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A pair of 15-year-olds from a town near Pskov in northwest Russia who had gone on the run from their parents opened fire at a police car and then killed themselves, the Russian Investigative Committee has said.
“Two armed 15-year-old teens barricaded themselves in a house in the Strugy Krasnye settlement. Law-enforcement officers had been negotiating with them for several hours, however, all in vain. Later on the teenagers stopped responding,” the investigators’ statement says.
The Russian Special Police Force officers engaged in the storming of the house said that they didn’t open fire during the operation, the press service of the Russian National Guard told TASS.
Upon entering the house officials found two bodies “with gunshot wounds.” Russian Special Police Force officers said that inside they also located an opened safe where with a sporting gun and ammunition. The boy and girl had “distinct signs of suicide,” they added.
Reports suggest that the teenagers were called Denis and Katerina. They streamed the shooting at the police van live via Periscope and posted a video on Instagram where Katerina is heard explaining in Russian that she fell out with her mother who didn’t allow her to have a sleepover at her friend’s place.
READ MORE: Teenage girls shock Russians by posting videos of their torture & killing of domestic animals
“We had a sleepover at my friend’s place. I wasn’t allowed to go, but I went anyway. They found me at night… It was harsh and it all happened in front of Denis and his mother. I ran away again,” Katerina said on the video.
The teens reportedly spent the next three days hiding from the parents at the house where the tragedy occurred on Monday.
The suicide apparently had been planned beforehand with Denis speaking on the video about the best ways to spend the last day of his life while aiming at the police car. Katerina left a farewell note on what seems to be her page on Russian social network VK.
“I loved all of you. But you didn’t notice how you ruined my mind and my life,” the note says.
In another post Katerina elaborated that she wasn’t taken hostage and that suicide was her “conscious choice.”
Following the incident, VK closed the comment section of the boy, while the page of the girl has restricted access due to privacy settings, the social network’s press secretary told RIA Novosti.
In Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” tragedy, young star-crossed lovers commit suicide. The number of guns and ammo, a bottle of Black Russian and a pack of condoms, however, adds a modern twist to the tragedy. |
The late April news was impressive and divisive: Google would spend €150 million on a new Digital News Initiative (DNI) partnership with European news publishers (“Google to launch $150 million partnership with publishers”). The amount of money caught the eye, even if it was a tiny fraction of Google’s $14.4 billion profit in 2014. Still, to newspaper publishers now counting every dime, it appeared to be a significant pot of funds. What kind of initiatives might be included in such a “partnership”? Given all the damage, most of it collateral, done to the news industry by digital disruption over many years, was there anything that could be done now to reverse the seemingly permanent spiral downward?
We now have a sense of what’s on the horizon — and how significant an impact may be possible. Next week, the eight founding DNI publishers — the Financial Times, The Guardian, Italy’s La Stampa, France’s Les Echoes, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine and Zeit, Spain’s El País and the Netherlands’ NRC — will meet for a couple of days with top Googlers on its Mountain View campus to form the agenda of partnership.
The Guardian led the development of DNI, and departing Guardian CEO Andrew Miller made it clear what’s atop his wish list when we talked about a month ago: bettering advertising monetization. “Newsonomics: The Guardian is trying to swing Google’s pendulum back to publishers” ). That prospect should probably be Job No. 1 for the initiative; all else pales beyond the money question for publishers worldwide.
“What could I do to affect this number?” says David Gehring, pointing to newspapers’ ad revenues. “There is lots of press on advertisers complaining about being able to target quality audience at scale. What we need is demand-side targeting that does that.” Gehring finds himself uniquely situated in this partnership. A veteran of almost four years with Google in international partnerships, he has been advising The Guardian on partnerships since last fall. Consequently, he carries an almost unique portfolio — someone working in the interests of publishers, but with deep and wide knowledge of how Google actually works.
Gehring recognizes the organizational complexity of Google. Like any big company, its parts often align uneasily; people understandably want to get their own work done. So, with that knowledge, he believes that tinkering with Google’s plumbing could make a big difference in publishers’ moneymaking.
How might it work?
The proposition is simple: News publishers want to match their higher-quality news origination with higher advertising rates. That’s the “premium” term you hear slung around the industry — “premium” meaning original and trustworthy, as opposed to aggregated, lightly “curated,” or pirated. When publishers sell direct to advertisers, they sell “premium” and get rates from $8 to $50 per one thousand ad impressions (or CPM), with national/global news companies at the highest end. When they sell “programmatic” advertising, though, there’s no such thing as “premium.” Programmatic — the huge, overarching shift in ad buying — algorithmically matches available ad inventory with audiences (by age, gender, geography, and more). But it doesn’t distinguish between original content producers and the legions of repurposers out there. Top publishers may get a buck or two CPM for programmatic advertising — the same as anyone else.
Programmatic, along with digital video, is the fastest growing digital ad format today. Fully 63 percent of digital display ads will be purchased programmatically this year, according to one estimate. That’s almost $15 billion worth in the U.S., with retail, consumer packaged goods, financial, and telecom leading the way. Another way to think about programmatic: It’s hard to think of much advertising buying that won’t be soon influenced by it. Any buyer of advertising will want the best data available to improve its targeting of audience and to measure the efficiency of its performance.
So, to Dave Gehring’s point: What could Google do to allow advertisers to distinguish the audiences they can buy, to differentiate between premium and non-premium brands?
One answer looks deceptively simple at this point.
How Google could advantage real news — fairly
Google maintains a news index of more than 60,000 news publishers worldwide. Google essentially acts as certifier, vetting news sources as legitimate ones, and then including them in the index. Among the attributes required, from its directions to those who want to apply: “1) Sites included in Google News should offer timely reporting on matters that are important or interesting to our audience. 2) Original reporting and honest attribution are longstanding journalistic values. If your site publishes aggregated content, you will need to separate it from your original work, or restrict our access to those aggregated articles via your robots.txt file.” (Good Frédéric Filloux Monday Note explainer here.)
What if Google provided a persistent tag to be associated with any article originating with one of those 60,000 publishers? Those include thousands of legacy newspaper and magazine brands, but also the digital news startups that emphasize original content creation as well. As programmatic trading systems matched targetable content with advertisers, that apparatus could differentiate “premium” from “non-premium” audiences. Further, such premium content could still be found by category, like tech, sports, or health, increasing its value. Importantly, such tags wouldn’t only accompany articles in Google News itself, but on all news found throughout Google, including web search.
No new technology would be needed to make the addition; its cost of implementation miniscule.
What might it yield?
The arithmetic could be compelling. Gehring estimates that publishers worldwide now take in about $480 million a year in programmatic advertising. It’s hard to estimate how much the ad tag change could boost ad rates. We can put some arithmetic to them, though. As Gehring notes, a 25 percent increase in rate could have a big impact. That would amount to $120 million. The stakes, of course, would grow markedly if the theory proves out. If ad buyers really do want the “signal” of premium content via tagging, it’s foreseeable that programmatic could grow from $1 CPM to $2.
Gehring is reluctant to forecast, but my own numbers would show an additional $500 million in global programmatic income — again, if the program is successful.
How much of a difference might that make? At the beginning of the year, I calculated that the U.S. newspaper industry alone would need an additional $1.4 billion in revenue per year to escape its eight-year stretch of non-growth ( “Newsonomics: How deep is the newspaper industry’s money hole?” ) A boost in programmatic income would go a long way in meeting that number.
Further, that’s not money Google would need to pay news companies. It’s money advertisers pay publishers so that they can better reach the audiences they want.
Numerous big publishers have built “private exchanges” over the past couple of years. These enable continued direct selling to advertisers, but add in programmatic features, allowing more efficient targeting for big advertisers at slightly reduced prices. The notion of a bigger, or collective, private exchange built on a new Google news tag system may also then make sense. Pangaea’s recent entry into the marketplace marks this kind of movement and could be expanded.
This notion, in part, is one of reclaiming the publishers’ old friend: scarcity. Yes, ad inventory may be close to infinite on the web, but the high-quality premium audience is — somewhat — limited and can be priced, and sold, accordingly.
Why is Google doing this now?
It’s true, but facile, to note the convergence of Google’s numerous problems with European publishers and legal systems and the announcement of the Digital News Initiative. The great upswell of opposition to Google’s incredible European reach indeed pushed Google to a bargaining table. That’s not the only force at work here, though.
Consider the dogfight among giants in which Google is now engaged. While it used to drive as much as a third, more or less, of many news companies’ traffic, its share is in decline. Facebook is killing it, in social referrals, as Twitter and LinkedIn pile on. While Google News has always been a so-so player in news referral, Google web search long had the biggest bark; now it’s just one of several key “partners” of news companies. It needs to reestablish its primacy. Part of that may lie in better cooperation with publishers — in the form of other plumbing, like news tools, but also in data, video, and mobile. Further, Google must continue to better its own reader experience, so it can compete better; when Facebook told the world it wanted to host news content to create a better user experience for its users, it meant it.
Just since the start of the year, Google’s news competition has grown greatly, with the announcements of Facebook Instant Articles, Snapchat Discover, and Apple News. In this new world of distribution, publishers provide full content as never before, intending to reap the ad results. Google has hosted full Associated Press content, under terms of an earlier deal — is it game to do what its competitors are doing and become more of a destination for full news reading? And if so, on what terms?
As Google execs meet with those European publishers in California, a logical question also arises: Given that the same issues affect all news publishers, why is it only one continent’s publishers at the table?
What do publishers need and want?
Some in the industry privately labeled the Digital News Initiative publishers traitors for collaborating with Google. Given the pain of disruption, that’s understandable, but also fairly useless as a response. European legal actions have raised good questions, but they won’t get the news industry reborn for the digital age. There’s a fairly unintended good cop/bad cop act taking the stage: Google nemesis Axel Springer can play the tough guy, and fellow European publishers can press Google to live up to the kind of publisher-friendly, news-loving, democracy-supporting firm many within the company say it wants to be.
So now words must turn to deeds. In addition to the big tagging idea, what else might Google do?
The list here would be a what’s-what of the biggest challenges and opportunities confronting publishers today:
Mobile : With mobile now at more than 50 percent of usage, publishers are struggling with ad formats on the smartphone. How can the Android champion help there?
: With mobile now at more than 50 percent of usage, publishers are struggling with ad formats on the smartphone. How can the Android champion help there? RELATED ARTICLE Google and Storyful are launching YouTube Newswire, a feed of verified user-generated videos Joseph Lichterman Video : Publishers see ad riches in digital video, but they struggle with its costs and presentation. Further, Google’s YouTube isn’t the greatest environment for news video. The company could find ways to align interests. Take what it announced today, its new YouTube News Service, powered by Storyful. YouTube is a great service, but its sheer disorderliness has drained its full potential. YouTube have moved forward with channels in part to address the chaos. Now, the YouTube News Service takes that gangly world of user-generated news video, from Middle East actions to exploding volcanoes, and makes a little order of it. Storyful, smartly bought for $25 million by News Corp in 2013, will showcase five to 15 videos each day, each vetted for authenticity, the core of the Storyful proposition. That attention to editorial quality, as well as quantity, should be a wider Google goal.
: Publishers see ad riches in digital video, but they struggle with its costs and presentation. Further, Google’s YouTube isn’t the greatest environment for news video. The company could find ways to align interests. Take what it announced today, its new YouTube News Service, powered by Storyful. YouTube is a great service, but its sheer disorderliness has drained its full potential. YouTube have moved forward with channels in part to address the chaos. Now, the YouTube News Service takes that gangly world of user-generated news video, from Middle East actions to exploding volcanoes, and makes a little order of it. Storyful, smartly bought for $25 million by News Corp in 2013, will showcase five to 15 videos each day, each vetted for authenticity, the core of the Storyful proposition. That attention to editorial quality, as well as quantity, should be a wider Google goal. Reader revenue: Whatever publishers can do to increase digital ad revenue looms large. But it’s reader revenue that’s been the star of recent years. Paywalls have worked — terrifically at the biggest publications, somewhat for the regionals. As most publishers tighten the number of free articles available to non-subscribers, what could Google do to help publishers grow this essential revenue source?
For one, Google might be able to do some integration with publishers to personalize search results for their digital subscribers. Secondly, Google might make more flexible its longstanding “First Click Free” policy. That policy, seemingly an anachronism at this point, mandates that publishers using paywalls extend five free articles per device to Google users before hitting a paywall — despite any other restrictions publishers may otherwise use. “FCF” made some elemental sense when it rolled out in 2008, aimed at bettering user experience so that they wouldn’t bump their noses on harder paywalls. Now, though, Google could look at simply labeling paywalled content, as it already does for “mobile-optimized” sites. Here, the world has gotten more complicated as social traffic has mounted in importance compared to search. Publishers can exercise great (and increasingly nuanced) control over social access. It makes sense, in 2015, for Google to figure out how to loosen its reins, allowing publishers to run their own business strategies without interference.
How much value does Google get from news? How much value do newspaper companies get from Google, mostly in the form of traffic? We could use many calculations to get there, based on an array of assumptions, but let’s not go there now.
As intriguing as those value assumptions might be, I think they shouldn’t be the focus of the negotiation. It’s 2015, and there’s so much digital disruption water under the bridge, with more floodwaters on the way. Reparations aren’t the point. The point — for all those who value the role of a free and vibrant press in democracy — is how the increasingly digital world can fairly aid those creating original news content. I don’t really care whether Google might step up to the plate here — with the ad tagging idea, or something else — out of benevolence, or out of fear of further European legal action, or in order to to better compete with Facebook and Apple. What counts is to get beyond all the babble of the last decade — and to find ways forward.
Photo of an illuminated Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany, April 17, 2007, by AP/Jens Meyer. |
One of Miami’s most treacherous roads may get a serious safety upgrade, in the form of a ten-foot protected path for use by cyclists and pedestrians.
The Julia Tuttle Causeway, a six-lane divided freeway (part of Interstate 195) that connects midtown Miami and Miami Beach, posts a speed limit of 55 mph and has been the scene of plenty of deadly accidents over the years. In April of last year, 25-year-old Eber Vasquez was killed near the western section of the highway when a speeding car swerved into his bicycle from behind, sending him and his bike into the water.
“We’ve gotten a lot of requests for a protected path,” says Zak Lata, the FDOT bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for District 6, which includes Miami. “We’ve come to realize we really need to address every mode of transportation — not just cars. Mixing high-speed traffic with bicycles is intimidating, and there should absolutely be a barrier.” |
Angular component, $watch and $destroy without $scope — exploring lifecycle hooks
Dvid Silva Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 2, 2016
Angular 1.5.3 introduced something new to the directive controllers that I’m liking a lot, I have seen very little about it online, so I decided to share.
I started using the component method recently, very excited about it, I had been writing component directives before, using controllerAs and avoiding $scope as much as possible, so it felt kinda dirty having to inject $scope in order to use $watch and $destroy.
Angular 2 introduced lifecycle hooks, https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/guide/lifecycle-hooks.html
A Component has a lifecycle managed by Angular itself. Angular creates it, renders it, creates and renders its children, checks it when its data-bound properties change, and destroys it before removing it from the DOM.
Angular offers component lifecycle hooks that give us visibility into these key moments and the ability to act when they occur.
They were recently introudced in Angular 1.5.3, the way to use them is the following.
In your controller function inside the component, you can add a function to each one of them, the function will be called from the compiler when is relevant if the function exists.
var vm = this;
vm.$onInit = function () {
$log.log('initializing controllers, setting default values');
vm.hello = "hello world!";
};
vm.$onChanges = function (changes) {
$log.log(changes);
};
vm.$onDestroy = function () {
$log.log('destroying controller');
};
vm.$postLink = function () {
$log.log('$postlink, ready to add dom event listeners');
}
The docs explain them quite better than me, https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/service/$compile
$onInit() — Called on each controller after all the controllers on an element have been constructed and had their bindings initialized (and before the pre & post linking functions for the directives on this element). This is a good place to put initialization code for your controller.
$onChanges(changesObj) — Called whenever one-way (<) or interpolation (@) bindings are updated. The changesObj is a hash whose keys are the names of the bound properties that have changed, and the values are an object of the form{ currentValue, previousValue, isFirstChange() }. Use this hook to trigger updates within a component such as cloning the bound value to prevent accidental mutation of the outer value.
$onDestroy() — Called on a controller when its containing scope is destroyed. Use this hook for releasing external resources, watches and event handlers. Note that components have their $onDestroy() hooks called in the same order as the$scope.$broadcast events are triggered, which is top down. This means that parent components will have their $onDestroy()hook called before child components.
$postLink() — Called after this controller’s element and its children have been linked. Similar to the post-link function this hook can be used to set up DOM event handlers and do direct DOM manipulation. Note that child elements that contain templateUrldirectives will not have been compiled and linked since they are waiting for their template to load asynchronously and their own compilation and linking has been suspended until that occurs.
I made a working example so you can see them in action and see when different events are happening: http://codepen.io/anon/pen/eZGJNg , missing $onDestroy, but you get the idea. |
— An insect invasion is terrorizing New York City homeowners, making life miserable, even dangerous, for many families. Parents have been forced to take extreme measures to protect their children and their homes.
CBS 2’s Dave Carlin investigates the growing Upper West Side mosquito mystery.
These rare mosquitoes are extra blood-thirsty and active year-round. Carlin saw some of them in a lab after they were collected in the unlikeliest of places, Bernard Lagan’s home on West 84th Street.
“They trapped 150 mosquitoes in the basement in a 24-hour period coming from underground and into the basement and up in to the house through the air vents and it’s the same story as the other brownstones on this block,” Lagan told Carlin.
UPDATE: Rare Breed Only Feeds In Darkness
It’s an invasion that has almost every resident of 84th Street between Riverside and West End Avenue slapping, scratching and suffering.
“They’re hungry. They’re hungry,” said resident Susan Nicholson.
“Three on this ear; one on his cheek; one on his neck,” another woman said, illustrating the bites on one of her children. “And there are some on his arms going up his arm.”
Frustrated neighbors said after numerous complaints to the city and no concrete action, they feel abandoned. So like busy bees, they’re taking matters in to their own hands: covering cracks, vents and drains, both inside and out.
“Every vent is covered with mesh. It helps. It cuts it by 50 percent,” resident Pauline Galiana said.
In bedrooms on the block you see mosquito netting over the beds. Residents told Carlin it is the only way to get an uninterrupted pain-free night of sleep.
“This mosquito is well known for being in sewers in New York,” said Dina Fonseca, a professor at the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology.
Fonseca said the blood suckers’ scientific name is Culex Pipiens Molestus and that they thrive year-round in sewers and feast on humans at night.
“The best way to address that is to close all connections to the sewer and do aggressive mosquito control in the sewers, but that’s a tall order in these old cities like New York,” Fonseca said.
“Eliminating them, we are told by the Health Department, is going to require ripping up the road, treating it and putting the road back down,” Lagan said.
But Lagan said he is tired of waiting, and so are his kids, 7-year-old Rosie and 9-year-old Gracie.
“All on the walls there are mosquitoes and blood,” Gracie said.
“I just get bitten really all over me,” Rosie added.
Carlin contacted the Health Department to ask when something will be done. He has not heard back.
“It really is unacceptable for a city to ignore this kind of plague,” Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal said the Department of Transportation must provide some relief.
“I just saw coming up from these holes a whole bevy of mosquitoes. If the city were to patch up the holes in the street it would take care of at least some of the mosquitoes,” Rosenthal said.
Residents vow to bug every city agency they can think of to make all these pests buzz off for good.
Residents said the problem started last summer and got progressively worse. They said, initially, they were told because getting rid of the mosquitoes was not a top priority because they tested negative for West Nile Virus.
Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below. |
ALEX BLUMBERG, Radio Journalist:
When I think about good tape, what I think about is some — is tape that is arresting. You don't want to stop listening to it. You can't stop listening to it.
Great tape is tape where there's a lot of truth. There's a media study where they were trying to figure out, like, through which media is it easier to lie? And so they planted a false story in a TV program, in a radio program and in a print story. The easiest medium through which to detect the lie was radio. You can hear authentic emotion. You can hear people telling the truth.
I have learned to try to create the conditions where good tape will occur. When I was just beginning, I would go out and I would do an interview, and I would have the feeling like something was there, but I hadn't gotten it. And then I would listen back to my tape, and I would just hear myself ruining moment after moment.
It was just learning to shut up and just sort of like not fill the silence. Let people continue to talk. We don't want to just engage people on a deep, emotional — on a deep, emotional level, you know, while we're riding the elevator with them or in the subway with them.
And so we develop these defenses. And so a lot of it is just sort of trying to figure out, like, no, no, no, don't go, like, the small talk route, which is, like, sort of programmed into us.
And when you actually sit in the silences, it feels incredibly uncomfortable. It just feels like, oh, my God, I'm just sitting here and this person is like mad or angry or upset or — and I should be saying something.
I think that's the way we feel a lot of time. I don't think it's actually true. If you are comfortable with them sitting in silence and really experiencing an emotion, they feel comfortable, too. But it's just — when it's happening, in the moment, it just feels like it's going on forever.
Those are the moments that are amazing on the air. Like, those are the moments where it's just sort of, like, sort of raw, electric silence. You know, that's what you're going for.
My name is Alex Blumberg, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on good tape. |
The new generation of streaming music services like Spotify, Rdio, and MOG have more music than you could consume in a lifetime. But how much of it would you really want to listen to?
There’s no shortage of great roundups and reviews showing the pros and cons of each service, but they rarely talk specifically about the different music you can find on each. They’ve all built impressive catalogs, but it’s nearly impossible to tell from casual browsing which artists and albums are exclusives for each.
Fortunately, both Rdio and Spotify offer powerful developer APIs, making it simple to compare the two. (Sadly, MOG doesn’t offer an API, so isn’t included.)
For this test, I needed a large set of popular, well-loved albums to test. I used the top 5,000 albums from Rate Your Music, the quirky 11-year-old online community dedicated to rating and reviewing music. These albums span all genres, from klezmer to chiptune, with a total of 2,282 different artists across 70 years of recorded music.
I used the Spotify and Rdio search APIs to look up each album, and checked their streaming availability in the United States. (Rdio uses the IP address to determine country of origin, making it impossible to query other countries. Spotify, on the other hand, returns a list of every region the album’s available.)
Note: The results aren’t perfect. Spotify and Rdio often have slight differences between artist and album names, which can deliver false positives. Let me know if you spot anything amiss and I’ll correct it.
Results
Of the top 5,000, about 44% were available on both Spotify and Rdio. 4.8% of the albums were only available on Spotify, while a further 6.8% were only available on Rdio. Overall, 56% of the albums were streamable on at least one of the services.
Labels are still withholding most or all of the albums from many popular artists. The Beatles, King Crimson, AC/DC, The Eagles, Tool, De La Soul, Peter Gabriel, Led Zeppelin, and Metallica are nowhere to be found, as well as most of the best albums by The Kinks. Music geeks will be sad to discover that Frank Zappa, Coil, Spacemen 3, and Joanna Newsom are all missing, as well. This landscape will constantly shift as labels change their minds; Arcade Fire was added to Spotify yesterday, and more than 200 indie labels left the streaming services last month.
But what about albums that are exclusive only to one service? The results surprised me. Spotify has a reputation for having a deeper catalog, but at least for historic critically-regarded albums, Rdio has a better selection of both popular and obscure artists. More albums in the top 5,000 were available on Rdio, and they offer exclusive access in the U.S. to huge acts like Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, the White Stripes, and Queen.
Top Exclusive Artists
Only on Rdio Only on Spotify Bob Dylan (12) My Dying Bride (4) Pink Floyd (8) Miles Davis (4) Bruce Springsteen (7) Candlemass (3) Miles Davis (6) Funkadelic (3) The Gathering (5) The Pretty Things (3) Blind Guardian (4) Current 93 (3) Can (4) Darkthrone (3) William Basinski (4) Underworld (3) Iced Earth (4) Katatonia (3) Stars of the Lid (3) CunninLynguists (3) The White Stripes (3) Charles Mingus (2) John Williams (3) Mahavishnu Orchestra (2) Queen (3) The Jesus Lizard (2) Nevermore (3) The Misfits (2) Thelonious Monk (3) Klaus Schulze (2) Charles Mingus (3) John Coltrane (2) Bill Hicks (3) Galaxie 500 (2) John Coltrane (2) Silvio Rodríguez (2) Camel (2) Secos & Molhados (2) Keith Jarrett (2) maudlin of the Well (2)
Note that artists like Miles Davis and John Coltrane appear on both lists because of how prolific they were. Both are well-represented in Spotify and Rdio, but some critically-adored out-of-print albums are unavailable on both.
Top Exclusive Albums
Only on Rdio Only on Spotify 4. Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon 63. The Zombies – Odessey and Oracle 6. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here 104. Candlemass – Nightfall 7. Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited 231. Funkadelic – Standing on the Verge of Getting… 19. Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde 288. The Jesus Lizard – Goat 25. The Clash – London Calling 290. The Pretty Things – Parachute 29. Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home 326. The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra – The Jazz Comp… 30. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks 362. Klaus Schulze – X 51. Pink Floyd – Animals 428. Sodom – Agent Orange 85. Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan 459. Danny Elfman – Edward Scissorhands 103. Bob Dylan – Another Side of Bob Dylan 472. Galaxie 500 – Today 107. Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin’ 494. Current 93 – All the Pretty Little Horses 121. Dr. Dre – The Chronic 502. Secos & Molhados – Secos & Molhados 149. Stars of the Lid – The Tired Sounds Of 515. maudlin of the Well – Bath 164. Camel – Moonmadness 546. Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway 174. The White Stripes – Elephant 550. Anathema – Alternative 4 175. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago 618. Darkthrone – A Blaze in the Northern Sky 196. John Williams – Raiders of the Lost Ark 666. The Byrds – Fifth Dimension 218. Popol Vuh – Hosianna Mantra 685. The Gun Club – Miami 224. Jethro Tull – Nothing Is Easy: Live at the Is… 751. Autopsy – Severed Survival 246. Albert King – Born Under a Bad Sign 772. My Dying Bride – Turn Loose the Swans 278. Keith Jarrett – Vienna Concert 775. The Jesus Lizard – Liar 304. Dead Kennedys – Plastic Surgery Disasters 785. Vektor – Black Future 320. Thin Lizzy – Black Rose: A Rock Legend 787. maudlin of the Well – Leaving Your Body Map 331. Magic Sam – West Side Soul 790. Jean Michel Jarre – Oxygene 369. Bob Dylan & The Band – The Basement Tapes 797. 16 Horsepower – Secret South 387. Eric Dolphy – Out There 803. Riverside – Out of Myself 393. Blind Guardian – Live 804. Darkthrone – Transilvanian Hunger 425. Devin Townsend – Terria 846. Nino Rota – Amarcord 468. Strapping Young Lad – City 859. Suede – Suede 489. Pretenders – Pretenders 900. Darkthrone – Under a Funeral Moon
The fact is that both services have done a tremendous job of building the celestial jukebox — with a couple of high-profile exceptions, nearly everything you’d ever want to listen to is available at your fingertips.
Now, one huge drawback of using the Rate Your Music list is that it skews towards older album-oriented music geeks. That’s great if you like Ornette Coleman and Galaxie 500, but not so great if you like Drake and Katy Perry.
Next week, we’ll set the controls for the heart of mainstream music: the Billboard charts, analyzing every charted single in the top 100 from 1955 to the present. This will give us a completely different view of their catalogs, focused on pop singles, past and present, instead of classic albums.
Want more? Ed Summers did his own fascinating deep-dive into Spotify and Rdio uses top album lists from Alf Eaton’s Album of the Year list collection, and published the results on Google Fusion Tables. Also, try Matt Montag’s Music Smasher, a tool that searches Rdio, Spotify, and Grooveshark. |
Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Image from Texas Tech
LUBBOCK, TX (NEWS RELEASE) - In 1984, Sankar Chatterjee – curator of paleontology for the Museum of Texas Tech University – and his student, Bryan Small, made an astounding discovery.
Working on Seymour Island in Antarctica, they uncovered the fossilized skull of an animal they’d never seen before. While it was obviously a plesiosaur – a Cretaceous-period marine reptile scientists first discovered in the early 1600s – this plesiosaur was unlike any previously found. They named the new species Morturneria and brought its skeleton back to the Museum of Texas Tech.
Now, 33 years later, Chatterjee and his team have made a new discovery about Morturneria, one that adds a whole new dimension to science’s understanding of plesiosaurs – and larger than that, to the understanding of evolution itself.
More than 65 million years ago, the Earth’s oceans were populated with many animals still found there today, like fish, krill and sharks. But one of the oceans’ biggest predators, the plesiosaurs, went extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs on land.
“Often, plesiosaurs are called sea monsters,” said Chatterjee, a Horn Professor in the Department of Geosciences. “They were large – 50 feet long, superb swimmers and occupied the top of the marine food chain. Although dinosaurs are very familiar to everyone, during their days, the sea was ruled by these monster-like plesiosaurs. Like dinosaurs on land, they dominated the sea from Arctic to Antarctic waters. ”
Plesiosaurs had a broad, flat body and short tail, four long flippers they used to “fly” through the water, long necks and very sharp teeth.
“The teeth of most plesiosaurs are conical, stout, sharp, robust and ideal for stabbing and killing large animals,” Chatterjee said.
But as he wrote in his 1984 paper announcing Morturneria’s discovery, “the long, slender and delicate teeth may have formed a ‘trapping’ device that enabled (the animals) to feed on small fish and crustaceans that abound in the same deposits.”
This notation led an international team of Chilean, Argentinian and American paleontologists to take a closer look at Morturneria’s teeth.
“In our 1984 paper, we described the unusual teeth of Morturneria and their probable function,” he said. “However, our new international team, who had worked on plesiosaurs from many continents, found them fascinating and unique.”
Chatterjee and the team reconstructed Morturneria with a large, round head, a huge mouth and tiny teeth that point the wrong way. The teeth did not meet tip to tip as in all other plesiosaurs, but lay together in a battery that strained food particles from the water.
“When the jaw was closed, teeth from the upper and lower jaws formed a nice trap,” Chatterjee said. “Basically, the animal would swallow a school of krill, close the jaws to let the water out, but keep the krill inside for chewing and swallowing. With these kind of interdigitating delicate teeth, the animal could not tackle the large fish or shelled animals (called ammonites) that were the favorite foods of most plesiosaurs.”
The team’s finding, published in the new issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, is that Morturneria used a filter-feeding method. This feeding style is unknown in other marine reptiles but is found in today’s baleen whales. F. Robin O’Keefe of Marshall University was the article’s lead author.
The identification of Morturneria’s whale-like filter feeding is a startling case of convergent evolution between reptiles and mammals. Plesiosaurs and whales shared many of the intervening steps in the evolution of this feeding style and their extreme morphologies are similar despite arising from different ancestors.
Chatterjee stresses convergent evolution does not imply Morturneria was in any way related to today’s baleen whales; it just means they both evolved the same way.
“They had adopted similar lifestyle and feeding,” he said. “For example, birds and bats fly, but birds are now considered dinosaurs and bats are mammals. These superficial similarities of lifestyles and behavior are called ‘convergent evolution.’”
(News release from Texas Tech) |
Emergency call operators who respond to 999 calls held a second 12-hour strike in a dispute about pay and union recognition.
The stoppage began at 8am this morning and concluded at 8pm.
BT Ireland and Conduit Global, who run the service, said contingency arrangements were put in place to ensure there was no disruption to service and all emergency calls were handled as usual.
A Conduit Global statement said the company "strongly regrets the industrial action that was taken by a small number of members of the Communications Workers Union at one of the Emergency Call Answering Service centres today, in Navan, Co Meath.
"Public safety remained our highest priority and Conduit Global confirms none of the emergency service centres (Navan, Co Meath; Ballyshannon, Co Donegal; Eastpoint, Dublin) closed at any point during the day and that the service was fully operational."
The staff at the Emergency Call Answering Service who belong to the Communications Workers' Union want a basic pay increase in line with the Living Wage of €11.50 per hour, and the right to be represented by their union in negotiations.
The State contract for operating ECAS was awarded to BT Ireland, who in turn outsourced it to Conduit Global.
Both companies have defended the pay rates for staff and their decision not to negotiate with unions.
They have also declined an invitation from the Workplace Relations Commission to talks with the CWU, on the basis that they would prefer to negotiate with their employees directly.
The CWU held the first 12-hour stoppage in the dispute on 25 February with around 15 of the 60 operators joining the picket line at the Navan call centre.
Tomorrow, CWU members will also commence a month-long work to rule, whereby staff will withdraw from extra duties outside their employment contract.
CWU General Secretary Steve Fitzpatrick has accused BT Ireland and Conduit Global of "blatant corporate greed".
He noted that last year BT made a profit of €44 million in Ireland, which is up 42% on the previous year.
He added that Conduit Global had made Irish profits of over €6 million. |
German head coach Joachim Löw, left, stands with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer at a public training session in Mainz, Germany, on June 5, 2014. Photo by Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images
Unlike some other European countries, Germany has no great history of expeditions to South America.
The last time a German World Cup team played here was in 1978, in Argentina. West Germany came as world champions and went home after the second round. The most memorable moment of the team’s campaign came in the match against the Netherlands. West Germany was leading 2–1 when Dutch winger René van de Kerkhof broke through and shot past German keeper Sepp Maier. The blond German defender Rolf Rüssmann flung himself full length and tried to punch the ball clear, but he couldn’t quite stop it going into the net. That German side wasn’t quite good enough to win the World Cup, but Rüssmann had at least proved that they wouldn’t think twice about doing what had to be done to win it. He had shown their hearts were in the right place.
Germany’s most successful forays into South America in the 1970s were made not by their footballers but by their filmmakers. In 1972, director Werner Herzog led a cast and crew that hailed from 16 different nations on a five-week shoot in the Amazon rainforest. The resulting film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, starred Klaus Kinski as the eponymous Aguirre, a mad conquistador obsessed with finding El Dorado. Aguirre was arguably more psychologically stable than the man who played him. Kinski, the most famous German actor of the 1970s, was a maniac whose frequent tantrums made him almost impossible to work with.
Keeping him on the set took all of Herzog’s resourcefulness. He once threatened to shoot his star if he followed through on one of his threats to quit. One of their confrontations was recorded by a sound engineer without Kinski or Herzog knowing it. Herzog had presumed to advise Kinski on some matter pertaining to the scene. Kinski didn’t like this.
“Don’t give me stage directions! I can’t stand that! I can do it by myself! If you think you’re better, why don’t you do the acting!” Kinski was working himself up into a rage. “You’re always for half-measures. You’re scared shitless of the consequences! If you want someone to be excited then let him get excited! I’ll act it the way I want to!”
Herzog interjected: “OK, but we have to …”
“Keep your half-baked advice to yourself! You’re no director! You have to learn from me! You’re a beginner! A dwarf’s director, not a director for me!”
“Now, don’t insult me …”
“Insult you?! You couldn’t insult me more than by trying to direct me!”
And so on.
Klaus Kinski in Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Courtesy of Werner Herzog Filmproduktion/Shout! Factory
Herzog later explained: “I ought to say that all the hysteria that Kinski introduced was turned to productive ends. Maybe that’s the main point. Of course it sounds embarrassing for him, or embarrassing for me, it depends. But whenever Kinski really got going, hysterical as hell, we tried to start shooting quickly, and he gave it something that perhaps no one else in the world could have put into a scene. I think that’s what counts.”
The world has grown more polite since the 1970s. When Luis Suarez pulled a (successful) Rüssmann in the World Cup four years ago, he was condemned by half the world. And if Christopher Nolan ever threatened to shoot Christian Bale, Bale probably wouldn’t believe him. But even today, we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of creative tension, and a certain ruthlessness.
* * *
The 2014 German World Cup squad goes to South America far better equipped than either Helmut Schön’s 1978 team or Herzog’s crew in 1972. With Europe’s most impressive suite of corporate sponsors, Germany could afford to build its own bespoke World Cup training base on Brazil’s Atlantic coast. The team’s slogan is Bereit wie nie! Ready like never before!
The Germans’ 54-year-old coach, Joachim Löw, has become one of the most recognizable figures in international football, with his carefully curated touchline outfits and shiny helmet of lustrous black hair. His youthful looks are a godsend for national team sponsor Nivea, which uses Löw in several commercials. “It’s a long time since men’s cosmetics were considered uncool,” he said in a recent interview with Nivea Men.
It’s not every day that a leading international coach is expected to give quotes to a leading cosmetics brand, but in the weeks leading up to a World Cup a man in Löw’s position has to do a hell of a lot of interviews.
Germany’s biggest tabloid, Bild, devised a feature in which 50 German world champions from various disciplines each put a question to Löw.
Most of the questions were predictably innocuous. Pole-vaulter Raphael Holzdeppe wanted to know the riskiest thing Löw had ever done (climbing Kilimanjaro) while canoeist Ronald Verch wanted to know what Löw would have been if he hadn’t become a football manager (he dreamed of being a pilot). 1990 World Cup winner and victim of male pattern baldness Jürgen Kohler asked Löw how a man of his age got to have such enviably full, dark hair (sorry Jürgen: it’s just good genes).
It was left to former world middleweight champion Felix Sturm to pose a somewhat more awkward question.
“In boxing, it’s always all or nothing. Would you see anything other than winning the World Cup in Brazil as a defeat?”
“Not necessarily,” said Löw.
Löw told Sturm that in football, you need both skill and luck. You could, for instance, play well, then lose on penalties. “We could end up disappointed, but that doesn’t mean we will have disappointed,” he explained.
The coach knows that such Jesuitical distinctions are unlikely to appease a football nation that is hungry for its first tournament win since 1996. Maybe that’s why he has seemed unusually downbeat at times during this buildup.
“We have a chance to win the tournament,” he told Stern, “and likewise, so do several other teams—but nobody wants to hear this.”
Indeed, the German public rates the squad very highly. It’s not unusual to hear the claim that this is the most-talented squad any German coach has taken to a World Cup.
It’s no use for Löw to argue that injuries have left them some way short of full strength, that torn ankle ligaments have robbed him of a brilliant talent in Marco Reus, that key players like Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, and Sami Khedira are still short of full fitness with the opening game days away.
These are just the normal problems any World Cup coach has to deal with. The tournament is full of wounded warriors. Stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez, and Yaya Touré are all struggling with injuries. Their coaches don’t have as much talent in reserve as Löw does.
Germany has won three World Cups and yet many Germans think this is their best ever squad. If this squad fails, what would that say about Löw?
“When you win,” Löw told Stern, “you’re celebrated as a messiah, the savior of the whole nation. And when you lose, you’re public enemy No. 1.”
In any case, Löw says, his legacy will not be defined by success or failure in any given tournament. You need to take account of the bigger picture.
“My salvation doesn’t depend on these days in Brazil. One win more, one defeat more. There are other important things: family, friendship, values … and I think we have evolved football enormously,” he says.
But since Germany used to win tournaments all the time, and now they don’t, some are asking whether it’s been the right kind of evolution.
* * *
These days, international coaches tend to work in a two- or at most four-year cycle. Löw has been on the national team staff for 10 years and has been the head coach for eight.
He has had four major tournaments with Germany—the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and the 2008 and 2012 European Championships—one as assistant to Jürgen Klinsmann and three as head coach. There are two ways to look at his record.
One view is that his team has reached three semifinals and one final, winning acclaim for its style and new admirers around the world. The other view is that it’s a four-time loser.
After Germany’s impressive performances at Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup, Löw could have left to manage a major club side, but he stuck with it because he was sure his team was on the cusp of winning something big.
Germany’s long wait for a title was really supposed to end two years ago, in the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine. Germany beat Portugal, the Netherlands, and Denmark in the group stage and crushed Greece in the quarterfinal. Their eyes were on the final against Spain, the team that had beaten them in the final of Euro 2008 and in the semifinal of the 2010 World Cup. This time it was going to be different.
Except Germany ran straight into an Italian sucker punch in the semifinal. Italy had the craft and cunning of Antonio Cassano and Andrea Pirlo, the stubbly ruthlessness of Giorgio Chiellini and Gianluigi Buffon, the explosive speed and power of Mario Balotelli. They made Germany look like a bunch of college kids.
A nation struggled to come to terms with defeat. How could this have happened? Where was the guile? Where was the power? And a familiar theme began to emerge: Where were the leaders? Where were the Real Men?
* * *
The question of why Germany no longer wins has many answers. The simplest explanation is that other teams, such as Spain and Italy, have been better. (Particularly Spain. Germany might have dodged a bullet or four by losing that 2012 semifinal. Spain had been saving its best for the final. It was Italy’s worst defeat in 55 years.)
As an answer, “Spain is just better” might be correct, but it’s too simple to be satisfying. So a debate has developed around the personal qualities of this generation of German players as compared with the serial winners of the past. As Lothar Matthäus recently told World Soccer magazine: “[T]he only thing we lack is the nasty characters.”
When Matthäus talks about nasty characters, he means guys like him. Someone who is prepared to do what it takes. Most of all, someone who is prepared to lead. There is a special vocabulary for this. The usual German word for “leader,” Führer, isn’t used much in this context. Instead, people complain about the lack of a Führungsspieler (leader-player), Führungsfigur (leader-figure), and sometimes even Leitwolf—literally “lead wolf.”
Germany once drew on an apparently inexhaustible supply of Leitwolfs. The 1982 squad alone had men like Matthäus, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Felix Magath, Uli Stielike, and Paul Breitner, any one of whom would probably have been the captain and undisputed alpha male in any other squad. The center-forward was Horst Hrubesch, whose mere name sounded like it would probably beat you in an arm-wrestling contest. Hrubesch’s nickname was “the Header Monster.”
Mesut Özil runs with the ball during a friendly against Cameroon on June 1, 2014, in Moenchengladbach, Germany. Photo by Boris Streubel/Getty Images
The difference between the old-school German teams and the team of today is best summed up by the contrast between someone like Hrubesch and Mesut Özil, the skillful Turkish-German playmaker who would have been prevented from representing the sides Hrubesch played in by the old German nationality laws.
Özil is so gifted that everything he does on the field looks absolutely effortless. This is both his blessing and his curse. When things are going against his team, some fans have a tendency to become irritated by the fact that Özil, with his drooping eyelids and slouching shoulders, looks like he doesn’t care enough. Özil’s Körpersprache—his body language—has become the focus of national debate.
In May, Löw told Kicker magazine that Özil needed to work on that body language. Then the former national team captain Michael Ballack chimed in, repeating that Özil needed to massively improve his body language.
Nobody had ever questioned Ballack’s body language. But then Ballack is more in the traditional Leitwolf mold: 6 feet, 2 inches with a highlight reel full of 30-yard shots and massive leaping headers. His shoulders were probably physically incapable of slouching at an Özil-ian angle.
The current German captain, Philipp Lahm, has taken issue with the principle that every good team needs a Leitwolf. The German team that failed at Euro 2004 had two: Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn (a Kinski-like figure who can easily be imagined in a steel helmet, tossing a monkey into a river).
Analyzing Germany’s 2004 group stage exit, Lahm wrote in his 2011 autobiography that their failure had demonstrated the bankruptcy of the principle of the “so-called Führungsspieler.” The problem, according to Lahm, was that if all the authority was bound up with the coach and the on-field Leitwolf, the other players were not encouraged to step up and take responsibility. “It’s becoming apparent that a new way of thinking, a commitment to collective responsibility, to flatter hierarchies, is necessary in order to be successful in modern football.”
The problem is that so far, flatter hierarchies haven’t won any trophies for Germany. Annoying as it is for Lahm to have to listen to the old-timers grumbling that he and his teammates aren’t mean enough (meaning man enough) to do it, the only way to shut them up is to win the World Cup.
Löw is also a flat-hierarchies man. Asked by those great chroniclers of the German World Cup adventure, Nivea Men, whether he assessed candidates for his squad purely on footballing ability, he gave a thoughtful response:
Of course, that’s very important. Can the player implement what the coach is looking for? But when you’re at a tournament like the World Cup, you also ask: Which players can give us energy? Which players are tolerant of frustration, if they sometimes don’t play? Which players can promote competition, which players can withstand it? And: Which players are perhaps a little too egotistical? We are away with a big group for several weeks. … For this team, there are certain values to be considered: respect, tolerance, discipline, reliability, integrity, humility, ability to concentrate. If a player has flaws in these areas, the group suffers.
You wonder whether Löw is quite sure what he’s looking for. On the one hand, Özil has been criticized for not strutting about the field like a Leitwolf. On the other hand, the coach says he’s looking for sociable, well-adjusted types who won’t kick up any trouble during five weeks on the road.
If Werner Herzog had cast his movies according to the Löw rulebook, Klaus Kinski would plainly have been the last man on earth he’d have hired. And quite possibly nobody outside the German-speaking world would ever have watched Aguirre.
It’s not as though there’s an actual footballing Kinski out there who’s been excluded by Löw for being unable to get on with his teammates. It’s more the romantic ideal of what Kinski represents—the ungovernable passion, the untrammeled egotism, the demonic energy—that feels like it’s been forgotten about.
All these qualities were evident in the Germanies of Breitner, Rummenigge, Matthäus, even Klinsmann. They have not yet shone through in the Germany of Lahm, Özil, Schweinsteiger, and Mertesacker.
The ongoing preoccupation with the Führungsspieler and the Leitwolf reflects a widespread suspicion among Germans that their team is simply too nice. Can Löw solve the problem by getting them to be even nicer?
Read all of Slate’s World Cup 2014 coverage. |
Summary
$328.00 in dividends
Added $1,400 to dividend portfolio
It’s been a great month for my dividend portfolio as I have added $1,400 to the investment account and received $328.00 in dividend payments for the month of June. This is a staggering amount and it’s the first time I can realize the power of dividend income and it’s ability to truly help someone live the passive income lifestyle. While I’m far off from achieving that goal it’s enough to keep the dream alive.
Account Deposits
I had some unexpected purchases this month so I was unable to put a large amount into my account like I did last month. That didn’t stop me from adding $1,400 this month though.
I automatically pull out $200 per paycheck with automatic deposit and at the end of the month, I throw whatever is left into the account. This time it happened to be a spare $1k.
$200 + $200 + $1000 = $1400
Dividend Payouts
This has been an amazing month for my dividend producing portfolio. Twenty three companies paid me a piece of their profits just for holding a few shares of their stock.
There was one surprise this month:
NGG – They paid out a special dividend of $5.42/share this month that somehow got past my radar. They are a European based company so their dividend fluctuates quite a bit. They have their normal dividend coming in August as well. Their current yield is 10% with a PE ratio of just over 13.
The rest of my dividends are broken down as follows:
PSX $11.20 SBSI $11.20 PFE $5.12 F $11.40 BA $4.26 V $1.65 SO $12.76 NGG $54.22 XOM $6.93 TGT $12.00 IBM $9.00 SDIV $12.17 CVX $4.32 JNJ $8.40 MAIN $0.93 DUK $25.65 QCOM $18.24 FLO $25.50 MAIN $1.38 GILD $10.40 TROW $26.22 ARCC $38.00 CLDT $17.05
Monthly Total: $328.00
Stock Purchases
I didn’t buy a whole lot this month but I did manage to add to a few positions on some dips.
2 shares of CVX @ $103.15
CVX is still trying to recover from the spike up it had at the beginning of the year. While I don’t have a huge position, I have to root for one of my Dogs of the Dow stocks.
5 shares of XOM @ $79.45
XOM is in pretty much the same boat as CVX but not as severe. I added a few more shares regardless. The yield sits around 3.3% currently.
5 shares of T @ $38.90
T has grown in my portfolio 8% already and continues to provide a 4.5% yield on top of that. I don’t mind adding a few shares to the pot.
5 shares of VZ @ $46.55
VZ has been hit hard recently and it’s currently 10% down in my portfolio. It’s currently sporting over a 4% yield and is near its 52-week low. I might potentially be adding more to this position in the future to average down even more.
15 shares of TGT @ $49.80
10 shares of TGT @ $55.55
The recent sentiment for TGT continues to drive the price of this Dividend Champion down towards its 52-week low. It’s rebounded slightly but it’s still about 6% in the red overall in my portfolio.
They also just recently announced a 3.3% dividend increase which, while good, appears very low compared to their 1/3/5/10 year dividend growth rate. I hope whatever issues they continue to have can be rectified so that this dividend champion can continue to bring great returns for their investors.
Stock Sells
Nope. Nada. Zilch.
Conclusion
I wish every month can be as amazing as June. How did everybody else fare? Leave a comment. Thanks and until next time! |
Studies highlight differences between banned pesticides
21 January 2014 by Alex Peel
Two separate studies have added new weight to the idea that some varieties of controversial neonicotinoid pesticides are less harmful to bees than others.
The research tested the effects of feeding two different neonicotinoid compounds, thiamethoxam and imidacloprid, to bumblebees. The EU recently banned both pesticides over concerns about their effects on bee health.
Ian Laycock, from the University of Exeter, led the studies.
"We found that both thiamethoxam and imidacloprid were capable of repressing feeding and brood production in bumblebees," he says. "But with thiamethoxam this only happened with very large concentrations of the pesticide - concentrations that bees are unlikely to encounter in the environment."
In contrast, imidacloprid reduced both egg production and pollen consumption by half even at the very low concentrations that bees are likely to encounter when they forage on treated crops.
What our study shows is that we cannot simply apply the conclusions about the safety of imidacloprid to other neonicotinoids - Ian Laycock, University of Exeter
"We think this occurs because imidacloprid produces a stronger repression of feeding in bumble bees than thiamethoxam, and this imposes a greater limitation on the bees' ability to produce eggs," says Laycock.
"Brood production is particularly important in bumblebee colonies because the number of eggs and larvae a colony produces can dictate how many workers it has - and colonies with more workers tend to be more successful."
"In particular they produce more queens that go on to found new colonies and keep the colony cycle going the following year. So our results raise further concern about the threat of imidacloprid to bumblebees."
But the research also had some better news for bees. After two weeks' exposure, the bees were allowed to recuperate, and seemed to bounce back well.
This kind of 'pulsed' exposure is designed to replicate the scenario in the wild, where bees feed on mass-flowering crops, like oil-seed rape, for a window of just a few weeks while they're in flower. When the bloom is over, wild bees often switch back to pesticide-free wildflowers.
While the scientists tested imidacloprid on regular colonies, the research on thiamethoxam was carried out on micro-colonies, each made up of four worker bees kept apart from the queen. This allowed the scientists to monitor responses such as feeding, egg-laying and brood survival in precise detail.
In natural colonies, the queen bee does most of the brood production herself, and Laycock acknowledges that the lack of queens in the micro-colonies does limit the study's ability to replicate the bees' real-world environment.
But he believes the research still gives a useful insight into the different effects of neonicotinoid compounds. And he maintains that lab studies have an important role to play in gathering evidence on pesticides.
"It's impossible to perfectly replicate the real world in the lab, and for that reason some people will always question the environmental relevance of lab studies," he says.
"But carefully designed lab studies are vital because, unlike field studies, we can precisely control variables such as the concentration or dose of the pesticide that the bee receives."
In December last year, the EU introduced a two-year moratorium on neonicotinoids. The UK voted against the ban, citing a lack evidence of harm to bees in field studies.
Laycock believes that the evidence against imidacloprid is probably strong enough to justify a temporary ban, giving researchers more time to look into its effects. But he says we shouldn't tar all neonicotinoids with the same brush.
"What our study shows is that we cannot simply apply the conclusions about the safety of imidacloprid to other neonicotinoids," he says.
He is also concerned that the moratorium could encourage farmers to use alternative pesticides on their crops, whose effects on bees are unstudied, and may prove to be even worse.
These thoughts are echoed by Dr Chris Connolly, from the University of Dundee, who was not involved with either study.
It's irrational to set the bar higher for one pesticide than all the others - Dr Chris Connolly, University of Dundee
"Whether or not these pesticides are responsible for bee decline, there is clear evidence that they have an effect, and so the moratorium seems like a wise precaution."
"But it would be totally unwise if they are just replaced with other compounds, which we know very little about - it's irrational to set the bar higher for one pesticide than all the others. The whole thing needs to be looked at a bit more scientifically."
One potential alternative, belonging to a group of chemicals called pyrethroids, was the subject of a separate lab study at Royal Holloway, University of London. Colony exposure to the pesticide was shown to reduce the size of bumblebees' offspring, posing a potential risk to colony success. |
We're sad to report that 'The Bachelor' and 'Bachelor Pad' alum Gia Allemand is dead, according to a report from TMZ .
It's unclear what the cause of death was for the model and reality star, but she was on life support and in critical condition in a hospital since Monday (Aug. 12).
"Gia Allemand was taken to University Hospital, New Orleans last night following a serious emergency medical event, the details of which are currently not known," her rep said when news of Allemand's hospitalization broke. "She is listed in critical condition."
"Ms. Allemand’s mother is with her, along with her long-term boyfriend, NBA basketball player Ryan Anderson of the New Orleans Pelicans. On behalf of the family, we kindly ask for privacy at this time."
Allemand was 29 years old. Our thoughts are with her loved ones during this difficult time.
UPDATE: Gia Allemand has committed suicide. More details here . |
Shadow secretary for Wales, who argued against Corbyn’s three-line whip on Brexit bill, says leaving the EU is ‘terrible mistake’
The shadow secretary for Wales, Jo Stevens, has resigned from her post, saying she could not reconcile herself to voting to trigger article 50 as she still believed leaving the EU would be “a terrible mistake”.
In her letter to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, Stevens said she was “a passionate European” who had voted to remain, as had a significant majority of her city and constituency of Cardiff.
The MP said she accepted the referendum result and recognised that she could not block the passage of the EU withdrawal bill and that exiting the EU was inevitable. “But I believe that leaving is a terrible mistake and I cannot reconcile my overwhelming view that to endorse the step that will make exit inevitable is wrong,” she wrote.
“I expect this to be the most important vote I will ever cast as an MP and for me it is a clear issue of principle and conscience. When I vote I will be representing my constituents, a great many of whom, including a great many Labour party members and voters, have strongly urged me to vote in this way. That is why, in shadow cabinet, I argued against the imposition of a three-line whip.”
Stevens is the first shadow cabinet member to resign over the issue, after Corbyn said he would impose a three-line whip to vote in favour of the government’s EU withdrawal bill.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tulip Siddiq resigned from frontbench on Thursday. Photograph: Nicola Tree/Getty Images
Tulip Siddiq resigned as shadow early years minister on Thursday, saying she intended to vote in line with her strongly pro-remain constituents in Hampstead and Kilburn.
Stevens was elected in 2015, beating the Lib Dem incumbent Jenny Willott with a majority of 4,981. Though Wales voted overall to leave the EU, Cardiff was pro-remain, with 60% of people voting to stay in.
Stevens previously expressed concern about the impact of leaving the EU on her brief, with 68% of Welsh exports going to the EU.
On the left of the party, Stevens was one of 40 MPs who refused to back a no-confidence motion in Corbyn after the EU referendum, but she later endorsed his leadership rival Owen Smith. She was previously shadow justice minister but was promoted to the shadow cabinet and given the Wales portfolio after Corbyn’s reelection in October.
'Labour is running scared': our readers on Corbyn's article 50 vote Read more
Stevens was among those who argued that MPs should not be compelled to vote for the government’s bill, along with the shadow business secretary, Clive Lewis. Lewis has since said he will vote in favour of the bill on second reading, but hinted he could be prepared to withdraw support in the final stages.
Two Labour whips, Jeff Smith and Thangam Debbonaire, have also said they will not vote for the bill, as have their fellow shadow ministers Daniel Zeichner and Catherine West, though it is not yet clear if they will be forced to resign in order to do so.
In her letter, which has been emailed to local party members, Stevens said Theresa May was pursuing “a brutal exit with all the damage that will cause to the people and communities we represent”.
Stevens said she believed Corbyn, who defied the Labour whip on issues of conscience hundreds of times during the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown years, would understand her strength of feeling. “I must follow my principles and my conscience, even where that conflicts with the party’s whip in parliament,” she wrote.
“It is with deep regret that this inevitably means I must resign from the shadow cabinet. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as your shadow secretary of state for Wales, the country where I was born, bred, work and live.
“In carrying out that role, it reinforced even more strongly to me what Wales will lose from exiting the EU without the guarantees that are needed and without a seat at the negotiating table for the people of Wales. We are net beneficiaries of EU funding. Over two-thirds of our exports are to the EU. It is a lifeline to our manufacturing industry in steel, automotive and aerospace as well as to our farming and food production sector. I do not believe that we can rely on a Conservative government to protect Wales.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Corbyn and Thangam Debbonaire, who has said she will not vote for triggering article 50. Photograph: Chapman/LNP/Rex/Shutterstock
Stevens said she was not seeking to sow division in the party. “Throughout my period on the frontbench I have always sought to promote unity across our party and I wish you, my successor and the whole of the shadow cabinet the very best in leading our party through this most critical period,” she said in her letter to Corbyn.
Earlier on Friday, the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, whose constituents in Hackney voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, defended Corbyn’s stance. “You have to remember how this looks to people in post-industrial Britain, former mining areas, the north, the Midlands, south Wales – it would look as if elites were refusing to listen to them,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“It would be wrong. How could MPs vote for a referendum and then turn around and say: it went the wrong way so we are ignoring it?”
Corbyn has said he understands the pressures facing his MPs but urged the party to unite, saying: “Labour is in the almost unique position of having MPs representing constituencies in both directions, and very strongly in both directions.
“I say to everyone: unite around the important issues of jobs, security, economy, rights, justice, those issues, and we will frame that relationship with Europe in the future outside the EU, but in concert with friends, whether those countries are outside or inside the EU.” |
Much of SOD's work is considered confidential and according to Shiffman and Cooke, documents from the program show that law enforcement officers have been instructed to obscure SOD's involvement in cases, through something called "parallel construction." That's where police have to "recreate" investigations along a different track from the original tip, in order to wipe SOD's fingerprints from the case.
For example, the SOD might receive a tip from a wiretap or NSA intercept directing them to track down a specific vehicle that might be involved in a drug crime. They would then pass that tip along to the FBI or a local police department. But because they wouldn't want the police to reveal where they got the tip from, the officers would have to find some other excuse to stop the vehicle and begin their own independent investigation. Police would then go forward as if the traffic stop was their first clue, not the SOD tip.
The situation is compared to laundering money in order to obscure its source. But that could also mean entire cases being built on faulty or illegally obtained evidence. Even if it isn't, the secrecy involved could compromise the judicial proceedings. When and if the suspect goes to trial they might never discover the original evidence that led to their arrest, possibly creating a constitutional violation of the right to a fair trial. If the defense does find out about the "parallel construction," the whole case could be thrown out due to improper gathering of evidence.
There's also the further complication that many of the tactics that are legal when used against a drug lord from another country (like warrant-less wiretapping), are illegal when used against American citizens. It's possible for an NSA tip to indirectly lead to an arrest of American — and for that original tip to be covered up by SOD.
Like all government surveillance projects, SOD seems to have started with just a handful of agents and ballooned beyond its original mandate. But one big question is: Does it even work? One former agent told Reuters the SOD tips were only accurate about 60 percent of the time. Also, because the agency was so worried that the program would be exposed if a case went to trial, defendants who refused to plea bargain and instead asked to see the evidence against them would sometimes see their charges dropped simply to avoid getting SOD involved. A lot of people might be fine with pushing the boundaries of legality to catch terrorists, but to push the boundaries to not catch American drug dealers is another story.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire. |
In the latest episode of Sonic Touch, Nick and Gaz dig into the new Arturia iMini, and even compare it to a Model D Minimoog.
Here’s an earlier comparison between Arturia iMini and the desktop version, Mini V.
Features:
Minimoog sound.
3 Oscillators
24db per octave filter.
Simulated headphone jack/external input feedback.
2 Assignable XY pads
Chromatic or tuned scale keyboard modes
Polyphonic mode
Full featured arpeggiator
Repeat
HOLD and MEMORY latch modes
Octave span
5 note order modes
Speed and sync controls
Virtual Analog Chorus
Virtual Analog Delay
Owners of both the iMini and Mini V software apps can transfer sounds from one platform to the other via iTunes.
Full user MIDI mapping of panel controls.
Supports WIST sync with other iOS devices.
Tabletop Ready
Soundcloud seeder (via Tabletop)
Render to .wav file (via Tabletop)
Audiocopy to paste your audio into another iPAD application. (via Tabletop)
Arturia iMini is available now for US $9.99 in the App Store.
Here are the audio examples mentioned in the review:
via sonicstate |
A day after employees took to social media sharing firsthand stories suggesting IBM had begun a large round of job cuts, a source within the company told CRN on Thursday the layoffs will not be nearly as widespread as some feared.
Big Blue is cutting a percentage of its roughly 370,000-strong workforce in the "low single digits," meaning the extent of the layoffs globally will likely be just in excess of 10,000 workers, according to a source within the company who asked not to be identified.
While not directly addressing the layoffs, IBM, via email, described to CRN a dynamic in which the company was rejigging the skill sets of its employee base.
[Related: IBM Has Been Going Full Steam Ahead Since PartnerWorld Conference]
"IBM is aggressively transforming its business to lead in a new era of cognitive and cloud computing. This includes remixing skills to meet client requirements," IBM said. "To this end, IBM hired more than 70,000 professionals in 2015, many in these key skills areas, and currently has more than 25,000 open positions."
Also on Thursday, Reuters reported Big Blue was planning to cash out a large portion of its holdings in Lenovo.
IBM will put up for sale up to $150 million in Lenovo stock, according to the news service. Lenovo acquired IBM's x86 server business in October 2014 in a $2.1 billion deal, with $280 million going to IBM in the form of the Chinese PC-maker's stock.
On Wednesday, on a Facebook page that serves as a forum for IBM workers called Watching IBM, employees reported that the ax was falling across multiple locations and divisions of the company. Stoking employee consternation was a recent change in IBM's severance policy that reduced severance payments from six months to one, according to the posts.
One employee posted on the Watching IBM page: "I am a GTS Strategic Outsourcing casualty of the mass firing today. My manager told me it was big and widespread, and I'd be hearing from a lot of people that will also be notified today."
That employee was given 90 days until an official end date, and received a one-month severance package, according to the post.
Such reports suggest many of the cuts might come from Big Blue's consulting and services arms -- Global Business Services and Global Technology Services.
While job losses and employee unease about job security is always unfortunate, it's possible the company's channel will benefit by being asked to pick up some slack in delivering consulting services, said Kevin Goodman, managing director at BlueBridge Networks, a hosting provider based in Cleveland that partners with IBM.
"This gap that comes [from] growth, change and innovation also provides smaller regional boutique shops and providers like our company, BlueBridge Networks, the opportunity to provide service and meet and exceed business and IT objectives in the areas not filled by the void," Goodman told CRN.
The source inside IBM said the company has been increasing the number of its developers who work directly with channel partners, "and you can expect that to continue."
Goodman told CRN that any time a company backs off from an aspect of their services and consulting business, especially those focused on the SMB market, "there are players like us who are ready, willing and able to pick up the opportunities and serve them as we would to large enterprise-class companies."
IBM, like other established tech companies, needs to continue reinventing to maintain a leadership position in the digital age, with its ever-changing technology landscape, Goodman said.
IBM "continues to demonstrate the way to get to personalization in the world is by taking cloud platforms and infusing them with cognition and delivering them as a service. Much of what they do seems to reinforce this," Goodman said. "I fully expect IBM and other more established players in the digital age to take on new roles in the ecosystem in a nontraditional way to their DNA." |
If you thought you heard The Tragically Hip playing in Hamilton on Saturday night, your ears weren't playing tricks on you.
The Hip took to the stage for a private backyard party on Auchmar Road on the west Mountain, near Garth Street by the escarpment. Social media posts called the party "Silvana's birthday."
Two neighbours said the home where the bash took place was that of Silvana DiCenzo, who is part of the family that operates DiCenzo Homes. A man tidying up the driveway of the home Sunday said he did not live there, but he confirmed the concert was The Tragically Hip. He said those at the home declined comment.
The music started around 9 p.m., with the band playing for just under two hours.
The concert could be heard over the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, giving a treat to Hip fans in the lower city as well as those in the neighbourhood.
Dave Reed lives less than a kilometre away, below the Mountain near Beulah Park, and said he enjoyed the music with his wife.
"We heard a party from the Mountain, and the band started into a Tragically Hip song. We figured it must have been a cover band, but they were doing an amazing job."
After seeing reaction from others online and hearing that the band was apparently checked into the Sheraton Hotel earlier that day Reed sat on his front porch to take it all in.
"My wife and I chilled out with our drinks, enjoying the live show. What a treat!"
Partygoers took to social media to share photos and videos of the concert. Videos showed the set list included "My Music at Work" and "New Orleans is Sinking." |
French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) just keeps on spending like a drunken sailor with a limitless credit card. This week the Paris club acquired three more players at an initial cost of around $150M.
Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani arrived from Napoli for $84M followed later in the week by two young defenders – Lucas Digne (Lille) $19M and Marquinhos (Roma) $42M.
Edinson Cavani has a pedigree having earned international recognition with Uruguay first at the FIFA under-20s in 2007 then at the 2010 World Cup Finals.
As a teenager he moved to Italy to play for Palermo but it was move to Napoli that turned him into a world star.
Digne has a couple of senior seasons under his belt but he wasn’t even the best left back at the recent FIFA under-20 World Cup in Turkey. Marquinhos has only played one season Europe and PSG decided that was enough the make him the 5th most expensive defender in history.
Roma paid less than $5M a year ago and so their return of 8 times on their investment in just 12 months is truly astounding.
But there again, everything to do with PSG over the last couple of years has just been additional degrees of astounding. This week’s spending brings PSG’s total transfer outlay to around half a billion dollars since the summer of 2011. The onslaught of spending kicked off when the Qatar Investment Authority bought the club two summers ago for $135M.
It started with transfer spending of $142M but that wasn’t sufficient to win Ligue 1. Close to $200M was spent in 2012/13 and that brought a Ligue 1 championship and got PSG to the last eight of the UEFA Champions League.
PSG was only formed in 1970 and has rarely been profitable. Prior to the Qatar buyout the club had recorded losses for over a decade. The year prior to the takeover PSG recorded a loss of $37M.
So with such profligate spending surely PSG must be drowning in red ink?
Well, not according to PSG’s financial statements for 2011/12.
To everyone’s great surprise the loss for the year to June 2012 – the first full year of operations under the new owner ship – was only $7M.
We do know that rather than booking transfer fees in the year the player was acquired clubs are able to write-off the fee over the life of the player’s contract – just as a company would do in accounting for a fixed asset.
That means that fees of $150M would be written down by $37.5M each year assuming each player signed four year deals. But even with an accounting break it seems odd that PSG’s loss for 2012 would be $30M less than the year previous.
Salaries and wages went up from $62M ($91M to $153M) and overall expenses increased by over $127M. That means in order to reduce their year to year loss PSG increased their revenues in one year by around $160M and that is pretty spectacular.
No other club has managed to engineer such explosive revenue growth.
So, where did the money come from between 2011 and 2012?
Commercial deals – dropped by $18M
TV revenue – up by $2.7M
Gate receipts – up by $9M
That amounts to an overall reduction of $6.3M rather than an increase of $160M.
In fact, the increase in revenue did not come from what we might be described as regular football and associated activities.
It was down to the excellent and insightful website Financial Fair Play.co.uk to identify the smoking revenue gun.
Line four of PSG’s financial statement for 2012 has “Autre produits” (other revenue) of €125M or $160M – that means over 50% of revenue came from money the owners found down the back of the couch.
Well not quite, Financial Fair Play.co.uk has another explanation although not necessarily a more satisfactory one.
FFP.co.uk makes a pretty good case that the other revenue is in fact a very questionable deal made between PSG and the Qatar Tourism Authority. Announced in late 2012 the deal was reported to be worth $900M over 4 years.
The value of the deal is larger than anything else seen in world soccer and what is more the QTA doesn’t seem to get much for their money. No naming rights, no kit deal – all PSG is obliged to do is to help promote Qatar as a tourist destination.
But it gets worse. I am sure that a number of you will have noticed a discrepancy – some of you might even have already written a comment about “lazy journalism” or “inadequate fact checking.”
Yes the financial statement was for the year to June 2012 and yes the deal was not in place till late 2012. So how can one impact on the other?
Good question and not one that seems to have bothered the preparer of said statements. The $160M in “other revenue” almost certainly accrued from a commercial deal that had very little to do with a commercial transaction and that wasn't even consummated during the financial year in question.
So how can PSG hope to get away with something like this when UEFA Financial Fair Play (approved and signed off by over 200 of Europe’s leading clubs) and the drive towards sustainability is now a reality and 2012 is the first year of monitoring?
That question is one that will not be completely answered until the spring of 2014 when it is expected that the independent Club Financial Control Panel completes the review of clubs’ statements for 2012 and 2013 and assesses one of nine possible sanctions on transgressors.
The legitimacy of the PSG/QTA deal will be central to the Control Panel’s review.
The first question is whether or not the PSG/QTA deal constitutes a Related Party Transaction.
If it is not a RPT then UEFA can not reassess or review the transaction. Simply put if you are daft enough to given an already rich owner more money for little or no return then good luck to you.
However, if it is found to be a RPT then things change dramatically.
The Financial Fair Play regulations define a RPT and it can be found by clicking on the link and moving to pages 83 through 85.
The simple explanation is that the RPT exclusion is there to prohibit the seemingly conventional wisdom loophole of an owner getting another of his companies to buy seats at $5,000 a game or some other ridiculous amount.
If a transaction is deemed to be a RPT then the only revenue that can be recognized for the purpose of the break-even calculation is that deemed to be at “fair value.” “Fair value” is a well recognized concept and essentially prices a transaction at what two individuals negotiating in good faith would agree to.
If PSG and QTA are deemed to be related parties – and there is a very good chance that they will given that they are both arms of the Qatar government – then it is impossible for PSG to meet the break-even provisions of UEFA Financial Play. (Others have suggested that all PSG and clubs in a similar situation need to do in order to avoid sanctions is to show financial progress. That interpretation is dependent on costs attributable to contracts signed prior to June 2010 being the cause of the shortfall. Financial progress alone is not enough).
PSG may find that there are lots of clubs willing to take their money for overpriced players but there will be even more cheering should UEFA use them as a high profile example.
There again between PSG and the on-going controversy of the 2022 World Cup Finals award Qatar is guaranteed a lot of name checks. Nice to know that you get something for a few billion dollars.
Qatar facts
So what will $900M over four years promote in Qatar?
Qatar has a population of 1.8M.
The number of tourists visiting Qatar has increased from 964,000 in 2007 to 2.5M in 2011.
Projections show a continued increase through to 2022 with 3.7M visitors expected.
A report from Deloitte estimated that Qatar will spend $200B to host the 2022 World Cup Finals.
$140B will go into the likes of transportation infrastructure and another $20B to support infrastructure for tourism.
For comparison purposes Las Vegas attracted 39M visitors in 2011. |
Google Drive received a substantial bump to version 2.0 today, bring it up from version 1.3.222.29 to 2.0.222.39. The new app doesn't seem to have many user-facing changes outside a single big one we noticed, in the form of a brand-new UI in the file details view. Take a look below.
What's new?
This new interface is substantially more modern, completely ditching the top bar in favor of a blown-up document preview and a grid of buttons that make performing tasks with your files much easier. Sharing, sharing a link, starring, moving, sending, downloading, and renaming are all now directly at your fingertips. Hit the overflow, and options for deleting or printing are also in there. Under the access menu, you can directly toggle link sharing on and off (with a nifty animation, to boot), and add new people to the access list.
There's also a new header for tracking activity on a document, which is definitely a nice thing to have. Basically, this was just a rather stale part of the Drive UI, and it's getting a big cleanup today. Perhaps related to the 2.0 jump, we also saw some announcements regarding the now parsed-out Docs, Sheets, and [new] Slides apps at the I/O keynote.
Download
The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.
File name: com.google.android.apps.docs-2.0.222.39
Version: 2.0.222.39 (Android ?+)
MD5: 2a7c7b042da7d8bea4111453c6d2e85e |
Fuqua Development has unveiled tentative plans for a major mixed-use development wedged against Memorial Drive and the Beltline corridor.
A new marketing flyer released by the controversial developer elaborates on his planned project in Reynoldstown, which includes more than 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space — including (potentially) a CineBistro and Sprouts — plus 120,000 square feet of offices, 600 apartments, and 100 condos.
Fuqua purchased the site at 905 Memorial Drive last year, which didn't thrill a lot of folks, given the developer's penchant for big-box projects. Fuqua's planned overhaul will replace a warehouse facility butted up against Interstate 20.
According to this rendering, which might not represent the latest version of Fuqua's plans, retail spaces would front the Beltline, helping to tie the development to the trail and neighborhood. The project, however, would still be dominated by parking lots and have a distinctly suburban bent. What Now Atlanta reports that these plans might have been altered already due to neighborhood ire. |
dAT Team have told HLTV.org that they are back to a five-man roster following the additions of ex-HellRaisers duo Yegor "markeloff" Markelov and Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev.
The MCS Open Season 1 champions had been reduced to a three-man roster following the departures of Egor "flamie" Vasilyev and Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev, two players who decided to further their careers in HellRaisers.
dAT Team wasted little time to find replacements for the duo and approached the two players ousted by HellRaisers, Yegor "markeloff" Markelov and Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev.
B1ad3 and markeloff back together after A-Gaming times
This means that markeloff, who admitted to being fired up by his dismissal from HR and vowed to "reveal" his CS:GO potential, will reunite with former Amazing Gaming team-mate Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy.
"We are very excited to have such talented individuals on our team," dAT captain Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy told HLTV.org. "This is a new page in the history of our team and it looks very promising. Each and every one is extremely motivated, and we are looking forward to 2015. "Welcome and thank you, my friends!"
dAT Team will be taking part in SLTV StarSeries XII, in which they have been drawn in Group C, alongside x6tence, Titan and Natus Vincere.
With these changes, dAT Team now have:
Related videos: |
There’s an enemy anyone given to prolonged thought has to face.
Sooner or later the question of purpose and meaning looms like a wall.
If all is wiped away when we die, what is the point? Is life worth it, or just a cruel joke?
Time and again I’ve heard smart Christians present an unmoved mover, a first cause outside of time, as “proof” of a specifically Christian God.
All this really tells us is this universe had to be started from a cause outside the rules that govern our universe. If that means God, at best we can assume a Spinozan God that’s more of a force of nature than a human personality directly involved in our lives. And an afterlife or reincarnation? I can think of no reason to assume such a thing is true.
It makes the most sense to assume this is our one chance since we do not know otherwise.
It’s easy to fall into the trap that atheism is the “rational” approach while anyone religious is simply deluding themselves. It seems at first to make sense.
But then you have to live your life by the values you have chosen…
Atheist “humanists” like to point out that lack of religion doesn’t cause them to go out and start randomly being evil. They often live by a moral code.
The trouble is that strong atheism must reduce to nihilism. One cannot hold moral values if one explicitly believes in a universe without purpose or meaning. Nothing can be good or bad in such a universe. Strangling puppies is no better or worse than winning the lottery. Life is no better than death.
Here, the supreme irony of moral atheists becomes clear. Despite professing atheism they mostly continue to stick to Judeo-Christian moral laws. They don’t practice what they preach…because if they did, it would destroy them.
The interesting thing is one cannot be an atheist…at least not for real. I was inspired to make this post when a reader named luciferslibrarian asked me this:
So I am curious – you mention that you have used philosophy to arrive at meaning. I am an introvert whose biggest problem has always been that I don’t see meaning in anything. The older I get, the worse it gets. When I was younger, I was far more motivated and creative; driven even. Now I find getting started on the smallest tasks almost insurmountable, because I don’t see the point. Most people I know take solace and find meaning in friends and family, but as an introvert with a less than stellar relationship with my family, the social path is not really for me. I also know that toiling in obscurity for some higher purpose is kind of a pipe dream. Can you shed any light?
I replied:
Yes! The biggest problem we have to face is the challenge presented by the yawning nothing of nihilism.
I approach it something like this:
The adoption of nihilism is pretty much guaranteed to destroy civilizations and hamper the progress of individuals, to trick them into living a directionless cursed half life until they finally die.
Nihilism seems to make sense based on what we know, but if we implement it, it’s unquestionably destructive.
As I see it, living by nihilism is against the observable laws of our universe. It doesn’t work. In this sense it is objectively false.
Also, even nihilists don’t really truly act on nihilism. The logical thing to do if you’re a nihilist is to be unaware of the problem of nihilism. That knowledge only causes pain and dissonance and even if it’s the truth, who cares if it has no meaning anyway. Better to be like an insect in the field playing out its role as a biomachine, never doubting.
You can’t even be a conscious nihilist or atheist and really be consistent!
If nothing has meaning, we might as well kill ourselves, start a party binge to drown out the knowledge of our fundamental irrelevance, or have some of our brain removed to remove the pain inflicted by ennui.
Yet no one does the logical thing…
A self professed strong atheist or nihilist is a liar. They clearly continue to believe in some kind of meaning or higher purpose. They can say what they want, but what they do says it all.
Since meaning is a law of existence for a sentient being, we might as well either completely accept that or self destruct.
Faced with a choice…I chose meaning.
At least I chose to follow meaning. It’s a battle that never ends for a person of awareness. That creeping feeling of pointlessness and despair is an adversary that’s always there, waiting for an opening. It’s the price we must pay to be aware.
It’s a fearful thing to face and those who can avoid it through distractions usually do.
I’ve spent some time just thinking about this post, because I know from experience, there’s few greater threats to an introvert’s life than the triumph of meaninglessness within.
Often isolated, without any sources of fulfillment in the material world, many of us don’t make it. I am convinced that confronting the problem of nihilism is something that can save lives. Asking those questions without a doubt played a huge role in saving my life.
Far from a dramatic conversion to orthodox religion, I’ve come to see things in a way that diverges from both atheists and theists.
Consulting both reason and my intuition, I’ve long since come to conceive of “God” as something closer to that Spinozan force of nature. It doesn’t have a mind or personality exactly nor is it remotely human.
Logically, the best way to understand its nature is to observe nature’s workings.
For the most part, it seems to be an impartial thing, but it does establish certain laws that govern our universe…
For years after having rejected strong atheism I was vexed.
Many having gone through the same process as I did become religious.
But all my life I had marveled how absolute morality legislated by a deity tends to lead to hypocrisy and ambiguity in interpretation.
What’s more, “absolute” morals often backfire when “good” people restrain themselves and others happily take advantage of them.
If religious moral law isn’t consistent with observable reality, then atheists with their satirical Flying Spaghetti Monster make an excellent point. If God’s law turns out to be arbitrary in implementation, the 11th commandment might as well be Thou Shalt Not Tie Thy Shoes.
We’re left with an absurd nothing that reduces to Nihilism! Orthodox religions need an afterlife to “solve” this problem!
So a key requirement of a life-preserving belief system for a thoughtful person is that it must make sense within observable reality…
At this point, Taoism with its ‘Way’ provided some key inspiration.
There are observable laws of the universe that move us along effortlessly when we follow them and crush us when we fight them.
We see this everywhere in the natural world and in our lives as human beings.
From this perspective, lack of meaning simply violates a timeless law.
If we must either hold to purpose or perish, it is clear what we must do…
Meaning becomes effectively self-evident because we cannot exist without it!
Since finding a way to help nullify the threat of nihilism I’ve since used this basic premise to create the values I live by. It has served as a genuine map telling me what I ought to do next rather than being a burdensome absolute law that spites the nature of reality in hopes of a better hereafter. |
Now more than a week into training camp, the Ottawa Redblacks are looking at two Canadian Football League preseason games that could decide who stays and who goes.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are in Ottawa for a game Thursday night, and then the Redblacks will travel to Montreal to face the Alouettes on June 15.
“I’m not totally committing to this, but, if people are healthy, they’re dressing and they’re going to play,” Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell said after Monday’s practice. “We’ve had a bunched-up schedule in the pre-season in the past, but the spacing is a week apart (this year), so we’ll probably play everybody in both games.”
Campbell and the coaching staff had a chance to evaluate film after Saturday’s mock game.
“It’s kind of what I thought,” Campbell said. “We have guys who are enthusiastic and working hard. There are things we need to clean up. That’s part of training camp. Part of the trick to becoming a good team is you get better at things each day and check things off the list as you go.
“We want to reduce the penalties as much as possible. We’re trying to make sure guys know the scheme and know what we’re doing so we can play fast.”
Lineman Ceresna back for another shot
A year ago, fresh off from receiving a look from the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs, was hoping to earn a spot on the Redblacks roster.
Now, in 2017, it’s much the same for the big defensive lineman.
The 22-year-old Ceresna was released by the Redblacks last year after breaking a hand, a “freak accident” where he got tripped up.
After he left Ottawa and his hand healed, he received a call from the NFL’s New York Jets and agreed to sign. Near the end of the pre-season, he hurt an ankle in a pileup and was released.
He kept training and worked in a physical therapy clinic, waiting for another professional opportunity.
Ceresna participated in an NFL veterans combine in March, but that didn’t generate any solid offers, so he agreed to return to Ottawa.
“I’m getting good feedback so far,” he said Monday. “They like the way I’m playing. I’m just trying to make plays and keep doing everything I can to make this the best team possible.”
At 6-6 and 294 pounds, Ceresna was a beast in college football for State University of New York at Cortland. He recorded 142 tackles, 42 quarterback hurries and 14.5 sacks.
tbaines@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/TimCBaines |
Ever since the day I proposed to my lovely future wife, I have had the overwhelming, looming dread that I knew would accompany shopping for my wedding outfit. Being in a same-sex relationship (or "a relationship" as most of us know it…) I have been subject to a barrage of questions regarding what I would be wearing for the wedding. I might be described as an athletic, makeup-free, combo platter of femininity and masculine traits, therefore people were overly concerned about my attire.
My future wife already had an image in her head of what she would wear before I even proposed, so she had no problems finding her wedding dress within two weeks of the proposal. It was very apparent that my journey would be much longer, and would involve far more bourbon.
I hated thinking about all this because on one hand, I really don't care what I wear. Ultimately, regardless of what I wear, I am going to marry the most amazing human being I have ever come into contact with… so it's an irrelevant issue. On the other hand, I want that jaw-dropping moment where we both look as gorgeous as possible, and the image that is engrained into our brains forever is as stunning visually as it will feel. What to wear… what to wear…
As I began preparing, I initially thought that I would wear a wedding dress. Something lacy and elegant, yet modest and covering. I began searching online for inspiration, and found some absolutely stunning gowns. I went as far as to try on some dresses, which was an awful experience. I walked into the bridal store begrudgingly, and was asked if I wanted a strapless. A strapless what? I am a woman who happens to date women… so my mind went somewhere that I could only assume that this innocent woman had not been planning on. OH. A strapless bra. Did I need a strapless bra? Shit… did I have to buy one now?
I tried on a couple of the dresses and felt more uncomfortable than I have felt since the fifth grade, when I allowed a girl to put makeup on my face for the first time. I saw the beauty in it — it just didn't feel right.
This led me to a serious contemplation situation. Why did I want to wear a dress? All I could think about was my desire not to fulfill a stereotype that I actually fit into — the dress/pants lesbian wedding. Was that worth the discomfort that I knew I would encounter on what is supposed to be the best day of my life? NO.
I fulfill a stereotype: I wear pants, and my future wife wears dresses. I have been so caught up in not fulfilling a stereotype that I have driven myself crazy. I was done. There were two months to go to the wedding. I had to buckle down.
Then we had our engagement photos taken… I decided to take a more comfortable approach and wore jeans, a blue shirt, a grey men's suit vest, and a fun pink and turquoise bow tie with some color-coordinated Chucks. I loved how the photos came out. So I decided that if I was confident enough to rock that outfit in the photos, then why the hell was I so stressed about what I would wear for the wedding.
I did as I always do, and began researching online about butch women shopping for men's suits. I came across some articles about women going into various department stores and being treated in a variety of ways when looking for a suit. It seemed like a crap shoot. I have been out for years, being okay with being gay, and not a stereotypical feminine woman living in Iowa, is second nature at this point. I went to the several stores with failing results. After these failures, I decided to suck it up — it was time to go to the mega center of all men's suiting: Men's Wearhouse.
Oh, Men's Wearhouse. I was really uncomfortable going into this store. I took a friend along, who is far more outspoken than I am, to attempt to translate my grunts and rather unexcitable personality. There were two sales people when we walked in: a man and a woman. I figured that, because she was a woman, she would be more sympathetic and understanding to my needs. As we struggled to get past the fact that I was shopping for a suit for me, not my husband, and that no, my husband and I were not wearing matching suits… she finally suggested that I wait for the man who was helping another customer at the time.
Once the gentleman was done assisting another customer, he came right up to my friend and myself to introduce himself. A strong handshake with a good look in the eye — so far so good. I gave the rundown of what I thought I was looking for: pants and a vest. No suit coat. I suggested grey as a color. He retrieved a "sharkskin" suit and proceeded to educate me on what this animal print meant. But I determined that it looked like a giant tuna can. I didn't know how to articulate this to the gentleman. I babbled for a bit, then I finally stated very plainly, "you can't make me look like a boxy bull-dyke." (Please note: I have a lot of love for all people, boxy, dykey, everyone.)
The gentleman looked at me, in fact the whole store looked at me, then he doubled over laughing. "I got you now. Now I know where we're going," he replied. It may have been some harsh language, but it certainly got the point across. Now we could get somewhere. As the gentleman began assembling other options, he stated, "you thinking you want a tie?" I replied to him by asking if the Pope was Catholic… and then he stated, "you're a bow tie type of woman, right?" "Absolutely I am," I stated, followed by, "And don't even try to put me in one of those pre-tied bullshits. I am a grown-ass woman and can tie my own, damn it". He again doubled over in a fit of laughter.
I was getting somewhere with this guy. This was going surprisingly well. Sadly, after all the work we put in, they didn't have an outfit that I liked. Eventually I found it…
Moral of the story: Be honest, be bold, and don't go into situations assuming that they are going to be bad. The boldness and honesty sets the sales people at ease, and allows for a much more simple transaction.
I have found that most people I have interacted with were completely shocked that I was marrying a woman, and often times didn't know how to respond. The more normal you respond to them, the more normal they will act. As more and more folks are getting married, I like to think that those of us who get the shocked response are helping to pave the way for the folks who will be married years from now. Therefore, absorbing the shock and awe is just our contribution to younger folks — not to mention our response to their reaction will set the stage for how they believe all "non-traditional" couples will interact with them.
Ultimately though, it's not worth the hours and hours of research and stress that I have put into it. I get to marry the most amazing woman I've ever met, who loves me unconditionally, including when I look absolutely horrible. That is what matters. |
Share. Will be introduced sometime after July 1, 2015. Will be introduced sometime after July 1, 2015.
The Australian Federal Government confirmed today that it will introduce the “Netflix Tax,” meaning Australian consumers will have to shell out an extra 10 percent for goods purchased from digital services like Netflix, Google, Steam and Amazon.
Treasurer Joe Hockey revealed during a press conference today that the 10 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be charged to all digital products and services bought online, such as games, movies and books. Australians currently don’t pay GST on physical online purchases under AU$1,000, and Hockey said that won't change after the adjustment.
"What we’re doing is going to digital providers overseas and saying ‘can you apply the GST to the products you provide into Australia?’," Hockey said according to IT News. "They are agreeable to it. It’s not their profits [being taxed]. It’s a tax collected and they remit it back to the country where that occurs."
Exit Theatre Mode
The extra tax charged by the online companies will be given back to the Government. Hockey believes once the GST expands to encompass digital services sometime after July 1, it will raise $350 million over four years. Full details will be revealed when the Federal Budget hits 7:30 p.m. AEST Tuesday, May 12.
Netflix US has previously stated that it will add the GST to its service when the federal government passes it. The redrafting of the Tax Act won’t change the price of iTunes downloads as Australian consumers already pay GST on purchases from Apple's online store.
Jenna Pitcher is a freelance journalist writing for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter. |
Video
The transit of Venus, where the planet Venus passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, will begin just a few minutes after 22:00 GMT (23:00 BST) on Tuesday 5 June and will end just before 04:55GMT (05:55 BST) on Wednesday 6 June.
As it happens, Venus appears as a small black dot moving across the surface of the Sun.
Here, science presenter Liz Bonnin explains how the transit works and why it is such a rare event - the next one will not happen until 2117.
Experts warn never to look directly at the Sun without special eclipse glasses, and not to view it through binoculars or a telescope, which could result in serious injury or blindness
Horizon: The Transit of Venus is broadcast on Tuesday 5 June at 2100 BST on BBC Two in the UK and afterwards on the BBC IPlayer. |
Nathan Baker’s own goal against Reading had even his own team-mates perplexed (Picture: Getty Images)
Manchester United do it, regularly. Bradford did it, memorably. Even German fifth-tier side SV Rodinghausen have managed it, recently. But Stoke are the only side not to in the best part of eight months.
What am I talking about? Scoring against Aston Villa, of course.
The stats are pretty sobering, not to mention damning. No clean sheets in 2013. No clean sheets in any of the last THIRTY-THREE matches Villa’s first-team have played, be it league (22), cup (five) or friendly (six). A sorry run that stretches back to December 8 last year – when Villa and Stoke played out a goalless draw that was every bit as much fun as it sounds.
It’s a pretty embarrassing state of affairs if you’re a Villa fan (perhaps more so if you’re Kenwyne Jones or Jonathan Walters). And the leak hasn’t really been plugged, based on the evidence of pre-season.
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They have conceded in all of their friendlies thus far, against the aforementioned SV Rodinghausen (a side at an equivalent level to Solihull Moors), two German second tier sides, plus Luton, Wycombe and Crewe.
Sure, results of friendlies mean very little – it’s all about building up match fitness, establishing patterns of play and integrating new arrivals into the squad. Performance 1, results 0. And the constant rotating of personnel in warm-up matches makes the odd defensive mix-up inevitable.
Pre-season goals conceded just add weight to the view that Villa, with their callow defence, start each match 1-0 down.
Villa leaked goals regularly from corners last season, notably in the Capital One Cup semi-final against Bradford (Picture: Getty Images)
Taken in isolation, these pre-season goals could be viewed as aberrations. But instead they just add weight to the view that Villa, with their callow defence, start each match 1-0 down.
Poor judgment blighted the inexperienced Villa defence last season.
Witness the regular corner kick fiascos or Ciaran Clark’s naivety against Manchester City in March. But sometimes it was just sheer bad luck that prevented clean sheets – own goals by Ashley Westwood, Nathan Baker and Fabian Delph stopped Villa from shutting out West Ham, Reading and Fulham.
New signing Jores Okore, highly-rated by all who saw him play for Nordsjaelland in the Champions League last season, should add quality to the spine, and Antonio Luna’s arrival adds further competition to Villa’s busy left-back slot (but more of that in a later blog).
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However, Okore suffered a hamstring injury in the match against Rodinghausen and has been in treatment ever since. Without him, it may be back to the same Lowton-Vlaar-Baker-Bennett quartet which, while individually talented, seems prone to an error or two.
With Christian Benteke, Gabby Agbonlahor, Andi Weimann and Nicklas Helenius in attack next season, Villa will have goals in abundance. But if some of the basic mistakes of last season are repeated, we’ll need at least two to win matches. |
Observations from Saturday night's 93-90 exhibition loss to the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center:
-- Not completely sold on Hassan Whiteside and Kelly Olynyk side by side in the starting lineup.
-- Because there will be far greater challenges to defend at power forward than Aaron Gordon.
-- But it is a way to maximize the court time for each.
-- And probably deserves more scrutiny.
-- By starting Olynyk alongside Whiteside, the Heat got back to inserting James Johnson and Tyler Johnson together in the first period.
-- That had James Johnson getting some early minutes at center, with Justise Winslow at power forward.
-- Winslow then shifted to small forward when Olynyk returned, the first time he has been cast in that role this preseason.
-- This is why you need preseason, to explore.
-- Which matters far more than the score.
-- The rotation, with Goran Dragic given the night off, also gave Josh Richardson the opportunity to show his versatility.
-- He certainly was in rhythm.
-- He is a different player when fully healthy.
-- He was that player Saturday.
-- Erik Spoelstra stayed with same top nine players at the top of Saturday's rotation (minus Dragic), stressing the need for his regulars to get minutes together.
-- The non-rotation players did not enter until the midpoint of the fourth quarter.
-- When we saw the likes of Erik McCree and Jordan Mickey.
-- Gordon got the better of Olynyk in the early matchup at power forward.
-- But Olynyk did not appear overwhelmed defending on the perimeter, especially when he knew at the outset he had Whiteside behind him.
-- Tyler Johnson ended the game wearing a stim unit, thus his lack of action.
-- Magic coach Frank Vogel said he was approaching the game somewhat close to the vest, with the teams to open the regular season against each other.
-- Like the Heat, the Magic have the dilemma of whether they can afford to play one of their big men at power forward at times. The Magic are loaded in the middle with Nikola Vucevic, Bismack Biyombo and now Marreese Speights.
-- Of whether Speights can play power forward in today's small-ball era, Vogel said, "There are occasions where you can slide him over to the four, but not too many in this era."
-- Richardson opened at point guard, with rest previously expected for Dragic after a busy September with the Slovenia championship team at EuroBasket.
-- Of what Jonathon Simmons adds to his roster, Vogel said of the offseason free-agent acquisition from the Spurs, "Toughness and grit and little bit of swagger."
-- Vogel said he expects more this season from point guard Elfrid Payton, if only because it is the first time he has had the same coach and same system for consecutive years.
-- Heat captain Udonis Haslem said he was not surprised that former teammate and close friend Dwyane Wade was able to score 20 points in 22 minutes of the Cavaliers' Friday exhibition game.
-- "I know how much work he puts in in the offseason to keep himself physically ready and prepared to go out there and perform at a high level," Haslem said "So I'm not surprised at what he's been able to do or what he's able to still do."
-- Haslem said the two keep the talk about age to a minimum. Wade is 35, Haslem 37.
-- "At the end of the day," Haslem said, "I'm older than him so there's not really much I can say."
-- Asked what it would be like if he were to be called on for such productivity in the preseason, Haslem smiled, "I just don't recover as quick as I used to."
-- For Richardson the trip proved to be a disappointment after he learned that the U.S. men's national team was playing a World Cup qualifying match in Orlando on Friday night. Richardson is among the Heat's most passionate soccer fans.
-- "I'm sick I missed it," he said at the morning shootaround of the rout of Panama.
-- "I didn't know it was there," he said. "My boy from Miami called me and told me about it."
-- Richardson said he went to several games during the offseason in Los Angeles, as well as the summer version of El Classico at Hard Rock Stadium.
-- Richardson counts himself as a fan of the U.S. national team and Arsenal of the Premier League.
-- Why Arsenal? "I never really watched a lot of soccer when I was younger, but in college my teammates would play a lot of FIFA and I started playing that."
-- Asked what his plans would be if Miami finally gets an MLS team, he said, without hesitation, "season tickets."
-- U.S. men's national soccer coach Bruce Arena was in the building after Friday's crucial victory here over Panama.
-- As was Christian Pulisic.
CAPTION Spoelstra: No need to show anger to appease outsiders. Spoelstra: No need to show anger to appease outsiders. CAPTION Spoelstra: No need to show anger to appease outsiders. Spoelstra: No need to show anger to appease outsiders. CAPTION Dwyane Wade: Braids a tribute to Iverson Dwyane Wade: Braids a tribute to Iverson CAPTION Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra says his team showed grit in loss to the Phoenix Suns. Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra says his team showed grit in loss to the Phoenix Suns. CAPTION Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade says his team's loss to the Phoenix Suns hurt his team and their hopes of getting to the playoffs. Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade says his team's loss to the Phoenix Suns hurt his team and their hopes of getting to the playoffs. CAPTION Miami guard Josh Richardson talks about the obstacles that lead hs team's loss to the Phoenix Suns. Miami guard Josh Richardson talks about the obstacles that lead hs team's loss to the Phoenix Suns.
iwinderman@sunsentinel.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ira.winderman |
Howdy readers! Long time no see. First off, I’d like to apologize for having not made a new post in over a month. My wife recently gave birth to our first child – a boy – born on July 2nd. As I’m sure you can understand, all of my attention and time has been devoted to learning how to take care of the little guy since he arrived. It’s been a wild ride so far, and we’re only just getting started! Things are starting to calm down now though, and because of that I can finally return to Complete Keto to share more recipes with you.
We’re in the middle of summer right now (the temperature is a hot and humid 90 degrees in Minneapolis today), so I thought I would share one of my favorite summer recipes. When I think of summer food, I think of grilling. A few days ago, I decided to forgo steak and chicken and opted to grill up some pork chops instead. Pork chops are often cheaper than steak and can also offer a great fat content as well. As a note, I always prefer to grill bone-in pork chops. I find great joy in channeling my inner-caveman and chewing meat right off of the bone.
For a side dish, I went with one my favorite vegetables – brussels sprouts. But not just plain old boring brussels sprouts. After all, this is Keto food that we’re talking about here. No, I went with bacon brussels sprouts. I mean, what goes better with pork chops than bacon?
My dinner, prepared:
Let us waste no more time. Here’s the recipe.
What you’ll need:
2 pork chops (I prefer bone-in, but boneless chops work great as well)
1 bag of shredded brussels sprouts
4 slices of bacon
Salt & Pepper
Worcestershire sauce
Lemon juice (optional)
For the pork chops:
Step 1: Lay the pork chops down on a large plate and dash a couple of tablespoons of worcestershire sauce on them. Be sure to turn the chops over and dash the sauce on both sides. Let the sauce rest on the meat for 10-15 minutes. Then, sprinkle the pork chops with your desired amount of salt and pepper.
Step 2: Heat up your grill. Aim for medium/high heat. I heated to about 350 degrees F on my gas grill.
Step 3: Toss the pork chops on the grill. Cook on one side for roughly 5 minutes. Then, turn them over and cook on the other side for about 4 minutes. When grilling pork chops, be sure to cook them until the center is no longer pink. The center should be cooked to 145 degrees F (63 degrees C). I took mine off of the grill when they looked like this:
Look at those beautiful grill marks!
Step 4: Set the pork chops to the side for at least 5 minutes to let the juices redistribute while the meat cools.
For the Bacon Brussels Sprouts:
Step 1: Heat a large pan over medium heat.
Step 2: Slice the bacon strips into one-inch “bite size” pieces. Toss the bacon strips into the pan.
Step 3: Cook the bacon until it is lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes.
Step 4: Add the bag of shredded brussels sprouts to the pan. Stir the brussels sprouts with the bacon, allowing for the bacon grease to cover the sprouts:
Step 5: Cook the bacon and brussels sprouts together for another 3-4 minutes or until the bacon in the pan is crispy.
Step 6 (OPTIONAL): Squeeze a light amount of lemon juice over the pan. Sprinkle pepper if desired. The bacon will naturally add saltiness to the dish, but feel free to sprinkle additional salt if desired.
Enjoy! |
Just behind Senegal’s Palais de Justice that houses the Supreme Court, and close to the Dakar seafront, a run-down red-tiled roof indicates the city’s Rebeuss prison. It is here that the West African country’s most famous son, former “superminister” Karim Wade, has been held for over a year.
His trial for corruption during the reign of his father, former president Abdoulaye Wade, will start on July 31, according to a statement by the government. In an interview with the Mail & Guardian last week, Justice Minister Sidiki Kaba said it would be a fair trial and there would be justice.
Senegal has a solid, independent justice system that can try even the most sensitive, high-profile cases, he believes.
“Senegal has a long history of supporting the fight against impunity,” he says.
Yet Kaba is reluctant to talk about the case, which has major political implications.
He would much rather talk about the other high-profile case that has put the country’s judiciary in the spotlight for almost a decade.
Further along the overcrowded peninsula that is Dakar, the 72-year-old former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré, is also behind bars, awaiting trial on charges of crimes against humanity, torture and war crimes. He is accused of killing and torturing thousands of people during his rule in Chad in the 1980s.
“The Habré case shows that Africa is not for impunity,” says Kaba.
Battling to justify candidature
The fact that Habré will be tried in Dakar by Senegalese judges attached to a special African Union (AU) court – a unique case in Africa – will probably count in Kaba’s favour when he stands for election as president of the assembly of state parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) later this year.
Kaba is a well-known human rights lawyer and former head of the International Federation of Human Rights, but still has to battle to justify his candidature for the election in December amid huge acrimony around the court and its role in Africa.
Kaba says he will work on “the principle of complementarity” of the court, to make sure local courts are strengthened to insulate them from political pressure.
“In the end the ICC will only be necessary as an ultimate recourse,” he says.
The main problem is found in the “explosive relationship” between politics and justice, and is also true for international justice, he says.
The internal divisions in Africa over the court were clear at a conference on international justice hosted in Senegal last week by the Dakar-based Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. The conference was titled International Justice, Reconciliation and Peace in Africa: the ICC and beyond. At the three-day conference, lawyers, legal experts and human rights activists were divided over whether Africans should continue supporting the court.
Some of the participants said Africa should find its own “indigenous” justice solutions and make sure criminals are tried either in their home countries or through regional African courts.
Others said that African countries, especially those experiencing conflict, do not have the means to try perpetrators of war crimes and, besides, justice systems in many African countries are not independent.
African heads of state and the AU have been at loggerheads with the ICC since the indictment of Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, in 2009 for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The acrimony deepened following the charges against Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, and his deputy, William Ruto, for their role in the 2008 postelection violence in Kenya.
So far, all the cases before the court have been from Africa, yet a number of important countries, including the United States, China and Russia, are still not members of the ICC.
Tricked
“It’s as if Africans were tricked into signing up for the ICC,” says Ebrima Sall, executive secretary of the research development council.
“All the statistics show only Africa is targeted,” said Sall. “I would much rather see the strengthening of local African solutions,” he said.
Tim Murithi, programme director at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, agrees and says the court reflects the un-equal international system.
“International justice was a visionary, noble idea, but the problem comes in when some powers can exclude themselves. Then it is no longer international.”
Ibrahima Kane, director at the Open Society Initiative for East Africa, said Africans could not understand why all the cases before the court are Africa-based.
“In 2002, the ICC wanted to investigate in Bosnia, for example, but stopped because UN forces could have been involved. The impression is that the ICC can only investigate where people are weak.”
The prosecutor also refused to investigate in Iraq and has never wanted to be involved in the Middle East crisis, he said.
Ongoing invesigations
Kane says the fact that only former Côte d’Ivoire president Laurent Gbagbo and one of his henchmen, former student leader Charles Blé Goudé, are being tried by the court in The Hague, following postelection violence in the country in 2011, is seen by many as “victor’s justice”. No one in the camp of President Alassane Ouattara has been charged, even though the court says investigations are ongoing.
In the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, up to six million people have been killed in a succession of conflicts, but only a handful of warlords and the former vice-president, Jean-Pierre Bemba, have been brought before the court.
Kaba admits that the prosecutor should intensify its investigations in other parts of the world to dispel the perception that only African countries are targeted.
So far, most of the African cases have been brought before the court by African states or through a United Nations resolution, as for example in Libya in 2011.
“I will work for the universality of the court,” said Kaba.
Amady Ba, the head of international co-operation in the office of the ICC prosecutor, says it is unfair to say the court is targeting Africa.
“We are a court; we are not political,” said Ba.
He added that Africa is confronted by such huge crimes that something simply has to put a stop to impunity.
“I didn’t leave my country to go to work at the ICC to target Africa,” he said.
Much time was spent at the conference looking at possible alternatives to the court. Could the Habré solution be repeated elsewhere? Could one imagine Robert Mugabe, for example, being tried for the 1980s massacres by an African court set up outside Zimbabwe?
Academics and lawyers are sceptical of the African solutions on the table.
The Habré case, which is expected to be heard in April next year, has taken almost 15 years since he was first charged while living in exile in Senegal in February 2000.
Plans are also under way to expand the jurisdiction of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights, currently based in Arusha, Tanzania.
But the AU, at its summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea last month, passed a resolution that ensures immunity for heads of state against this court.
El Hadj Guissé, a judge at the human and people’s rights court, says he is disappointed by this move by the AU leaders, because it will dilute the work of the planned new African Court.
“No one should be able to have immunity against the serious crimes stated in the Rome Statute such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he says.
The one consensus at the Senegal conference was that the strengthening of the local justice systems in individual African countries should be a priority. This would ensure that perpetrators, even those responsible for the most hideous crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity, can be tried at home.
Liesl Louw-Vaudran was invited to Senegal by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa |
How do you define a real programmer? There are many facets that you can use to judge someone’s skill as a programmer: ability, experience, enthusiasm, dedication, etc. But I recently read an article by RethinkDB blogger Slava, and he boils all of these points down to one item, memorization. Some people agree with this idea, but I do not, at all.
I have heard several companies bragging about having interview scripts like this, saying that this kind of testing is the most effective way to filter out unqualified applicants. However I think that the post by Slava perfectly demonstrates just how flawed this concept is. If there is one thing you should have learned in school, it’s that standardized tests are a terrible metric for gauging skill or intelligence.
But more to the point, I think that this is the wrong way to define a real programmer. Allow me to present you with my definition of a real programmer.
What is a real programmer?
This comes from one of my favorite quotes in all of history:
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance” – Confucius
Having an encyclopedic knowledge of a college curriculum is not required to be a great programmer. Real world software development isn’t about memorizing low-level programming techniques, or math formulas. These are great tools to have at your disposal, but are certainly not the end-all-be-all of development. It’s all about problem solving, in the most efficient and elegant way that circumstances allow.
As a programmer you will be supplied with problems every day, and it’s your job to figure out how to solve these problems. To do this you need to know what your language of choice is capable of, this comes with experience. You will also need to be able to look at the possible solutions and pick the best one for the situation at hand.
Now here’s the fact that breaks the machine, you do not know every possible solution for every problem, and you never will. I don’t care how experienced you are, how much education you have had, or how many millions of lines of code you have written, because there are so many possible ways to approach the practical problems you find in software development that it is literally impossible to know everything. So you need to have a mix of creativity and resources that let you learn how to solve new problems.
Real programmers are the ones who can learn fast, and learn by doing. These are the people who constantly strive to keep up with the technology they love. They have ample real world experience building, learning and growing their craft, but know that they still don’t know everything.
In short the defining characteristic of real programmers is that they never stop learning.
My experience with real programmers
I’ve worked as a peon coder, link-in-the-chain guy, I’ve worked as a manager who did the hiring and firing, I’ve worked as a one-man-shop serving milti-billion dollar corporations, and I’ve worked as a solo freelancer. This experience has taught me two things:
I am not the greatest programmer in the world, despite what my website says, and That you can rarely tell a good programmer from a bad one by the resume, or the interview.
I’ve seen guys with terrible resumes turn out to be so far above my level that I still have them on my guru list, and I’ve seen guys with amazing resumes who couldn’t grasp even the most basic concepts.
How to find a real programmer
It is true that there is often a gap between what candidates say they can do and what they’re really capable of. That is why testing candidates is still a very good idea, but you need to test for higher level skills and abilities. Testing a candidate’s knowledge on obscure techniques and patterns means passing off great people for not remembering stuff that they simply do not need to be top notch coders.
In my experience, it is very easy to separate the wheat from the chaff: go through the normal interview process to see if this is a person you can work with (and let’s face it, that’s all that the interview is really for). Then give them a small project, something realistic that resembles what their real work would be like, and send them home. Not a knowledge test, but a real “build something that does this” task.
When you get the finished result of their labor you will know if you’ve got the real deal. Is it done the way you would have expected (or better)? Is it high quality, showing some love some thought? Did they get it back to you reasonably quickly? Did they do anything cool to show off? If so, congratulations! You’ve just found a great programmer!
code_by_google != bad_programmer
Yes, they could have just coded by Google. But you know what? That shows they can learn and adapt. I have plenty of respect for a person who doesn’t immediately know how to accomplish a complex task, but can quickly find out how and do it on their own without bothering the other programmers on your team.
Remember the key point of my real programmers definition, they never stop learning. Google is the greatest programming resource that has ever existed. You cannot look down on someone for using the most powerful learning tool computer science has ever known. I would go so far as to say knowing how to code by Google is the single most important skill in a programmers tool box, because if you want to grow as a programmer this is going to be the tool to use.
Someone who knows how to search for code examples and how to learn from the work of others will be more or less self-sufficient. They can learn and grow their skills on their own without needing someone else to do it for them. The ability to learn and grow your knowledge is the single most important skill for any developer. Without the ability to grow you will find yourself quickly deprecated.
I do expect people to know how to use the language and/or framework they were hired to work in, but I judge them primarily based on the work they submit. A guy who can figure out how to do things that he doesn’t know how to do, on his own, on the fly, is a real programmer.
The catch-22 of impossibly high standards
Of course it’s pretty absurd to require knowledge that 99% of programmers have absolutely no need for in real life. But perhaps you don’t entirely know why. If you have very strict hiring standards then you are only going to find people who match your specific model, and your code will suffer because of this.
Computer science grows at a fantastical rate, every day there is another small innovation that someone came up with. This small innovation will slowly propegate out to the rest of the programming community and become part of everyone’s toolbox. This happens because some creative programmer tried some alternative idea and found a new way to solve a problem.
If your team consists entirely of people with the same background, skills and knowledge then your creativity bucket will be quite small. This means you will not see as much innovation as a varied team with people asking questions that wouldn’t normally be asked, and people offering solutions that wouldn’t normally be offered.
Most alternative idea’s will, of course, be immediately shot down. But that one in a hundred that actually sticks will give your team an advantage. This alternative idea has given a level of innovation to your project that would not have existed if you didn’t have a radical element thinking in a unique way.
Get real
This was a rather long-winded rant, but let me sum it up in a few nice bullet points.
People who are more interested in the buzz words and CS theory than actual experience and a history of practical application of skills are a perpetual thorn in the side of the programming industry.
Don’t look down on other programmers because they don’t fit your model definition of a programmer, they just might be better than you.
If 99 out of 100 candidates fail your interview then you are looking for something that doesn’t exist.
Without a varied group of developers in your team you will suffer from a lack of creativity.
Don’t test a CS curriculum, test the ability to create.
If you ever finish learning, then your career as a programmer is over. Go study law.
In short
Look for someone who truly understand the concepts, who can offer creative and alternative ideas, and who shows the ability to grow as a programmer. Then you will finally find a real programmer. |
FLINT, MI -- An insurance company representing Genesee County said in a federal lawsuit that it should not have to help the county pay a $36.6 million trial verdict from a jail beating lawsuit.
Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company filed the lawsuit last month in Detroit U.S. District Court alleging it's not responsible for covering damages against Genesee County after jurors found five jail deputies used excessive force against inmate William Jennings.
The company was the excessive liability insurer for Genesee County at the time Jennings was beaten inside the Genesee County Jail following an arrest for suspected drunken driving on Sept. 18, 2010.
It's asking a federal judge to rule that it has no duty to cover the damages or defend the county in the Jennings case, which was filed in August 2013.
Jennings suffered a trauma-induced cataract in one eye, a torn rotator cuff, broken facial bones, nerve damage in one of his hands and a chipped tooth as a result of the beating.
Genesee County Board of Commissioners went into executive session on Monday, April 3, to discuss the lawsuit brought by Ironshore, according to Commissioner Bryant Nolden.
"We're just now getting the information," Nolden said. "That's what we were in closed session for, so I really can't discuss that."
Nolden forwarded further questions to the county's corporation counsel. Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, who serves as corporation counsel, directed questions to attorney Edward Davison, who was hired to represent the county in the case.
Davison said his response to the lawsuit should be filed by the end of the week.
"They don't feel like they should pay," Davison said of Ironshore. "The county, the deputies and I think they should. It's a relative fairly common way of dealing with things with insurance companies."
The lawsuit filed by Ironshore claims the company carried a liability insurance policy for the county that was to cover claims in excess of the county's underlying liability insurance with another company, Everest National Insurance Company.
Genesee County is self-insured to an extent, according to attorney Edward Davison, adding that it was basically like a deductible one would pay on homeowners or auto insurance.
The next layer is the primary liability insurance policy Genesee County has through Everest National Insurance Company, Davison said.
If that policy is extinguished, Davison said, Genesee County is covered by the Ironshore Specialty Insurance policy.
Davison refused to say how much coverage is included at each level.
"I prefer not to divulge that," he said. "That's something that my client likes to keep close to the vest."
County officials refused to release the specific figures and told MLive-The Flint Journal to file a Freedom of Information Act request to get the information. A FOIA request was submitted to the county Tuesday, April 4.
A term of Ironshore's policy required the company be notified in writing "as soon as practical" of a lawsuit that would be likely to involve its policy, according to its lawsuit.
However, Ironshore contends county officials failed to satisfy this condition by waiting to notify it of the case until after jurors reached their verdict on Nov. 3, 2016 -- more than three years after Jennings' lawsuit was initially filed.
Ironshore's lawsuit claims the county and its attorneys should have known the case was likely to involve the excess coverage policy when Jennings' case was filed in 2013 and it alleged nerve injuries, serious burns and severe damage.
Any doubt that the Ironshore policy would be involved should have been removed in July 2015, Ironshore claims, when the trial judge in the Jennings case denied the county's argument it was immune from the lawsuit.
Since notifying Ironshore of the verdict, the lawsuit claims the county and its lawyers have failed to turn over records Ironshore has sought in relation to the Jennings case.
Ironshore also argues it is not responsible for covering the claim because jurors found the jail deputies' actions were "willful, wanton or oppressive" and the county had punitive damages awarded against it.
There were multiple instances of intentional wrongdoing by the deputies, which also excludes Genesee County from coverage, Ironshore argues.
Jennings' lawsuit alleged the jail deputies threw Jennings to the floor, slammed his head against a metal bench, kicked and punched him while he was on the ground, sprayed pepper spray into his mouth and face at close range and placed him in a restraint chair with a hood over his face for several minutes.
Jennings was also strapped down to a restraint bed face down in a cell for more than two hours. The lawsuit claimed the alleged attack was unprovoked and began as Jennings was being searched.
After more than a two-week trial and nearly two days of deliberations, an eight-member jury concluded the deputies used excessive force against Jennings and awarded him past damages of $10.42 million and future damages of $7.21 million, according to a news release from the court.
Jurors reached the verdict against deputies Patrick Fuller, David Kenamer, Mark Wing, Jason White and Lt. Robert Nuckolls.
The jury also awarded punitive damages to Jennings from each defendant as follows:
Fuller -- $5 million.
Kenamer -- $4 million.
Wing -- $3 million.
White -- $2 million.
Nuckolls -- $5 million.
Attorneys representing the five guards have appealed the decision and in multiple motions filed in December with the Detroit U.S. District Court say the two-week jury trial was conducted improperly and that the $36.6 million decision was improper.
The motions are still pending.
Davison said the lawsuit from Ironshore isn't unexpected.
"It is a common way for insurance companies and their insured to resolve their differences," he said. "I prefer to try my cases in the court, not in the press."
New trial requested in $36.6M excessive force case against jail deputies The Genesee County jail guards charged with $36.6 million for using excessive force against a prisoner have motioned to appeal the United States District Court's jury decision.
An insurance policy is a contract between the insurance company and its policyholder, according to Pet Kuhnmuench, executive director of Insurance Institute of Michigan.
"In exchange for coverage, the insurance company requires the policyholder to adhere to provisions in the policy," he said. "If those provisions are not met, there may not be coverage.
"An insurance policy is a not a blanket of coverage because the cost of such a product would be out of reach. An insurance policy insures specific risks that are detailed in the policy language and also the responsibilities of the policyholder for obtaining that coverage." |
We're still two months away from real games, but it's never too early to examine the hot seat.
Every NFL head coach is under pressure to succeed, but a short list of hired hands face particularly tough scenarios. Here's our pick of men already staring down the barrel in July:
Jim Tomsula has massive shoes to fill
No team has endured a rockier offseason than the San Francisco 49ers. A rash of player retirements, the loss of Frank Gore, a weakened offensive line and a very public breakup with former coach Jim Harbaugh has left the team spiraling in the NFC West.
Ownership opted to raise up in-house favorite Jim Tomsula to steer the ship, but keeping the Niners afloat won't be easy. Facing a rugged intra-division schedule and games against the AFC North, San Francisco is a candidate to fall off a cliff this autumn. Fans, media and players want to see instant proof that Tomsula has the requisite tools to guide an NFL team after an offseason of bizarre press conferences and questionable roster moves.
The good news is that people who know Tomsula swear by him. The bad news? None of that matters if the Niners stage a massive implosion. I can't think of an uglier situation for a coach facing huge expectations from an antsy and agitated fan base. Good luck, sir. -- Marc Sessler
Improvement at QB key for Jay Gruden
Gruden's first year as head coach spun violently off a cliff. His handling of Robert Griffin III seemed erratic -- with his public criticisms of the starting quarterback unheard of in the NFL, even if true. Playing quarterback roulette helped no one and kept his offense out of synch all season. The defense was even worse, allowing receivers to jaunt unimpeded across the secondary.
In Year 2, Gruden must show management some semblance of progress. Owner Daniel Snyder is not shy about firing coaches, and new general manager Scot McCloughan didn't hire Gruden -- never a good thing for a coach. Whether he sticks with RGIII or moves to Kirk Cousins or Colt McCoy, Gruden must find a quarterback who can run his offense this year as he likely won't have another whirl if his spin fails in 2015.
McCloughan spent the offseason beefing up the trenches, so Gruden and his staff -- including new defensive coordinator Joe Barry -- must show progress in building a tough program. Gruden must also display that he's matured in his second year on the job, keeping some of the laundry from being aired publicly.
Most important, the Redskins must climb out of the cellar of the NFC East. A third straight year at the bottom will spell doom for Gruden's future. -- Kevin Patra
It's time for Tom Coughlin to win
At some point, Tom Coughlin is going to have to show again he can coach in the regular season. He has coached as many 10-win teams since 2009 as Brad Childress. The Giants don't want to ever fire Coughlin, but it's hard to imagine that he wouldn't have to retire if the Giants fail to produce a winning season. Re-hiring Steve Spagnuolo sounds like a good idea, but also sounds like a last gasp for an organization trying to recapture what made them great eight years ago. If Spags can't work his magic, Eli Manning will likely be playing for a new head coach in 2016 for the first time in his career. -- Gregg Rosenthal
Ken Whisenhunt's fate linked to Marcus Mariota
When you draft a hopeful franchise quarterback like Ken Whisenhunt just did, the clock immediately starts ticking. No, he will not be let go after one season if the Marcus Mariota experiment doesn't work out. But he will be under an incredibly powerful magnifying lens that can often alter the tenure of a head coach relatively new to the city.
If Mariota's first year is subpar, the offense will be blamed. Then the receivers, the line and the backs. The personnel department will take a hit for not surrounding Mariota with power spread players and, before you know it, everyone is clamoring for someone to come in that has experience with guys like Mariota. It's a doomsday scenario, of course, but one can bet Whisenhunt knew what he was getting himself into when he helped turn in the draft card. -- Conor Orr
Teflon Joe needs results
Sometimes I forget that Joe Philbin still has a job. Most coaches in the NFL get a pink slip if they can't crack the postseason in three seasons on the job, and yet there he is. Teflon Joe is a survivor. In 2015, he'll take the reins of a Dolphins team with real expectations after signing Ryan Tannehill to a fat new extension and handing Ndamukong Suh the most guaranteed money ever for a defensive free agent. The Dolphins should be competitive in an increasingly feisty AFC East, and Philbin is unlikely to continue to receive the benefit of the doubt if Miami again bobs at the .500 mark. -- Dan Hanzus
The latest Around The NFL Podcast features the triumphant return of Dan Hanzus and discusses the biggest mysteries heading into training camp. |
Arsene Wenger has explained why he does not delay loan moves until after Arsenal’s Capital One Cup campaign.
The Gunners currently have 11 players gaining further first-team experience at teams in the Premier League, Championship, League One and abroad.
Some would otherwise have played in Tuesday night's League Cup tie at Sheffield Wednesday, but Wenger has no regrets at letting them go.
Login or register to play video 09:37 Sheffield Wednesday (a) - Highlights
“I think we were a bit punished by the fact we had many players out on loan, but it's difficult to block them until November and not let them go just because you have a League Cup game,” he told Arsenal Player.
“So this season, for example, I had many players go who would have played on Tuesday night like Chuba, Gedion, Maitland-Niles, Dan Crowley - they would all have played. But I think about the development of the player and they are at an age where they need competition.
“We play them early so they arrive [in the squad] at the age of 19 and they've already played two or three years in the under-21s. You don't feel they move forward anymore, they need something different, to feel that their progress continues.
“The only thing is to play regularly for a first team that has a responsibility for results.” |
(Lula Marques/AGPT)
SÃO PAULO - O relator da reforma política na comissão especial da Câmara dos Deputados, deputado Vicente Cândido (PT-SP), deve incluir em seu relatório um artigo que, se aprovado, impedirá a partir da eleição de 2018 a prisão de candidatos até oito meses antes da eleição. As informações são do jornal "O Estado de S. Paulo".
Sem alarde, a proposta, que já ganhou o apelido de “emenda Lula”, alteraria o Artigo 236 do Código Eleitoral, que proíbe a prisão 15 dias antes do pleito.
Ao jornal, Vicente Cândido afirmou que a nova regra beneficia o ex-presidente petista, condenado nesta semana pelo juiz Sérgio Moro a 9 meses e meio de prisão, e que foi pensada para “blindar” não só ele, mas políticos investigados. “Lula também, como qualquer outro. É nossa arma contra esse período de judicialização da política", afirmou.
Para alterar o prazo que impede a prisão, o deputado criou a figura da habilitação prévia da candidatura. O político terá entre 1 e 28 de fevereiro do ano da eleição para solicitar o certificado à Justiça, que poderá concedê-lo até 30 de abril. Após obter o certificado, o candidato ganha uma espécie de salvo-conduto que o impediria de ser preso daquele momento até 48 horas depois do pleito. A exceção continua sendo a prisão em flagrante. A reforma política será votada no dia 3 de agosto pela comissão da Câmara e, para valer em 2018, precisa ser aprovada pelo Congresso até setembro.
A proposta gerou reações de políticos. A senadora Ana Amélia (PP-RS) escreveu em sua página noTwitter: "quando a sociedade exige uma reforma política moralizadora, é inaceitável e provocadora a manobra para livrar Lula e outros políticos da inelegibilidade nas eleições de 2018”.
Ao jornal O Globo, o deputado Espiridião Amin afirmou: "essa proposta não tem cabimento. Daqui a pouco a candidatura vai ser um passe livre para bandido. É uma ideia infeliz, a famosa proposta indecente. Não fui consultado e vou votar contra. É apenas uma tentativa de blindar bandido para se candidatar". |
About
Veteran actor well known for his partnership with director Spike Lee and for appearing in films like The Usual Suspects and King of New York. His performance as drug lord Gus Fring on Breaking Bad earned him the Best Supporting Actor Award from the 2012 Critic's Choice Television Awards, and a 2012 Emmy nomination. He plays Pastor Ramon Cruz in Netflix's The Get Down and Jorge in the Maze Runner films.
Before Fame
He played a slave child when he was eight - it was his fist exposure to the entertainment industry.
Trivia
He was a guest star in the NBC cult sitcom Community as the half-brother of Chevy Chase's character Pierce Hawthorne.
Family Life
He married Joy McManigal in 1995. He has four daughters named Syrlucia, Kale Lyn, Shayne Lyra, and Ruby Esposito.
Associated With
He acted alongside Nicole Kidman in the 2010 film Rabbit Hole. |
Still think the War on Women isn’t real???
[Title edited for clarity]
Michigan House Representative Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga) was prevented from speaking on the House floor today by Republican leadership. She and other Democrats asked to speak on a package of pay equity bills that would address income inequality in Michigan.
They were rebuffed.
From a statement by House Democrats:
State Representative Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga) and other House Democrats today took House Republicans to task for repeatedly failing to recognize the needs of women in Michigan. So far this year, House Republicans have repeatedly shown they don’t share women’s priorities in matters such as pay equity, women’s health care, middle-class taxes and teacher retirement. Today, little more than a month after she was barred by House Republicans from speaking on the House floor after voicing opposition to an anti-choice bill, Rep. Barb Byrum once again tried to speak in the House, this time in favor of a package of bills that would address pay equity. Again, she was denied the chance to speak.
“House Republicans decided again to not let me speak today on the House Floor, but they can’t stop millions of Michigan women from speaking out in November,” Byrum said. “The women of this state want leaders who share their priorities, including fair pay, access to women’s health care and a fair tax system for their families. These are values House Republicans don’t share with us.”
According to House Dems, so far this year, House Republicans have:
Refused to allow debate or committee testimony on pay equity bills on the House Floor (House Bills 4611-4614)
Refused to allow discussion of bills that would undo tax changes that disproportionately hurt middle-class families, such as the elimination of the child deduction, the reduction of the homestead exemption and earned income tax credits and the senor tax (HB 5640)
Railroaded through sweeping anti-abortion measures, including the over-regulation of clinics that perform abortions (HB 5711)
Pushed through changes to the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) that will result in no pensions for future teachers and that disproportionately affect women, who comprise 73.7 percent of the current teachers in the system and 70 percent of the retired teachers (SB 1040)
Rep. Dian Slavens of Canton said, “It is time this Legislature demonstrates that they understand the needs of women and middle-class families in this state. I believe that the people of Michigan deserve elected leaders who do get it. We have been speaking to women around the state about the things that matter most to them, and we understand their concerns.”
Michigan Republicans, drunk with power, continue run roughshod over the rights of women and Democrats in general and, as was revealed yesterday, over the rules and basic ethics standards we should be able to expect from our lawmakers.
If Michiganders didn’t already have enough reasons to get out the vote & get out and vote, their treatment of the women in our state, including their female colleagues should be ample reason to push them over the edge.
We don’t just need change in Michigan. We need revolutionary change.
Our Democratic legislators are certainly ready. “We have been working so hard to promote measures that help the people of this state, not just corporate special interests,” Representative Stacy Erwin Oakes (D-Saginaw) said in a statement. “We will continue fighting for the things that matter, because the people of Michigan have told us that’s what they want us to do.”
[Byrum photo credit: Anne C. Savage]
P.S. If you are getting value from what you find here at Eclectablog, please note that we are in the middle of our third quarter fundraiser (more info in our post this morning “Day Three – Third Quarter fundraiser – “We’re going to the Democratic National Convention” edition”.) If you can make a contribution to help us continue to fight the good fight, we’d really appreciate it. You can do so using this convenient Paypal link (you can change the default $25 donation amount to whatever you’d like it to be). Thanks.
Chris, Anne, and LOLGOP
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Clowns brawled with animal rights protesters under a circus big top in San Bernardino on the night of Friday Apr. 17, 2015 (Published Monday, April 20, 2015)
Clowns brawled with animal rights protesters under a circus big top in San Bernardino Friday night.
Hundreds of spectators watched the fight break out when workers allegedly tried to stop the activists from forcing their way inside after the Ramos Bros. Circus show began.
Two protestors were arrested following the melee, while two circus employees were injured when the fight broke out at 8:08 p.m., according to a San Bernardino Police Department spokesman.
Ringmaster Oliver Ramos claimed his lip was split after he was hit on the face with his megaphone in trying to keep protestors outside.
"All of a sudden when I turned around one of them jumped on top of my uncle - he's over 68-years-old - and they started beating on him and I reacted," Ramos said. "When I pulled them off they hit me with a megaphone in the face and all these ladies started scratching me on the face."
However protester Nicholas Shaw-McMinn claimed they were protesting non-violently, and that protesters were the ones attacked by the circus workers.
"Employees locked us on the property and wouldn't let us leave. They assaulted... multiple protestors, some with weapons," Shaw-McMinn said.
He also claimed one of the workers placed him in a choke hold during the clash.
The activists, who said they are members of the Direct Action Everywhere group, provided video which showed them protesting outside the big top before the melee.
The Ramos Bros. Circus website boasts that the show features "animals from all over the world," showing images of lamas, camels and horses.
Ramos said he does not mind activists protesting on the street but wants them to stay off the property where the circus is performing. He also believes something has to be done to prevent further clashes occurring
"These people are just crazy fanatics… it has to stop. These people are getting out of hand," Ramos said.
However it seems they will not be staying away, as more than 100 protesters are expected to show up for more demonstrations taking place Saturday.
The "Protest Ramos Bros. Circus" Facebook page says: "Traveling animal acts perpetuate animal cruelty, inhumane care, public safety hazards and distorted images of wildlife.
"As compassionate animal lovers we must stop animal entertainment and extend our love to all animals. Animals are not our (sic) to use, they are not our property; they are beings that desire the same freedoms as us."
It also claims circus animals are trained using methods such as whipping, hitting, poking, and shocking with electrical prods. |
On Sunday, Daesh recruiters dispatched text messages to young men in Brussels’ Muslim-dominated district of Molenbeek, calling on them to "make the right choice" and "fight the westerners."
The texts, according to a recent statement from Belgium’s health minister, were sent from an untraceable prepaid account and followed the distribution of a Facebook video showing Molenbeek youth celebrating last week’s terror attacks in Brussels that left at least 35 dead.
The SMS text message, written in French, says: "My brother, why not fight the westerners? Make the right choice in your life."
The use of mass, targeted online communication via social networks to distribute propaganda has heightened tensions in Brussels following the attacks, and has seen ever more strident calls for crackdowns against the Muslim community and barring entry for refugees. Officials fear that in the wake of the tragic attacks, disillusioned Muslim youth who face increased persecution may respond to Daesh’s call for violent extremism.
"These people are trying to take our youth by storm," said Jamal Ikazban, a local Socialist MP. "It is like having a big-time drug dealer outside the school gates. We feel the same. They have to be taken off the streets. They are predators and our youths are the victims."
The move by jihadists, dispatching call-to-arms text messages during a police lockdown, could incite tensions in Brussels and potentially leaves the recipients subject to investigation by Belgian authorities.
Community leaders are stepping up to try to reduce the risk of radicalization among Molenbeek’s Muslim youth population and to prevent increased turbulence from the region’s far-right. One such leader seeking to calm to turbid waters is Jamal Zaria, an imam at Molenbeek’s Arafat mosque who is meeting with community parents to come up with strategies to render terrorist propaganda ineffective.
© REUTERS / Chris Keane Trump Campaign Manager Charged With Assaulting Reporter – Reports
"Our kids are being exposed to something like cancer at a metastasic stage," said Zaria, "It is really spreading very quickly. We have to race against time to develop an immune system for the children in our community so they reject the message of Daesh."
Notwithstanding efforts within the Islamic community to counter terror propaganda and to inoculate the community’s children against extremism, the polarization between Belgium’s Muslim and Christian communities has been amplified by new calls to expel Muslims.
© REUTERS / Vincent Kessler Belgian Lower House Committee Approves Night Police Anti-Terror Raids
One ultraconservative group will attempt to hold an “expel the Islamists” demonstration in Molenbeek on Saturday. The march has been banned due to fears that it will incite violence, but Belgian nationalists have successfully defied previous march prohibitions. |
The Biggest Election Surprise of the Year May Actually Be in West Africa
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh once vowed to rule his country for “one billion years.” He was only 999,999,978 years off. On Friday, Jammeh lost his country’s general election to opposition leader Adama Barrow after 22 years in power.
The defeat comes as a huge shock — not only because an unlikely opposition leader ousted an authoritarian president with a penchant for coups, but also because the president accepted the loss. “It’s really unique that someone who has been ruling this country for so long has accepted defeat,” Gambian electoral commission chief Alieu Momar Njie told reporters.
Barrow earned 45.5 percent of the vote, while Jammeh trailed with 36.7 percent, according to the BBC. The surprise win by an opposition figure — and Jammeh’s even more surprising acceptance of his loss — is a historic moment for the tiny West African nation, which hasn’t had a smooth power transfer since gaining independence in 1965.
Jammeh has ruled Africa’s smallest nation with an iron fist since first wresting power in a coup in 1994. His repressive regime impoverished an already underdeveloped country; the poverty rate that has hovered around 50 percent for years, according to the World Bank. Since taking power, he’s unleashed his security forces to torture, intimidate, arrest, and suppress dissenters to keep his grip on power, according to Human Rights Watch.
Instances of dictators losing their own ‘window dressing’ election are rare. But there was a perfect storm of various factors that turned the tide in Gambian opposition’s favor, said Jeff Smith, founder of Vanguard Africa.
“First, the opposition was unified and energized in a way that they had never been before,” Smith told Foreign Policy. The government’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in April and May garnered international scrutiny and galvanized various opposition factions. “It was the longest and most defiant act of public disobedience the country witnessed since Jammeh came to power,” Smith said.
Then there’s Europe’s refugee crisis. “Gambia plays an outsized role in the crisis,” Smith said. “It’s the fourth largest ‘exporter’ of refugees to Italy this year, despite being one of Africa’s smallest countries.” This raised Europe’s awareness of the plights of Gambians and ratcheted up international scrutiny on Jammeh’s regime.
And then, there’s the enigmatic dictator himself. Jammeh’s brutal and bizarre antics have drawn an international media spotlight that both enraged his people and energized the opposition over the years. It starts with his public proclamations. He led state-sanctioned ‘witch hunts and threatened to personally slit the throats of gay men in a public speech.
He also isolated Gambia abroad. When he won reelection in 2011 in results that many international observers questioned, he told critics to “go to hell.” In 2013, he withdrew from the Commonwealth, the 54-nation group of former British colonies, after the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office released a report charging Gambia with human rights abuses. Jammeh also pulled Gambia out of the International Criminal Court for alleged bias against African nations; one of his ministers called it the “International Caucasian Court” when explaining the government’s decision to withdraw.
Suffice it to say, Gambians were clearly ready for change. And facing a wave of popular dissent and international pressures, he had to relent.
“Jammeh faced such a surprising groundswell of support for the opposition that they couldn’t fudge the numbers to the point where they could make it credible that they won,” Smith said. That hasn’t stopped dictators before, but international pressure made have tipped the scale, particularly pressure from his own neighborhood of relatively successful West African democracies. “For a number of years, the regional leaders have become fed up with Jammeh,” Smith said. “He’s a black eye on a region that’s performed overwhelmingly well writ large.”
The United States and European Union also made clear an intent to slap sanctions on the country if Jammeh stole the elections again, as did neighboring countries like Senegal, which surrounds the tiny sliver of land that comprises Gambia. This, coupled with a determined and unified opposition, convinced the president to accept his loss.
Jammeh, to defend his dictatorial cred, did try to make things difficult for the opposition as his country headed to the polls. In a classically authoritarian move, his regime banned internet and international phone calls when the country took to the polls. He also barred EU election observers from monitoring the process. But it didn’t deter Gambians from voting him out.
His successor is a relatively new and inexperienced figure in Gambian politics. Adama Barrow is a real estate manager with little government experience (though he was reportedly a former retail store security guard in London before he threw his hat into the ring of Gambian politics.) He wasn’t supposed to be the face of the opposition, but Jammeh threw many other would-be frontrunners in jail. “He was thrust into this position because the leaders of party he’s a member of, the United Democratic Party, are all in prison,” Smith said.
When Barrow takes office, he has a tough road ahead. The first item on the agenda is healing a nation that has suffered a traumatic dictatorship for over two decades. And then there’s the administrative challenges.
“Jammeh ran Gambia as a mafia state,” said Smith. “The state does not exist without him, so there’s a huge void that Barrow has to fill.” He said there’s little economic opportunity but Gambians are hopeful for the change new leadership could usher in.
That void is a particularly deep and bizarre rabbit hole, starting quite simply with Jammeh’s resume. Officially, it painstakingly lists some 80 awards he’s received as president, ranging from the “Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska” (yes, that one is real) to an “Honorary Degree in Herbal and Homeopathic Medicine” from Belgium’s Jean Monnet European University, to the “Most Student Loving and Innovative President in Africa” award to the “Kentucky Colonel Award” from the governor of Kentucky.
Oh, and don’t forget that Jammeh can cure asthma and (at least, he claims) AIDS — but don’t think that makes him a witch. “I am not a witch doctor, and in fact you cannot have a witch doctor. You are either a witch or a doctor,” he said, when his purported medical miracles came to light.
And if titles alone won elections, Jammeh would have clinched a win; his formal title is His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Doctor Yahya AJJ Jammeh Babili Mansa. (He added Babili Mansa, meaning ‘conqueror of rivers,’ to his title in 2015).
A 2014 coup attempt adds another strange layer to his story. The coup ringleaders were a Texan real estate developer and a Minnesotan computer studies teacher who served 10 years in the U.S. Army. Because of course. The FBI later arrested the two men, both U.S. citizens of Gambian descent.
None of Jammeh’s awards, strange antics, or his ability to dodge coup attempts, curried favor with his people, as the voters showed Friday. It’s an upset few — including Barrow himself — expected. But international scrutiny on the bizarre and brutal dictator may have been the final nail in the coffin of Jammeh’s reign.
“For years, the opposition struggled and put their lives on the line without anyone taking note,” Smith said. But when international media shed light on the Gambian leader, they also brought the plight of his people to light.
“The opposition wouldn’t back down,” Smith said. “This time, they knew the world was watching.”
Photo credit: MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images |
KYLE RUDOLPH - LAROSA'S MVP OF THE WEEK WINNER NAME: Kyle Rudolph
SCHOOL: Elder High School
SPORT(S): Basketball-Football
GRADUATING YR.: 2008
BIRTHDATE: 11-9-89
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6'7" – 240 lbs.
RESIDENCE: Green Township
PARENTS: Dan & Jamie
BIGGEST INFLUENCE: "My grandpa."
FUTURE GOAL: "Play in the NFL."
MVP ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Kyle is a 2-sport superstar in basketball and football. In basketball, he is a 2-time GCL Player of the Year, last season helping the Panthers to a 22-3 record while he led the league in points (17.2), rebounds (11) and blocks (1.5). He was named Cincinnati Div. I Player of the Year and 1st team all-Southwest Ohio district. In football, tight end Kyle during the regular season had 37 receptions for 623 yards and 11 touchdowns for the 7-4 Panthers. He was named 1st team all-league, 1st team all-city, 1st team SWO district and 2nd team all-Ohio. Kyle was also selected to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. A good student and member of National Honor Society, his favorite athlete is Antonio Gates, favorite movie is Rudy and favorite book is Catcher in the Rye. Kyle will play football next season at the University of Notre Dame.
COACH'S QUOTE -- "Kyle is the true definition of what you would want your son to, not only emulate, but also approach and treat others the way he does. He has grown into one of the finest athletes I have ever coached, and one of the finest people I have known." -- Doug Ramsey, Football Coach |
In the last few months, some anti-immigrant activists as well as some anti-Muslim bloggers writing about Muslim immigration have ratcheted up their anti-Muslim rhetoric. Even more disturbing, some national and local political figures have joined the ranks of those who proclaim that Muslims are unable to assimilate into American culture. They have declared that Muslims are invading the country with the intent to take it over.
This kind of anti-immigrant rhetoric is not new. The same kind of sentiment has also been directed at Latino immigrants, particularly Mexicans. For example, anti-immigrant extremists have long promoted the Atzlan conspiracy theory that claims that Mexican immigrants are planning on taking over the Southwestern part of the United States. Today’s focus is increasingly on Muslim immigration, which is seen as far more insidious.
Anti-immigrant activists are using the atrocities committed by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and Muslim extremists to generate fear about all Muslims, including American citizens. Anti-immigrant bloggers such as Colorado-based Frosty Wooldridge (until recently a board member of the Federation for American Immigration Reform) and California-based Brenda Walker use virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric to demonize Muslims.
Anti-Muslim themes
Anti-immigrant activists and anti-Muslim bigots writing about Muslim immigration tend to focus on a number of common themes that stress the idea that Muslims are different from other groups, are intent on destroying America in some way and promote violence against all non-Muslims. Many claim that the U.S. State Department is planning on accepting a huge number of refugees from Syria and proclaim that this will lead to disaster.
Proclaiming an invasion
Anti-immigrant bloggers, as well as anti-Muslim bigots, warn that there is a “Muslim invasion” that will result in Muslims being the dominant religious group in the U.S. Carol Brown, who maintains an anti-Muslim blog and writes for an online publication, American Thinker, wrote an article in the latter titled, “The Muslim population of America is expanding at warp speed.” In the article, she insisted that Muslim immigrants are trying to conquer the U.S. and that “Muslim refugees swarm into the United States as part of this conquest.” She claimed,
That Muslim majority countries have not opened their doors to these refugees is, I am confident, quite by design. This is about conquest. Otherwise known as Hijira the Islamic doctrine of immigration. Hijra works in concert with violent jihad to overwhelm a society until Islam becomes the single dominant force.
Brown’s piece on the Muslim population in America was circulated on anti-immigrant websites.
Even Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, alleged that Muslims want to invade America. In January 2015, Jindal insisted that there were “no-go zones” for non-Muslims in Europe despite European leaders disputing this assertion. He later went on a radio show and reportedly attacked Muslim immigration, saying, “If they want to come here and they want to set up their own culture and values that’s not immigration, that’s really invasion if you’re honest about it.”
Equating Islam with violent extremism
Perhaps the most common theme is that Islam is an inherently violent religion whose adherents bring violence wherever they go. Brown, writing in American Thinker, declared that “we are importing Islamic terror. Not because every Muslim is a terrorist. But because enough of them are. And plenty more who don’t commit acts of terror support it—quietly at home or loudly in the street.”
Frosty Wooldridge shares Brown’s view and goes even further. He has long targeted immigrants in his blogs, painting them as invaders and destroyers of American culture. In the past, he has focused mostly on Latino immigrants but over the last few months has written a multi-part series demonizing Muslims. He continues to add to the series, titled, “Impregnating America with Muslims.” In Part 6, titled “Violent Religion to Conquest,” he claimed, “Today in America, we feature Islamic jihadists terror compounds where Muslim immigrants streaming into this country from all over the Middle East—train to kill us and destroy our country.”
In the first article of the series, entitled, “Consequences to Our Society,” Wooldridge asserted that Muslims want to kill all non- Muslims. He argued, “In order to be faithful to the Islamic religion, Muslims ultimately must degrade and kill all other people who follow any other religions.”
In an article titled, “Muslim Immigration Poses Serious National Security Threat,” posted in the online publication Investor’s Business Daily, anti-Muslim blogger Paul Sperry added his voice to those who believe an influx of Muslim immigrants would lead to terrorism in the U.S. He wrote, “The main homeland threat from groups like IS [Islamic State] comes through our immigration system. If they also use our loose policies as a vehicle for jihad and Islamization, we will face the same crisis as Eurabia [a derogatory term meant to describe Muslim immigration to Europe.]
An anti-immigrant group Citizens Council on Illegal Immigration, based in Utah, citing Sperry’s article about Muslim immigration, argued, “The time to be concerned about lung cancer is before one starts smoking, not after cancer is detected. The time to be concerned about terrorists infiltrating America is before they arrive and attack shopping malls, not after their growing numbers threaten our national security.”
After the terrorist attacks in Paris on the Charlie Hebdo office and a kosher market, former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo argued that Islam was responsible for terrorism. In a January 12, 2015 column for the online publication World Net Daily, he wrote, “So, here we are again, being told that we can’t blame Islam for the murderous acts that have cost thousands of lives since 9/11 and millions of lives since the 14th century! Well, then let me ask a simple question: If Islam did not exist, how many of these events would have occurred?”
Muslims refuse to assimilate
Another common theme for anti-immigration activists and bloggers is that Muslims cannot adapt to American life or culture. Along with that claim is that assertion that the Muslim community is “breeding” terrorists. Sperry, writing about Muslim immigration, argued that Muslims in cities like Alexandria, Virginia, Deaborn, Michigan or Minneapolis refuse to assimilate. He writes:
They resemble little Cairos, with their Arabic store signage, halal butchers, hookah bars and even blaring calls to prayer from mosque minarets. Such cultural diversity might be quaint if not for the fact these heavily Muslim immigrant enclaves are also breeding grounds for terrorism.
Brenda Walker is a long-time anti-immigrant blogger who writes for the racist website VDARE. In a February 18 posting she suggests that Muslim parents are having “the talk” about “Islamophobia” with their children as a way of promoting “Islamic supremacy.”
Muslim parents located here are imparting traditional Islamic supremacism to Mohammed Jr. and little Aisha, teaching them to behave differently because Americans are racist and Islamophobic. Better chill that discussion about headchopping being a proper punishment for non-Allahbots, for example.
Mainstream officials have also promoted the idea that Muslims cannot accept American culture, customs or laws. In January 2015, Texas representative Molly White posted an offensive Facebook message in response to “Texas Muslim Capitol Day,” when Muslim constituents visit the Capitol in Austin to lobby and meet with lawmakers. White wrote that she instructed her staff “to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws.”
When members of the Muslim community attempted to hold a press conference that day, a group of about two dozen protestors disrupted them. One woman grabbed a microphone from one of the organizers and shouted, “Islam will never dominate the United States and by the grace of God, it will never dominate Texas.” As the Muslim group tried to sing the American national anthem, other protestors screamed, “Islam is a lie,” and “No Sharia here!” Sharia refers to the body of Islamic law.
As the Muslim community participated in American democracy on Texas Muslim Capitol Day, the protestors, which included some anti-immigrant activists, tried to paint them as outsiders who cannot assimilate into American life. |
AMD has reached its biggest marketshare milestone in over a decade, overtaking Intel in both units sold and revenue at Germany’s largest online retailer. The data pulled from the “Newegg” of Germany, Mindfactory.de, shows AMD’s Ryzen and Threadripper CPU sales growing over several months to finally overtake Intel in August.
AMD’s Threadripper CPUs in particular have done exceptionally well, generating a significant amount of revenue for the Sunnyvale California based chipmaker. The Ryzen Threadripper family was introduced just a month ago to great critical acclaim. The Ryzen Threadripper 1950X was AMD’s first processor in over fifteen years to be crowned the world’s fastest, outpacing Intel’s best by over 45%.
Related NVIDIA & AMD Graphics Card Prices Drop by up to 18% Across the Board
A Historic Milestone For The Perennial Underdog
The sales data, which Mindfactory.de makes public, has been collected and regularly catalogued by a redditor.
The data shows AMD with just 27.6% of the desktop CPU unit share in March, when Ryzen first came out. A figure that grew every month to hit nearly 49% in July, and finally surpassing Intel with over 56% of the unit share in August. AMD’s explosive share growth at the e-tailer amounts to a doubling of units sold in just six months.
AMD’s best seller appears to be the Ryzen 5 1600, which should be of little surprise considering the incredible value this six core processor offers at just $220. In close second, third and fourth are AMD’s Ryzen 7 1700, Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 7 1700X.
In sharp contrast to AMD’s diverse lineup of highly popular chips, only a single SKU accounts for nearly half of all of Intel’s desktop unit sales and that’s the i7 7700K. This explains why the 7700K continues to maintain somewhat of a grip on Amazon’s #1 best seller spot, whilst AMD’s Ryzen chips often occupy the majority of the top 5.
Related AMD’s Open Source Vulkan Ray Tracing Engine Debuting In Games This Year – Radeon Rays 2.0
Breaking things up by revenue is more revealing. Unlike the AMD of old, the data clearly demonstrates that this incredible share growth hasn’t come at the cost of sacrificing profitability. As the company still manages to command the lion’s share of the revenue and not just the volume of units shifted.
The revenue data also reveals that whilst Threadripper accounts for only a tiny percentage of the company’s unit share, it actually represents a healthy portion of the revenue share. In the blue corner once again we see a single SKU, the i7 7700K accounting for the majority of the company’s desktop sales revenue.
The CPU War Is Heating Up And AMD Is Coming Out On Top
It goes without saying that different markets around the globe will react differently to the same product. And while this Mindfactory.de data represents a snapshot of sentiment in Germany, Europe’s biggest PC hardware market, it’s also a reflection of a wider reaction that we’ve seen take place all over the globe. It’s a reaction by consumers to a genuinely competitive product in segment of the PC hardware market that lacked meaningful competition for many years.
Ryzen has certainly taken the world by storm, but Intel is not sitting idly by. Unlike Skylake-X, which has largely been viewed as an underwhelming response to AMD’s Threadripper at best, Coffee Lake, which is only a month away, is shaping up to be a more formidable challenger.
The question of whether AMD will be able maintain its remarkable growth in the desktop channel will rely entirely on how consumers react to Coffee Lake. When all is said and done, one must appreciate the fact that for the first time in ages, fierce competition is back in the CPU market and if this sales data is anything to go by hardware enthusiasts are loving every minute of it. |
The way forward for autoworkers: An online interview with Jerry White
15 October 2015
This Sunday, October 18, at 3:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (conversions here), the World Socialist Web Site will host an online interview with WSWS Autoworker Newsletter editor Jerry White to review the political lessons of the contract fight. White will be joined by WSWS reporter Eric London, who will conduct the interview and field questions from autoworkers across the country. The interview will be broadcast at wsws.org/autoworkers/interview.
The battle by autoworkers in the United States has reached a critical juncture. After Fiat Chrysler workers overwhelmingly defeated the contract pushed by the United Auto Workers earlier this month, the UAW has brought back another deal crafted to meet the strategic aims of the auto corporations and Wall Street.
No matter what the spin the UAW’s PR firm puts on it, the new deal, like the first, would accelerate the descent of autoworkers—once among the highest-paid industrial workers in the world—into the ranks of the working poor.
The challenges autoworkers face are immense, but the forces they can mobilize among workers and youth in the US and around the world are more powerful. To carry out a successful struggle, however, autoworkers who are leading this fight have to have a clear understanding of the economic and political forces that they confront.
To submit a question in advance of the interview, please register below. We urge our readers to make a donation to help the WSWS broaden the campaign amongst US autoworkers. |
Colorado Springs, Colo. --- San José State University's 18-game regular season Mountain West schedule was revealed by the conference on Tuesday. The Spartans open up conference play on the road at Nevada on December 28, and return to The Event Center to face Colorado State in the conference home-opener on January 4.
"We are excited to release our 2016-17 conference schedule as the Mountain West will once again become one of the toughest conferences in America," said Spartans' head coach Dave Wojcik. "We look forward to the challenges ahead, and expect to continue improving as we build our program into one of the most formidable in the league."
The schedule format for the 11-member league includes eight home-and-home series and two one-time opponents. In 2016-17, San José State will play Utah State once at home (2/22) and New Mexico once on the road (2/4).
The Spartans' oldest rival Fresno State, visits San Jose on January 7 before the team heads out for two on the road at San Diego State (1/11) and at Air Force (1/14). The Aztecs and Spartans collide again inside The Event Center on February 8.
Last season the Spartans and Runnin' Rebels of UNLV only met once, but this year the two teams will square off in San Jose on January 28 and in Las Vegas on February 11.
Boise State, which fell at the hands of San José State in last year's regular-season finale, comes back to The Event Center on January 21. It will be the second of back-to-back home games for SJSU as it welcomes Wyoming on January 18.
SJSU will play at Wyoming for the second year in a row on their senior night, which marks the regular-season finale for both teams on March 4. Three days before that, San José State will honor its seniors Isaac Thornton and Gary Williams, Jr. , in the home finale versus the Nevada Wolf Pack.
Today's release represents the first phase in the 2016-17 men's basketball schedule process. The Mountain West's national television partners CBS Sports Network and ESPN, and regional partner ROOT SPORTS, will go through a selection process lasting through the middle of August. The selections may shift Wednesday games to Tuesday and Saturday games to Sunday.
An announcement about television selections will be made on SJSUSpartans.com at the appropriate time.
Additionally, the Conference announced the format for the 2017 MW Men's Basketball Championship. The tournament begins with first-round games on Wednesday March 8 and the championship game is set for 3:00 p.m. PT on Saturday, March 11. |
Last week, we took a stab at naming one All-Star squad that spanned both leagues, and judging by the actual rosters that were announced Sunday we guessed pretty well.
But what about, for lack of a better term, the Non-Stars? The players who've put up the most disappointing first halves in baseball, relative to expectations? What would that team look like?
FAGAN: The best players not on an All-Star roster — yet
Let's go position by position and find the players who fit the bill:
C: Jonathan Lucroy, Rangers
Numbers: .263/.311/.375, 4 HR, 20 RBI, 0.1 WAR
Why he's here: Lucroy's numbers are way down from his career averages across the board, and he's in danger of posting his lowest OPS since his rookie season in 2010. One of the better offensive catchers in baseball up until this year, Lucroy was supposed to be a key cog in a powerful Rangers lineup but has underachieved just like the entire team. There have been rumblings that the team is listening to offers for him, which shows just how far out of favor he's fallen.
1B: Miguel Cabrera, Tigers
Numbers: .264/.358/.456, 11 HR, 39 RBI, 0.5 WAR
Why he's here: First base was a tough position to fill, because there really isn't one guy who's having the kind of year that would land him on this list. So it's the future Hall of Famer Cabrera almost by default, as he's sporting what would be the lowest slugging percentage of his career and his lowest OPS since 2003. It's worth noting that Cabrera went crazy at the plate in the second half last year, so his stay on this list may be short-lived.
2B: Rougned Odor, Rangers
Numbers: .211/.249/.387, 14 HR, 35 RBI, -0.3 WAR
Why he's here: The league seems to have adjusted to Odor after his breakout 2016 season, and he's yet to adjust back. Like his teammate Lucroy, Odor has underachieved considerably with an OPS that right now is 162 points lower than his total from last year. He's never been an on-base demon, but this year he's striking out at an alarming rate and managed just one walk the entire month of June. He's dug himself quite a hole in the first half, and he's yet to find the answers to get himself out.
SS: Trevor Story, Rockies
Numbers: .224/.305/.409, 11 HR, 31 RBI, 0.6 WAR
Why he's here: Expectations were sky-high for Story after his impressive debut last year, when he looked to be neck-and-neck with Corey Seager in the NL ROY race before an injury ended his season early. He hasn't quite lived up to those expectations thus far, posting mostly pedestrian numbers while playing in one of the best hitter's parks in the game. He hasn't been bad, per se — he's dealt with injuries this year, too — but considering what he showed last year, it's hard not to be disappointed with the numbers he's put up in the first half.
The Rockies' Trevor Story has struggled to match the performance he showed early in his rookie season. (Getty Images)
3B: Manny Machado, Orioles
Numbers: .217/.289/.420, 15 HR, 38 RBI, 1.0 WAR
Why he's here: The past two seasons made it look like Machado would be a perennial MVP candidate, which is why his start to the year has been so puzzling. He was bothered by a wrist injury early in June, and it's possible that it's still affecting him, but that doesn't explain away his struggles in April and May. Whatever the reason, Machado's first half might be the most disappointing in either league.
HOME RUN DERBY: Participants, date, time, how to watch
OF: Carlos Gonzales, Rockies
Numbers: .221/.300/.348, 6 HR, 20 RBI, -0.9 WAR
Why he's here: CarGo went through a horrendous slump in June, which at one point saw him go hitless in 27 straight at-bats. His numbers never recovered and he's on track to post his worst career numbers over a full season just before hitting free agency this winter. Talk about awful timing.
OF: Gregory Polanco, Pirates
Numbers: .246/.310/.379, 6 HR, 22 RBI, -0.1 WAR
Why he's here: He was expected to be a key cog in the Pirates' lineup after posting career-best numbers last year; however, the struggles that plagued him in the second half of '16 have carried over into this year. Polanco's numbers are rather pedestrian, and while he's had flashes this year (a .900 OPS in May, for instance) he hasn't been able to keep it up (a .520 OPS in June).
OF: Kyle Schwarber, Cubs
Numbers: .171/.295/.378, 12 HR, 28 RBI, -0.7 WAR
Why he's here: No one will forget his incredible comeback from a devastating injury last season to play in the World Series and help push the Cubs over the finish line. But Schwarber hasn't been able to carry over that momentum into this season, to the point where his struggles became so pronounced that the Cubs had no choice but to send him to the minors to get straightened out. This definitely wasn't the season anyone had in mind for Schwarber after watching him hit .412 in the World Series last fall.
DH: Albert Pujols, Angels
Numbers: .234/.278/.372, 11 HR, 52 RBI, -1.2 WAR
Why he's here: Father Time is undefeated, as the old saying goes, and he seems to finally be catching up to Pujols. While he's still a smart, dangerous hitter at times, Pujols has seen his overall numbers plummet this year to career lows virtually across the board. And he still has four years left on his contract. Yeesh.
Albert Pujols reacts after striking out. (Getty Images)
SP: Rick Porcello, Red Sox
Numbers: 5.06 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, .312 BAA, -0.3 WAR
Why he's here: Like Dallas Keuchel in 2016, Porcello has been a huge disappointment the year after winning the AL Cy Young Award. Even if he wasn't expected to match last year's achievements, few could have seen such a major drop in production for Porcello, who hasn't been able to fool anyone this season. His teammate David Price could've taken this spot, too.
RP: Mark Melancon, Giants
Numbers: 4.35 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, .298 BAA, 4 blown saves, 0.1 WAR
Why he's here: The Giants gave him a monster contract last winter to fix their bullpen woes. It hasn't quite worked out that way, as Melancon has as many blown saves this season as he did in all of 2016 and has found his way to the DL twice. It's not much better than what the Giants got from their bullpen last year, only it's costing them a lot more money this time. In a year when almost nothing has gone right for the Giants, Melancon's performance still manages to stand out. |
Claudia Ng had recently purchased a 3D printer, and one of her first projects was to create the model for a Pokémon-themed planter for a friend. She posted it online, and it quickly went viral. The first version of the planter was a little rough, as you can see.
She then put the design on Shapeways, a site that allows you to create and share your own 3D-printed objects, and once again the design blew up. It's a simple idea, but one that we've yet to see in official merchandise. The game the design came from wasn't named, but the listing made a few winking references to the Pokémon franchise. Sales went well, but of course it couldn't last.
"Shapeways got a cease and desist from Pokémon International for infringement. They received this on Friday, and Shapeways took it down within the last hour," Ng told Polygon. "They are asking for all the money associated with this model and shapeways will not be printing or shipping any order for the past few days." She may be put in contact with Pokémon International, and she's not sure if anything will come from that potential meeting.
This outcome isn't very surprising for anyone involved. "I thought that this would fall under the boundaries of derivative and transformative work. I'm also not a lawyer, and I guess that is the least defined of rules and regulation," she explained.
"It's not that surprising. I just expected that they would go after people with more infringing designs," she continued. "Although I admit that it was inspired by my personal favorite starter Pokemon. It's generic-ness has been adored by people who are not Pokémon fans. Most commonly recognized as a Fat Cat. I've also had requests to do other animals and creatures."
It's a great idea for an official piece of merchandise though, so let's hope something comes of an official spin-off of the product. You can download the original model to print your own as well. |
Patrick Lefevere has talked up Tom Boonen ahead of the 2014 campaign, claiming that his Classics rider is far from finished. The Omega Pharma-QuickStep rider had a year to forget in 2013, consistently failing to hit top form due to persistent health and injury problems. Related Articles Tom Boonen wants to return to Tour de France
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It was a season which contrasted sharply to 2012 in which the 33-year-old won E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.
“Tom still has a great value for the team. Team owner Bakala spoke at the training camp to the squad and he told the team that Tom remains the figurehead - no one stood up to protest,” Lefevere told Gazet van Antwerpen.
"Quite a few people say that Boonen is finished. This is nonsense. He was rarely sharper, full of enthusiasm and has had brilliant tests.
"And what is most important is that his head is good. I expect a great season from him."
Despite the loss of Boonen for most of the season Omega Pharma-QuickStep enjoyed a successful season with 57 wins on the road. The signing of Rigoberto Uran from Team Sky has bolstered the team’s ambitions in the Grand Tours but the excitement has been slightly off-set by the loss of Sylvain Chavanel.
The Frenchman had been a consistent winner for the team since moving from Cofidis but according to Lefevere he could no longer afford to keep the future IAM Cycling rider.
"The sponsors wanted someone who could play a significant role during the Tour and that was Rigoberto Uran. As a result, there was no budgetary room for Chavanel." |
Sega is bringing a collection of its finest retro video games to iOS and Android devices via a new service called Sega Forever. Unlike its past mobile releases—which include the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog and Football Manager Mobile—the entire Sega Forever line-up is free-to-play and supported by ads. Players can optionally remove the ads via an in-app purchase for £2 (~$2.50).
There are five games in the Sega Forever launch line-up, consisting of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, RPG Phantasy Star II, beat 'em up Comix Zone, platformer Kid Chameleon, and the original Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) pack-in game Altered Beast. An iOS and Android version of the classic Dreamcast game Crazy Taxi launched in May, which is also free-to-play. Additional games are promised to launch every two weeks.
Although the launch line-up is exclusively made up of Mega Drive games, the Sega Forever Twitter feed has teased shots of other consoles, including the SG 1000, Dreamcast, and Saturn. How Sega tackles the Saturn will be particularly interesting given the difficulty developers have had creating a working emulator for the console's classically esoteric hardware.
While some Sega Forever games have previously been released on mobile, Sega has promised that all have been updated with modern features including cloud saves, controller support, and leaderboards. All games are also playable offline, regardless of whether users are playing the ad-free or ad-supported version. iOS players will receive a free iMessage sticker pack alongside each game.
Sega's previous retro catalogue has been largely well-received on mobile, but some games have suffered from performance issues. This is largely down to the use of emulators—which mimic original hardware and play Mega Drive ROMs—rather than ports made specifically for Android and iOS devices. For instance, an early emulated version of Sonic the Hedgehog was replaced by a superior port in 2013 alongside a port of Sonic CD. Christian Whitehead, the fangame developer behind the ports, has since moved in-house at Sega, developing the upcoming Sonic Mania for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.
Update: Sega Forever "will include both official emulations and ported games that span all Sega console eras." Sega has confirmed to Ars Technica that SG-1000, Master System, and Mega Drive/Genesis games will be run via an emulator, while Saturn and Dreamcast games will be direct ports.
The first set of Sega Forever games launches shortly on iOS and Android. Further games will launch every two weeks. |
Davis, who wanted to play and did appear at first base in the 11th, was initially listed in his usual fifth spot in the lineup. But after manager Buck Showalter spoke to the first baseman and conferred with the team's training staff, the O's decided to give Davis a day off.
NEW YORK -- Chris Davis was scratched from the starting lineup for Sunday's 11-inning, 7-4 Orioles win in New York after being hit by a pitch in the left elbow in Friday's series opener.
NEW YORK -- Chris Davis was scratched from the starting lineup for Sunday's 11-inning, 7-4 Orioles win in New York after being hit by a pitch in the left elbow in Friday's series opener.
Davis, who wanted to play and did appear at first base in the 11th, was initially listed in his usual fifth spot in the lineup. But after manager Buck Showalter spoke to the first baseman and conferred with the team's training staff, the O's decided to give Davis a day off.
View Full Game Coverage
Davis, who went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts on Saturday, was replaced by rookie Trey Mancini, who hit sixth, with catcher Welington Castillo batting fifth. |
At my high school, it wasn't "cool" to make an effort during PE. I distinctly remember being told this during a basketball game where I out-hustled a kid six inches taller than me for a rebound. I paused for a moment, and then went back to hustling. "Nah," I thought to myself. "I'd rather win." Ever since then, I've always considered myself on the side of the tryhards. If you can win with seemingly zero effort, good for you. But in my opinion, it's better to break a sweat than to lose the game.
The part of this blog post where I talk about playing sports is now complete. Thank you for your patience.
It's hard to think of Google as a scrappy underdog, but in the hardware business that's absolutely the case. And, more importantly, in the Paul-buys-phones-sometimes business, Google is almost a non-player.
In the Paul-buys-phones-sometimes business, Google is almost a non-player
I've been an iPhone user since the day the first model came out in 2007. I've used a bunch of Android devices for work, and even bought a couple for my personal use over the years, but I always come back to iOS's welcoming arms. But something about Google's hardware event this week really spoke to me, in a way that Apple's recent iPhone X event didn't.
Google looks like a bunch of tryhards right now, and it's great.
It sounds like a stupid distinction, but it matters to me that the Pixel 2 is $649, while the iPhone 8 is $699. Is $50 a lot of money? Not really. But by undercutting Apple on price (even just a little), Google looks hungry to compete, while Apple looks like it just needed a way to get more cash out of its regular customers.
According to Apple, people like me who enjoy small phone form factors don't deserve the best cameras the company has to offer. Google begs to differ, and managed to put its version of Apple’s Portrait Mode in both the Pixel 2 XL and the regular-human-sized Pixel 2, using the exact same sensors in both phones. Thanks, Google!
In Apple land, if you take too many photos and video you basically brick your phone, and even if you pay for extra iCloud storage beyond the sad default of 5GB, it’s a chore to keep your local storage clean. My solution? Don’t take too many pictures. In Google's world, cloud storage is cheap enough to offer as a carrot, and with the Pixel 2 you can upload unlimited original-quality video and photos to Google’s cloud. As a company desperate to contend with Apple and Samsung as a hardware brand, it makes sense that Google is willing to spend a few extra 2017 dollars on data centers to win converts who might stick around into the future.
Google sadly missed an opportunity to dunk all over Apple by keeping the headphone jack. But I do prefer the neckbud form factor of Google's Pixel Buds to Apple's imminently losable AirPods. I'm not going to put this in the "Google wants it more than Apple" column, but at least Google's tastes here line up with mine.
I like that Google moved the search bar down to the bottom of the phone where it’s easier to reach with my thumb. I like that Google is going with OLED on phones that aren't $999. I like that Google is doing a low-key Shazam on the phone 24/7, and can show me information when the screen is "off." I like that the Pixel 2 does quick charging with the charger that comes in the box. I think the Pixel 2 is beautiful. And the Pixel 2 XL with that orange side button and tastefully sized top and bottom bezels is perhaps the best-looking phone since the iPhone 5, if it wasn't a big phone which I hate.
It's like Google really gets me right now, in a way Apple just doesn't.
In fact, Apple is increasingly getting on my nerves. The number one app I use on my phone is Audible, but Apple’s draconian app policies mean I can’t actually purchase new books from within the Audible app. Apple’s FaceTime doesn’t support multi-person video calls, so I’ve been transitioning to Facebook Messenger for those purposes. iOS has always had the best and highest-quality third-party apps, and I feel like that’s still true, but I’m seeing more small upstarts and experimental apps show up as Android exclusives.
Apple is increasingly getting on my nerves
Many of the things that make Android appealing right now aren't new to Android users, but as an Apple user who has trusted deeply in one company to manage a large portion of my digital life for me, it's much more appealing to see Google offer an alternative to the iPhone than another hardware player like Samsung or LG. Google, now more than ever, has a clear vision for what phones should be like, how they should be used, and how they should integrate with Google services. I already use Google's Inbox, YouTube, and Docs on my iPhone all the time. Now that Google's hardware looks mature and in sync with its services, it's finally made me take Android seriously in a way I never have before.
I think I can tolerate my iPhone 7’s cracked screen for a few more months (maybe a little bit longer). But when the time comes to upgrade, I'm going to have a really hard decision to make. The iPhone 8 seems boring and lazy, the iPhone X is big and expensive, and Google's got a $649 phone now that’s almost made exactly to my tastes.
The hardest part of leaving the iPhone would be becoming a green bubble to my friends and family. iMessage has a powerful hold over me. But if I switch, it won't be me leaving iMessage. It will be the platform that runs iMessage leaving me. |
Amid the snipers, the rubble and the misery on many Syrian streets is another ugly phenomenon: garbage.
In Adel’s* hometown of Janoub al Malaab, a district of Hama city, piles of waste give off an odour that is nearly unbearable.
“You can see the dirt rot in the sun, and you can smell it. There are areas you cannot even approach because the stench is so bad,” said the local activist. “People are suffering from it.”
Solid waste disposal and collection has been severely disrupted in embattled areas of Syria, more than two years into a conflict that has spurred a public health crisis. In areas held by the rebels, the state has all but stopped providing waste collection services. Combined with worsening hygiene and soaring summer heat, the uncontrolled garbage is putting about five million people at risk of disease, according to Ahmedou Bahah, manager of water and sanitation programmes for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Syria.
“In July, temperatures will increase to up to 40 degrees, which poses a significant public health hazard in connection with the lack of clean water supply and waste management,” he told IRIN.
In the embattled districts of Homs, state dustcarts have not been seen for the past 16 months, since government troops started a devastating military campaign. Instead, civil activist networks have sprung up, organizing committees tasked with cleaning the streets.
“We collect all the trash in one place until there is a heap as big as a mountain,” said Mohammed*, a local activist. Usually, the activists create makeshift dumpsters (piles of rubbish) in areas that are now empty because residents have fled.
“Once or twice a week, we’d get a truck and move it outside. It’s dangerous, though, because you have to pass checkpoints, and the soldiers often accuse us of smuggling weapons inside,” he said. “Sometimes people have been arrested, and sometimes they have forced us to unload everything.”
Local efforts are also hampered by the ongoing clashes and limited capacities.
“We’ve tried to solve this problem, but it’s still bad,” said Ahmed, an activist in Albara, a town of 20,000 in the Jebel Azzawieh region of rebel-held Idlib Governorate. “You can find volunteers to collect the trash for one day or two, but not every day, and we don’t have funds to pay salaries.”
In addition, Ahmed said, to take away the refuse, they need trucks and fuel, which is expensive and not always available. “It’s a big town, so you need at least three vehicles if you want to clear the streets, but sometimes we can find only one.”
“Whenever there is fighting, there is a problem,” said Adel, the activist in Hama. Though the city is militarily under regime control, public services have severely eroded, he said, while intermittent clashes make it difficult for the residents to clear their own streets. For instance, snipers sometimes make it almost impossible to cross the streets, let alone walk around and collect the rubbish, he added.
When the army seals off certain districts, activists sometimes cannot take out the waste for weeks. “Then we bury it in the ground because there is nothing else we can do,” Mohammed said.
Coinciding with a general collapse of infrastructure as well as a severe disruption of the health system - the World Health Organization (WHO) says at least 35 percent of the country’s hospitals are out of service - the pile-up of rubbish is likely to lead to a proliferation of diseases, according to Basel al Yousfi, director of WHO’s Centre for Environmental Health Activities in the Jordanian capital Amman.
Leishmaniasis
“Waste accumulations in streets are breeding sites for pests such as mosquitoes, flies and mice that could transmit many diseases such as Leishmaniasis, causing epidemics and outbreaks, particularly in emergency and conflict situations,” he told IRIN.
In addition, al Yousfi warned, odours due to biodegradation might lead to serious respiratory problems.
Already, reported outbreaks of Leishmaniasis, a disease transmitted by a sand fly that leads to skin ulcers resembling leprosy, have increased dramatically. According to WHO, humans can be infected if bitten by female sandflies after they have bred in waste. Internal displacement and limited access to health care are also contributing to the spread of the disease.
Leishmaniasis has been on the rise in the city of Homs, residents and activists say, but Aleppo city, as well as the rural parts of Aleppo and Homs governorates, are worst affected, with local NGOs reporting as many as 4,000 cases in each area.
“We cannot confirm these figures, but if hygiene standards continue to deteriorate, the spread of Leishmaniasis could reach catastrophic levels,” UNICEF’s Bahah said.
Insects, especially flies, have been multiplying since the start of the summer, said Ahmed, the activist in Idlib.
“You have Leishmaniasis in many places now. It’s gotten worse since the start of the summer. This is why we are now trying harder to take away the trash. People are starting to fear for their health.”
Though the rise of communicable diseases in Syria like typhoid, hepatitis, cholera and dysentery is mainly attributed to shortages of clean water - according to UNICEF, the availability of safe water in Syria is one third what it was before the crisis - the amount of waste putrefying in residential neighbourhoods is aggravating an already critical health situation.
According to WHO, acute watery diarrhoea increased by 172 percent between January and May 2013, from 243 to 660 reported cases. Hepatitis A increased by 219 percent from 48 to 153 cases in the same period.
Logistical challenges
As the peak of summer heat approaches, UNICEF has started implementing a contingency plan to reduce the risk of diseases related to hygiene and sanitation.
It is supporting communities collecting and transporting solid waste and working with local partners to raise awareness and provide hygiene items and pesticides. Civil society activists in Aleppo are also receiving support in garbage clean-up from the Jesuit Refugee Service.
But aid agencies and civil society activists face many logistical challenges.
“Security is one of the main problems,” Bahah said. “Sometimes trucks full of waste are unloaded three to four times at checkpoints before reaching the dumpsters. This is why we are negotiating with the authorities now.”
Rebel forces have also hampered attempts to bring the waste situation under control. On the highway between Hama and Homs, Bahah said, they have blocked aid convoys carrying petrol needed for the dust carts because they suspect the fuel will end up being used by the army.
In rebel-held districts of the capital Damascus, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is trying to fill the gap left by the state. “But it’s obviously difficult because when there’s shelling, nobody cares about cleaning the streets. So, in some districts, the situation is disastrous. You even see dead animals lying in the streets.”
When the FSA penetrated into the city centre in July last year and clashes broke out, public services were suspended for about a week, highlighting the risks for a city of two million people. “It was horrible - there was waste everywhere,” said Modar, a local student who gave only his first name. “Now we can really picture what will happen if the FSA should one day enter the city centre.”
Click here for more IRIN reporting on how a lack of access to water, sanitation and proper hygiene is threatening Syrians and others across the region.
*not a real name
gk/ha/cb |
Strong support for the theory of kin selection can come from predicting outcomes under circumstances of within-family conflict. Genes inherited from mothers (matrigenes) and fathers (patrigenes) usually work harmoniously in the offspring. However, kin selection theory predicts these genes may be in conflict over interactions among relatives in which they are unequally represented (half-siblings). In honey bees, patrigenes are predicted to favor daughters that lay eggs themselves rather than remaining sterile and rearing their half-sisters' offspring. We tested this prediction, using crosses of distinct genetic stocks. Workers displayed the reproductive characteristics of their paternal genomes, patrigene expression was higher in reproductive tissues, and this patrigene bias increased in reproductive workers. These results provide strong empirical support for kin selection theory.
Abstract
Sexual reproduction brings genes from two parents (matrigenes and patrigenes) together into one individual. These genes, despite being unrelated, should show nearly perfect cooperation because each gains equally through the production of offspring. However, an individual’s matrigenes and patrigenes can have different probabilities of being present in other relatives, so kin selection could act on them differently. Such intragenomic conflict could be implemented by partial or complete silencing (imprinting) of an allele by one of the parents. Evidence supporting this theory is seen in offspring–mother interactions, with patrigenes favoring acquisition of more of the mother's resources if some of the costs fall on half-siblings who do not share the patrigene. The kinship theory of intragenomic conflict is little tested in other contexts, but it predicts that matrigene–patrigene conflict may be rife in social insects. We tested the hypothesis that honey bee worker reproduction is promoted more by patrigenes than matrigenes by comparing across nine reciprocal crosses of two distinct genetic stocks. As predicted, hybrid workers show reproductive trait characteristics of their paternal stock, (indicating enhanced activity of the patrigenes on these traits), greater patrigenic than matrigenic expression, and significantly increased patrigenic-biased expression in reproductive workers. These results support both the general prediction that matrigene–patrigene conflict occurs in social insects and the specific prediction that honey bee worker reproduction is driven more by patrigenes. The success of these predictions suggests that intragenomic conflict may occur in many contexts where matrigenes and patrigenes have different relatednesses to affected kin. |
× Navy to issue flame-resistant coveralls to sailors soon
Norfolk, Va. – U.S. Fleet Forces and Pacific Fleet released a joint message Thursday detailing the use and wear of the new Flame Resistant Variant (FRV) coveralls, which will begin being distributed to sailors in the fleet before the end of the year.
Scheduled to start arriving in December, the new coveralls will initially be provided to the crews of ships scheduled to deploy in early 2014.
“We made the decision to supply flame-resistant coveralls to all Sailors assigned to ships as an added safety precaution,” said Adm. Bill Gortney, commander, USFF. “The information provided in the manner wear message will ensure everyone understands what is expected in the wearing of this new organizational clothing.”
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Navy announces plans for new fire-resistant uniforms
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According to the message, the FRV will be distributed to several fleet units before the end of the year. Early shipments will focus on next deployers and forward deployed naval forces.
Commanders will hold a series of show and tell roadshows in November and December in fleet concentration areas to ensure sailors have an opportunity to see and feel the FRV. The goal is to provide an understanding on the basics of where, when and how to wear the new coverall. Based on production schedules, initial fleet outfitting should complete by October 2014.
Flame resistant organizational clothing had previously been limited to Sailors working in engineering departments, on flight decks and in other high-risk areas, but the Organizational Clothing Working Group recommended every Sailor afloat be outfitted with the additional protection.
Once outfitted, sailors are to wear the FRV while underway. The NWU type I and other polyester and poly blend uniforms are no longer authorized for wear while underway except for special events such as manning the rails, change of command or receptions held at anchor.
There are two exceptions:
– Personnel assigned to submarines will continue to wear the poly/cotton utility coverall due to its low lint characteristics. Once a long-term, all-purpose coverall solution that is flame resistant and low lint version is available, it is expected that it will be made available to the submarine force.
– The FRV will not be worn in place of organizational clothing mandated for specific operational environments such as flight decks or while performing work on electrical systems requiring arc flash protection.
The new coveralls are expected to maintain performance properties, durability and appearance for typical deployments of six to nine months, with an optimal wear life of 18-24 months. Like other organizational clothing, the FRV coveralls will be replaced by each ship over time based on normal wear and tear.
The name/rank configuration of the FRV coverall will consist of a Velcro-backed name tag and metal collar devices. To build unit esprit de corps, each unit CO has the discretion to authorize the wear of the embossed leather name tag (same as worn on the V-neck sweater) or develop a fabric embroidered unit specific name tag similar to those worn on green Nomex flight jackets.
Command ball caps are authorized for wear with the FRV.
Materials making the coveralls flame-resistant are incorporated into the fabric fibers. Wear life is dependent on many factors, including wear and cleaning frequency, cleaning method and environmental exposure.
The joint message from Adm. Bill Gortney (USFF) and Adm. Harry B. Harris (PACFLT) emphasized the Navy’s commitment on safety.
“We operate in an environment that contains inherent risks. Given what has been learned through the organizational clothing working group analysis and NWU type I burn test, we are striving to make shipboard environments safer. We have made initial progress toward that goal and believe that providing the FRV coverall to all afloat sailors will help reduce the risk of injury aboard ship. When worn properly, the FRV offers significant protection from flame and flash fire. We are committed to always improving safety.” |
Every Christmas, Nanette Castillo, 49, decorates her tiny home in Holy Cross in Novaliches, Quezon City with lights and lanterns to feel the holiday spirit. She buys inexpensive gifts for her two children and several grandchildren, and cooks a variety of dishes for her family to feast on during noche buena.
But for this year, there are no lights and lanterns to light up Castillo’s home.
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Aldrin – the eldest and only son of Castillo – was shot dead close to midnight last October 2 along the busy Herbosa Street in Tondo, Manila. He was about to cross the road to buy brandy to drink with his friends when seven masked men on motorcycles cut him off, and shot him, hitting his left cheek twice, and neck once.
Aldrin fell down on his face as his blood dripped down the pavement. And as if the three bullets lodged in his head were not enough, one of the masked men walked towards him, turned him over, and shot him twice in the chest. The suspects then immediately fled the scene, as if nothing happened.
Two months have passed but Castillo remained furious and indignant over the fate of her son as if it only happened yesterday. So many questions linger in her mind – “What had he done wrong? Who killed him? Why did they kill him?”
But answers to all these questions seem impossible to find, as Castillo also struggle to find possible reasons to celebrate Christmas.
“Wala akong Pasko ngayon, kahit yung anak kong babae,” Castillo said in an interview with INQUIRER.net on December 20
(I have no Christmas this year, even my daughter.)
“Kaso lang nga, may apo ako. Bata ‘yun e, para sa kanila ‘yung Pasko. Hindi ko naman pipigilang magsaya ‘yung mga bata,” Castillo also said, shaking her head as she held a laminated photo of Aldrin.
(But I have grandkids. They’re children—Christmas is for them. I will not prevent them from celebrating.)
“Pero ‘yung sa ‘min? Wala kaming Pasko, kahit ‘yung mother ko. Kasi kahit na matagal na o bago pa lang [na nangyari], hindi katanggap-tanggap ‘yung pagkamatay ng anak ko,” she added.
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(But for us? We have no Christmas, even my mother. Time may pass, but I could never accept my son’s death.)
Questions with no answers
Aldrin was a drug user before, Castillo admitted, but he had already kicked the habit long before he was killed.
Castillo also said his son was not in the drug watchlist in Tondo or in Novaliches, as he had a clean record and had no enemies, who could have the motive to murder him.
“Di naman siya salot sa lipunan katulad ng sinasabi ng gobyerno na to. Wala naman siyang pinerwisyong iba. Bakit nila binaril? Gusto ko magkaroon ng sagot ang tanong ko at kung sinu-sino yang mga h******** na yan,” she said.
(He was not one of the ills of the society like what this government says. He did not wrong anyone. Why did they gun him down? I want answers to my questions and I want to know who killed my son.)
Aldrin had kept himself busy working as a welder. Days before he died, he was asked by his sister to come over to her Tondo house to install an air conditioner, Castillo said.
He was supposed to go home to Novaliches and leave Tondo earlier but he got the flu so he stayed longer, Castillo narrated. And because the neighborhood used to be their home for decades, she was sure he was safe and did not think of anything unusual.
But then the unthinkable happened. Castillo, out of despair, then blamed her daughter for her son’s death. If he was not there in Tondo, she thought, he would still be alive.
“Pati yung anak kong babae sinisi ko, ‘Kasi bakit mo pinapunta kasi kuya mo? Dapat hindi nabaril ‘yan.’ Nagkaroon pa kami ng gap sa family,” Castillo lamented.
(I even blamed my daughter, telling her ‘He could not have had been killed if you did not ask him to come over.’ It created gap in our family.)
Strength to pursue justice
Castillo smiled as she sat down the long bench across the table in a cafe in Quezon City where the interview was held. She said she wanted to go to Tutuban night market in Divisoria, Manila to buy cheap stuff for Christmas. Normita, a mother who also lost her 25-year-old son to the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign, told her that it would be hard to shop because of the sheer number of people in the market.
Castillo laughed and told her: “Kinaya ko nga nung namatay ang anak ko, ano ba naman ‘yung pagpunta sa Tutuban.”
(I got through my son’s death, what is that compared to shopping in Tutuban.)
Today, Castillo keeps herself busy by volunteering for Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a Church-based non-profit group supporting and organizing the victims of extrajudicial killings (EJK) and their families. She helps in conducting house-to-house visits and talking to the families, scheduling meetings, and doing other things she can do for the organization.
She got in touch with the group during the “Start the Healing” rally in Edsa on November 5 in search for answers over what happened to her son.
“Nu’ng sumali ako sa Rise Up, nabuksan ang isip ko. Dati simpleng nanay lang ako. Ang sa akin, bahala kayo diyan, basta safe ang anak ko… hanggang sa nangyari sa akin ‘to,” Castillo told INQUIRER.net.
(Joining Rise Up opened my mind. Before, I was just a simple mother who does not care about everyone else as long as my children are safe. Until this happened to me.)
“Pasalamat kami may natakbuhan kami na ganito, dahil kung hindi, ‘di namin alam gagawin namin, pare-pareho kaming walang alam sa batas eh,” she added.
(We’re thankful there’s an organization like this where we can run to. Because if not, we do not know what to do because all of us have no knowledge about the law.)
Her new life as an advocate against the killings greatly helped her in coping with the loss, helping her process the trauma and the pain by meeting other families who share the same experience as her.
“Walang ibang higit na makakaintindi sa amin kundi kami ‘ring mga nawalan,” she said.
(No one could ever understand us more but us who also those who have lost.)
Castillo still waits for the day that she and her daughter patch things up. And on Christmas Day, she will light a candle at her son’s tomb at the Manila North Cemetery to pray not just for her peace of mind, but also for justice to prevail over the death of her son, Aldrin, and of thousands of others who have fallen victims to the government’s deadly crackdown against illegal drugs. /kga
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton receives a warm reception from a capacity crowd at the Exposition Center of the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/Getty Images)
Hillary Clinton has just taken the stage at the Exposition Centre in the North Carolina Fairgrounds in Raleigh-Durham before a rapturous crowd: young, old, male, female, black, white, Hispanic, babies in strollers, elderly in wheelchairs. It’s late June, a month from the Democratic National Convention, and the Clinton campaign has chosen the economically embattled swing state to unveil her economic plan. North Carolina matters; Barack Obama won it by 0.32 per cent of the vote in 2008; Mitt Romney took it in 2012 by a slightly higher margin.
The space, typically home to gun fairs and scrapbooking festivals, is festooned with American flags and “Stronger Together” banners. Security is tight and ominously present. Bomb-sniffing dogs, body sweeps, Secret Service—marked and unmarked—monitor a crowd primed by hours of pop female empowerment anthems: Spice Girls’ “Wannabe,” Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman,” Katy Perry’s “Roar”—and a parade of testimonials from politicians and common folk celebrating the woman touted to be the “first female president of the United States.”
Once on stage, Clinton basks in the adulation as she energetically outlines her plan in big rhetorical strokes: a national minimum wage, making college debt-free, making companies share profits with employees, and corporations and the one per cent paying their fair share of taxes. Throughout, she weaves the personal with political as only a former FLOTUS, mother, senator and former Secretary of State could. “If you notice anything different about me today, it could be because now I’ve got double the grandmother glow,” she says to cheers, referring to her daughter, Chelsea, giving birth days earlier. She pivots quickly: “I believe with all my heart that you should not have to be the grandchild of a former president or Secretary of State to have every opportunity available to you in this country.” The crowd erupts.
Presenting herself as a champion of women and families, she flouts her Republican opponent’s claim that she’s capitalizing on her sex: “And you know, whenever I talk about these family issues, Donald Trump says I’m playing the woman card. Right? Well, you know what I say, ‘If fighting for child care, paid leave and equal pay is playing the woman card—’ ” she pauses to cue an audience to shout in unison: “Then deal me in!”
As Clinton leaves the stage to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” she’s swarmed by people wanting selfies. “She should be proud to play the woman card,” says Charles Keeling, a 69-year-old white man. “Hillary’s a friend to the women of America.” He and Clinton “see pretty much eye to eye,” he says: “She speaks to my priority issues like climate change and gun control.” Emily Giangrande, 22, who just completed a graduate degree, wants her dog-eared copy of Clinton’s 2003 memoir, Living History, signed. “I’ve been a Hillary Clinton supporter since middle school,” she says. That Clinton is a woman is part of her appeal: “It’s confounding that we’ve never had a female president,” she says. “It’s time we caught up with the world.” Her 45-year-old mother, Geri Maddox, agrees: “Hillary has paid her dues.”
That the first female U.S. presidential candidate for a major party has made gender an election issue is inevitable. But Clinton’s candidacy highlights another truth: American presidential elections have always been about gender—only male gender, as Jackson Katz points out in the recently published Man Enough?: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and the Politics of Presidential Masculinity. From Ronald Reagan vs. Jimmy Carter onward, elections have been unspoken masculinity contests, debates about American manhood waged exclusively by white men until Barack Obama, Katz argues. The tough guy with certitude has prevailed; the nuanced or indecisive is emasculated, viz. Michael Dukakis or John Kerry. Sports, military, even cowboy imagery dominate: Ronald Reagan on his horse, Barack Obama on the basketball court, Donald Trump in his red baseball cap.
Were this a “normal” election—one in which Clinton was facing a moderate Mitt Romney-style Republican opponent—she’d be at a major disadvantage. Not only is she a woman but more than half of Americans (53 per cent) hold an unfavourable opinion of her (Clinton’s popularity has taken a nose-dive every time she has sought power). She’s also been dogged by accusations of greed and corrupt behaviour, giving rise to Trump’s “crooked Hillary” taunt.
But in Trump, who’s prone to sexist, racist remarks, and who plays the male gender card even more overtly, Clinton’s been handed a perfect foil, a gift of sorts. “Trump’s entire candidacy is based on the idea that the solution to our national problems is to put a tough, no-nonsense white man back in the White House,” says Katz. It’s all about his manhood—and by definition, theirs.”
That in turn frees Clinton to make gender politics a campaign issue in a way that otherwise would have seen blowback. Polling bears this out. As of early July, Clinton was ahead by seven points, largely on her strength with female voters; its the highest level of female support of any candidate in more than four decades and the widest gender gap recorded —24 percentage points in the latest Pew Research Center Poll. These voters are not only Democrats: Republican media strategist Mindy Finn has likened Trump to an “abusive boyfriend.” In early July, Republican Women for Hillary formed: “Vote to make sure Republican women don’t get Trumped,” its Facebook page proclaims. Trump, meanwhile, leads, by a narrowing margin, among white men: 50 per cent to Clinton’s 41 per cent.
The result is an unprecedented gender-centric showdown between characters who’ve achieved near mythological cultural resonance: the boorish, blustering billionaire and former reality-TV star who treats women as objects versus a woman whose 25 years in the public eye has rendered her protean, a shape-shifter who is variously a workhorse feminist advocate, a Lady Macbeth-style schemer, an accomplished stateswoman, a Wall Street shill and a master of Washington cash-for-access culture.
In the introduction to a new book of essays with the telling title Who Is Hillary Clinton? Two Decades of Answers from the Left, Katha Politt calls Clinton “a test of our attitudes—including our unconscious ones—about women, feminism, sex and marriage, to say nothing of the Democratic Party, progressive politics, the United States and capitalism.”
The election promises to be a watershed, says Katz: “It’s as close to a national referendum on the state of women’s advancement as you could possibly get.” Clinton frames it in bigger terms, with the country, a polarized tinderbox, at stake. “This election isn’t about the same old fights between Democrats and Republicans,” she said during speech at Planned Parenthood in June. “It’s about who we are as a nation.”
As contests of masculinity, presidential elections are about creating heroes, not policy. Clinton becoming the first female U.S. president isn’t enough, however. She has to defeat a foe representing a threat to both women and America, to make Trump “the loser” he so despises. Women are at risk, she told the crowd at Planned Parenthood. Trump “wants to roll back the clock . . . Back to the days when abortion was illegal, women had far fewer options, and life for too many women and girls was limited.” And she’s the one to vanquish him, she boasts. “We’re not just going to break that highest and hardest glass ceiling. We’re going to break down all the barriers that hold women and families back.”
On a campaign bus on their way from Portland to Seattle, American President Bill Clinton speaks with Washington state gubernatorial candidate Gary Locke (not pictured), while First Lady Hillary Clinton watches, Washington, September 20, 1996. (David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)
The email scandal that saw Clinton and her aides rebuked by the head of the FBI for being “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information” when she was Secretary of State, was the latest of a decades-long parade of controversies she has stoked since arriving on the national stage. The first was on a 60 Minutes interview during the 1992 presidential election, in which she sat beside her husband to address claims he’d committed adultery (there was no admission, only a call for privacy). Hillary Clinton incited fury with her remark: “I’m not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette. I’m sitting here because I love him and I respect him and I honour what he’s been through and what we’ve been through together, and if that’s not enough for people then heck, don’t vote for him.” The comment, which overlooked the fact Wynette was married five times, revealed defiance unseen on the U.S. political stage: an alpha wife bristling against the conventional beta role.
She fanned the flames later that year after then-California governor Jerry Brown accused her husband of improperly benefiting from his wife’s legal practice in his capacity as Arkansas governor, charges never substantiated. “I suppose I could have stayed home, baked cookies and had teas,” Clinton said, outraging homemakers and winning the label “smug bitch.” (Media failed to report her full statement: “The work that I have done as a professional, a public advocate, has been aimed . . . to assure that women can make the choices, whether it’s full-time career, full-time motherhood or some combination.”)
The statement is befitting a woman born in 1947, raised in a middle-class household in a Chicago suburb, who came of age amid the social ferment of the ’60s: civil rights, the women’s movement and belief a new world order would bring equality to all. She attended Wellesley, an elite women’s college, in 1965, becoming class president. In 1969, she entered Yale Law School. There she’d meet Bill Clinton, the “Viking” from Arkansas. Hillary was the star; she introduced herself to Clinton in 1970 after he had followed her around campus for months. After graduation, she worked for the Children’s Defense Fund before marrying in 1975 and moving to Arkansas. She joined a prestigious law firm, becoming its first female partner, and continued to work after Chelsea was born in 1980. She kept her name after marriage, which saw her husband ridiculed when he ran for governor in 1978; he won, then lost in 1980; when he ran again in 1982, his wife was known as Hillary Rodham Clinton. (She dropped Rodham when she ran for president in 2008.)
Refusing the power-behind-the-throne role played by first ladies from Edith Wilson to Nancy Reagan, Clinton presented herself as an equal partner, a “two for one.” She moved her office to the West Wing and waged an unsuccessful bid for universal health care. Her ambitions were criticized by her husband’s foes and the media. In 1995, the satiric magazine Spy presented her as an androgyne, female on top, male below. (Spy also famously dubbed Trump a “short-fingered vulgarian.”)
Clinton rejected the traditional wife role but proved adept at dipping in and out of the script when needed. After her health-reform plan failed, she churned out first-lady feel-good books, including It Takes a Village and Dear Socks, Dear Buddy. She even agreed to a retrograde chocolate-chip-cookie bake-off with Barbara Bush during the 1996 presidential campaign; Clinton won (rolled oats were her secret ingredient). And she stood by her man during the scandal and impeachment arising from his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In 2000, roles were reversed: her proximity to presidential power helped her become a U.S. senator in 2000 and secure an $8-million advance for her autobiography.
Throughout, the Clintons’ 41-year marriage, often described as an “arrangement” as if other marriages are not, garnered speculation. In Gail Sheehy’s Hillary’s Choice, Clinton revealed she was attracted to Bill Clinton because “he wasn’t afraid of me.” At a 2014 TED Talk, the anthropologist Helen Fisher suggested that the couple defied social norms: Hillary Clinton fit the “testosterone” neurochemical profile (logical, competitive, direct, demanding), while Bill was “estrogen” (a negotiator, philosopher king, good with language).
The Clintons have survived a host of scandals: Whitewater, Travelgate, the suicide of White House counsel and Clinton friend Vince Foster, Lewinsky and, more recently, claims that the Clinton Foundation launders money and had undue influence at the State Department. But accusations of carelessness, greed, arrogance, and seeing themselves above the law linger. In 1998, Hillary Clinton blamed a “vast right-wing conspiracy” for creating the Lewinsky disgrace without evidence. Yet she is no doubt a target. The Republican-led investigation into the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya—where four Americans were killed and Clinton’s State Department was blamed for not properly protecting installations—lasted longer than the investigation into 9/11, with no smoking guns produced. Yet Benghazi, not the capture of Osama bin Laden, remains her legacy. High speaking fees she commands have also led to charges she’s in Wall Street’s pocket, yet 20 organizations paid her more. With the exception of one speech to Deutsche Bank, Clinton received $225,000 each for eight Wall Street speeches. She received $275,000 from Canada 2020, the Vancouver Board of Trade and the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, which would suggest, if anything, she’s in Canada’s pocket.
Discomfort with Clinton’s ambition is evident in her approval ratings, which hit an all-time high of 67 per cent in December 1998 after the Lewinsky scandal, when she was the humiliated wife. When she asked for power —introducing health care reform to Congress, declaring her first Senate run—her favourables plummeted. They’d rise after she withdrew from the 2008 presidential race and stayed high, peaking when she stepped down as Secretary of State; they dropped when she declared her second presidential run.
In a telling scene in August 2001, Clinton was among the 12 of 13 female senators interviewed on Larry King Live. King asked who had presidential aspirations, a question never asked of male senators. None said yes. Even today, Clinton’s Twitter handle lists the personal first: “Wife, mom, grandma, women+kids advocate, FLOTUS, Senator, SecState, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, 2016 presidential candidate.” Given a body of research showing discomfort with high-achieving women, that’s not surprising: “Women are expected to be nice, warm, friendly, and nurturing,” concluded sociologist Marianne Cooper, a Stanford professor and lead researcher for Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, in a 2013 study published in the Harvard Business Review: Those who act assertively, competitively or exhibit decisive leadership, are “deviating from the social script,” Cooper wrote. “We often don’t really like them.” Tellingly, the 2015 book Unlikeable: The Problem with Hillary Clinton, written by conservative Edward Klein, reported Steven Spielberg was enlisted to make the candidate cuddlier; she fired him.
Calls for Clinton to be “authentic” also are unreasonable, says Katz: “What does it mean to be authentic when you’re under the glare of public scrutiny she’s been under since she was first lady? Everything is a performance at that point.”
Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets supporters while taking a break after testifying before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Clinton was questioned about the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, as well as her use of a private email server for government business while she held the position as U.S. Secretary of State. (Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis/Getty Images)
Clinton’s performance now is focused on harnessing her sex, and female accomplishment, as a strength, contrary to the tack taken in 2008 when advisers recommended she downplay the historical import of her run. “I have to say, pink never looked so good,” Clinton told a crowd at Planned Parenthood in June.
It’s a stragetic counterpunch to Trump, the former owner of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, and his clarion call to downwardly mobile white men, one that taps into a malaise decades in the making. In her 1999 book, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, Susan Faludi traced the decline of traditional postwar masculinity resulting from globalization, downsizing and the women’s movement. The resulting loss of purpose and sense of betrayal gave rise to so-called “Angry White Man” politics seen in the Promise Keepers movement, she wrote. Faludi presciently observed a shift to an “ornamental” or celebrity culture that measures masculine success in terms of fame and wealth, factors that paved way for a non-politician candidate like Trump, who has the advantage of not being part of the nation’s political wallpaper, with no record to attack, unlike Clinton. Stiffed was published before 9/11, and the resulting xenophobia, nativism and fear that the Trump campaign also stokes with messaging drawn directly from white-supremacist forums.
“Make America great again” is code for “white men who feel betrayed by the system,” Katz says. “Trump rejecting ‘political correctness’ gives cover to publicly criticize women and people of colour and do it forcefully rather than cowering and being fearful [that] people will call him names. He doesn’t care if he’s called racist or sexist.” The resentment he stokes is evident in “Trump that bitch” T-shirts worn by supporters, 47 per cent of whom are “mostly voting for him,” with 39 per cent mostly voting against Clinton, according to a July USA Today/Suffolk University Poll. (Almost three-quarters of Clinton supporters say they’re mostly voting for her.) It’s evident too in Trump’s defence of his “manhood” during the Fox News Republican debate when he responded to taunts about his hands: “If they’re small, something else must be small,” he said, “I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee.”
That presidential elections are traditionally manhood contests gives Trump ground to say Clinton “doesn’t even look presidential!” as he tweeted during her Raleigh speech. Sarah Palin also employed gender-laden language in July: “You seen some of the left’s rallies? Cranky. Demanding. Shrill.” But in making history as the Democratic nominee, Clinton has begun redefining the iconography of the American presidential race—and finding her more authentic alpha voice in the process.
A new Hillary, a warmer Hillary—or at least a Hillary warmed by hard-won success—entered Brooklyn Navy Yard alone on June 7 to deliver her acceptance speech. Eschewing the traditional family backdrop tableau (they’d join her later), she greeted and hugged supporters before taking the stage, arms outstretched as if hugging the nation. Hours earlier, the campaign released “History Made,” a video that placed Clinton’s victory within a continuum of historic female advancement: the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, which passed a resolution in favour of women’s suffrage, and alongside trailblazers Gloria Steinem, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Shirley Chisholm, who ran for president in 1973, the first woman to do so. “We need to learn from the women of the world who blazed new paths,” Clinton says in the voiceover.
She presented herself as a trailblazer and protector: “As your president I will always have your back,” she said. The cover of the next week’s New Yorker depicted Clinton in the boxing ring, a contender, reflecting the paucity of gender-neutral imagery surrounding political victory.
The maternal fighter metaphor continued in new commercials for Clinton highlighting her lifelong support of children’s issues. She also engaged in female bonding with progessive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, “a pair of tough broads, teaming up to chew up and spit out Donald Trump,” as journalist Rebecca Traister put it. Her Twitter feed has become more aggressive. “Delete your account,” she ordered Trump after he tweeted: “Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama but nobody else does!”
Clinton clearly revels in goading Trump, whom she calls “Donald” as if referring to a wayward child. Last week, in front of one of Trump’s shuttered Atlantic City casinos, she attacked the basis of his masculine cred, his wealth, pointing to his record running up debt, defaulting on loans and employees, and bankrupting companies. The campaign has an arsenal of recyclable one-liners. In Raleigh, Clinton called Trump the “self-proclaimed king of debt,” taking a shot at his bankruptcies: “We need to write a new chapter in the American Dream—and it sure cannot be Chapter 11.” His reality-TV show history is also fodder: “Maybe we shouldn’t expect better from someone whose most famous words are, ‘You’re fired!’ ” Clinton said in Raleigh. “Well, here’s what I want you to know, I do have a jobs program, and as president, I’m going to make sure you hear, ‘You’re hired!’ ”
Trump’s emotional volatility, a trait historically associated with women, is another target. “Imagine if he had not just his Twitter account at his disposal when he’s angry, but America’s entire arsenal,” Clinton has said. It’s touchy territory for Clinton, who has been attacked for her support of the invasion of Iraq and backing escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Katz sees her hawkish stance as necessary, even strategic: “You have to be living in a complete fantasy world to think that a woman could get within one step of the presidency without firmly establishing her masculine credentials as the potential commander-in-chief.” Last week, Clinton was the more active candidate in addressing racial violence, speaking at the African Methodist Episcopal Church community in Philadelphia. Trump was uncharacteristically muted, issuing a Facebook message and taped video.
Clinton is rewiring the political landscape in other ways. Last week, the New York Times reported she plans to strike gender parity in a cabinet that is currently 35 per cent female. She wants to bond with Republicans over drinks, a more-gender neutral setting than the traditional golf game. Tellingly, her female-centric Instagram feed features a photo of her raising a pint of Guinness among men in Ohio, a nod to the maxim that people vote for a president they want to have a beer with. The site also includes a plea for bipartisan unity: there’s a post of a gracious letter George H.W. Bush left Bill Clinton when he became president. “That’s the America we love,” she wrote.
“Republican Women for Hillary” (hashtag: #GOPWITHHER) have responded in kind. “Our decision to support Hillary Clinton is not a gender thing, though it’s wonderful she’s a woman,” Meghan Milloy, who’s on the group’s steering committee, tells Maclean’s. The 29-year-old, who works for a conservative think tank, says Trump’s “racist, misogynist and bigoted” comments scare her. “His lack of experience and the way he flies off the handle is concerning,” she says, adding that the group has been criticized for turning their back on the party. “My response is, ‘No, we’re doing our party a favour. This is the party of Lincoln and a party for the people. We don’t want to be rebranded the party of Trump’.” Hundreds have contacted them, she says; they met with the Clinton campaign last week. Hers is not purely an anti-Trump vote, Milloy says: “I have enough common ground with [Clinton] that it’s a vote of support for Hillary.” Clinton’s experience is a plus: “You can disagree with Hillary all you want but she’s been in the situation room; she knows how things work.”
That means she also knows she has a fight before her, despite the fact that Trump’s campaign is in a shambolic state—48 per cent of Republicans want another candidate, according to a June CNN poll—and that more of the electorate (60 per cent) dislike him more than her. That a candidate known for hateful, false, often incoherent statements is only behind seven points reflects a country severed in a true gender war. Last week, Clinton and Obama were back in North Carolina, in Charlotte. Trump was in Raleigh, where things turned ugly; his supporters called to “Hang that bitch!” and “Hang Hillary!” When a mosquito landed by Trump he became discombobulated, yelling, “I don’t like mosquitos!” He then addressed it: “Hello, Hillary,” as the crowd roared.
It was a different mood outside the Exposition Centre in June, where vendors sold Hillary T-shirts and buttons with positive messages: “Love trumps hate,” “I’m with her,” and “Hills yes!” Yet on the edge of the parking lot two girls—no older than seven—with sticks bashed a piñata shaped like a tiny Trump. A crowd gathered to egg them on as a cameraman filmed it. Love may trump hate, rhetorically speaking, but this is a political war, one whose stakes have never been higher. |
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In this presentation I use Jam Origin’s MIDI Guitar to send a microtonally retuned MIDI stream to Kontakt 5’s string ensemble. The guitar was run through the cakewalk amp sim. In the top graphic I show where the microtonal midi machine is loaded (lower right) and in the next graphic I show the interface of the microtonal machine. A key is to enable the same amount of pitch bend in MIDI guitar as well as the VSTi you are using. In this case it was the standard 2 whole tones. In the sound demo you can hear the 12 equal guitar playing single notes to full chords in 12 equal and at the same time the Kontakt strings in 125 cents per step tuning driven by the Jam Origin included audio VSTi. In sonar be sure to enable MIDI guitar’s midi out in order to put it into the list of your VSTi.
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In addition to the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, the US government is pursuing court orders to force Apple to help bypass the security passcodes of "about a dozen" other iPhones, the Wall Street Journal reports. The other cases don't involve terror charges, the Journal's sources say, but prosecutors involved have also sought to use the same 220-year-old law — the All Writs Act of 1789 — to access the phones in question.
The FBI has argued that it only wants Apple to allow it to "guess" the passcode for the San Bernardino iPhone, but that innocuous-sounding process involves Apple performing a rewrite of the phone's iOS software, allowing the Bureau to use brute-force techniques to crack the passcode that might otherwise take years. The agency says it only wants this process performed on this one specific iPhone, but privacy advocates could see the additional cases as the US government already attempting to overreach this mandate.
It's not clear yet what the other cases involve
At this point, however, it's not clear what the dozen-or-so cases actually entail, nor what prosecutors are asking Apple to do exactly, or why Apple is pushing back. The FBI has complained that Apple is simply resisting its demand to unlock the phone so as not to "tarnish the Apple brand," but the company says if it gives in and allows the FBI to access the phone with "absent clear legal authority to do so," it would breach its consumers' trust.
Apple regularly assists law enforcement by helping authorities extract information from both on and off the device — from iCloud backups, for example — but it has pushed back in the San Bernardino case because the FBI is attempting to breach encryption methods introduced in newer versions of its iOS software. In cases involving phones running iOS 7 and earlier, Apple can pull out information without actively unlocking the phone for law enforcement, but iOS 8 introduced encryption linked to the passcode that made this impossible. We don't yet know which operating system the dozen other iPhones were running, but the WSJ says that many of them are using older software than iOS 9. |
Walter White (Bryan Cranston) - Breaking Bad - Season 5, Episode 5 Photo: Ursula Coyote/AMC
“We’re not gonna please everyone, we’re not gonna please everyone … This is what I keep telling myself so I can sleep at night,” Vince Gilligan laughed last month, even though he wasn’t exactly joking. When he spoke to Vulture, he was putting the finishing touches on the story for the third to last episode, getting very close to tackling the series finale (the show’s last stretch of eight episodes airs on AMC later this year). The writers room had gotten “a little schizophrenic,” said Gilligan: They’ve been taking twice as long as normal, or about three and a half weeks, to break each of these concluding episodes, and rather than building from the ground up, they’ve had to do a little reverse-engineering to arrive where they must by the end. All of which is to say, he’s more frazzled than usual, anxiously working to tie things up beautifully. “It’s going to be polarizing no matter how you slice it,” Gilligan said, “but you don’t want 10 percent to say it was great and 90 percent to say it sucked ass. You want those numbers to be reversed.” Without giving anything away (would anyone really want that?), he took some time to download ten things on his mind as he heads into the homestretch.
1. The evolution of Walt’s fate. The metamorphosis of the sweet but sickly chemistry teacher into totally corrupted drug kingpin has made Walter White one of the most dynamic characters on TV, and just as he’s changed through the seasons, so too has Gilligan’s idea of how his saga would end. “I had this strange confidence in the beginning that I had an idea [for the ending] that was sound,” he said of Walt’s fate. “But I look back at the life of the series and realize I cycled through so many possible endings, it would be disingenuous to say I had always had it figured out. It has evolved in the last five years and probably has some evolving left to do.” He’s planted flags along the way to help steer the direction but still reserves the right to change course, even with two episodes left to go. “I read interviews with showrunners all the time who say, ‘I know exactly where this thing is headed.’ I always find that very interesting, and I don’t doubt them for a minute. It’s just I can’t see my way clear to do that because the characters in Breaking Bad are in a state of constant change by design,” he said. “When a character will be a different person five or six or ten or sixteen episodes from now, it’s hard to predict the future.”
2. How Casablanca got it exactly right. In terms of nailing the end, Gilligan says he and the writers don’t talk about TV — they talk movies. And for him, Casablanca remains “pretty perfect.” “No one gets everything they wanted. The guy doesn’t get the girl, but he has the satisfaction of knowing she wants him. And he doesn’t get her because he has to save the free world. What better ending is there than that?” Gilligan said. “I’m not saying we’re going to approach that or reach in that direction. Our story doesn’t line up [with Casablanca]. But we’re looking for that kind of satisfaction.”
3. His time on The X Files. Gilligan was still on the staff of The X Files when the sci-fi series reached its highly anticipated finale, but as a self-described “monster-of-the-week” guy, he says he never had to worry about making sure the conspiracies were synching. (He wrote the show’s penultimate episode “Sunshine Days,” set in The Brady Bunch house, and it had nothing to do with any of the overarching story lines.) “I sort of watched from afar as Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz broke these mythology episodes, and they always made my head hurt like, Man, how do you link this and that? Then, of course, I wind up on this insanely hyperserialized show. I should have paid more attention back then.”
4. Going back to the pilot. Ah, yes, Walt in his skivvies. The writers have spent a lot of time going back over that first episode, which began with Walt’s 50th-birthday party and the discovery that he had cancer, and ended with his partnership with small-time dealer Jesse Pinkman, concocting the sweetest meth and killing a pair of dealers after his recipe. “Are there echoes of the beginning that we should have in the end? There’s a certain kind of circularity that might be pleasing,” Gilligan said. “We think a lot about that, in fact.”
5. Henry Mancini. Gilligan recently read an old interview with the composer in which he was asked about the type of music he liked. Mancini said he liked best the ones that built in a feeling of inevitability. “He said something like, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘I think the best music compositions are the ones that surprise you in moments, but in others, you feel like you know where you’re going, and there’s this feeling of satisfaction that derives from that inevitability. In a sense, inevitability, realized,’” Gilligan said. “That really stuck with me because that’s what I think we do on this show. We try to have a surprise around every corner but inevitability as well. The opposite of surprise. It’s something that I feel should and will be an important component to the end of the series. To me, that is an interesting thing and a thing to be embraced, that feeling of ‘I think I know where this is going.’”
6. Bringing Walt to justice — or not. “Of course he needs to go, and Jesse needs to pull the trigger!” “No, the cancer will return, and he’ll die alone.” “No. He’ll outsmart everyone again and go on the run.” This is the endless debate fans imagine the writers having as they attempt to answer Breaking Bad’s Most Important Question: Will Walt get away with it? Yet, Gilligan says that back-and-forth isn’t happening. “Not at all, really,” he said. “I’m very cornball in my own view of the world. It just makes sense to me that bad people should get punished and good people should be rewarded. I know it doesn’t work like that in real life, but there’s always that yearning.” But that desire for comeuppance doesn’t apply to the made-up world he’s created, even though justice may in fact be inevitable. “Oddly enough, I don’t feel any real pressure to pay off the characters, morally speaking.”
7. One final shout-out to The Godfather. One of Gilligan’s favorite ways to describe Walt’s descent is to say that he’s gone from Mr. Chips to Scarface, but there’s been far more Godfather along the way. In the mid-season finale, Walter closed the garage door in Jesse’s face, much in the same way Michael shut Kay out of his office, and his meticulously timed murder of Mike’s remaining guys echoed the Godfather’s baptism montage in which Michael eliminated his enemies. “We crib from them shamelessly,” Gilligan told me. “We’re always asking ourselves, How does this relate to The Godfather? In the finale, we may give even a more overt tip of the hat.”
8. Giving every character their due. Not counting baby Holly, the show has nine major characters left, including Walt’s new recruits Lydia and Todd. Gilligan says that that occasionally feels like “one or two too many.” “Sometimes it’s hard to give them all their due and make them all wrap up beautifully. That’s another big fear I have,” he said. One outcome that’s probably safe to assume? Saul will survive. “I like to think of Saul as a cockroach in the best possible way,” Gilligan said. “This is a guy who’s going to survive while the rest of us have been nuked into annihilation. He’ll be the worst-dressed cockroach in the world.”
9. Hank’s triumph. It took 54 episodes, but in September’s midseason finale, Hank finally locked in that his brother-in-law was Heisenberg. Hank wasn’t conceived as the man to bring Walt down; Gilligan initially said he needed a boisterous alpha-male foil for the meek meth cook. But Hank revealed himself to be if not smarter than Walt, then more doggedly persistent. And who knows if he’ll really get to take down Heinsenberg, but the playing field has been leveled. “We discovered Hank is very, very good at his job,” Gilligan said. “You know, I love the TV show Columbo. Hank is like a postmodern shout-out to Columbo.”
10. Finality. There will be no Breaking Bad movie. Episode 62 is it, folks. How many ways can Gilligan say it? “Rightly or wrongly, there will be a conclusive ending,” he told me. “Our story from the beginning has been designed to be close-ended. It’s very much designed to have a beginning, middle, and end and then to exist no more.” |
The Great Gulf real estate group is buying a high-profile, high-rise development in Toronto's entertainment district from Ed Mirvish Enterprises.
The Mirvish+Gehry project currently calls for two towers — one 82 storeys and the other 92 storeys — near the Princess of Wales theatre on King Street West.
Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed in Monday's announcement.
The initial proposal announced in 2012 called for the demolition of the theatre — one of several venues owned by the Mirvish family — to make room for a third tower.
Mirvish has scaled back the scope of the development in response to local objection to the height and density of the development, which will include retail, office, institutional, hospitality and condominium suites in downtown Toronto.
The Princess of Wales Theatre was slated for demolition in the original plan. In 2014, the plan was re-worked to allow the theatre to stay.
The area is home to some of Toronto's major entertainment venues including the Bell Lightbox, which is home to the Toronto International Film Festival, Roy Thomson Hall and the Mirvish-owned Royal Alexandra theatre. |
Former Alabama Governor Robert Bentley speaks after officially resigning on Monday, April 10, 2017, in Montgomery, Ala. Bentley resigned Monday rather than face impeachment and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor campaign violations that arose during an investigation of his alleged affair with a top aide. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley resigned Monday rather than face impeachment and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor campaign violations that arose during an investigation of his alleged affair with a top aide.
In a remarkable fall, the mild-mannered 74-year-old Republican and one-time Baptist deacon stepped down as the sex-tinged scandal gathered force over the past few days. Legislators turned up the pressure by opening impeachment hearings Monday. Last week, the Alabama Ethics Commission cited evidence that Bentley broke state ethics and campaign laws and referred the matter to prosecutors.
“There’ve been times that I let you and our people down, and I’m sorry for that,” Bentley said in the old House chamber of Alabama’s Capitol after he pleaded guilty.
The violations were discovered during the investigation of his affair but were not directly related to it.
In court, Bentley appeared sullen and looked down at the floor. He stood up and said “yes, sir” in a gravelly voice as the judge read out the charges he was pleading guilty to.
One misdemeanor charge against Bentley stemmed from a $50,000 loan he made to his campaign in November that investigators said he failed to report until January. State law says major contributions should be reported within a few days. The other charge stemmed from his use of campaign funds to pay nearly $9,000 in legal bills for political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason last year.
“He did what he did, and he deserves now to be called a criminal,” said Ellen Brooks, a retired district attorney overseeing the state investigation.
The resignation and guilty plea were a dramatic reversal from the man who on Friday stood on the Capitol steps and said he would not leave office because he had done nothing illegal.
The plea agreement specified that Bentley must surrender campaign funds totaling nearly $37,000 within a week and perform 100 hours of community service as a physician. The dermatologist also cannot seek public office again.
Bentley’s successor is Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, who became Alabama’s second female governor. The first was Lurleen Wallace, wife of segregationist and four-term Gov. George C. Wallace. She ran as a surrogate for her still-powerful husband in 1966 when he couldn’t seek re-election because of term limits. She won, but died in office in 1968.
“The Ivey administration will be open. It will be transparent. And it will be honest,” Ivey said.
Bentley said in his statement that he no longer wanted to subject his family and staff “to the consequences that my past actions have brought upon them.” His staff gave him a standing ovation as he entered and exited the old House chamber.
Bentley’s resignation follows the ouster of former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, who left office in 2016 after being convicted on ethics charges, and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was suspended from his post last year over an order opposing same-sex marriage.
Bentley, a staunch family-values conservative who won two terms partly because of his reputation for moral rectitude, was first engulfed in scandal last year after recordings surfaced of him making sexually charged comments to the 45-year-old Mason.
An investigative report prepared for the House Judiciary Committee and released last week said Bentley encouraged an “atmosphere of intimidation” to keep the story under wraps and directed law enforcement officers to track down and seize the recordings. The report portrayed the governor as paranoid and obsessed with trying to keep the relationship secret.
The committee on Monday started what was expected to be days of hearings.
Bentley lawyer Ross Garber had argued that impeachment should be reserved for only the “most grave misconduct,” noting that only two U.S. governors have been impeached since 1929, and both were indicted for serious felonies.
“It is not unusual for elected officials to have ethics and campaign finance issues. In fact, many governors face these things. It is very rare, though, for legislators to try to leverage those issues to impeach a governor. In fact, it is simply not done,” Garber told The Associated Press in an email.
The last U.S. governor to be impeached was Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2009. He was removed from office and is now serving a prison sentence for conspiring to sell an appointment to President Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat.
The investigative report contained text messages that the governor sent to Mason. They were intercepted by Bentley’s then-wife, Dianne Bentley, who was able to read the messages because they also showed up on the governor’s state-issued iPad, which he had given her.
“I sure miss you. I need you. I want you. You are the only one,” one message read.
Dianne Bentley divorced her husband in 2015 after 50 years of marriage.
Bentley denied having a physical relationship with his former aide, though in some of the recordings he talked about the pleasure he got from fondling her breasts.
At one point, according to the investigative report, the governor sent the head of his security detail to fetch the recording from his son Paul Bentley, who responded: “You ain’t getting it.” Dianne Bentley had secretly recorded her husband by leaving her phone on while she went for a walk.
The former first lady’s chief of staff also charged that Bentley threatened her job because he believed she had helped his wife make the recordings.
Former Law Enforcement Secretary Spencer Collier, who a day after being fired by Bentley last year held a news conference where he publicly revealed the affair accusation, said he feels vindicated by the resignation and plea deal.
GOP leaders in the House and Senate called on Bentley to resign, as has the Alabama Republican Party’s steering committee.
“It’s really time for us to look ahead and start moving forward on more pressing matters,” Republican Sen. Cam Ward said. “It was a constant distraction, one that was never going to change, and it’s time for us to get back to work.”
Two of Bentley’s predecessors in the past three decades have been convicted of crimes: Republican Guy Hunt in the 1990s, for misusing funds, and Democrat Don Siegelman, who was convicted of bribery in 2006.
___
Associated Press writer Jay Reeves in Birmingham contributed to this report.
____
This story corrects an earlier version that said two of Bentley’s predecessors went to prison. Former Gov. Guy Hunt was convicted, but did not go to prison. It also corrects that Bentley lawyer Ross Garber represented former Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Gov. John Rowland of Connecticut during impeachment proceedings, not Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. |
At 3 wins and 3 losses it may be too premature to hit the panic button on this season, but I would certainly keep it within arm’s reach. If the Ravens cannot dispatch the struggling Bears in a home game then it is very difficult to imagine that that they can take their anemic offense on the road against a good defensive team and come back victorious. But this is the NFL and each week always shows some surprises. By the numbers the Ravens look pretty bad through the first six games, and six games is a decent sample size for trending a 16 game season. Let’s take a closer look at the rankings and see where the Ravens stand – here you go:
Offensive Stats
Total yards per game (YPG) 289 – Ranked 29th
YPG Passing 160 – Ranked 31st
YPG Rushing 130 – Ranked 7th
Points per game 19 – Ranked 24th
Defensive Stats
Total yards per game 330 – Ranked 16th
YPG passing 190 – Ranked 5th
YPG rushing 141 – Ranked 30th
Points per game 20.7 – Ranked 11th
Straight up the Ravens offensive strength is in their running game and if they are going to win on Sunday they will have to move the ball on the ground. The challenge for the Ravens this week is the Vikings are stout against the run (ranked 3rd) and they give up a paltry 79 yards a game. Don’t expect the Ravens passing game to show much improvement this week although I do hope that the receivers will do a better job catching the ball. For reasons unknown to me, Joe Flacco has regressed in his play and even to the untrained eye it is easy to see that he is not playing like a 10 year veteran. Given his play these past few seasons and in light of the injuries to his knee and back – you have to come to grips that this is what you now have with Flacco. And as bad as the passing game looks right now – let me be very clear in stating that the answer is not Ryan Mallet – he is awful. For good or for bad Flacco is our guy and the coaching staff is going to have to scheme things in such a way that he can be successful. To be clear now, I am not putting this all on Flacco, the coaches, receivers and O line have all contributed to this lackluster offense.
I suggest you watch Sunday’s game with low expectations for the Ravens. The Vikings have played most of this season without their starting quarterback and yet they have somehow managed to win 4 games. They are winning because they have a stout defense and they are going to be a handful for the Ravens this week. It also doesn’t help that the following receivers are not practicing this week – Williams, Watson, Wallace, and Perriman. The Odds makers have the Vikings by 5 ½ and I think that they will cover. Ravens will struggle to get points on the road and the Vikings will win this one in a low scoring affair. If you are keeping track of my game predictions this year you will know that I am only 2 and 4 so far, so take my picks with a grain of salt. Enjoy the game and stay thirsty my friends.
Minnesota Vikings hosting the Baltimore Ravens – Sunday, October 22nd @ 1:00 PM Odds – Vikings by 5 ½
Game Predictions Score Ravens 9 Vikings 20 Turnovers Minus 1 Net Rushing Yardage Ravens 76 Vikings 110 Net Passing Yardage Ravens 155 Vikings 184
Miscellaneous Predictions
Everson Griffen gets 2 sacks a forced fumble on Flacco
Ravens commit 8 penalties for 80
Justin Tucker accounts for all 9 points
Refs make terrible calls
Possible Monday morning headlines
Flacco’s woes continue in loss to Vikings
Ravens continue to struggle to score in road loss
Keys to the Game |
...
Segments
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00:00 Not Another Atheist Podcast Interview
46:00 Voter Manipulation and Gerrymandering
01:15:30 Science Segment / Fucking Fracking
01:38:10 Two Party System VS Voting Your Conscious
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https://notanotheratheistpodcast.wordpress.com/
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http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/12/03/clerks-voters-rip-plan-end-straight-ticket-voting/76712546/
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/how-voter-id-laws-are-being-used-to-disenfranchise-minorities-and-the-poor/254572/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/01/this-is-the-best-explanation-of-gerrymandering-you-will-ever-see/
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http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14432401
http://fracfocus.org/sites/default/files/average_frac_fluid_composition_2012.jpg
http://www.dangersoffracking.com/
https://fracfocus.org/chemical-use/what-chemicals-are-used
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/07122015/methane-emissions-texas-fracking-zone-90-higher-epa-estimate?utm_source=Daily+Carbon+Briefing&utm_campaign=bb68b24353-cb_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_876aab4fd7-bb68b24353-303423917
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-spielberg/hillary-clinton-is-better_b_8848632.html
https://m.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/30/1152687/-Why-You-Shouldn-t-Vote-Your-Conscience-An-open-letter-to-the-lonely-left
http://ivn.us/2015/12/21/discredit-two-party-system-vote-conscience/ Segments------00:00 Not Another Atheist Podcast Interview46:00 Voter Manipulation and Gerrymandering01:15:30 Science Segment / Fucking Fracking01:38:10 Two Party System VS Voting Your ConsciousEpisode: https://www.spreaker.com/user/cellardoorskeptics/13-not-another-new-year Subscribe: http://www.spreaker.com/user/cellardoorskeptics Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CellarDoorSkeptics RSS Feed: https://www.spreaker.com/user/8326690/episodes/feed iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cellar-door-skeptics/id1044088575?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Links------@AnAtheistInYYC@Insomnia_Mama----------- https://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/hydraulic_fracturing_101# .VnNCFfkrLIU------
Ring in the new year with Cellar Door Skeptics. In our 2016 inaugural episode, we tackle fracking, gerrymandering and vote manipulation, and whether we should vote only vote two party in a close election year.We also are joined by our friends in the podcast community, Jen and Keith from Not Another Atheist Podcast as help weigh in on these important topics. They will stick around for the full show to provide their expert and sometimes vulgar yet honest opinions on today's show. |
The consumption of animal-sourced food products by humans is one of the most powerful negative forces affecting the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems and biological diversity. Livestock production is the single largest driver of habitat loss, and both livestock and feedstock production are increasing in developing tropical countries where the majority of biological diversity resides. Bushmeat consumption in Africa and southeastern Asia, as well as the high growth-rate of per capita livestock consumption in China are of special concern. The projected land base required by 2050 to support livestock production in several megadiverse countries exceeds 30–50% of their current agricultural areas. Livestock production is also a leading cause of climate change, soil loss, water and nutrient pollution, and decreases of apex predators and wild herbivores, compounding pressures on ecosystems and biodiversity. It is possible to greatly reduce the impacts of animal product consumption by humans on natural ecosystems and biodiversity while meeting nutritional needs of people, including the projected 2–3 billion people to be added to human population. We suggest that impacts can be remediated through several solutions: (1) reducing demand for animal-based food products and increasing proportions of plant-based foods in diets, the latter ideally to a global average of 90% of food consumed; (2) replacing ecologically-inefficient ruminants (e.g. cattle, goats, sheep) and bushmeat with monogastrics (e.g. poultry, pigs), integrated aquaculture, and other more-efficient protein sources; and (3) reintegrating livestock production away from single-product, intensive, fossil-fuel based systems into diverse, coupled systems designed more closely around the structure and functions of ecosystems that conserve energy and nutrients. Such efforts would also impart positive impacts on human health through reduction of diseases of nutritional extravagance. |
Imagine yourself walking in each morning to a group of friends who are glad to see you, as well as you them. Communication is free-flowing and your voice and opinions are taken into consideration and not disregarded. A shared passion for moving geo-spatial technology forward permeates the environment. This is GEO Jobe. GEO Jobe’s continual goal is to expand and advance the use of geo-spatial technology for the benefit of those around the globe. We are always seeking the best, brightest, and most passionate in the geo-spatial technology industry to join our team. We invite you to look around our site to get a better understanding of our passion and how you can become a part of it.
“When ideas are heard and communication is open, team growth and goal achievement naturally follow. Bringing someone onto our team isn’t a one-way street where we just expect a person to work for us. GEO Jobe, as a company, is just as responsible for the growth and development of our employees, it works both ways. I invite all who have a passion for geo-spatial technology to apply when we have positions available.” – Neill Jobe, Founder / CEO, GEO Jobe
Sorry, we currently have no available positions but keep checking back, you never know when that might change!
GEO Jobe is the industry leader in ArcGIS Online development. We typically would seek out individuals with knowledge in programming as well as some or all of the following experience:
developing Web Mapping Applications on top of the Esri stack
a deep understanding of JavaScript and Web Application development
able to acquire expertise in the geospatial field on the job
JavaScript / HTML / CSS
Knowledge of Best Practices in Responsive Design
ArcGIS JavaScript API
Dojo Toolkit
Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS Custom Widget Development
ArcGIS REST API (Particularly Item Management Aspects)
A Deep Understanding of ArcGIS Online
Experience Using Version Control Systems with a Team (i.e: GIT, SVN, etc..)
Understanding of Software Architecture Principles and Patterns
A Strong Understanding of Asynchronous Programming
To Apply
If you want to send us your resume to keep on file, feel free to do so, although we suggest you keep checking back for specific openings – Good Luck
GEO Jobe
E-mail: careers@geo-jobe.com
Note to Foreign Applicants – U.S. citizen or authorized employment clearance is required. Sorry, but we will not petition for a Visa on your behalf. |
The Nature of What Religion Demands
In this post I shall describe the most important and critical demands of religion. Once this has been done one would have little difficulty understanding why fighting religion is a worthy cause.
The religions’ main interest lies in the contents of one’s skull as well as underwear. Religion has great interest in those areas and commands the believer:
THOU SHALT USE NEITHER OF THEM.
( Finding the your way to your place of worship and molesting under age kids are among the few exception that the Gods of desert were kind enough to make)
Religion exclusively relies on faith to justify itself. This means to exempt its claim from being investigated by means of scientific method and philosophical inquiry. Religion demands the believer to believe and not to question. It requires full slavery and submission of one’s faculty of reasoning. It’s impossible for a believer to question any of the claims of his/her religion. The moment that one has dared to question any of the mad claims of religion, is the moment in which one has made himself/herself qualified for eternal damnation. The utter feeling of guilt would dominate one’s mind if one is to commit an act which has some flavours of heresy. This is the key to survival of religion. Once one decides to rationally examine the arrogant, false, absurd, ridiculous and barbaric claims that three monotheistic dogmas make, it’d be inevitable to reach the conclusion that the very fundamental doctrines of these dogmas are nothing but barking mad.
Another major problem with religion is to dress one of the most vicious vices as a virtue, that is to make the false claim that celibacy, or at least chastity, is a virtue. This is because Big Brother wants your love. He wants you to dedicate your entire love to him and not to anyone else. He demands you to be the only thing that is truly loved. As Orwell said, “It’s not enough to obey the Big Brother you must love him” . Religion demands all of one’s love to be dedicated to the blood thirsty God of desert and no one else is to compete for it. This explains religions’ obsession with celibacy and its failure to condemn rape, since rape is a violent act and involves no love, so in the eye of the God of desert it’s the perfect method for reproduction. This is among the many reasons why each time I hear the name of any of the main theistic dogmas I run the risk of choking on my own vomit.
The way that religion has poisoned the attitude of society towards sex is also of great importance. I will, however, refrain from discussing it as it can’t be said better than how Bertrand Russell explains in his “Why I’m not a Christian”.
The price of what religion asks for is simply too high, and we can’t afford paying it. A society in which everyone thinks the same and there is no love for our fellow human beings would be too similar to Orwell’s nightmare vision of “1984” .
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If your Kindle e-reader model requires an update, you may be unable to download Kindle content from the Cloud, access the Kindle Store, register or deregister your device, import collections, share content via social networks, or use Whispersync services, annotations backup, Goodreads, and Kindle FreeTime.
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Kindle E-Readers that Require Updates
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Important: If your software version is higher than the version listed in the table, your device does not require an update. Additionally, the following device models are not impacted and do not require this update. Any Kindle e-reader model (7th Generation & newer)
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If you haven't received the software update over a Wi-Fi network, it may need to be transferred via USB. If you own a Kindle (1st Generation), Kindle (2nd Generation), or Kindle DX (2nd Generation), you will need to download the software update manually since those devices do not have Wi-Fi capabilities. To learn how, see Transfer & Install the Latest Software Update Manually. |
David Villa isn’t going anywhere.
There was speculation that Villa would retire after his three-year contract expired at the end of this season, but New York City FC silenced those rumors Wednesday by signing the reigning MLS MVP to a one-year extension that will keep him in The Bronx.
“I am so happy to play [at NYCFC],” Villa told The Post. “I am fit, the club spoke about joining for one more year and it was one of the easiest things I’ve done in my life.”
Villa’s contract extension was formally announced at P.S. 49 in The Bronx, where the former World Cup winner from Spain fielded tough questions from youngsters, like what’s his favorite pregame meal (pasta or rice) to whether he enjoys playing soccer (obviously). After all, the 35-year-old could have easily called it a career after this season, but he’s not ready to hang up his boots just yet.
“I think I’ve improved [at NYCFC],” said Villa, who’s missed just seven matches since NYCFC’s inaugural season in 2015. “With experience, games, with minutes on the pitch and outside the pitch, I keep learning. I’m a better player [now].”
Villa signed a three-year Designated Player contract in 2014 and, since then, he’s been everything NYCFC could have asked for. Arguably one of the best Designated Player signings in MLS history, Villa never took his foot off the gas, especially last season, when he scored 23 goals to win MLS MVP honors and led NYCFC to their first ever playoff appearance.
“When I look back to those first days in 2014, it’s really amazing to see how far we’ve come in such a short space of time,” said Villa, who is NYCFC’s all-time leading scorer with 46 goals. “And to know that there is so much potential for us to continue growing, on and off the field.”
The World Cup winner has shown no signs of tired legs this season, leading NYCFC (13 points) with five goals in seven appearances.
For Villa, coming to NYCFC hasn’t been a mistake.
“There were no sacrifices,” Villa said. “I always dreamed of being a soccer player. I can say I sacrificed nothing playing soccer.” |
Bridgeway’s Two Preschool Homeschool Programs Make Learning Fun
Bridgeway offers two preschool homeschool curriculum options that promise to instill a love of learning. These upbeat stories and lessons, educational games and character-building themes are so much fun that your kids will be asking for more! Without even knowing it, they’re learning the foundations of reading and math!
Homeschooled preschool students learn Biblical themes while being introduced to academic skills like listening, speaking, reading readiness, writing, mathematics, social studies, and science.
Preschool Horizons
Engaging arts and crafts, music, story times and field trips are inspired by sweeping Biblical themes. Students learn the importance of God, Who is the beginning of all things.
In typical Bridgeway fashion, you can count on flexibility in our preschool homeschool program. You select the days you want to provide instruction (our programs are designed to accommodate a 3-5 day schedule). And wait until you see the curriculum: 180 lessons within two student books, two easy-to-follow teacher’s guides, a sing-along music CD, and a resource packet which contains basic flashcards and other manipulative methods. We know you’ll be amazed and your kids engaged.
Each day shifts between Bible, shapes, phonics, math, language arts, crafts, and even homework, bringing a wealth of new and exciting information that will engage young minds.
Through Bible-based lessons, preschool homeschool students will be introduced to social studies, language arts, math, phonics, science, health and safety, arts and crafts, music and physical education. The hands-on activities are perfect for little bodies, while concepts are reinforced through games, songs, poems and drama to prepare your preschool homeschool student for kindergarten games. 180 lessons will take you through the entire school year.
Homeschool Preschool with ACE and Christi
Our preschool homeschool program is designed to be easy to use. What’s involved? You simply have to follow the detailed teacher’s guide.
You’ll take your kids through letters and letter sounds, animals, basic science and social studies, numbers and mathematics.
What’s the key to the simplicity? Sixty colorful workbooks are packed with Bible and animal pictures, fun-to-do worksheets and full-color picture stories that encourage a love for reading. By the end of this program, your child will know all the phonetic sounds, making for an easy transition to reading. And perhaps most importantly, they’ll also learn about the amazing wonders of God’s love.
Either way you go, with Bridgeway’s preschool homeschooling program you’ll set the stage for your preschooler to fall in love with learning. If you ask us, there aren’t many things in life as fun as preschool homeschool. Want to ask us more? Our friendly staff welcomes your questions.
Just give us a call at 800-863-1474. |
Former US President Barack Obama is planning on meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an upcoming visit to the two countries where he is scheduled to speak at various summits.
Mr Obama is scheduled to first make a stop in China, and then India, before flying to Paris, a spokesperson for the former president told The Hill.
The overseas trip was first reported by the Times of India last week, which noted that Mr Obama will be attending an Obama Foundation event in December.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
The forty-fourth president’s trip to India will come on the heels of first daughter Ivanka Trump’s visit to the same country. President Donald Trump recently finished a five-nation tour of Asia, when he met both Mr Xi and Mr Modi. Ms Trump, who is also a White House adviser, recently met with Mr Modi during during her trip at the eight Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad.
“It was an honour to meet with you Prime Minister Modi. Thank you for co-hosting the 8th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit!” Ms Trump wrote on Twitter after the summit, where she had spoken about women entrepreneurs.
Since leaving the White House earlier this year, Mr Obama has broken from recent tradition for outgoing presidents to wade into political debates facing the nation.
Shape Created with Sketch. Protest in Manila against Donald Trump's visit to the Philippines Show all 14 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Protest in Manila against Donald Trump's visit to the Philippines 1/14 Riot police block protesters during a rally near the US embassy AFP/Getty Images 2/14 Protesters shout slogans while displaying portraits of U.S. President Donald Trump and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte AP 3/14 Activists clash with riot police EPA 4/14 Protesters burn a banner of Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images 5/14 Protesters against Donald Trump's visit AP 6/14 Protesters deface portraits of Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte AP 7/14 Protesters clash with anti-riot police officers as they try to march towards the U.S. embassy REUTERS 8/14 A mural bearing the image of Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte is burnt REUTERS 9/14 Activists march on a road leading to the US embassy during a protest in Manila EPA 10/14 Protesters scuffle with riot police AFP/Getty Images 11/14 Protesters shout anti-US slogans as they burn a banner featuring the image of US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images 12/14 Activists clash with riot police EPA 13/14 Protesters display placards as they shout anti-US slogans AFP/Getty Images 14/14 Anti-riot police officers block protesters REUTERS 1/14 Riot police block protesters during a rally near the US embassy AFP/Getty Images 2/14 Protesters shout slogans while displaying portraits of U.S. President Donald Trump and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte AP 3/14 Activists clash with riot police EPA 4/14 Protesters burn a banner of Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images 5/14 Protesters against Donald Trump's visit AP 6/14 Protesters deface portraits of Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte AP 7/14 Protesters clash with anti-riot police officers as they try to march towards the U.S. embassy REUTERS 8/14 A mural bearing the image of Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte is burnt REUTERS 9/14 Activists march on a road leading to the US embassy during a protest in Manila EPA 10/14 Protesters scuffle with riot police AFP/Getty Images 11/14 Protesters shout anti-US slogans as they burn a banner featuring the image of US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images 12/14 Activists clash with riot police EPA 13/14 Protesters display placards as they shout anti-US slogans AFP/Getty Images 14/14 Anti-riot police officers block protesters REUTERS
That has included making a public statement about immigration after Mr Trump announced that he would suspend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Mr Obama’s administration developed that programme, which gave temporary deportation relief for young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States when they were young.
Mr Obama has also blasted Republicans since leaving office after they unveiled proposals to repeal his signature healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, and has critiqued Mr Trump for pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Change Accord.
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Time is running out for Kevin Rudd to reclaim the prime ministership. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen As this scene fades to the next tale of suburban frustration and family disappointment, a female voice-over is heard: "More and more, the demands of business are eating away at the basic rights unions have won for all of us." But where the earlier ACTU campaign was aimed squarely at the Howard government, this ad has no partisan target. Tony Abbott and the Liberals are not mentioned. Nor does it advocate for the Gillard government, also unmentioned. Instead, the punchline is: "Australian unions. Join. For a better life." This does not seem to be about the short-term power struggle of the federal election but the longer run of union membership. The secretary of the ACTU, Dave Oliver, confirms that we're not missing anything: "When I was elected at congress it was on a mandate of making the ACTU an independent, high-profile campaigning organisation," he says.
Illustration: Rocco Fazzari "Unfortunately, these aren't made-up scenarios. It's holding a mirror up to what's going on in workplaces. It's about the basic power imbalance in the workplace, and a very clear call to join a union." But they're obviously timed for the September 14 election, no? Yes and no, says Oliver. "These ads will run for at least two months and, budget permitting, we hope to continue running them regardless of who wins the election." In other words, the ads are not about the interests of the Labor Party in the short run so much as the interests of the labour movement in the longer run. The ACTU is looking to transcend the election. The ACTU's Your Rights at Work Campaign was central to the Labor push to win power in 2007. This time, however, the ads are deliberately aloof from the immediate fight.
Rudd was reminding the Labor caucus that he is still available. Has even the union movement given up on Julia Gillard? It certainly seems so. The ads don't explicitly endorse her - and nor does the implicit message. If these workplace injustices are already occurring, the Rudd-Gillard government must be to blame, surely? It's been in power for six years. Oliver resists this conclusion: "It hasn't happened overnight. It's over the last few decades. Our concern is what a Tony Abbott government would look like, especially around penalty rates, casualisation, loadings and rosters. Individual flexibility is used to undermine collective agreements." If that's the ACTU's concern, why not hit it directly? Oliver reserves the right to run ads that try to influence the election but says the ACTU has "not yet decided". Abbott's opposition deliberately made itself a small target for the ACTU. In fact, the Coalition's workplace policy was written to present the least threatening face possible. While it will attack the unions, it carefully leaves in place all the existing worker protections.
This is immensely frustrating to business and has drawn howls from Peter Reith - but Abbott is taking no chances. He has said he will call for a Productivity Commission inquiry and, if he intends any changes to workplace laws, to take them to the following election to give the people a say. This week two Gillard government MPs packed up their offices. Two others openly ridiculed the Prime Minister's office and its "messaging" efforts. Labor headquarters is proceeding to the election on the assumption that the party will win 32 per cent of the primary vote, implicitly conceding a loss of 6 percentage points since the 2010 election. And Labor didn't exactly win that one. Party veterans from former leader Simon Crean to former pollster Rod Cameron publicly predict electoral disaster. So why wouldn't the unions give up on the Gillard government? They have a duty to their members to husband scarce resources prudently. If the ACTU is letting go of the Gillard government, the Gillard government isn't letting go of the ACTU. This week it was busy in the Parliament delivering some of the key agenda items for the unions. Even unto its last breath. And who better to deliver for the unions than Bill Shorten, a former union boss.
On Thursday night Shorten took to the House the Fair Work Amendment Bill to allow union delegates greater rights of access to workplaces. It allows unions into the lunchrooms of businesses, even ones that have no union members. It passed the House and next goes to the Senate, where it will be enshrined into law before the election. The least ideological of the big business lobby organisations, the Australian Industry Group, said through its chief executive, Innes Willox: "With only 100 days to go until the federal election, major changes to workplace relations laws which will have negative effects on competitiveness and jobs should not be entertained." At the same time, the government moved to tighten the rules on 457 visas that cover temporary foreign workers. Although the Labor government had presided quite contentedly over the system for the past six years, it claimed to have discovered rampant scamming and rushed through an urgent review. As the government prepared its members in a confidential note this week, this measure is strongly supported by the unions and strongly opposed by business. The two MPs who have packed up their offices are Daryl Melham and Alan Griffin. They are plainly resigned to losing, though both insist they haven't given up. And while Melham is in the marginal south-western Sydney seat of Banks, which includes Hurstville and part of Bankstown, hanging on by an eminently losable 1.5 per cent, Griffin is another story.
Griffin's seat of Bruce in Victoria has a margin of 7.7 per cent. In the olden days - pre-2010 - that was considered safe. If there were a uniform swing that big, it would take 33 more marginal Labor MPs before it got to him. Not only that, Griffin is one of the most loyal of the Kevin Rudd fan club. So by signalling despair, he is not only implicitly giving up on Gillard, he's giving up on a Rudd return too. Yet Rudd was on the ABC's program 7.30 on Thursday night urging MPs not to run up the white flag. Rudd was reminding the Labor caucus that he is still available if they should want to draft him into the leadership. It's getting desperate for Rudd. There are only two more parliamentary sitting weeks before the election, only two more caucus meetings, a vanishingly small opportunity for him to return to the prime ministership. Is anything happening behind the scenes? No. "If there is anything," says a former Rudd lieutenant who, like almost all of them, have given up on him, "it would have to come from Gillard's side - Rudd doesn't have the numbers."
One of the reasons Gillard is safe is that the big right-affiliated unions have fought staunchly to keep her in place. When Crean pressed Gillard to call a leadership spill and it seemed Rudd might challenge, two of the key union bosses lobbied their affiliated MPs to stick with Gillard. She has delivered for us, and we have to be loyal to her, was the message from the Australian Workers' Union's Paul Howes and the Transport Workers Union's Tony Sheldon. She continues to deliver for the unions, even if they're giving up on her, and that's why Rudd's case is close to being terminal. Would Gillard consider stepping aside for the good of the party? In the last tableau in the new ACTU ad, a grown son asks his put-upon father to demand better treatment from the boss. ''Why don't you say something?'' he urges his dad. "Have you met my boss?" rejoins the father. Some bosses are immovable. Gillard is one of them. Peter Hartcher is the political editor. |
On March 18, one of India’s most celebrated startups received a huge blow.
Alibaba Group Holding, promoted by Jack Ma, China’s third-richest man, backed off from buying a stake in Snapdeal, one of India’s largest online marketplaces. This would have been the Chinese e-commerce giant’s first direct investment in India.
The deal stalled after Snapdeal apparently sought a valuation of between $6 billion and $7 billion (Rs37,500 crore-Rs43,800 crore) while Alibaba was looking at valuing the company at under $5 billion (Rs31,200 crore).
The breakdown in negotiations has raised questions about the huge valuations of India’s e-commerce giants—essentially, are these massive numbers justified and sustainable?
Alongside that, there is an even bigger question: Why exactly are investors still drawn to these firms?
“Of recent, the valuation game has turned into a ‘black magic art’ more than a science,” Ravi Gururaj, chairman of India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) product council, told Quartz. Nasscom is a trade association representing the Indian software industry.
Founders and investors, felt Gururaj, are rationalising and defending these extraordinary valuations by arguing that they see some exceptional promise in these startups. “The more grounded among us read that as ample evidence of a frothy bubble-like environment,” he said.
High, higher, highest
In all, the Indian startup sector received more than $5 billion (Rs25,000 crore) in funding in 2014, compared to $1.6 billion (Rs10,000 crore) in 2013 and $760 million (Rs4,755 crore) in 2012.
Of this, in 2014, Flipkart raised some $1.9 billion(Rs11,900 crore), while Snapdeal found about $1 billion (Rs6,257 crore) in funding, including a deal with SoftBank for $627 million. And most of this money came from a few big investors including Accel Partners, Tiger Global, SoftBank and Helion Venture Partners.
Now, as these firms head out to raise even more money, valuations are going through the roof. Flipkart, for instance, is valued at about $11 billion, and Snapdeal could be at least worth $5 billion.
Together, these two online shopping firms are now valued much, much higher than the total market capitalisation of India’s major brick-and-mortar retailers, which have dozens or even hundreds of physical shops.
The phenomenal valuations for India’s e-commerce companies are based on the premise that Asia’s third-largest economy presents a vast opportunity for online retailers. Economic growth looks to be back, the country’s middle-class is steadily expanding and, powered by a smartphone revolution, the number of internet users is skyrocketing.
“The e-commerce sector has created new markets, and since many of these are addressing a large untapped potential, investors think they can grow at a rapid pace,” Ashish Basil, partner at consulting firm EY, told Quartz.
Some argue that offline retailers in India do not have the bandwidth to expand as much—and as quickly—as online retailers. And this in itself is a huge opportunity for online companies to reach areas that modern retailers cannot. Brick-and-mortar retail chains have also been facing stiff competition from the local kirana, or mom-and-pop stores, especially in the hinterland.
“Due to fragmentation, infrastructure challenges and high real estate costs, offline retail will never be able to achieve the scale that e-commerce can,” explained Sandeep Murthy, a partner at Lightbox Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund. ”Entrepreneurs and investors have recognised this and believe that they are playing in a game with a massive prize for the winner.”
Investor trap
Still, the prospects of a massive, unexplored marketplace doesn’t quite explain the hyper valuations that Indian e-commerce companies are landing.
After all, India’s e-tail channels are forecast to account for about 10% of the overall retail market in 2025.
“I frankly do not understand the basis of these valuations,” Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak, a retail consultancy, said last year. ”It defies logic. Looking at potential is fine, but valuations have to be sane.”
There are two big reasons for this seeming insanity.
One, investors are lining up before e-commerce firms influenced by their competitors; and two, fundamental problems in the business models of these companies are being overshadowed as the industry blindly chases growth.
“Investors tend to behave like a herd and since e-commerce is the flavour of the day, many investors are rushing there,” Santosh Kanekar, an independent consultant who advises financial firms on investing in Indian companies, said last year.
Most of the e-commerce valuations in India, argued Kanekar, are driven by investor demand rather than by a significant improvement in the e-tailer’s financial performance. ”The reality is that there’s a lot of froth in the global M&A (mergers and acquisitions) market in general, and emerging markets, particularly India, are no different,” he said.
And he isn’t alone.
“Nobody looks at the fundamentals of valuations anymore,” Karthik Reddy, managing partner of Blume Ventures, a venture capital firm, told Quartz. “Three or four big players have emerged in India and most of the other startups now feed off that eco-system. But there is an inflexion point that is going to come soon.”
Where’s the money?
Although these are early days for a fast-growing industry, the combined losses of India’s e-tailing companies now stand at almost (pdf) Rs1,000 crore.
Much of this is because of the discounting strategies that these firms use to lure consumers. These discounts—along with massive advertising and marketing campaigns—are bank-rolled by the investors, who are now beginning to worry.
Since the last year, there is growing pressure on Indian e-commerce companies to to cut down on discounts—and concentrate on making profits. But this isn’t going to be easy.
“E-commerce has not reached a stable level where it can become sustainable by itself,” Praveen Sinha, founder of Jabong, an online fashion retailer, said earlier this month. ”So, if the whole margin is 10% and the market operates at 15% discount, e-commerce companies can never become profitable.”
In the past, industry observers like venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy had also publicly expressed their disapproval about the business models.
“I don’t hate Flipkart,” Murthy wrote in 2013. ”I just don’t think it’s the right way to build a business. My preference is always for a new business to start with a clear, sustainable competitive benefit to consumers, differentiate sharply, grow organically from the ground up, take money if needed to grow—not survive, and build a real business, that makes more money than it spends.”
Murthy is not the only one to complain about the business models of Indian e-commerce companies.
“If a company is losing money on every transaction, then the business model is not sustainable,” Devangshu Dutta, chief executive of Third Eyesight, a retail consulting firm, told Quartz.
And it doesn’t help that companies aren’t putting out strong statements on their business models, Dutta added, because there is a need to bolster confidence about these business eventually turning profitable.
Perception and sentiment aside, India’s e-commerce firms have to stop bleeding money for other reasons. In the next five years, the industry will need to spend anywhere between $950 million and $1.9 billion on logistics and warehousing as it expands.
Sure, that isn’t a lot of money compared to what the likes of Flipkart and Snapdeal are being able raise currently, but the fight for funds is also likely to get tougher. By 2020, India’s tech startup ecosystem will have some 11,000 firms, more than three times the current number.
The focus, therefore, needs to shift from rapid expansion and capturing market share to building a sustainable businesses.
And while that may take some time, for now everybody seems happy about the massive amounts of money pouring into India’s e-commerce industry. |
I absolutely cannot be the only one who started pining for more footy from the second the Western Bulldogs hoisted the 2016 Premiership Cup last year.
The dreaded footy-barren blast furnace, aka “summer,” has its claws deeply entrenched in Australia for the time being. But this year, unlike other years, we are in for an early reprieve.
Though the AFL pre-season efforts don’t start until February 16th, footy is delving even further into summer with the launch of the historic inaugural AFLW season on February 3rd.
The first-ever national women’s league is set to run through the summer months, culminating in a Grand Final that’ll coincide with Round 1 of the AFL fixture, meaning from the start of February there’s non-stop footy right through the year until October, and nothing about that could ever be a bad thing.
Unfortunately for fans, however, a combination of factors are conspiring to make attending the first-ever AFLW game something of a roll of the dice.
The kickoff match, between Carlton and Collingwood, is set to go down on Friday night, February 3rd, at the Olympic Park precinct in Melbourne’s stadium district.
The decision to play all AFLW games at small suburban grounds is one of timing and strategy by the AFL; most major grounds are dual-purpose and are set aside for cricket at that time of year, but returning the game to its suburban roots gives the new teams a chance to develop stronger geographical bond with their home turf.
That’s all well and good, but the Olympic Park ground at Collingwood’s Holden Centre training base only has a reported safe capacity of 5,000 people. That number isn’t official, either, and the AFL has sent in contractors to assess the ground’s true capacity, given it isn’t ordinarily set up to be a spectator venue.
It’s expected that Collingwood and league officials will erect a temporary fence around the ground for the game, meaning there’s a very real chance fans could be locked out of catching a slice of history.
What’s more, owing to the fact that all tickets for the AFLW’s first season will be free-of-charge, there will be no pre-booking admission, meaning punters are simply going to have to chance the arm on the day in the hopes of getting in to the ground.
Around 6,500 fans showed up to the Whitten Oval in Footscray late last season for an exhibition game between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs. But for a game that’s not only for premiership points, but is the first-ever game in the first-ever season, you’d expect interest in it to be quite high.
Throw in the fact that it’s between two traditional powerhouse rivals in Carlton and Collingwood, and on a Friday night in the middle of summer, AND tickets are free… Honestly, how the AFL looks at all that and doesn’t expect 20,000 to turn up is somewhat baffling.
If you’re keen to attend the Blues/Pies clash on Feb 3rd, you might wanna head down to Olympic Park and start lining up now.
If all else fails, Channel 7 and Fox Footy will be broadcasting the game live and in prime-time.
Shit. Yes. Footy.
Source: Herald Sun.
Photo: Michael Wilson, AFL Media/Getty. |
Two to 7 feet: That's how much scientists expect the sea level to rise by 2100 if humanity doesn't curb its greenhouse-gas emissions.
Seem like there's a rather large amount of wiggle room in that estimate? Well, even the best-case scenario is awful, as you can see in the maps below.
These aquatic models, based on U.S. government data, arrive courtesy of Climate Central, a group of journalists and researchers in New Jersey. On Thursday, the organization released a report of doom showing what could happen when storm surges strike in this higher-seas environment. To boil it down: Many coastal cities are facing massive, devastating flooding. Says Climate Central:
Global warming has raised global sea level about 8 inches since 1880, and the rate of rise is accelerating. Rising seas dramatically increase the odds of damaging floods from storm surges. A Climate Central analysis finds the odds of “century” or worse floods occurring by 2030 are on track to double or more, over widespread areas of the U.S. These increases threaten an enormous amount of damage. Across the country, nearly 5 million people live in 2.6 million homes at less than 4 feet above high tide — a level lower than the century flood line for most locations analyzed.
Today, we can scratch our heads over the news that the island nation of Kiribati is making plans to relocate to someplace higher. But in mere decades from now, thousands of residents of New York City, New Orleans, Boston, Washington, D.C., and southeast Florida could be making similar grim preparations. These are some of the places most at risk from grand-scale floods exacerbated by climate change, according to the study. In human terms, that's 284,000 people in New Orleans whose homes could be underwater by 2100, 141,000 in NYC and 312,000 in the Florida counties of Miami-Dade and Broward. |
"We are here today,” Professor Stuart Rees told a media conference at Queens Square on October 30, “to express our outrage that a so-called independent law centre from Israel could attempt to stamp out freedom of speech in Australia.”
"We call on the mainstream media to take an objective stand on the issue of Palestinian human rights.”
The gathering concerned the move by Shurat HaDin, an Israeli-based law centre, to file a case in the Federal Court against Professor Jake Lynch of the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Rees and Professor Peter Slezak said before the conference: "[Shurat HaDin] claim that [Rees] he has supported policies which are racist and discriminatory by his specific endorsement of an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and individuals within them, because of these institutions' support of the illegal occupation of Palestine and their close connections with the Israeli armament industry.
"This lawfare attack against academic freedom and freedom of speech has been condemned by over 2000 Australian and international human rights advocates from some 60 countries, who have all signed a pledge supporting BDS and offering to be co-defendants in any legal action taken against Lynch.
"Shurat HaDin has taken many similar actions internationally against groups who supported the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement. Professor Rees comments, 'It seems that this firm, Shurat HaDin, works in the civil courts as a proxy for the Israeli government and security forces, seeking to shut down any criticism of the state and its ongoing human rights abuses and violations of international law.'
"This overseas law firm now wants to silence this highly regarded academic, by taking their complaint to the Federal Court. This challenges the right to take non-violent action in support of international human rights law and the rights of the dispossessed Palestinians. Australians for BDS condemns racism in all its forms, and specifically anti-Semitism.” |
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Last December the same conservative activists who persuaded the Supreme Court to gut the Voting Rights Act challenged the historic principle of “one, person, one vote.” They asked the Court to require states to draw districts based on eligible or registered voters, as opposed to total population, which had been the standard for more than 50 years. If that happened, millions of people, including children and non-citizens, would have been denied political representation. Districts would have become older, whiter, more conservative and more favorable to Republicans. Ad Policy
Today the Supreme Court rejected that challenge, upholding “one person, one vote” in a unanimous 8-0 decision. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the decision, saying that all people are entitled to equal representation under the law. “It remains beyond doubt that the principle of representational equality figured prominently in the decision to count people, whether or not they qualify as voters,” she wrote. (Justices Thomas and Alito concurred with the judgment but did not agree with its reasoning.)
Here’s the key part of her argument:
Adopting voter-eligible apportionment as constitutional command would upset a well-functioning approach to districting that all 50 States and countless local jurisdictions have long followed. As the Framers of the Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment comprehended, representatives serve all residents, not just those eligible to vote. Nonvoters have an important stake in many policy debates and in receiving constituent services. By ensuring that each representative is subject to requests and suggestions from the same number of constituents, total-population apportionment promotes equitable and effective representation. LIKE THIS? GET MORE OF OUR BEST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
This is a major victory for voting rights, and a huge crisis averted. If states had been required to use current voting-age population instead of total population as the metric for drawing districts, as I previously reported, a staggering 55 percent of Latinos—those who are under 18 or non-citizens—would not have been counted, as well as 45 percent of Asian Americans and 30 percent of African Americans.
Yet this is still in many ways a bittersweet victory, given that the 2016 election is the first in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. We’re seeing the clear impact of that decision this year, with five-hour lines in Arizona, voters turned away from the polls by North Carolina’s voter-ID law, and 300,000 registered voters who could be disenfranchised in Wisconsin tomorrow.
Imagine if protecting voting rights were the norm, rather than the exception, before the Supreme Court. That’s why the future of the Court is the most important issue facing the country in 2016 and beyond.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article may have implied that the Court’s decision barred voter-eligible apportionment. In fact, though Justice Ginsburg’s opinion strongly endorsed total population apportionment as a “well-functioning approach” that “promotes equitable and effective representation,” the Court explicitly declined to “resolve” the question of whether states may use voter-eligible apportionment. While Justices Alito and Thomas concurred with the judgment, they disagreed with the opinion. The article has been updated to clarify these points. |
William Gheen, the leader of an anti-illegal immigration group, has received considerable attention after asking Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to admit he’s gay — an unsubstantiated allegation — before liberals can use it against him.
Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert slammed Gheen Thursday and quipped, “Lindsey Graham, save your good name by releasing a sex tape!”
“Nine times out of ten I’m on the side of whoever is calling somebody gay,” Colbert said. “But the person being accused here is a senator from my home state, an I’m not going to let someone slander his good name.”
Graham, who has been the target of rumors about his sexuality for years, says he’s not gay. In this case, he was arguably targeting by Gheen because he is one of a few Republican senators willing to negotiate with Democrats for immigration reform.
“I hope this secret isn’t being used as leverage over Senator Graham, so today I think Senator Graham, you need to come forward and tell people about your alternative lifestyle and your homosexuality,” Gheen told a Crowd of Tea Partiers in South Carolina last weekend.
The remarks went viral after they were posted on YouTube by his group, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC). At one point, the video was marked with the tags “queer” and “fag.” ALIPAC claimed that their video page had been hacked and the tags were soon removed.
“I have to admit, that was very brave of Mr. Gheen. Outing someone usually takes the kind of courage only displayed by male prostitutes paid by tabloid magazines,” quipped Colbert in his “The Word” segment Thursday.
Colbert looked to an old “Sex and the City” episode for ways the senator can clear this up permanently. In season six, Kim Catrall’s character is determined to quash rumors that her male model boyfriend is gay, and decides that only by making a sex tape can her man prove he’s straight.
“Sir, it will save your career,” Colbert said. “Because any kind of straight sex seems to be okay with the GOP. I mean, just look at Governor Mark Sanford, Senator John Ensign or Senator David Vitter, who is still in office despite being named as a client by the D.C. madam three years ago and dogged by rumors that he allegedly likes prostitutes to dress him up in diapers.”
“So just rent the equipment. Hell, rent the girl. Just put it in there and get it out there,” Colbert suggested.
At that, Colbert turned his attention to Gheem. “He’s a big opponent of illegal immigration, and the immigration reform bill is the next big piece of legislation in Obama’s pipeline. Now, Gheen knows the Republicans only have 41 seats in the Senate. To block legislation, they have to march in unison. So the real threat is not the fact that Lindsey Graham is gay, which he isn’t, it’s that he’s bi, which he is, bi-partisan,” the comedian said.
Gheen has suggested Graham may be getting blackmailed into bipartisanship, but the activist hasn’t targeted other Republican senators — such as Sens. Olympia Snowe (ME), Susan Collins (ME) and Scott Brown (MA) — who have voted with President Obama on initiatives.
Even Gheen seems to swing both ways. “I just found out that he worked with the Democratic party in the 1990s. That sounds pretty bipartisan,” Colbert said.
Based on that fact, Colbert turned the tables in Gheen. “I’ve got to at least consider the possibility that someone found out he gets off by going to the ballpark on weekends and laying in a trough in the men’s room like a human urinal cake. I have got nothing to back that up. I just need to know that that’s not true,” he concluded.
This video is from Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, broadcast April 22, 2010.
Part 1
Part 2 |
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- No one ever asks who the Green Bay Packers are going to pick in the fourth round ... or the fifth or sixth or seventh.
Maybe they should.
While the focus is always on who the Packers will take in the first round, general manager Ted Thompson would appear to rely on -- and hit on -- those third-day picks as much as he does the ones on the first two days of the NFL draft.
According to a study by ESPN Stats & Information analytics writer Sharon Katz, the Packers have gotten more out of their late-round picks than any team in the NFL over the last 10 years. They opened last season with 19 players on their 53-man roster who were picked in rounds four through seven. That was two more than the next-highest team -- the Minnesota Vikings with 17.
Part of it could be Thompson’s commitment to his draft-and-develop philosophy. He doesn’t add many free agents, therefore leaving roster spots available for draft picks, some of whom won’t play much (or at all) as rookies.
Josh Sitton, a fourth-round pick in 2008, might be the best find of the Packers' many late-round offensive line gems. Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
However, Thompson has done especially well with offensive linemen in the later rounds. Four of the Packers’ five starters fit into that category. Only right tackle Bryan Bulaga (a first-round pick in 2010) was taken within the first three rounds. Three starters -- left guard Josh Sitton, right guard T.J. Lang and left tackle David Bakhtiari -- were fourth-round picks while center Corey Linsley was a fifth-rounder.
In Katz’s study, Sitton came out as the Packers’ best late-round selection.
Offensive line could be a priority this year even if Thompson waits until the second or third day given the contract status of several starters.
Sitton, Lang and Bakhtiari all would be free agents next offseason unless they reach extensions some time before next March. All three present different, yet equally difficult, decisions for Thompson.
Bakhtiari, at age 24, is the youngest of the trio and plays the all-important left tackle position. His value was never more evident than late last season, when he missed three games (including the playoff opener against the Washington Redskins), and the Packers tried three different fill-ins (Don Barclay, Sitton and JC Tretter).
Bakhtiari’s price tag will the highest among the three, so if there’s a thought at all in Thompson’s mind that he won’t re-sign him, then drafting another tackle is paramount unless, of course, Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy believe Tretter could be a future tackle. He showed against the Redskins that he might be able to handle that job.
But guess what? Tretter, a former fourth-round pick, is also entering the final season of his rookie contract.
Sitton and Lang present different issues. Both have been ultra-reliable and productive; Sitton has been a Pro Bowler and an All-Pro pick, while Lang isn’t far behind. But Sitton will turn 30 in June and Lang 29 in September. They also have battled through injuries -- Sitton a bad back and Lang a shoulder that was surgically repaired in the offseason -- and there’s reason to wonder if Thompson is worried about how much longer they will hold up.
Still, Thompson insisted recently that future needs won’t influence his draft decisions.
“Not at all,” he said. “Again, we feel like it’s best to stay true to form and try to take the best player available. We’re not going to stray off that. Again, that could be temporary. You might have a quote-unquote expiring contract, but you also might be in a position where you’re hopeful to do a reconstruction.”
Here are the late-round drafts picks (fourth through seventh rounds) on the Packers' opening-day roster last season: |
Syria called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take action against Israel on Thursday after a reported Israeli air strike on a military facility near the Syrian-Lebanese border on Wednesday.
“The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic calls upon the UNSC to condemn the blatant Israeli aggressions [sic]," a statement carried on the state-run SANA news agency said, adding that Syria "calls on the international organization to adopt firm and immediate measures to stop those attacks and hold Israel accountable for its support to terrorism which would inflame the situation in the region and the world."
Israel's air force bombed a weapons depot in Homs province on Wednesday night local time, Lebanese media and a monitoring group said, the latest in a string of strikes in recent weeks.
Lebanese news outlet al-Mayadeen reported that Syria fired a surface-to-air missile at Israeli aircraft after the strike, which reportedly occurred in the suburbs of the city of Homs.
Local residents reported of Israeli jets circling in the area and an explosion, according to a report on the Lebanese site Anshara. Syrian television reported "an aggression" by Israel in the region, adding that the national army had "responded".
The Israeli army refused to comment on the report.
In Thursday's statement SANA described the facility as a "copper factory for civil industries in Hassyah industrial zone in Homs province."
The statement repeated claims frequently made by the regime of Bashar Al Assad that Israel secretly controls Islamist terror groups such as Islamic State (IS) and Al Nusra, who have been fighting the regime in an almost six-years-long civil war.
Israel has acknowledged carrying out airstrikes in Syria since the outbreak of the bloody conflict, in order to stop arms deliveries to Shiite militia Hezbollah, an ally of Assad's ruling clan.
The Syria observatory said Israel had also struck an arms depot near the Damascus airport on September 22, and this month targeted a jihadist faction linked to the Islamic State group in southern Syria, killing at least 10.
Damascus made a similar plea to the Security Council in mid-October, saying they were "surprised" by UNSC inaction.
Israel said last month it had attacked Syrian government artillery after fire from across the armistice line hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights
AFP contributed to this report. |
“A Great science fiction detective story”
– Ian Watson, author of The Universal Machine
Days to Centenary: 170
Believe it or not there are still places on the Earth where there are no internet connections — such places certainly exist in the southern hemisphere, where I live — and over the holidays I was in just such a place, whichI hope explains the absence of new posts on any of my blogs for a little while.
Now that I’m back: Happy Alan Turing Year!
As I counted down to midnight on December 31, 2011 surrounded by family and friends, my thoughts were mostly with the people around me (and others who couldn’t be there), which is as it should be. But I was certainly aware, as well, that the Turing year was about to begin… was about to begin… and then suddenly had begun.
For many people this will be a culminating moment. I imagine it must be such a moment for Andrew Hodges, who many years ago painstakingly pieced together a myriad of fragments from the life of a man who was too much forgotten and pieced them together into a biography that helped revive him in our collective memory.
It was Hodges’ book that first exposed me to Turing in the 1980s. I recently bought my fourth — or is it fifth? — copy of Alan Turing: The Enigma, because I can’t resist giving the book away when I meet someone whom I think might enjoy it or benefit from it. Then, after a time of not having it on my shelf, I’m suddenly afflicted with the need to read it again and have to go out and buy another copy and each time I return to it I learn something new. For that iterative, cumulative experience, thank you Dr. Hodges, and Happy Alan Turing Year.
And along with him, a very big thank you and Happy Alan Turing Year to the many good people (in part represented here) — most of whom will never have the profile that Dr. Hodges does — who have worked so hard to ensure that the Alan Turing Year happened at all, and who continue to work to ensure that the myriad of events that make up the celebration all over the world actually take place. You guys are awesome.
And on the topic of people who make the Alan Turing Year happen, having acknowledged all the official folks, let’s not forget the Turing Elves, those unofficial individuals who — through works of art and DIY technical projects and a myriad of other endeavors that are as disparate and entertaining as the Elves themselves — help make every year Alan Turing Year.
And just as it’s a culminating moment for Dr. Hodges, for the official ATY folks, and for the Elves, I can only imagine that it must also be such a moment for Turing’s surviving family members, who only learned many years after the event of Turing’s important role in the war, who finally saw him receive the apology he deserved from the government that persecuted him, and who may now at long last see him pardoned (see this post), which is the most complete vindication that the law can extend to him at this late date. This is the year the family Turing (whether they bear the name or not) get to finally enjoy the honour that should have been his and theirs a long, long time ago.
It will also be a culminating moment for the members of an LGBT community that is by now so multi-generational, international, and diverse that it can hardly be called one community at all. It is a constellation of communities that has, since the beginning of the gay liberation movement in the late 1960s, evolved to have a strength and a public profile that once would have been unthinkable.
Even now it remains a reality for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, the transgendered, and the queer, that each person’s personhood — their character, their intrinsic nature, their contribution to the world, their strengths and flaws, their very self — is too often overshadowed by the simple fact of their sexual orientation. It’s maddening to be reduced in that way and this recognition of Turing helps to minimize that kind of reduction. We’re not where we need to be yet, but when a man of Turing’s stature has gone as long as he has with as little recognition as he’s had almost exclusively because of his sexual orientation, international recognition of the kind that the Alan Turing Year provides is certainly a move in the right direction.
And this should also be a culminating moment for any number of others who are ignored or dehumanized or belittled on account of factors that ought to have no bearing on one’s view of them or on their ability to participate fully in social and professional life, whether that factor is their race, their gender, their religion, a physical or psychological idiosyncrasy or affliction, or anything else which might impair us in our ability to see them as whole and invididual people while it does nothing at all to diminish them. The diminishment of any one of us diminishes us all and the long overdue recognition of Turing enriches us all.
Which means that — while we must never allow ourselves to be distracted from Turing himself, his work, and the honours that he’s earned — this is nonetheless an Alan Turing Year for everyone.
So, Happy Alan Turing Year to you.
[Note: The image in this post was borrowed from here.]
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Por Adam Dubove (*)
Quienes circulan en moto con un acompañante por la Provincia de Buenos Aires acaban de convertirse en ciudadanos de segunda categoría. La nueva medida del gobierno de Daniel Scioli obliga a los que viajen como acompañantes a llevar casco y un chaleco reflectante con la inscripción de los números de la patente del vehículo. Es una clara demostración de la improvisación y demagogia que caracteriza a los políticos cuando se encuentran acorralados por la opinión pública.
La resolución 221/14 que entró en vigencia el lunes pasado confirma una vez más la noción de que somos parte de una “granja de humanos” que los gobiernos se dedican a pastorear y esquilmar a su gusto. Es así, que ante la emergencia de seguridad que se vive en la Provincia, el primer impulso es marcar a una categoría determinada de individuos obligándolos a llevar números identificatorios en su espalda y casco.
El argumento oficial es que bajo este nuevo régimen se pretende resolver dos problemas: el de la seguridad vial y el de la seguridad ciudadana. En cuanto a la seguridad vial poco se puede decir, la relación entre llevar el número de patente pegado en la espalda y evitar accidentes es inexistente. En cuanto a seguridad ciudadana, la relación ronda lo ilógico.
La primera objeción a esta disposición de neto carácter demagógico y que no hará nada por resolver el flagelo de la inseguridad es simple: los ladrones no respetan la ley. ¿Por qué alguien que está dispuesto a robar – es decir, cometer una infracción más grave – respetaría la nueva norma? De la misma manera que a la hora de restringir el uso de armas son los ciudadanos respetuosos de la ley los que se pliegan a la restricción, esta regulación servirá para identificar aquellos que no pretenden delinquir y quieren evitar ser sancionados con una multa de hasta $5.000 y la retención de la licencia de conducir.
Por otra parte, el uso de chaleco y casco con la inscripción requerido por la ley estimulará la creatividad para delinquir y saltear controles. Los eventuales delincuentes que utilicen la moto como forma de escape, podrían sacarse el casco y el chaleco a la hora de cometer el delito, y una vez que escaparon de la zona del atraco simular que se trata de ciudadanos obedientes de la ley con su respectivo chaleco y casco con las inscripciones que ordena la ley.
Todo esto podrían hacerlo si tuviesen que evitar los controles, pero los controles verdaderamente efectivos son una rareza entre la policía bonaerense – aunque no exclusiva de esa jurisdicción. Paradójicamente, son habitualmente los efectivos policiales los que esconden su identidad, ocultando sus placas identificatorias, al momento de participar en manifestaciones u otros operativos.
La moto es uno de los medios de transporte por excelencia en la provincia de Buenos Aires, especialmente entre los sectores socioeconómicos más bajos. Durante el año 2013, según informa la Asociación Argentina de Motovehículos, se patentaron casi 200.000 unidades solamente en esa provincia, un 28% de los patentamientos del año pasado en todo el país. La gran mayoría de los motociclistas son personas que utilizan la moto para dirigirse a su lugar de trabajo.
En este sentido, los fabricantes de motos ya se expresaron contra la medida. En un comunicado difundido la última semana la Cámara de Fabricantes de Motovehículos, que nuclea a las principales fábricas del país, manifestaron que con esta iniciativa se pretende “demonizar a los motociclistas por el simple hecho de usar ese vehículo para su traslado” y destacaron que “la seguridad pública debe cuidarse con medidas que no afecten los derechos básicos de circulación o movilidad”.
Tras la devaluación de comienzos de año, la venta de motos se desplomó en un 38% durante el mes de febrero en comparación con el mismo mes del año pasado, y acumuló un retroceso del 7% durante el primer trimestre de 2014. Una situación que se suma al fuerte impacto que recibió el sector tras la creación del nuevo impuesto a los autos de alta gama que también afecta a las motos.
Los problemas, por supuesto, no son únicamente para los fabricantes. Una reglamentación absurda genera casos absurdos, por ejemplo, el de Joaquín. Supongamos que Joaquín, un chico en edad escolar, va con su padre en la moto todas las mañanas al colegio, y por la tarde es retirado por su madre, con su propia moto, que lo lleva a hacer alguna actividad deportiva y a la que finalmente su primo – también en moto – acude a retirarlo. En este caso, Joaquín necesitará tener tres cascos y chalecos distintos, teniendo que incurrir su familia en mayores gastos, para cumplir con la ley y evitar que la policía lo multe por no identificarse.
Al contrario del efecto buscado, esta medida incrementa el peligro para los que utilizan las motos en caso de robo del vehículo. En un robo, el delincuente no solo se querrá quedar con la moto, sino también con su casco y chaleco identificatorio, aumentando así la duración del robo, generando mayor tensión y elevando las posibilidades de que la propia inercia que genera el nerviosismo de la situación para ambas partes convierta al robo en un homicidio.
Pero por sobre todas las cosas, se estigmatiza a todos aquellos que utilicen la moto como medio de locomoción, desconociendo la presunción de inocencia, una de las garantías fundamentales consagradas en la Constitución Nacional. Siguiendo el razonamiento utilizado por Scioli, de forma análoga, se podría implementar que aquellas personas con un determinado nivel de poder adquisitivo deban llevar en un colgante su nombre y apellido, DNI, y CUIT para disminuir los niveles de evasión fiscal, o aquellas personas que vivan en “zonas peligrosas” tengan que vestir un brazalete con sus datos identificatorios.
La falta de racionalidad, es decir la desproporción entre los medios elegidos y los fines buscados, es alevosa. La negación de las garantías básicas y hostigamiento a un grupo de personas que eligió utilizar el medio de transporte que el gobierno considera la raíz de sus problemas, es el resultado de la desesperación, pero no la desesperación por la “seguridad ciudadana” o la “seguridad vial”. La imposición de chalecos y cascos con identificación, es un acto desesperado para seguir emparchando, ocultando y manipulando la deteriorada situación que el partido que gobernó la provincia durante los últimos 28 años le ha dejado como legado a todos los bonaerenses.
(*) Especial para FortunaWeb |
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Even in the face of an apparent economic recovery, many millions of people are stagnating in their jobs, unable to get a promotion or to move to a more promising position with a competing company. Many more are still unemployed or even under-employed. That may be the reality of our time, but should we sit still and wait for better times? Is that even a strategy?
Cutting living expenses is one way to deal with a comatose employment situation, but I’ve argued in the past that frugality has its limits. When all is said and done, you can only cut your expenses so much before finding new income sources becomes an absolute necessity.
If you aren’t content to continue to just muddle through, and want to make things happen in your life, increasing the number of income streams will be the most constructive way forward. And starting a side business is the single best way to do this.
How can starting a side business build a better future?
Moving forward in an uncertain job market
Job security is a thing of the past. We could write books about how that’s playing out but it’s completely unnecessary. The more important issue is how we deal with that reality?
If jobs are uncertain, the best thing we can do is to prepare ourselves for self-employment. Since most people have never been self-employed, the lowest risk way to do this is to begin a business as a side venture while you’re still employed by your company. You’ll have the cash flow from your job, and that will give you as much time as you need to get your business up and make it profitable.
If you haven’t been promoted in a long time, and there’s little prospect of getting a better job elsewhere, it’s time to get started with a side business now. In time, your business can grow into a full time venture. And even if it doesn’t, and it merely functions as a part time business, it can either supplement your income or be one source among several income streams in the event you lose your primary job entirely.
Coping with the rising cost of living
Despite official declarations of an inflation rate sitting reliably within the 1-4% range, the cost of goods and services that we need—food, energy, utilities, healthcare and education have soared. If you aren’t being promoted, and the raises you get are only of the token variety, you’ll have to increase your income outside your job. A side business is a logical way to do this.
Retirement planning
Will Social Security be there when our turn to retire comes around? I think so, but it will almost certainly be at a level well below what today’s retirees are enjoying. Maybe it will be pushed out to age 70, or maybe it will be means-tested—we can’t know. And as pretty as self-directed retirement plan projections are, none can adequately account for the effects of one or more stock market crashes, or of a prolonged period of unemployment.
A successful side business can provide a workable Plan B against these possibilities. It can be a much needed income stream to supplement a reduced Social Security check and a less than expected return on a 401k. This is real life—even in retirement we’ll need options.
Building up savings and investments
It’s tough enough stretching a paycheck to cover necessary living expenses and—hopefully—a little bit for extras. But savings and investing can be lost in the course of just surviving! There always seems to be yet another bill to pay, another unexpected expense soaking up every extra dollar.
Often, the only way to develop a serious savings and investment plan is to create another income stream to fund it. A side business can provide the source not only for building savings, but also to pay down and pay off debt, and to increase investments for retirement.
Bringing out your “inner entrepreneur”
Do you ever dare to ask yourself ”what do I truly want to do with my life?” It can be a lot of fun, but it often gets short-circuited on the but-I-have-bills-to-pay issue. And yet despite this cold dose of reality, most of us are fascinated by the possibilities. Deep inside, we all sense that we could be more than we are–if only…
Why is it important to be an entrepreneur? If we can’t rely on jobs to provide for our futures, then we need to rely on ourselves! That almost certainly means some form of self-employment. But beyond the question of earning a living, self-actualization is a very real human need. We all want to be the captains of our own ships “some day”, to create our own unique paintings of our lives.
If you don’t feel that that’s happening through your main occupation, a side business gives you another shot. Who do you want to be in your life and your occupation? Maybe the answer to that question is closer than you think. A side business may provide that answer—and a whole bunch of other good things along the way.
If you think that building a side business may be the right path for you, but you don’t know what kind of business to go into, check out my post, The Freelance Blog Writer Side Hustle. Blog writing is one of the most promising side ventures you can enter because it’s growing rapidly and has excellent potential to lead to still more opportunities. Even if you’ve never written professionally in the past, this post can help you get started.
( Photo from Flickr by ObnoxJester ) |
Conservative Republicans and the broader tea party movement have made a cause célèbre out of the little-known Export-Import Bank, which helps U.S. companies sell overseas by guaranteeing loans to foreign purchasers. The business community -- backed by many Democrats and President Obama -- says the federal agency is a critical tool that helps U.S. companies compete with foreign rivals. Many other countries provide the same type of financing to help their industries. Republicans, too, have long supported the bank, at least until the tea party started raising concerns in 2012 about whether it represented a giveaway to big business.
That year, then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) supported a deal that saved the bank. But amid howls that the bank is a symbol of "crony capitalism," Cantor's successor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has said he would like to see the bank's authorization expire, which is set to happen Sept. 30 without congressional action.
Now the twist: It turns out that the tea party had a prominent, onetime ideological ally in the fight against Ex-Im bank. His name was Barack Obama.
Weeks before he was elected president, Obama said the Ex-Im Bank was "little more than a fund for corporate welfare." A video of the remarks, above at the 30-second mark, was put online in 2012 by the Club for Growth, which opposes Ex-Im. Here were Obama's full remarks:
I am not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every government program just because it's there. There are some that don't work like we had hoped, like the Bush Administration's billion-dollar-a-year reading program that hasn't improved our children's reading. And there are some that have been duplicated by other programs that we just need to cut back, like waste at the Economic Development Agency and the Export-Import Bank that has become little more than a fund for corporate welfare.
I understand there are parts of these programs worth defending, and politicians of both parties who will do so. But if we hope to meet the challenges of our time, we must make difficult choices. As president, I will go through the entire federal budget, page by page, line by line, and I will eliminate the programs that don't work and aren't needed.
The administration now is strongly supporting reauthorization of the bank. I asked the White House how it reconciles its current position with Obama's remarks as a candidate. A spokesman, Eric Schultz, sent over this statement:
Since the President took office, the Ex-Im bank has served an important role in helping firms access financing when private sources of finance dried up as a result of the recession in the beginning of the administration. Since then, the Ex-Im bank has been a vital source for these firms, and is key to helping us achieve our export goals and supporting thousands of businesses across the country large and small. We urge Congress to act to reauthorize the bank
Pressed further on how Obama explains the change in his views since 2008, the White House added that Congress directed reforms to Ex-Im in 2012 that required, among other things, submitting quarterly reports to Congress about its default rate and submitting Federal Register notice for each transaction over $100 million. It also noted that President Ronald Reagan supported Ex-Im in the 1980s. |
With the transfer window reaching its conclusion we take a collective look at our summer signings.
Fresh from his success with Brazil at the Confederations Cup, Paulinho was our first arrival in early July with Belgium international Nacer Chadli, Valencia captain Roberto Soldado and France international Etienne Capoue also arriving before the season got underway.
Friday saw a further three additions to our ranks in the form of young internationals Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Vlad Chiriches.
“We have been extremely active, conducted our business early and have made some excellent acquisitions in the market to make us stronger this season as well as giving ourselves greater options across the squad,” reflected our Head Coach.
“We have added tremendous individual quality and this can only help us to come together as a team even quicker. There is huge belief in what we are looking to create here for the future.
"Paulinho is a player we had been chasing for quite some time. He is extremely gifted and versatile, having originally played as a defensive midfielder and now plays a more offensive role. He has an eye for goal and works hard throughout the 90 minutes, which is decisive in the Premier League.
"We are looking for Nacer Chadli to play mainly on the wings to give us width but he has also played the creative role behind the striker in the past as well as up front for Belgium so to have someone of his versatility is important to the squad. He had a good season in Holland last year and contributed a lot of goals.
"Roberto Soldado's career speaks for itself. He is an outstanding striker with so much Champions League and international experience. He is a goal scorer and has certainly lived up to that reputation in the early stages of this season already. He can only get better as he continues to adapt to his new teammates and the league.
"Etienne Capoue has grown rapidly during his time with Toulouse, he is a wonderful footballer that can play in a variety of positions and will strengthen our midfield following on from Tom Huddlestone's departure. He is a player of international quality and has great all-round ability.
“Erik Lamela is a young player of great dimensions. He is incredibly highly regarded in his homeland and has been on the radar of Europe's biggest clubs in the past so we are delighted to have him here. He has pace, is a huge threat with the ball at his feet and has a good goalscoring record from his time in Serie A as well as providing a regular supply for his teammates. I am sure he will be able to improve even further in the Premier League.
"It was always our intention to strengthen in defence following Steven Caulker's departure. I feel it is important to have four central defenders and Vlad is a great addition in this area. He is solid defensively, a leader and has the quality to bring the ball out from the back, to drive forward and has great build-up play - something that we insist upon with all our centre-backs.
"Christian Eriksen is a wonderfully creative player, who is accustomed to playing at a high level in Europe. He showed at Ajax all of his qualities and ability, particularly in terms of flair and creativity with the number of chances and assists he provided to his teammates. He has great ability to pick a pass and is an excellent link-up player.
"We can look ahead to the season with a real sense of excitement. These new additions will join with our already strong group of talented players and further enhance the quality and spirit that exists within this squad.”
Steven Caulker, Clint Dempsey, Tom Huddlestone, Scott Parker, Gareth Bale, Massimo Luongo and Nathan Byrne all departed the Club over the summer months and we wish them all the best for the future. |
The legacy of that notorious underground online marketplace, Silk Road, is stronger than ever. This time New York Times journalist Nathaniel Popper gives us this front page story that reveals how the U.S. government tracked down Ross Ulbricht the alleged 29-year-old kingpin of the illegal website.
To his credit, Mr. Popper mentions the word “bitcoin” only once, somewhere in the middle of the article. As we’ve written on three previous occasions, once in May 2015, once on June 1st and once on June 18th, 2015, the news media is still catching up with the technical implications. Instead, Mr. Popper tells us that the trail that led federal investigators to Ross Ulbricht was nothing more high tech than a forum post on Bitcoin Talk in which someone left behind the E-mail address [email protected] The clue was so improbable that even the investigators refused to take it seriously the first time it was presented to them.
A second, even more dead obvious link was found many months before Ulbricht’s arrest when federal agents intercepted a package containing fake IDs that was addressed to Ulbricht’s home in San Francisco. When Ulbricht was questioned about the package at the time, he himself readily gave the agents the link to Silk Road without prompting, telling them that anyone could hypothetically go to the illegal marketplace to buy fake IDs. Whatever Ross’ role in Silk Road might have been, this behavior only strengthens the impression of him as a hapless fall guy, not so much the criminal mastermind behind an illegal million-dollar network.
What kind of “drug lord” would order fake IDs to his home address or post his own e-mail address to an online forum? Other mundane details about Ross Ulbricht’s life also reinforce this belief: He shared an apartment with three other roommates he met via Craigslist. He caught poison oak picking up trash in the park.
A “Silk Road” Culture
Maybe it’s cynical to believe that the real power — the ones who were really pulling the strings have a lot more technical ability, common sense and resources than Ulbricht and are safely far away. But that theory matches the anything-goes culture of the Internet underground and the so-called “golden rule” which simply states that he who has the gold, makes the rules. Those people haven’t been caught. As far as we know, they are the same ones behind the next generation of decentralized marketplaces that are now fluorishing in Silk Road’s place. The site DeepDotWeb published a comparison chart that on December 26th, 2015 listed 20 of what it calls “established dark web markets”. There’s clearly a lack of respect, and even worse, lack of understanding between the legal system and, let’s say, those hackers on the dark web, in a growing conflict for which Silk Road has only become one of the most talked about symbols.
Read “The Legacy of Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht’s Life Sentence”, “The Legacy of Silk Road Part 2: Decentralized Marketplaces” and “Is Bitcoin Anonymous: The Legacy of Silk Road, Part 3”. |
Follow the Money to Figure Out Why the Clintons Are Encouraging the Recount
RUSH: Now Trump’s out there and he’s saying that millions of illegals voted. And, by the way, we know that dead people have voted in every election, usually for Democrats. There’s election fraud out there. These are the people who usually tell us to be on the lookout for it, the Democrats. They’re the ones that staff every polling place with lawyers galore. Now they’re acting like there’s never any fraud, there’s never any irregularities, and Trump’s insane.
I think he’s got these people spinning in circles. (interruption) Investigation to what? (interruption) Oh, they are, they are. There are some people calling for an investigation now. In fact, it’s the old Tom Foley line. I saw it… It’s in the New York Daily News today, and it’s either a column or a story. Some of these charges Trump’s making are so incendiary, an investigation is required now. Meanwhile, Michigan’s been certified. Trump’s at 306 electoral votes. There’s nothing this pathetic Jill Stein can do.
You know what I think this is about now? There was a Ron Fournier tweet yesterday. I had it in the Stack. I didn’t get to it: “Raising doubts about legitimacy of election, even w/out overturning result, is part of Clinton’s plans to keep her options open for 2020.” So Ron Fournier says that Clinton’s team getting involved with Jill Stein is not for overturning the election. In fact, there’s a story that a lot of Democrats are getting fed up with this recount business. They think it’s a distraction and not good for them.
But Fournier’s theory here is that Hillary getting involved, sending her people to help Jill Stein get involved in all this, is nothing more than Hillary staying in the game and keeping her options open for 2020. If that’s true, it’s about something else. It’s about lucre. It’s about money. I have a story in the Stack that all donations to the Clintons Crime Family Foundation from Austria have ceased. There are none. They have pulled out.
I think if Fournier is right that Hillary’s trying to stay in this game ostensibly for her political electoral options in 2020, what it’s really about is Hillary staying in the game to be able to raise money for the foundation, because that’s all the Clintons know, folks, is raising money, getting people to give them money. And that has been brought to a screeching halt by virtue of the election results.
So Hillary floating that she wants to keep the 2020 options open is simply a mechanism whereby she can go out and continue to ask dupes all over the world to keep sending money to the Clinton Foundation under the guise or the auspices that she may get elected someday and be able to pay back the donations. It’s just a continuation of the scam, and I think when you’re looking at the Clintons and trying to figure out why they do what they do you have to first zero in on the money. They have made that abundantly clear.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Another thing that I’m a little confused by, folks. Aren’t the same people who are claiming that the Russians hacked our elections and stole the election for Trump, the very same people who said that the Russians would never be able to hack Hillary’s unprotected, secret email server? Remember when that possibility was raised, the email server story broke? “Oh, my God, you think people could hack that? Oh, for crying out loud! It’s not possible! No, no, no,” they assured us.
“The Russians would never be able to hack Hillary’s unprotected server in the bathroom at the family compound in Chappaqua.” Really? Okay. But the Russians could easily hack our voting booths? And, by the way, some of these states, they’re paper ballots only. How did the Russians hack paper ballots? How do you hack paper ballots? |
It’s been a long time since the Calgary Flames have had a goaltender they can confidently call their number one.
After Miikka Kiprusoff retired in 2013, a strenuous search for his replacement between the pipes began. Jonas Hiller, Joni Ortio, Karri Ramo, Brian Elliott, and Chad Johnson were among the goalies given the opportunity, but all failed to permanently grab the reins.
Enter Mike Smith.
The 35-year-old was brought in to be the undisputed starting net minder, and he’s already proving to be the real deal.
“He’s been unbelievable for us so far, huge for us,” said Flames forward Michael Frolik in a CTV News article. “We’ve got to clean up and not give up too many shots, but it’s nice to know we have a really solid goaltender back there who will stop a lot of pucks.”
Related: Coyotes Trade Mike Smith to Flames
The Key Numbers
Although it’s only been three games, Smith’s 1.68 goals-against average (GAA) and .957 save percentage has come against the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, and Anaheim Ducks, with the Oilers and Jets both finishing in the top ten in scoring last season.
The veteran completes a well-rounded roster that, with the off-season addition of defenseman Travis Hamonic, boasts arguably the best defensive corps in the NHL.
In their two most recent trips to the post-season in 2014-15 and 2016-17, the Flames finished ranked 14 of 16 and 15 of 16 respectively in goals-against per game. Not exactly the recipe for a deep playoff run.
Although Smith’s playoff experience is limited, he proved he has the tools to perform at a high level, deep in the playoffs.
In the 2011-12 season, he took the Arizona (Phoenix) Coyotes all the way to the conference finals, where they came up just short of the Stanley Cup Final, falling to the Los Angeles Kings.
Throughout that playoff run, Smith was nearly unbeatable. In 16 games, he boasted a 1.99 GAA to go along with a .944 save percentage, knocking out the Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators in the process.
Even though he was playing behind one of the more solid Coyotes blue lines to date, including Keith Yandle, Derek Morris, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Michal Rozsival, he’ll have an even more concrete unit in front of him in Calgary.
Battle in the Desert
Other than the 2011-12 season, he was left out to dry for the entirety of his Coyotes tenure. In his last five seasons with the club, they ranked in the bottom half of the league in goals-against each year. Not because of poor goaltending, but because of an immense amount of shots allowed.
In that same time span, the Coyotes finished in the bottom ten in the league for shots allowed per game, including a 29 out of 30 ranking in 2016-17.
After continually facing a high volume of shots year after year in Arizona, Smith now joins a team that has finished in the top half of the league in shots allowed per game for the last four seasons, a change that is sure to only make him better.
In the 2016-17 season, Smith faced a whopping 1,819 shots with the Coyotes, posting a 2.92 GAA and .914 save percentage. In comparison, the Flames’ goaltender at the time, Brian Elliot, faced only 1338 shots and posted a slightly better GAA of 2.55, but a worse save percentage of .910.
When facing nearly 500 more shots than Elliott, it’s expected he would have a higher GAA. But the save percentage is what speaks volumes.
With the potential of facing up to 500 less shots this season, the new Flames net minder could be on track for a career year. If he were to achieve that feat, he and his new club will be in for a special season.
“I was told by a very smart guy who has won a lot of games that I can have the best penalty kill meeting, I can have the best practice the day before the game, and I can have the best power play meeting, but if my goalie is no good, you’re not going to win,” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan in a Calgary Herald article. “Smitty coming in is going to be a workhorse for us. I watched him play in big games, and he thrives in those things.”
Outside of the Pipes
Not only is Smith going to be a major upgrade between the pipes, he’s also going to have an impact on the offensive front.
He’s well-known for his ability to play the puck, and is arguably the best goalie in the NHL at doing so.
Having a goalie that can handle the puck the way he can opens up a whole new playbook for the Flames. It will allow for more threatening transitions, especially with the likes of Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, and offer many different looks, making it harder on opposing defenses to try and control.
His ability will make it harder for other teams on the forecheck, forcing them to dump the puck into certain areas, which Flames defenders will be able to key in on.
Related: The Calgary Flames Sixth Defenseman
“Our transition game is going to change a lot, where he can move it up and then we’re going the other way on the rush right away,” said Flames goaltending coach Jordan Sigalet in a Calgary Herald article. “He always says that a lot of guys get the wrong message when he’s with a team that now they think they don’t have to come back for the puck because he’s going to move it up. But he says it’s the opposite. He wants our guys coming back. It gives him more options. Sometimes, he can suck in the forecheck that way and open up our forwards up front.”
With the addition of Smith, as well as Hamonic and even Jagr, the Flames have completed the puzzle that is their roster.
They have all the pieces needed to make a deep playoff run, and barring multiple long-term injuries, they will do just that. |
The Navy is investigating the disappearance of 20 concussion grenades from the San Diego-based destroyer Pinckney, according to a Navy official briefed on the incident.
The missing ordnance turned up missing during an inventory inspection, said Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Haggard, spokesperson for Naval Surface Forces Pacific.
Haggard would not confirm or deny that the missing ordnance was 20 grenades, citing anti-terrorism force protection policy.
"While conducting an inventory accounting review during a Shipboard Explosive Safety Inspection, USS Pinckney (DDG 91) Sailors discovered ordnance was missing," Haggard said. "Immediately after determining the missing inventory could not be otherwise accounted for, the ship conducted two subsequent comprehensive ship-wide inventories and found no other discrepancies. The ship contacted the chain of command and NCIS to initiate an investigation."
Pinckney is currently undergoing maintenance pier-side. |
The defense industry this year abandoned its decade-long commitment to the Republican Party, funneling the lion share of its contributions to Democratic presidential candidates, especially to Hillary Clinton who far out-paced all her competitors.
An examination of contributions of $500 or more, using the Huffington Post's Fundrace website, shows that employees of the top five arms makers - Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics -- gave Democratic presidential candidates $103,900, with only $86,800 going to Republicans.
Senator Clinton took in $52,600, more than half of the total going to all Democrats, and a figure equaling 60 percent of the sum going to the entire GOP field. Her closest competitor for defense industry money is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R.), who raised $32,000.
Insofar as defense workers making political donations reflect the interests of their employers, the contributions clearly suggest that the arms industry has reach the conclusion that Democratic prospects for 2008 are very good indeed. Since their profits are so heavily dependent on government contracts, companies in this field want to be sure they do not have hostile relations with the White House.
The strong support for Clinton indicates that a majority of defense industry executives currently believe Clinton is a favorite to win the Democratic nomination and, in November, 2008, the general election.
In the 2004 presidential race, defense company workers, almost all of them upper-level employees, gave George W. Bush $819,358, more than twice the $366,870 received by John Kerry. Similarly, in House and Senate races over the past 10 years, the defense industry has favored Republicans over Democrats by a 3-2 margin.
Republicans holding public office almost always provide much stronger support for weapons programs and other Pentagon spending than do Democrats.
In an unexpected development, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee and a decorated Vietnam War veteran, raised just $19,200, barely more than the $18,500 collected by Texas Representative Ron Paul (R.).
No other Democrat came near Clinton's totals. Running second to her in the competition for Pentagon contractors' cash was Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn), who raised $13,200, almost all from executives of General Dynamics which has a major submarine building facility in Groton, Conn.
Former Senator John Edwards (D-N. Car.) raised $12,200 and Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) took in $10,000.
Clinton's major industry benefactors - donors who gave the $4,600 maximum allowed by law -- include Roger A. Crone, Boeing's president of Network and Space Systems; Stanley Roth, Boeing's Vice President for Asia, International Relations, $4,600; Anne Sullivan, a Raytheon attorney; William Lynn, Raytheon's Senior Vice President for Government Relations; and Michele Kang, Northrop Grumman Vice President for health science solutions. |
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Just when you thought the debate over whether stars should play in bowl games had cooled off, Jabrill Peppers suffered a hamstring injury in practice a day before the Orange Bowl and missed the game. Then, just one quarter into that game, the Wolverines found themselves down another top player as tight end Jake Butt suffered a knee injury and did not return.
But for all the talk of the risks, namely injury, associated with potential first-round picks playing in bowl games -- Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh believes Butt suffered an unfortunate MCL or ACL injury -- there has been nary a mention of the upside.
Dalvin Cook was the paradigm of that Friday night in South Florida.
Cook was always going to play in this game. It was a homecoming for him, one last chance to play in front of his family and a faithful Florida State fan base that has long known what many covering college football have been late to recognize: Cook may well be the sport's best running back.
But while D'Onta Foreman broke records at Texas, San Diego State's Donnel Pumphrey smashed FBS marks, Leonard Fournette failed to live up to his 2015 dominance and missed games for LSU, and Christian McCaffrey impressed with his all-purpose ability, Cook continued flashing and grinding for FSU with much less fanfare.
He nearly eclipsed 4,500 career rushing yards on Friday while rumbling for his 19th rushing touchdown for the second year in a row. That doesn't even account for his 900+ career receiving yards, 45 of which came on an incredible deep pass down the sideline early in the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium.
Cook supplied 40 rushing yards on the first series of the game, a touchdown drive for FSU. His 45-yard catch led to a field goal a few minutes later. He didn't account for much on the Seminoles' next two scoring drives as the Wolverines did a great job bottling him up, but when the game got close late, Cook reappeared -- twice.
With Michigan's coverage improving and quarterback Deondre Francois getting absolutely blown up by the UM defensive front seven, FSU's 11-point lead was suddenly down following an ill-advised throw by Francois near his goal line; linebacker Mike McCray picked it off with ease and brought it 14 yards to the house for a touchdown to cut his team's deficit to five.
Michigan looked poised to get the ball back and have an opportunity to take the lead early in the fourth quarter after Francois was sacked again, this time for a loss of 13, setting up a third-and-22 from the FSU 13.
With the Wolverines covering the pass, Jimbo Fisher decided to give the ball to his best playmaker, hoping Cook could at least give the Seminoles' punter some additional space. Cook had other ideas.
Breaking a couple tackles on his way to the far side of the field, Cook suddenly saw open grass in front of him. He hauled ass to the sideline and took it as far upfield as he could, finally stopping 71 yards later with the raucous Florida State-leaning crowd back on its feet and Michigan fans firmly planted in their seats.
MAMA THERE GOES THAT MAN
4REAL!!!#FSU RB Dalvin Cook @dalvindjc (Miami Central HS) breaks off the long run for 71 yards!!! #FLgridironpic.twitter.com/6wuVeAFdWt — FloridaGridironPreps (@FLgridironpreps) December 31, 2016
There was a furious Michigan comeback to take its first lead of the game. The Wolverines scored back-to-back touchdowns and converted a two-point try to go up three with 2:17 remaining.
And while it was not Cook who took back stutter-step 65-yard kickoff return that gave Florida State renewed life in the final two minutes -- that was wideout Keith Gavin -- it was Cook's 21-yard reception on the first play of the ensuing series that put FSU in the red zone and made at least a tie in regulation a foregone conclusion.
As you well know by now, the Seminoles scored a touchdown a couple plays later and held on for the victory. Cook was named the game's most valuable player with 207 total yards (145 rushing) and his lone score in the 33-32 victory.
"It was the best game of my life, man!" Cook exclaimed on the field while hoisting the trophy. "... It took everything we had."
A bevy of NFL scouts were in attendance Friday night. Personnel directors across the league were surely watching at home on their couches. If the three years of electricity had not piqued their interest, perhaps this game -- and any of Cook's individual plays or the sum of them -- let them know Dalvin Cook is for real.
Perhaps the team that has been salivating over drafting Cook in the middle of the first round has now come to the realization that they're going to need to trade into the top 10 to nab a back with his dynamic ability and unmatched athleticism.
Perhaps Cook, who never considered sitting out his final game, did himself a service that Fournette and McCaffrey -- both of whom dealt with legitimate nagging injuries this season -- did not due to concern over their health and what it would mean for their future.
Cook balled out in front of his family. He once again led Florida State in an incredible victory with the entire nation watching. And for doing so, he got at least one accolade he so richly deserved and likely made himself some money in the process.
On the same night Butt's injury gave us every reason to accept star players skipping their non-College Football Playoff bowl games, Cook's performance proved the possibly tremendous value of playing in them. |
Share. Get ready. It's almost time. Get ready. It's almost time.
The TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour can feel like a pretty stuffy event sometimes, but you could feel the excitement in the air as the time approached for the Arrested Development panel today. The beloved comedy is making an amazing comeback, via new episodes – 14 to be precise, a number confirmed by Netflix today as they officially announced the show would debut in May (exact date TBA), with all the episodes being released at once.
There were a few quick glimpses of Arrested in a clip montage of upcoming Netflix series earlier in the day, including Michael and Gob running into one another and Gob up on a crucifix. The panel itself began without any clips though, as creator Mitch Hurwitz revealed, “One of the challenges of the show was to be surprising and that was easier to do when no one was watching.” With Arrested having gained more fans in the years since it went off the air, “We’ve started really guarding the material, just to make it fun for the audience.”
Hurwitz described the new episodes as “a very different form that emerged really organically. The family grew apart and everybody kind of grew up and [the actors] went on other shows and had other contracts.” That being the case, they approached these new episodes as “An anthology or a series where you kind of dedicate a different episode to different characters’ point of view. It was really fun challenge. We started seeing that the stories would intersect.”
Hurwitz noted that an event might happen in one episode and then, “You’ll see it from a different perspective and get all his other information. “ The closest thing we got to a story spoiler was de Rossi saying in her episode there’s a scene where Lucille is telling her something and Lindsey thinks she is being totally sarcastic, but Lucille’s episode will show you that’s not the case at all. It should be noted that Hurwitz, in the manner of Matthew Weiner, J.J. Abrams and other great secret keepers, felt de Rossi was saying too much even there!
Because the episodes all overlap and link up like this, Jason Bateman described it as, “One giant Arrested Development,” saying they treated it like act one of a larger story, “We hope to conclude in a movie, which would be act two and act three.”
Bateman said he wouldn’t even describe the new episodes -- which will slightly vary in length somewhere within thirty minutes each -- as “Season 4”, though he added, “There certainly is a satisfying conclusion if the movie doesn’t happen, but they are all meant to work together.”
Bateman said that he really felt the new episodes should not be compared to what came before, describing it as, “Something that is completely different on purpose,” and meant to work with the format of Netflix and the way all the episodes will be released at the same time.
Originally, it was reported that there would be 10 new episodes, and then rumors there could be more. Said Hurwitz, “We always knew there were going to be 14. We decided, ‘Let’s say there’s 10 and then the fans will be so happy when we say there’s more.’”
While the Netflix release means people could watch them in any order, Hurwitz noted, “There is an order that we have put together to create the maximum amount of surprises.” As for those worried about spoilers getting out, Hurwitz remarked, “There are going to be surprises that are going to be ruined by spoilers but that was going to happen anyway. So it’s happening in one day for hardcore fans, but the stuff exists. It’s just out there.”
Bateman described Arrested Development as “pleasantly dense,” with all of its callbacks and jokes that build upon each other. Remarking why it failed initially, he said, “I just don’t think that’s necessarily conducive to something that has commercials in it.”
I asked Hurwitz if, given the format this time out, and the cast availability, they had to have the 14 scripts totally set before production. Said Hurwitz, “We got very locked in on the story. It was so incredibly, incredibly complicated.” Arrested was in “second position” for almost the entire cast contractually, meaning the other films and series they were on were their first priority. Hurwitz said that meant, “We have this actor, we don’t have this actor. It’s a complicated story that jumps around in time, with all these intersections, and we’re shooting way out of order.” Initially, they started writing the shows in order, but that would change depending on actor availability, with Hurwitz giving the example of, “We have Tony Hale today, we have Jessica Walter, we have to shot that stuff for Jessica’s episode!”
Jeffrey Tambor said that on his second week back on the show, there was a scene with the entire cast, “All nine of us in the living room.,” and that while "We're not a sentimental group,” it was pretty emotional. Said Walter, “It was surreal. There we were nine years later…”
As the panel ended, Hurwitz revealed he did have a clip from us. And because he wanted to keep secrets, it was a deleted scene – though he added that if we laughed, maybe he’d put it back in.
And perhaps he will put it back in, as everyone cracked up at the clip, which was a long, single take in which Lucille, under house arrest and unable to go out on her balcony – and forbidden from smoking – used her son Buster to get away with her vice. And in typical Arrested Development manner, it was oh-so wrong, fairly incestuous and hysterical, as Buster tried to tell her a story while she smoked – and each time she exhaled, he’d put his mouth right in front of hers, for her to exhale into his mouth, run out onto the balcony and blow the smoke out. Buster keeps trying to tell his story while this occurs, while coughing, wheezing, and adding things like, “I can’t breathe!” When Lucille finishes one cigarette only to light up a new one, he begs, “Please mother, please,” but she doesn’t care (and never speaks a word in the scene), continuing to exhale into his mouth… until he finally collapses on the ground.
More Bluth awesomeness awaits in May! |
Tovala is a new startup out of Y Combinator that came up with what they hope to be a less expensive alternative to professional combination ovens. The Tovala is a smart oven that can bake, boil and steam meals at up to 550 degrees Fahrenheit in 10 to 30 minutes.
The meals come prepackaged from Tovala or can be made using a crowdsourced recipe platform.
Tovala utilizes a combination of dry and wet heat cooking technology instead of microwave technology to quickly cook food and get the right overall temperature for each meal. You can cook several different types of foods such as chicken, rice and asparagus in the same unit at the same time, for example, using Tovala’s technique.
The team’s first product is up on Kickstarter, starting today, and has already raised the lion’s share of it’s $100,000 goal from several hundred backers.
Tovala will initially sell for $199 for early Kickstarter supporters and eventually cost $349 retail. That might seem like quite a bit to pay for a table top cooking device, but it’s a fraction of what combination ovens used by professional chefs go for.
The real money-maker will be in the prepackaged meals provided by Tovala. Each package can feed up to four people, are made from scratch in the Tovala kitchen, and consist of 400 to 800 calories per serving.
Tovala is also working on a recipe library that will include meals with special diet restrictions such as paleo, vegan and gluten-free. Tovala’s co-founders David Rabie and Bryan Wilcox tell me the startup’s master chefs will provide up to six different meal options on a weekly basis.
And just like all the new-fangled connected kitchenette of things, Tovala hooks into your smartphone using an app to keep track of your cooking time. Just scan the barcode on your prepared meal, open up the oven and pop it in then hit a few buttons as per the instructions to heat it up and keep track of it on your cellphone.
I got to try a few bites and test out the Tovala myself with co-founder David Rabie. Check out the video above to see this smart oven in action. |
ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Mar 17, 2016) - BTCS Inc. ( OTCQB : BTCS) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, is launching a pilot program to begin securing Ethereum's blockchain.
Ethereum is a digital currency and blockchain platform focused on smart contract applications. Like bitcoin-based blockchain technologies, the decentralized network of Ethereum enables transactions without downtime, censorship, fraud, or third-party interference. Since early February, the value of Ether, the digital token or fuel that powers the Ethereum network, in USD terms, has grown at a 500% annual growth rate with the total value of all Ether, or market cap of Ether, surpassing $1 billion.
"As the first U.S. publicly-traded blockchain-focused company we want to provide our investors diversified exposure to digital currencies and blockchain technologies," stated Charles Allen, CEO of BTCS. "Given the recent success of Ethereum and the growing interest from major players in tech and finance, we believe it's an ideal time to launch a pilot program. With the capacity expansion we completed at our North Carolina facility in 2015, we're well-positioned to scale operations when necessary, even as we continue to ramp our current bitcoin-focused transaction verification operations."
Ethereum has garnered growing support since its launch in 2014, including projects with Microsoft and IBM. The recent launch of the first production release, Homestead, is set to make Ethereum a blockchain technology that will be integral to future smart contract based products.
Commenting on the launch of Ehereum's first production release, Andrew Keys, co-founder of decentralized application development firm ConsenSys Enterprise, told CoinDesk, "Homestead's arrival will begin to demonstrate the next generation of blockchain technology, whereby anything we can dream of, can be accomplished in a decentralized manner using Ethereum."
"Like many others, we're excited for the prospects of Ethereum," continued Allen. "While Ethereum is focused on smart contracts, it's important to note that there are currently numerous companies working on solutions to build smart contracts on bitcoin's blockchain, leveraging the deep security provided by its more established and secure blockchain."
In addition to the pilot program, BTCS has secured a Ethereum-mining hosting contract. The contract uses approximately 50 kilowatts of the Company's 3 megawatt capacity.
To see the BTCS facility, take a virtual reality tour that includes drone footage of the operation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkjhyUAO73w
To see a recent interview with our CEO Charles Allen, please click below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppOpZbDoDNw
About BTCS:
BTCS secures the blockchain through its rapidly growing transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in this fast growing industry. The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger and has the ability to fundamentally impact all industries on a global basis that rely on or utilize record keeping and require trust. BTCS continues to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions. BTCS also actively partners and integrates with strategic digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. For more information visit: www.btcs.com
Forward-Looking Statements:
Certain statements in this press release, including those related to an anticipated merger, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. |
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Additional Information |
Joseph Robinette "Beau" Biden III (February 3, 1969 – May 30, 2015) was an American attorney, officer in the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was the eldest of three children from the marriage of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Biden. He served as the Attorney General of Delaware, a major in the Delaware Army National Guard, and a member of the Democratic Party.
Early life and family [ edit ]
Biden was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the elder son of former U.S. Senator and Vice President Joe Biden, and his first wife, Neilia (née Hunter). On December 18, 1972, Biden's mother, Neilia, and younger sister Naomi were killed in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping. Beau was less than four years old, and his brother Hunter was two years old. Both of them were present in the car when the accident took place, but survived with critical injuries. Beau suffered multiple broken bones while Hunter sustained injuries to his scalp.
According to some accounts, Beau and Hunter encouraged their father to marry again, even going so far as to ask him "when were 'we' going to get married."[1] In June 1977, eight-year-old Biden welcomed Jill Jacobs as a "second mother." His half-sister, Ashley, was born in 1981.[2]
Biden married Hallie Olivere in 2002. They had a daughter, Natalie.[3][4]
Career [ edit ]
Biden graduated from Archmere Academy, his father's high school alma mater, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. He was also a graduate of Syracuse University College of Law, as was his father. After graduating from law school he clerked for Judge Steven McAuliffe of the United States District Court of New Hampshire.[5] From 1995 to 2004, he worked at the United States Department of Justice in Philadelphia, first as Counsel to the Office of Policy Development and later as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office. In 2004, he became a partner in the law firm of Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Balick, where he worked for two years before being elected Delaware attorney general.[6]
At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, after Joe Biden was nominated for Vice President of the United States, Beau introduced his father. He recounted the auto accident that killed his mother and sister and the subsequent parenting commitment his father made to his sons, a speech at which many delegates wept.[7][8]
Military service [ edit ]
Biden joined the military in 2003[9] as a member of the Delaware Army National Guard and was a Major in the Judge Advocate General's Corps as part of the 261st Signal Brigade in Smyrna, Delaware.[10][11]
Biden's unit was activated to deploy to Iraq on October 3, 2008, and sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, for pre-deployment training,[12] the day after his father participated in the 2008 presidential campaign's only vice presidential debate. His father was on the record as saying, "I don't want him going. But I tell you what, I don't want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years, and so how we leave makes a big difference."[13]
Biden traveled to Washington, D.C., from Iraq in January 2009 for the presidential inauguration and his father's swearing-in as Vice President,[14] then returned to Iraq.[15] Biden received a visit at Camp Victory from his father on July 4, 2009.[16] Biden returned from Iraq in September 2009, his yearlong stint on active duty complete.[17] Biden had announced that during his deployment he would continue to actively serve as Delaware's Attorney General by working in conjunction with his office's senior staff in Delaware,[18] although a member of his unit related Biden saying he had turned over most of his attorney general work to his deputy so as to focus on his duties in Iraq.[19] For his service in Iraq, Biden was awarded a Bronze Star.[20] Army Chief of Staff Raymond Odierno presented Biden with the Legion of Merit for his service in the Delaware National Guard, stating "Beau Biden possessed the traits I have witnessed in only the greatest leaders." [21] He was also posthumously presented with The Delaware Conspicuous Service Cross, which is "awarded for heroism, meritorious service and outstanding achievement." [22]
Political career [ edit ]
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden at a Justice Department press conference
In his first bid at political office, Biden ran for Attorney General of Delaware in 2006. Biden's opponent was a veteran state prosecutor and Assistant U.S. Attorney, Ferris Wharton. Major issues in the campaign included the candidates' experience and proposed efforts to address sex offenders, Internet predators, senior abuse and domestic abuse. Biden won the election by approximately five percentage points.[23]
After being elected, he appointed former Delaware Attorney General and International Judge Richard S. Gebelein as Chief Deputy Attorney General, and former assistant U.S. Attorney Richard G. Andrews was appointed as State Prosecutor. As Attorney General, Biden supported and enforced stronger registration requirements for sex offenders.[24][25]
Joe Biden resigned from the Senate following his 2008 election to the vice presidency. Governor Ruth Ann Minner named former Joe Biden aide Ted Kaufman to fill the vacant seat, but Kaufman made it clear that he would not be a candidate in the 2010 special election. This fueled speculation Beau would run at that time.[26] Biden's father stated after the announcement of Kaufman's appointment, "It is no secret that I believe my son, Attorney General, would make a great United States Senator just as I believe he has been a great attorney general. But Beau has made it clear from the moment he entered public life that any office he sought he would earn on his own ... [I]f he chooses to run for the Senate in the future, he will have to run and win on his own. He wouldn't have it any other way."[27]
In October 2009, Biden stated that he was considering a run for the Senate and that he would make a final decision in January. On January 25, Biden confirmed that he would forgo a Senate run so as to better focus on the prosecution of Earl Bradley, an infamous child-molestation suspect.[28]
On November 2, 2010, he was easily re-elected to a second term as Delaware Attorney General, beating Independent Party of Delaware candidate Doug Campbell by a huge margin.[29]
Biden did not seek election to a third term as Attorney General in 2014.[30] In the spring of that year, he announced his intention to run for Governor of Delaware in the 2016 election to succeed term-limited Democratic Governor Jack Markell.[31][32] At the time of this announcement, the cancer that would kill Biden in 2015 had been diagnosed but was in remission, although this information was not public at the time.[citation needed]
Public offices Office Type Location Elected Took office Term ends Notes Attorney General Executive Dover 2006 January 2, 2007 January 3, 2011 Attorney General Executive Dover 2010 January 3, 2011 January 3, 2015
Election results Year Office Election Subject Party Votes % Opponent Party Votes % 2006 Attorney General General Joseph R. Biden III Democratic 133,152 52.5% Ferris Wharton Republican 120,062 47.4% 2010 Attorney General General Joseph R. Biden III Democratic 196,799 78.9% Doug Campbell Delaware Independent 52,517 21.1%
Health problems and death [ edit ]
For the final few years of his life, Biden suffered from brain cancer.[33][34] In May 2010, he was admitted to Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, after complaining of a headache, numbness, and paralysis; officials stated that he had suffered a "mild stroke".[34][35] Later that month, Biden was transferred to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and kept for observation for several days.[35]
In August 2013, Biden was admitted to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and diagnosed with brain cancer, after experiencing what White House officials called "an episode of disorientation and weakness".[36] A lesion was removed at that time. Biden had radiation and chemotherapy treatments, and the cancer remained stable.[37] On May 20, 2015, he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, because of a recurrence of brain cancer. He died there 10 days later, on May 30, 2015, at age 46. His funeral was held at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 6, 2015. The Vice President's son's death was widely mourned within the U.S.[38] He was buried at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Cemetery in Greenville, Delaware.[33] He was survived by his wife and two children, his father, step-mother, and two siblings (a brother and a half-sister, both younger).
His funeral was attended by a large number of people, including then President Barack Obama, then First Lady Michelle Obama, their daughters Malia and Sasha, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, former US Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. At his funeral, he was given the Legion of Merit Award by General Odierno, for his services in the Iraq War. President Obama described Biden as "an original. He was a good man. He did in 46 years what most of us couldn't do in 146." At his funeral service, a solo rendition of the song "Til Kingdom Come" was performed by Chris Martin, the lead singer of the band Coldplay, of which Beau had been a fan.[40]
Posthumous awards and legacy [ edit ]
On November 4, 2015, Biden was posthumously awarded the Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award, the highest honor given by the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY), for his service to mankind.[41] A portion of the 21st Century Cures Act (2016) was named the "Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot" initiative after him.[42][43][44] |
After an improbable 8-game winning streak and a 10-2 start, I have a statement for my fellow Portland Trail Blazer fans: let’s sit back and enjoy the success.
It’s true that sports reporting has come very far since the days of radio and newspapers. Sports journalism, in some areas, is starting to resemble a science.
That makes it very tempting to dig as far as one can into the depths of every game, and it goes several layers. It begins with statements like, “Wesley Matthews had a great game against the Nets.” Then it’s, “he had 24 points and 6 rebounds.” Then it’s “he shot 9 of 13 from the field and 5 of 8 from three.” Then it’s, “his usage rate was 18.2%,” then “his effective field goal percentage was 88.5% and his true shooting was 86.5% and his offensive rating was 175 and his GameScore was 20.8.” PHEW!
I know this is useful, and maybe I’m bitter because I just don’t understand it all, but seriously… how much of this crap do we really need to know that a guy had a damn good game? Besides, stats are inevitably flawed because they can’t possibly take into account everything a player does on the court. It’s like taking a 240p video and yelling ENHANCE, hoping to catch a reflection of someone in a mirror 200 feet away.
Is there a stat for when a defender perfectly funnels his assignment into a trap that leads to someone else picking off a tough pass? Is there a stat for when someone’s playing so hard that their dunk invigorates the crowd, instantly making all of their team play that much better and the other team play that much worse? Can you give a guy 4 points for making a bomb that stops an 11-0 run? Those momentum-changing shots sure as hell mean a lot more than anything a guy does in garbage time.
To that end, we have people doing their best to pick apart the Blazers’ 10-2 start: they play terrible paint defense, they shoot too many threes, players are converting an unsustainable number of shots, their opponents are weak. You even have people who take ONE stat, minutes played, and suggest… in their HEADLINE… that because Blazer starters are playing 72% of the team’s minutes as opposed to, say, the Pacers’ 67%, that they will collapse as they did last season.
OK, fine. Ignore that the Blazers’ bench is about 4 ticks better than lasts’. Ignore that CJ McCollum will be making his way back in the next month or so. Ignore that they’ve been intentionally sticking to a 9-man rotation and leaving off two guys that got significant run last year. Really. It’s a frustrating proposition when a writer with an NBC-backed Internet platform gets to fling platitudes around like so many dinner rolls in a food fight.
More than that, it’s missing the point, at least a very important part of the point, of being a fan of a team.
Now I’m not saying to bathe in ignorance. Stats are fun. And they can be really helpful. But besides connecting with the players, following their ups and downs, and generally sticking through times both good and bad, part of the fun of being a fan is enjoying when they WIN. And for this team, an even bigger part of the fun is to look at the standings every day and see YOUR team right at the top.
And no, it hasn’t been one game, or two games, or three games. It’s been 12. That’s a decent chunk of time. And are there fans that deserve to see their team rattle off 8 in a row more than you Blazer fans? After seeing the face of the franchise deteriorate from one of the game’s best guards in his prime into a hobbling mess in just two short years? To see our other franchise player’s knees explode one after the other? To see the disgusting aftermath of trying to tie everything together when everything and anything went wrong?
Portland: we deserve this. We stuck through a lot of tough times. I wear my black-and-red Oden shirt to the gym without irony. And while the letters may be crumbling, my interest, my passion, my love for the Blazers is not. Now, early in the season, during this brief days-long rest before fighting another battle, they’re 10-2. They’re at the top of the pile. They’re looking down on everyone else from above.
Enjoy it. Relish it. Be like a little kid and brag to your buddies about it. Jump on Twitter and #8inarow about it. Go to the playground and bomb a 6-feet-from-the-line three and shout LILLARD about it. Because after the last few years, it’s really the least we can do to keep ourselves sane. |
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COLUMBUS (WCMH) -- President Barack Obama is scheduled to stop in Columbus, on Tuesday, encouraging people to vote early and for Hillary Clinton.
The visit will be Obama's second to the area, in the matter of weeks.
On October 13, he served as the keynote speaker at the Ohio Democratic Party's state dinner.
Tuesday's campaign stop will be at the Capital University field house. Doors open at 2:30pm, with the event beginning at 4:30pm.
Members of the public interested in attending can RSVP here.
The field house is located at 2360 E. Mound St., Columbus OH 43209.
Tickets can be picked up at the following locations, according to Clinton's campaign:
Saturday, October 29
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Upper Arlington Ohio Together Office
1640 W. Lane Ave.
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
Sunday, October 30
10:00 am - 8:00 pm
Harry C. Moores Student Union Lobby
745 Pleasant Ridge Dr.
Columbus, OH 43209
Sunday, October 30
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Upper Arlington Ohio Together Office
1640 W. Lane Ave.
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
Monday, October 31
2:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Columbus Ohio Together Office
975 Parsons Ave.
Columbus, OH 43206
Monday, October 31
2:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Columbus Ohio Together Office
1574 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43201 |
TOPEKA - When former State Sen. Ruth Teichman, Stafford, was asked to join fellow Republican leaders in an endorsement of Democratic House Minority Leader Paul Davis for governor, she said yes - "right away," she added.
"I am concerned with the direction this state is going," said Teichman Tuesday. She and 103 current and former Republican officeholders from across Kansas are throwing their support to Davis in his coming race against Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
"Historic" and "unprecedented" were adjectives the Paul Davis-Jill Docking campaign ticket used in the press release Monday to tout the announcement to occur Tuesday morning in Topeka. The campaign said multiple endorsements would be made, but kept a tight lid on the names.
At 11 a.m. Tuesday, about 40 people entered the ballroom in the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center in downtown Topeka, filling a riser that included Davis and Docking. Former State Senate President Steve Morris, Hugoton, and former State Sen. Fred Kerr, Pratt, were there, along with State Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger.
Speakers roasted Brownback's tax code changes and handling of the state budget. They repeatedly chastised Brownback over school funding.
Brownback has exhibited a "divisive" and "hyper-partisan brand of leadership," said former State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., Lawrence.
Supporting a Democrat for governor "is a big step for every one of us," said former State Senate President Dick Bond, Overland Park, a life-long Republican.
The Republicans indicated they won't change parties - they'll just work for the victory of Davis-Docking in the November general election.
Docking said she was conducting door-to-door campaigning Monday, and that's something "all these folks know how to do."
"They're all willing to help us," Docking said.
Among the 104 names on the list of Republicans for Kansas Values were, from this region: Reno County Commissioner Brad Dillon and former Newton Mayor Marge Roberson, and former state legislators Bob Frey, Liberal, and Fred Gatlin, Atwood. Ted and Sue Ice, Newton, former delegates to Republican National Conventions, were on the list, as well as former State Rep. Ellen Samuelson, Hesston, and former State Board of Education member Sonny Rundell, Syracuse.
"Absolutely," Morris said, when asked later if he will remain a Republican. "We're also loyal Kansans. To us the future of this state comes first," he said.
"This is all about policy," said Kerr, criticizing the Brownback income tax cuts as "distorted" in favor of the wealthy.
As for the potential impact on the Kansas Republican Party, Kerr said, "Ultimately I hope the Kansas Republican Party comes back to the mainstream."
Read more in the Wednesday edition of The News. |