options. The story objective, of course, is highlighted on the screen and marked on the map. However, there’s no waypoint or route. The game wants the player to explore and find a path to their destination. It encourages the players to explore every nook and cranny of the map before moving on to the next one; it even encourages the player to look for them by informing them how many they’ve got and how far away they are from collecting them all. Dishonored 2’s Mission Objectives Screen If Doom’s largest player challenge was navigating the level, Dishonored 2’s challenge is to make the player aware of all the different approaches that the player has at their disposal to accomplish their objective. Dishonored 2 is a game about choices, and these are tough decisions (either moral or ethical) that impact not only the game world but also the outcome of the story. Like Doom, Dishonored 2’s biggest asset is its ability to identify the largest player challenge and its ability to offer a compelling solution right on the Main Objectives screen. Once the game has laid out the various options available to the player on this screen, it also gives players a checklist of tasks to do if they desire to keep going down that path. After a crucial point in the checklist, the alternative approaches that the mission offers get locked off, which this screen also does a good job of notifying the player of. Overall, it succeeds because it knows where players will get tripped up the most and offers a clear path to let them approach the objective however they would like. Static maps in Dishonored 2 for every level There’s no need for an interactive map in Dishonored 2, since environmental cues is all the player needs to get to their destination. There are, however, complex multi-layered environments that benefit from having an overhead map broken out into the various sections. These come in the form of in-game items that the player can stumble into with enough exploration. It’s an interesting contrast at how much emphasis each game puts on its most confusing elements and how they attempt to clarify the issues through the UI. It’s important to note than neither one objectively does it better than the other here. They simply take different approaches to address different problems. As long as the player isn’t confused after tinkering with this screen for five seconds, it has accomplished its job. 05: Pause Menu Believe it or not, this might as well be the screen players see the most. Modern gaming happens in a distraction-filled house with constant breaks and interruptions, and the pause menu is on-screen for a significant amount of time. Its functional purpose is to allow the player to freeze the game in its current state for a certain amount of time and resume it from there some time later. Let’s take a peek at how the two games fare here. Doom’s simplistic Pause Menu As expected, Doom doesn’t go for anything flashy. If you pause the game, the player is presented with the most minimal menu imaginable: a black screen with a menu of options. Functionally, it does its job and doesn’t bother trying for anything else. And now, Dishonored 2. Dishonored 2’s Pause Menu Stylish. Swashy. Chaotic. These are the first words that come to mind when you’re slammed with Dishonored 2’s pause menu. It’s artistic, it’s painterly, and it’s beautiful. There’s a very big emphasis on aesthetics here, and once again, the UI mirrors the game world. Different fonts for each menu item embody the disorder in its society, and the tilted UI hints at everything in its world being slightly off. Shards of broken glass in the background and future-punk brushstrokes on the menu items add a level of uniqueness to it that gives it a very distinct feel. Adding this extra layer of immersion with in-theme aesthetics gives the game a very interactive feel. It’s as if the UI belongs in the world of the game. It’s beckoning for the player to touch it and play with it. It wants players to tinker with its messy, splattered feel and manipulate it. With an extremely straightforward menu like that of Doom, there’s not much room for imaginative interactivity. Dishonored 2’s UI designers clearly felt strongly enough about the UI that they infused the game’s tone and theme directly into it — a very difficult and extremely admirable feat. 06: Weapon Wheel Both these games employ this UI paradigm to allow players to quick-switch their current weapon or gadget. It’s a console gaming solution to the problem of controllers not having as many programmable hotkeys as PC keyboards do. It has made its way to the PC and it looks like it’s here to stay. So let’s see how these two games incorporate it. Doom’s minimalist weapon wheel Doom’s weapon wheel is excellent. Imagine that you’re ambushed by two powerful demons around a corner and you have to switch to your shotgun. You bring up the weapon wheel. The time in-game doesn’t freeze — it simply slows down. The weapon wheel neatly appears off-center to the right so that your vision of the targets isn’t obscured. You can still move and position yourself while also switching weapons as the in-game time slows. Visually, the wheel is a light translucent overlay with a huge emphasis on the weapon silhouettes, a large part of Doom’s identity. Ammunition remaining is displayed as flat numbers. Instead of saying “56 5.5 caliber rounds” and “210 75mm rounds”, the UI simply displays “56” and “210”. It’s way easier to digest in the heat of the battle after all the irrelevant information is thrown out. Now for Dishonored 2. Dishonored 2’s weapon wheel By contrast, Dishonored 2’s weapon wheel looks a lot messier. It takes over the entire screen, it obscures the entire game, and it’s a lot more in-your-face. Time doesn’t completely freeze here either. Things are happening in slow motion in-game as you’re switching weapons but you can’t see any of it (an odd design choice). The game also adds helpful instructional text about the weapon or gadget in the center of the wheel to provide some guidance on how to use it. Ammo counts are displayed as numbers on the outer fringes of each weapon circle. Dishonored 2 is a game that encourages stylish and creative kills. Taking the player out of the action just to have them swap weapons seems a bit off. Not being able to see the game while swapping weapons is another misstep. As far as the weapon wheel is concerned, Doom is the clear winner. The minimalist approach pays off hugely here as the focus is still on the enemies and the world, not on the tools available. 07: Primary Upgrades Both these games have RPG-like upgrade mechanics to further enhance customization of weapons, powers, and gadgets. This is a crucial component of the game’s UI because here, it needs to inform the player what’s going to happen before they decide to purchase an upgrade. It needs to make sure that the player is well-informed enough to make the right decision, without making it seem like an upgrade is objectively better than another equivalent one. Easier said than done. Doom’s primary weapon upgrade screen — Selecting a weapon to upgrade Doom’s emphasis on big and bold is apparent here yet again, with the upgrade allowing clearing out 80% of the screen space for a gigantic viewmodel of the weapon itself. Players can scroll through the list on the left for the weapon they want to upgrade, and observe the gun in all its glory on the right. Once they’ve selected one, they choose its upgrades. Doom’s primary weapon upgrade screen — Selecting upgrades for the weapon The player gets to choose between two different upgrade “trees” for each weapon. In this case, the player has acquired two upgrades for Remote Detonation and can complete an optional Mastery Challenge for an additional bonus upgrade. Note the descriptive yet succinct flavor text for each upgrade informing the player clearly what each one does. The screen also uses translucency and affordances very well to highlight unavailable or locked upgrades. Doom’s primary weapon upgrade screen — Acquiring two upgrades for the same weapon The game doesn’t force you down one path for a weapon upgrade. It allows you to fully upgrade both trees for one weapon, if you wish to do so (gameplay-wise, this is not the wisest choice but it’s still there). Shown above is the Charged Burst being upgraded while Explosive Shot has already been fully upgraded, save for the Mastery Challenge. Note the expanded and collapsed views of the active and inactive upgrade tree. This screen does a great job at showcasing the relevant content that the player cares about and does away with the rest elegantly. Let’s check out Dishonored 2. Dishonored 2’s Powers Upgrade Screen Dishonored 2 has two different types of primary upgrades: powers and weapons. The powers screen has the six available powers highlighted on the left side, with seven additional enhancements right below it. Each power has its own skill tree with branching paths and upgrade requirements. Note that the flavor text for each upgrade (on the right) is far more detailed here than it was in Doom. Dishonored 2 is a complex game with powers that can be combined in unique and interesting ways, so the game goes out of its way to provide the player with strategic tips and how to use it most effectively. Dishonored 2’s Powers Upgrade Screen — The skill tree for Far Reach The base version of each power costs a certain amount of runes, and the upgraded versions of each power cost even more runes (the in-game currency for power upgrades). This requires the player to jump into all the power explanations and strategically decide how they want to allocate their runes, as there’s a limited amount of runes in the game. This means a lot of reading about the power and its upgrades, going back to a different power, reading about that power and its upgrades, and repeating for the rest until the player feels confident that they have a strategy for a power upgrade path for their desired style of gameplay. The UI could definitely have accommodated for better comparative analysis of the powers to solve the problem of the current experience, which is jumping around back-and-forth between the skill trees of the different powers to make a choice. Dishonored 2’s weapon upgrades Beyond powers, there’s the basic gear and gadget upgrades that Dishonored 2 gets, and this comes with its own unique set of UI. All of this can only be accessed at specific locations in the game, so the player cannot bring it up whenever they wish to. Let’s see if any compromises were made in the UI as a result of only being available in specific points in the game. Dishonored 2’s weapon upgrades — Blueprints You get to upgrade equipment by finding blueprints and installing them with in-game currency. Simple as that. The UI here is very pretty. It’s got a workshop-type feel to it with the blueprint aesthetic and evokes the feeling of tinkering with your equipment to make it better. The only offshoot here might be the navigational affordance, tucked away into small dots on the top right of the screen. I’ve seen some players miss this entirely only to assume that there was only type of gadget they could upgrade (when in reality, there are six). Dishonored 2’s weapon upgrades — Error states The UI here is impeccably designed, accounting for the many states of blueprints and providing a visual affordance for each one: undiscovered, discovered but locked, discovered and available, available and purchased, available but insufficient funds, available but lacking pre-requisite upgrade(s), and available but upgrade slot unavailable. It’s immediately clear what each state of each blueprint is without it needing supplementary text. It’s quite incredible to see this level of effort put in for UI that only shows up at very specific points in the game that the player only sees eight or nine times at most. Dishonored 2’s weapon upgrades — A fully upgraded Gear & Outfit upgrade The blueprint upgrade UI in Dishonored 2 is a great example of UI design done right. Not only is it visually stunning and thematically appropriate, but it’s also highly functional and very intuitive. The player is never left asking questions like “Will I have enough funds to upgrade this all the way?”, “What exactly is the benefit of getting this?”, or “How many more blueprints do I need to find to get the Masterwork unlocked?”. Everything is clear and the UI paints a clear picture of where the player is currently at and where they need to get. Doom, by comparison, is a lot more simplistic. As a result of being more complex, Dishonored 2 goes all out in its UI to ensure that players are fully informed of all the available options at their disposal, be it a power or a weapon or a gadget upgrade. And it does so masterfully. Dishonored 2 definitely takes the cake here for the better UI. 08: Secondary Upgrades These games go even further with the level of customization available. While not as impactful on gameplay as the primary upgrades, these secondary upgrades serve to tweak minor things like movement, speed, increased chance of buffs, and other small quality of life improvements. Doom’s Secondary Upgrade wheel Doom offers a variety of in-game challenges that can be completed to unlock runes, which then fit into one of three slots. The UI for this screen is simplistic while managing to echo some of the arcane symbolism from hell. Each secondary upgrade can be upgraded to three different levels — all visually represented within the same block. Text plays a huge role here as well, incentivizing the player to perform the instructed actions to upgrade the rune. Again, Doom succeeds here with its simplicity when treating secondary upgrades. Dishonored 2 has some interesting things up its sleeve when it comes to secondary upgrades. Dishonored 2’s Secondary Upgrade screen — Bonecharms For secondary upgrades, Dishonored 2 has bonecharms, in-game collectibles that can be equipped into one of ten slots in the secondary upgrade wheel. Each bonecharm offers passive abilities that the players can pick and choose to complement their playstyle. Dishonored 2’s Secondary Upgrade screen — Equipping Bonecharms Equipping a bonecharm is as easy as entering the “Equip Bonecharms” screen from the main Bonecharms screen and choosing a slot on the secondary upgrade wheel. The currently equipped bonecharm can be swapped out for a new one that better fits the players’ gameplay style. Text plays an equally important role here, as this is how the player makes their decision about which bonecharm to keep and which ones to sacrifice. Speaking of sacrificing bonecharms… Dishonored 2’s Secondary Upgrade screen — Crafting Bonecharms Dishonored 2 takes secondary upgrades to a whole new level, allowing players to sacrifice their bonecharms to acquire their traits and craft new ones that can have up to four different (or the same) traits. And of course, just like with the gear blueprint UI for primary upgrades, Dishonored 2 once again goes above and beyond for a beautiful, custom UI that only a select few players will ever see. Players are greeted with another blueprint-style UI where they can choose to sacrifice bonecharms or craft them (given they possess enough traits). The UI here is fantastic once again, informing the user of locked and unlocked states, available and unavailable states, and an insufficient materials state. Dishonored 2’s Secondary Upgrade screen — Sacrificing Bonecharms Sacrificing a bonecharm is as simple as going into the Sacrifice menu and choosing the bonecharms that you’d like to say goodbye to. The main job of the UI here is to inform the player what they’ll be getting out of the deal. Some bonecharms have traits that cannot be learned, some break down into significantly more raw materials, and some cannot be sacrificed at all. A handy “Sacrifice Results” section (on the right) does just this, letting the player know what the results will be after the bonecharm sacrifice. Dishonored 2’s Secondary Upgrade screen — Choosing Traits to Craft Bonecharm After sacrificing bonecharms and acquiring traits, the player can choose up to four traits that they can combine into one bonecharm. This screen allows the player to pick these four traits. It’s a very forward-thinking UI, accounting quite well for scalability by sectioning off traits into different categories and allowing the player to sort and filter through them easily. The player may have as little as five or as many as forty bonecharm traits. Tabbed navigation and highlighted sectioning serves its purpose well, always keeping the player informed about the trait name and function. Note that as you get deeper into the crafting flow, the new screen simply pops up on top of the old one as the older one blurs out and fades in the background. This creates a very powerful sense of going deeper into chaos, as the background can get quite visually overwhelming a few screens in. Dishonored 2’s Secondary Upgrade screen — Crafting Bonecharms Finally, when the four traits are picked, the game presents a grandiose future-punk crafting wheel that’s as beautiful as it is minimalist. Glyphs, magic, and an occult atmosphere do a great job at reflecting the tone of the in-game world here within the UI. At this point, you can either craft the bonecharm or swap out one of the traits for a different one. There’s even some amazing crafting animations that happen when the bonecharm is being crafted. As evident, Doom keeps up the trend of keeping things as simple as possible and makes its UI do just that one thing really well. Dishonored 2, on the other hand, has a significantly more complex secondary upgrade system and once again, it goes all out to create extremely specific and incredibly good looking UIs to accommodate that. There’s no half-measures taken here, it’s all done with heart and a lot of great work has clearly been put into it. 09: Mission End Screen How did I do? Did I find all the collectibles? Did I accomplish all the optional objectives? Did I complete all the challenges? This screen is basically a report card of the player’s performance in the mission. It’s very important to display progress here because this is the only feedback the player receives from the game about how they’re playing. This is the screen that serves as a catalyst for the player to assess how they did and what they can improve upon in the next mission. Up first is Doom. Doom’s end of mission screen Doom has a lot of stuff to tell you when you finish a level, and it crams all of it into one screen. The most important thing according to the game is the combat rating, displayed front and center with a bombastic entry animation informing the player how good their dodging and shooting skills were. The Challenges box shows the player what challenges they achieved or how close they were to achieving the ones that they didn’t. And finally, the Exploration box has all the other items in the level such as secrets and collectibles. Dishonored 2 has very similar things to inform the player of at the end of a mission, but it does in a dramatically different fashion than Doom. Dishonored 2’s end of mission screen — 1 of 3 Dishonored 2’s end of mission screen is actually three different screens. Since the game can be played in so many ways and so many complicated things can happen in a level, the UI tries its best to inform the player about everything that happened without overwhelming the player with a blast of information all at once. The first screen, along with providing specific numbers of NPCs and game world items affected by your actions, shows you a handy affinity matrix of stealth and lethality. Players can go nonlethal assault, full-on lethal assault, lethal stealth, or the hardest of all — nonlethal stealth. Making players see their placement on one of these four quadrants is brilliant, as it makes them re-analyze their gameplay style and allows them to adjust accordingly. Dishonored 2’s end of mission screen — 2 of 3 The second screen of the three is dedicated exclusively to collectibles. The screen here doesn’t need to be so ostentatious and flashy like it is, but providing this level of importance to the UI here indirectly serves to inform the player how much the game itself prioritizes the collectibles. It’s quite satisfying to visually watch the circles complete and glow at the end of every level, knowing that you’ve acquired every possible thing in the level. Dishonored 2’s end of mission screen — 3 of 3 Finally, the third screen deals with challenges. Interestingly, the UI doesn’t display the unaccomplished challenges and shows only the ones that have been completed. This was likely a design decision made knowing that no one player could possibly accomplish all challenges in one playthrough of the mission, since many of them contradict each other. For example, a challenge for not killing any enemies in the mission would fail if the player accomplishes the challenge for killing five enemies within three seconds. Completionists would certainly not appreciate the game showing the failed challenges as unaccomplished challenges, so this was a wise move. Once again, Doom keeps things constrained to one screen while displaying the information in as little text and visuals as possible. Dishonored 2, yet again, goes for style while highlighting the substance. Every important element of the level is displayed independently and prominently, allowing the player to focus on the important parts of the level and to take it all in before proceeding to the next one. 10: Loading Screens Another hugely overlooked UI component of modern video games is the loading screen, which is frankly inexcusable given how long the player stares at these waiting for the next section to load. As games get larger and move towards a true open-world, load times are inevitably going to be longer. The UI can easily inform the player about events in the story, or provide gameplay tips, or poke fun at itself lightheartedly. By now, you can probably make a good guess at what Doom does. Doom’s Loading Screen Mission name, loading percentage, and a tooltip all overlaid on top of an animating visual in the background. That’s all Doom needs to do and that’s all Doom does. It’s functional and simplistic, but also bland and unmemorable. Dishonored 2’s Loading Screen Mission name, mission description, loading progress, in-game player location, and interactive tooltips are all overlaid on a fancy watercolor visual in Dishonored 2’s loading screen. Again, there’s large splattered brushstrokes and cracking glass all over the screen to represent the fragmented and messy world of the game. Every screen we’ve seen in Dishonored 2 so far reflects this, and the loading screen is no exception. 11: Settings Screens Like most PC gamers, my first impression of the game (after the splash screen) comes from the Settings screen. It’s the first thing that PC players go into to tweak things to their liking. Does the game provide enough advanced graphics options? What are all the different sensitivity options available to me? How many different levels of anti-aliasing can I choose from? All of this needs to be visible and apparent immediately. If it’s not, the UI has failed. Doom’s Settings UI Doom’s Settings UI is exactly what you’d expect. It comes with all the various options PC users have come to expect from modern games. Sliders show up where expected and radio buttons show up where you expect them to. Overall, it’s pretty straightforward and functions like a normal menu. Dishonored 2’s Settings Main Menu Dishonored 2 greets you with a giant, mesmerizing menu when you first enter the Settings section. Doom doesn’t do anything like this, but as we’ve seen, Dishonored 2 tends to go a little overboard with creating incredible looking UIs for even the least important screens in the game. The screenshots don’t do the animations on this screen any justice here. Dishonored 2’s Settings UI Dishonored 2’s Settings UI is functionally similar to Doom, and yet stylistically miles above it. There are beautiful textures, lighting, and animations all over the place. At times, this can be overdone to the point where it distracts from the main content. When the player is trying to adjust the graphical settings just to get the game to work right, the last thing they want to be reminded of is the effort put into the design of this screen and not the effort put into optimizing the game. But this is a rare case and for the most part, players greatly appreciate the beautiful UI designs that Arkane Studios has put into these screens. 12: Other Screens This post could easily triple in size if I analyzed every single screen in these games, so here’s some honorable mentions in both these games that didn’t get a section to themselves. These are screens that stood out because they put a fun twist on screens that are normally ignored or under-designed. Doom’s Credits screen I would be remiss if I didn’t call out Doom’s spectacular endgame credits sequence, with the player being treated to freeze-motion animated scenes as the names of the team members come up on-screen big and bold. Doom’s Credits Screen It’s a spectacular sendoff to a high-flying, adrenaline-filled adventure. There’s some impressive visual effects in here and it actually incentivizes players to see it through all the way just to see what’s next. Doom’s Credits Screen The scenes also contain some iconic references to specific moments from the original Doom — recreated this time in full 3D. It’s a beautiful way to say goodbye to a storied franchise, and it’s great to see the team put so much effort behind what could’ve been a very simple credits sequence with the names and titles of the team scrolling up. Dishonored 2 — An in-game letter This is an in-game letter found in Dishonored 2. Even a simple text view like this is gloriously presented, with a subtle animation and a backdrop of the Void as the player reads it. It adds to the immersion in ways a simple scrollable text view never could. Dishonored 2’s Confirm Screen Even an option to confirm or deny a change is presented with the same aesthetic, a testament to Dishonored 2’s commitment to evoke the feel and mood of the game through all its UI — including something as mundane and as much of an afterthought as dialog boxes. Dishonored 2’s in-game worldbuilding and lore Finally, Dishonored 2 does a great job collecting its in-game items in its menu for the player to read at their own pace. Handwritten notes go a long way in adding to the immersion and categorized sections for different types of items are also nice quality of life improvements. The aesthetic here, too, is downright gorgeous. So Who Wins? So that was a lot. Looking through the various screens, we can see that while UI of the games face similar challenges in how to best display information to the player and educate them on what to do. Both games put their own twist on things based on their complexity. There are common trends. Doom likes to keep things as simple as possible and tries to fit all its UI elements on one screen whenever possible. It goes for a minimalist, simplistic design throughout all of its screens and it works. Dishonored 2 likes to overdo it when it comes to presentation, mirroring its future-punk aesthetic in every single screen throughout the game — be it the main weapon wheel or some obscure gear upgrade blueprint menu that only shows up eight times in the game. Contextual in-game UI in Dishonored 2 As you can tell by now, there’s no “right” way to do UI design in games. There are best practices, which both these games follow. One chooses a straightforward and simple approach while the other goes for stylish and flashy. As a result of the choices and freedom offered to the player, Dishonored 2 has a lot more to deal with in its UI. And it handles all of it with grace. Doom is a mostly linear experience with one way to play (save for variety between gunplay styles), so its UI doesn’t have to do much aside from just being there when the player needs it. Final Thoughts Imagine that you’re traveling and you walk in to a reputed restaurant to try out a couple of highly recommended items from a menu. Both the dishes are very good. The waiter for the first dish unassumingly brings the dish out quite plainly and leaves. But the waiter for the second dish not only brings out the dish, but starts telling you about the ingredients, gives you suggestions on what wine to pair it with, has a charming demeanor, and is willing to answer any questions you have about the local cuisine of the area. In this analogy, the dish is the game, the chef is the game designer, and the waiter is the user interface. They’re all catering to you — the player. The waiter doesn’t have to do much beyond serve the meal, but he can choose to make it an uplifting and pleasant experience for you and as a result, it makes the experience of the meal better. If a video game is a conversation between the designer and the player, then the game world is the medium for that conversation and the interface serves as the interpreter to break down the complex language of the game into comprehensible chunks to pass it along to the player. Doom does just this and does it very well. Dishonored 2 takes an ambitious approach to not just do it, but bakes the tone and feel of its game world right into all of the UI. It delivers itself — game and UI — as one coherent package and absolutely nails the presentation. Doom is the unassuming and plain waiter whereas Dishonored 2 is the elegant, graceful, and charming one. Just as the experience of the meal is heightened by the better waiter, the enjoyment of the game is enhanced by the interface that goes above and beyond. Dishonored 2 is a stellar example of game UI done right, and I hope more game studios take note of how significantly the game can be enhanced when the UI seamlessly integrates itself into the package instead of just existing to serve the message. Sunset in Dishonored 2

9th Update, Sunday 8AM after 12:40AM post: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 raked in a fantastic $51.1M on Saturday, and Disney/Marvel is calling the opening weekend for the James Gunn-directed movie at $145M. That’s not an outrageous forecast by Disney as industry estimates also show GOTG2 coming in at $144.6M. Deadline’s Nancy Tartaglione will be expanding on the international story, but all-in worldwide to date for this $200M budgeted movie before P&A is $427.6M. The first GOTG had a similar negative cost, an estimated global $147.4M P&A spend and churned a profit after all ancillaries of $204M. What was the big surprise this time around with GOTG2? For Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis it speaks volumes that Marvel “can take characters who many were unacquainted with before the first film, and in the course of the next film, deliver an opening that’s on par with some of the biggest openings in the movie business. It’s a reflection of how consistent Marvel has been –their $11 billion worth of success– and how they can take chances like this. It’s not a franchise that is quote unquote safe or normal as other movie franchises. The challenge here was taking things that moviegoers loved from the first and making it bigger. This is the 17th biggest domestic opening of all-time, and any time a movie can rank in the top 20, you sit back and say ‘Wow.’ These guys are at the high end of their game, and can deliver movies that cut through all the noise clutter and alternative choices that moviegoers have nowadays.” The big question is whether GOTG2 gets to $1 billion worldwide, and if it does, it will be the fifth Marvel title to do so after Avengers ($1.5B), Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.4B), Iron Man 3 ($1.2B), Captain America: Civil War ($1.15B). But for the nth time in a row a Marvel superhero has kicked off summer, and what’s impressive about GOTG2 is that it’s an extension of a deeper universe series that continues to be loved by fans. At a Marvel media day two weeks ago, the company’s boss Kevin Feige remarked that he did not have a stat on how many times audiences attend one of their comic book movies, “But if you look at Beauty and the Beast, I don’t think a movie doesn’t get to those kind of numbers unless there’s multiple viewings. We make our movies to be seen multiple times, not just because we want people to keep buying tickets, which we do, but because we grew up obsessing over the movies we love. It’s fun to revisit movies again and again.” Currently, GOTG2 ranks as the sixth best on that list after Avengers ($207.4M), Age of Ultron ($191.2M), Captain America: Civil War ($179.1M), Iron Man 3 ($174.1M), and Spider-Man 3 ($151.1M) (all Marvel character movies). Disney expects Sunday to dip 26% from Saturday for $37.7M. For GOTG2 to hit a $150M domestic opening, it would need to make $42.7M today, which would be $300K more than what Captain America: Civil War grossed on its Sunday. Ever since the studios began rolling Thursday previews into Friday’s B.O., Saturday typically registers as a dip. It’s in these cases that the hasty observation is made that a film is frontloaded. But if you back out GOTG2‘s $17M Thursday night from its $56.2M Friday (which would then be $39.3M), we see that Saturday’s $51M technically reps a 30% hike over Friday. That Friday-to-Saturday surge for GOTG2 outstrips that of Captain America: Civil War (+21%), Iron Man 3 (+17%), GOTG (+16%), Avengers (+12% Saturday over Friday) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (-1%), that is when you compare those films’ Saturdays to their pure Fridays (less Thursday cash). Now, that says a lot about GOTG2‘s powerful word of mouth: Each day the sequel’s grosses have improved. Also, Disney points out that families came out, and business in such cities like New York (where Friday was depressed because of storms) rebounded. PostTrak continues to report that 76% of all moviegoers are giving GOTG2 a definite thumbs up to their friends; that’s one point above GOTG‘s 75%. Throughout the weekend GOTG2 director James Gunn has been keeping the pic’s spirit alive, answering fan questions and retweeting their reactions: .@Guardians vol 2 Is such great fun. @JamesGunn Visuals r stunning.Proves that #CoolCounts. I had2tweet twice it's such a good film. pic.twitter.com/6iiYpMtOo7 — Vincent D'Onofrio (@vincentdonofrio) May 7, 2017 PostTrak updates their audience polls throughout the weekend and GOTG2 is still strong among older men and women over 25 with 32% and 26%, respectively. Guys under 25 rep 25% of all moviegoers, while females of that age are at 18%. All this means is that Marvel fans are aging up, and that those who were under 25 when the first movie opened crossed over. Strong positive reactions among all four demos with M25+ (94%), M25- (93%), F25+ (91%) and F25- (88%). Disney shows that 72% adults came out for GOTG2, 19% families, and 9% teens. Fifty-four percent of all GOTG moviegoers were Caucasian, 19% Hispanic, 12% African American and 9% Asian. Imax hubs delivered $13M of GOTG2‘s weekend stateside with the large format exhibitor ranking in seven of the sequel’s top 10 locations. Disney’s marketing once again played up GOTG2‘s unique tone, amplifying the music-and humor-driven energy that helped the first film set box office records (global take: $773.3M). The trick with marketing remained keeping as much of GOTG2 a surprise, specifically the revelations of Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell’s characters in the film. Said Marvel boss Kevin Feige at the press day two weeks ago, “It feels like there’s been a lot out there. There’s little (content in the marketing) out there, and I think audiences will be surprised how much more there is to the movie.” Thirty-nine percent of all PostTrak respondents said GOTG2 blew away their expectations compared to 32% on the original 2014 film. After the sequel was announced in 2014 at Comic-Con, the GOTG gang stopped by last year at Hall H in San Diego with exclusive footage and the Ravagers making a surprise entrance. The GOTG2 pre-kickoff Super Bowl spot drew a tremendous amount of chatter on Twitter, and was one of the highest-watched spots in the 24 hours following the Big Game per Relish Mix with close to 35M views. The sequel’s first teaser trailer launched in October on Fox’s Rocky Horror Picture Show; with the second teaser debut at Brazil Comic Con in December setting a Marvel Studios teaser record with 81M views in its first 24 hours (that record was later surpassed by Thor: Ragnarok). Baby Groot has been the posterboy for the movie not only in PR, but in a TV promo campaign estimated at $80M across various partners including Ford, Geico, Go-Gurt, and Dairy Queen. Groot became the first SportsCenter Mascot ever and the focal point of a first-time partnership with Twitter and Fooji to launch #BabyGroot On Demand Delivery Program in several metro areas. Baby Groot and Rocket were also featured in Facebook’s first-ever camera filters. All weekend long, Sirius radio has been playing the GOTG2 soundtrack on its ’70s Channel. The top 10 films for May 5-7 based on studio-reported Sunday AM estimates: 1.). The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (DIS), 4,347 theaters / $56.2M Fri. (includes $17m previews)/$51.1M Sat/$37.7M Sun/ 3-day cume: $145M / Wk 1 2.) The Fate Of The Furious (UNI), 3,595 theaters (-482) / $2.2M Fri. /$3.8M Sat/$3.4M Sun/ 3-day cume: $8.5M (-57%) / Total cume: $207.1m / Wk 4 3.) The Boss Baby (Fox) 3,284 (-455), $1.3M /$2.8m Sat/$2M Sun/3-day: $6.1M (-34%)/Total: $156.7M/Wk 6 4). How To Be A Latin Lover (PANT/LG), 1,203 theaters (+85) / $1.3M Fri. /$1.6M Sat/$2.2M Sun/ 3-day cume: $5.25M (-57%)/ Total: $20.6M/Wk 2 5). Beauty and the Beast (DIS), 2,680 theaters (-475) / $1.2M Fri. /$2.3M Sat/$1.4M Sun/ 3-day cume: $4.9M (-28%) / Total cume: $487.6M / Wk 8 6.) The Circle (STX/EUR), 3,163 theaters / $1.16M Fri. /$1.79M Sat/$1.07M Sun/ 3-day cume: $4M (-56%)/Total:$15.7M/ Wk 1 7). Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (GINF) 425 theaters / $828K Fri./$1.5M Sat/$907K Sun/ 3-day cume: $3.2M (-69%) /Total:$16.1M/ Wk 2 8.) Gifted (FSL), 1,874 theaters (-341) / $572K Fri. /$915k Sat/$568K Sun/ 3-day cume: $2.05M (-39%) / Total: $19.2M / Wk 5 9.) Going in Style (WB/VR), 2,033 theaters (-728) / $530K Fri. /$830k Sat/$540K Sun/ 3-day cume: $1.9M (-47%) / Total: $40.6M / Wk 5 10.) Smurfs: The Lost Village (Sony), 1,902 theaters (-652) / $355K Fri. /$865K Sat/$600K Sun/ 3-day cume: $1.8M (-49%) / Total: $40.6M / Wk 5 NOTABLES: The Dinner (ORC), 509 theaters / $213K Fri. /$277K Sat/$266k Sun/ 3-day cume: $755k / Wk 1 Sleight (BHT), 591 theaters (+26) / $191K Fri. /$335K Sat/$218k Sun/ 3-day cume: $743k (-56%) /Total: $2.9M/Wk 1 3 Generations (TWC), 6 theaters / $5K Fri. /$8K Sat/$7k Sun/PTA: $3,3K/ 3-day cume: $20k / Wk 1 Disney 7th Writethru, Saturday 7:47AM: Even though it’s Saturday morning, it’s still too early to call the opening weekend for Disney/Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2. Projections have simmered from what we saw yesterday with the James Gunn-directed movie now barreling toward a $138.1M three day, per industry estimates. What is certain is that GOTG2 made $56M on Friday, including $17M from Thursday previews. We saw these estimates late last night, and they’re sticking into this morning. Perhaps there’s a pop tonight to propel GOTG2 over $140M. Keep this in mind: 14 May releases have opened to more than $100M at the box office, and as of right now, GOTG2 ranks as the sixth best on that list after Avengers ($207.4M), Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191.2M), Captain America: Civil War ($179.1M), Iron Man 3 ($174.1M), and Spider-Man 3 ($151.1M) (all Marvel character movies). Great India Films What’s clear is that GOTG2 is taking all the wind out of the box office. Yesterday, the Marvel movie generated 85% of Friday’s business. Most films geared at adults are taking a tumble that’s close to -60% or more from last weekend. Sure, it’s not as though GOTG2 is competing against some fresh, four-quad piece of competition. F8 hardly has any air left in its tires, and most of the other movies in the top 10 are geared toward a specific demo (How to Be a Latin Lover), or older audience (Going in Style, Gifted). Baahubali 2, despite its great fanfare last weekend, is estimated to fall 70%, no thanks to losing its Imax auditoriums to GOTG2. Even more so, Bollywood movies burn quickly at the B.O. GOTG2 received a solid A CinemaScore, the same as GOTG, and the 10th consecutive ‘A’ in the Kevin Feige-led Marvel cinematic universe (they have 11 ‘As’ total. As we saw on PostTrak, older men are largely turning out for GOTG2: CinemaScore shows 58% guys and 60% over 25. The over 50 crowd who turned out at 15% didn’t shrug GOTG2 giving it an A-. Reasons why moviegoers bought tickets: 57% are Guardians fans, 27% came out for the male leads, and 19% for Zoe Saldana. Before GOTG surprised everyone with a then-record August opening of $94.3M, some of us in the media had our doubts about the property: Not only was it a lesser-known comic in the Marvel sphere, but its main protagonists included a green female alien, a tree and a raccoon. But Marvel always knew it had the goods: They announced the sequel at Comic-Con three years ago before the first movie even opened. That confidence continued to swell with Gunn also announcing before GOTG2 opened that he’s overseeing GOTG3 as writer and director. In terms of social media chatter, RelishMix reports, “Convo for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic…And, more recent comments definitely contains spoilers from those who have sneaked into screenings. Fans are calling out Baby Groot, Drax and other characters by name — and the funny moments captured in the numerous clips shared across all social platforms. Also, fans are loving the soundtrack, and the film is gaining even more YouTube views from homemade soundtracks for Vol. 2. Those who have seen Vol. 2 say it’s funnier and more action-packed than the first one. Fans are tagging each other and asking who’s got the tickets already.” As we saw last night, GOTG2 had a higher definite recommend among audiences than its first movie, 77% to 75%, while 46% of those polled by Screen Engine/ComScore’s PostTrak said it blew away their expectations (vs. GOTG‘s 32%). RelishMix weighs GOTG2‘s social media universe at 669M+, which bests the 465M average for a superhero movie. Disney “Guardians 2 is an excellent example of leveraging all social media opportunities,” it said. “The cast, from star Chris Pratt down to supporting characters like Karen Gillen, are all on board. They are showing BTS materials from set and makeup — and the Marvel assets have done a great job of sharing their red carpet experiences and interviews. Pratt, Dave Bautista and the stars of the film have been having a lot of fun engaging fans over the past month — with the red carpet premiere in Hollywood strategically executed two weekends ago for maximum sharing. In addition, brand partners from Ford to Geico, from Hanes to the most recent reveal of Doritos are having fun too, as they implement Baby Groot and other beloved characters into their campaigns.” Pic’s social stars are Vin Diesel (139M SMU), who is sharing plenty of Baby Groot pics, videos and materials from the film’s premiere even though he’s still tubthumping Fate Of The Furious. Pratt counts 18.9M SMU and he’s all Guardians, all the time. From funny clips like his painting with co-star Dave Bautista (9.2M SMU) to talking to every single reporter at the premiere, to posting homemade clips introducing new 30-second looks on Facebook, “Pratt has truly earned the title, ‘face of the film’,” says RelishMix. Even Sylvester Stallone is posting GOTG2 social media materials. Check out the hysterical Bautista-Pratt painting clip below: Weekend industry estimates for the weekend of May 5-7 as of Saturday AM: 1.). The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (DIS), 4,347 theaters / $56M Fri. (includes $17m previews)/ 3-day cume: $138.1M / Wk 1 2.) The Fate Of The Furious (UNI), 3,595 theaters (-482) / $2.3M Fri. (-55%) / 3-day cume: $8.6M (-57%) / Total cume: $207.1m / Wk 4 3.) The Boss Baby (Fox) 3,284 (-455), $1.3M (-35%)/3-day: $6M (-35%)/Total: $156.6M/Wk 6 4). How To Be A Latin Lover (PANT/LG), 1,203 theaters (+85) / $1.3M Fri. (-66%)/ 3-day cume: $5M (-59%)/ Total: $20.4M/Wk 2 5). Beauty and the Beast (DIS), 2,680 theaters (-475) / $1.2M Fri. (-25%) / 3-day cume: $4.8M (-29%) / Total cume: $487.4M / Wk 8 6.) The Circle (STX/EUR), 3,163 theaters / $1.16M Fri. (-68%)/ 3-day cume: $3.7M (-59%)/Total:$15.4M/ Wk 1 7). Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (GINF) 425 theaters / $889K Fri. (-82%)/ 3-day cume: $3.1M (-70%) /Total:$16M/ Wk 2 8.) Gifted (FSL), 1,874 theaters (-341) / $571K Fri. (-36%) / 3-day cume: $2.1M (-36%) / Total: $19.3M / Wk 5 9.) Going in Style (WB/VR), 2,033 theaters (-728) / $530K Fri. (-45% ) / 3-day cume: $2M (-44%) / Total: $40.7M / Wk 5 10.) Smurfs: The Lost Village (Sony), 1,902 theaters (-652) / $361K Fri. (-47%) / 3-day cume: $1.7M (-51%) / Total: $40.4M / Wk 5 The Weinstein Company NOTABLES: The Dinner (ORC), 509 theaters / $211K Fri. / 3-day cume: $638k / Wk 1 Sleight (BHT), 591 theaters (+26) / $191K Fri. (-68%) / 3-day cume: $620k (-64%) /Total: $2.85M/Wk 1 3 Generations (TWC), 6 theaters / $5K Fri. /PTA: $3,6K/ 3-day cume: $16,6k / Wk 1 4th UPDATE, Friday 12:14 PM: It’s still early, but as of right now we’re hearing that Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is zooming between $53M-$60M today, which includes its $17M previews last night, pointing it toward a $140M+ opening. Last night’s ticket sales rep 30% of today’s business. Again, given the hot word of mouth here, these figures could jump higher tonight, and even higher tomorrow. These are vibrant Marvel numbers, and don’t even think about comparing them to the Avengers films Last year, some rival studio executives snarked that Captain America: Civil War in its opening was really Avengers 3, since its $179.1M opening came in under both Avengers ($207.4M) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191.3M) and starred the same crew. But GOTG2 is its own beast, its own universe, and thus the story this weekend is about how it’s beating its 2014 predecessor’s opening ($94.3M). Again, when it comes to sequels nowadays, not many studios can crow that their openings surge from film to film. By the way, there are other movies at the multiplex this weekend: Today, Universal’s The Fate of the Furious becomes the fourth film in the series to pass $200M after Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7. The pic is projected to make $2.65M tonight for a fourth weekend of $10M, -50% for a cume by Sunday of $208.6M. Pantelion/Lionsgate’s How to Be a Latin Lover is +85 locations for 1,203 and is estimated at $1.2M today, $4M for the weekend (-67%) and a 10-day tally of $19.4M. Great India Films’ Baahubali 2: The Conclusion and STX/EuropaCorp’s The Circle are currently in a tie in their second weekend with an estimated $3.5M apiece. Baahubali 2 will see $16.4M by Sunday and Circle $15.2M. We’ll have more updates as the day goes on. Disney 3rd UPDATE, Friday AM after Thursday PM posts: Disney is calling Thursday night for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. at $17M — exactly where we saw it last night. To date, that’s the highest preview night of the year. Among all preview nights for Disney/Marvel movies, GOTG2 ranks fourth behind Avengers: Age of Ultron ($27.6M), Captain America: Civil War ($25M) and The Avengers ($18.7M). The last two Marvel May releases – 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and last year’s Captain America: Civil War — grossed 33% of their Friday business on Thursday night bringing in, respectively, $84.4M and $75.5M on their first day of release. Should that percent hold into today, that means GOTG2 could mint between $55M–$60M, and a weekend opening between $125M-$130M. Even though that’s below the $150M-$160M forecasts we heard about over the last month, it’s a marvelous result for GOTG2. Why? How many sequels in this day and age outstrip their first installment? GOTG2 will beat the $94.3M opening of its 2014 volume by at least 33%. Not to mention for a movie that cost $200M before P&A, GOTG2 is off to a great start with $167M in the bank from its first week of play overseas. The first GOTG had a similar negative cost, an estimated global $147.4M P&A spend and churned a profit after all ancillaries of $204M. There’s plenty of excellent buzz here: GOTG2 owns an 84% certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, a 93% positive score on ComScore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak audience poll (vs. GOTG‘s 90%), a 77% recommend (vs. GOTG‘s 75%), not to mention 46% say the sequel exceeded their expectations (vs. GOTG‘s 32%). Also we can’t ignore the fever pitch in advance ticket sales. While Fandango showed GOTG2 zipping past Ultron throughout the week in pre-sales, 80%-plus of all tickets being sold on Movietickets.com belong to Star-Lord and friends. Today GOTG2 blasts off at 4,347 theaters. Of those, 3,800-plus are 3D, 388 are in Imax (32% of all biz Thursday night), 588 premium large-format locations (19% of all biz per PostTrak) and 194 D-Box locations. Overall, 47% watched GOTG2 in 2D. Across America in 550 theaters yesterday there were RealD Guardians of the Galaxy double feature events. Participating chains included AMC, Cinemark, Cineplex, National Amusements Regal Cinemas and B&B Theatres. 3D repped 53% of GOTG2‘s business last night. How did demographics change between films? GOTG fans essentially got older. While the first one drew 33% men under 25, GOTG2 pulled in predominantly 34% men over 25 and 25% females over 25. Thirty percent of the crowd last night attended with two-to-four friends. Other interesting takeaways from Thursday: 53% of the crowd bought tickets because they’re fans of the GOTG franchise, 50% came because they like Marvel movies, while 38% attended for the cast as a whole. For those in the industry who think streaming is king and that PVOD will save the film business, PostTrak’s reports always prove them wrong: 29% of Thursday’s audience at GOTG2 would like to see the sequel again, 28% want to buy it on Blu-Ray, and 20% want to own it on DVD — huge results which blow any want of streaming. Meanwhile the rest of the Thursday B.O. looked number-wise like a Specialty box office chart: Outside of GOTG2, the highest grossing title was Universal’s The Fate of the Furious making only $960K at 4,077 venues with a running three week tally of $198.6M. It should easily and finally pass $200M today. Pantelion/Lionsgate’s How to be a Latin Lover ranked second with $540K at 1,118 and a week’s cume of $15.4M. STX/EuropaCorp’s The Circle ranked third with $475K at 3,163 and a week’s B.O. of $11.7M.

Adam Colton sustained serious injury after a 400ft fall due to a wing collapse on his speed flying rig. Sir Colton has been a driving force behind the recent downhill skateboard (slash freestyle longboarding) in part to his videos and contributions to the product/brand development at Loaded Boards and Orangatang Wheels. He mentioned that he expects to make a full recovery and we hope it’s a speedy one at that! Official verbiage from his Facebook Page: Brocken monster. Broken neck, fractured lower back. Crack right jaw, chipped teeth, bruised lung, cut kidney, sure lucky to be alive, very close to being paralyzed… Will make a full recovery and fly and smile another day. Full report down the line. My spine protector saved life. (Photo/Quote via Adam Colton’s Page on Facebook – If you want to wish him well, that’s the place to do it!) If you’re unfamiliar with Adam’s contributions, this video will shed some light. From 2007: Share +1 Share Shares 0

A bill under consideration in California would place a third gender option on state documents — which, if it passes would make California the first state in the country to do so. The effort, however, is not being pushed by the “transgender movement,” but rather by people who are biologically neither male nor female — or, alternatively, both. According to a report by Sacramento’s local CBS affiliate (CBS13), it all started last year in New York: “Sara Kelly Keenan made international headlines last year when New York City issued her the first ever birth certificate with an ‘intersex’ classification in the gender field, instead of male or female. ‘My body looks quite different from other women,” Keenan told CBS 13, who uses ‘she’ as a pronoun. Keenan says she was born intersex — having male genes, with female genitalia and mixed internal reproductive organs. Keenan kept her story secret for most of her life, but now that she is legally recognized, she wants to help others who feel they are neither man nor woman, but ‘non binary.’” Now Keenan is at the California State Capitol — joining with Carly Mitchell, another non-binary individual, lobbying legislators to pass a law “allowing a third, non binary option on IDs including birth certificates and driver’s licenses.” Jazz Shaw, writing at the conservative HotAir blog, contends that the California effort has “nothing to do with the entire phenomenon of ‘transgenderism’ or variously gender dysphoria or gender impersonation.” However, there is still strong opposition to the idea of recognizing a third gender classification from conservative Christian groups like the California Family Council. (Update: The CBS report that the “third gender” option is not being pushed by the “transgender movement” appears to be untrue. The sponsors of the bill, according to a Democrat Caucus Fact, sheet are transgender activist groups: Equality California and the Transgender Law Center.) “I don’t think people realize the implications on letting people pick what sex they are,” the California Family Council’s Greg Burt told Sacramento’s CBS 13. “If you change sex to be a description of someone’s feelings, then anyone can claim to be a male or female,” says Burt. Shaw argues “[t]his is a medical condition which is well known and documented,” and which forced many parents at birth to “pick a gender” — not knowing the implications of that “choice” on their children’s future self-image. Pointing out that this condition is often “incorrectly referred to by the term ‘hermaphrodite,’ Shaw quotes the American Psychological Association definition of “intersex”: “A variety of conditions that lead to atypical development of physical sex characteristics are collectively referred to as intersex conditions. These conditions can involve abnormalities of the external genitals, internal reproductive organs, sex chromosomes or sex-related hormones. Some examples include: External genitals that cannot be easily classified as male or female. Incomplete or unusual development of the internal reproductive organs. Inconsistency between the external genitals and the internal reproductive organs. Abnormalities of the sex chromosomes. Abnormal development of the testes or ovaries. Over- or underproduction of sex-related hormones. Inability of the body to respond normally to sex-related hormones.” Keenan made it clear in her interview, in front of the state Capitol, that her quest was to help non-binary people “feel less invisible,” by having their gender accurately recorded on state documents. “Society doesn’t understand that we exist,” says Keenan. Tim Donnelly is a former California State Assemblyman and author who is doing a book tour for his new book: Patriot Not Politician: Win or Go Homeless. He ran for governor in 2014. FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.donnelly.12/ Twitter: @PatriotNotPol

We have already discussed how you can deploy your Node.js application to production using Continuous Deployment. In this chapter we will take a look at what should happen after the code is out there. Keep it running Programmer errors will result in the crash of the application. To restart the application after the crash forever may be a good solution (PM2 can be a good alternative - thanks David for pointing it out!). Installing Forever: npm install -g forever After this running your Node.js application is as easy as: forever start app.js Easy, huh? :) This approach works really great if your stack contains only Node.js applications. But what happens when you want to use the same tool to monitor/control different processes as well, like Ruby or PHP? You need something more generic. This is when Supervisord comes into the picture. Supervisor is a client/server system that allows its users to monitor and control a number of processes on UNIX-like operating systems. As Supervisor is written in Python, installing it can be done via: easy_install supervisor The only thing left here is to add your Node.js application to Supervisor. Supervisor works with configuration files that can be found in /etc/supervisor/conf.d/ . A sample Supervisor config might look like this (it should be placed at /etc/supervisor/conf.d/myapi.conf) [program:my-api] command=node /home/myuser/myapi/app.js autostart=true autorestart=true environment=NODE_ENV=production stderr_logfile=/var/log/myapi.err.log stdout_logfile=/var/log/myapi.out.log user=myuser Pay extra attention to the user part - never ever run your application with superuser rights. More on Node.js Security. To make all this work we have to instrument Supervisor to take our new configuration into account: supervisorctl reread supervisorctl update That's it - of course, Supervisor can do a lot more than this, for more information check out the docs. Is it responding? Your application may become unresponsive or won't be able to connect to the database or any other service/resource it needs to work as expected. To be able to monitor these events and respond accordingly your application should expose a healthcheck interface, like GET /healthcheck . If anything goes well it should return HTTP 200 , if not then HTTP 5** In some cases the restart of the process will solve this issue. Speaking of Supervisor: httpok is a Supervisor event listener which makes GET requests to the configured URL. If the check fails or times out, httpok will restart the process. To enable httpok the following lines have to be placed in supervisord.conf : [eventlistener:httpok] command=httpok -p my-api http://localhost:3000/healthcheck events=TICK_5 Also, httpok should be on your system PATH . Reverse proxy So far so good: we have our Node.js application running - even after a crash it will be restarted. As we do not want to run our application using superuser rights, we won't be able to listen on port 80. What can we do? We can set up port forwarding using iptables, or use a reverse proxy for this. In this article, we will go with setting up a reverse proxy, as it can provide an additional security layer, as well as offload some tasks from the Node.js application, like: nginx can perform SSL encryption, so Node.js does not have to deal with that can compress serving static content Our weapon of choice will be nginx. After installing it, navigate to /etc/nginx . You will place your site specific configurations under sites-available - to enable them you have to create a symlink in the sites-enabled directory pointing to the corresponding site in sites-available . A simple nginx config will look like this ( /etc/nginx/sites-available/my-site ): server { listen 80; server_name my.domain.com; location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:3000; } } The only thing left is to tell nginx to reload the configuration: nginx -s reload Load balancing Currently the architecture might look something like this: So far we have only one instance serving requests - let's scale up! To do this, we have to create more of these instances and somehow split the load between them. For this, you can use HAProxy or a CDN with load balancing functionality, so your setup will look something like this: Still, in this setup HAProxy can become a single point of failure. To eliminate this SPOF, you can use keepalived - all you need is an extra virtual IP address. Recommended reading

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Three men alleged to be prominent Russian spies inexplicably gained access to the Oval Office last week and held a high-level meeting there, according to reports. Eyewitnesses to the meeting said that the three Russian agents spoke at length and shared sensitive intelligence material, at times laughing uproariously. After approximately an hour, the meeting broke up, with two of the spies leaving the Oval Office and the third remaining behind. News that agents of the Russian Federation had somehow eluded the Secret Service in order to hold a meeting in the Oval Office sent shock waves through Washington on Monday evening. “The fact that three well-known Russian agents were able to hold a meeting in the Oval Office suggests that something has seriously broken down,” Harland Dorrinson, a national-security official who served in the Reagan and Bush Administrations, said. “None of these three men should be anywhere near the White House.” On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan called the meeting of the three Russian spies at the White House “a tempest in a teapot” and “much ado about nothing,” before adding, off-microphone, “I am screwed. I am so screwed.”

This is the fourth in a series of articles on the UID project that Usha Ramanathan will be writing for The Wire. Read the first part here, the second part here and the third part here. The proponents of the unique identification (UID) project are angry and in a mood to attack detractors. Nandan Nilekani, the brains behind the project, has many names for them – all delivered pejoratively, of course: Khan Market liberals, JNU types, privacy-wallas who have colonised their minds with Western thought and Goebbelsian liars. He has been open about his contempt for everything happening in India: “In India, half are fake…fake…Fake is the operative word, right?” And, in another interview, “In India, you know, everything is a racket” and “every scheme is a scam” (as the interviewer, Vir Sanghvi, pertly observed, “except Aadhaar”). The last one was while talking about why children should have a UID number to get their mid-day meal in government schools. Interestingly, all these adjectives are reserved for the hoi polloi. There isn’t a word that he breathes about the scams where the politically powerful and the corporate leadership have been caught with their hand – wrist and elbow – in the till. No Satyam, no 2G, no Commonwealth Games, no Bellary Brothers. No Vyapam, where witnesses are falling like ninepins, except they are falling dead. ISPIRT, which presents itself as a software product industry roundtable, and of which Nilekani is the mentor, actually had a team that they named ‘Sudham’ allegedly meant to troll anti-UID critics. They had to shut it down after iSPIRT’s convener Sharad Sharma got caught operating Twitter handles using an alias to do some vicious trolling. In that time, they had moved from the relatively mildly contemptuous references about “Lutyens armchair folks (who) have never built anything in their lives” to “JNU-types” to more aggressive posturing and name calling such as “ISI stooge” and talking about the “drivel that comes from either an ignoramus or a malicious mind”. (Sanjay Jain, who has since taken charge in iSPIRT, reportedly told Economic Times that Sudham was set up in late December 2016 to “dispel myths” about Aadhaar and India Stack.) The most recent of this was when Ram Sewak Sharma, chief of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India who was earlier the director general of the UIDAI, spoke to the Indian Express and accused those questioning the UID of launching “motivated campaigns”, apparently to serve the data collection interests of various multinational companies. The immediate provocation was the flooding of the internet with data from leaking departments and ministries, containing information including mobile phone numbers, bank details and UID numbers, to be seen or downloaded. In some, a slight adjustment in the URL was enough to make the database accessible. The problem for Ram Sewak was not the leak. It was the embarrassment that was caused by the leaks being exposed. So it was not those who were leaking the data that were hauled up, but the researchers who were threatened. That is how the provision in the Aadhaar Act 2016, which leaves it to the UIDAI to decide who to pursue and about whom to complain, is being used. When Sharad was forced into contrition and he made a public apology (for allowing the trolling, but not owning up to the trolling he had done), Nilekani tweeted a “Bravo”. That is how this game is played, it seems. While those opposing the UID are subjected to thinly-veiled intimidation, the India Stack “volunteers” (a word that is going to need some serious interrogation) are hurrah-ed for apologising (when found out) for nasty trolling. And what motivated them to challenge the project, in court and in other public spaces? There has been plenty of writing by Reetika Khera, Jean Dreze, Gopal Krishna, Praveen Dalal, Himanshu, Ramkumar, Kiran Jonnalagadda, Sunil Abraham, and there was recently Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s dramatic change of opinion. Moneylife has hosted articles and talks, and Ram Krishnaswamy’s blog is a storehouse of what has been in the media since 2010. But these are not the exception. There are many others. And here are some of them.” Shantha Sinha set up the MV Foundation, which works for the eradication of child labour. She is a former chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of the Rights of Children. According to her, “The most effective way of tracking child labourers and out of school children is at the level of gram panchayats in rural areas and wards in urban areas where children are not statistics and numbers but real names and persons whose rights are to be protected and with involvement of community. A UID… can at best give a number to the child but not help rescue the child or restore to her rights. Nor does it strengthen the capacities of public institutions to serve children. Further, it could also lead to stigmatising the child for good as an out-of-school child or child labourer. There can be no short cuts in the process of tracking children. Deserving children have been denied admission into residential schools for want of Aadhaar. Among many others, there is the case of a tribal boy who fled from the Maoist area in Chattisgarh and joined school in Bhadrachalam in Telengana. He shifted from Hindi medium to Telugu medium, made it into the residential school after intense competition – and then was denied admission because he has no Aadhaar number! He lost one year, never procured an Aadhaar – how could he? He has no documents in Telengana. He then began to work as a construction labourer, and his fate is now sealed. While the Aadhaar card was said to be inclusive, in practice it has been exactly the opposite. It has deprived innumerable children of their legitimate access to their education. Exclusion is hitting the mid-day meal too!” Bezwada Wilson has spent his adult life working for the eradication of the practice of manual scavenging. In 2010, Wilson was one of 17 concerned citizens, which included Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, Romila Thapar and S.R. Sankaran among others, who issued a “statement of concern” about the project. He says, “We want to bury this identity of having been manual scavengers. Coming out of untouchability is not easy. Oppressive identities are to be cast off, not documented and kept forever. What we need is a technology that will destroy this demeaning work and finish off this identity. Instead, what this is doing is branding us forever. This project was never about plugging leakages in subsidies. Look where they have taken it. First, they said it was only for welfare and then they have kept on expanding it into all kinds of areas. All this time, the government has been waiving corporate loans worth Rs 1.14 lakh crore! How can you expect citizens to trust this? “This project is making nonsense out of choice, consent, even citizenship. It has to be understood that the people are not slaves.” Colonel Mathew Thomas, who retired after serving ten years in the army and another ten years in defence research, says, “Everyone has a motivation for what they do or say. In the 1970s, in the early years of computers I used them (computers) for the solution of scientific and business problems; specifically, Finite Element Analysis for structural problems on missile components and production planning and control systems for missile manufacture. The experience was invaluable. I learned the hard way what computers and IT could be used for and where these are useless. Most importantly, I understood two things: one, that physical ground reality must be organised to match proposed computer solutions before the solution yields results. And, two, misapplication of IT systems to problems where they cannot be used is dangerous as it fosters a false sense of resolving issues. As soon as the project was announced in January 2009, my first thoughts were, ‘How in heaven’s name, are they going to do this?’ So, I wrote to the prime minister and Nandan Nilekani. I received no replies. As I continued to study, research and obtain information on the scheme, I found an organised pattern of untruth and obfuscation. The government then, and now, and those managing the project have been less than honest with us; some in government out of ignorance or misplaced faith, and some wilfully, for reasons that remain unknown. Why do you think the UK scrapped the National ID card and the US is yet to implement its Real ID Act after eleven years? Do you know that the UIDAI says, in its contracts with companies that are handling the data, “No assurance can be provided as to the accuracy of the demographic data in its database”? Do you understand what this means?” Major General S.G. Vombatkere (retd) has an enduring respect for the liberties which the constitution recognises. His keenness to contest the unconstitutionality of the project derives from what he saw of the making of constitutional history. “I remember my father and recall a personal debt to the constitution of India and the Supreme Court of India. To elaborate, my father, Vombatkere Gurunandan Row (better known as V.G. Row, barrister-at-law), was general secretary of a society named People’s Education Society and was publishing a newsletter from the society. People’s Education Society was declared as an unlawful association under extant criminal law by the Government of Madras [The State of Madras vs V.G.Row]. My father fought the charge in the courts of law up to the Supreme Court before a five-judge bench including the CJI, and on March 31, 1952, won his case on the basis of the freedom of expression and freedom of association, which the Constitution guarantees every citizen. Indeed years later, on 16 October 2008, Justice K.Kannan (Judge, Punjab & Haryana High Court) noted thus: “The triad of fundamental freedoms of expression, movement and association found the first affirmation in A.K.Gopalan and V.G.Row, the names that are etched into constitutional history via the Madras High Court”. If my father had not fought and won his freedom on the basis of the constitution of India, he would have been imprisoned, changing everything in a big way for my mother, my brother and me way back in 1952, when I was still a child. That is the debt I and my family owe to the constitution of India, and to the Supreme Court of India which recognised and enforced its freedoms. Long live the Republic of India, and may the values it enshrines always remain valid in Indian society!” J.T. Dsouza is a biometrics expert who demonstrated in the Planning Commission how ridiculously simple it is to fake a fingerprint. That was on September 30, 2011, in the presence of representatives from the UIDAI and Natgrid. “My objection is to the hegemony of the state, where the state treats its citizen as subjects to be subjugated. Identity projects, with control residing in a centrally controlled repository have been repeatedly misused in the past. Nazi Germany and Kosovo (with the ideas of ‘identity cleansing’ and ‘archival cleansing’) in more recent times are examples. The intrusive bullying and abuse of power by the state that the project has already witnessed is testimony to the problems of the project. My second objection about technology involves a whole panoply of reasons. One, the use of wholly untested theories as the foundation of the project. Two, intrinsic flaws of biometrics as an authentication factor. Three, vulnerabilities of centralised database to misuse, both official and inadvertent. Four, non-existent technical infrastructure in most of our country. No matter how secure you make the central core, the nature of such a system makes securing the periphery impossible. This project continues to gloss over all of this at our peril.” Nagarjuna is a professor at the Gnowledge lab, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He says, “Centralisation of any resource will eventually go against the democratic ideals of distributed justice. Centralisation leads to single point of failure. In a true democracy, we wish the state to be transparent to the people, and not vice versa. The very possibility of a certified unique identity will create multiple modes of criminal activities that never existed in the past. A certified unique identity will create more crime than reducing the crime. The Aadhaar system is not built like self-reliant technology ventures like Atomic Energy or Space Research, but with commercial links with global security companies. This will make the entire country vulnerable. Considering that the Aadhaar is promoted by powerful agencies (both private and public), it shows that it serves their interests and it is not about recognising power in the people. Identity is not created by birth, real social identity is developed dynamically as we live. Freedom to build or change character without coercion to other lives must be respected at any cost.” Anupam Saraph is an innovator and polymath, and has been an advisor to government on technology and on identity systems. He asks, “What is the motivation of the child who sees the emperor’s new robes don’t exist? What will the child do if the emperor insists the robes exist? Having experience in building identity solutions, and having developed logical frameworks for identity documents, it is plain that the UID is merely a number that is assigned to unverified and unaudited data submitted by private enrolees – 34,000 of who have been suspended by the UIDAI. This means that there can be millions of ghosts in the UIDAI database. It is fairly obvious that any bank accounts opened solely on the basis of such a number can allow “ghosts” to create and operate “mule” accounts. Furthermore, even while the RBI’s own system of digital money transfers has been used by government for over a decade, the sudden unexplained switch to a non-government payment system based on Aadhaar that facilitates money laundering by destroying the money trail raises serious questions that need investigation. The UID cannot serve as the basis for identification of any individual in an impartially arbitrable way. This means using it to build governance, national security, digital economy and anything at all is plainly absurd and, because it will destroy lives and the nation, inhuman. If I turn a blind eye to what is so obvious I would be no less guilty of the crimes than the perpetuators of the UID. Should anyone who sees absurdities, illegalities, anti-national and criminal intent need any further motivation to expose it?” Vickram Crishna is an engineer who, like most others featured here, has challenged the project in court. “My problem with the technology is, in most instances, that commercial considerations trump the priority of meeting incredibly high standards, and this can be seen in the design choices at every stage. The manner of implementation of this system, however, is fully dependent upon a very high quality of seamless connectivity across the country, which in itself demands a very high level and availability of specialised labour, apart from electrical power and stability. We are some years away from approaching such a situation and the present distribution of quality of service is heavily weighted in favour of major cities, and against rural areas in general. It is attractive to initially bar all failures, and claim reduced expenditure as savings, and this is what is being observed now. I have a problem with the understanding of ‘social contract’, as expressed in the implementation of the UID scheme. The constitution, as I read it, from its opening phrase of “We, the People…” was intended to lead to a state that is primarily citizen-facing. However, the justification for identity documents of one kind and another is invariably found to be the need to address failures in the state’s ability to identify citizens, and not any failures of the citizens themselves, as part of the social contract expressed as the constitution.” Kalyani Menon-Sen is a feminist researcher of 25 years’ standing. She says, “Many years of working with poor women has made me keenly aware of the many barriers they face in accessing their entitlements. Proving their identity is not the major barrier. The real corruption is in the system.This issue of systemic exclusions has been at the centre of my work. Over these last seven years, I have more and more first-hand evidence that UID has not improved service delivery, whether it’s rations or gas cylinders or pensions. Even more worrying is the fact that Aadhaar is actually creating more exclusion, again because of systemic failures – even people with valid UIDs are unable to claim benefits because “machine kharab hai (the machine isn’t working)” or fingerprints don’t match or because some new rule is unearthed that they are not aware of. I think what really brought home to me that the promoters of the scheme were losing their moorings was the announcement of the Aadhaar-midday meal linkage. We have the most horrendous rates of child malnutrition, children come to school starving and for many, the school meal is the only cooked food they get that day. This is a universal provision. What is the sense in making it Aadhaar dependent? This is true for school admissions too – it is a universal right and making it Aadhaar dependent will only help schools to exclude children whom they don’t want to take – because they are poor, disabled, Muslims or Dalits. These are the exclusions that are happening and are being ignored. I feel utterly frustrated that we invest so much attention on the GDP and completely ignore the GDI (gender development index) – shocking rates of anaemia, underage pregnancies, maternal deaths, malnutrition, violence, women’s employment. Do we really need to argue about methods of calculation when the naked truth is visible to the naked eye? So I felt I had to take a stand and do something – I was very sure that if the facts about exclusion are put before the Supreme Court, they would at least stay these notifications while examining all the other constitutional issues.” M.K. Pai is a software engineer and data scientist. He says, “I fear that Aadhaar will destroy our delicate democracy by threatening exclusion. We can already see a future where dissenters will be silenced, their bank accounts and phones disabled, and unable to travel. It is profoundly ugly for any government to require its citizens to get fingerprinted, no matter how noble the objectives. My fingerprints are my property and I should not be compelled to part with them unless I am a threat to society. I am a software engineer and a data scientist. My work makes me very concerned about the future if we succumb today. Frankly, I do not trust any political party with such power. Privacy is important and worth fighting for.” The Meghalaya Peoples’ Committee on Aadhaar in a recent statement said, “…it is noticed and have been informed regularly that subtle ways are being used to have people enrolled with aadhaar including school children under various guises, putting people in uncomfortable situations and that the statement made by the state government’s chief secretary on the matter (Shillong Times, 04/02/2017) confirms the fact. However, despite the fact that different departments and ministries of the Union government and state government, financial institutions have over and over again issued notifications, advertisements, including regular texting in mobiles, for necessity to enrol or register for aadhaar card, it is to be reiterated and reminded that enrolment for aadhaar is voluntary and so should not be coerced and intimidated by any establishment of government(s), institutions – medical, educational, financial, sports, etc. including corporate bodies. …Yes, having Aadhaar card may be one of the requirements but it is not the only proof of one’s identity and must remain optional and voluntary.” Nachiket Udupa studied in IIT, has been part of campaigns on rural employment guarantee, food security and the right to information, and is currently involved in the marketing of sustainable foods. According to him, “At an ideological level it makes profiling and tracking much, much easier than it should be. The path that they are heading down will lead to not just an Orwellian state (as in government doing complete surveillance of its citizens) but also Orwellian corporates (as in companies also knowing way more about their customers than they should). It is attacking privacy in the worst possible way. At a practical level, because fingerprinting technology doesn’t work well enough, it is leading to large scale exclusions and hardships for many people, especially the poor. I am particularly bothered that this will lead to slow dismantling of the various hard-won rights of the poor, such the rights to food, work, education, etc. It is compulsory, and with no opt-out feature. I don’t like how the people behind Aadhaar think that they are holier than thou and seem to have a sense of entitlement and would like to be beyond any sort of accountability.” Ankita Anand is an award-winning journalist, writer and co-founder of the street theatre group Aatish based in Delhi, and this is how she says it: U,IDidn’t I waited for the day someone would ask me my number Until the state did, and I smirked, “I know you’ve used that line on a billion others.” At that it should have left, But it persisted, Insisted it would give me one, If I did not have one of my own. It wouldn’t take no for an answer, And now I have fingerprints instead of handholding, Iris scans, while I wait to be seen, At least I would be safe, I tried to tell myself, Until yesterday, when I found myself exposed, Every single digit of me, up for sale as data porn. (Anand and Udupa had to battle the system before they could register their marriage without a UID.) Nikhil Dey, Shankar Singh, Vineet Bhambhu , Nikhil Shenoy, Aruna Roy and others work with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan, and this is what they say: “We are activists who live amongst people in rural India and also travel to many places across the country to work with campaigns and movements to improve delivery of programmes meant for poor and marginalised communities and individuals. We believe that well designed people centric social sector programs can make a big difference in people’s lives. We have also spent many years looking at policy and its impact on implementation. The UID is currently one of the biggest policy initiatives where proponents of UID claim better delivery by a) ending corruption b) much greater efficiency and most importantly c) of comprehensive inclusion. We are motivated by the suffering, frustration and pain we are witness to and therefore make strong comments on the UID – initially through apprehension, and, now, through experience and example. It has, in fact, miserably failed on all three claims. In some ways it has made things worse. Exclusion due to the mandatory use of UID has been so high, that it should cause a comprehensive rethink for the delivery of welfare benefits. Food security rations are supposed to be delivered to 1 crore households in the state of Rajasthan. But figures have shown that at least 25-30% of these households are not able to draw their rations despite being enrolled under UID. This has meant exclusion of some of the most vulnerable people for whom the food security act was designed. In some ways, this is criminal negligence and exclusion, and this has been happening over a period of the nine months since September 2016, when the options started being shut off. We have documented very serious life threatening cases of exclusion and put them up as videos on the net. (We hope these policy makers will see the videos and answer each one of the questions of the poor about who will be held accountable for the failure to enable them to access their entitlements.) Corruption has not reduced – it has only changed its stripes, and inefficiency and delay are now caused by man and machine. Our own motivation is to use evidence to convince policy makers to change their policy, or to convince those whose minds are still open to refuse to allow mandatory imposition of something that has clearly failed to deliver what it promised to. It has made things worse. Whether or not anyone bothers to listen, we are motivated by the pain and frustration we witness – to keep presenting the facts. The poor are speaking; only those who need to listen are not even there. In the language of the day, they are ‘presenceless’.” These are a section of the people who have been challenging the project, in court and outside it. There are many more – and they are from all parts of the country. Such as professor K. Saradamoni from Thiruvananthapuram, a very senior women’s rights activist, who wrote in saying, “Please think of something to stop this.” Or a retired law professor from a law research institute who wrote to say, “It is only last year that the bank asked for fingerprints verification. Earlier, just physical presence and some ID proof used to be enough. In my case, even when the requirement was not there and despite my giving life certificate (which the bank says they duly forwarded to the EPFO) my pension, so called, was stopped after December 2015. The bank did send them reminders but no result. Then came the requirement of biometrics. My fingerprints did not match but the bank was very cooperative and sent a few letters, as they say, supporting my claim. It has been quite long but no response again from the EPFO. Now the bank has given me a form, certifying my identity, and asked me to go there personally. What disturbs me is why should I be made to run around without any fault? The bank is certifying my case, I have all other documents to prove my identity, why then this stupid requirement of matching of fingerprints? The entire credibility of fingerprints to establish identity of criminals in criminology and forensic sciences has gone for a toss. It is time things and theories and fundamentals change.” Usha Ramanathan is a legal researcher.

As two Montgomery County police officers slowly closed in with Tasers pointed, Anthony Howard retreated up a small step and backed himself against the front door of a townhome on a quiet cul-de-sac in the Washington suburb of Gaithersburg. Minutes earlier, the 51-year-old man had asked an officer: "Are you gonna kill me?" High on cocaine, Howard started the standoff by dancing barefoot on an SUV roof, barking and muttering gibberish on the late afternoon of April 19, 2013. Two dozen neighbors gawking at the bizarre spectacle laughed when Howard jumped off the Ford SUV to avoid an officer's stream of pepper spray, and they taunted police, urging them to use their stun guns. Police said in a report on the incident that Howard had thrown "boulders" and charged at officers. But a 17-minute video taken by a resident and obtained by The Baltimore Sun shows that when officers approached Howard for the last time, he was standing still, holding a child's scooter. Officers fired two Tasers, shooting electrified darts connected by long wires into Howard's body. After he dropped the scooter and keeled over onto a flower bed, police continued to pump electricity into Howard; he kicked wildly on his back with four officers standing over him. Police fired their Tasers at Howard nine times for a total of 37 seconds — far above the recommended limit of 15 seconds. He stopped breathing and died shortly afterward. The repeated stunning that Howard received from the Montgomery County police is part of a troubling pattern across Maryland, a six-month investigation by The Baltimore Sun has found. The first-ever data analysis of all Taser incidents in Maryland reveals that police agencies across the state have predominantly used the devices against suspects who posed no immediate threat. In hundreds of cases over a three-year period, police didn't follow widely accepted safety recommendations. Legal and policing experts worry that misuse is rampant across the nation as an increasing number of departments outfit more officers with stun guns; a Taser is used by law enforcement 904 times a day on average. The experts warn that too often officers are turning to Tasers before exhausting other means of dealing with disorderly people, actions that courts are beginning to brand as unconstitutional excessive force. And while the Taser has been hailed as a less-lethal way to handle difficult situations, police and even the manufacturer say if the weapon isn't used right, it can lead to death. More than 400 people have died nationwide since 2009 in encounters in which police used electronic-control weapons such as Tasers, a Sun analysis shows. California tops the list with more than 60 deaths. Maryland ranks in the top 15 with 11 deaths, including five who died after being hit by Tasers for longer than what is now recommended. A 17-minute video shot by a bystander shows Anthony Howard, who is high on cocaine, in a Gaithersburg residential parking lot. Montgomery County police attempt to subdue Howard with pepper spray, and then use two Tasers on him. The video, recently obtained by The Baltimore Sun, was given to Montgomery County police in 2013 but never shared with the Howard family. A 17-minute video shot by a bystander shows Anthony Howard, who is high on cocaine, in a Gaithersburg residential parking lot. Montgomery County police attempt to subdue Howard with pepper spray, and then use two Tasers on him. The video, recently obtained by The Baltimore Sun, was given to Montgomery County police in 2013 but never shared with the Howard family. SEE MORE VIDEOS The Sun's analysis of Taser use in Maryland found: • Nearly 60 percent of those hit by Tasers in Maryland were described by police as "non-compliant and non-threatening," according to data from 2012 when the state began collecting data through 2014. • In one out of every 10 incidents, police discharged the weapon for longer than 15 seconds — a duration that exceeds recommendations from Taser International, the U.S. Department of Justice and policing experts. The data downloaded directly from the devices often shows more activations than officers document in police reports. • Officers fired the weapons at the chest in 119 incidents in 2014 — even though Taser has warned since 2009 that doing so could cause cardiac arrest. Data from earlier years only shows when police struck the "front torso," which includes the chest. That happened hundreds of times. • According to police reports and other accounts, three people died after being repeatedly hit by a Taser in "drive-stun" mode, when the hand-held device is pushed directly onto the body, and two died after being hit with multiple Tasers at the same time. Both practices are discouraged by Taser and policing experts. In another death, a coroner determined a man was in handcuffs and face-down on the ground when an officer hit him with a Taser. • Taser policies from 15 Maryland police departments with the most stun gun use vary widely. Some don't incorporate the warnings Taser has issued over the years or safety recommendations from national policing experts. Harford County's Taser policy is 53 words and stresses each use must be reported — except when used during training or on animals. • In four Taser-related deaths, the state medical examiner's office found that "excited" or "agitated" delirium was a contributing factor. Some police agencies have enlisted consultants to train officers how to spot the condition and to call medics before deploying Tasers when they do. Symptoms are behaviors police often encounter, including incoherent speech and shouting, agitation and distress. The Baltimore Sun created a database of every Taser use by police from 2012 to 2014 with information obtained through the Maryland Public Information Act. The Sun also interviewed law enforcement officials, people who were stunned with the weapons, and family members of people who died after being hit by a Taser since 2009; and reviewed use-of-force policies across the state, autopsies, court records and police reports. Although the Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Control & Prevention collects data on every Taser incident, the agency's online annual reports only summarize the aggregate information. Data from 2015 is not yet available. Anthony Howard's sister, Robbin, said that she and her family have been asking questions about his death but have gotten few answers. The family abandoned legal action against Montgomery County after police declined to turn over any videos they had obtained from neighbors who recorded the incident on their mobile devices. Two bystanders told The Sun that when police returned their devices, their videos had been erased. "These officers have to be held accountable. They're very Taser-happy," Robbin said while watching the 17-minute video of her brother's death for the first time in her Clarksburg home last month with her father, two brothers and Anthony Howard's son. Police and Taser officials point out that the weapon has been used successfully thousands of times to aid during arrests and protected officers, suspects and bystanders. Police say they need a safer alternative to lethal use of force against unarmed suspects — 80 percent of those shot by Tasers were not carrying weapons — as officers frequently face dangerous situations amid intense scrutiny of their actions. Takoma Park Police Chief Alan Goldberg, a master Taser instructor who spoke on behalf of the Maryland Sheriffs' Association and the Chiefs of Police Association, declined to comment on any specific incident but said exceptions exist if officers need to exceed the number of recommended activations. "That's your only means other than shooting someone," he said. Goldberg said officers come under stress during confrontations and do not realize how long they activate the trigger. He also said the weapons can be overused when officers first add them to an arsenal. He called it the "new-toy syndrome" that eventually lessens when officers learn what the Taser can and cannot do. "Everybody wants to see the effect of the tool when they're on the street," Goldberg said. "They rely on it. You don't have to get your hands dirty." The number of Maryland police departments using Tasers has grown to more than 75, and they are buying more. Baltimore City recently added 1,000 Tasers to its arsenal. In 2011 the Maryland General Assembly authorized the collection of Taser data. A task force convened by former Attorney General Douglas Gansler had recommended two years earlier that the information be collected to better understand how Tasers are being used. Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun Takoma Park Police Chief Alan Goldberg, a master Taser trainer, says anything that can be done to take people into custoday without firing a shot from a gun "is a good thing." Takoma Park Police Chief Alan Goldberg, a master Taser trainer, says anything that can be done to take people into custoday without firing a shot from a gun "is a good thing." (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) The task force also recommended the establishment of a statewide Taser policy, an action that failed to pass when police leaders across the state balked at a mandate. Such legislation hasn't been considered since then, even though policing experts warn that Maryland's hodgepodge of policies, each written by an individual department, imperils the public and exposes police officers to greater liability. Only two states — Connecticut and Vermont — have statewide policies governing stun guns. Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which issued best practices for stun guns in 2011 under a contract with the U.S. Department of Justice, said police agencies need to adopt those national standards. He said the challenge is daunting, given that thousands of police agencies across the country use the weapons, but that doing so could reduce the number of deaths. "This is a problem in the country," Wexler said. "Getting them all to know about these standards is a challenge. It's important because our guidelines are based on research and studying how people were dying." Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun A task force convened by former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler recommended the establishment of a statewide Taser policy, an action that failed to pass at the time as police leaders across the state balked at a mandate. A task force convened by former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler recommended the establishment of a statewide Taser policy, an action that failed to pass at the time as police leaders across the state balked at a mandate. (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) Police use of force, especially in confrontations with black men, has become the focus of national debate. The General Assembly is considering a number of bills aimed at reform in the wake of last year's riots after Freddie Gray's death from injuries suffered in Baltimore police custody. That debate has not touched on the use of Tasers, which were predominantly deployed against African-Americans in Maryland. Out of nearly 3,000 Taser uses over three years, 64 percent of those hit by the stun guns were black men. Gansler said it's time for the legislature to revisit Tasers, now that the state has several years of data, and as residents are at risk of injury, police face legal liability and taxpayer money is spent to defend against lawsuits. He said Maryland needs a statewide policy. "The state should absolutely revisit it," Gansler said in an interview in his Washington office. "Tasers have been used by a lot more law enforcement officers and law enforcement departments. We should have uniformity and consistency throughout the state." Taser safety bulletins In 1993, brothers Tom and Rick Smith formed AIR TASER Inc. in Arizona. The firm became Taser International in 1998 and started marketing the weapons to law enforcement. The company dominates the market, and Tasers are the only stun guns used by police in Maryland. With technological advances and evolving medical research, Taser frequently issues safety bulletins to police departments around the country. For more than a decade, Taser has warned that officers should minimize the number and duration of "exposures" to what's necessary to achieve their objectives. Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle said in an email response to questions that while the weapon is "not risk free," more than 500 medical and safety studies have established the "general safety" of the device. A March 2013 bulletin says use of the weapon "involves risks that a person may get hurt or die due to the effects." The bulletin tells users that following the instructions and warnings "will reduce the likelihood" of death or serious injury. Baltimore City has paid about $5.7 million since 2011 over lawsuits claiming that police officers brazenly beat up alleged suspects. One hidden cost: The perception that officers are violent can poison the relationship between residents and police. A Taser fires two electrified darts up to 25 feet to cause neuromuscular incapacitation. The Taser can be activated multiple times, typically in five-second intervals. The weapon can also be used in drive-stun mode, which causes pain. The Police Executive Research Forum found in 2011 that drive-stunning may only exacerbate a situation by enraging the suspect. Unless officers have no other choice because the dart mode doesn't work or they need to create a safe distance to protect themselves, the forum concluded the drive-stun mode "is of questionable value." A few years later, Taser said in a bulletin that "drive-stun use may not be effective on emotionally disturbed persons or others who may not respond to pain due to a mind-body disconnect." Tuttle emphasized that no published medical or scientific literature shows that using a Taser in drive-stun mode "can kill a human or contribute to sudden death." Maryland police officers used the drive-stun method in 14 percent of all incidents over the three years, and both darts and drive-stun mode were used in another 10 percent. In one of the drive-stun cases, Montgomery County police Officer Susanna Stanley was dispatched on Oct. 10, 2012, to check on a suspicious black man standing in front of an apartment door in a Silver Spring complex. Stanley said in an incident report that she had trouble getting the 65-year-old to cooperate. The police officers involved in cases examined by The Sun either couldn't be reached to comment or declined to be interviewed. Silver Spring resident Karreem Ali, known formerly as Cicero Satterfield Jr., "appeared to be drunk or high on something," according to the report. Stanley said that when Ali would not respond to her commands, she attempted to guide him out of the building to a nearby sidewalk. Officer James Walsh then arrived and tried to move Ali, but the 5-foot-4-inch, 225-pound man increased his resistance and began swinging his arms, the report said. Walsh sprayed Ali with pepper spray, but the report said it had no impact. Stanley then used her Taser in the drive-stun mode, "with little effect." Still, she continued to drive-stun Ali, and the officers managed to get Ali's hands cuffed behind his back "after a 10-minute struggle." The computer-chip log on Stanley's Taser showed 16 activations, for a total of 108 seconds. The longest drive-stun lasted 25 seconds. Toxicology reports would later show that Ali had no drugs in his system. The man known as "Bubba" battled mental issues. A day earlier, he had called police to his apartment to report that his brother had stolen his prayer rug. The brother told officers that Ali had mental problems, and the matter was dropped. Walsh asked paramedics to wash pepper spray from Ali's face, but then they left. It is standard protocol for paramedics to check any person struck by a Taser, and Walsh later explained in a deposition why he did not tell the paramedics an officer had used one on Ali. "I was worried about his eyes, and I honestly thought something might be wrong with his shoulder. It didn't come into my mind to think about the Taser," Walsh said. Stanley, Walsh and two other officers then loaded Ali into a transport van. Moments later, Ali stopped breathing. Paramedics returned to rush Ali to the hospital. Ali never regained consciousness and died four days later. A Taser fires two electrified darts up to 25 feet to cause neuromuscular incapacitation, as described below. The device also can be used in drive-stun-mode, which causes localized pain. Read the full investigation: Shocking force: Police in Maryland didn't follow Taser safety recommendations in... The autopsy noted that Ali had sustained multiple cuts and bruises on his head and neck and broken ribs during the struggle; the officers said they also used a baton on Ali. He had another 21 "diamond/square shaped abrasions" from the Taser on his upper left and right sides, both arms and left leg and left buttocks. The medical examiner ruled that Ali died from "schizophrenia induced agitated delirium complicated by police restraint, cardiomegaly and obesity." The manner of death — homicide, accident or natural causes — could not be determined. 'How many times do you think you Tased him?' Ali's family filed a lawsuit in federal court. In August 2013, the family's attorney, Gregory Lattimer, questioned Stanley. According to a 38-page deposition, Stanley said she confronted Ali because the 911 caller had said he was trespassing. Stanley, then a six-year veteran, said she and Walsh were trying to make him comply. "You Tase people to get them in handcuffs?" Lattimer asked. "If they're not complying and resisting," Stanley replied. She said Ali had not thrown any punches but was kicking his legs while being held on the ground and refused to follow orders. "How many times do you think you Tased him?" Lattimer asked. "I would say probably 10," Stanley replied. Lattimer showed Stanley the computer report from her Taser, which recorded 16 trigger pulls. She continued to say she only stunned Ali five to 10 times, noting something was "going on" with her Taser. During Walsh's deposition that same day, he said Ali did not use "force" against either officer. "But he was noncompliant to her, which is — it's still resistance," said Walsh, then a 12-year veteran. And with Ali's hands tucked beneath his stomach, both officers feared he could pull a weapon. Lattimer asked Walsh why Stanley repeatedly stunned Ali on his left side after they handcuffed his right wrist. "We used the Taser on the left side to get the same success we had on the right," Walsh replied. In March 2014, a new Montgomery County Police Department policy warned officers that any activation longer than 15 seconds "may increase the risk of death or serious injury." The warning came three years after the Police Executive Research Forum guidelines and a year after Taser issued its warning about such prolonged exposures. The following month, the county paid Ali's family $450,000 to settle the lawsuit but admitted no wrongdoing. Based on orders from the county government's attorney, police officials declined to comment on Ali's death or the incident. Still, Ali's family continued to believe Ali died after choking on pepper spray, and they were not aware that he was stunned so many times. Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun Top: Terry Satterfield's brother, Karreem Ali.Bottom: A funeral program for Karrem Abdul Ali, who suffered from mental problems, who stunned with a Taser by a Montgomery County police officer. Top: Terry Satterfield's brother, Karreem Ali.Bottom: A funeral program for Karrem Abdul Ali, who suffered from mental problems, who stunned with a Taser by a Montgomery County police officer. (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) Terry Satterfield, a retired psychologist, said his brother would often stay away from the family when his mental illness flared up. He also had asthma. The second of 13 children, Ali had embraced the Muslim faith and worked as a teacher and barber. "Bubba was my role model," Satterfield said at his home in Clinton. When The Sun told him about the multiple Taser activations, Satterfield sobbed, got up from the couch and walked around the room, trying to regain his composure. "No, man," Satterfield wailed. Satterfield called for police to improve training when confronting people with mental issues. He said his brother had received services from the county's mental-health system. "Bubba respected the police," Satterfield said. "He called the police for protection … but the same department he respected let him down and killed him." Relying on Tasers Plaintiffs' attorneys and policing experts said the Maryland data show that officers may be turning to Tasers before their safety is at risk. In reporting Taser incidents to the state, police departments must record the reason for discharging the weapon. Officers have only three options: "non-compliant and non-threatening," "use of threat" or "use of force." Of all incidents from 2012 through 2014, police reported firing Tasers in 59 percent of cases because individuals were noncompliant. Officers said they fired because individuals used force against them in 23 percent of cases and because officers were threatened in 18 percent. Lattimer, the attorney who sued Montgomery County, said police officers believe they can use Tasers whenever suspects do not comply with their instructions — regardless of the reason. "They use Tasers as a compliance mechanism," Lattimer said. "'If you don't do what I say, I'm going to Tase you.'" Police also must report whether the suspect was armed; only 20 percent were. Guns accounted for 2 percent, "edged" objects 8 percent and "blunt" objects 1 percent. Officers listed "other" in the remaining 9 percent of cases, according to the data. Goldberg, who spoke on behalf of Maryland police associations, said the data do not provide a complete picture of every Taser incident. An officer can still be in danger when dealing with a noncompliant suspect, he said, but the state doesn't collect the data in a way that shows that. Nor do the data show the suspect's level of resistance. Moreover, the terms from which police must choose have different meanings in each agency, he said, and the state does not require further clarification. "I don't like that terminology," Goldberg said. Goldberg also said the data does not capture numbers for "success stories" when officers threaten to use a Taser by pointing its laser-aiming mechanism at suspects to resolve incidents without force. Taser cites studies that show pointing the laser or activating the drive-stun to demonstrate the electrical current leads to fewer discharges. "I'd like to know those things," Goldberg said. The Maryland data also don't reflect when individuals are hit with a stun gun after being handcuffed, which is widely discouraged unless doing so is necessary to prevent bodily harm to officers or others. Police used a Taser on a handcuffed individual in one death in Maryland, according to an autopsy. In that incident, paramedics and police responded to an accident scene on the night of June 28, 2011. Delric East, 40, had crashed his 1993 Cadillac Eldorado into a guardrail as he drove down Columbia Pike in Silver Spring. The air bags deployed, trapping East in the car. When paramedics arrived, East began to "violently resist" their help. Montgomery County police officers freed East, but he continued to be combative. In an autopsy that found East died of PCP and alcohol intoxication, a medical examiner wrote that police placed him "face down on the ground, applied handcuffs and subsequently deployed a Taser." A mask also had been placed on East's face to prevent spitting before he was hit with a Taser, according to the autopsy. East stopped breathing during transport, "one minute" from the hospital. The medical examiner ruled the death an accident. Coroners conduct their own investigations, interviewing officers and reading police reports, before making their determinations. The conclusion in this case contradicts what officers had written in previous reports — that East was shocked before being restrained. An officer wrote in a report at the time of the incident that the Taser was deployed and the subject "was eventually subdued and handcuffed." Another police report written four months after the incident showed that Officer David Courtemanche fired his Taser at East for four cycles for a total of 37 seconds. The first cycle lasted 21 seconds. East's family members attempted to obtain videos of the incident recorded by the police cruisers' dashboard cameras. But in August 2012, Montgomery County attorneys denied their request. The county said that the recordings were part of a personnel investigation — exempting them under the state Public Information Act. County lawyers also feared the videos could end up on YouTube, documents show. A family attorney requested that the Montgomery County Circuit Court review the denial. In an April 2013 order, Judge Eric M. Johnson wrote that the family could use the videos in a civil lawsuit and only show them to a "close family relative," or face contempt charges, and must destroy all copies at the end of the litigation. The family never filed a lawsuit, saying a lawyer had advised them they didn't have a case. And they never got the videos. Montgomery County police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks stressed that officers followed proper procedures in the four deaths since 2009 — the most in any jurisdiction in Maryland — and noted that grand juries declined to file charges against the officers involved. "We can't change history. We're sorry," Starks said. "The fact that these people have died is sad and tragic. Family members love and miss them. … But sometimes the results of proper law enforcement aren't pretty." Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun Terry Satterfield, a retired psychologist and brother of Karreem Ali. Terry Satterfield, a retired psychologist and brother of Karreem Ali. (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) Starks said Maryland law prohibits the agency from discussing personnel matters and whether any officer received internal discipline for their actions. Officer Scott Davis, coordinator of the department's Crisis Intervention Team, said it's difficult at times to get someone handcuffed when suspects use drugs or have a mental illness. Depending on the situation, sometimes activating the Taser for more than 15 seconds is needed, he said. "We have to make split-second decisions," Davis said. Repeated Taser shots Taser has "continuously warned of risks from repeated exposures since June 2005," according to Tuttle, the company spokesman. And since March 2013, he said the warnings have advised that "repeated, prolonged or continuous" use of the device on a person "may contribute to cumulative exhaustion, stress, cardiac, physiologic, metabolic, respiratory, and associated medical risks which could increase the risk of death or serious injury." We have to make split-second decisions — Officer Scott Davis, Montgomery County police Data obtained by The Sun shows the incidents with the longest activations stretch across Maryland. Hagerstown police recorded one use in 2013 with 31 activations for 159 seconds. A Cheverly officer's 23 activations in one 2012 incident lasted for 91 seconds; a Baltimore officer's 22 activations in a 2012 incident lasted for 68 seconds. Others included 16 activations for 80 seconds in Baltimore County, and 16 activations for 102 seconds in Rockville. None of those people died. Emergency medical personnel have been put on alert about such cases. Since 2010 they have been advised to consider additional evaluation and treatment for patients hit by a Taser for longer than 15 seconds, according to the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. Taser and police officials said that the computer chip in the weapon holds officers accountable, as they may not remember how long they shocked individuals and record shorter uses in police reports. "It's recording and tracking how it is being used," said Starks, the Montgomery County spokesman. "The officer can't adjust that." Travis Lamont Smith of Baltimore experienced one of the longest Taser hits recorded in Maryland. In December 2012, two Baltimore officers responded to Dudley Avenue in the Northeast District to confront a suspected burglar. The officers found Smith trying to enter a rowhouse. They wrote that Smith was removing his shirt and pants and that he charged at one officer. Another fired a Taser. Smith pulled out one of the barbs, the report said. The officer reloaded a Taser cartridge and "used it again." Paramedics transported Smith to MedStar Union Memorial Hospital. After doctors examined him, he was released without being charged. The police report does not indicate how many times Smith was shocked. But state data shows that the officer activated the Taser for 22 cycles, totaling 68 seconds, one of the highest in the state in a single incident. In a recent interview, Smith said he was trying to enter his grandmother's house and never charged at the officer. He also said his hands were raised when the officer fired the weapon. After he pulled a barb from his chest, another pierced his side, he added. Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun Travis Lamont Smith, 28, was Tasered by Baltimore police 22 times for 68 seconds in 2012 after he was trying to get into his grandmother's home. Smith was never charged for any crime related to the incident. Travis Lamont Smith, 28, was Tasered by Baltimore police 22 times for 68 seconds in 2012 after he was trying to get into his grandmother's home. Smith was never charged for any crime related to the incident. (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) "I was trying to survive," Smith, 28, said on his grandmother's porch. "It was taking over my body. It's the worst feeling in the world." Baltimore City police officials said they have since updated their Taser policy to make clear that officers should avoid repeated exposures. John Hoey was hit by a Taser by officers from three different police departments — Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Prince George's counties — over four months in 2014, according to police records. In each case, he was unarmed. In early April 2014, Anne Arundel County police shot the 49-year-old Pasadena man once with a Taser after a traffic stop. He later pleaded guilty to resisting arrest. A week later, Baltimore County police arrived after a neighbor said Hoey had tried to break into the upstairs apartment in the same house where his girlfriend rented a unit. Police stunned him twice while he was in his underwear with his hands cuffed behind his back on a bed in his girlfriend's Lansdowne apartment, the report said. The report does not list how many times the officer activated the device. But state data show twice for a total of 10 seconds. Numerous charges against him were dropped after he pleaded guilty to malicious destruction of property for breaking a padlock on the door between the two units. Using a Taser on handcuffed suspects is "strongly discouraged," Baltimore County spokeswoman Elise Armacost said. "However, it is not prohibited because every case is different." The third Taser incident occurred in July 2014 after a College Park gas station owner called Prince George's County police to complain that Hoey's car was stuck at a pump. His vehicle's alcohol monitoring system had malfunctioned. Officers helped him move the car to a corner of the lot earlier in the day, but different officers returned hours later after the owner complained that he was still there. Officers believed Hoey was intoxicated, smelled PCP and found the drug after ordering him out of the car, the police report states. As four officers used their knees, hands and batons to handcuff him, Hoey resisted until he was hit by a Taser, the report states. The "use of force" report filed by police says there were two Taser strikes for a total of five seconds. But state data list eight activations for a total of 32 seconds — above the recommended 15 seconds. The police report states Hoey was stunned before he was handcuffed, but Hoey says he was hit by a Taser while handcuffed. "It was like they were taking target practice on me," Hoey said. He pleaded guilty to drug possession, but charges of trespassing, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct were dropped. Police officials did not explain why the state data and the incident report do not match. An attorney for the Prince George's County Police Department said gas station surveillance video of the incident backed up the officers' accounts. Statewide over three years, three-fourths of the incidents that led to a Taser being deployed were criminal in nature, data show. About 20 percent were coded "non-criminal," and 5 percent were traffic-related. Chest shots Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun A barb fired from a Taser at the Anne Arundel County Police Training Firing Range. Two barbs, connected to the weapon by wires, are fired at the target simultaneously. A barb fired from a Taser at the Anne Arundel County Police Training Firing Range. Two barbs, connected to the weapon by wires, are fired at the target simultaneously. (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) Since 2009 Taser has advised police that whenever possible, they should avoid targeting "sensitive areas of the body, such as the head, throat, chest/breast, or known pre-existing injury areas." The preferred target areas, according to Taser, are "below the neck area for back shots and the lower center mass (below chest) for front shots." John G. Peters Jr., president of the Nevada-based Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, said that Taser's safety bulletins about chest shots have evolved. "They've gone 180 degrees on their warnings," he said. In 2009, Taser suggested avoiding the chest because of the "controversy" over whether the weapons "do or do not affect the human heart." Then in 2013 Taser warned: "When possible, avoid targeting the frontal chest area near the heart to reduce the risk of potential serious injury or death." The company makes clear in safety bulletins that following its guidelines could help police avoid legal liability. "Should sudden cardiac arrest occur in an arrest situation involving a Taser electronic control device discharge to the chest area — plaintiff attorneys will likely file an excessive use of force claim against the law enforcement agency and officer," the company said in a bulletin. Peters, whose institute was once funded by Taser, believes that officers need to be better trained on "when not to use it." "Police have over-relied on it," Peters said. "Even the manufacturer has agreed that officers have become codependent on the Taser and they would rather not physically engage people and use the Taser. That's pretty much true nationally." He added: "Police officers have one-half the power of God: the power to take a life. They don't have the power to restore life. You want them to be as well-trained as possible." In one high-profile case in Baltimore, a teenager died in a hospital after being hit by a Taser in the chest. In May 2014, a toothache and a series of seizures landed 19-year-old George Vonn King, who was in the foster care system, in the emergency room at Good Samaritan Hospital. After suffering another seizure at the hospital, he was to be moved to intensive care. Police officers have one-half the power of God: the power to take a life. They don't have the power to restore life. You want them to be as well-trained as possible. — John G. Peters Jr., Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths King objected and tried to leave the hospital. He became combative and struck a nurse. Five security guards couldn't restrain King and called police. An officer struck King in the chest with the Taser's drive-stun mode and with the darts. State data shows six discharges totaling 27 seconds. King fell into a coma, dying five days later. A lawyer told The Sun at the time that he represented the family, but no lawsuit has been filed. Prosecutors later cleared the officers of wrongdoing. In one of the biggest judgments against Taser International, California attorney John Burton won a $10 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the company in 2011. The company appealed, and it was later settled for a confidential amount. No other details about the settlement were made available. The case involved a 17-year-old boy who died of cardiac arrest after being hit by a Taser in the chest for 37 seconds in the Charlotte, N.C., supermarket where he worked. The teen was arguing with a supervisor when someone called police, who arrived and hit the employee with a Taser. Burton said officers resort to Tasers when traditional methods for calming tense situations would suffice. "They're just so subject to abuse," Burton said. "It's torture." Differing policies Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun Novella Sargusingh, the foster mother to George Vonn King, who died in 2014 while at Good Samaritan Hospital. A Baltimore police officer had Tasered him in the chest while at the hospital. Novella Sargusingh, the foster mother to George Vonn King, who died in 2014 while at Good Samaritan Hospital. A Baltimore police officer had Tasered him in the chest while at the hospital. (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun) Taser recommends at least six hours of training on how to use the weapon. But policies at several of the state's largest departments disregard key safety recommendations from experts and Taser's manufacturer, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of the 15 agencies with the most incidents from 2012 to 2014. Those recommendations advise officers to avoid shocking suspects more than 15 seconds. Any further discharges should be "independently justifiable, and the risks should be weighed against other force options," according to the Police Executive Research Forum. The guidelines also discourage targeting the chest or shocking someone who is handcuffed, and make clear that Taser's electrified-darts method is preferable to the device's drive-stun mode. Baltimore City and Harford County did not include any of those recommendations during the three-year period. Baltimore updated its policy in October to include them. Harford County's Taser policy remains one of the shortest. "While the Harford County Sheriff's Office policy does not give specific recommendations on Taser usage, it should not be construed as a disregard of specific safety recommendations," Maj. John Simpson, chief of the Services and Support Bureau, said in a statement. Simpson said deputies receive "comprehensive training" and yearly recertifications on proper use of force. He also said the department's policy is "under review" and will be modified to include separate sections to address the various methods of force, including Taser and pepper spray. Baltimore City police top the list for number of Taser discharges. Baltimore County ranks second with half as many firings. These two departments, together with Montgomery County, make up nearly half of all Taser use in the state. Below are the 15 agencies with the most discharges. Source: Governor's Office of Crime Control & Prevention. (Baltimore Sun Graphic) Baltimore City police top the list for number of Taser discharges. Baltimore County ranks second with half as many firings. These two departments, together with Montgomery County, make up nearly half of all Taser use in the state. Below are the 15 agencies with the most discharges. Source: Governor's Office of Crime Control & Prevention. (Baltimore Sun Graphic) Anne Arundel County includes the four recommendations in its policy. Along with Baltimore County — and Montgomery County starting in 2014 — the county tells officers to avoid activating the Taser for longer than 15 seconds. Eleven other agencies give officers latitude to determine what's needed to gain control. Five agencies, including Anne Arundel and Howard counties, instruct officers to avoid targeting the chest area. Four other agencies say officers can shoot in the chest area if they have no other choice. The others provide no guidance to officers on the matter. On shocking handcuffed suspects, seven agencies don't offer guidelines. Five others say officers shouldn't stun them, while Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George's counties provide exceptions to that rule. While policing experts have said officers should limit the use of Tasers in drive-stun mode, only six agencies discourage the practice in their policies. Police departments in Maryland, Virginia and three other states have begun revising their policies after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit deemed some routine Taser uses as excessive force. The task force convened by former Maryland Attorney General Gansler issued dozens of recommendations in 2009, including many of the guidelines eventually adopted by the Justice Department. Gansler sent the report to every police department in the state and to every state attorney general across the country. In Gansler's home state, the recommendations were "sadly ignored," said Cary Hansel, a defense attorney who served on the panel, to the peril of residents who face serious injuries and to police and local governments that face legal liability. "You see repeatedly what I consider lazy law enforcement, where officers don't want to take the time to use verbal techniques and calming techniques," Hansel said. "They are just flippantly going to the Taser." Excited delirium It is rare for coroners to directly blame a Taser for a death. The state medical examiner's office in Maryland hasn't done so in any of the deaths here. One of the more common causes of death is the condition called excited or agitated delirium. In Maryland, the condition has been blamed, in part, in the deaths of four people hit by Tasers in confrontations with police since 2009. But for years experts have debated the legitimacy of the condition. While coroners have adopted the controversial diagnosis, it is not recognized by the American Medical Association. Symptoms of excited delirium include acting irrationally, removing clothes, shouting and grunting, refusing to follow orders, and displaying extraordinary strength and high tolerance to pain. Such individuals, who also may be mentally ill, and on cocaine or PCP, are considered to be at a high risk for sudden cardiac arrest when resisting police restraint. A 2009 Taser bulletin warned officers that people who exhibit signs of excited delirium, exhaustion or distress after being stunned need immediate medical attention. "These subjects are at significant risk of arrest-related deaths," the bulletin said. Maryland's medical examiner, Dr. David Fowler, said the only accurate way to determine whether a Taser caused a death is if a person were shocked in a controlled setting where the heart was monitored. Excited delirium "is a very, very complex and interesting topic, and it's not going away anytime soon," Fowler said. Gansler's task force said that because excited delirium is open to interpretation, medical examiners should "specifically indicate" whether the use of a Taser "may have or did contribute to the death." "Excited delirium should not be cited as the cause of death where there is a known direct cause," the task force wrote. "The medical examiner should explain in the autopsy and death certification the cluster of symptoms that led to the finding of 'excited delirium.'" Fowler, who has been in his role since 2002, said isolating one direct cause of death in Taser cases is extremely difficult. Instead he has identified a number of factors that contributed to those deaths, including drug use, mental health problems, excited delirium, heart conditions and police restraint. "I'd love to be able to give you a clean answer. The human being is complex," he said. Taser use could play a role, he added, but it cannot be cited as a cause without scientific evidence. When and if his office finds such proof, he said, it will say so in an autopsy. (Lloyd Fox) Fowler noted that other uses of force, such as hogtying and chokeholds, have been deemed improper and are no longer used by police. "Then along came Taser," he said. "There is a suspicion that Taser is another one of these events in a long history." "Most people have gone from the idea of saying the Taser is perfectly safe — the jury is still out — to one where it's less than lethal." But blaming the Taser without proof could result in police losing a useful tool that's a better option than other potentially lethal uses of force, he added.

Jonathan Coulton Publicly Shames Fox For Copying His Arrangement In Glee from the social-mores dept Internet sleuths immediately went to work on the question, creating side-by-side comparisons of the audio (which are very convincing) and even unearthing an official Fox version of the as-yet-unreleased single in the Swedish iTunes store. While the track is not currently available in the American store, gaming blog Kotaku claims that it “was available earlier and was pulled by Fox.” Despite calls from Twitter and multiple media organizations, the network has yet to make a statement as of this afternoon, but, all things considered, it’s looking pretty bad for Glee. We've talked about Jonathan Coulton and his embrace of the internet and new business models plenty on Techdirt -- as well as his nuanced arguments concerning copyright infringement. He's not "pro-piracy," but recognizes that the overall growth of the internet that has resulted in more infringement has also created tremendously valuable tools and services that made his music career. Thus, recognizing that the two things go hand in hand , he notes that it's better in the long run. So what does he do when someone infringes on his rights? Well, he goes public.As some have noted, Coulton has called out Fox for apparently copying his arrangement of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" in the TV show. You can see his version here:And then there's the Glee version , which is quite similar, and includes a few of Coulton's own additions:Yes, his is a cover song, but he introduced some variations that appear to be directly copied in Glee. Is there a potential copyright claim here? Well, that depends -- and the copyright law here is complex. You can cover a song by paying compulsory license fees, and Fox likely did that to whoever holds the copyright on the original. But they copied specific changes (and possibly the music) that Coulton added, which could potentially be covered by his own copyright (of course, whether or not he registered them could also impact what he could do about it). And let's not even get into the issue of things like sync licenses for video, and the (still open) question of whether or not Glee actually used part of Coulton's own recording.In the end, though, almost none of that probably. Because Coulton seems unlikely (we hope) to go legal here. Instead, he's just going with the public shame route -- with a simple tweet about the situation , which has set off "the internet" to help him make his case and embarrass Fox and Glee.Of course, as a public storm of support rises behind Coulton, it seems likely that Fox/Glee producers will step up, apologize and probably cut Coulton a check of some sort. All of that seems a lot more efficient -- and it didn't require copyright law at all. Just a bit of public shaming for a bad actor. Of course, just imagine if the situation had been reversed, and Coulton was caught making use of a News Corp.-owned song. In that case, you'd have to imagine that the cease and desist letters and lawyers would have popped up quite quickly.... Filed Under: copying, cover songs, glee, jonathan coulton, licenses, permission, public shaming Companies: fox

Law enforcement agencies are expected to continue seizing assets until there is comprehensive reform at the state level. Above, boxes of U.S. currency seized during a 2014 raid in Los Angeles. Photo by Justice Department via Reuters Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday that the Justice Department will no longer participate in a controversial program that has long allowed police departments around the country to seize cash and property from people suspected of criminal activity, then send 20 percent of its dollar value to the federal government under a so-called “equitable sharing” program and pump the remaining 80 percent into their own operating budgets. Holder’s decision to halt the program is being applauded by critics of the practice known as civil asset forfeiture. But experts warn that it’s not enough: While it’s nice that the federal government is washing its hands of “equitable sharing,” law enforcement agencies can be expected to continue seizing people’s cash and other valuables until there is comprehensive reform at the state level. Civil forfeiture as it existed until Friday was introduced by the federal government in 1985, with noble intentions, as part of the war on drugs. The idea was to incentivize police to target suspected criminals in possession of large sums of ill-begotten riches, so that their money could be diverted to government coffers and then spent in service of the public good. But as time went by, civil forfeiture became a tool of abuse and a source of income on which police departments came to rely: According to the Washington Post, which ran an influential multipart investigation into civil forfeiture last year, police agencies have carried out 61,998 cash seizures under the federal “sharing” program since September 2001, collecting a total of $1.7 billion for themselves and dividing an additional $800 million among various federal agencies. (Police departments used the proceeds on things like surveillance equipment, sniper gear, helicopters, high-tech buses, and $600 coffee makers.) The Post series—as well as an excellent New Yorker article from 2013—shined a light on the fact that countless Americans, many of them poor, were essentially being shaken down by local law enforcement officials without ever being charged with crimes, then forced to prove their innocence through a protracted legal process in order to get their money or other assets back. In one particularly devastating example highlighted by the Post, a 55-year-old Chinese American man was pulled over for speeding in Alabama and forced to give up $75,000 that he had raised from relatives in order to buy a restaurant. According to the Post, it took almost a year and thousands of dollars in legal fees for the man to get his money back from the authorities. Holder’s decision to halt the Justice Department’s “equitable sharing” program will certainly put a dent in the civil forfeiture racket. But it won’t come close to eradicating the practice entirely, because the majority of America’s 50 states—42, to be exact—still have laws on the books providing huge incentives for police departments to keep doing it. According to Louis S. Rulli, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School who has studied civil forfeiture closely, no fewer than 26 states allow police to keep 100 percent of the assets they seize. And Scott Bullock, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice—the libertarian public interest law farm—says there are 16 others where police keep 50 percent or more. “The law has to be changed in the states too,” said Bullock. “This closes one window, but you’ve got to close all the windows.” According to Rulli, the window being closed is not all that big. “The Attorney General’s announcement is certainly very welcome news and an important step toward stemming civil forfeiture abuse, but it is going to have limited impact in states and localities because most seizures of cash, cars, and homes are conducted under the auspices of state law,” he wrote in an email. The states where Holder’s decision will make a big impact are the handful that have already reformed their civil forfeiture laws, such that all seized assets are funneled not into the pockets of the law enforcement agencies that brought them in but into states’ treasuries or to specific purposes. In Missouri, for instance, all seized assets go toward the state’s education fund. Up to this point, law enforcement agencies in those states have been able to carry out civil forfeiture under the auspices of the federal program, thereby getting their 80 percent despite restrictive state laws. “The federal route was perceived as a way around state limits that let state and local agencies effectively continue what they were doing before: seizing assets and keeping lots of the proceeds, to fund themselves,” wrote David Harris, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, in an email. It’s in these states that Holder’s decision will have the greatest impact. In the other 42, the gravy train will roll on, at least for now.

Two years after a huge earthquake, giant tsunami and nuclear meltdown ravaged parts of Japan, life has only seemingly returned to normal. Authorities say that outside the evacuation zone in Fukushima, there is at most a very low amount of radioactive contamination — that everything is safe. But after the tragedy, many citizens ask themselves if they can believe the government. On a recent trip to Japan, spending two months visiting my girlfriend’s family, I was struck by a pervasive sense of fear and suspicion over food safety. We decided to drive up to Fukushima and speak with residents and farmers. This Op-Doc video emerged from these conversations — becoming a portrait of people’s feelings of mistrust. I wonder, what will be the long-term effects of this disaster — not just on people’s health but also on the Japanese psyche?

The Bot Economy John Robb Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 12, 2016 A new economic system is on the way. What does that system look like? Obviously, it’s very hard to see what is going to replace industrial, financial capitalism while we are still inside of the system. Despite that, it’s possible to get a sense of where it is going by looking at where technology is taking us. I recently did some scifi writing on a short book I’m writing and this is some thinking that came out of it. _________ The area of development that’s going to have an out-sized impact on how we live day to day? In one word: bots. A bot is a term used to describe any intelligent system (aka machine intelligence) that can work autonomously. There are lots of bots in use already. We are making more at a furious rate (there a over 6,000 machine intelligence companies right now and growing) to accomplish almost anything and it won’t be long before we have trillions of bots (mostly in the cloud). The upshot is that bots are going to automate much of what we consider valuable in industrial capitalism, just like industrial capitalism automated the (we went from spending 95% of our time earning our food to spending 5% in two centuries) precious agriculture of feudalism before it. As far as I can tell, there are two ways these bots will emerge in their trillions (the vast majority of those will live in the cloud, attached to sensors/data/etc.). One way is a system that will dominate and enslave the vast majority of us and the other has the potential to provide us with a way of life that is as close to an edenic revival as is possible in reality. These two systems will likely become the source of the most bitter struggle for dominance we’ve ever experienced on this blue planet. More bitter than the fight between bureaucratic systems (communism/fascism) and market systems (democratic capitalism) in the last century. The negative system being sold to us is based on using people to do bot-like work at subsistence levels (aka turking) in order to gather the data needed to train up bot replacement workers as quickly as possible. This negative system has the potential to employ billions of people doing the things that bots can’t do yet, and in so doing, training the bots that will replace them in a couple of months. Good early examples of negative systems include Uber (drivers as bot who will soon be replaced by bots) and Amazon (they actually have a mechanical turk service). It’s pretty clear that this is an evolutionary endgame system. A system that makes us look more like the other two globally dominant species on the planet — ants and termites. Unfortunately, this is the system with the most momentum behind it due to the amazing valuations given to corporations that pursue it. The other system has the most potential to radically improve the quality of human life. In this system, bots and bot ecosystems are built through creative collaboration via economic networks (or tribes). These networks pay an annuity to the people willing and able to contribute to the development of different bot “families” (ecosystems of bots that focus on gardening, 3D fabrication, dispute resolution, medical care, etc.). The system scales through peering relationships between different networks doing work in other areas. We don’t have many good examples of these networks since most of the early development in this area is currently using open source methods. This is a problem. Open source is a system of development that doesn’t have the requisite positive feedback loops needed to build a viable economic system (open source development is like pouring water on a table, as long as you keep pouring, people can drink from it — sure, it works, but it never gets any easier over time and most participants tire from the unrequited effort). To overcome this impasse, we need economic networking to enclose open source development in a way that provides it with the feedback loops needed to grow — from growing the number of participants to accelerating the pace of the development done (to attain speeds that are many, many times what we see in the private sector today). Here’s what I mean. Let’s use a recent project in synthetic biology as an example. Currently, there is an effort to build a functional open source model of a worm’s brain called OpenWorm. The model is functional in that it seeks food, evades predators, etc. The project raised lots of money on Kickstarter and they are have a solid community of developers, scientists, and tinkerers working on it. The synthetic organism (aka bot) they are building may become a prototype for building a family of synthetic organisms that can act synergistically to do amazing things. That will make this effort very valuable over the long term. However, because it is being built using an open source framework, it’s not going to build on itself to become a thriving system able to support a growing community of developers. That’s bad news since in order to avoid a turking future, we need to do better. To accomplish that, we need to enclose bot projects like these inside of networks/tribes. They simply can’t remain standard open source project if they are going deliver lasting change. Here’s what I believe an economic network or tribe needs to have in order to provide the positive feedback required for growth: A way of inducting contributing members into the tribe (once you make a valid contribution you are in, for example) Sharing access to all designs/data on the network (and validating it by attaching it to a member so it’s not malware) Charging people outside of the network for use of the code/services (or establishing peering relationships with other networks doing the same thing in other areas) and Sharing the income derived from this network equally (with excess being used to fund projects that the members vote to fund). What would a network like this look like from the inside? I suspect you’d get most of your self actualization from the networks you contribute to by teaching, training, and evolving bots to do incredibly useful stuff. Is this possible to do right now? Of course. The tech is here. I suspect that quite a bit of the above — from IDing members to validating code to allocating reward — can be done using a bitcoin sidechain and some type of wearable wallet (think fitbit but with biomonitoring for tight ID). Worth thinking about, John Robb

Jalen Hurts burst on the scene to lead Alabama to a wire-to-wire No. 1 ranking. Ed Oliver wrecked offenses from Oklahoma to Louisville for Houston. It was a good year for true freshmen in college football. Here are the best of the group: From a season-opening 52-6 rout over USC, Jalen Hurts showed this was a different kind of Alabama offense. Tony Gutierre/AP Photo OFFENSE QB: Jalen Hurts, Alabama Hurts amassed more than 3,400 yards of total offense to go along with 34 touchdowns in leading the Crimson Tide to the College Football Playoff. And the fact he threw only nine interceptions given his unfamiliarity with a pro-style offense was impressive. RB: Trayveon Williams, Texas A&M Williams was an electrifying spark plug for Texas A&M and gave its offense a different dimension. He posted eight touchdowns and 1,024 yards on 7.0 yards per carry. Editor's Picks Lamar Jackson leads star-studded ESPN All-America team Louisville's breakout QB has swept through the awards season with a mantel full of honors. Give him one more now as the headliner of ESPN's 2016 college football All-America team. RB: Benny Snell Jr., Kentucky Snell posted a whopping 13 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,057 yards while sharing backfield duties with Boom Williams. WR: Ahmmon Richards, Miami Richards quickly became a go-to deep threat with the speed to take the top off the defense. One of the bigger freshman surprises of the year, he will head into bowl season with 46 receptions and two touchdowns. WR: Demetris Robertson, Cal Robertson didn't sign with Cal until March, but he wasted no time making an impact, hauling in 50 catches and recording seven touchdowns. He also made an impact as a kick returner. TE: Isaac Nauta, Georgia Nauta was as good as advertised from the moment he stepped on campus, and while he split some time with Jeb Blazovich and his numbers were modest (27 catches), Nauta displayed go-to ability for this offense going forward. OL: Jonah Williams, Alabama Williams started every game at right tackle, a clear top true freshman lineman regardless of position. He even graded out better than Cam Robinson most weeks. OL: Jawaan Taylor, Florida A starting right tackle, Taylor made a quicker and bigger impact for Florida than more highly touted Greg Little did for Ole Miss. Taylor fit in immediately at a need position for the Gators. OL: Parker Braun, Georgia Tech A starting left guard for the Yellow Jackets, Braun earned ACC Offensive Lineman of Week after a November win over Virginia Tech, a first for a Georgia Tech freshman. OL: Nate Herbig, Stanford A tough, physical player in a scheme that freshman often struggle to be tough enough to succeed, Herbig found a way to make it work at left guard. OL: Ben Bredeson, Michigan After making a push to start at left tackle during the preseason, Bredeson eventually moved to guard, where he started six games and was named an All-Big Ten honorable mention. Ed Oliver was so good this year he had no trouble chasing down Heisman favorite Lamar Jackson in the Cougars big win over Louisville. Eric Christian Smith/AP Photo DEFENSE DL: Nick Bosa, Ohio State Like his older brother, Joey, Nick exploded onto the scene in Columbus, finishing with five sacks and being selected to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. DL: Brian Burns, Florida State Burns registered 9.5 sacks, more than any other freshman in college football, and tied for 15th overall in the country. DL: Dexter Lawrence, Clemson The ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year made an outstanding Tigers defensive line even better, finishing with 71 tackles, 7.5 for loss and five sacks. DL: Ed Oliver, Houston He was named the AAC Rookie of the Year and first-team All-AAC after recording 61 tackles, five sacks and a whopping 19.5 tackles for loss. LB: Michael Pinckney, Miami Pinckney finished with 57 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks on the year. We'd say Miami is set at linebacker for at least the next two years. LB: Shaq Quarterman, Miami One of three freshman starting linebackers for Miami since Day 1, Quarterman recorded 79 tackles, nine tackles for loss and two sacks. LB: Troy Dye, Oregon Dye made the transition from safety to linebacker and quickly blossomed, tallying 6.5 sacks and 91 tackles for the Ducks. He was one of the bright spots for a poor defensive team. CB: Taylor Rapp, Washington Rapp announced himself nationally with two interceptions, including one pick-six, in the Pac-12 championship game. He totaled 45 tackles and two pass breakups on the year as an integral part of the Huskies' defensive performance this year. S: Jessie Bates III, Wake Forest The second team All-ACC pick had two interceptions returned for touchdowns while helping guide a terrific but underrated Demon Deacons defense. S: Jalen Thompson, Washington State Thompson led the Cougars with seven pass breakups and helped turn around a defense and a team that started 0-2. CB: Jordan Parker, Oklahoma Parker appeared in nine games and eventually became Oklahoma's best cover corner on what was a poor defense. He posted 34 tackles and three pass breakups, but did not record an interception. SPECIAL TEAMS K: Ricky Aguayo, Florida State The younger brother of former Florida State star -- and second-round NFL draft pick Roberto -- Ricky lived up to his brother's lofty standards, nailing 17 field goals and all 48 of his extra points. P: Blake Gillikin, Penn State An overlooked part of Penn State's Big Ten-winning season was Gilliken and his 42.1 punting average.

Pete Wells, the restaurant critic of the Times, who writes a review every week—and who occasionally writes one that creates a national hubbub about class, money, and soup—was waiting for a table not long ago at Momofuku Nishi, a modish new restaurant in Chelsea. Wells is fifty-three and soft-spoken. His balance of Apollonian and Dionysian traits is suggested by a taste for drawing delicate sketches of tiki cocktails. Since starting the job, in 2012, he has eaten out five times a week. His primary disguise strategy is “to be the least interesting person in the room,” he had told me, adding, “Which I was, for many years. It’s not a stretch.” But he does vary his appearance. At times, he’ll be unshaven, in frayed jeans; in Chelsea, he looked like a European poet—a gray wool suit over a zip-up sweater, a flat cap pulled low, nonprescription glasses. He was carrying a memoir, written by a friend, titled “Bullies.” Wells had encouraged me to arrive just ahead of him, and to ask for the reservation for two, at nine-forty-five, under the randomly chosen name of Michael Patcher. There was half a chance that I’d be allowed to sit before he showed up. If so, then at least one aspect of the evening would have what Wells calls a “civilian” texture, even if he was recognized. (As he put it, “If we’re very lucky, we might get a bad table.”) But when Wells arrived I was still waiting to sit down. So we stood near the door, at an awkward, congested spot from which we could have reached out and taken a clam from someone’s plate of Asian-Italian noodles. The front of the room was bare and bright, and filled with thirty-year-olds on backless stools at communal pale-wood tables—a picnic held in a cell-phone store. The noise level reminded me of Wells’s review of a Tex-Mex restaurant: “It always sounds as if somebody were telling a woman at the far end of the table that he had just found $1,000 under the menu, and the woman were shouting back that Ryan Gosling had just texted and he’s coming to the restaurant in, like, five minutes!” Wells is not peevish about discomfort. His columns make a subtle study of what counts as fun in middle age—loyalties divided between abandon and an early night. His expressions of enthusiasm often take the form of wariness swept away: Wells found joy in a conga line at Señor Frog’s, in Times Square. But after dining at Momofuku Nishi he returned to his home, in Brooklyn, and wrote in his notes about “a hurricane of noise.” Two minutes after Wells arrived at the restaurant, it became clear that he’d been spotted. His friend Jeff Gordinier—a journalist who, until recently, reported on restaurants for the Times—had spoken with me about Wells’s chances of remaining anonymous by referring to a famous contractual demand made by Van Halen: concert promoters were asked to supply the band with a backstage bowl of M&M’s, with the brown ones removed. David Lee Roth, Van Halen’s lead singer, has said that the request was not whimsical. It helped to show whether a contract had been carefully read and, therefore, whether the band’s complex, and potentially dangerous, technical requirements were likely to have been met. Gordinier said that an ambitious New York restaurant’s ability to spot Pete Wells is a similar indicator of thoroughness: “If they don’t recognize who he is, then they are missing a very important detail, and therefore they may not be paying attention to other important details.” In 1962, Craig Claiborne became the first person at the Times to review restaurants regularly; two decades later, he published a memoir, noting that he had “disliked the power” of being a critic. He added, “It burdened my conscience to know that the existence or demise of an establishment might depend on the praise or damnation to be found in the Times.” Much of that power remains, even as it has seeped away from reviewers of theatre and painting; Wells is a vestige of newspaper clout. And, because successful chefs now often sit atop empires, a single bad review can threaten a dozen restaurants and a thousand employees. When Wells reviewed Vaucluse, on the Upper East Side, he began by identifying the restaurant’s parent company, founded by the chef Michael White and Ahmass Fakahany, a former Merrill Lynch executive: “A critic could run out of new ways to express disappointment in Altamarea Group restaurants if Altamarea didn’t keep coming up with new ways to disappoint.” The Momofuku Group, run by the thirty-nine-year-old chef David Chang, has in recent years expanded into fast food, overseas restaurants, and a quarterly magazine named Lucky Peach. But Momofuku Nishi was the company’s first full-scale, sit-down restaurant to open in New York in five years. A visit from Wells was a certainty. A copy of the one photograph of him that is widely available online, in which he looks like a character actor available to play sardonic police sergeants, was fixed to a wall in the restaurant’s back stairwell. Chang recently told me that, despite the profusion of opinion online, he still thought of the Times as the “judge and jury” of a new venture, if not the executioner. In the logjam by the restaurant’s door, a young woman in a dark fitted jacket—later identified as Gabrielle Nurnberger, one of the restaurant’s managers—smiled at Wells, then turned away. Wells said to me, “Look at this,” and we watched as she strode toward the kitchen with her arms down, like a gymnast starting a run-up. (At the equivalent moment of discovery in another restaurant, I saw a manager mouth to Wells’s server “Good luck,” and place a reassuring hand on her arm.) There was increased activity in and out of the kitchen, which was half exposed to the room. We waited a few more minutes, and were then shown to a spot at the edge of the hurricane, against a wall. Our neighbors were taking photographs directly above their bowls of Ceci e Pepe. The dish, a riff on pasta cacio e pepe, using fermented chickpea paste in place of Pecorino, was central to the restaurant’s promoted identity, suggesting technical expertise in the service of amused nonconformity. (Chang told me, later, that he had conceived of the menu as a “Fuck you” to Italian cuisine.) We were given menus with wry footnotes. Wells took off his fake glasses and put on his reading glasses. “Why does it always have to represent something?” Nurnberger became our server. Wells is an unassuming man who has become used to causing a stir, and this can be disorienting: it’s odd to hear him wonder, not unreasonably, if restaurants ever think of bugging his table. But a restaurant can’t openly acknowledge him. A while ago, he happened to sit next to Jimmy Fallon, the host of the “Tonight Show,” at the counter of a sushi restaurant in the Village. Both men were recognized. As Wells recalled it, Fallon “got the overt treatment”: “big smiles and ‘Thank you for coming in’ ” and perhaps an extra dish or two. Wells’s experience was that “every dish of mine was an object of attention and worry before it got to me”—he often has a slower meal than other diners do, because dishes get done again and again until they are deemed exemplary. As usual, his water glass “was always being topped up.” But it was “as if none of this were happening.” Experienced for the first time, this covert cosseting feels slightly melancholy, like an episode of Cold War fiction involving futile charades and a likely defenestration. Nurnberger was a gracious server but, understandably, not quite at ease. She risked overplaying her role, like Sartre’s waiter in “Being and Nothingness,” who “bends forward a little too eagerly” and voices “an interest a little too solicitous for the order of the customer.” In her effort to help, Nurnberger came close to explaining what a menu was. Rote questions about how we gentlemen were getting on—usually asked of me—had a peculiar intensity. “I’m very reluctant to break the fourth wall,” Wells had said to me earlier, speaking of restaurant staff. “But I wish there were some subtle way to say, ‘Don’t worry!’ ” He sighed—he often sighs—and added, “I can’t honestly say that. Because sometimes they should worry.” When Wells speaks, his fingers often flutter near his temples, as if he were a stage mentalist trying to focus. He ordered several plates of food; after hesitation, he asked for a glass of white wine. He does not follow Craig Claiborne’s practice, in the nineteen-sixties, of weighing himself every day, but he has begun to think of alcohol as calories that he can skip without being professionally lax. He is not fat, but the job stands between him and leanness: he can’t turn down food. “My body is not my own,” he said. When dishes arrived, he looked at them sternly for a moment. We talked, or shouted, about his older son’s food allergies, and about a decision, just made at the Times, to have him regularly assess restaurants outside New York. (The first of these reviews, from Los Angeles, appears online on September 6th.) He talked of his earlier career, as an editor at Details, a columnist at Food & Wine, and the dining editor of the Times, when he had opportunities to watch chefs work and ask them questions. In his current role, he’d probably leave the room if someone like Chang turned up at the same cocktail party. “The danger is getting friendly with people you should feel free to destroy,” he said, and then stopped. “That’s not really the word, but you get the idea. People you should feel free to savage, when you have to.” Over my shoulder, Wells could see into the kitchen. At the start of the evening, Chang wasn’t visible, but then he was. “He may have been airlifted,” Wells said. For the critic’s benefit, a chef-commander, summoned from a sister restaurant or a back office, may take over from a lieutenant. Though Chang’s brand is built on unconventionality, he respected the convention of the fourth wall. The two men, who were on friendly terms before Wells became a critic, made eye contact but did not acknowledge each other. In the fall of 2012, Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar opened, on West Forty-fourth Street. The restaurant’s muse, and part owner, was Guy Fieri. Brought up in California by parents who ate a macrobiotic diet, Fieri became a restaurateur, and found fame as the upbeat host of dude-oriented shows on the Food Network, including “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” That show’s signature shot framed Fieri—his cheeks shining, his hair gelled into exclamation points—overlooking a cook’s shoulder in a roadside kitchen, yelling his appreciation of the brisket. Guy’s American Kitchen was his first New York restaurant. Wells ate there on four occasions. Three of those times, one of his guests told him on the way out that he or she had never eaten a worse meal. In 1963, the Times introduced star ratings for restaurant reviews. One star has come to be defined as Good; two is Very Good, three is Excellent, and four is Extraordinary. A restaurant that doesn’t deserve a star is graded Poor, Fair, or Satisfactory, like a Victorian schoolboy. Wells’s review of Guy’s American Kitchen was his first—and, so far, only—column to be headed with a Poor rating. The review was couched entirely as questions. “Guy Fieri, have you eaten at your new restaurant in Times Square?” it began. “Have you pulled up one of the five hundred seats at Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar and ordered a meal? Did you eat the food? Did it live up to your expectations? Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex?” Later: “Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are?” Wells went on, “Why did the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?” Newspaper readers have learned to dread columns driven by a rhetorical conceit—Michiko Kakutani once reviewed a novel in Holden Caulfield’s voice—but Wells kept his afloat. His expressions of puzzlement, though amused, were sincere enough to give him a half-innocent path to gleeful, relentless disdain. Wells is generally a well-mannered critic, if not an overly respectful one. In his first years on the job, he was sometimes faulted in the food press for being too generous in his appraisals; he had made a point of publishing fewer one-star reviews than his immediate predecessors. “No one likes one-star reviews,” Wells told me, in a conversation at his apartment, which is in a Clinton Hill brownstone. “The restaurants don’t like them, and the readers don’t like them. It’s very tricky to explain why this place is good enough to deserve a review but not quite good enough to get up to the next level.” He added, “I’m looking for places that I can be enthusiastic about. Like a golden retriever, I would like to drop a ball at the feet of the reader every week and say, ‘Here!’ ” It was a Friday afternoon. His wife, the novelist Susan Choi, and their two sons were out. (He and Choi met at The New Yorker, where they were both fact-checkers.)* Wells was listening to mournful country-tinged indie music while a small dog clattered about on parquet flooring. A door led out to a deck and a grill. According to Kat Kinsman, an editor at the Web site Extra Crispy, who has known Wells since the late nineties, he is “never more relaxed than when he’s tending a grill and wearing a Hawaiian shirt and has some kind of rum-based drink.” Wells, the adopted son of a nurse and an electrical engineer, told me that when he was growing up, in the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island, he was “the grill guy.” After the death of his father, last year, Wells began researching his biological family, starting with a few clues but no names: he knew that his birth mother “got mixed up with a folksinger from the local coffee-house circuit,” and that his great-grandfather had headed a university linguistics department. “How many can there be?” Wells asked. “I have ruled out Noam Chomsky.” “Ugh, I’m too hungover for salvation—come back later.” He had just e-mailed the draft of a two-star review to the paper. He files copy once a week. Mimi Sheraton, the Times’ restaurant critic in the late seventies and early eighties, recently recalled that she was expected to write at least three articles weekly. “I could not make the review my whole week’s literary effort!” she told me. “And I felt that a review was very temporary—it wasn’t going to live for posterity.” Sheraton, who likes Wells and values his discernment, cares little for his column. “A lot of reviews now tend to be food features,” she said. She recalled a reference to Martin Amis in a Wells review of a Spanish restaurant in Brooklyn; she said she would have mentioned Amis only “if he came in and sat down and ordered chopped liver.” Craig Claiborne, in a review from 1966, observed, “The lobster tart was palatable but bland and the skewered lamb on the dry side. The mussels marinière were creditable.” Thanks, in part, to the informal and diverting columns of Gael Greene, at New York, and Ruth Reichl, the Times’ critic during the nineties, restaurant reviewing in American papers has since become as much a vehicle for cultural criticism and literary entertainment—or, as Sheraton put it, “gossip”—as a guide to eating out. A contemporary Times restaurant critic is expected to maintain a degree of mandarin authority about mussels marinière (and Asian-Italian noodles), but he must also appeal to readers in Miami and London who have no plans to visit New York, and who may come to a review through Twitter and have an opinion about a chef from his or her appearances on TV. As Wells put it, “I have to hit the marks that I have to hit”—food, service, vibe—“without making you die of boredom.” The task can feel like “crossing the desert,” he said. According to Patrick Farrell, Wells’s usual editor at the Times, Wells sometimes e-mails around deadline to say that he’s forgotten how to write. In moments of distress, he turns to Oblique Strategies, the pack of cards, printed with gnomic guidance for blocked artists, co-written by Brian Eno. (“Change nothing and proceed with immaculate consistency.”) Wells has also learned to avoid taste-related adjectives: his quintessential description of a plate of food is a list of ingredients coupled to an emotion. Writing about Mr. Donahue’s, in Nolita: “The chard was cooked with a little garlic and lemon and bread crumbs. The crab tasted of mayonnaise and Tabasco and had been browned and warmed inside a heavy foil dish in the shape of a crab shell. I spread it on saltines from a crinkly cellophane wrapper and ate it with the sensation of having found something I’d lost such a long time ago that I’d forgotten about it.” The two-star review is generally the easiest for Wells to write. “It’s good copy, automatically,” he said. Readers will hear a voice of slightly goofy Wodehousian giddiness; the column becomes a self-portrait of someone glad to discover that—in this restaurant and, perhaps, in life—things have turned out better than expected. (In the review he’d just turned in, of Little Pepper, in Queens: “How did crinkle-cut fries get into a Sichuan restaurant? How can I be so helplessly, irretrievably crazy about them?”) Writing about a disappointing restaurant is a challenge that can sometimes be ignored. There are twenty-four thousand restaurants in the city. Although Wells, following his paper’s tradition, won’t file a review before he’s eaten somewhere at least three times, he’ll sometimes make one or two visits and then put the place aside, for reasons that are, essentially, literary. Wells mentioned Luksus, a restaurant in Greenpoint with Nordic touches, which has a Michelin star but left him a little cold. “I can’t figure out what to say about it,” he said. The risk of Wells’s approach is a two-star bubble. Amanda Cohen, the chef and owner of Dirt Candy, a vegetarian restaurant on the Lower East Side, wept with happiness on seeing her two-star review, in 2012—and she still feels its economic benefit. But, she told me recently, half seriously, “we’re all two stars! We all go to one another’s restaurants, and we’re, like, ‘I’m better than this, and we’ve both got two stars!’ ” In such an ecosystem, a harsh review is precious: it helps mark critical boundaries. Wells said that reviewing a Times Square tourist attraction like Guy’s American Kitchen “wasn’t usual territory for us, but it was legitimate territory—and really great copy. How do you walk away from that?” As Wells has come to see it, a disastrous restaurant is newsworthy only if it has a pedigree or commercial might. The mom-and-pop catastrophe can be overlooked. “I shouldn’t be having to explain to people what the place is,” he said. This reasoning seems civil, though, as Wells acknowledged, it means that his pans focus disproportionately on restaurants that have corporate siblings. Indeed, hype is often his direct or indirect subject. Of the fifteen no-star evaluations in his first four years, only two went to restaurants that weren’t part of a group of restaurants. A review of a bad restaurant seems to expand its writer’s reach more than an unhappy review of a book or a film. A restaurant can deceive, humiliate, and poison us in a way that “Zoolander 2” cannot. In the case of Guy’s American Kitchen, readers were shown two compelling, class-tinged power struggles: one involved an absent, wealthy celebrity and his exploited customers; the other set the institution of the Times against the institution of Guy. As Wells put it, “One would not think they exist in the same universe. It’s like Deadpool on ‘Downton Abbey.’ ” His rejection of Guy’s American Kitchen was, he assured me, not inevitable: even if he was not truly confounded by a lack of authenticity in a mega-restaurant spun off from reality-television self-caricature, his hope for something good could nevertheless be real. Shortly after the review appeared, he told Margaret Sullivan, then the Times’ public editor, “I would have liked to write the ‘man bites dog’ review.” He went on, “This is important American food that makes a lot of people very happy. And, since that’s the case, you ought to do it right.” The column appeared online on a Tuesday. Wells was immediately overwhelmed by e-mail and Twitter reactions. “I remember having to walk away from my computer,” he said. “It was like a pinball machine—everything was lighting up.” Some Fieri fans wished harm on his family. Editors at other publications assigned think pieces about Fieri: journalism’s pilot fish, nibbling on flesh snagged between the predator’s teeth. That night, “Good Morning America” sent a reporter to the restaurant, to review Wells’s review, while shooting undercover video of French fries. On Wednesday, after the column appeared in print, Wells turned down dozens of interview requests. That evening, while David Letterman was reading a Top Ten of Discontinued Guy Fieri Menu Items (teriyaki-glazed napkin, crust-crusted crust, suspiciously damp toast), Guy Fieri, who lives in California, was on an overnight flight to New York. The next morning, in a live interview with Savannah Guthrie on “Today,” he showed the public-relations limits of amiable bluster. Sitting in a restaurant stuffed with Fieri memorabilia and Fieri merchandise, he accused Wells of attention-seeking: “It’s a great way to make a name for yourself. Go after a celebrity chef that’s not a New Yorker.” When Guthrie noted that star chefs often have little involvement with restaurants bearing their name, Fieri said, with satisfaction, that this wasn’t the case here: members of his “team” had worked closely with the people running the restaurant. It was an acknowledgment of disengagement in the form of a denial. “What’s a good board for someone who gets out in the water once a year but talks about surfing incessantly?” Although the review was published near the year’s end, it became the paper’s fifth-most-e-mailed article of 2012. Wells’s sons, who were then five and eight, picked up on the controversy. Today, according to Wells, “if they see Guy Fieri’s face on a billboard, which only happens every ten minutes, they’re pointing: ‘Look, Daddy, look!’ They know that Guy and I have this special bond.” (Fieri declined to be interviewed for this article.) After the success of the review, Wells said, “people said that the Times had lost its virginity.” In other words, that the paper, having discovered the secret of viral success, would scramble to replicate it. One could argue that this has happened, with reference, say, to such articles as “How to Train Like the Mountain from ‘Game of Thrones.’ ” But Wells doesn’t see it, in his own work or elsewhere. “Ruth Reichl’s Le Cirque review would have gone viral,” he said, referring to her first column as the Times’ critic, in 1993. In the piece, she describes visiting Le Cirque first as a civilian—she was belittled and bullied—and then as a recognized critic. Her assessment of the first meal describes a “parade of brown food” and ends with a line that she could have tweeted: “I find myself wishing that when the maître d’ asked if I had a reservation I had just said no and left.” In October, Wells appeared at the Southern Foodways Alliance, an annual event held in Oxford, Mississippi. Wearing a highwayman’s mask, and billed only as the Masked Avenger, he walked onstage, read the Fieri review to a live piano accompaniment, then walked off. Although the article was relevant to the event’s theme—Southern food in popular culture—one member of the audience still found the performance a little unbecoming, “like a musician who had one hit and is singing it, a cappella, years later.” The observer added, “There may have been a cape.” Wells told me that he wore a Gandalf robe belonging to the son of the event’s organizer. When Wells eats, he looks like someone who’s decoding a puzzle: there’s frowning concentration, a poke around the salad. One day earlier this year, he was in Jackson Heights, with Jeff Gordinier and Steve Wynn, a rock musician with courtly manners who lives in the neighborhood. Wynn was a new acquaintance; Wells’s job gives a friendship-cementing mechanism to a man who is fairly shy. That evening, while eating in the second of three Himalayan restaurants that the group visited in succession, Wells sometimes dropped out of the conversation. He’d register that a dark speck found on the surface of a gray, un-Instagrammable beef-tongue soup was a Szechuan pepper, and not the coriander seed that he was expecting; or he’d consider the difference between the restaurant’s momos, or dumplings, and those just eaten in the windowless place hidden behind the money-transfer agent. He said, “Just technically—if we can be technical about our momos—where it’s pinched, up at the top, it’s not cooked all the way through.” Wells wasn’t sure if he’d ever write about the excursion. Ligaya Mishan, who writes the Times’ “Hungry City” column, about cheaper meals, was more likely to cover these restaurants, although Wells—who was the paper’s dining editor for five years—noted that he has “never been comfortable with the received hierarchy of the two columns.” He continued, “I do the ‘real’ restaurants, and these are something else—not worthy of stars?” Either way, he didn’t expect to be recognized, so he dropped his usual defenses. He didn’t wince if one of his guests used his real name, and he openly took notes at the table. (Susan Choi, who eats out with him about once a week, told me that when he started as the Times’ critic he’d write notes in the restaurant’s bathroom, or allow himself to “look like some asshole on his phone.” He now relies largely on his memory.) Wells even faced the room, instead of turning his back on it. Such evenings, he said happily, made him feel like Audrey Hepburn’s character in “Roman Holiday.” His good mood reached out to embrace the whole borough. “If you look at where the good food is in New York, it’s really in Manhattan and Queens,” he said. “I’m sorry, other boroughs, I’m sorry.” The conversation turned to Romera, a restaurant in Chelsea that closed in 2012, soon after Wells described its many pretensions. (“A restaurant willing to send out a garnish meant to be interpreted rather than eaten is a restaurant that wants to be admired, not enjoyed.”) Wells drew a finger across his throat, in joking acceptance of responsibility. And this led to talk of other restaurants that, like Romera, presented diners with expensive, stage-managed tasting menus, involving many dainty courses and scant choice. In Wells’s phrase, “You just sit down and take it.” It was a curious trend at a time of increasing informality in New York restaurants: no-reservation policies; Led Zeppelin on the playlist. As Gordinier put it, restaurateurs now regard the tasting menu as the “delivery system of perfection.” Wells said of this consensus, “It’s as if you couldn’t win Best Picture if you didn’t have a costume drama set in the nineteenth century.” Amanda Cohen, of Dirt Candy, told me that this style of eating can remind her of the fact that powerful people have been known to enjoy recreational powerlessness in bondage clubs. Wells used the word “fun” in the first sentence of his first review, in 2012, and it has appeared again every three or four weeks since then. He has at times enthused about good-natured restaurants with inexact kitchen standards, like Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse, on the Lower East Side. “Other steakhouses can drive themselves crazy over internal temperatures,” he wrote. “At Sammy’s, the meat will be cooked. If you have something more specific in mind, if you want it medium or black and blue, then write your request on a sheet of paper, tear it into small pieces and throw them into the air when the piano player sings ‘Happy Birthday.’ ” In one of the early surprises of his tenure, Wells gave three stars to Il Buco Alimentari, an Italian place in NoHo, which, though hardly a hole-in-the-wall, had few fine-dining airs. Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic of the Los Angeles Times, is a champion of the vernacular, and wrote to praise him. At the Himalayan restaurant in Jackson Heights, Wells described himself as “a little too comfortable in expensive restaurants to be a real populist.” Earlier that day, he had been working on a three-star appreciation of Bouley, in Tribeca, where “creamy tongues of sea urchin under yuzu sorbet” were served alongside “an olive-green spoonful of golden osetra caviar.” But a critic who emphasizes fun—or happiness—is setting up a potential conflict with any restaurant whose approach seems rigid. “Just play the hit single, then you can do the experimental track.” Tasting menus suit diners in a certain frame of mind, and they simplify life in the kitchen, especially one whose star chef lives in another time zone. But such a menu makes a long meal almost unavoidable, Wells said, “and it doesn’t leave room for the messiness and chaos that is a lot of the fun of going out to eat”—the business of bartering across the table, and “stealing Jeff’s chicken leg.” (Wells was noting a preference, but he was also indirectly defending territory. A tasting menu disempowers the critic, to the extent that he or she is no longer the only person in the room who has plowed through everything on the menu.) Wells offered another grievance: “If someone’s coming every ten minutes to describe a dish, you’re not going to have much of a conversation.” In 2012, he visited Eleven Madison Park, a restaurant with vast aspirations for international recognition. In a Critic’s Notebook article, not a full-scale review, Wells spoke of feeling worn out by servers doing magic tricks and making little speeches. “By the end of the four hours, I felt as if I’d gone to a Seder hosted by Presbyterians,” he wrote. Although skeptical about much of what has lately counted as restaurant excellence, Wells hasn’t quite drawn his own boundary line—one defined, perhaps, by affability and chaos. In his columns, where even his expressions of delight are often a little wistful, it’s perhaps possible to detect a critic’s regret that he’ll never report on the dining equivalent of a perfect first album recorded in a garage over a weekend. That has something to do with the nature of restaurants, but it also has something to do with the Times. In the seventies, the paper prefaced every star rating with an explanation: the score represented a reviewer’s reaction “to food and price in relation to comparable establishments.” That language is no longer used, but the spirit—one steak house against another—seems to survive. Wells told me that the star system indicates how close restaurants “come to being the best possible version of themselves,” but he acknowledged that this idea doesn’t fully hold. “It’s hard to imagine a four-star genre restaurant . . . an egg-cream place,” he said. He has tried to wear the stars lightly (“Hotel stars actually mean something,” he said), but he hasn’t ignored them. Last year, his praise of Superiority Burger—six-dollar veggie burgers in the East Village—was unrestrained, but still pegged at two stars. He recalled a conversation with Alison Cook, the food critic of the Houston Chronicle, who once gave three stars to a burger joint. “She thought it was easier for her to do that in Houston,” Wells said. “The Houston stars didn’t have the same legacy.” There are restaurants that exist to have four Times stars. With fewer, they become a kind of paradox, or at least a source of investor derangement. Some years ago, before Wells joined the paper, Eric Ripert, the chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin, told him that without four stars his restaurant would have to close. Even a four-star review with a little hesitation can register as an assault. Two and a half years after the Critic’s Notebook piece on Eleven Madison Park, Wells returned to the restaurant, and wrote a proper review. On the day it was posted online, Jeff Gordinier happened to be walking near the restaurant. He glanced at the review, and saw four stars, but he didn’t read the piece, which included teasing references to pompous elements that had survived a recent effort to contain pomposity. Wells had written, “Even now, when any ingredient is grown in New York State, someone is sure to point it out. Hang on, New York has farms?” (Wells told me, “I was trying to say that one measure of this restaurant’s excellence is that they can overcome all of their best efforts to sabotage themselves.”) Gordinier, who had reported on Eleven Madison Park for the Times, dropped in. The lunch service was just ending. Will Guidara, one of the co-owners, was standing by the bar. The four stars, though gratifying, hadn’t neutralized the sting of Wells’s words. “Congratulations!” Gordinier said. Guidara looked at him. “His face was ashen,” Gordinier recalls. “He looked like he’d just been hit by a bus.” Guidara asked Gordinier, “Did you read it?” Gordinier backed out of the restaurant, leaving Guidara to his grief. By the time Wells ate a nine-course tasting menu at Per Se, on Columbus Circle, last fall, six restaurants operating in New York had four stars from the Times. He had demoted Daniel, on the Upper East Side, from four to three, in a review that had echoes of Reichl’s two-tier account of Le Cirque. But he had agreed with his predecessors about Le Bernardin, Jean-Georges, and, grudgingly, Eleven Madison Park; and he had given four stars to Sushi Nakazawa, which had just opened in the West Village. He had not yet revisited Del Posto, whose four stars were awarded by Sam Sifton, his immediate predecessor. Sifton was also the last critic to have reviewed Per Se, a restaurant opened in 2004, by Thomas Keller, who made his name with the French Laundry, in the Napa Valley. In 2011, Sifton described Per Se as “the ideal of an American high-culture luxury restaurant.” He reported eating one dish in silence, as if experiencing a massage. He also noted that Per Se was “not for those who do not understand that such pleasure comes at a cost”—a phrase that, in its worldliness and unsqueamishness, came close to suggesting that the only thing that could stand between a New Yorker and a five-hundred-dollar lunch was a failure of imagination. On October 26th, Wells went to Per Se with three companions, and paid a check for about three thousand dollars. He had eaten there several times in the past, happily; he had enjoyed such dishes as Oysters and Pearls—oysters and caviar, on top of tapioca—which, he told me, “is amazing when it’s done right.” But this experience was different. On the cab ride home, he said to himself, “I have a loaded gun, and I’m going to have to fire it, and I don’t want to.” (When he recalled this to me, he laughed at his cowardice.) Wells had read some recent wary writing about Per Se, including an article in Eater, but he was nevertheless taken aback. He’d sampled a nice mai tai, but much else had gone wrong; as he later wrote, he found the place to be “grand, hermetic, self-regarding, ungenerous”—a “no-fun house.” He delayed returning. During the next few weeks, the unwritten review “weighed on Pete a lot,” Kat Kinsman, the Extra Crispy editor, recalled. When, one evening, Wells texted her a photograph taken outside Señor Frog’s, in Times Square—part of a chain of restaurants designed to evoke the experience of spring break in Cancún—she asked him if it was a cry for help. (Wells, who studied history at the University of Pennsylvania, has written that “my most memorable spring break was whiled away in my room reading ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ in German.”) When Wells returned to Señor Frog’s, eleven days later, he invited Kinsman, and she brought along Jason Biggs, the star of “American Pie,” who cares enough about food to own a sous-vide oven. They were a party of eight. A balloon artist made them hats, and when a member of the staff asked if it was anyone’s birthday someone—possibly Wells—pointed a lying finger at Biggs. Then, as Wells later wrote, in a review that didn’t identify Biggs, “a server in a light-up Santa cap stood on our table and sang, along with his colleagues, ‘Froggy, froggy birthday. Na-na-na-na-na. This is how we do it. Na-na-na-na-na.’ ” In a video shot by Kinsman, Biggs looks like someone who’s learned to be leery about being recognized in a place where drinks are poured directly into the mouths of customers, but then he dances in his chair. “That kid we raised is tracking us.” “I left there loving Pete,” Biggs told me recently. “Here I am with the New York Times food critic, who can make or break a restaurant, and here he is dancing a conga line, doing sugary shots, while a house band is singing the shittiest music in the world.” He recalled standing on the sidewalk afterward, “with our balloon hats still on, saying, ‘Oh, my God, what a trip, let’s do it again.’ ” Kinsman told me that she has never seen Wells happier. By then, Wells had eaten a second meal at Per Se. (And, for a second time, the restaurant appeared to have failed the Van Halen test. “I think they would have been nicer to us if they’d spotted him,” the writer Craig Seligman, one of Wells’s guests, told me.) In the days after Wells and Kinsman ate at Señor Frog’s, they exchanged texts that, in Wells’s description, asked, “Is it possible to say with a straight face that Señor Frog’s is a better restaurant than Per Se? Can you get those words out without collapsing under your own idiocy?” His upbeat review of Señor Frog’s, published at the end of December, was an overture for the impending Per Se review. “A few chefs and restaurateurs still understand that people go out to have a good time,” he wrote. “But too many restaurants have become church without the singing and costumes.” Wells had one more meal at Per Se, and then submitted a review to his editors. He described the lobster as “intransigently chewy”; a mushroom bouillon was “as murky and appealing as bong water.” (This seems to be the fate of overreaching mushroom soups: when Adam Platt, New York’s restaurant critic, reviewed Romera, in 2011, he quoted a guest saying that a porcini broth tasted like “old bong water.”) Per Se was “among the worst food deals in New York,” Wells wrote. He noted that the price of the restaurant’s supplements—a truffle risotto added a hundred and seventy-five dollars to the cost of a meal—could “induce rage.” His editors, taking note of the word “rage,” encouraged him not to appear angry, so he instead registered “indignation.” In the days before publication, Wells said, he weighed “every possible” star rating but four. Recalling the process, he put his hands on his head, in mock woe. “It’s a complicated restaurant, and still does some things well,” he said. But “they’re charging so much money. It got to a level of math that I can’t do! It broke the computers in my head.” He decided on two stars: “That seemed as good as anything.” Any fewer, he thought at the time, “would be such a punk move.” When the piece appeared, Mimi Sheraton, among others, thought that he’d actually written a no-star review. “People say that would be too big of a jump, it would look crazy,” she told me. “Well, look crazy!” The Times held a meeting at which it was decided to underplay the rating on social media, for fear of seeming to savor it. Esquire’s response to the piece was headlined “Why That Per Se Review May Change Fine Dining Forever.” Within days, the review had attracted more reader comments, on the Times Web site, than Wells’s dismissal of Fieri. Keller (who declined to be interviewed for this article) e-mailed Wells, and grimly thanked him “for the opportunity to be reviewed” while assuring him that “we make every effort to provide our guests with the best possible experience.” The message was lightly edited before appearing online as a note to his customers; he appeared to be apologizing to them for someone else’s disappointment. He did not follow the example of Ahmass Fakahany, who, a few weeks earlier, had responded to Wells’s review of Vaucluse by posting online a long open letter that read like someone muttering insults, therapeutically, during a long shower. “You need to do some of the basic journalism and sharpen your food knowledge please,” Fakahany wrote. Speaking in his office recently, Fakahany accused Wells of a “subtle form of bullying.” He said that after he published his letter he was fêted in every restaurant he visited. “It may have been genuine or may not have been, but it was an industry moment,” he told me. Wells was unimpressed by a common response to his Per Se review, which he summarized as: “It’s expensive and someone criticized it—right on!” He noted, “The fact that food is a necessity makes it obscene to some people that it could also be a luxury.” Wells was more interested in the dozens of e-mails he received from people who had not enjoyed Per Se anniversary dinners and birthday lunches. In Wells’s view, a restaurant that is part of a fleet of restaurants may eventually become exciting, but it probably won’t while it’s still focussed on honoring a founding chef, or a group’s house style. “To keep it alive, it needs to have somebody in there inventing,” he said. He has considered the similarities between the lauded founder of Per Se and the alleged creator of Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders. Thomas Keller and Guy Fieri are “both Californian chefs who stay in California, and they open a restaurant in New York that everyone goes to thinking they’ll get what we know the chef’s food to be,” Wells said. People then discover “a pretty big difference between the promise and the delivery.”

India’s men’s hockey team was beaten by the Netherlands 1-2 as it lost its second match in four Pool B games in the Olympics in Rio on Thursday. Photo: Reuters Stingy spending on sports is costing India medals at the Olympics, a report by a Parliament panel shows. The study says the Centre and states together invest just 3 paise on a person each day for sports and it is not the first career choice for most players and athletes. India, the world's second most populous nation, has the worst Olympic record in terms of medals per head. The country has bagged just 24 medals since it first sent a contingent to the Games in 1920. Of its nine gold medals, eight were won by the hockey team between 1928 and 1980, with air-rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra the only individual to reach the top of the podium in 2008. Against the backdrop of the meagre spending by the government on players, the sports department has urged both public and private companies to contribute towards a national sports development fund (NSDF) and also sponsor athletes. It admitted before a parliamentary standing committee that though India has a large population, its achievement in sports is not commensurate with its size. While a country like the US has a medal for every 3 million citizens and UK has one per million, India is almost at the bottom with one medal per 204.1 million people. SPORTS NOT THE FIRST CAREER CHOICE "Sports is not the first choice as career for most sports persons and most of them drop out because of high risk, uncertainty and low rewards, which needs to be changed," the sports department told the panel. The expenditure on players by these countries explains the huge gulf in performance and medals. The US spends a whopping Rs 22 a day per person, the UK spends 50 paise and Jamaica 19 paise. The report comes on the heels of a swirling row over writer Shobhaa De's tweet that trashed Indian athletes saying their goal in Rio was to click selfies and return empty-handed. After receiving widespread criticism, she said, "Official apathy was main reason why we fare so poorly during every Olympics, not just Rio. Difficult for athletes to 'compete' with this hurdle." Analysts say most Indians lack the economic safety net that makes it easier for would-be Olympians from affluent countries to take a chance on athletics, while parents here generally want their children to take up more "stable" professions. INDIA LACKS IN SKILL, TECHNOLOGY, EQUIPMENT..... The sports department also said India is lagging behind other countries in terms of skill, technology, stateof-the-art equipment, sports medicine, support, etc. The committee has recommended that public sector units including banks should come forward to help. It also observed that many PSUs were not aware of the NSDF, and because of this contribution has stopped. The Sports Authority of India has been advised to make these PSUs aware of the fund so that more money can be collected. The report reveals the dismal condition of Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, considered one of the country's top sports facilities. The football ground has not received care for the past year and a half due to lack of funds. "Since no maintenance was carried out for so long, it was dusty and full of potholes and looked like drought-affected agricultural field," read the findings. "Dismayed to find the worn-out condition of track and field facilities. The upkeep seemed to be disastrous?.the track caved in at several places and was dangerous for anybody going for athletics practice. There were several potholes which were several feet deep and were death traps for athletes." The panel observed that the prevailing conditions have led to a worrying situation for players. It also asked the sports ministry to conduct a high-level inquiry and fix responsibility for this condition of the stadium. Also read: Didn't misbehave with anyone, Vijay Goel tells India Today after Rio controversy Archers Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi crash out of Rio Olympics

Getty Images Linebacker Von Miller said that he expects his contract discussions with the Broncos will be “a peaceful thing,” an outlook made easier by the fact that the team would likely use the franchise tag to secure Miller’s return for at least one more season if they can’t strike a deal by early March. The tag probably won’t be an option with two other defensive starters headed for a free agency. Linebacker Danny Trevathan and defensive end Malik Jackson can both head elsewhere this offseason, but the Broncos say they want to keep both in Denver. “They are all priorities,” Elway said, via the Denver Post. “Getting Derek Wolfe done was the first step, and we want to get Danny and Malik done. We want to try and keep the group together. But it’s a fluid process. We will talk to their representatives and see where we are at and get a feel for it. With Miller and quarterback Brock Osweiler also up for deals, it could be tough to bring back both pieces of what Elway called a “historic” defense. Jackson should be a popular target for other teams as comes off a strong season and Wolfe’s deal sets the framework for another contract that will be tough to fit into the puzzle. Trevathan won’t cost as much, but there would be other suitors on the open market for a player who’s been a starter on two AFC champs. That could price him out as well, all of which leaves plenty to watch in Denver beyond Miller and the quarterbacks this offseason.

On-demand ride-hailing service Uber has confirmed today that it has raised $1.2 billion in funding from a group of mutual fund managers and venture investors that values the company at $17 billion pre-money. The company said the total raise will end up being about $1.4 billion once it’s completed a second close of strategic investors. New investors include Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management, and BlackRock Inc., according to the Wall Street Journal, with Summit Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, and Menlo Ventures also participating. The valuation comes at a huge premium over its last raise, which happened just last summer. That funding round brought in $258 million from Google Ventures, and valued the company at around $3.4 billion. Altogether, the company has raised $1.5 billion since being founded in 2010. The raise places it in an elite class, only Facebook has raised money at a higher valuation so far. And the valuation places it well above companies like Dropbox and Xiaomi in the $10 billion club. But the size of the round also speaks to the pace of the company’s growth, and the larger business opportunity. Uber has been around for just four years, but it has grown rapidly in that short period of time. It’s now operating in 128 cities and 37 countries around the world, according its blog post. In addition to expanding into new markets, Uber has also been adding new products and features over time. What began as a luxury app for hailing a black car — hence the tagline “Everyone’s private driver” — has morphed to offer lower-price, more accessible transportation in major metropolitan areas. In many markets its “UberX” fares are priced below the cost of a cab, and it’s looking to expand the low-cost option to more cities. Uber is also experimenting with new services, like its UberRUSH courier service or its UberFAMILY child seat offerings in New York City. Based on the success of those programs, Uber could make those offerings available in additional markets. After all, Uber has built a logistical framework for getting around various cities, there’s nothing to stop it from moving around things instead of just people. For now though, Uber seems laser-focused on the local transportation problem, and has been looking to raise awareness and distribution through partnerships with some major players. It recently got integrated with Google Maps, enabling users of that mobile app to hail an Uber while searching for directions. And last week, it announced a partnership with AT&T that would move drivers onto the mobile provider’s cell network, while also getting the Uber app pre-loaded on AT&T Android phones. While Uber has grown rapidly, it has also seen increased competition from other transportation and logistics or delivery services. Earlier this year, ride-sharing startup Lyft raised an additional $250 million, matching the amount Uber had brought on the summer before. And there’s no shortage of local delivery services cropping up in metropolitan areas like New York City and San Francisco. Still, based on its massive war chest and huge valuation, Uber is clearly the market leader in the space and will be tough to beat on a global level.

New material from Burial, Four Tet and Thom Yorke could be coming soon as the Radiohead frontman recently revealed he produced material for a collaboration. Last night Yorke sat down with Benji B on BBC Radio 1 to talk about DJing and the various ways to release new music. Within the interview he also hinted that he is trying to work with Four Tet and Burial again, saying he sent the producers new components which he created. Yorke has previously worked with the pair of artists in the past, the last time being the ‘Ego'/'Mirror’ EP, released via Four Tet’s Text Records back in 2011. In the interview with Benji B, Yorke explained how he is “hoping to do it again soon,” adding, “I did another thing, but the vocal was too dark, according to Kieran. For me, that’s ‘Really? Too dark, even for me? OK.'” Check out the full show with Thom Yorke and Benji B here and listen to 'Ego' below.

Nepal is a small Himalayan country stuck between two giant nations India and China . This is an exclusive review about the country.As a traveler, I have traveled many places and Nepal was one in my top ten list . Of the many countries I have visited Nepal was an "out of the box" country.My Journey started when I entered the country through Birgunj-Raxaul border point. Just when I crossed the border point the driver said , "Nepal aagaya Launde" . As I did not understand the native language, I took it as a welcome gesture. The driver took me to a decent hotel where I stayed the night and prepared my journey to my first destination - "Kathmandu".The Next day I booked a ride and headed for the capital. During my ride I met many interesting people . The cab driver was from the next district and explained how he worked in Saudi and Qatar in the construction sector and how he lost his job due to the Saudi conspirators . The ride was long and bumpy. The guy next to me was oddly flexible and friendly as when there was a bump in the road he used to throw his body towards me and during a few instances his purse dropped in the cab floor near my leg and he put his face near my thigh .When i reached Kathmandu , I quickly searched for a hotel and started to explore the city . The dust filled city had a mix of history and failing infrastructure . The dust filled roads , the crowded buses and the annoying traffic , the trip started with some irritation but I reached the inner history of the city , it was a new world . I left KTM happy and headed to Pokhara .Pokhara was a touristy place , you could see lots of foreigners , lots of hotels and lots of booming tourist businesses . I did a few days of trekking in the Annapurna region of Nepal and headed for Chitwan . Then I went to the western districts of Nepal and did some social work and then exited the country through TIA in Kathmandu .It was a mixed journey the country has its ups a downs but overall it was great trip . I would highly recommend people to go and visit.