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Briefs Oscar Going to UCSB Prof for Special Effects Work Theodore Kim's Smoke and Fire Program Featured in Super 8 and Transformers Movies like Super 8 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, summer blockbusters with multiple action-packed sequences, also have another thing in common: UCSB Assistant Professor Theodore Kim, or rather, his Academy Award-winning work on a new computer algorithm that creates high-definition smoke and fire visuals. Kim, who works in the university’s Media Arts and Technology department, will receive an Oscar for helping develop simulation coding called “wavelet turbulence.” The concept built off digital special-effects methods developed in the late 1990s, like the ones used to create fake cigarette smoke. In layman’s terms, “We developed a new technique that was developed into a software that other artists then used [for] large-scale–looking smoke,” said Kim. Kim said he’s been interested in working in movie animation ever since he saw Pixar’s Toy Story as a child. His postdoctoral thesis at Cornell University was on ice simulation and how snowflakes form, and the paper included info on systems similar to the ones Hollywood is now recognizing him for. Working with three other colleagues, Kim said the goal of their project wasn’t to win an Academy Award or make a bunch of money. Rather, they just wanted the credit and for their invention to be used by movie makes and video game creators. That’s why, Kim explained, the technique’s source code is available for free. Kim credits this ease of access for the code’s widespread dissemination and use, factors that often help academy members choose a candidate for such an award. Since publication, the code has also been looked at by organizations like UCSB’s Physics Department, as well as the aerospace industry, which might use the technique to simulate air flow across aircraft to test wind design. Is Kim excited to be attending the February 24 ceremony as an award winner? “Absolutely,” he said. “I never really thought I would be going to any form of Oscars.” He’ll be taking his wife, and his entire family will be in attendance, as well. Add to Favorites Diego Garcia, WILDLIFE Benjamin Loeb, MANDY Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, SUSPIRIA Zak Mulligan, WE THE ANIMALS Best Editing Joe Bini, YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE Keiko Deguchi, Brian A. Kates & Jeremiah Zagar, WE THE ANIMALS Luke Dunkley, Nick Fenton, Chris Gill & Julian Hart, AMERICAN ANIMALS Anne Fabini, Alex Hall and Gary Levy, THE TALE Nick Houy, MID90S Cinereach John Cassavetes Award A BREAD FACTORY EN EL SÉPTIMO DÍA NEVER GOIN’ BACK SÓCRATES THUNDER ROAD Robert Altman Award SUSPIRIA Best Documentary HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING MINDING THE GAP OF FATHERS AND SONS ON HER SHOULDERS SHIRKERS WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? Best International Film BURNING (South Korea) THE FAVOURITE (United Kingdom) HAPPY AS LAZZARO (Italy) ROMA (Mexico) SHOPLIFTERS (Japan) Piaget Producers Award Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams Gabrielle Nadig Shrihari Sathe Someone to Watch Award Alex Moratto, SÓCRATES Ioana Uricaru, LEMONADE Jeremiah Zagar, WE THE ANIMALS Truer Than Fiction Award Alexandria Bombach, ON HER SHOULDERS Bing Liu, MINDING THE GAP RaMell Ross, HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING Annual Bonnie Award Debra Granik Tamara Jenkins Karyn Kusama Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.	166,688
Postmortem: Square Enix's The World Ends With You By Takeshi Arakawa,Tomohiro Hasegawa,Tatsuya Kando [In this rare postmortem, originally published in Gamasutra's sister Game Developer magazine, the creators behind acclaimed DS title The World Ends With You at Square Enix and Jupiter describe exactly what went right -- and wrong -- while making the innovative touch-screen title.] The World Ends With You was our team's first game for the Nintendo DS -- a platform that we felt had limitless possibilities. The three of us who were primarily responsible for the game had previously worked as artists for the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series, but had never directed a game before. The game wound up taking two years to develop, which is a considerable amount of time for a portable game, and was a continual trial-and-error process throughout. We feel that the resulting project was eclectic and ambitious, but not different just for the sake of being different. What Went Right 1. Getting to go wild with original IP and gameplay concepts. The project began with constant brainstorming and idea-sharing between the three of us. As this was our first game as directors, a healthy dose of paranoia prompted daily brainstorming meetings. These sessions established a strong sense of camaraderie and led for better overall communication, allowing us to constantly meet our deadlines without any serious delays. From the beginning we were determined to create an original IP -- something that wasn't another Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts. This led us to choose the Shibuya district in Tokyo as the game's setting. At first we thought the Shibuya locale would be a turnoff to overseas players, but the district's uniqueness adds a certain reality and depth that we couldn't have recreated in a fantasy setting, and it lets players identify more with their in-game counterparts, who are fighting for their lives in the "real world." It turns out we were successful -- even a year after the game's Japanese release, hardcore fans are still organizing tours of the real Shibuya to compare it to the game world. 2. A story created by committee (and free of those pesky RPG plot holes)! Like all other aspects of development, story development was done by committee. Each director was given his own writing team, which brainstormed over the general story background, plot, and other elements. Because the over arching story has the player trapped in Shibuya, the story needed an air of mystery about it, so the team was determined to avoid any plot holes. One contradiction in a story like ours could bring down the house of cards, so the team worked carefully to keep the storyline locked down. The game's designers took part in the writing process as well, ensuring that as many eyes as possible went over the plot, searching for holes and offering input from every conceivable angle. After the final story was in place, we had our Q/A department go over everything as a final failsafe. To our surprise (and horror), they tracked down several inconsistencies we had managed to miss during our multiple checks. Their diligence reminded us of how critical it is to view the game from the player's perspective -- and these extensive preliminary story checks are becoming a standard at the company. 3. Implementing a player-controlled risk vs. reward system. Many agree that the standard JRPG formula of walking around the field and grinding (or running away from monsters that aren't worth your time) can get monotonous and build up player stress. Another issue on the development side is that tuning combat difficulty takes excessive amounts of time, and there's no guarantee that a designer's ideal difficulty is the same as the player's. Our solution was the "Active Encounter" system, where players can choose how many enemies they wish to fight and when. This removes mandatory battles with "trash mobs," and allows the player to control the risks and rewards of battle. Harder battles yield better loot and more experience points. This let players of varying skill levels enjoy the game beginning to end -- at the cost of some game balance. 4. Going full-bore 2D. Modern settings are rare for Square Enix titles, so we had to make sure our art style would stand out from other titles -- and to keep the entire game in 2D. Most games go for the 3D approach, but we felt we couldn't fully express ourselves on the DS if we went the polygonal route. 2D graphics can really "pop" on the DS's small screen, and we wanted to have lots of wildly shifting and morphing monsters. The game's "Noise" creatures have colorful tattoos that dynamically change shape and attack the player. We also made an effort to make the backgrounds as faithful to the real city as possible. The entire staff went on	2,597,874
SQM, the company presented a compliance program, which has not yet been approved, and claimed to take responsibility for each of the infractions, committing to comply with regulations in the permit granted to it in 2006. As part of the program, the company committed, among other things, to the “implementation of online monitoring systems that will help to strengthen the verification of compliance with brine and industrial water extractions.” In addition, SQM said it would adopt other measures, such as immediately halting the extraction of water from one of its wells. But at the same time, the company said the negative effect of brine extractions beyond what its permit authorized “is marginal,” and that “it has a minimum level of influence … represents a contribution less than 2% of the observed decreases, that is, close to 1 mm, and is a value that would be even less since this additional extraction has not been carried out permanently.” Regarding the increase in soil salinity, the company similarly said that “the possibility of negative effects derived from the infringement is absolutely ruled out.” Environmental biologist Carolina Díaz, general manager of the consulting firm Amakaik, which is developing an ecological model for the Atacama salt flats, says that “a compliance program, which denies the responsibility of generating impact as a result of infractions, cannot be a good program. This is because it does not know whether the proposed measures will be effective in mitigating these impacts, since they are not well identified and much less quantified.” Díaz says the existing research on these ecosystems and the impacts caused by the industry was carried out by SQM and thus belongs to the company. In effect, “the burden of proof for no impact is always on the client, it is not in the government,” she says. Under the current environmental evaluation system, it’s the owner of the project who periodically obtains the environmental data, analyzes them and delivers the information to the authority. The authority supervises, “but there is no permanent empirical verification of the data obtained from the operation of these plans and, in most cases, the raw data obtained are not available for independent analysis,” Díaz says. She adds that while “it is very likely that the company is causing harm, the studies they conduct and their opinion is one thing. Another is the proof.” This story was originally published on Mongabay Latam.	343,863
Devil May Cry 4 released all the way back in 2008 on the PlayStation 3. Both this and the last generation of consoles have seen a number of re-releases of classic games. The venerable series hasn’t seen a release in a couple of years, so the time felt right. But is this a re-release worth your time, or should the game best be left in the past? Dante for a New Generation The PlayStation 4 is a powerhouse of a computer, especially compared to the hardware that was current when the game originally released. As such, DmC 4 Special Edition doesn’t cause the PS4 much stress. Yet, the fans in the system can spin up pretty fast when the game is running for a while, which may indicate some unoptimized code. It doesn’t appear to affect the game’s performance, however. Speaking of the PS4, the speed of the console results in load times that have practically vanished. The time spent between rooms is hardly as long as the transition effects that are shown on screen, and jumping in and out of sub-missions is almost instantaneous. It’s a wonderful sight to behold, and makes you grateful that the PS4 is so much faster than the original platform. Old Controls, New Players It should be said that the age of the game is definitely showing itself with DmC 4‘s control scheme. Using X to jump, and triangle as your main attack with your sword feels so weird now. The same goes with using circle for the Devil Bringer, for example, but with the game’s tutorial you quickly get used to the control scheme and rip up demons in no time. In Normal and Easy difficulty settings, the combo system is pretty generous and you feel pretty stylish as you throw enemies up, slash down and generally bring the pain in many ways. There’s something to be said for simple control schemes, and combat still flows pretty well all these years later. New to the game is the ability to play as Vergil, Lady and Trish, who each bring their own weapons to the table. There is also the new Legendary Dark Knight mode, which dishes out the toughest enemies and the most punishing hits your direction. Playing on Normal mode is recommended if you haven’t played DmC 4 in a while, or easy mode if you’ve never played a Devil May Cry game before, period. Personally, I found the easy mode was a little too forgiving, but it does let you simply progress through the game and enjoy the story, with little hindering your path. DMC4 Special Edition Review: Old School Dante - PSLS WATCH GALLERY Aging Like Hell Graphically, Devil May Cry 4 may have been considered impressive back when it was released. Today, however, the game is showing its age. It doesn’t appear that the developer, Access Games, spent much time revamping the game’s aesthetics. Not to say the game looks bad, and when you have a game as old as DmC 4, you really can’t expect it to look much better. It just would have been nice to see the PS4 put some more oomph in its rendering. If you remember Devil May Cry 4’s soundtrack, then you’ll likely remember its energetic rock/metal mix, which may not have appealed to everyone’s sensibilities. Well, it’s back here in full glory, though as usual does mostly play in the background. Whenever you hear the music start to ramp up, or indeed to even play, that’s your cue to get ready for a fight as their are enemies nearby. If you liked the original Devil May Cry 4, then you’ll enjoy this re-release. If you haven’t tried the series before, then this is a good entry point. It still has the occasional poorly-placed camera, and the graphics have not aged too well, but overall it’s a high-octane mix of platforming and combat interspersed with the occasional puzzle. Pick it up if you want your action fix. Review copy was provided by the publisher. For information on scoring, please read our Review Policy here.	1,758,356
Neurovascular disease is a condition caused to nervous tissues vascular structure, neurons and blood vessels that leads to serious brain damages such as stroke, and cerebral hemorrhage. The global market for central nervous system disease was accounted to approximately $78 billion in 2010. Neurovascular disease market is mainly driven by the increase in number of patients suffering from neurological diseases. According to University of California, San Francisco (USCF), there are approximately 600,000 people suffering from stroke, out of which 10% are recovered. Almost 30% patients die due to stroke, and 60% of the patients remain disabled. The cost of care for these 60% patients accounted to approximately $8 billion. Cost of neurological disease treatment is lowering the growth for neurological disease. Companies are conducting clinical trials to commercialized cost effective therapies through mergers and acquisitions. Medical device manufacturing companies are facing challenges in the form of commercialization in developing countries such as India, China, and Malaysia. However, increase in research on neurovascular therapies, and favorable government policies, would give the necessary push to the neurovascular market. This report gives intelligence about current market trends available and transition of these trends in future. Market intelligence of key patents granted by respective authorities is provided in this report. The key companies included in this report are Medtronic, Stryker, Covidien (Ev3), Johnson & Johnson (Micrus), Abbott Laboratories, Bayer AG, Boston Scientific Corporation, Cardiatis, S.A., Chestnut Medical Technologies, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, ITGI Medical Ltd. KEY BENEFITS Key developmental strategies adopted by top market players engaged in this business, so that companies involved in development of neurovascular device can get competitive intelligence of their competitors Market estimation for therapeutic devices and geographic segment is derived from current market scenario and expected market trends Market attractiveness analysis has been included for various product segments, therapeutics, devices and geographic regions with detailed analysis of factors responsible for rapid growth of the market segments In depth analysis of key market drivers, restraints and opportunities of non-invasive diagnostic market with impact analysis Value chain analysis, Porter’s five force model, top investment pockets (GE9 Cell Matrix) are analyzed and presented in detail in the report so that the decision makers receive clear picture of neurovascular disease treatment market KEY MARKET SEGMENTS GLOBAL MARKET, BY THERAPEUTICS Endovascular cerebral aneurysm Intracranial atherosclerotic disease Chronic ischemic stroke Acute ischemic stroke GLOBAL MARKET, BY DEVICES Neurovascular liquid embolism Intracranial stents & flow diverting devices Neurovascular embolic coils Carotid stents & embolic protection devices Neurovascular thrombectomy devices GLOBAL MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHY North America Europe Asia-Pacific ROW KEY AUDIENCES	2,757,222
Yoga on our minds: The 5,000-year-old Indian practice may have positive effects on major psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, ADHD and sleep complaints Yoga has positive effects on mild depression and sleep complaints, even in the absence of drug treatments, and improves symptoms associated with schizophrenia and ADHD in patients on medication, according to a systematic review of the exercise on major clinical psychiatric disorders. Published in the open-access journal, Frontiers in Psychiatry, on January 25th, 2013, the review of more than one hundred studies focusing on 16 high-quality controlled studies looked at the effects of yoga on depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, sleep complaints, eating disorders and cognition problems. Yoga in popular culture Yoga is a popular exercise and is practiced by 15.8 million adults in the United States alone, according to a survey by the Harris Interactive Service Bureau, and its holistic goal of promoting psychical and mental health is widely held in popular belief. "However, yoga has become such a cultural phenomenon that it has become difficult for physicians and patients to differentiate legitimate claims from hype," wrote the authors in their study. "Our goal was to examine whether the evidence matched the promise." Benefits of the exercise were found for all mental health illnesses included in the review, except for eating disorders and cognition problems as the evidence for these was conflicting or lacking. Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University Medical Center, US, and author of the study, explained that the emerging scientific evidence in support of the 5,000 year old Indian practice on psychiatric disorders is "highly promising" and showed that yoga may not only help to improve symptoms, but also may have an ancillary role in the prevention of stress-related mental illnesses. The review found evidence from biomarker studies showing that yoga influences key elements of the human body thought to play a role in mental health in similar ways to that of antidepressants and psychotherapy. One study found that the exercise affects neurotransmitters, inflammation, oxidative stress, lipids, growth factors and second messengers. Unmet need among mental health patients Depression alone affects more than 350 million people globally and is the leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). On World Mental Health Day last year, the WHO called for improved access to treatments. While there has been an increase in the number of medications available for mental health disorders, many of which can be life saving for patients, there remains "a considerable unmet need," according to Dr. Meera Balasubramaniam, lead author of the study, who is also based at Duke University, US. Poor compliance and relapse as well as treatment resistance are growing problems, and medications are expensive and can leave patients with significant side effects. The Primary Care study, carried out by WHO, found that 60% of patients were still depressed after a year of being treated with an anti-depressant and a National Institute of Mental Health funded research showed remission in only one-third of patients. "The search for improved treatments, including non-drug based, to meet the holistic needs of patients is of paramount importance and we call for more research into yoga as a global priority," said Doraiswamy. "If the promise of yoga on mental health was found in a drug, it would be the best selling medication world-wide," he added. There are many benefits associated with practicing yoga for improving mental health, including, fewer side effects, relatively low cost, generally good access and the improvement of physical fitness, added the authors. The authors also note that while the results are promising, the findings should be viewed as preliminary because all studies of yoga to date have consisted of small samples, and more rigorous research will be needed before the exercise can be applied to help patients with mental health disorders. ### Researcher Contact: Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy Duke University Medical Center [email protected] Article Information: Yoga on our Minds: A Systematic Review of Yoga for Neuropsychiatric Disorders. Authors: Meera Balasubramaniam, Shirley Telles and P. Murali Doraiswamy. Front. Psychiatry DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2012.00117	2,448,099
Jump to Prev Top Next Close People like talking about Rex Crowle's desk. Some say it casually, that he likes to draw and leaves a pile of papers there — doodled on, cut out, folded up, colored in, glued together. Others take it to extremes, saying how his pile swallows the desks around it. "If you put a stack of paper in front of him and a pen and come back an hour later, all that paper will be covered," says co-worker David Smith. "Every Thursday, I get a reminder in my calendar which makes me laugh," says Crowle. "It just pops out and says, 'Clear desk day'... "I have not seen the wood of my desk for maybe five years." For someone working on any other game, that might be a sign of procrastination. But for the past two and a half years, Crowle has been directing Tearaway, a Mario-style action/adventure game for PlayStation Vita. Fittingly, it's set in a world made of paper. And it regularly breaks the fourth wall, showing video footage of the player's face in the background and popping giant fingers up through the floor when the player taps Vita's rear touch pad. Much like Crowle's desk, the game's design has had wildly creative concepts pile up and fall away for years. For many projects, that can lead to trouble. But Crowle and the team at Media Molecule recently opened their vault to show how they were able to focus their ideas. Stealing Sheep Stealing Sheep Crowle's tendency to work with his hands started at an early age. He was raised on his parents' farm in Cornwall, a county on the outskirts of the United Kingdom that he refers to as "stormy" and "pirate country." As a child he looked after sheep. "I was gradually getting all these sheep," he says. "And you know, each year sheep tend to hang out with sheep and there's more sheep. It's kind of a beautiful thing." At age 11, Crowle's interests skewed towards art so he sold the sheep for money to buy an Amiga with a copy of Deluxe Paint. Rex Crowle papercraft Keeping the artists at Media Molecule honest, Tearaway offers players files they can print, cut out and glue together to make real-life papercraft versions of objects they find in the game. In that spirit, we asked Crowle to design a version of himself in the game's art style to accompany this story, along with printable instructions so anyone can make their own version of his avatar. Download the PDF here. "I think my dad was pretty skeptical," says Crowle. "He thought, you know, 'You can't eat a computer. How's this going to help you in any way?' But I just straight away started making images and animations and stuff, and showed [my parents] what could be done." The Amiga led to studying graphic design in college, which led to a series of independent projects and a job at game developer Lionhead Studios. Lionhead had a tendency to reach for the stars and sometimes fall short, and Crowle worked on "all the games that got released and plenty of ones that didn't." After Crowle had been at Lionhead for about six years, a group of his coworkers broke away to start their own company, Media Molecule. The four had previously collaborated on an experimental portal-based tech demo called "The Room" at Lionhead, which ended up stalling as a research project. And in leaving, they stepped out of the shadow of then-Lionhead Creative Director Peter Molyneux, who many knew as the face of the company. Crowle left around the same time, initially "swimming alongside" the team while developing projects like an animated miniseries called "Grip Wrench" for MTV Italy's QOOB channel and an iOS to-do list app called EpicWin. As Media Molecule gained traction, Crowle joined full time. Sony would later acquire the studio altogether. The team's first game, platformer Little Big Planet, won accolades for creativity and the way it let players not only play pre-made levels, but create their own and share them with the world. Crowle worked on what he calls the game's "visual anarchy" — the stickers and the abundance of pink designed to give the game a pop culture feel — and helped solidify the game's purpose through presentations, trailers and drawings. "Little Big Planet was always really hard to explain, and [Crowle] would just find a way of knitting that together and presenting it back to all of us," says Media Molecule Studio Director Siobhan Reddy. "And we'd all go, 'Oh yeah, that's what we're making. That's really cool.'... [He's] very good at being able to take a whole lot of complex things and summarize [them	2,370,733
The world’s first lab-grown chicken nugget has arrived in the UK – and it costs about $100 to make. English TV presenter Helen Skelton-Myler has become the first person in the UK to try slaughter-free chicken made by California-based food tech company, JUST, the makers of the vegan liquid egg. The Daily Mail reports that the former co-presenter of the BBC’s “Blue Peter” took part in n ITV’s “Food Challenge: Meat vs Vegan,” where she avoids eating meat and dairy for four weeks. In a short video clip, she meets to JUST CEO and founder Josh Tetrick to try a lab-grown chicken nugget. “It is a nugget that didn’t require killing a chicken and that’s the way all meat should be,” he explains. “We don’t need to choose between veggie burgers and a real burger.” How the World’s First Lab-Grown Chicken Nugget Was Made “So you take a chicken, right, we take the cell. We feed nutrients to the cell – think about what a chicken would eat,” Tetrick continues. “Nuts, or berries, or soy, or corn. We do the exact same thing without needing the chicken, right?” “And then we put that cell in a thing called a ‘fermentor’ or a bioreactor – it doubles, doubles, doubles, doubles – and you get a nugget,” he explains. 400,000 years ago, meat became part of the human diet, and throughout time, human beings have needed to kill the animal to enjoy their meat. First, with spears. Then, with industrial machines. Get ready for that paradigm to change. #justchicken pic.twitter.com/QzmOOImG7h — Josh Tetrick (@joshtetrick) October 17, 2018 JUST’s lab-grown chicken nugget is said to be healthier more sustainable than traditional chicken meat, which requires vast quantities of land and water. It also has the potential of sparing the lives of billions of animals, if production can be scaled up. According to Tetrick, the process is costly at the moment: “It’s pretty expensive. That’s probably about a $100 a nugget right there.” What Does Lab-Grown Meat Taste Like? Skelton-Myler then takes a bite of a just-sizzled clean chicken nugget, and remarks, “To coin a phrase, it tastes like chicken.” Tetrick has been teasing the launch of its lab-grown chicken for some time now. Last October, he took to Twitter to announce that the nuggets would launch soon. The JUST CEO has also been a strong proponent of regulations for slaughter-free meat. “If the USDA believes it should have a role, the agency’s promotion of agriculture products must extend to cultured meat, and in so doing, should call these products meat,” he wrote in a letter to the USDA and FDA that same month. Image credit: Adobe Stock Become a CLUBKINDLY member today!	2,192,709
all their minions to one hp, and preventing their forts from firing for the 70 second duration. A few tips Garden of Terror A map with a day and night cycle, the main objective is to obtain seeds, so you may grow Garden Terrors. The game begins in daytime and after ninety seconds, cycles to night. When night falls, two neutral garden terrors, called Shamblers, spawn, along with a few podlings. When slain, these drop seeds. Each camp drops exactly 90. At 100 seeds, a garden terror spawns in your base, which may be piloted by a hero. Seeds persist between nights, so a team that gathers 97 seeds the first night, only needs to gather three more the following night. The terror is a strong team fighter and siege engine, and can give your team a strong advantage. The six evenly split merc camps make for an additional objective. The first night begins at 1:30 minutes into the game. When collecting seeds, focus on killing the smaller camps before going after the more threatening Shamblers. You can see smaller plants (Podlings) on the mini-map. If they start dying, there’s a good chance the enemy is about to start attacking the Shambler nearest to them. The Terror has a sprint ability, which you should use as often as possible, in order to rush towards the enemy. The Spore Queen’s Curse, is a polymorph ability that can disable many enemies at once, if well aimed. If you see a pulsing circle around your feet, get out of it, before you become a plant. Plant Horror Overgrowth deals massive damage to buildings but is susceptible to focus fire. If you see a massive flowerpot entangling your buildings, kill it. Terror on Terror action revolves around positioning. Remember that horrors will die after a set time If no one activates the Terror, it will wither and die after 1 minute. This is a waste of seeds. Don’t do that. If no one activates the Terror, it will wither and die after 1 minute. This is a waste of seeds. Don’t do that. One of the horrors abilities is to exit horror form. Do try to avoid using that unless you intend to. A map with a day and night cycle, the main objective is to obtain seeds, so you may grow Garden Terrors. The game begins in daytime and after ninety seconds, cycles to night. When night falls, two neutral garden terrors, called Shamblers, spawn, along with a few podlings. When slain, these drop seeds. Each camp drops exactly 90. At 100 seeds, a garden terror spawns in your base, which may be piloted by a hero. Seeds persist between nights, so a team that gathers 97 seeds the first night, only needs to gather three more the following night. The terror is a strong team fighter and siege engine, and can give your team a strong advantage. The six evenly split merc camps make for an additional objective. Haunted Mines A controversial map to say the least. While the map at first appears simplistic, containing only two lanes and three mercenary camps, it isn’t. Soon after the game starts, at approximately 2 minutes, the mines open, which are filled with zombies. When slain, these zombies drop skulls. Both teams contest for skulls in the mines below the main battlefield. When all the skulls are taken, each team is granted a golem, much like its mercenary counterpart in other maps, however its power scales with the number of skulls collected. There are only two access points into the mines, both in the middle of a lane. Remember that the mine entrances can be used to dodge ganks, hide, and generally flee. Using the mine exit is an uninterruptible channeled ability, that will usually buy you the time to flee, if you survive. This is a relatively fast map. The first engagements will give the winning team a large advantage. Losing heroes right as the mines open is a reliable way to lose the game. Be extra cautious. Zombies show up on the mini-map, so you can see where the enemy is killing zombies by looking at the mini-map, and seeing where they’ve vanished. The golem’s power scales really quickly, so skulls become even more important as the game goes on. Timing on the mercenary camps is critical. Capture them to coincide with your golem, ideally they’ll engage the enemy golem and put the hurt on it. If you’re outmatched in the mines, and cannot grab many skulls, go after the center mercenaries. Sometimes you can dive past the enemy to steal a bunch of skulls. You might die, but it	1,326,951
people of the Caucus Mountains extensively, a Russian geneticist named Zhores Medvedev shattered the myths regarding these people's claims of extreme longevity, revealing that many of the supposed centenarians had actually assumed the identity of their dead parents and grandparents to avoid detection after they had deserted the military forces during World War I. [29-31] I'm not sure where the notion of Tibetans enjoying long life comes from. According to the recent national Census information, the average life span of the people of Tibet has been increased from 36 (in 1951) to 67 (in 2000).[32] There are several things that the Âlong-lived culturesÂ have in common, (such as poor literacy skills, poor record keeping, tenancy to exaggerate old age) but none of them are Âglacial milk.Â In actual fact, the oldest recorded living human died at age 122.[33] Wallach is simply a snake oil salesman trying to sell people the'secret' to good health and longevity. He is not the first, and no doubt will not be the last. 90 Essential Nutrients One of Wallach's more commonly cited catch cry is that we need 90 essential nutrients every day, and that for every nutrient we miss out on, there are approximately 10 deficiency diseases associated with it. According to wallach, 60 of these essential nutrients are minerals. When we look on the labels of food products or various dietary supplements, we would be lucky to find even 10 minerals listed let alone 60. He has already given us the idea that we can not get all the nutrients from out food, and therefore need to take supplements, but this information makes us doubt whether the supplements on the shelves are any good. In reality, there are no more than 23 mineral elements which have been identified as essential in mammalian organisms.[34] Macro minerals generally either act as crystals to strengthen bones, or as electrolytes in nerve transduction, whereas trace minerals generally act as co factors for various enzymes required in metabolic pathways / biochemical reactions. When questioned about this, Wallach's spokesmen base the fact that approximately 60 mineral elements are found in tissues to support his claim that therefore, all these minerals are needed. This is absurd. Just because a mineral may be present in a tissue does not mean that it is playing a functional role, as certain tissues tend to accumulate certain elements even if we have no biochemical use for them. For example, if someone were exposed to high levels of leaded exhaust fume, they would have high levels of lead accumulated in various tissue. This does not mean that this person has a greater lead requirement. Furthermore, just because we may require a certain element, does not mean that having more of it will be healthful, in fact in the case of certain minerals such as iron in men, we get more than enough as it is, and additional doses can accumulate and be harmful.[35](Funnily enough, Iron is one of the most abundant minerals in colloidal minerals[36]). The reason I mention this is because below is a list of the elements identified as being essential in at least one species of mammal, in some cases, essentiality has only been confirmed due to specific pathologies that occur when that mineral is deficient, as apposed to essentiality being confirmed due to an actual known metabolic role being established. (To use iron as the example, we know iron is part of the hemoglobin molecule that transports oxygen in our blood, as well as the myoglobin molecule in our muscle cells. A mineral such as lithium for example, has been shown to cause certain problems in birds when it is deficient, however what role it plays in the body is unknown. Toxicity of these elements are probably better understood.[34]) When you see an element listed as essential that you do not commonly see the levels of listed on food labels or added to mineral supplement formulas, do not think that you need to go out and start getting more 'lead' or 'arsenic' in your diet - the chances are, you are probably getting levels of these elements that are more than enough, and are at a greater risk of accumulating toxic doses than you are of becoming deficient in them. Essential Mineral Elements Calcium Chloride Chromium Phosphorus Potassium Fluoride Sodium Magnesium Lead Iron Cobalt Boron Iodine Molybdenum Lithium Copper Selenium Arsenic Silicon Vanadium Nickel Zinc Manganese Colloidal Mineral products are basically shale leachate; that is, they soak humic shale in water (which leaches the minerals into it) and then bottle the water. Unfortunately, humans were designed to eat plants and animals, not rocks, so the mineral content of this humic shale leachate sold as 'colloidal minerals', contains varying amounts of various minerals. The resulting shale leachate is very low in some important minerals that may actually be beneficial to many people such as calcium	1,093,730
Customers wait in line at the DMV in Cranston. [The Providence Journal, file / Sandor Bodo] ▲ The fee would apply to license and registration renewals that could have been completed online or by mail. It would not apply to Real ID license renewals, which must be done in person. As if the time spent waiting to do business at the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles wasn't costly enough, the state agency wants Rhode Islanders to pay extra for the privilege. A $15 "in-person" customer-service fee is one of the ideas the DMV is pitching to Gov. Gina Raimondo in its annual budget request. Another is a $15 "late fee" that would hit motorists renewing a license or registration that has expired. Both fees, included in the DMV's plan for the year starting next July 1, would come on top of what customers have to pay to complete either transaction. The rationale behind the fees is to get people to do transactions online and reduce the volume of walk-ins, especially on peak days, when wait times have ballooned in recent years. "DMV wait times at the beginning and end of each month increase greatly, in large part due to motorists renewing their registrations right before or soon after the expiration date," the budget request explains regarding the late fee. "Adding a late fee for the renewal of expired licenses and registrations will encourage motorists to renew in advance which will lead to a more even distribution of customers in DMV branches throughout each month." Similarly, the customer service fee is intended to discourage "customers who unnecessarily appear in-person to complete a transaction that could have been completed online or through the mail." The $15 fee would apply to standard license and registration renewals that can be completed online or by mail. This does not include a switch to a Real ID license, which has to be done in person. The fee would apply to walk-ins at AAA offices that process license and registration renewals as well as walk-ins at regular DMV branches. Online transaction fees would remain. The DMV request estimates the walk-in customer service charge would bring in $1,016,035 in new annual revenue. The late fee would generate an additional $1.5 million each year. It proposes launching both on Oct. 1 next year. But shorter wait times are far from guaranteed with this plan. The DMV updates its annual wait time targets in each annual budget request, and the new goals for future years did not go down. Next year, the DMV hopes to achieve a one-hour average wait time (measured from when a customer pulls a ticket, often after having waited in a line, to when their transaction is finished.) That is the same one-hour average wait time the DMV aspires to this year and targeted in 2018-19. Rhode Island was more ambitious in prior years. In its fall 2017 budget request, the DMV listed a 20-minute average wait time target for the 2016-17 fiscal year and a half-hour goal for 2017-18. The agency didn't meet any of those goals. Customers on average waited 39 minutes in 2016, 59 minutes in 2017 and 63 minutes in 2018. DMV leaders point out that over this period of time they dealt with the changeover to a new computer system and late last year began issuing federally mandated Real ID driver's licenses, which take much longer to process than conventional license renewals. To deal with the burden of Real ID and push wait times down, the DMV's budget proposals for next year include a pilot program to process Real ID licenses on Saturdays only, by reservation. The program is expected to cost $115,000 and over the long term, DMV leaders hope to shift more services that now need to be done in person to a reservation system. The DMV budget request also seeks $2.2 million next year to keep extra staff working after next October's deadline for people to get Real IDs. "... it is not expected that all individuals who will require a Real ID compliant credential will receive one by this date," the request says. Agency proposals are one of the first steps in the state budget process, and there is no guarantee Raimondo will include the new DMV fees in her January tax and spending plan or that lawmakers will go along with it in approving the budget next summer. Another DMV project in the budget request is the replacement of Rhode Island's wave-motif license plates, which is supposed to start June 1 of next year. The DMV doesn't have the$398,000 it needs to do it this fiscal year and wants to push the start date back a month, to the start of the next fiscal year, July 1.	856,725
A late Gerard Pique goal wasn't enough to prevent Inter from going through to the final after a dreadful second leg Good evening everybody and welcome to our minute-by-minute coverage of the second leg of Barcelona v Inter in the Champions League semi-final, with the tie nicely poised at half-time. Internazionale take a two-goal lead into tonight's match, having won the first leg 3-1 at the San Siro in a fascinating match that culminated in a comically petulant display from Mario Balotelli, which you can study in all its glory here. In the pre-match build-up, Inter manager Jose Mourinho has been busily peddling his unique brand of nonsensical waffle masquerading as profundity and as usual the press pack have been hungrily lapping it up. The Special One thinks Inter are in the box-seat tonight because they only "dream" of winning the Champions League, while winning it at Real Madrid's home ground, the Bernabeu, at the end of this season has become "an obsession" for Barcelona. Obviously anyone with even a passing acqaintance with Massimo Moratti will know that Mourinho is talking complete cobblers - if anyone involved in tonight's match is obsessed with winning the Champions League it's Inter's president. "The final is more than just a dream for us," he said yesterday, temporarily forcing his manager back into his box with a long overdue slapdown. Team news: Jose Mourinho puts out the same 11 who started the first leg, while Pep Guardiola makes two changes: Yaya Toure and Gabriel Milito come in for Carles Puyol (suspended) and Maxwell (dropped). Toure will operate as midfield anchor, which means that Seydou Keito has to move to left-back. Gabriel Milito starts at centre-back, where he will be hoping to put a stop to the gallop of his older brother Diego, who plays up front for Inter. Barcelona: Valdes, Dani Alves, Pique, Milito, Keita, Xavi, Toure Yaya, Busquets, Pedro, Ibrahimovic, Messi. Subs: Pinto, Marquez, Bojan, Henry, Maxwell, Thiago, Jeffren. Inter: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Zanetti, Cambiasso, Motta, Eto'o, Sneijder, Pandev, Milito. Subs: Toldo, Cordoba, Muntari, Mariga, Materazzi, Chivu, Balotelli. Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium) Pre-match emails: "Barry, I'll think you'll find Mourinho's a genius," writes Harvey Kelly. "And you're not. He's only marginally more successful and knows only slightly less about football than your good self." Ooh, this one's good. "I've been looking forward to this match all week but now my wife has been selfish enough to go into labour tonight, thus presenting a problem regards watching the match as the birth of my child rapidly approaches," writes Paul Jaines, who alone among minute-by-minute writers, appears to have had sex in the past nine months and is rightfully boasting about it. "Thankfully we are having a home birth which means I have access to tv, computer etc - but do you think it would be bad form to have the match on TV while she is in the birthing pool?" Why not just put the birthing pool in front of the TV and then fill it? It'll be too heavy to move and if the baby doesn't arrive in the next few hours you won't have to vacate it before full-time to let your wife in. Tactical shenanigans: According to ITV's team line-up graphic, Barcelona are going to be playing a 3-4-3 tonight, with Pique, Milito and Toure across the back. That's the kind of news that would excite my colleague Jonathan Wilson, but I have to say it leaves me cold. I suppose time will tell if they're right or not. "Pep Guardiola's made quite a start to his management career, but this other fellow [Mourinho] is a trophy machine," says ITV anchor Matt Smith as he goes to an advert break. Trophies won by Pep Guardiola in one season: 7. Trophies won by Trophy Machine in 10 seasons: 13. Hmmm... This is interesting: Jose Mourinho has apparently announced that Goran Pandev is "injured" and replaced him with Christian Chivu in the starting line-up. That's a defender for a winger, with the obvious suggestion being that Mourinho has seen the Barcelona line-up and changed his own to suit it without having to waste a	2,809,034
Right at the beginning of Comic Con, Variety issued a report that talk of a third Hobbit film from director Peter Jackson was just that: talk. And it was talk that not even many people had heard yet. There was much scoffing: “of course it is just two films!” Warner Bros. and the associated studios working on the film have had December release dates locked in for two films for some time now. And then Jackson started doing interviews. We know the director has shot a great amount of footage for The Hobbit, and that he probably has enough to fill out not only two theatrical features, but blown-up expanded editions in the mode of his Lord of the Rings films. Turns out Jackson wants to shoot even more footage, if Warner Bros. will foot the bill. Could that lead to three Hobbit films rather than two? Let’s put this in order. Variety’s report of Warner Bros. denial of the third film was like a pre-emptive strike, as it came out a day before Jackson started telling people at Comic Con that he wants to make a third film. He told ComingSoon, It’s very premature. I mean we have an incredible source material with the appendices because ‘The Hobbit’ is obviously a novel but we also have the rights to use this 125 pages of additional notes where Tolkien expanded the world of ‘The Hobbit’ published at the end of ‘Return of the King’ and we’ve used some of it so far and just in the last few weeks as we’ve been wrapping up the shooting and thinking about the shape of the story, Fran and I have been talking to the studio about other things we haven’t been able to shoot and seeing if we persuade them to do a few more weeks of shooting, probably more than a few weeks actually, next year. And what form that would actually end up taking, well the discussions are pretty early. So there isn’t really anything to report but there’s other parts of the story that we’d like to tell that we haven’t been able to tell yet. And he told HitFix (video at the link) when asked about splitting the second film, That’s a discussion we’re having, yeah. We have certainly been talking to the studio about some of the material we can’t film, and we’ve been asking them so we can do a bit more filming next year. Which, I don’t know what would come of that, whether it’d be extended editions or whatnot. But those discussions are ongoing. So is Warner Bros. trying to head off a third movie? The timing of everything here is slightly odd. For the time being, the Variety article linked at the head of this post, in which Warner Bros. says there are and always will be only two Hobbit films should perhaps be considered the authoritiative word on the subject, at least for now. But extended editions are very likely, as Jackson said during the panel for the first film at Comic Con: People often assume we earmark scenes for the Extended Edition, which is not true. It may be that we write a scene halfway through the shoot we think we need to tell the story. It’s not until you assemble the film that you start to decide. You end up with a film that’s too long that you need to trim down in order to distribute it… We don’t really know until we get to the end what’s going to be in the extended cut. There will certainly be extended cuts of these I’m sure. It’s fair to even ask what would be in a third film. There are a few different explanations of where all this material comes from, but Deadline has a great rundown:	3,003,926
For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest release, please check out the main LLVM web site. If you have questions or comments, the LLVM Developer’s Mailing List is a good place to send them. This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure, release 4.0.0. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including major improvements from the previous release, improvements in various subprojects of LLVM, and some of the current users of the code. All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the LLVM releases web site. Starting with this release, LLVM is using a new versioning scheme, increasing the major version number with each major release. Stable updates to this release will be versioned 4.0.x, and the next major release, six months from now, will be version 5.0.0. The minimum compiler version required for building LLVM has been raised to 4.8 for GCC and 2015 for Visual Studio. The C API functions LLVMAddFunctionAttr, LLVMGetFunctionAttr, LLVMRemoveFunctionAttr, LLVMAddAttribute, LLVMRemoveAttribute, LLVMGetAttribute, LLVMAddInstrAttribute and LLVMRemoveInstrAttribute have been removed. ,,,,,, and have been removed. The C API enum LLVMAttribute has been deleted. has been deleted. The definition and uses of LLVM_ATRIBUTE_UNUSED_RESULT in the LLVM source were replaced with LLVM_NODISCARD, which matches the C++17 [[nodiscard]] semantics rather than gcc’s __attribute__((warn_unused_result)). in the LLVM source were replaced with, which matches the C++17 semantics rather than gcc’s. The Timer related APIs now expect a Name and Description. When upgrading code the previously used names should become descriptions and a short name in the style of a programming language identifier should be added. LLVM now handles invariant.group across different basic blocks, which makes it possible to devirtualize virtual calls inside loops. across different basic blocks, which makes it possible to devirtualize virtual calls inside loops. The aggressive dead code elimination phase (“adce”) now removes branches which do not effect program behavior. Loops are retained by default since they may be infinite but these can also be removed with LLVM option -adce-remove-loops when the loop body otherwise has no live operations. when the loop body otherwise has no live operations. The llvm-cov tool can now export coverage data as json. Its html output mode has also improved. Improvements to ThinLTO (-flto=thin)¶ Integration with profile data (PGO). When available, profile data enables more accurate function importing decisions, as well as cross-module indirect call promotion. Significant build-time and binary-size improvements when compiling with debug info (-g). LLVM Coroutines¶ Experimental support for Coroutines in LLVM was added, which can be enabled with -enable-coroutines in opt the command tool or using the addCoroutinePassesToExtensionPoints API when building the optimization pipeline. For more information on LLVM Coroutines and the LLVM implementation, see 2016 LLVM Developers’ Meeting talk on LLVM Coroutines. Regcall and Vectorcall Calling Conventions¶ Support was added for _regcall calling convention. Existing __vectorcall calling convention support was extended to include correct handling of HVAs. The __vectorcall calling convention was introduced by Microsoft to enhance register usage when passing parameters. For more information please read __vectorcall documentation. The __regcall calling convention was introduced by Intel to optimize parameter transfer on function call. This calling convention ensures that as many values as possible are passed or returned in registers. For more information please read __regcall documentation. Code Generation Testing¶ Passes that work on the machine instruction representation can be tested with the.mir serialization format. llc supports the -run-pass, -stop-after, -stop-before, -start-after, -start-before to run a single pass of the code generation pipeline, or to stop or start the code generation pipeline at a given point. Additional information can be found in the Machine IR (MIR) Format Reference Manual. The format is used by the tests ending in.mir in the test/CodeGen directory. This feature is available since 2015. It is used more often lately and was not mentioned in the release notes yet. Intrusive list API overhaul¶ The intrusive list infrastructure was substantially rewritten over the last couple of releases, primarily to excise undefined behaviour. The biggest changes landed in this release. simple_ilist<T> is a	1,317,782
The Sorry State of Convenient IPC (Published on 2014-07-29) The Problem How do you implement communication between two or more processes? This is a question that has been haunting me for at least 6 years now. Of course, this question is very broad and has many possible answers, depending on your scenario. So let me get more specific by describing the problem I want to solve. What I want is to write a daemon process that runs in the background and can be controlled from other programs or libraries. The intention is that people can easily write custom interfaces or quick scripts to control the daemon. The service that the daemon offers over this communication channel can be thought of as its primary API, in this way you can think of the daemon as a persistent programming library. This concept is similar to existing programs such as btpd, MPD, Transmission and Telepathy - I'll get back to these later. More specifically, the most recent project I've been working on that follows this pattern is Globster, a remotely controllable Direct Connect client (if you're not familiar with Direct Connect, think of it as IRC with some additional file sharing capabilities built in). While the problem I describe is not specific to Globster, it still serves as an important use case. I see many other projects with similar IPC requirements. The IPC mechanism should support two messaging patterns: Request/response and asynchronous notifications. The request/response pattern is what you typically get in RPC systems - the client requests something of the daemon and the daemon then replies with a response. Asynchronous notifications are useful in allowing the daemon to send asynchronous status updates to the client, such as incoming chat messages or file transfer status. Lack of support for such notifications would mean that a client needs to continuously poll for updates, which is inefficient. So what I'm looking for is a high-level IPC mechanism that handles this communication. Solutions are evaluated by the following criteria, in no particular order. Easy And with easy I refer to ease of use. As mentioned above, other people should be able to write applications and scripts to control the daemon. Not many people are willing to invest days of work just to figure out how to communicate with the daemon. Simple Simplicity refers to the actual protocol and the complexity of the code necessary to implement it. Complex protocols require complex code, and complex code is hard to maintain and will inevitably contain bugs. Note that simple and easy are very different things and often even conflict with each other. Small The IPC implementation shouldn't be too large, and shouldn't depend on huge libraries. If you need several megabytes worth of libraries just to send a few messages over a socket, you're doing it wrong. Language independent Control the daemon with whatever programming language you're familiar with. Networked A good solution should be accessible from both the local system (daemon running on the same machine as the client) and from the network (daemon and client running different machines). Secure There's three parts in having a secure IPC mechanism. One part is to realize that IPC operates at a trust boundary; The daemon can't blindly trust everything the client says and vice versa, so message validation and other mechanisms to prevent DoS or information disclosure on either part are necessary. Then there the matter of confidentiality. On a local system, UNIX sockets will provide all the confidentiality you can get, so that's trivial. Networked access, on the other hand, requires some form of transport layer security. And finally, we need some form of authentication. There should be some mechanism to prevent just about anyone to connect to the daemon. A coarse-grained solution such as file permissions on a local UNIX socket or a password-based approach for networked access will do just fine for most purposes. Really, just keep it simple. Fast Although performance isn't really a primary goal, the communication between the daemon and the clients shouldn't be too slow or heavyweight. For my purposes, anything that supports about a hundred messages a second on average hardware will do perfectly fine. And that shouldn't be particularly hard to achieve. Proxy support This isn't really a hard requirement either, but it would be nice to allow other processes (say, plugins of the daemon, or clients connecting to the daemon) to export services over the same IPC channel as the main daemon. This is especially useful in implementing a cross-language plugin architecture. But again, not a hard requirement, because even if the IPC mechanism doesn't directly support proxying, it's always possible for the daemon to implement some custom APIs to achieve the same effect. This, however, requires extra work and may not be as elegant as a built-in solution. Now let's discuss some existing solutions... Custom Protocol Why use an existing IPC mechanism in the first place when all you need is UNIX/TCP sockets? This is the approach taken by btpd, MPD (protocol spec)	1,001,121
who knew how many more incompatible changes the committee would make while tinkering with the release, or when it would even ship? This led to wide variation and fragmentation in the C++ support of compilers available to the community. Why did we do that, were we stupid? Not exactly, just inexperienced and… let’s say “optimistic,” for (1) is the road paved with the best of intentions. In 1994/5/6, and again in 2007/8/9, we really believed that if we just slipped another meeting or three we’d be done, and each time we ended up slipping up to four years. We learned the hard way that there’s really no such thing as slipping by one year, or even two. Fortunately, this has changed, with option (2)… (2) “When”: Pick the release time, and ship what features are ready; you don’t get to pick the feature set. If you discover that a feature in the draft standard needs more bake time, you yank it and ship what’s ready. You can still work on big long-pole features that require multiple releases’ worth of development time, by simply doing that work off to the side in “branches,” and merging them to the trunk/master IS when they’re ready, and you are constantly working on features because every feature’s development is nicely decoupled from an actual ship vehicle until it’s ready (no big join point). This has been the model since 2012, and we don’t want to go back. It “closes the patient” regularly and leads to sustaining higher quality by forcing regular integration and not merging work into the IS draft until it has reached a decent level of stability, usually in a feature branch. It also creates a predictable ship cycle for the industry to rely on and plan for. During this time, compilers have been shipping conforming implementations sooner and sooner after each standard (which had never happened before), and in 2020 we expect multiple fully conforming implementations the same year the standard is published (which has never happened before). This is nothing but goodness for the whole market – implementers, users, educators, everyone. Also, note that since we went to (2), we’ve also been shipping more work (as measured by big/medium/small feature counts) at higher quality (as measured by a sharp reduction in defect reports and comments on review drafts of each standard), while shipping whatever is ready (and if anything isn’t, deferring just that). How serious are we about (2)? What if a major feature by a prominent committee member was “almost ready”… we’d be tempted to wait then, wouldn’t we? Very serious, and no. We have historical data: In Jacksonville 2016, at the feature cutoff for C++17, Bjarne Stroustrup made a plea in plenary for including concepts in C++17. When it failed to get consensus, Stroustrup was directly asked if he would like to delay C++17 for a year to get concepts in. Stroustrup said No without any hesitation or hedging, and added that C++17 without concepts was more important than a C++18 or possibly C++19 with concepts, even though Stroustrup had worked on concepts for about 15 years. The real choice then was between: (2) shipping C++17 without concepts and then C++20 with concepts (which we did), or (1) renaming C++17 to C++20 which is isomorphic to (2) except for skipping C++17 and not shipping what was already ready for C++17. What about something between (1) and (2), say do basically (2) but with “a little” schedule flexibility to take “a little” extra time when we feel we need to stabilize a feature? No, because that would be (1). The ‘mythical small slip’ was explained by Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month, with the conclusion: ”Take no small slips.” For a moment, imagine we did slip C++20. The reality is that we would be switching from (2) back to (1), no matter how much we might try to deny it, and without any actual benefit. If we decided to delay C++20 for more fit-and-finish, we will delay the standard by at least two years. There is no such thing as a one-meeting or three-meeting slip, because during this time other people will continue to (rightly) say “well my feature only needs one more meeting too, since we’re slipping a meeting let’	1,114,068
In the wake of the recent murders in Paris at least two GOP presidential candidates—Donald Trump and Marco Rubio—have said that American mosques should be shut down because they pose a security risk. The assumption is that mosques serve as breeding grounds for ISIS, the Jihadist extremists who claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks and who have targeted the United States. ADVERTISEMENT Last week Donald Trump said that the United States “will absolutely have no choice” but to close down mosques where “some bad things are happening.” Marco Rubio called for the closing of any place where “radicals are being inspired,” including mosques. Other GOP candidates have not been as overt as Trump and Rubio, but their attacks on the Muslim community in America, and their willingness to conflate all Muslims with ISIS, has been made abundantly clear. I am sure that Trump and Rubio realize that the closing of mosques, or any other religious institution or place of worship, is a direct violation of the religion clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Not only are Trump and Rubio calling for the prohibition of the free exercise of religion among Muslims, but they are also implying that the United States is a Christian nation that has the right to threaten the right of non-Christians to worship freely. In other words, they are violating both the free exercise clause and the establishment clause. How do these Republican presidential candidates justify these policies towards Muslims with their staunch commitments to religious freedom? Until recently, conservative Christians rarely talked about religious freedom. When writing and speaking about religion and politics, many of them preferred to talk in terms of the United States as a “Christian nation.” Religious liberty was certainly important, and should always be defended, but this was a freedom usually invoked by religious minorities—Jews, Jehovah Witnesses, defenders of Native American spiritual practices—in a country in which Christianity was privileged. ADVERTISEMENT The logic went something like this: “We are a Christian nation that welcomes and tolerates people of all religious faiths.” Tolerance and religious freedom are not the same. A religiously free nation does not have an established church—either officially or unofficially. It is a place where adherents of every religion can worship God freely and openly without government interference. Religious tolerance, on the other hand, implies that the government sponsors a particular version of religion—either officially or unofficially—but still allows people from other faiths to practice their beliefs. Several of the American colonies practiced this kind of religious toleration. For example, in Massachusetts Bay the Congregational Church was the established and official religion of the colony, but it eventually tolerated people who practiced other brands of Christianity. ADVERTISEMENT Defenders of a governmental policy of toleration might respond to people of other faiths by saying, “We don’t agree with your beliefs, and we may not even like you being here, but we will tolerate you.” This is hardly a hearty endorsement of religious freedom. But in the last year or so, the rhetoric of the Christian nationalists who defend something akin to religious toleration has changed. When Barack Obama pushed the Affordable Care Act through Congress, for example, Christians turned to the language of “religious liberty,” rather than the language of “Christian America,” to oppose the Obamacare mandate requiring employees of religiously based companies and ministries to provide employees with certain forms of contraception. ADVERTISEMENT Many evangelicals, including most of the GOP presidential candidates, have also turned to religious liberty language to defend Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis’s decision to refuse marriage licenses to gay couples in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in Obergfell v. Hodges. As the beliefs of traditional Christians continue to be challenged by the so-called “secular progressives,” more and more religious liberty cases will be brought before the courts. But if the Christian Right is going to defend religious liberty, as they do every day on the campaign trail and in their various summits, conferences, and news outlets, they must be consistent. The view of religious liberty currently espoused by Trump, Rubio, and others is just a new way of saying that the United States should be a Christian nation. They want to defend the rights of Christians to practice their faith freely and without government intervention, but want to deny the same religious liberties to Muslims by closing their mosques. ADVERTISEMENT It is time to stop the hypocrisy. By John Fea, who teaches American history at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction and blogs daily at www.philipvickersfithian.com This article was originally published at History News Network	1,660,046
a balance swinging back to the Republicans. And the polls that make up the averages - averages upon which Nate Silver's model rests - are doing just that. Nate's model might well work in an election where the relationship between the internals and the toplines was unchanged from 2008. But because that assumption is an unreasonable one, yet almost by definition not subject to question in his model, the model is delivering a conclusion at odds with current, observable political reality. Painted Into A Corner Poll analysis by campaign professionals often involves a large dollop of conscious partisan hackery: spinning the polls to suggest a result the campaigns know is not realistic, in the hopes of avoiding the bottom-drops-out loss of voter confidence that sets in when a campaign is visibly doomed. For the record, unlike some of my conservative colleagues, I don't think Nate is a conscious partisan hack. I have a lot of respect for his intelligence and his thoroughness as a baseball analyst and we have mutual friends in the world of baseball analysis, and I think he undoubtedly recognizes that it will not be good for his credibility to be committed to the last ditch to defending Obama as a prohibitive favorite in an election he ends up losing. (It's true that the 538 model is just probabilities, but as Prof. Jacobson notes, Nate won his reputation as an electoral forecaster with similar probabilistic projections in 2008; if you project a guy to have a 77% chance to win an election he loses, that will inevitably cause people to put less faith in your odds-laying later on). I do, however, think that - for whatever reasons - Nate has painted himself into a corner from which there is no easy escape. If I'm right about the electorate and the polls are right about the internals, Romney wins - and if Romney wins, the 538 model will require some serious rethinking. There's a bunch of reasons why he finds himself in this position. One is that his model has been oversold: he made his poll-reading reputation based on a single election cycle, in which he had access to non-public polls to check his work. Nate is, in fact, not the first poll-reader to get 49 states right: RedState's own Gerry Daly did the same thing in 2004, missing only Wisconsin (which Bush lost by half a point) in his Election Day forecast, and Gerry did this through careful common-sense reading of the state-by-state polls checked against the national polls, not through a model that purported to do his thinking for him. (As it happened, the RCP averages at the end of the cycle did the same thing, as they did in 2008.) I'm inclined to listen to guys like Gerry who have been doing this for years and have not only recounted the numbers from past elections but lived through the reading of polls while they were happening. In 2010, the 538 model fared well - but no better than the poll averages at RCP. And that was only after Nate was much slower to pick up on the coming GOP wave than Scott Rasmussen, who called it a lot earlier in the cycle. There are a raft of methodological quibbles with the 538 model (some larger than others), many of which reek of confirmation bias (ie, the tendency to question bad news more closely than good). For example, while Nate's commentaries have included lengthy broadsides against Rasmussen and Gallup, his model tends to give a lot of weight to partisan pollster PPP. Ted Frank noted one example that perfectly captures the value of knowing your history; the 538 model's assumptions about how late-deciding undecided voters will break are tilted towards Obama by including the 2000 election, when Gore did far better on Election Day than the late-October polls suggested. But Gore wasn't an incumbent, and there was a major event (the Bush DUI story) that had a major impact on turnout and undecided voters. If you make different assumptions based on a different reading of history, you get different conclusions. The spirit of open scientific inquiry should welcome this kind of scrutiny, even in the heat of election season. None of this is a reason to conclude that the 538 concept is broken beyond repair. If you regard poll analysis as something like an objective calling, you can learn from your failures as well as your successes. If Obama wins, my own assumptions (and indeed, nearly everything we know about winning campaigns) will have to be re-examined. If Romney wins, the model of simply aggregating the topline state-by-state poll averages will have to be sent back to the drawing board. But there will be no hiding, in that case, from the fact of its failure. Unskewed Polls One of the more widely-discussed efforts to fix the problem of topline poll data varying by turnout models is Dean Chambers' UnskewedPolls.com, which takes the internals of each poll	548,943
As you can see in the last 4-5 decades dividend growth stocks have outperformed the whole market. Check out some articles from Hartford Funds and Raymond James which go on to give way more data on how over the long term, dividend stocks outperform non dividend paying stocks. Dividend Yield Investing vs Dividend Growth Investing Dividend yield is basically ratio of total dividends given out per year by the price of the stock. For e.g. if AT&T (T) pays out 2.00$ every year and its current price is 31.62$ then the yield is 6.32%. So, it might make sense to buy the stocks yielding the highest to get more income. However, do not go chasing the yield. Usually stocks with 10-20% dividends are highly risky and prone to getting dividends cut soon. Dividend Yield Investing (DYI) focuses on having more income from your stocks. Usually people who are close to retiring and have a more conservative approach prefer dividend yield investing. Usually if you look at high yield companies they do not increase the dividends by huge amount every year. In case of AT&T its usually 1-2% per year. Total Return= Dividend starting Yield (6.32%) + increase of 2% in dividend payout every year + capital appreciation Meaning you get 6.32% return every year using dividends alone. I haven’t even included any stock price appreciation yet in the above calculation. Neither did i include dividend raises, nor did you sell any stocks to get this money in your pocket. See the magic of dividends? People who are younger and have much more time to compound money usually should do Dividend Growth Investing(DGI). This is where you forgo the initial high dividend yield in favor of higher dividend increases every year. E.g. Starbucks (SBUX) yield of about 2.79% at price of 51.62$ as of 15-JUL 2018. However, if you notice the annual rate of increase of dividend over the last 5 years, its almost 20-25% annually! Total Return = Dividend starting Yield (2.16%) + 20% increase in dividends every year + capital appreciation Just as Einstein mentioned, compounding is the 8th wonder of world. Real magic happens if you re-invest these dividends to buy more of the same stocks. Since more stocks next year would result in even more dividends. This is where dividend growth investing also leaves dividend yield investing behind. If you continue to Dividend Re-Investment Program (DRIP) and reinvest dividends its easily possible you will have a much higher yield in 8-10 years for your DGI stock as compared to the DYI stock. Let’s look at Starbucks and AT&T stocks as of 15th Jul 2018: You can see the starting and ending yield on cost in these 2 investments above. Over time a DGI stock usually performs and returns way more money. However, it obviously comes with its risk. At&T has many years of history in successfully paying dividends. Starbucks has only 5-6 years of history paying dividends. But there are many indicators and fundamentals to look for when choosing such stocks. Case against Dividend Investing Dividend payout = Lower share price This is true, every time a distribution gets paid out the price of the stock goes down by equivalent value on the payout date. People argue what’s the point of getting dividends. However, that’s just being very short term in thinking. If you plan on holding such stocks forever and you should, how should a short-term blip on payout date matter at all? Over the long term, company grows and so does the stock price! Dividend paying companies grow less Another argument is only companies that have stopped growing or have no use of cash, pay out dividends. Such companies cannot efficiently allocate capital and so choose to give out dividends. So capital appreciation on the stock gets hit. You won’t be able to make much off of capital gains on stock. However as mentioned earlier, good dividend stocks bought at correct price have great potential to provide above average returns. Preferential tax treatment for dividends can change This is a minor threat. Currently you pay less taxes on dividends as compared to short term capital gains on stock sales. However, nobody knows the future, and this can change at any time. When that happens, its possible such stocks can fall out of favor. Dividend stocks make you miss out on fast growing industries Usually most dividend stocks belong to consumer cyclical, consumer staples industries. Companies that have very stable fixed stream of income. Some financial companies etc. Argument is that tech stocks which grow the fastest usually never pay dividends. So, if you do not buy such stocks you are	2,817,272
for Diablo II – with Diablo II it was kind of mixed reaction at first. Then the expansion came out, people liked it a little bit more and then once the 1.10 patch came out, then it really became this big, people call it “classic”. So I think that you can’t judge a game, it changes all the time. And Diablo III is in a place now that I think it’s much better than when it was released. Is there something that actually pleasantly surprised you in Diablo III? That’s a good question. Nobody has ever asked me that question before. Yeah, I think that definitely some of the action of the game feels really good, the sound effects, the visual effects and kind of the impact of the combat I thought that was really well done. And I like some of the atmosphere, where things crawl up the sides of pits and things like that. We dreamed of doing those kind of things when we were doing Diablo II and to see that as a reality, I think was really awesome. We’re in an age when players have great expectations from games and they’re very vocal when they’re disappointed. That happened after the last Blizzcon, when people were hoping for Diablo 4 and instead Diablo Immortal was announced. How do you think this pressure from the players affect game development nowadays? It does affect it. There’s not really a solution though. I think that as games become more popular, as social media kind of changes the way we communicate with people, you just have to be kind of buttoned up in you presentations and how your going to be able to market yourselves and your products; and it’s a different way to do things now and there’s going to be bumps on the road for a lot of people and I’ve had bumps on the road on my career too. For instance, when I made Hellgate, we way overhyped it and so the expectations were way too high when it came out and It was a big problem. After Blizzard had announced Diablo Immortal, you were intrigued that they decided to outsource development to China. What’s your opinion on their decision now and what’s your opinion on the general concept of a mobile Diablo? Well it’s kind of the same. I think that they announced Diablo Immortal poorly – in a wrong time and wrong place, but hindsight is 20/20 - it’s easy for me to say that. But I think that having Diablo on a mobile device is a good idea. It shouldn’t be the only Diablo, but having a Diablo on mobile sounds fun. Now whether or not it’ll be a good game, or what it’s going to be like, or how much will they cash grab, that everybody’s really afraid of, and is that going to be a factor? I don’t know. I don’t think so, I mean Blizzard really hasn’t acted that way in the past, so I can’t imagine it’s going to be. And I’m just going to wait and reserve judgment 'till I can actually play it. Maybe it’s the best mobile game of all time. I don’t know, nobody knows. We’re going to have to wait and see. Apart from Diablo Immortal, Blizzard hasn't released any information about a possible sequel to Diablo yet. If you were given the opportunity, would you be interested in working on this series again? Yeah, absolutely. People ask me that all the time, but Blizzard has to come to me and ask me so (laughs). They haven’t contacted me. Is it just that easy, to just reach out and ask you? Yeah, it’s just that easy. Do you think that could happen? I doubt it, but you know, maybe. There’s always a chance. They’ve given no indication of me going back, so… Do you have any new ideas that you would like to implement into the sequel? Oh yeah, of course. But I’m gonna save those, in case I make one (laughs). Let’s move on a little bit to Marvel. Avengers: Endgame has been breaking box office records around the world and you’ve actually brought some of these characters to an MMORPG game Marvel Heroes. However, the game wasn’t as successful as you were probably hoping for, so what were the main factors responsible for this? How come the game wasn't received as well as the MCU films? That is an excellent question, where I wish I had an answer. There were a couple of things. First off, when the game came out, it wasn’t	2,707,426
anga, an córas faoina n-aontaíonn comhlachtaí poiblí ina gceann agus ina gceann scéim teanga le Roinn na Gaeltachta. Leagtar síos sna scéimeanna teanga na seirbhísí a bhfuil dualgas ar na comhlachtaí poiblí iad a chur ar fáil i nGaeilge. “Ar cheann de mhórfhorálacha an Bhille tá an moladh go gcuirfí córas caighdeán teanga in áit chóras na scéimeanna teanga. “Moladh fiúntach é seo, ach is deacair breithiúnas a thabhairt ar an tionchar a d’fhéadfadh a bheith ag an athrú seo gan na dréachtchaighdeáin a bheith ar fáil dúinn. Creidim go rachadh sé go mór chun sochair do phróiseas measúnaithe an Bhille dá gcuirfí na dréachtchaighdeáin sin ar fáil gan mhoill.” Dúirt an Coimisinéir go mbeadh deis ann sna seachtainí amach romhainn “mionscrúdú” a dhéanamh ar na leasuithe atá molta ar Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla agus “ar nithe tábhachtacha eile” nach bhfuil luaite sa Bhille nua. “Le linn na díospóireachta sin tá sé tábhachtach go bhféachfaí i gcónaí le freastal ar riachtanais phobal na teanga agus a gcearta, ag cur san áireamh stádas na Gaeilge mar theanga náisiúnta agus mar chéadteanga oifigiúil na tíre,” a dúirt an Coimisinéir Teanga Rónán Ó Domhnaill.	1,258,278
after taking into account any consumer and dealer incentives. Of course, some really hot cars go for sticker price and even above. Be patient and wait: The prices will fall as demand slackens. And three years later, you’ll be selling or trading a car for the same money as the early buyers who may have paid thousands more initially. 5. The holdback hustle: Manufacturers often give cash incentives — sometimes called holdbacks — to their dealers to encourage them to move slow-selling models. This typically isn’t mentioned in advertisements. You’ll want to search for holdbacks or other factory-to-dealer incentives available for the car you’re considering. While it’s not a given that the dealer will apply any of these funds to the car you like, it doesn’t hurt to ask. 6. The financing four-flush: Some dealers have been known to call customers days or even weeks after they signed a purchase agreement to tell them that the financing fell through. It’s a crock. The dealer can know if you qualify for financing almost instantly. The goal of the later call? To sign you up for a loan with a higher interest rate because, according to them, they just found out you didn’t qualify for the lower rate. Never leave the showroom without signed contracts that spell out every detail and with every blank filled in. If you’ve got that, they can’t retreat on the financing. 7. The insurance illusion: Some dealers may try hard to get you to purchase an insurance policy when you’re buying your car. One type, gap insurance, covers the difference between what the car is worth and the amount you still owe on it. Say the car is worth $10,000 but you still owe $12,000. If your car is a total loss, a gap insurance policy will cover that $2,000 difference. But don’t automatically agree to it. Some insurers include the benefits of gap insurance in their regular comprehensive automobile coverage, so check there first. Also, gap insurance is generally quite inexpensive when purchased from your regular car insurance company rather than a dealer. Another favorite, credit life insurance, will pay the balance of your loan if you die before you’ve been able to repay it. These policies may or may not make sense for you, but in most cases you should decline all such offers. If these policies interest you, you’ll want to understand what you’re purchasing and have the opportunity to decline it and shop around for better prices. The mark-up on these policies at the dealership can be enormous, in part because the insurance companies that sell the policies to the dealerships offer them huge incentives — everything from cash to first-class trips — to push the policies. 8. The rate razzle-dazzle: It certainly sounds tempting — zero percent interest to finance a new car. However, this deal may not be the best one for your pocketbook. For starters, most financing incentives are for shorter terms, and you need a stellar credit record. With very short-term loans, such as 24 or 36 months, payments on even a moderately priced car can be sky-high. In addition, you may be better off finding your own financing and then taking the dealer rebate, if one is offered. Say you’re looking at a $20,000 car and will get $4,000 for your trade-in. You can choose between zero percent financing or financing at 3.49 percent with a $2,000 rebate. The term of the loan is 36 months. Over the course of the loan, you’ll come out ahead by more than $1,200 if you take the rebate and the 3.49 percent financing. Use our calculator to compute the actual dollars over the term of the loan to figure out what deal suits you best. 9. The rollover ruse: Often, it’s tempting to trade up to a more expensive car even before you’ve finished paying off the car you’re currently driving. One way that some car buyers do this is by rolling over the remaining payments on their current car into a new car loan or lease. While this isn’t illegal, it is risky. Why? You’ll end up owing more on the second car than it’s worth. In the parlance of the automobile world, you’ll be “upside down” on the vehicle. If it’s totaled in an accident or if you decide down the road to trade it in, you’ll end up writing out a big check to cover the remaining amount of the loan. Rule of thumb: Don’t roll over an old car loan into a new one. 10. The long-term trick: There’s nothing illegal or even deceptive about dealers offering loan periods	1,917,738
If not, why not trying to have a complete solution, rather than stop here? Maybe I am a bit confuse here. Thanks. Rastafabi April 19, 2017 12:12 pm @DANgerous25 1) is there a way to avoid the need for sleep/wake Currently not. What you can try though is to sleep the display only. This can be done by setting up a hot corner in System Preferences for example. 2) how to uninstall Rastafabi's solution (for reference) I upgraded the guide with some instructions to do so. @Egor.M […] everything works, but the problem I have with final cut pro x version 10.3.3. Very slow when dealing with external egpu, what could be the problem, do not tell you solutions? FinalCut Pro is greatly optimised for the use with AMD graphics using the OpenCL Framework instead of CUDA. While NVIDIA GPUs also feature OpenCL support they never have been designed specifically for it as NVIDIA obviously want to push it's own solution. Apple might have optimised FinalCut for their factory equipped NVIDIA Macs like your's which could explain why it's faster internally than with the eGPU. If your main purpose of using an eGPU is to use it for FinalCut I would recommend using an AMD GPU. Depending on your needs you should use a RX460, RX470 or RX480. Check other threads of this forum, as there are some AMD focused guides (using @goalques script solution, as my driver (currently) does not support AMD graphics. I am just speaking loud, allright? Even just for 3D professional applications (which I am a professional user as well), why not to configure your laptop with the full capabilities instead doing an small patch to fix just that thing? What are the beneficts? There is more performance maybe? If not, why not trying to have a complete solution, rather than stop here? First it's important to say that the main purpose of eGPU is to optionally accelerate Laptops and not Desktops. If you about to purchase a new MacBook Pro it's an good advice to go for the AMD Pro 460 as it's the strongest graphics available. However it's still quiet a bit behind the power a desktop GPU provides. This is especially true for people with older hardware (like myself) who can't or do not want to buy a new MacBook. With an AKiTiO Thunder 2 PCI expansion box (with an upgraded 8A power supply) and an NVIDIA GTX 1050(Ti) or an AMD RX460 they can greatly accelerate their setup for about 300-400€/£/$. flight3 April 19, 2017 8:18 pm Posted by: goalque You said earlier (regarding the script): "Sleep & wake: Yes, my viewable screen now fills the iMac display. However as you say, it looks to be 4k and doesn’t have the correct default resolutions. However, it’s much better than where I was." The same sleep & wake helped, so therefore similar effect. I thought Pike’s newer hack would work correspondingly. I am happy to hear this generic hack produced native 5K internal screen. I'm curious how you put your display to sleep while it is stuck at the booting screen? Does holding the power button for a second or two work? DANgerous25 April 19, 2017 9:15 pm If you look at the screenshot in my earlier post you can see that the left screen functions normally, and that the system actually boots up. So the iMac screen just displays that it is only partially through the boot sequence. So I can sleep/wake from the external screen, which brings everything back to how one would expect. Very odd! Posted by: Rastafabi @DANgerous25 1) is there a way to avoid the need for sleep/wake Currently not. What you can try though is to sleep the display only. This can be done by setting up a hot corner in System Preferences for example. 2) how to uninstall Rastafabi's solution (for reference) I upgraded the guide with some instructions to do so. Thank you for your answers. Re 1, please could you explain what you mean? I don't understand your suggestion. Re 2, thank you, the uninstall by removing the eGPU.kext works perfectly. Today I used the updated nVidia web driver (378.05.05.05f02) to see if it would prevent the crashing problem I have on the iMac 5k using the eGPU.kext solution. Unfortunately it doesn't help. I also updated the web driver on my MacBook Pro 13" TB to see if it had the same problem, no problems (my laptop does eGPU using goal	1,326,143
Historic mansions can be frozen forever in the era in which they were built. Or, they can keep pace with the times--if they are continually recycled. One prime example is the former Playboy Mansion, now taken over by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and renamed Hefner Hall. One of the city`s famed residences, it was built for a socially prominent turn-of-the-century physician, Dr. George Snow Isham. The four-story Victorian-style manorhouse at 1340 N. State Pkwy. was designed by James Gamble Rogers, an architect who also is known for his work on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston. Built in two stages during 1903 and 1914 at a cost of $100,000, the elegant 72-room brick-and-stone structure is surrounded by a high iron fence. After Dr. Isham moved into his new home in the city`s posh Gold Coast neighborhood, it became a mecca for celebrities of that era. The Ishams entertained such guests as President Teddy Roosevelt and Admiral Robert Peary, the Arctic explorer. The second floor ballroom was--and still is--the home`s showplace. Two stories high, 60 feet long and 30 feet wide, it was used by Miss Hinman`s dancing class, one of the city`s most aristocratic gatherings of young people, in the early years of the century. The mansion was in tune with the times and with the affluence of that era. But the good old days came to an end in 1926. Dr. Isham died and the home was sold to a contractor. The stock market crashed in 1929, the nation slid into the Great Depression and the mansion was recyled to reflect economic realities--it was divided into apartments. A period of abuse to the building followed and a general decline in its appearance. In the early 1940s, though, it was purchased for $35,000 by a Chicago parking lot tycoon, R.G. Lydy. His theory on acquiring real estate was: ''Just shut your eyes and buy, and after a while you`ve got something.'' He recycled the mansion again, spending $175,000 to restore it to its original splendor. About 10 years later the house passed to the Podbilniak family, who sold it in 1959 to Playboy Enterprises for $400,000. What was to follow was the most dramatic refurbishing of the house to date. As everyone knows, it became ''Hef`s Hutch,'' the home-office of Hugh M. Hefner, head of the Playboy empire. More than $400,000 in improvements were pumped into the vintage mansion, bringing it up-to-date and then some. The refurbishing and remodeling included an indoor pool with a waterfall and underwater bar, sun and steam rooms, bowling alley, game room, offices and dormitories for Playboy Bunnies on the upper floors. Keeping pace with the times, the mansion was wired for the electronic age --a closed-circuit television security system, a TV-taping center, a custom-designed stereo and a full-size movie projection system were installed. Hefner believed that a home, with the addition of entertainment equipment, could become a private world where the owner could both work and play. He lived that concept. Like Dr. Isham before him, Hefner invited the rich and famous to his humble pad. The star-studded guest list included Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, Bill Cosby, Barbra Streisand, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, Melvin Belli, Rudolf Nureyev, Norman Mailer and many more. An article with photographic coverage of the wild life at the mansion was published in Playboy in January, 1966. Bubbling with Bunnies and celebrities, it added fuel to the public`s fantasies about what was really going on behind the staid-looking exterior of 1340 N. State Pkwy. The Playboy Mansion became a symbol of the 60s and its sexual revolution. The house not only kept pace with the times--it also was on the cutting edge of the future. In the early 70s, though, Hefner went west, moving into another castle, this one on a 5.5-acre site in the posh Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. The Near North Side house was maintained as a place for business functions and charitable activites, though Playboy considered selling it for about $3 million. Then in August, 1984, Playboy Enterprises leased it to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for five years at $10 a year. ''It is our intention to make a permanent donation (of the mansion) within that time,'' said Christie Hefner, Playboy`s president and chief operating officer.	3,153,548
�d happily take a spam fritter, though perhaps they just lack a “shred of cosmic gratitude.” One of Pinker’s critics says that despite Pinker’s tendency toward ignorant hyperbole, it does him a “grave disservice” to “mistake his data-driven assessment of encouraging global trends for an insouciance towards continued injustices.” I’m not so sure about that. Dismissing the idea that racism remains deeply embedded in society seems a bit like insouciance to me, and so do his constant attempts to show that things aren’t “crises.” “Activist organizations feel they must always cry ‘crisis’ to keep the heat up,” he says. When he tries to “debunk” the idea that suicide rates in the United States are at “crisis” proportions, for instance, he admits that there are 40,000 suicides annually in the country, and that this is a 30-year high that has been growing each year, but points to previous eras in which suicides had been even higher. Because “suicide was more common in the past than it is today,” it’s “alarmism” to say there is an “epidemic of unhappiness, loneliness, or suicide” and “dire warnings” about a “plague” of suicide or depression “don’t survive fact-checking.” Besides: “Not every problem is a crisis, plague, or an epidemic… A modicum of anxiety may be the price we pay for the uncertainty of freedom. It is another word for the vigilance, deliberation, and heart-searching that freedom demands.” Now, for me, it is trivializing, even downright insouciant, to talk about the depth of anguish and despair that millions of people endure daily in this country as a “modicum of anxiety.” And it is dismissing the urgency of the problem to say it might just be a price we have to pay. 40,000 people, measured in the official American mass death unit, is over 13 annual 9/11s. It does not matter if this was worse long ago. It doesn’t follow that it’s not a “crisis,” merely that the crisis is a recurring one and we have never done what we ought to do in order to try to fix it. It is trivially true that “not every problem” is a “crisis.” But surely, if you do not see 40,000 people taking their lives each year as urgent, you are the most insouciant of insouciant assholes. In fact, even when Pinker is talking about things that are pretty obviously calamitous, he has a tendency to encourage us to Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life: “Suppose there was an episode of bioterror that killed a million people. Suppose a hacker did manage to take down the Internet. Would the country literally cease to exist? Would civilization collapse? Would the human species go extinct? A little proportion, please—even Hiroshima continues to exist!… [P]eople are highly resilient in the face of catastrophe.” Hiroshima: a statistical blip! World War II: a mere outlier along the bumpy road to peace! Mass murder: Please, it’s not like the human species is literally going to be extinct. Somewhere through Enlightenment Now, I became positive that Eric Idle’s whistling idiot from Life of Brian, who encourages the crucified men to cheer up and laugh and sing, is Steven Pinker. They even have the same hair. There is a giant analytical mistake underlying many of Pinker’s arguments. He suggests that the proper measure of whether things are “amazing” is comparing the present to the past. Both Enlightenment Now and Better Angels show version after version of a similar graph: a trend line of a good thing going up or a bad thing going down. So, if poor people globally are getting “less poor,” then we can conclude that Capitalism, Democracy, and Science are doing a good job. But you should not measure your success against what came before, you should measure it against what you ought to have been doing and could be doing. “Better” does not actually mean “good,” and it might well be that even if things improve, if they still fall unacceptably short of what we are capable of, there is no reason to diminish one’s amount of outrage. You could have made the argument that things were “better” than they had previously been in 1870. You could have told people to	304,267
with a father who had a toll bill of $1,200 recently. “He didn’t know how he was going to pay his mortgage that month.” Bing said the government is also making mortgage payments on bridges it has built, so they cannot be eliminated. However, the Liberals propose a cap on tolls of $500 per year. “For the NDP to toss it out as an election bribe… it just won’t work,” said Bing. Ranta said P3 partnerships only exist because corporations are looking for safe places to invest, and called the tolls “a step back into the Middle Ages.” Pope said the Greens support mobility pricing in a variety of ways, and suggested the best might be a tax on mileage driven. The Toronto Blue Jays should have first baseman Edwin Encarnacion back in the lineup when they open a three-game series with the Chicago White Sox on Friday, according to MLB.com's Gregor Chisolm. Encarnacion will head to Buffalo tomorrow to continue his rehab. He'll then likely be activated Friday in Chicago. #BlueJays — Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) August 12, 2014 Hampered by a quadriceps strain since July 5, Encarnacion began a rehabilitation assignment Saturday in the Florida State League and will continue his recovery with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons on Tuesday. A two-time All-Star, Encarnacion is hitting.277/.368/.591 (160 OPS+) with 26 home runs and 21 doubles through 88 games this season. Man dies at BART station Saturday evening A BART train at Daly City station. A BART train at Daly City station. Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Man dies at BART station Saturday evening 1 / 1 Back to Gallery DALY CITY (BCN) A man died at the BART station in Daly City on Saturday evening, according to BART officials. At 6:19 p.m., BART police officers and medical personnel responded to the Daly City station for a report of an unresponsive man. A short time later, medical personnel declared the man dead, BART officials said. BART officials said that there is no indication of foul play involved in the death. Further details were not immediately available. Apparently, Billy Ray Cyrus, the man whose sperm helped create Miley Cyrus, is still alive. And apparently, he has a new song called “Lately,” which features a rap by Fred Durst. And apparently, Billy Ray Cyrus and Fred Durst performed this song on The Arsenio Hall Show last night. Because apparently, The Arsenio Hall Show is back on the air. And apparently, the most relevant guests he can book are someone who hasn’t been famous since the last time there was an Arsenio show, and Fred Durst. Fred Durst is the most-recently-famous person in this story. Jesus Harold Christ. Here’s video of the performance if you hate yourself and/or those around you: [via Metal Insider] Hazel Dual Build: Getting Closer I’m feeling much more confident about making the deadline than I did on Sunday. The only major painting left is another color on the head and the sides of the knees. (You can see in this pic that they are still unpainted. That should all be set tomorrow, and then I can finish up the touch-ups and let the paint dry a little bit before I clear coat on Friday. Saturday will be panel lining, decaling, and flat coating. It should be dry enough to handle on Sunday which will allow me to take the final pictures for this incarnation. Once the pressure of the contest is off, I’ll be able to focus on the modifications to the second torso, waist skirts and booster and hopefully will have the entire dual build done the following week.	39,071
Sara Mason’s first full-length Edinburgh Fringe show is billed as comedy and is titled Burt Lancaster Pierced My Hymen (When I Was 11). This is not hyperbole. It is true – with all that the title implies. Last night, I told Sara that her show may not get as many laughs as she may have hoped for, because it is very difficult to laugh when your mouth is almost continually wide open and your jaw is repeatedly hitting the floor. “That,” I said to her, “was not your original title for the show, was it?” “No,” she said. “It was originally going to be called From Hollywood To Homeless – but I will save that story for another year.” “And,” I asked, the title Burt Lancaster Pierced My Hymen (When I Was 11) was suggested by Tinky Winky from Teletubbies?” Sara’s show is directed by the multi-talented Dave Thompson who played the above mentioned part on children’s television but was replaced because his “interpretation of the role was not acceptable”. “I was dubious about the Burt Lancaster title,” Sara told me. “I was dubious about even doing the story.” “Even last year,” I said, “you were dubious about telling the story as part of a show.” During last year’s Fringe, Sara and I shared a flat in Edinburgh. “Well you,” Sara said to me, “must have been the second person I ever told that story to, the first person being my ex-husband.” “How did he react?” “He tried to sell the story to the newspapers.” “With your knowledge.” “Oh yes.” “Why didn’t they pick it up?” “Because (she named another victim who was sexually attacked by Burt Lancaster) was alive at that time and he didn’t want it printed. He said: This is my life; I don’t want it discussed. He was so violent and vehement about it, so we dropped it.” “One reason the show is so powerful,” I said, “is because the audience thinks it knows the worst from the title but, in fact you are very graphic about what actually happened – and then there is this extra unexpected thing they get hit with.” “What inspired me and encouraged me to do it on stage,” explained Sara, “was seeing Chris Dangerfield’s show Sex With Children last year, because I thought Wow! I’ve got an anecdote quite similar to his and mine involves a famous film star.” “So why were you so worried about telling the story in a show?” “I was worried about my daughter, apart from anything else.” “I always,” I said, “thought Burt Lancaster was gay, because there were rumours about him and his circus partner Nick Cravat.” “Bisexual,” said Sara. “He had five children and three wives. But he was a paedophile. That’s clear.” Sara was brought up in Hollywood. “Some of the child actors,” she said, “have come out now about Hollywood being a hotbed of paedophiles.” “So this year,” I said, “your show is entirely truthfully called Burt Lancaster pierced My Hymen (When I Was 11). What’s next year?” “The Beginner’s Guide To Bondage,” Sara told me. “I already have a set all worked out.” “Why,” I asked, “is it called The Beginner’s Guide To Bondage?” “Because I’m going to have a cross and I’m going to give a demonstration.” “Why you?” I asked. “Why me?” Sara laughed. “Ohhhh! that would be telling! But we all have to have a day job, don’t we?” Having shared a flat with her last year, I know the Burt Lancaster and Bondage shows are only the tips of a flotilla of icebergs. As I left her last night, she said: “My father	1,922,188
(although I do own one). If you shoot 50mm and are looking for a non metered Leica then this should probably be your first consideration. Early models had a double stroke film advance, as there was fear that film could be torn by a single advance. But after development the M3 became a single stroke. Early models of the camera also had a glass film pressure plate, and later models a metal one. If you are a collector these things matter a great deal. But if you are a user then the single stroke, metal plate camera should be enough. They are plentiful and you can find them for good prices if you are not looking for something too pretty. It is not about the looks with a camera like this, just make sure the movement is nice and tight and you will be laughing. Get one of these if you want to shoot 50mm lenses. The M2 Confusingly for the Leica beginner, the M2 was actually released after the M3, in 1957. It was intended to be a cheaper and more affordable M camera, though now you would be hard pushed to see the difference in the prices. The build quality was essentially the same, but there were noticeable differences to the camera. The big one being the disc plate film counter, which has to be manually reset. The rangefinder is also more simple than the M3, with a 0.72 finder. This finder is more prone to flare than the M3. But it does have framelines for 35mm lenses, which makes it a popular choice for street photographers (and in the past photojournalists). The M2 is an outstanding camera, and often more popular than the M3 simply for the framelines. There were several factory mods available for the camera and later in production the M2-R was released, which incorporated the quick loading system. You can pay a ton of money for one of these with a desirable number, but you don’t have to. Get a beater which has been serviced and you will have a good time. Get one of these if you want to shoot 35mm lenses. The M4 The M4 was a huge evolutionary jump for the M series. Some consider it to be the best of the classic film Leica cameras and the prices certainly seem to share that notion. These cameras hold their value well and are still expensive. The M4 had a new set of framelines for the 35/50/90/135mm lenses, a lovely high speed rewind ‘sidewinder’ knob and a much faster film loading system. This was a revelation at the time. Whilst some love the old type of film rewind, I still find the M4 (and later M6/7) rewind to be much faster. This was the last of the unmetered Leicas, and some say the end of an era for Leica. They certainly are beautiful and extremely capable cameras. Many different versions were released, but the most common are chrome and black chrome. Get one of these if you want a golden era Leica and have a bit of spare cash. The M4-P / M4-2 Many people discount these two cameras as ‘cheapo’ Leicas, but they have a lot to give. These cameras saved Leica and it would not be here now if it wasn’t for them. True, they are bare bones and they were not manufactured to the same standards as previous models, but they are both great unmetered cameras. The M4-2 came first and was noticably cheaper than the older cameras. Cheaper finish and construction. A good viewfinder though, with a nice range of framelines. The M4-P came later, with the P supposedly standing from professional. It added another frameline to the finder to make a finder for 28/35/50/75/90/135 lenses. This left the finder full and some find it to be overly busy. You can pick these cameras up for a lot less than the other Leica cameras now. If you get one on the cheap, have it serviced and you will have a Porsche that looks like a Skoda. Buy one of these if you don’t care what people think and just want to shoot. So there it is, a little bit of info and some advice. I hope you find this useful in making your decision. Just a word of warning, it is a slippery slope. Once you have owned one you will want to own all of the others. And don’t go half measures, get the one that you want because chances are you are going to be using it for a good long time. Would you cheap out on a pair of shoes for a hike across the mountains? Of course not, so don’t cheap out on a Leica, it will pay for itself tenfold in the long run. Get the camera that you deserve.	2,605,330
aid for the poor and needy. But that turned out to be a facade of course… so why go back to their roots now? Certainly not to pay their respects. "You see, they sent out a special invitation to Nepgear, and Blanc as well. On the very same day Blanc just woke up. How did they know that Blanc was up and working?" Samuel asked. Falcom was just confused, why would something like that matter? "There are two possibilities: First, they didn't know that she would have woken up today, but they predicted it thanks to Rom and Ram arriving to Planeptune." That was the better scenario. Someone as smart as CFW Magic would easily predict that the Lowee Oracle and the Candidates would've arrived with Sharicite for Blanc. Was this what CFW Magic wanted? A defenseless Lowee while they're busy reviving their Leader? Focus on other things. But make a mental note of this. "And the other one?" "The second possibility… is that there's a leak in Histoire's ranks. A spy feeding them intel." This one would be a disaster, because not even he knows for how long they've been active, nor what the ASIC learned through him. It could potentially throw a wrench in his plans. Falcom paled, she never suspected someone of being a traitor. "S-Someone in the Basilicom siding with the ASIC? S-surely not…" She couldn't suspect her friends and the man in front of her sympathized with that, but reality was a cruel mistress. "It is a possibility. But let's just hope that they were clever enough to read Histoire's moves." Although a clever person would plant a spy or two to keep tabs on their enemy… "Anyway, moving on." He tapped his pointer against the chalkboard, catching Falcom's attention once more. "Following Blanc's idea. We can ignore any grunts of the ASIC; if they want to fight then knock them out, but don't bother to fight if you don't need to. However." He wrote the third part of their plan: '3. Kill all CFWs.' "All of their leaders need to die. Not injured, not imprisoned, but completely, permanently destroyed. The Deity of Sin only needs one of them alive to be revived, so killing all the CFWs is the only way to make sure that doesn't happen." Although the tropes told Samuel that no matter what he'll do, Arfoire is going to be revived and they'll have to kick her ass. And considering how hard it was to bring down the Judge, it's not going to be easy beating the rest of the CFWs. Good thing they have the Re:Spawn System… and Saxton Hale. He would probably be eager to beat their skulls in, if only for some challenge. "It's not going to be easy, right?" Falcom asked and then laughed when Samuel just shook his head. "Nope. Hale might've beaten Judge with ease, but the rest won't be so easy, especially Magic, and it's likely they'll wisen up and hide. And here's the fourth and last part… until I think up some more." And the last part was… '4. Don't die, Falcom.' "This one is obvious, but I'm still putting that in." He said as he turned around, his ugly gaze fixed on her. "Seriously, don't die. Don't even Re:Spawn. If Medic offers you to even get those bionic upgrades, you refuse because this stuff will remove your Plot Armor." This was one of the most bullshit reason Falcom has ever heard, but she was genre savvy enough to recognize his point. Just read any story that has some kind of way of preventing permanent death. While Falcom rolled her eyes, Samuel continued. "I'm not sure how Gehaburn will react to you dying, but I'm sure as hell she won't be happy about it. Let's not find out what happens if you kick the bucket." Falcom took all of this info with a nod. "Get all Mascots to Nepgear, don't let any nations collapse, kill all CFWs and don't die. Got it. Anything else?" "..." Samuel thought back on their conversation. He found out the reason for her survival, he stalled the possible world-ending catastrophe, and he got Falcom to work for him and- Holy shit, Histoire would chew him up for this. He can live through that… what else? What else? He remembered that there was something else he wanted from her… Oh right. "Here, give this book to IF." Samuel gave her the copy that he got from the librarian fairy	2,361,366
ARONOFSKY: In Requiem? It was ridiculous. There is an edited version I was forced to make that is somewhat circling around, but it’s only probably four or five cuts. But they were, I mean, the one that really just, once again, just shows the hypocrisy is during the sex sequence, there is a condom going onto the sex toy, and they found that upsetting. So, I said, “Oh, so safe sex is not...?” [LAUGHS] You know, I was just like, of all of the things that are going on, that’s the thing that...I guess it’s graphic in certain ways, but it’s actually, once again, you’re missing what’s behind the image. You’re missing the message. So, that’s always where, you know, I think it’s very hard to deal with censorship because… GALLOWAY: How do you have that? Because I would imagine that the financiers, the distributors, want you to agree to what you’re being asked. ARONOFSKY: On that one, I was lucky because Artisan felt that going out with no rating was more controversial and it would help the film, and the film was made for such a reasonable number that they weren’t worried about it. So, I mean, I was very young, and I didn’t really know how these things work. At the time, I probably would have gone in and tried to talk to them and debate it with them, but they kind of shut me out of that and just said, “No, we’re going to go this way.” And I was just happy that I had my cut and wasn’t forced to edit it. So, ultimately, I think the final result is that you made the film you wanted to make. GALLOWAY: How difficult was the film to cast? ARONOFSKY: It wasn’t hard. It was complicated because you’re first casting a mother and a son. So, you have to figure out that balance. It was very hard to fill Ellen [Burstyn]’s role. I’ve talked about it before. She didn’t come up first when we were looking for people. There were a few actresses that passed along the way. One of the actually ended up talking to her therapist about it for a long time, and wrote me a letter about it, because she wanted to figure out why she didn’t have the courage to undertake it. GALLOWAY: She told you that later, did she? ARONOFSKY: Yeah. Yeah, she wrote me a letter about that. And then a lot of guys, young men, passed on the Harry Goldfarb role, which was stunning to me. But, eventually, Jared (Leto) came in and he was just so empathetic instantly. Those eyes are just amazing. And Ellen Burstyn, of course, I couldn’t have gotten anything better in the universe. She’s just the master of masters. GALLOWAY: Later, when you did The Fountain, Brad Pitt pulled out, I don’t know, seven weeks before you shot. Why? I’m assuming you’d had conversations with him before you did the... ARONOFSKY: Oh, we had developed it for a long time, for I think two and a half, three years, together, and I think that the lesson there was because we were shooting in Australia for rebate and the value of the Australian dollar at the time. So, for six months I was on the other side of the world, and that was the lesson, is you can’t really keep a collaboration like that going in a long-distance situation. GALLOWAY: Why do you think he pulled out? ARONOFSKY: You know, it always comes to lack of confidence in the project. So, you know, you could call it that, you could call it fear, you can call it, you know, just not believing in it anymore. And that’s always hard to do, and hard to live with, you know. GALLOWAY: Did he call you directly to tell you? ARONOFSKY: I believe so, yeah. GALLOWAY: Did you try to persuade him to stay? ARONOFSKY: Yeah, I came back to L.A. and he had grown this beard, which, you know, CNN was reporting every day. GALLOWAY: [OVERLAP] shave it.[LAUGH] ARON	419,351
Give me a chance here. I recently listened to an episode of the Hacking Your Leadership podcast which focused on professional feedback, and specifically peer-to-peer feedback with teams from various generations. One of the hosts, Chris, said something that resonated with me: “If the intent of the person delivering feedback is to truly change behavior, to get the other person to say ‘Oh, you know what, this is a much better way of doing things, I totally understand,’ then the person who is delivering feedback needs to meet the person who is receiving feedback where they are, and deliver feedback in a way that is most likely to illicit the change they’re looking for.” Chris tapped into the most underrated aspect of giving feedback: it doesn’t work if the other person doesn’t perceive that you’re acting in good faith and trying to meet them halfway. Why do people hate performance evaluations? Because it’s incredibly difficult not to interpret critique as an attack. If you’re going to give unsolicited but well-intentioned feedback, you have to be sure that the other person is confident that you’re on their side and acting in good faith. You have to show that you’re sincerely interested in helping them. That’s where leadership comes in. We as leaders have to build organizations that can be fertile environments for constructive feedback and where our employees can accept constructive feedback from us. When we, as leaders, allow ourselves to be lax about a culture where people a) know how to give feedback constructively and b) know how to receive feedback constructively, we perpetuate environments where employees are afraid to speak up. We’ve all been in work environments where everybody’s too afraid to tell the emperor they’re not wearing any clothes, preferring the safety of self-preservation. These organizations have leaders that mistake uneasy peace for harmony and silence for agreement. So how do we know that we’re building the right kind of culture? Those of us that are starting in a difficult place don’t always have magical leadership compasses to reference, and there aren’t objective litmus tests for positive morale and effective relationships. Treat every employee with the respect, deference, and open-mindedness that you would treat your spouse. And then encourage them to do the same with each other. Healthy marriages are a gold standard for every other healthy relationship. My relationship with my wife is the best example of active compromise, collaboration, division of labor, and mutual goals. When I approach her with constructive feedback, I work excessively to ensure that it’s clear I’m coming from a place of good faith and am interested in our shared success as a partnership. My workplace is an environment where the team (including me) takes the same care with our interpersonal relationships that we would take with our spouses. Some of the things we’ve worked on are: Shared goals, values, and norms that we can agree to as a group. Encouraging clear commitments to deliverables and action items, making it easier to follow up and drive accountability. I discourage personally mediating peer-to-peer conflict. There aren’t any referees at home, so I avoid playing one at work. Compromise and mutual benefit are important parts of any negotiation and disagreement. I challenge myself to effectively connect my feedback to the larger goals of the employee or the organization, and I only give feedback that is critical. I completely avoid nitpicking. The team check’s in as a group every 3-4 months to discuss our collective growth, the group morale, and ways we can continue to improve. So we’re a completely functional, totally perfect unit now right? No. Far from it. But, like my relationship with my wife, we’re actively working on improving our partnership together, every day. It’s taken me over two years to get our organization’s culture pointed in the right direction and I expect it to be another two years before we’re anything close to a gold standard. Try it for yourself. The next time you’re going to give constructive feedback to one of your employees, stop and ask yourself how you might try to give the same feedback to your spouse or romantic partner. Are you being patronizing? Passive aggressive? Unclear? Your employees have to accept your bad feedback, your spouse doesn’t. Do you stop to ask if your feedback was valuable? Does your employee believe you mean it when you ask them? Try adopting this mindset for a couple of weeks and I guarantee you’ll start thinking differently about how your team functions together. Good luck out there, Patrick Become a better leader (by	307,277
With the 25th Bang on a Can (BOAC) Marathon taking place at the end of the week (Sunday, June 17) we thought that Evan Ziporyn would be a great candidate for a 5-question interview. He kindly took the time to answer them and shared much more than we could have hoped… You’ve been part of the BOAC Marathon since its first installment in 1987, in the Exit Art Gallery in Soho. How did you end up playing this gig at the time and how was it? I’d been working with Michael Gordon since 1980, we met backstage at a new music concert at Yale, where we had a ‘where have you been all my life’ moment after hearing each other’s music for the first time. And I’d done numerous projects with all of them throughout the 80s, including the pre-Bang “Composers Banging on Cans” concert at Cooper-Hewitt Museum in 1986. By then I had moved to the west coast but had kept in close contact with them all, I’d fly back to play with Michael’s band, etc. This wasn’t hard because we only had about 3 concerts a year… Also, as you probably know, the idea of the marathon came from Martin Bresnick’s Sheep’s Clothing ensemble at Yale, which did an annual all-night concert in the late 70s and early 80s. Martin went on leave in 1980, I ran the group in his absence, and Michael came to all the concerts – after that David [Lang] arrived in New Haven and also became very active in that group – so we all were aware of the benefits of marathon concerts. Still, that first Bang marathon was memorable to me for a number of reasons – a lot of my heroes were there, Reich & Cage & Milton Babbitt – it was amazing to me to be in the same room with them, let alone on a program with them. I met Robert Black there, he performed immediately before me, and of course I’m still working with him in the All-stars now. And I’ll always remember Babbitt speaking before his piece, saying “I’m sorry I got here late, but I got lost – I’ve never been this far downtown before!” Could you have foreseen what BOAC became? What does this 25th anniversary represent for you? I was 27 years old at the time, so the idea of anything lasting 25 years was inconceivable to me. 25 years before that was the Kennedy administration…at that time we were all just looking to get anything going at all – if your band got a second gig or your piece a second performance, that seemed like longevity. On the other hand, as mentioned, from the beginning I had felt a deep kinship with Michael Gordon, later with David [Lang] and Julie [Wolfe], a shared sensibility and a complete trust. To me it was more about that, not that we always agreed but that somehow we were on the same wavelength, had the same basic idea about where our music should and could go. With the All-stars, which started in 1992, there’s something similar – I learned so much from them all, it’s a cliché but I feel like we’ve all been on a shared journey together – a tribe of hunter-gatherers or something… there is safety in numbers… As both a composer and a performer, how would you say the BOAC Marathon appeals to you/inspires you/challenges you? As a performer it’s easier than the average concert, as you’re only responsible for a small portion of it; as a composer that sense of proximity still thrills me. In 1987 I was blown away to be on the same program as Steve Reich and John Cage; in 2011 I was sandwiched between the Sun Ra Arkestra and Glenn Branca – in both cases I couldn’t ask for better company. The biggest appeal to be honest is as a listener…something about the marathon format allows one to relax and open up, inevitably every year I’ll hear some things I’m not crazy about, but I’ll figure – hey, it’s only a small portion of a long day, no problem…and equally inevitably I’ll hear something that will surprise me, something I’ve never heard of or which I expected not to like, and it’ll thrill me in an unexpected way. If you were to share your best memory of the past 24 marathons, what would it be? “Best” would be impossible to say, we’re talking about hundreds of hours of music, for almost half my life. And actually	2,255,002
Therefore Hindus are not a people of single faith or religion. They are a union of people of an ancient nation called Bharat (India as it was called before it lost its land to modern day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other few ASEAN nations) with assorted beliefs. Hindus actually believe that there are even atheists among them. It’s completely incorrect to believe that atheism was foreign concept brought to India by western imperialists. History can testify to the fact that atheists, materialists, rationalists, hedonists etc. were never new to ancient India. They all co-existed cordially among theists of various hues and colour without any violent conflicts. Their conflicts were resolved mostly through civilized discussions. The greatest testimony to this fact is the existence of Charvak‘s school of thought. The name Charvaka has been associated with the philosophical school of materialism in Indian literature for over 3,000 years (at least). References to this philosophy are found not just in “Hindu” (read Vedic) but in the early Buddhist literature as well. But this philosophy of materialism in the subcontinent has never been a force to reckon with. Believed to have born in discontent, it seemed to have soon died in serious thought. According to an ancient legend Brihaspati, a heretical teacher, is regarded as the traditional founder of this school of materialism. His sutras (formulas), now long lost, is said to have propagated by the Devas (Gods) to the Asuras (demons) to cause their doom. Charvaka, after whose name this school is so called, is said by some to be the chief disciple of Brihaspati. According to another view, Charvaka is the name of the founder of this school. According to still another view, the word ‘Charvaka’ is not a proper name, but a common name given to a materialist, and it signifies a person who believes in ‘eat, drink and be merry’ (the root word ‘charva’ means to eat) or a person who eats up his own words, or who eats up all moral and ethical considerations, or a person who is ‘sweet-tongued’ (charu-vak) and therefore whose doctrine is superficially attractive. Another synonym of Charvaka is Lokayata which means a commoner and therefore, by implication, a man of low and unrefined taste. In Ramayan, they are branded as ‘fools who think themselves to be wise and who are experts in leading people to doom and ruin.’ Charvak’s philosophy was completely atheistic. At a point of time when everyone was propounding theism, it was a very bold step to come out with the principle of materialism and accepting the existence of this world and laying stress on the life in this world and not the life after death. Many consider Charvak, not Brihaspati, as the father of materialism. His thought was based on living in present and making the best of it by gratifying one’s senses through all means possible. Charvak’s thought is very well reflected in following lines: Yaawat jeevait sukham jeevait Rinam kritva grihtam peebait Meaning: Till the time you are alive live happily. One should drink ghee (a sign of luxury) even by resorting to debt. According to him one should live amid luxuries and need not to worry about future – at all. If he is not having the sufficient funds to support lavishness he should borrow money from someone else. Here the main stress is on luxuries and attainment of luxuries by any means. This philosophy was criticized when it was propounded. The main reason for this is at that point of time people believed in the principle of spending as per their earning and they believe in the principle of self-contentment. They believe in making both the ends meet. At that point in time, there was a group of people who believed in living lavishly even if it is not supported by their capacity to earn. But people of this mindset did not command any respect and they are looked down upon as they are not able to support themselves. Believe me or not these principles have surfaced back to life and across the world with the advent of Capitalism – which in many ways has all the essence of Charvak’s philosophy. Until the 1980s or 1990s at best, people stressed on their savings before incurring any expenditure. Today, it is quite contrary. People around the world are very keen on achieving everything as soon as possible. These are the people who are without patience. They want	894,033
which express a positive requirement dependency, either mandatory, or optional. Then, there is Conflicts which expresses a negative requirement dependency. Finally, there are three further, less used dependency types. systemd has a minimal transaction system. Meaning: if a unit is requested to start up or shut down we will add it and all its dependencies to a temporary transaction. Then, we will verify if the transaction is consistent (i.e. whether the ordering via After / Before of all units is cycle-free). If it is not, systemd will try to fix it up, and removes non-essential jobs from the transaction that might remove the loop. Also, systemd tries to suppress non-essential jobs in the transaction that would stop a running service. Non-essential jobs are those which the original request did not directly include but which where pulled in by Wants type of dependencies. Finally we check whether the jobs of the transaction contradict jobs that have already been queued, and optionally the transaction is aborted then. If all worked out and the transaction is consistent and minimized in its impact it is merged with all already outstanding jobs and added to the run queue. Effectively this means that before executing a requested operation, we will verify that it makes sense, fixing it if possible, and only failing if it really cannot work. We record start/exit time as well as the PID and exit status of every process we spawn and supervise. This data can be used to cross-link daemons with their data in abrtd, auditd and syslog. Think of an UI that will highlight crashed daemons for you, and allows you to easily navigate to the respective UIs for syslog, abrt, and auditd that will show the data generated from and for this daemon on a specific run. We support reexecution of the init process itself at any time. The daemon state is serialized before the reexecution and deserialized afterwards. That way we provide a simple way to facilitate init system upgrades as well as handover from an initrd daemon to the final daemon. Open sockets and autofs mounts are properly serialized away, so that they stay connectible all the time, in a way that clients will not even notice that the init system reexecuted itself. Also, the fact that a big part of the service state is encoded anyway in the cgroup virtual file system would even allow us to resume execution without access to the serialization data. The reexecution code paths are actually mostly the same as the init system configuration reloading code paths, which guarantees that reexecution (which is probably more seldom triggered) gets similar testing as reloading (which is probably more common). Starting the work of removing shell scripts from the boot process we have recoded part of the basic system setup in C and moved it directly into systemd. Among that is mounting of the API file systems (i.e. virtual file systems such as /proc, /sys and /dev.) and setting of the host-name. Server state is introspectable and controllable via D-Bus. This is not complete yet but quite extensive. While we want to emphasize socket-based and bus-name-based activation, and we hence support dependencies between sockets and services, we also support traditional inter-service dependencies. We support multiple ways how such a service can signal its readiness: by forking and having the start process exit (i.e. traditional daemonize() behaviour), as well as by watching the bus until a configured service name appears. There's an interactive mode which asks for confirmation each time a process is spawned by systemd. You may enable it by passing systemd.confirm_spawn=1 on the kernel command line. With the systemd.default= kernel command line parameter you can specify which unit systemd should start on boot-up. Normally you'd specify something like multi-user.target here, but another choice could even be a single service instead of a target, for example out-of-the-box we ship a service emergency.service that is similar in its usefulness as init=/bin/bash, however has the advantage of actually running the init system, hence offering the option to boot up the full system from the emergency shell. There's a minimal UI that allows you to start/stop/introspect services. It's far from complete but useful as a debugging tool. It's written in Vala (yay!) and goes by the name of systemadm. It should be noted that systemd uses many Linux-specific features, and does not limit itself to POSIX. That unlocks a lot of functionality a system that is designed for portability to other operating systems cannot provide. Status All the features listed above are already implemented. Right now systemd can already be used as a drop-in replacement for Upstart and sysvinit (at least as long as there aren't too many native upstart services yet. Thankfully most distributions don't carry too many native Upstart services yet.)	2,121,834
or in a screening room either in the evening or on weekends. Based on those sessions, Schoonmaker built a timeline of selects, ranked in order of preference. At the end of the shoot, she made her assembly, and continued to work closely with Scorsese during post-production. Throughout that process, associate editor Scott Brock helped her with temp mixes. VFX editors Red Charyszyn and Alex Gurvits were responsible for sending turnovers to ILM for the VFX work. Scorsese and Schoonmaker spent several months editing the film to its final 3.5 hour running time. Once the picture was locked, ILM spent seven months on the digital de-aging. We’d be remiss not to mention Schoonmaker’s unusual choice of NLEs before moving on. First using Lightworks on Casino, Schoonmaker took to it initially because the controller resembled those on her flatbed editor. Another factor, and one that remains true for her, is that she finds it not only fast, efficient and intuitive, but appreciates its sync reference systems. It’s another example of the tools serving, rather than making, the editor—as evidenced by Schoonmaker’s earning two of her three Oscars while using Lightworks. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood Quentin Tarantino’s love for shooting on film is well known at this point. So, it’s no surprise that he chose the format for his love letter to the movies, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. Cinematographer and longtime Tarantino collaborator Robert Richardson shot primarily on 35mm Kodak Vision3 200T 5213 and 500T 5219 at 2.39:1 aspect ratio, using 16mm and 8mm at 1.33:1 for the vintage television sequences. The camera package included Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2, Arriflex 435, Aaton A-Minima, and Bolex. Much of Richardson’s challenge was to nail the look during principal photography without the benefit of checking what he’d shot on set. Production design, lighting, and camera movement were key to accurately capturing Tarantino’s vision. Later on, the challenge would be to give each of the different periods a look that was authentic to the time and format. For example, custom color corrections previously developed for The Hateful Eight were applied for the spaghetti western sequences, while what was intended to take place in the movie present of the 1960s remained richly colorful and saturated for the magical, idealized fairytale look. Getting dailies from a film-based workflow is obviously a slower process. Every day after production, FotoKem processed the negative and printed dailies so Tarantino could keep a film version of the cut-in-progress for screening. Dailies and prints were done on Vision 2383, with the final film-out on Vision3 2254. Fotokem also did 4K scans of the negative using a Scanity for the eventual DI. “At that point the Avid team received MXF files, and our film team received their workprint,” says first assistant editor (Avid), Chris Tonick, who also pulled double duty as a VFX editor. Tonick was responsible for helping to get dailies prepared, ingested into Avid ( DNx115 at 1920×1080), and organized into bins. The assistants put together daily rolls and kept a FileMakerPro codebook to create screening notes—about six takes per page—labeled with scene and take numbers, as well as the respective camera lenses. When Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood moved into post-production after five months of principal photography, the editing team was led by Fred Raskin, along with Tonick, Brit DeLillo (second assistant editor, Avid), Alana Feldman (post PA), William Fletcher (first assistant editor, film) and Andrew Blustain (second assistant editor, film). The editing team’s hardware set up was three Mac Pros (2013 models) as their primary systems, a Mac Mini for the film team to use, and NEXIS storage. It’s worth noting, however, that even though the movie was edited in Avid, whenever a scene was at a point where Tarantino wanted to watch the workprint, Tonick turned over lists to the film assistant editors to conform the film print. Avid was used for screening only when time was a factor. “There’s at least a one day lag time,” says Tonick. “So we were definitely forced to screen digitally sometimes when we needed to watch it right away.” The editing began in January 2019 after the holiday hiatus, and the first cut was screened for producers	1,112,331
and late evening shallow water striped bass action in the lower sections of the tidal rivers. Topwater lures do well over shallow grass and jerkbaits or crankbaits in slightly deeper waters. Places in the bay like Thomas Point and Poplar Island are good places to give casting a try. There have also been reports of some breaking fish in the bay near the anchored ships in the evenings. Fishing for white perch continues to be very good. Casting small lures with light tackle along shoreline structure can be a lot of fun in the early mornings and late evenings. Fishing with a bottom rig or small jig head baited with grass shrimp is a great way to catch them around dock piers. Lower Bay Striped bass fishing has been focused largely on live lining spot since the spot are readily available in numerous locations. The rock piles just north of Point Lookout, channel edges at Point No Point and Cove Point or the channel edges near St. Georges Island. Most of the striped bass are suspended at about 25 feet at these locations. Bluefish are becoming more common in the region so it pays to have some extra spot. Sometimes what is left of your spot can be used as cut bait to seek some vengeance and some tasty fillets for the grill or a smoker. Chumming and chunking continues to be an effective way to fish for a mix of striped bass and bluefish along traditional channel edges in the bay or lower Potomac River. A good running tide is always important and many are reporting that the early morning hours can offer some of the best fishing. Vertical jigging has been an effective way to fish many of the channel edges in the lower Potomac River or the shipping channel edges. Jigging large soft plastics or metal can also set the stage for some exciting catch and release fishing for large red drum along the shipping channel edges and the general area around the Target Ship. Trolling action has been good for a mix of striped bass and bluefish on red and green hoses and spoons. The best areas to troll have been along the channel edges in the lower Potomac and the edges of the shipping channel in the bay. The area around the Target Ship is a good place to give it a try and you may also bump into a cobia now and then. There are also some Spanish mackerel to be found when trolling small spoons along the shipping channel edges and the Tangier Sound area. Bottom fishing for a mix of spot, croaker and white perch has been excellent in several locations in the lower Potomac and Patuxent rivers. The mouth of the Wicomico and St. Mary’s rivers have been good places to fish with bloodworms, wild shrimp or peeler crab. On the eastern side of the bay, the areas around Tangier and Pocomoke sounds are providing a wonderful mix of croaker, spot, small bluefish and white perch. Recreational crabbers are reporting improved success in regards to the quality and quantity of blue crabs being caught in the bay. The lower and middle bay regions are producing some of the best catches for those using trot lines or collapsible crab traps. Catches range up from a full bushel per outing for the middle and lower bay regions to a half bushel or more in the upper bay. Freshwater Fishing The scene at Deep Creek Lake is certainly settled into a summertime fishery. If one can get up early enough, there is a shallow water fishing for largemouth bass in the areas near shoreline structure and grass. Topwater lures are always a fun way to fish for largemouth bass and in slightly deeper waters; there is no more exciting way to catch smallmouth bass! Floating docks, floating grass and sunken wood are all good places to target as the morning progresses. Skipping soft plastics under or near docks or grubs and crankbaits near sunken wood are good tactics. Weedless rigged stick worms dropped through thick floating grass is another good tactic. Drifting along deep grass with minnows is a relaxing way to fish for a mix of smallmouth bass, yellow perch and walleye. The upper Potomac is still running too high for safe boating or fishing. Targeting the smaller western region trout management waters would be a much better idea. They have healthy flows. It is not unusual for flows to be diminished this time of the year making it difficult for trout and anglers. The fly-fishing only and zero creel limit management areas offer a fulfilling experience during the summer months. The many small ponds and larger reservoirs offer plenty of summertime fishing for a wide variety of species, ranging from bluegill sunfish to largemouth bass. Fishing for bluegills on a quiet summer morning or evening can be a lot of fun with a light fly rod and small rubber-legged poppers or foam ants. They are always a freshwater go to fish for the younger set and it is hard to beat a bobber set up.	555,563
had very little in the way of physical postures, only a few seated positions. Rao also gave little in the way of absolutes or strict guidelines. While never demanding strict abstinence from his student, Yogi Rao encouraged a gentle sense of moderation in Duke: drink less alcohol, eat less meat, and go out less frequently at night. Duke did simple yoga and meditation exercises for 30 minutes a day and she started to practice hygienic kriyas like clearing out her sinuses with a neti.After a few weeks of yogic lessons with Rao at her suite in the Beverly Hills Hilton, Doris Duke was convinced of Yogi Rao’s positive influence. A photograph of the heiress, who was a few months shy of turning 40, had shown her looking younger and more radiant. Duke’s transformation was a matter of simple lifestyle changes rather than anything miraculous, but apparently she considered common-sense advice particularly appealing when coming from an "exotic" yogi who claimed to hold supernatural powers.Perhaps returning the favour of Marilyn Maxwell to another in need, Doris Duke introduced her yogi to Barbara Hutton, the recently-divorced heiress to the Woolworth fortune and one of the few people on earth whose wealth approximated Duke’s. A biographer later claimed that Yogi Rao gave Hutton a series of astronomically expensive one-hour private yoga lessons that involved nothing more than sitting on a rug and chanting monosyllabic mantras by candlelight.Yogi Rao did not deal solely in private lessons with the rich and famous. He made some effort to do the same things that public exponents of yoga did during this time in the United States. Yogi Rao claimed to be writing a book and editing a collection of his lectures. Yogi Rao also made modest attempts to position himself not as a wonder-worker (or simple nutritionist), but a Hindu missionary and religious figure. For instance, he called his bungalow apartment an ashram, called his students chelas, and asserted that his yoga would ultimately lead to liberation and union with God. Rao even redubbed Doris Duke as “Gita” in reference to the Bhagavad Gita.Perhaps to repay Yogi Rao or to engage in her habit of philanthropy, Duke wrote a series of four cheques to Yogi Rao that combined to a total of $4,000. Rao claimed to have an ashram, a school, and an orphanage back in India with dozens of mouths to feed, and some of Duke’s contributions were ostensibly to help purchase a tractor and other basic equipment. The amount seemed massive to the public, but in reality comprised a fraction of Duke’s expenses.With a grand total of only 10 months in the United States, Yogi Rao had quickly gained massive publicity and a stable of students that included several celebrities, and in Duke and Hutton, two of the richest women on the planet. Just as he seemed perfectly poised to achieve greater fame and fortune, Yogi Rao suddenly left and returned to India.There is no solid evidence to explain why Yogi Rao left the United States so soon, but there are several likely reasons. The newspaper articles were undoubtedly done with the active and enthusiastic cooperation of Yogi Rao, who had a long history of adeptly courting publicity. Rao supplied almost every direct quote used in the series and he posed for nearly every photograph, mostly in his apartment. His desire for fame could have easily done irreparable harm to his relationship with Duke and her peers who valued discretion and their privacy.Yogi Rao may have also realised that he was in over his head. There is evidence that he may have baulked at the large amount of money he was given and did not cash all of the cheques written by Duke. While Yogi Rao could have relied on his stage magic to create the appearance of yogic wisdom for a short while, his bag of tricks would not have been enough to function in the anticipated role played by other prominent yoga teachers of the time who gave lectures, published books, counselled students, and ran large organisations. He did not seem to have the skills or background of a contemporary like Yogananda or Indra Devi.There is also evidence from Rao himself that, despite assumptions of yogic celibacy and asceticism, he was married and possibly had children. Like many sojourning immigrants, he may have simply earned enough money and returned home as planned. (In one later account he claimed to be a simple man just trying to support his three wives.)Yogi Rao remained relatively quiet for almost a dozen years before he began to receive press once again. Earlier, Rao had hinted to reporters that a true yogi would be capable of doing the truly impossible: walking on water. In the summer of 1966, Yogi Rao decided to perform publicly the feat and had a special steel tank built for the event.On the day of the event a crowd of over 600 people	1,463,849
@^b } sub infix :< ⨯ > ( [ $a1, $a2, $a3 ], [ $b1, $b2, $b3 ] ) { [ $a2 * $b3 - $a3 * $b2, $a3 * $b1 - $a1 * $b3, $a1 * $b2 - $a2 * $b1 ] ; } sub scalar - triple - product { @^a ⋅ ( @^b ⨯ @^c ) } sub vector - triple - product { @^a ⨯ ( @^b ⨯ @^c ) } my @a = < 3 4 5 >; my @b = < 4 3 5 >; my @c = <- 5 - 12 - 13 >; say ( : @a, : @b, : @c ) ; say "a ⋅ b = { @a ⋅ @b }" ; say "a ⨯ b = <{ @a ⨯ @b }>" ; say "a ⋅ (b ⨯ c) = { scalar-triple-product(@a, @b, @c) }" ; say "a ⨯ (b ⨯ c) = <{ vector-triple-product(@a, @b, @c) }>" ; Output: ("a" => ["3", "4", "5"], "b" => ["4", "3", "5"], "c" => ["-5", "-12", "-13"]) a ⋅ b = 49 a ⨯ b = <5 5 -7> a ⋅ (b ⨯ c) = 6 a ⨯ (b ⨯ c) = <-267 204 -3> /REXX program computes the products: dot, cross, scalar triple, and vector triple./ a= 3 4 5 b= 4 3 5 /(positive numbers don't need quotes.)/ c= "-5 -12 -13" call tellV'vector A =', a /show the A vector, aligned numbers./ call tellV'vector B =', b /* " " B " " " / call tellV'vector C =', c / " " C " " " / say call tellV'dot product [A∙B] =', dot ( a, b ) call tellV 'cross product [AxB] =', cross ( a, b ) call tellV'scalar triple product [A∙(BxC)] =', dot ( a, cross ( b, c ) ) call tellV'vector triple product [Ax(BxC)] =', cross ( a, cross ( b, c ) ) exit /stick a fork in it, we're all done. / /──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────/ cross: procedure ; arg $1 $2 $3,@1 @2 @3; return $2 @3 -$3 * @2 $3 * @1 -$1 * @3 $1 * @2 -$2 * @1 dot: procedure ; arg $1 $2 $3,@1 @2 @3; return $1 * @1 + $2 * @2 + $3 * @3 /──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────/ tellV: procedure ; parse arg name,x y z /obtain name, values./ w= max ( 4, length ( x ), length ( y ), length ( z ) ) /max width of numbers/ say right ( name, 40 ) right ( x,w ) right ( y,w ) right ( z,w ) /enforce # alignment./ return /* [↑] display vector*/ output when using the default inputs: vector A = 3 4 5 vector B = 4 3 5 vector C = -5 -12 -13 dot product [A∙B] = 49 cross product [AxB] = 5 5 -7 scalar triple product [A∙(BxC)] = 6 vector triple product [Ax(BxC)] = -267 204 -3 # Project : Vector products d = list(3) e = list(3) a = [3, 4, 5] b	288,531
Before the season began, I pegged the Texas Longhorns as an eight-win team. If they won nine games, I figured it would come in the form of a bowl win. After glancing at UT's football schedule last night (a few whiskeys deep), figured out the 'Horns will win 8 or 9 games. Oh and A&M - 6 or 7 — Wes Crochet (@WesKCrochet) March 3, 2017 With that prediction, I also envisioned Texas heading into conference play with a winning record of 2-1. Was I drinking the Kool-aid when I made that prediction? Well no, actually it was Basil Hayden’s. But both of those drinks can make anyone a bit overzealous when stirring up a pre-season prediction for your favorite college football team (I definitely nailed the A&M prediction, just wait). In order for Texas to end the season with a winning record, the Longhorns coaching staff will need to be realistic about the roster it has. That means this staff will need to manage the team’s weaknesses, like the depth across the offensive line, while finding consistency on both sides of the ball. I may not know exactly what adjustments Herman and his staff will make during this bye week, but here’s some of what I’ve learned about this team through three games and what to make of the season moving forward. The Longhorns have to find a way to get more from its running backs For all of us looking from the outside in, this is an obvious point of focus. Yet, I’m not exactly sure how head coach Tom Herman, offensive coordinator Tim Beck, and running backs Coach Stan Drayton decide to tackle this problem. It was clear after the USC game that as close as Texas was to winning that game, putting the entire offense on the shoulders of a true freshman quarterback in his first road game of his college career was not ideal. The simple answer is, “just give Chris Warren more carries,” though in Herman and Beck’s world, there may be more to it. The way I see it, either Beck has no clue how to utilize a big running back like Warren (which I’d say is unlikely given that Herman could trump Beck and force him to ensure Warren gets more carries if this was the case) OR (what I see as more likely) Warren isn’t being trusted or given the privilege to run the ball due to issues at practice and/or during the game, like failing to make key blocks as we saw against USC. Either way, this team has to get more from the running backs, and the answer is not giving the majority of the carries to Kyle Porter. Thinking of that scenario reminds me of the 2015 season when D’Onta Foreman averaged 7.1 yards per carry on just 94 carries while “starting” running back Johnathan Gray averaged 4.0 yards per carry on 123 carries. Porter is currently averaging 3.5 yards per carry this season, while Warren sits at 8.2. Ideally, Warren becomes the clear starter, Porter is used as a true backup and in blocking situations, and we get a sprinkle of Toneil Carter’s speed every game. Otherwise, relying heavily on either of these young quarterbacks to basically carry the offense without a ground game would put this team in a precarious position the rest of the season. Shane Buechele may be the more accurate passer right now, but Sam Ehlinger is the guy the coaches want to take the starting job. Sorry Buechele-truthers, it’s only a matter of time. I just don’t see how Buechele holds onto this job for the entire season. And if he some how does, then I see the offseason as the time when Ehlinger takes over. The reality here is that both Herman and Beck love to run their quarterbacks. We saw it when Herman had quarterbacks like Braxton Miller at Ohio State, Greg Ward Jr. at Houston, and even Steele Janz and Jared Barnett at Iowa State. And for Beck it was Taylor Martinez and Tommy Armstrong Jr. at Nebraska, and JT Barrett and Cardale Jones at Ohio State. Buechele isn’t a bad quarterback, he just isn’t a runner on par with Ehlinger. And though Ehlinger has missed some throws in his first two starts of his college career, he’s also shown the ability to extend plays, go through his progressions, and make big-time throws, as well. Maybe this turns into a two-quarterback system (not including the Heard package), or maybe Buechele gets inserted as the starter again for at least another game or two to prove his worth in this offense.	1,024,603
3. Class component with state (single or few multiple keys) The scenario gets more interesting when you have a class component with an actual state object. A lot of your class components will fall into this category or a slightly more complex version of this category. Consider the following class component: class App extends Component { state = { age: 19 } handleClick = () => { this.setState((prevState) => ({age: prevState.age + 1})) } render() { return <div> Today I am {this.state.age} Years of Age <div> <button onClick={this.handleClick}>Get older! </button> </div> </div> } } The component only keeps track of a single property in the state object. Easy enough! We can refactor this to use the useState Hook, as shown below: function App() { const [age, setAge] = useState(19); const handleClick = () => setAge(age + 1) return <div> Today I am {age} Years of Age <div> <button onClick={handleClick}>Get older! </button> </div> </div> } That looks a lot simpler! If this component had more state object properties, you could use multiple useState calls. That’s perfectly fine, as shown below: function App() { const [age, setAge] = useState(19); const [status, setStatus] = useState('married') const [siblings, setSiblings] = useState(10) const handleClick = () => setAge(age + 1) return <div> Today I am {age} Years of Age <div> <button onClick={handleClick}>Get older! </button> </div> </div> } This is the most basic of concerns, but if you need more examples, you’ll find them in this helpful guide. Making trade-offs for incremental Hooks adoption While it sounds great to rewrite your applications/components to use Hooks, it does come at a cost — time and manpower being the forerunners. If you happen to be working on a large codebase, you may need to make some trade-offs in the earlier stages of Hooks adoption. One such scenario is described below. Consider the following component: const API_URL = "https://api.myjson.com/bins/19enqe"; class App extends Component { state = { data: null, error: null, loaded: false, fetching: false, } async componentDidMount() { const response = await fetch(API_URL) const { data, status } = { data: await response.json(), status: response.status } // error? if (status!== 200) { return this.setState({ data, error: true, loaded: true, fetching: false, }) } // no error this.setState({ data, error: null, loaded: true, fetching: false, }) } render() { const { error, data } = this.state; return error? <div> Sorry, and error occured :( </div> : <pre>{JSON.stringify(data, null,'')}</pre> } } This component makes a request to a remote server to fetch some data when it is mounted, then it sets state based on the results. I don’t want you to focus on the async logic going on in there, so here’s where your attention should be: the setState calls. class App extends Component {... async componentDidMount() {... if (status!== 200) { return this.setState({ data, error: true, loaded: true, fetching: false, }) } this.setState({ data, error: null, loaded: true, fetching: false, }) } render() {... } } The setState calls here take in an object with four properties. This is a just an example, but the generic case here would be that you have a component that makes setState calls with a lot of object properties. Now, with React Hooks, you’d likely go ahead and split each object value into its separate useState calls. You could use an object with useState, but these properties are unrelated, and using object here may make it more difficult to break this up into independent custom Hooks later on. So here’s what a refactor may look like: ... const [data, setData] = useState(null); const [error, setError] = useState(null); const [loaded, setLoading] = useState(false); const [fetching,	1,549,908
A St. Augustine intersection with a setup that has not kept up with its surge of users now has a final plan for some congestion relief. Representatives of the Florida Department of Transportation were in St. Augustine on Tuesday to show local residents the benefits of a new concept, called Alternative 5, for the intersection of May Street and San Marco Avenue. Also affected are West San Carlos Avenue, East San Carlos Avenue and U.S. 1. The St. Augustine City Commission has already voted in favor of the FDOT proposal, but Tuesday's meeting was a chance for residents to see the final tweaks to the plan and provide additional feedback. The latest plan for the crowded intersection calls for a loop through the area with a little extra room provided by the land once slated to be the location a much-criticized 7-Eleven store. The plan also has a single lane through the oval to allow those heading north on San Marco to continue straight through the intersection. Traffic is allowed to flow more freely for those on May Street heading west. There are also two westbound travel lanes on West San Carlos, which connects drivers to U.S. 1. It's a plan that has been more than a year in the making, but construction is now scheduled to start in the summer of 2017 on the $3.5 million project. It will take close to two years to complete. "We're glad when we can reach a solution that (improves traffic) and is accepted by the community," said Jim Knight, FDOT administrator. "When you build a strong consensus, it's easier to get a project moving in the right direction." As the only way to get to or from the Vilano Beach area without going north all the way to Palm Valley, the intersection is one of the busiest in the city. To alleviate what can often be frustratingly long lines of vehicles - especially on May Street waiting for the traffic signal to change - FDOT engineers have produced several configurations in an attempt to improve the intersection. FDOT studies show the average wait time for the westbound lane on May Street is 9.1 minutes, and it is expected to increase to 11.5 minutes by 2035 if nothing is done. A reconfigured intersection can decrease wait time by 5-6 minutes or more, according to FDOT engineers. Information provided Tuesday showed the average line for westbound vehicles on May Street by 2035 will be 4,500 feet, with a maximum length of 6,500 feet, if nothing is done. Implementing Alternative 5 will make the average queue length just 100 feet on average, with a queue at peak times of 800 feet. Alternative 5 replaces the previous preferred configuration, Alternative 4, which was referred to as the "two-way pairs" plan. That called for the funneling of all drivers from May Street who wanted to access U.S. 1 to turn right (north) onto San Marco and then left (west) onto Dismukes Street, which connects to U.S. 1. The plan also had West San Carlos converted to a one-way street heading east. Both Alternative 4 and Alternative 5 call for closing the access from East San Carlos to San Marco. That is intended to stop cut-through traffic in the residential areas there. Most people who spoke at the meeting voiced support for the project but had questions about the construction process. No complete intersection closures are planned during the work. Knight also promised that vehicular traffic will not be detoured through any of the surrounding neighborhoods. "Any improvement is going to be welcomed by us," said Monica Harty, of Vilano Beach. "I hope it happens as fast as it can." Added Carl Youman: "This is a 95 percent improvement over what we have now." The main points of concern were: short turning lanes from May Street onto San Marco heading north and safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. Knight said the turning lanes could not be expanded without purchasing more right of way, which would add costs and delay the project. As for safety, the FDOT administrator said there are crosswalks with signals at the appropriate points in the intersection. Knight also said he had talked to several bicyclists and advocacy groups and thinks the configuration will be a safe one for those riding bikes. There was also some concern among residents on or near Nelmar Avenue about closing roads to reduce cut-through traffic, but FDOT noted that was a local issue. Also left to the local government is the decision on whether to change the access points for the library at West San Carlos and U.S. 1.	1,195,323
future. Teachers are underpaid and many schools have to shut down programs that are beneficial and enjoyed. I am in America, an even went to an advanced school, and I must say, I don't know a lot of things that people from OTHER countries even know about America. I don't even know what half of our wars were about. Some people act like I'm stupid, but I simply just didn't learn it. What's worse is that immigrants who come to this country to become legal citizens have to learn ridiculous things that even AmericanS don't know, like the Bill of rights. Most Americans will not know that, or all of our presidents, or all the capitals of our cities. Then again... what's really the point of knowing it? Not like we ever use it, but, it just proves to show that as well as not knowing much about other countries which schools very poorly shed light on, we barely know much about our own country or even history of it. Every subject is just lightly briefed on, but never gone into with any great detail. Teachers aren't teaching us correctly. In my language arts class, all we do is writing. No grammar or vocabulary, which I think is why people are saying "slang." In my eight grade class, people asked how to spell the words theory and multiplication. I really suck at writing too even though we do writing all the time. The school also has enough money to afford dances, parties, and new computers at our school but they won't use that money to support after school clubs and extracurricular activities. Everything in my science, history and math classes are basic and they won't teach you at your own skill level. I begin to think that school is a waste of time because I don't learn anything new. Destroying The Environment This is and nuclear war are the only things here that could affect Earth and ourselves long term. School bullies will never go away, but I wouldn't say it's a world problem. Destroying the environment means less resources to power technology, and less safe a place to live. Some experts predict at our rate humans could be extinct within 100 some years. We must save the environment, because Earth is the only place within light years that can even support humans. People need to look at the long term problems here too! People cut down forests are build over land that is home to plants, animals, bugs, and other organisims. Human kind just thinks that they are more important these days! But really- Are we? Think of an animal that you really like. Look at a picture of it. Do you really think that you are way more important? People think they aren't murders but if they would tear down a forest... We need to focus on our environment because without it we would be nothing. We came from nature and all we ever did to it was poke and prod it and afterwards we cut it up or burn it down or just defile it with our machines. We need to help rebuild nature because it holds so much bueaty and wonder and without it we would be nothing. There are way to many people wreaking the environment and I think they need to stop or we will all die because of the trees we breath we have life. And I don't know about you but I think life is more important than you think it is you can't just throw your trash on the road and the rest of the world. Terrorists Terrorism is a huge problem not just in the world but within the US. And it isn't just people who identify themselves as a member of ISIS, it's also people who shoot up schools, airports, people of different races including white people. It is terrible problem that must be solved but continues because we let it. We identify a group of people as terrorists and people who minutely relate to that, are grouped with the insane and violent terrorists too. Then comes problems with discrimination, racism, sexism, etc. If we solve one of these problems, it may solve them ALL. If we are united, like those years fighting alongside each other against the British who practiced tyranny during the Revolution, if we devote our time and our hearts into restoring or making our home a better place, then join arms with your white, black, and brown brothers and sisters, and show what the American Dream actually meant to us! If I can believe in YOU, try to believe in yourself. 100 people have died so far in the United Kingdom in 2019 as a result of killings, mainly due to knife crime. The UK is three and a half times smaller than the States, so if we say 350 people. Due to ridiculous act of gun legalisation, over 3500 people have been killed. The world would be a MUCH better place without terrorists. I get that terrorism is a HUGE problem. There isn't a lot we can do about it. One thing we can do is start securing our borders and making sure NO ONE gets past security or anything without being checked for drugs, guns, bombs, etc. There	661,638
Image copyright EPA Image caption Theresa May wrote in 2007 that it should be "impossible to override" Parliament The prime minister has been criticised after it emerged that she previously called for MPs to have the right to veto the UK's negotiations with the EU. In 2007 Theresa May said ministers should gain Parliamentary approval before talks with the European Union. Mrs May is now resisting pressure to give Parliament a vote on her plans for Brexit prior to EU negotiations. Downing Street said her 2007 comments related to how ministers negotiated policy while inside the EU. In June the UK voted to leave the EU, prompting the resignation of former prime minister David Cameron, who was replaced by Mrs May. 'Impossible to override' In a pamphlet published in 2007 Mrs May, who as a Conservative MP was then in opposition, argued it should be "impossible to override" Parliament. She said "ministers should have to set out their negotiating positions" to a Commons committee "and gain its approval" before talks were held with the EU. Ministers who failed to do so should resign, she said. In October this year Downing Street said it was "very likely" MPs would be able to vote on the final Brexit agreement reached between the UK and the European Union. But campaigners, including many who backed Remain in the referendum, have been calling for Parliament to be given a vote on the government's negotiating strategy. The former shadow minister for Europe, Labour MP Pat McFadden, said Mrs May could no longer deny Parliament a meaningful role in what Brexit means. He told the Times: "This paper shows that the prime minister does in fact believe that ministers should get parliamentary approval for negotiating strategies with Europe. "Sooner or later, ministers will realise that they can't support Brexit in the name of parliamentary sovereignty and deny parliament a meaningful role in what Brexit means." Image caption Nick Clegg said he agreed with the comments Mrs May made in 2007 Mrs May has promised to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty - beginning two years of formal exit negotiations with the EU - by the end of March. But the prime minister opposes a vote before Article 50, saying those calling for one are "trying to subvert" the outcome of June's referendum. Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister who speaks for the Liberal Democrats on Brexit, told the Independent: "I agree entirely with what Theresa May wrote in 2007, that it should be 'impossible to over-ride' Parliament and that'ministers should have to set out their negotiating positions'. "What a pity she appears to have changed her mind." Downing Street said the situation now was about negotiating an entirely new relationship with the EU and was based on the mandate given in the referendum by British voters.	1,837,879
So I watched Ellie’s vlog about how ‘SNSD should be 4 not 9‘. I love Ellie and her K-pop vlog, as Cindy said, she always has interesting take on K-pop — this one is no exception. I obviously love all the nine girls as one group, but even I once thought about how… ridiculous, for lack of better words, it was for having nine girls on one group. I mean, really, nine girls. Back then, all I can imagine was cat-fights, lots of it. Ellie said about making a smaller group, actually that was SM Entertainment initial plan. On Ya Shim Man Man, Sooyoung revealed how they were supposed to debut under smaller group, but under a collective group of some sort — namely Yeoja Danchae. I guess it’s like how 2AM and 2PM are under OneDay. Or rather, like how Super Junior has sub-units of Super Junior-M, Super Junior-Happy, Super Junior-T, and Super Junior-KRY. I don’t know why SM changed the plan and stick to one large group of nine girls. People might say how SNSD would do better if they’re a smaller group and what not. But I have to disagree. I think one of their main charms is that they have nine members, with nine distinct charms and personalities ♥. Plus, it’s not like SM put nine random girl-trainees into the group… these girls went through a lot of audition and performed in a lot of showcases to be a part of So Nyuh Shi Dae. You guys might have heard how some celebrities said that they were supposed to be in SNSD. The most notable ones are prolly actress Lee Yeon-hee and girl-group member Park So-yeon of T-ara. Well, for Yeonhee and Soyeon’s case, apparently they really were a part of SNSD, sort of. I read this post about SNSD’s roster history at SSF awhile ago, and I think today would be a nice time to look back at how SM Ent came up with the final line up of nine girls. SM Girl Group Project – Showcase 1 Members: Lee Yeon-hee, Hwang Bo-ra, Bae Seok-bin, Zhang Liyin, Jessica Jung, Kim Hyo-yeon, Kwon Yu-ri, Choi Soo-young, Im Yoon-a, Seo Ju-hyun, Kim Ye-jin Leader: Lee Yeon-hee (1988) \| Maknae: Kim Ye-jin (1993) In 2005, SM Entertainment debuted a large boy group Super Junior, and then proceeded to plan a similar large girl group counterpart. SM put together a showcase comprised of internal trainees; most were veteran trainees and the total number of girls featured was 11. Eleven! A lot more than nine, you guys! However, this project group’s line-up didn’t last long. The line-up went through its first major revision. Out of 11 girls, only 6 of them stay in the group. IN: Seo Hyun-jin, Park So-yeon, Stella Kim, Jang Ha-jin, Lee Hwan-hee OUT: Lee Yeon-hee, Hwang Bo-ra, Bae Seok-bin, Zhang Liyin, Kim Ye-jin Both Lee Yeonhee and Hwang Bora are now known as actresses. Yeonhee resume including movie ‘Millionaire First Love’, ‘Hello! Schoolgirl‘ (Sooyoung had a role as her bff in the movie), and drama ‘East of Eden’. Hwang Bora starred in upcoming movie, ‘Jumunjin‘ with Super Junior’s Kim Kibum. Zhang Liyin (also known as Jang Ri-in) debuted as solo singer in 2006. While ’93ers Kim Yejin is still listed as SM trainee, she also starred on SHINee‘s A.MI.GO music video. With the exception of Hwang Bora, they are still under SM Entertainment. Interestingly enough, the six girls who stay in the group are Jessica Jung, Kim Hyoyeon, Kwon Yuri, Choi Sooyoung, Im Yoona, and Seo Juhyun. There were more line-up revisions coming, but we all know that those six made it to the final line-up. They pretty much had secured their place in the project group even from the get go. — — SM Girl Group Project – Revision 1 Members: Seo Hyun-jin, Park	3,496,979
Wing Henry Speight dives over for Ulster's second try at Parc y Scarlets Heineken Champions Cup Pool Four: Scarlets v Ulster Scarlets (10) 24 Tries: S Evans 2, D Davies Cons: Patchell 2, D Jones Pen: Patchell Ulster (13) 25 Tries: Stockdale, Speight, Addison, Coetzee Con: Cooney Pen: Cooney Ulster edged Scarlets in a Champions Cup thriller, to leave the winless hosts' European hopes in tatters at the halfway point of the pool stage. Tries from Jacob Stockdale, Henry Speight, Will Addison and Marcell Coetzee ensured a bonus-point win that revitalises Ulster's prospects. Wales wing Steff Evans scored twice to keep Scarlets in touch, while Dan Davies' late try set up a tense finale. But the home defence was found wanting too often at a gusty Parc y Scarlets. Scarlets had won here when the two sides met in the Pro14 at the end of November, stretching a six-year losing streak for the Irish side in Llanelli. Both teams that night were shorn of a host of international players and the stars were back for Europe, although Scarlets were without Wales duo Leigh Halfpenny and Jake Ball as the pair recover from head injuries. Ulster, meanwhile, had casualties in the shape of Andrew Warwick and Alan O'Connor. Scarlets had lost their opening two games of the European campaign, the same record they had going into round three last season, after which they won five games in a row to reach the semi-final. Ulster had at least won their opening game at home to Leicester, before losing at Racing 92, and a famous result in Llanelli means they now have their fate firmly in their own hands. Wild and windy Wing Steff Evans claimed two tries for Scarlets After Scarlets fly-half Rhys Patchell and Ulster scrum-half John Cooney exchanged penalties, the visitors took an early advantage. Addison made the initial break in midfield, stepping inside Jonathan Davies before releasing wing Stockdale, who raced past Evans and Gareth Davies far too easily to score in the left corner. Kicking into a tricky wind, Cooney missed the conversion and a later penalty. Helped by that breeze, Scarlets were able to kick deep into Ulster territory and a sustained period of pressure saw Evans pop up in midfield to squirm over, with Patchell converting. But five minutes before half-time Speight dived over on the right to give the visitors a 13-10 lead. The start of the second half was a scrappy affair, with both sides making a string of errors, but Addison added some much-needed quality when he cut back on the angle to score under the posts, Cooney converting. With their European hopes hanging by a thread, Scarlets responded with a second try from Evans who was set free by Johnny McNicholl's inspired pass out of the back of his hand. But Ulster's quality on the night was underlined when back-row Coetzee - who had been magnificent in defence - barged over for a fourth try to claim a precious bonus point. Evans almost claimed his hat-trick try, but the wing was just bundled into touch by Louis Ludik and Speight. Davies' last-gasp try for Scarlets, with Dan Jones adding a brilliant touchline conversion, set up a nervous finale but Ulster held out for the win. A similar result over Scarlets at the Kingspan Stadium next Friday will put Ulster firmly back in the hunt for a place in the knock-out stage, before return fixtures with Leicester and Racing 92. Scarlets may yet have a say in who goes through from Pool Four, but the remaining fixtures are now more likely to be about restoring hurt pride for last season's semi-finalists. Ulster defence coach Jared Payne on BBC Radio Ulster: "The effort they put in tonight was just a really good performance, so huge credit to the guys for that. One big thing was the way we worked for each other right through the game. "We were very clinical in the 22, which was great to see. It's not season-defining or anything like that, all it does is tick another box for us and it sets us up for the next week." Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac told BBC Radio Wales: "It was down to our own inaccuracy and in the first half it was probably defence; we fell off three tackles and they score from 60 metres, which was pretty soft. "We did well to come back at the end there, but again we made a few line breaks and inaccuracy of the	2,278,421
Of the many controversies surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs), one of the biggest shockers was when Bill Nye changed his mind and came out in favor of GMOs. Now, in a new podcast, Bill Nye the Science Guy answers his fans' burning questions about his GMO flip-flop, including whether or not he's actually a hired gun for Monsanto. Why yes, I have changed my opinion on GMOs and you can hear all about on @StarTalkRadio right now: http://t.co/72QCAukpkL — Bill Nye (@BillNye) July 13, 2015 Nye temporarily took over hosting duties on Neil DeGrasse Tyson's radio show StarTalk to make his position about GMOs absolutely clear. Here are some interesting things he said during the one-hour podcast: On GMOs feeding the world's growing population After meeting with Dr. Robert T. Fraley, the executive vice president and chief technology officer at Monsanto, and the winner of the 2013 World Food Prize, Nye said, "In my opinion, [he's] really not such a bad guy. He believes that we can raise more food than ever on less land. In other words, we have almost 7.2, almost 7.3 billion, people on earth today. His colleagues believe they can raise food for 9 billion people on 2 percent less land... That's a noble goal." On glyphosate (the toxic active ingredient in Monsanto's flagship herbicide Roundup was “classified as probably carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization) "[Fraley] argues that glyphosate's really is not such a bad thing. Compared to all the other herbicides, glyphosate's pretty benign, which I've done research on and I've decided that's true. I've changed my mind about genetically modified foods, that's the top line." On the health risks of genetically modified food "I looked into it. There's no difference between allergies among GMO eaters and non-GMO eaters. There is a big difference in inputs from an agricultural standpoint. Organic farming takes a lot more water, takes a lot more tillage. Actually you end up with less diversity of microbes in the soil with modern Roundup-ready crops because you don't have to till, you don't have to turn the soil over to kill the weeds." "The thing is, genetically modified food has no effect on us. That is to say, there is no difference between it and organically raised food. This is scientifically provable. It's certainly provable to my satisfaction, and that's the most straightforward thing about it, to see if it's still nutritious and see if it has any allergic effect, and it absolutely does not. In fact, in general, all of these foods are more nutritious." Co-host Chuck Nice exclaimed, "Whoa, that's the first time I've ever heard that assertion made." Nye replied, "Just in general, you get more soybean per hectare, per acre. You get more corn, per hectare, per acre. You get bigger kernels of corn. If the bushel of corn weighs so many kilos or pounds, how much of that is nutritious corn and how much of that is cob, inedible cob?" Read page 1 On the public's negative perception of GMO companies "This is what humans do. We hybridize plants either the old fashioned way... or the modern way with biotechnology. So what has happened at companies like Pioneer Seeds (which is part of DuPont) ConAgra and especially Monsanto, they have made the transition from being industrial chemical manufacturers—fertilizers and pesticides—into biotech firms." Companies like "Monsanto used to make Agent Orange, so did Dow Chemical … But in general it is part of a dark past. They were hired by the government to make this stuff and they did and they don't do it anymore." On the evolution of farming itself "You would not recognize an ancient corn plant … it looks like a miniature holiday lightbulb. Now corn cobs are long. You wouldn't recognize soybean, you wouldn't recognize cotton, you wouldn't recognize any of that. Humans have cultivated it over years, to centuries to millennia … to get these things to be more nutritious, more useful and produce more productive farming." On the exact moment he changed his mind about GMO's during his visit to Monsanto "What they are able to do now … they can sequence the gene of an individual plant at extraordinary speed. So 20 years ago it would take you a month to get the gene sequence of lets say a soybean plant. Now they can get a hundred thousand in 10 minutes … They can do it 10 million times faster than they did 20 years ago. They can assay 10 million genes in a morning, and so then they are able to select which	2,950,860
appreciation for them took much longer to gestate; not so much the Rhum Rhum line done with Capovilla, since they remain something of a niche market, however popular; and certainly not the one-offs like the Basseterre 1995 and 1997 or the Courcelles 1972, which were too small and individualistic). The Age’s rums did not create all the trends noted above single-handedly. But certainly they had a great influence, and this is why we can correctly refer to an Age, even if it is just to mark the time when a series of exceptional bottlings were made. It is my belief that what the Demerara series of rums did was to point the way to possibilities that were, back then, merely small-scale, limited or imperfectly executed ideas, waiting to be taken to the next level, like Birth of a Nation and Citizen Kane did for movies in 1915 and 1941. Velier came in, took a look around and re-imagined the map, then went ahead and showed what could be done. Certainly, like most innovators, Luca built on what came before while amending and modifying it to suit his own personal ideas; others contributed, and Velier did not work outside the great social and spirituous trends of its time. But somehow, Luca more than most gathered the strands of his imagination and used them to tie together all the concepts of rum making in which he believed. In doing so he produced rums which remain highly sought-after, and used the credibility they engendered to put his stamp firmly on the industry. We live in the world that he and his rums helped to bring about. Whatever your opinions on the influence of the Age, we had what we had before they appeared, and now we have what we have which is better. The work is worth acknowledging, and respecting. It is to our regret that the Age was over before we even properly acknowledged its existence. In closing, I should mention that the Age of Velier’s Demeraras was only called that when it was over (and for the record, it was by the Danish blogger Henrik Kristoffersen who first used the term in a Facebook post in early 2016). And even if you don’t believe the Age was so central, or had the sort of rum-cultural impact as I think they do, I believe there’s no gainsaying that the sheer quality of rums that were issued for those nine years supports the idea that there was once an Age, that it really did exist…and the current crop of rums from this company remain at a similar level of quality as those first old and bold ones which were once considered too expensive. It’s great that even now with all their rarity, we can sometimes, just sometimes, still manage to drink from the well of those amazing Demeraras, and consider ourselves fortunate to have done so. *** This series elicited an interesting discussion on Reddit regarding topical ageing vs continental, here.	1,268,848
Dave Weaver/AP Photo WASHINGTON - After a second sex crime scandal in the military in the past week, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered that all the Pentagon's sexual assault prevention coordinators and military recruiters be retrained, re-credentialed and rescreened. The unprecedented move comes a week after the Air Force's sexual assault prevention officer was arrested for allegedly groping a woman. The lieutenant colonel in charge of the Air Force's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office was arrested for the alleged sexual battery of a woman in a parking lot near the Pentagon. The Army on Tuesday announced that the coordinator of a sexual assault prevention program at Fort Hood, Texas, is under investigation "for pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates." He has been suspended from all duties while his case is investigated by the Army's Criminal Investigative Command. The Pentagon last week released new statistics showing a 6 percent rise over the past year in the number of reported sexual assaults to 3,374. The report estimated that another 26,000 sexual assaults went unreported in the military last year, an increase from the estimated 19,000 the year before. The incident at Fort Hood involves a sergeant first class who was serving as an equal opportunity adviser and coordinator of a sexual harassment-assault prevention program in a battalion belonging to the Army's 3rd Corps headquarters, which is based at the Army post located in eastern Texas. In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said Hagel was informed of the Fort Hood allegations yesterday. "I cannot convey strongly enough his frustration, anger, and disappointment over these troubling allegations and the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply," Little said. Hagel met with Army Secretary John McHugh and directed that the case be fully investigated and "to discover the extent of these allegations, and to ensure that all of those who might be involved are dealt with appropriately. " Furthermore, "to address the broader concerns that have arisen out of these allegations and other recent events, Secretary Hagel is directing all the services to re-train, re-credential, and re-screen all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters. " The combination of the Air Force arrest and the release of the new statistics last week led numerous members of Congress to speak out for an end to sexual assault in the military. Members of Congress today expressed outrage at the developments at Fort Hood. "This is sickening," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who last week introduced a bipartisan bill with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., that provides military sexual assault victims with greater protections. "Twice now, in a matter of as many weeks, we've seen the very people charged with protecting victims of sexual assault being charged as perpetrators." She called it "an astonishing reminder that the Pentagon has both a major problem on its hands and a tremendous amount of work to do to assure victims - who already only report a small fraction of sexual assaults - that they are changing the culture around these heinous crimes." House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., said he was "outraged and disgusted" and called it "the latest chapter in a long, sordid history of sexual abuse in our Armed Forces." He said he saw no distinction "between the service member who orchestrated this offense and the chain of command that was either oblivious to or tolerant of criminal behavior. Both are accountable for this appalling breach of trust with their subordinates and their failure to act worthy of their responsibilities as leaders." Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., called the Fort Hood report "utterly abhorrent" and said "we are witnessing utter betrayal at every possible level. It exemplifies the total break in trust that has been the disturbing hallmark of so many military sexual assault cases." She added that "it has become painfully evident that saying the military has a cultural problem in regard to sexual assault and sexual misconduct, is a glaring understatement." Last week Hagel expressed concern that the frequency of sexual assaults in the military and the perception of its tolerance "could very well undermine our ability to effectively carry out the mission and to recruit and retain the good people we need." "We need cultural change where every service member is treated with dignity and respect, where all allegations of inappropriate behavior are treated with seriousness, where victims' privacy is protected, where bystanders are motivated to intervene and where offenders know that they will be held accountable by strong and effective systems of justice," Hagel said.	2,565,562
Colin Fitzgerald and Collin McDonough While searching for a site to locate their second headquarters—dubbed “HQ2”—Amazon undertook a nationwide hunt for which city would hand them the biggest bag of money. States and municipalities created competing proposals for Amazon, with theatrics rivaling the Super Bowl Halftime Show. One location offering a hefty tax-incentive package was New York. Between state and local governments, Amazon was offered $3.5 billion in benefits, in exchange for both an agreement to create 25,000 jobs over ten years and $2.5 billion in development investment in a Long Island City campus. Some simple back-of-the-napkin math shows this incentive would equate to about a $140,000-per-job handout. Over the past decade, we have seen this scenario play out time and time again: A corporation promises to deliver X amount of jobs and Y amount of investment, cities and states provide massive tax incentives to do so, and the corporation fails to deliver. Examples abound: Tawainese electronics company Foxconn was offered $4 billion in incentives to bring 13,000 manufacturing jobs to Wisconsin, only to quickly and dramatically scale back their plans, claiming "the global market environment that existed when the project was first announced has changed"; in 2016, Switch, a Nevada-based operator of data centers, came to Michigan promising $5 billion in investment and 1,000 new jobs over ten years, and even though those numbers have proven unrealistic, the company still has a deal exempting them from most property taxes; in 2017, Chinese retail corporation Alibaba announced plans to create one million jobs in the US before backing down following trade disputes between the two countries. Even American giants like Intel, IBM, and—you guessed it—Amazon have failed to live up to their promised job creation and investment in the past, despite incentivization from local and state governments. (For Amazon specifically, the opening of new locations does not lead to increases in private-sector employment.) Corporations love to tout outrageous figures for what kind of investment they can bring to a new region, but they almost never meet those expectations. For that reason alone, governments shouldn't be so eager to craft one-sided agreements with corporations, who can choose to observe or ignore them as they please. While in the case of Amazon's initial New York deal, the failure to deliver promised jobs would have halted the financial incentives the corporation would have received from the government, it wouldn't restore the time, effort, resources, or money already invested in the project. Likewise, without all of the 25,000 jobs over ten years that was originally negotiated for (or the possible 15,000 expanded employment opportunities beyond 2028, which Amazon erroneously publicized), outlook on the deal would no doubt have shifted. Look at it this way: Amazon is only being offered such enormous tax credits because of their equally enormous obligations in job creation and investment. If employment growth would have slowed below the agreed-upon threshold after 2023, for example, the company still would have collected five years’’ worth of benefits. It is likely the city and state would have negotiated for more-modest tax credits, had the number of jobs promised been lowered to a number that the corporation would be more likely to fill. In the end, after stern objections from prominent officials like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Amazon decided not to develop an HQ location in New York. Nevertheless, the company recently announced it would bring 1,500 jobs to New York—despite no offer of a tax break. This is meaningful for a number of reasons, but first, it's crucial to understand what such tax incentives actually represent and why early criticism of the deal was so harsh. High-profile proponents of the original Amazon deal, including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, initially pushed back against Ocasio-Cortez's criticisms of the tax incentives, with Cuomo saying, "This is a big money-maker for us—costs us nothing, nada, niente," and de Blasio agreeing with NBC's Chuck Todd that the tax breaks did not represent "money you had over here, and it was going over there. This is money that didn't exist." But the argument that the city would not literally pay cash to Amazon is superficial and semantic. Objection to the tax credits was rooted in the fact that New York taxpayers would be subsidizing Amazon's activities in the city by surrendering $3 billion in would-be tax revenue to the corporation—money that the city and state governments would need to offset the enormous hidden costs associated with Amazon's residence. The resulting deal would ultimately have made Amazon over $3 billion richer, while the burden of necessary city- and state-funded programs, projects, and initiatives reacting to the problems Amazon would have inevitably brought to the city would have fallen hard on New York’	3,385,222
suicides, that would not justify such restrictions. That is because it is wrong to prevent the non-suicidal members of society from defending themselves against criminals, just for some marginal reduction in the ability of suicidal individuals to easily kill themselves. Finally, unintentional shootings are entirely preventable if a few simple gun safety rules are followed and/or guns are stored responsibly. It is only when more than one of these rules are broken that a negligent shooting occurs. Note that these type of unintentional shootings tend to occur in areas with gun bans, such as Chicago, because the people who are (illegally) using the guns were never taught about gun safety or safe gun storage. That is why the NRA and other pro gun groups advocate teaching children about gun safety, so that if a child does find a gun, they will know not to play with it. It is also worth noting that children who are taught to shoot from a young age under responsible adult supervision are less likely to misuse guns than children who are not taught to shoot. 5. it is possible to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by gun violence with reasonable, common sense policy. Firstly, the Million Mom March advocates restrictions on gun ownership that are anything but reasonable or “common sense.” It advocates a total ban on handgun ownership, despite the fact that handguns are used every minute of every day by Americans to defend themselves against criminals. The Million Mom Mach advocates a ban on so-called “assault weapons” despite the fact that such a ban targets guns that are rarely used by criminals, while taking safey features out of the hands of law abiding people. I could go on, but the point should be clear: The Million Mom March wants nothing short of a total ban on lawful civilian gun ownership, and is attempting to bring about this goal by slowly whittling away at gun rights. Secondly, passing more laws won’t solve the problem of violence, since criminals by definition don’t obey the law. As discussed above, criminals can get a gun illegally, bypassing background checks and gun control laws. We can’t keep drugs out of criminals hands, and stopping criminals from having guns is an even tougher challenge. Gun control laws only serve to make self defense more difficult for the law abiding members of society, who then face the still-armed criminals. As an example, look at the United Kingdom, where gun related crime rose dramatically after a handgun ban was enacted. Finally, even if it were possible to magically make guns vanish, criminals would still commit murder, just with another tool. That is because it is the desire on the part of a criminal to kill, not the presence of a gun, that leads to murder. A couple of examples where criminals have been willing to use knives instead of guns to commit their crimes when guns temporarily became harder to easily find: Crime statistics from New York City show that fatal stabbings are up 50%, at at time when gun-related crime is down somewhat, likely due to a series of successful police operations targeting illegal gun traffickers. Similarly, stabbing of juveniles in Britain rose over 70% following the institution of their gun ban, showing once again that criminals can use other tools to commit their crimes. The Million Mom March’s Use of Crime Victims for Propaganda Million Mom March Chapters work to actively and appropriately incorporate the authentic experiences of victims and survivors into the movement to prevent firearm injury and death. As mothers and others, the Million Mom March Chapters are called to responsible action for remembering victims, such as creating a victim’s memorial (garden, wall) or a commemorative activity (bell ringing, vigils). Chapters across the country link with individuals who have been touched by gun violence in order that these important voices are provided the opportunity to impact life saving policies at local, state, and national levels. Basically, the Million Mom March is really saying that they exploit the suffering of crime victims to fight against gun rights. Instead of trying to take away the right of law abiding citizens to own the best self defense tool, crime victims and their families should focus their activism on the underlying causes of crime, and our legal system that gives violent offenders only a slap on the wrist, before letting them out of jail to victimize more people. This aspect of the Million Mom March reminds me of the case of Pat Regan, a British woman whose son was shot to death by a criminal. Rather than recognizing that criminals ignore gun control, and that banning guns leaves the law abiding members of society defenseless, Pat Regan set out to ban guns. She and like minded people were quite successful, and law abiding British people lost the right to have a gun for self defense or other lawful purposes. Pat Regan, disarmed like the rest of the UK’s law abiding people, was then fatally stabbed in her own home, defenseless against her knife-wielding killer. Perhaps if she had a gun, she would still	2,742,975
Reducing a European Championship semi-final to a clash between two individuals seems somehow simplistic yet this tactical battle essentially revolved around how Wales and Portugal used Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo. Bale was regularly involved in play but Ronaldo proved decisive. On a wider level this was a clash between two teams playing without a traditional centre-forward and instead using two natural wingers up front. Hal Robson-Kanu and Nani are more accustomed to wide positions but have been outstanding as strike partners for Bale and Ronaldo respectively. Therefore, this was an unusual test for both defences, who theoretically were not battling against sturdy penalty box prowlers but instead were forced to make decisions about how far to track dangerous runs from mobile, speedy attackers drifting across the pitch. For James Collins and Bruno Alves, both immobile, physical centre-backs making their first start of the tournament, it was a particular challenge. Bale plays as a No10 in Chris Coleman’s 3-5-1-1 system, starting behind Robson-Kanu but allowed freedom of movement to drift around. Portugal started defensively here and Wales struggled to play penetrative passes into Bale’s feet, so he wandered into much deeper positions, sometimes popping up at left wing-back, sometimes collecting short passes into feet from the centre-backs. What Bale really wanted, however, was an opportunity to peel away into the channels. Midway through the first half, having started quietly, he suddenly burst into life. When the Portugal right-back Cédric Soares was dragged up the pitch to close down the Wales left-wing-back Neil Taylor, Bale instinctively exploited the space before firing a low near-post cross into the box. Moments later he was dribbling down the opposite flank, tracked by – of all people – Ronaldo. Then came Bale’s chance to counterattack. Receiving a short ball into his feet in his own right-back zone, Bale waited for the challenge of Danilo, Portugal’s sole holding midfielder, before majestically turning past him, driving 70 yards with the ball, before hitting a fairly tame 25-yard shot at Rui Patrício. Ronaldo simply was not offered that counterattacking threat. Ronaldo, aside from that surprising moment when he was challenging Bale on the edge of his own box, was much less mobile. Ashley Williams halted his first attempt to run at the Wales defence with a strong early tackle, and from then Portugal’s captain was primarily involved when trying to get on the end of crosses. Coleman would have worried Ronaldo and Nani would use their pace in wide areas to exploit the space on the outside of Wales’s back three – instead, they played centrally and Wales coped well. Collins outmuscled Ronaldo to reach a right-wing Soares cross, with Portugal appealing for a penalty, while towards the end of the opening period Adrien Silva created a headed chance for him with a cross from the left. But Portugal’s narrow midfield, with Silva, Renato Sanches and João Mário all playing in a similar zone, meant Portugal were not working combinations down the flanks, meaning they were unable to cross from advanced positions. The crosses were floated, hopeful deliveries from deep. The obvious opportunity to cross from an advanced position, though, was from corners. Five minutes into the second half João Mário rolled a left-wing corner back to Raphaël Guerreiro, whose whipped, left-footed cross found Ronaldo towering over James Chester to head home. Wales had looked so secure defending crosses in open play, yet conceded when able to get themselves organised at a set piece. Portugal doubled their lead with a fortunate goal, Ronaldo’s scuffed shot being diverted into the net by Nani. It hardly owed much to design, yet it was further evidence of Nani’s ability up front: this was his third goal of the tournament. Over the past decade Portugal have regularly turned up for major tournaments with world-class wingers but no prolific centre-forward and suffered from poor finishing at this stage. Here, with Ronaldo heading home and Nani playing poacher, Fernando Santos has found the answer to Portugal’s long-standing problem up front – simply do not bother with a centre-forward. Coleman and Wales, meanwhile, have overachieved by doing exactly the same.	2,218,538
into a sprint. Man vs. Horse Although the name suggests a man vs beast type combat, don’t be fooled. This race started in 1980 after a suggestion that a man could outrun a horse over long distances. Fast-forward 34 years and man has triumphed a mere two times since the race began. The original Man vs. Horse race is set in wales, around 5 1/2 hours from London, England. Although it is not technically a marathon at 23.6 miles, the 3000ft you’ll have to ascend through rough terrain definitely doesn’t make it easy. There is now a Man vs Horse 10 mile, marathon, and 50k in the Arizona desert too. The challenge of attempting an unlikely win is what attracts most to this event. The Great British Beerathon For the beer mile lovers, or those who can only commit to the first few days of January as part of a sure-to-fail New Year’s Resolution, meet the The Great British Beerathon. In this event, competitors run five 1k laps, all beginning and ending at the pub. Pit stops involve challenges such as gorging on pasties, pies and pints of Guinness. If your arteries survive the attack, there is a prize for the first male and first female, which may or may not involve more alcohol. More information about the race is available here. Ran any weird, wonderful, death-defying races lately? Which of these would you like to do? Hollie Mantle is a Digital Marketing Executive for AccuraCast, London’s leading marketing agency. Hollie has spent a lot of time traveling the world, including spending two years in Japan. Hollie won a travel writing competition in English newspaper; The Telegraph, and was a frequent star of rural Japanese TV. You can follow Hollie on Google+. New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity Last year, biophysicist Moh El-Naggar and his graduate student Yamini Jangir plunged beneath South Dakota’s Black Hills into an old gold mine that is now more famous as a home to a dark matter detector. Unlike most scientists who make pilgrimages to the Black Hills these days, El-Naggar and Jangir weren’t there to hunt for subatomic particles. They came in search of life. In the darkness found a mile underground, the pair traversed the mine’s network of passages in search of a rusty metal pipe. They siphoned some of the pipe’s ancient water, directed it into a vessel, and inserted a variety of electrodes. They hoped the current would lure their prey, a little-studied microbe that can live off pure electricity. The electricity-eating microbes that the researchers were hunting for belong to a larger class of organisms that scientists are only beginning to understand. They inhabit largely uncharted worlds: the bubbling cauldrons of deep sea vents; mineral-rich veins deep beneath the planet’s surface; ocean sediments just a few inches below the deep seafloor. The microbes represent a segment of life that has been largely ignored, in part because their strange habitats make them incredibly difficult to grow in the lab. Yet early surveys suggest a potential microbial bounty. A recent sampling of microbes collected from the seafloor near Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California, uncovered a surprising variety of microbes that consume or shed electrons by eating or breathing minerals or metals. El-Naggar’s team is still analyzing their gold mine data, but he says that their initial results echo the Catalina findings. Thus far, whenever scientists search for these electron eaters in the right locations — places that have lots of minerals but not a lot of oxygen — they find them. CONTINUE READING	32,812
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Less ice covers the Arctic today than at any time in recent geologic history. That's the conclusion of an international group of researchers, who have compiled the first comprehensive history of Arctic ice. For decades, scientists have strived to collect sediment cores from the difficult-to-access Arctic Ocean floor, to discover what the Arctic was like in the past. Their most recent goal: to bring a long-term perspective to the ice loss we see today. Now, in an upcoming issue of Quarternary Science Reviews, a team led by Ohio State University has re-examined the data from past and ongoing studies -- nearly 300 in all -- and combined them to form a big-picture view of the pole's climate history stretching back millions of years. "The ice loss that we see today -- the ice loss that started in the early 20th Century and sped up during the last 30 years -- appears to be unmatched over at least the last few thousand years," said Leonid Polyak, a research scientist at Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University. Polyak is lead author of the paper and a preceding report that he and his coauthors prepared for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. Satellites can provide detailed measures of how much ice is covering the pole right now, but sediment cores are like fossils of the ocean's history, he explained. "Sediment cores are essentially a record of sediments that settled at the sea floor, layer by layer, and they record the conditions of the ocean system during the time they settled. When we look carefully at various chemical and biological components of the sediment, and how the sediment is distributed -- then, with certain skills and luck, we can reconstruct the conditions at the time the sediment was deposited." For example, scientists can search for a biochemical marker that is tied to certain species of algae that live only in ice. If that marker is present in the sediment, then that location was likely covered in ice at the time. Scientists call such markers "proxies" for the thing they actually want to measure -- in this case, the geographic extent of the ice in the past. While knowing the loss of surface area of the ice is important, Polyak says that this work can't yet reveal an even more important fact: how the total volume of ice -- thickness as well as surface area -- has changed over time. "Underneath the surface, the ice can be thick or thin. The newest satellite techniques and field observations allow us to see that the volume of ice is shrinking much faster than its area today. The picture is very troubling. We are losing ice very fast," he said. "Maybe sometime down the road we'll develop proxies for the ice thickness. Right now, just looking at ice extent is very difficult." To review and combine the data from hundreds of studies, he and his cohorts had to combine information on many different proxies as well as modern observations. They searched for patterns in the proxy data that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Their conclusion: the current extent of Arctic ice is at its lowest point for at least the last few thousand years. As scientists pull more sediment cores from the Arctic, Polyak and his collaborators want to understand more details of the past ice extent and to push this knowledge further back in time. During the summer of 2011, they hope to draw cores from beneath the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia. The currents emanating from the northern Pacific Ocean bring heat that may play an important role in melting the ice across the Arctic, so Polyak expects that the history of this location will prove very important. He hopes to drill cores that date back thousands of years at the Chukchi Sea margin, providing a detailed history of interaction between oceanic currents and ice. "Later on in this cruise, when we venture into the more central Arctic Ocean, we will aim at harvesting cores that go back even farther," he said. "If we could go as far back as a million years, that would be perfect." ### Polyak's coauthors on the report hailed from Penn State University, University of Colorado, University of Massachusetts, the U.S. Geological Survey, Old Dominion University, the Geological Survey of Canada, University of Copenhagen, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Stockholm University, McGill University, James Madison University, and the British Antarctic Survey. This research was funded by the US Geological Survey and the National Science Foundation. Contact: Leonid Polyak, (614) 292-2602; [email protected] Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; [email protected]	2,801,221
did before the recession, despite adding 69,200 of them. James Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said the state’s economy is still suffering from the effects of Superstorm Sandy, in 2012, and from the consolidation of the casino industry, in 2014. Another factor, Hughes said, is that many businesses no longer want to be in suburban office parks, and New Jersey has plenty of them. “The office growth is now in the 24/7 cities, like Manhattan, Boston and Washington, D.C., on the East Coast,” Hughes said. “That suburban stock is languishing. It used to be the driving force that made New Jersey a regional economic powerhouse.” In some states, however, surging income growth in relation to GDP was not a sign of good times. In North Dakota, GDP declined by 4.4 percent, largely because of falling oil prices. But median income grew by 2.5 percent, creating a 6.8 point gap, the largest among the states. (The changes in GDP and in median income have been rounded.) Because of the way the U.S. Census Bureau asks about income, the North Dakota income data may reflect relatively high energy prices in late 2014. A Sign of Inequality? When economic growth outpaces median income, it indicates that the fruits of prosperity are not being distributed widely, said Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution. “It might be that a lot of the extra income went to the top 1 percent or the top 20 percent, and the middle didn’t get as much of the gain. They didn’t get their fair share. That’s usually how it’s interpreted,” Burtless said. Growing income inequality has spurred many cities and states to raise the minimum wage. But the largest planned increases are still being phased in and were unlikely to have had an effect on median income so soon, said Dean Baker, an economist at the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research. “The story of most states has been a modest shift back to wages, from profits, in the last couple of years,” Baker said. “The median [income] will be moved by more jobs per family, more hours per job and higher wages. All of those things were going the right way in 2015.”	3,427,183
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official Twitter handle @PMOIndia has over 12.5 million followers as of today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official Twitter handle @PMOIndia has over 12.5 million followers as of today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has once again landed itself in a Twitter controversy. This time, it’s about images reportedly tweeted from the @PMOIndia handle that showed villagers in Nagla Fatela, a village near the national capital, watching Independence Day celebrations on television where Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech, claimed his government has electrified that village. However, villagers claim the images are not of their village and they still don’t have adequate power supply. The tweet was then deleted by the Prime Minister’s account. This, however, isn’t the first time that the government has ended up in a cyber mess. In December last year, the government’s nodal agency for communication @PIB_India tweeted out morphed images of the Prime Minister conducting an aerial survey of the Chennai floods. The government was then forced to take down the tweet, issue a clarification and take preventive action. But what happens when government officials delete tweets? Are they permitted to delete tweets without issuing a clarification/correction? Are these deleted tweets archived? If all government records are to be archived as per law, and tweets from the PMO’s official Twitter handle does come under the IT Act as well as the RTI Act, then is the government guilty of destroying official records? According to the Electronic Governance subsection in the IT Act 2000, the government needs to maintain all records so as to make them available for subsequent reference. Here’s what the section reads: Where any law provides that documents, records or information shall be retained for any specific period, then, that requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied if such documents, records or information are retained in the electronic form, if— (a) the information contained therein remains accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent reference; (b) the electronic record is retained in the format in which it was originally generated, sent or received or in a format which can be demonstrated to represent accurately the information originally generated, sent or received; The question, however, remains on what happens if the information provided is inaccurate. Can we equate tweets from official accounts to hard copies of government documents that have been put out in the public domain? Or say to a government broadcast on national radio that reaches millions of people in the country? The PM’s official Twitter handle has over 12 million followers. Don’t they deserve a correction, if the government would otherwise do so on a different broadcast/publishing medium? A screengrab of former Prime Minister A screengrab of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ’s twitter account that was archived. In 2014, When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s term ended, tweets sent out by his administration were archived by the government under the handle @PMOIndiaArchive. While the Twitter handle no longer exists, all the tweets are now storified on the Prime Minister’s website under the title “Archival material under the RTI Act for @PMOIndia till 20/5/2014.” The @PMOIndia Twitter handle then had in its description: “Pages may be archived under IT Act.” Prime Minister Modi’s administration has put his ambitious Digital India project on fast-track, and rightly so. It’s high time government departments and agencies across the country move governance to digital platforms. But perhaps the government also needs to adopt stringent measures when it comes to disseminating information. Checks and balances need to be in place as the consequences of misinformation – reaching out to millions, within a few seconds, are huge. 📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines For all the latest Opinion News, download Indian Express App. © IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd	2,326,170
In mid-January of this year, Swedish Dota 2 team Alliance took top honors at the Starladder i-League Star Series tournament, which featured several of the current top Dota 2 teams, such as last year’s International winners Evil Geniuses, as well as powerhouses like LGD and Team Secret. I’ll catch professional Dota 2 tournaments on most weekends, but watching Alliance take the whole thing made me happier than I’d been watching the game in a long time. Not because of the prize money (which was quite large but far from the scene’s highest), but because the team’s triumphant return to form shows that Dota 2 stands on a more rock-solid foundation than many give it credit for. To understand why that is, you’ll need some context. Dota 2, like many other team-based sports, features several roster changes and player signings in the post-season (typically after The International). When a team is doing poorly, they kick and add players depending on who or what is in fashion. When they’re doing well, lineups tend to stick. Some teams will keep players on for years (Danil ‘Dendi’ Ishutin has been with Na’Vi for over five years), but it’s not unusual to see teams disband and reform within the span of a month. Na’Vi did this exact thing last year, but kept Ishutin. Even world champions like Evil Geniuses have dropped and added players immediately after winning major tournaments. In fact, there’s a special kind of flux reserved for winners of The International. After winning the biggest tournament in Dota 2, champion teams tend to fall off considerably. Few teams who win the International maintain their Tier 1 status years after winning the big one. Alliance, who won The International in 2013, fell off within six months of winning the title. Alliance’s captain, Jonathan ‘Loda’ Berg, admitted in an interview with PC Gamer that the team’s drop had a lot to do with a lack of motivation. “Six months felt like a waste of time after TI because we didn’t have the same focus, we didn’t have the same drive to win smaller tournaments. Even if you try to get that focus it’s hard to really be hungry to win these tournaments. For sure, every tournament now has good prize money, but it’s just not really the same thing […] I kind of predicted it—I was talking to my team about it—but it can be hard to keep the team motivated, even myself, sometimes.” The fluctuations in team standings is normal and healthy for most sports as it denotes a lack of staleness. But taken in the context of the eSports world, chaos brings with it a degree of anxiety. When many consider eSports a fickle market that will latch on only to the next big thing, seeing tepid post-season matches as teams find their footing invites the idea that maybe this wonderful game doesn’t have the legs we thought it did. When the highest player earnings in eSports still pale in comparison to physical sports earnings, some might be tempted into thinking all these roster changes are organizations flailing to get a good team together and win some money before the bubble bursts. To experience this #content, you will need to enable targeting cookies. Yes, we know. Sorry. Manage cookie settings Alliance has fought against that chaos much harder than most teams. They managed to stick together about a year after their International victory, but still splintered after their disastrous run at the 2014 International. Gustav ‘S4’ Magnusson left to form Team Secret and Jerry ‘EGM’ Lundkvist left to join Team Tinker. In their absence, Alliance cycled through four other support and mid-lane players, including on Johan ‘Mynuts’ Andersson on two separate occasions. Their remaining players (Berg, Joakim ‘Akke’ Akterhall, and Henrik ‘AdmiralBulldog’ Ahnberg) stuck together, but failed to find much success outside of small-scale tournaments. You’d get a few hints of brilliance, but most of the time, the phrase “Alliance is back!” was spouted on forums and Twitch chats sarcastically. It’s only in the most recent patch that they’ve returned as a top-tier team, winning both the i-League and last year’s World Cyber Arena tournament after cutting a swath through several other prominent teams. A few fortunate changes contribute to the team’s resurgence. One is that Dota 2’s 6.86 balance patch seems to be in their favor, with many of their trademark heroes like Lone Druid making a return. Another is that	1,255,685
Australia Will Fine Parents Who Do Not Vaccinate Their Children... Australia has some of the most aggressive rules when it comes to vaccinations and they recently just tightened the noose so to speak. \|Source\| Australia have a "No Jab No Play" policy where children are being banned from attending school and as of the 1st July parents on benefits will be penalised by up to $546.00 AUD. Source To implement these rules even after the multiple incidences of vaccine injury i think is dangerous though an argument to that would be that it is a small price to pay for "herd immunity". Source SourceAustralian PM Malcolm Turnbull. There are programs in most countries that will compensate families affected by vaccine injury and i find it quite shocking that Australia does not have one and borders on absolute corruption in my opinion. Source What makes things worse is that the Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull stands to gain financially from these kinds of policies as he has links to big pharmaceutical companies with his wife being the chairman of one. Source \|Source\| Thanks for reading and if you found this interesting consider upvoting, following and resteeming. P.S. If you are interested in buying or selling Steem consider using my link and sign up to Binance. P.P.S. MannaBase is the first cryptocurrency to implement a universal credit scheme sign up using my link and receive free Manna. Previous Blog\|Next Blog Microsoft has clarified its position on nudity in games after Conan Exiles developer Funcom essentially spoke for the company at GDC earlier in the week. Via a statement sent through Funcom, Microsoft addressed the developer’s statement that realistic, flopping penises simply weren’t “gonna fly”. “The statement made by Funcom about “Conan” content being altered at the discretion of Microsoft was inaccurate,” a Microsoft representative said. “Microsoft and Xbox abide by the policies and guidelines set forth by the [North American] Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating system. Funcom has submitted “Conan Exiles” for review to the ESRB and pending its receipt of an acceptable rating we look forward to publishing the game on Xbox.” Obviously, that means the game would need to be classified by the Australian Classification Board here in the country. Because the nudity isn’t “material which shows actual sexual intercourse and other sexual activity between consenting adults,” it’s possible Conan Exiles could receive an R18+ rating rather than an X18+, or simply being refused classification. Conan Exiles will head to the Xbox Game Preview Program sometime in Q3 2017, followed by a full retail release on Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4 in 2018. AKP MP proposes reconversion of Hagia Sophia into mosque after Trump’s Jerusalem decision ISTANBUL Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Şamil Tayyar has proposed the reconversion of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque, in retaliation against U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “If you say so, let Hagia Sophia be opened to prayers. We should start holding Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia,” Tayyar tweeted on Dec. 6 President Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy on Dec. 6 by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite warnings from around the world. Ankara had already stressed that the holy site was a “redline for Muslims” and signaled that it could even sever ties with Israel for the move. The Hagia Sophia Museum was first dedicated as an Orthodox patriarchal basilica in 360. Until 1453 it served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople. Following the city’s conquest by the Ottoman Empire, the building turned into a mosque in 1453 and remained so until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was reopened by the authorities of Turkey’s young Republic as a museum in 1935.	2,782,453
to fine you €135 should they so wish) and, like most of the print media, I soon discarded my press armband. “There are two groups singled out for special treatment, the street medics and the media,” said David Dufresne, one of France’s most distinguished journalists. Dufresne is a leading authority on French policing and cofounded the highly respected French news site Mediapart. “People have had recording equipment smashed, memory cards snapped and have been beaten and shot at with LBDs. Reporters Sans Frontières has documented well over 100 cases of journalists who have had serious problems. The prevailing climate in the police,” he added, “is particularly hostile to the press.” The gilets jaunes are no angels: one afternoon in late May I sat in a café opposite the main police headquarters with the movement’s most prominent feminist activist, Sophie Tissier. Tissier, who has criticised some gilets jaunes for excessive machismo, showed me film of herself being slapped by a male comrade she had somehow irritated. Footage of the violence on the Champs-Elysées in the early spring speaks for itself. But in the time I spent on the streets of Paris, the only physical aggression I witnessed was dispensed by the forces of law. The gilet jaune movement began on 24 October 2018, when Ghislain Coutard, a truck driver from Narbonne, south of Montpellier, stuck in traffic and angered by his conditions of work and, specifically, increased tax on diesel, posted a rant live on Facebook. As a choice of symbol the high-vis jacket was inspired. They are everywhere: since 2008 every French motorist has been required to have one in their vehicle. They’re cheap and – unlike black, brown or red shirts – are associated with safety and wellbeing rather than insurrection. Coutard was not a born activist and these days his Facebook page contains posts offering sports cars for sale and that clip of a dog playing Jenga. If there’s one thing that unites the current gilets jaunes, it’s a detestation of Macron and Castaner. The notion that Macron may deem it legitimate to teargas, beat and maim civilians is confirmed, in the minds of most protestors, by the notorious YouTube clip that shows the president’s then deputy chief of staff, Alexandre Benalla, wearing a borrowed police helmet, assaulting a woman and beating a man on 1 May 2018 outside a café on the Left Bank. (Benalla was dismissed but was discovered, seven months later, still to be in possession of two official diplomatic passports and has faced no criminal charges.) “You watch Alexandre Benalla in that video,” Jérôme Rodrigues told me, “beating someone’s head in. He’s not even a policeman. What’s he doing there in uniform? And what’s he doing today? Strolling around, enjoying his life. Who is Emmanuel Macron to lecture me on morality? If you’re a good person, with leadership skills, your conduct and the conduct of those close to you should be exemplary. France has a president who does what the hell he feels like. This sense of arrogance and entitlement has seeped into national institutions, such as the police. There is no opposition other than us. And the media are on his side.” Macron and Castaner have remained stubbornly unapologetic on the subject of alleged police misconduct. On 2 June, Castaner’s deputy, Laurent Nuñez, was despatched to defend the government on the RTL television show Le Grand Jury. “We have no regrets about the policing of these demonstrations,” he said. “Just because someone’s hand has been torn off or a person has been blinded in one eye doesn’t mean that the police did anything wrong.” Before I ever met a gilet jaune, I’d developed an unflattering view of the movement, having read deeply unsympathetic assessments by French reporters such as Jean Quatremer. Brussels correspondent of the liberal-left newspaper Libération, Quatremer has described them as “a bunch of dumb rednecks... looters, thugs, anti-republicans, anti-Semites, racists and homophobes”. War reporter Florent Marcie was injured by an LBD while filming a protest, 5 January (“Me, an anti-Semite?” Rodrigues replies, when I mention this. “Here,” he adds, handing me a photograph of a prisoner wearing concentration-camp stripes, “is my great-grandfather at	434,473
These are images of the excavation of Labeko Koba cave, in Arrasate (Basque Country, Spain). Credit: UPV/EHU The meeting between a Neanderthal and one of the first humans, which we used to picture in our minds, did not happen on the Iberian Peninsula. That is the conclusion reached by an international team of researchers from the Australian National University, Oxford University, the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, University of Maryland, Universitat de Girona and the University of Oviedo, after redoing the dating of the remains in three caves located on the route through the Pyrenees of the first beings of our species: L'Arbreda, Labeko Koba and La Viña. The paper, entitled The chronology of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic in northern Iberia: New insights from L'Arbreda, Labeko Koba and La Viña, has been published in the Journal of Human Evolution. Until now, the carbon 14 technique, a radioactive isotope which gradually disappears with the passing of time, has been used to date prehistoric remains. When about 40,000 years, in other words approximately the period corresponding to the arrival of the first humans in Europe, have elapsed, the portion that remains is so small that it can become easily contaminated and cause the dates to appear more recent. It was from 2005 onwards that a new technique began to be used; it is the one used to purify the collagen in DNA tests. Using this method, the portion of the original organic material is obtained and all the subsequent contamination is removed. And by using this technique, scientists have been arriving at the same conclusions at key sites across Europe: "We can see that the arrival of our species in Europe took place 8,000 years earlier than what had been thought and we can see the earliest datings of our species and the most recent Neanderthal ones, in which, in a specific regional framework, there is no overlapping," explained Alvaro Arrizabalaga, professor of the department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology, and one of the UPV/EHU researchers alongside María-José Iriarte and Aritza Villaluenga. The three caves chosen for the recently published research are located in Girona (L'Arbreda), Gipuzkoa (Labeko Koba) and Asturias (La Viña); in other words, at the westernmost and easternmost tips of the Pyrenees and it was where the flow of populations and animals between the peninsula and continent took place. "L'Arbreda is on the eastern pass; Labeko Koba, in the Deba valley, is located on the entry corridor through the Western Pyrenees (Arrizabalaga and Iriarte excavated it in a hurry in 1988 before it was destroyed by the building of the Arrasate-Mondragon bypass) and La Viña is of value as a paradigm, since it provides a magnificent sequence of the Upper Palaeolithic, in other words, of the technical and cultural behaviour of the Cro-magnons during the last glaciation", pointed out Arrizabalaga. The selecting of the remains was very strict allowing only tools made of bones or, in the absence of them, bones bearing clear traces of human activity, as a general rule with butchery marks, in other words, cuts in the areas of the tendons so that the muscle could be removed. "The Labeko Koba curve is the most consistent of the three, which in turn are the most consistent on the Iberian Peninsula," explained Arrizabalaga. 18 remains were dated at Labeko Koba and the results are totally convergent with respect to their stratigraphic position, in other words, those that appeared at the lowest depths are the oldest ones. The main conclusion –"the scene of the meeting between a Neanderthal and a Cro-magnon does not seem to have taken place on the Iberian Peninsula"– is the same as the one that has been gradually reached over the last three years by different research groups when studying key settlements in Great Britain, Italy, Germany and France. "For 25 years we had been saying that Neanderthals and early humans lived together for 8,000-10,000 years. Today, we think that in Europe there was a gap between one species and the other and, therefore, there was no hybridation, which did in fact take place in areas of the Middle East," explained Arrizabalaga. The UPV/EHU professor is also the co-author of a piece of research published in 2012 that puts back the datings of the Neanderthals. "We did the dating again in accordance with the ultrafiltration treatment that eliminates rejuvenating contamination, remains of the Mousterian, the material	563,257
February 13, 2017 Organized Campaigns Hit At Trump's Foreign Policy Plans At the end of his administration Obama implemented a series of anti-Russian moves. The most obvious was the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over unfounded allegation of Russian interference in the U.S. elections. Other moves included the launching of an Ukrainian offense against the Russian supported resistance in the east Ukraine. These moves were designed to impede the incoming Trump administration in its announced plans towards more friendly relations with Russia. The incoming Trump administration countered Obama's sanction move. Its designated National Security Advisor Flynn phoned up the Russian ambassador in Washington. He did not promise to immediately lift the sanctions but indirectly asked him to refrain from any harsh response: The transcripts of the conversations don’t show Mr. Flynn made any sort of promise to lift the sanctions once Mr. Trump took office, the officials said. Rather, they show Mr.Flynn making more general comments about relations between the two countries improving under Mr. Trump, people familiar with them said. This was arguably a sensible move in line with a smooth transition of government. In the end the Russian government refrained from any in kind reaction to the Obama sanctions. This was blow to the promoters of hostilities with Russia. It did not stop their meddling. The effort moved towards kicking Flynn out of his new position as NSC. A concerted media campaign was launched to insinuate an early Flynn failure and to press for his dismissal. Bradd Jaffy @BraddJaffy Within the last 30 mins — NYT, WashPost, WSJ and Politico each dropped pieces that have to be alarming for your future if you're Mike Flynn 5:51 PM - 12 Feb 2017 Keep in mind that some 95% of the U.S. media was hostile to Trump during the election campaign. They all peddled the nonsense of "Russian hacks" when an insider leaked emails from the Democratic National Council. They are all willing to support any move that might hinder the Trump administration. Thus this morning news was filled with these headlines: All these stories are based on "inside views" from multiple "former and current officials". All are build around the baseless allegations against Flynn of somehow colluding with the Russian government. All are likely more wishful thinking than fact. It would be astonishing if Trump falls for this obviously well organized campaign against his administration. Should he fire Flynn or give in to such pressure his enemies will smell blood, find a new target within his administration and intensify their fire. Indeed a second well coordinated assault on an announced Trump policy, a change of course in Syria, is already in the making. This one aims at further maligning the Syrian government in an effort to make it impossible to argue for cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State. A few days ago Amnesty International published an unfounded report about alleged executions in Syrian prisons. Today Human Rights Watch claims that the Syrian government systematically used Chlorine in the fight over Aleppo. The sources are solely opposition supporters. Based on similar vague "facts" the Atlantic Council, a NATO lobby with financial ties to Gulf governments, launches a huge propaganda report (large pdf) about the "war crime" of liberating Aleppo from Jihadis. None of these "humanitarian" organization is concerned about the current devastating situation in Aleppo. For 40 days the water has been cut off by the Islamic State at the Euphrates pumping stations. There is no electricity. Fuel is sparse. Medications are difficult to find. Their hypocrisy stinks to high heaven. These organizations all assert that the Syrian government, for example, attacked hospitals in east-Aleppo solely to hit civilians. At the same time they all applaud a much bigger assault on the Islamic State held Mosul by U.S. and Iraqi troops. There, the head of Human Rights Watch asserts, the hospitals are used by the Jihadis and thus attacks on them are justified: Kenneth Roth @KenRoth As battle for Mosul proceeds, ISIS is regularly occupying hospitals & medical facilities, endangering patients/staff bit.ly/2kqXuUR The anti-Flynn campaign as well as the bad-Assad campaign are aimed at Trump policy changes. These changes move away from the course the borg implemented throughout the Obama reign. Meanwhile the Trump administration implements regressive economic and social policies without any noticeable resistance in the media, in Congress or from so called Non-Government-Organizations: President Trump has embarked on the most aggressive campaign against government regulation in a generation, joining with Republican lawmakers to roll back rules already on the books and limit the ability of federal regulators to impose new ones. The borg or deep state is way more concerned with keeping up its plans of uncontested global dominance than with the welfare of the citizens within the empire. Trump promised to put "America first", to prioritize the inner well being	1,109,250
Delta flight from Atlanta makes emergency landing in Newfoundland after engine trouble The plane took off from Atlanta and was headed overseas to Amsterdam. -- A Delta flight from Atlanta to the Netherlands was forced to make an emergency landing in Newfoundland late Thursday after suffering what the airline termed an "engine performance issue." Delta Flight 70 took off at 3:31 p.m. and was expected to make a landing in Amsterdam just before 6 a.m. on Friday. Instead, the flight made it only briefly off the northeast coast of Canada before being forced to turn around and land in Goose Bay, Newfoundland. The flight landed without difficulty and no one was injured. "Delta flight 70 from Atlanta to Amsterdam experienced an engine performance issue en route. The flight crew followed procedures to divert to Goose Bay, Newfoundland, Canada," Delta said in a statement. "The flight landed safely and customers have deplaned. Customers will continue to Amsterdam on another aircraft tomorrow. Delta is in contact with the customers, and we apologize to our customers for the delay. Safety is Delta’s top priority." Air traffic control audio recordings from the cockpit indicated the plane was experiencing engine failure and issued a declaration of emergency just prior to landing. Audio from air traffic controllers after the plane landed said that upon inspection of engine 2, the four pressure relief valve doors on the engine were blown open. One person at the Goose Bay airport tweeted "View from the office" after taking a photo of the plane upon its landing. This is the second plane in a month to suffer engine problems on a transatlantic flight and be diverted to Goose Bay -- a small airport that is located the furthest east in North America. An Air France flight from Paris to Los Angeles on Sept. 30 was forced to declare an emergency and make a landing in Newfoundland as well. hydrofracking drill sties. The list of individual incidents is too long to list singly, but include hospitalizations from drinking benzene-contaminated water, water poisoned with anti-freeze chemicals, exploding farmhouse wells, exploding toilets, rare tumors, poisoned goats and llamas and, perhaps most shocking of all, a house in Ohio that exploded from flammable tap water. (Methane had been pushed into the water due to pressure caused by nearby hydrofracking). [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwogQWLEqW8&feature=related[/youtube] New York City water is currently among the purist in the nation and New York is one of only four cities in the country not required to filter its water. If the watershed were ever polluted, filtering the water supply would cost billions. But New York isn’t the only place affected. As the Gasland documentary shows, hydrofracking is national, putting communities across the country at risk. The natural gas companies will tell us that the dangers of hydrofracking are overblown, but if the Deepwater Horizon disaster should have taught us anything, it’s to take the assurances of oil and gas companies with a grain of salt. A new oil industry study says that there may be as much as $2 trillion worth of natural gas in shale deposits in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. What use is an interstate commission if members can’t attend meetings because of out-of-state travel restrictions? Given the potentially severe environmental consequences of drilling–and the enormous profit motive of gas companies to do it–is it too much to ask that those who are responsible for protecting our watersheds at least show up for important votes? Follow Columbia Water Center on Twitter	484,142
Getty Debate Night Scott Walker swings, misses and his campaign scrambles Weakened contender gets defensive about his performance, dodges staff change question. SIMI VALLEY, Calif. – Scott Walker knew he needed a breakthrough performance at the second debate. He didn’t get it. Instead, Walker found himself working the debate’s spin room long after most candidates had departed and refusing to rule out a question about whether he is now considering senior-level staff changes. “Right now I’m considering how I’m going to get through the end of tonight,” Walker said, “and get ready for tomorrow to get back on the campaign trail.” The Wisconsin governor had come out swinging in the early minutes of Wednesday’s debate – butting in to attack Donald Trump even before the moderators called on him – but for long swaths of the unruly three-hour debate Walker seemed entirely absent. The disappearing act was ill timed. The fallen Iowa frontrunner arrived at the debate in need of a jolt after weeks of bad headlines and a sharp slide in national polls that has brought him within the margin of error of zero. Instead, he turned in a workmanlike performance. “It was an opportunity he didn’t grab as much of as he could have,” former RNC Chair Michael Steele said. “He took advantage of certain moments, but he didn’t grab as much of them as he could have.” Walker certainly delivered his prepared lines with a liveliness that eluded him in the first debate -- “Mr. Trump we don’t need an apprentice in the White House,” Walker said early on. “We have one right now.” He also landed some strong lines – “I'd love to play cards with this guy because Barack Obama folds on everything” – but he delivered them straight to camera, making them feel less natural and more rehearsed. Yet, in a freewheeling debate that was dominated by outspoken personalities like Trump, Chris Christie, and Carly Fiorina, he got lost in the shuffle. He didn’t get a question until 90 minutes into the debate. ("Isn't that amazing?” Walker said after the debate. “It is what it is.") And when Walker finally got an opportunity, he tried to make up for lost time with a kitchen-sink answer that included talking about education, job training, tax cuts, his energy policy and repealing Obamacare. After the debate, he sounded exasperated for having received only two questions from the moderators. “Short of tackling someone I don’t know what more I could have done,” Walker said. “I aggressively interrupted Jake Tapper a bunch of times along the way, and short of an absolute brawl I don’t know what more one can do. We jumped in, and for us its quality and not quantity.” Walker’s team understood the score going in. Ahead of the debate, the campaign alerted top donors it would hold a conference call for them midday Thursday, going so far as to say Walker himself and campaign manager Rick Wiley would be on the line in hopes of calming jittery contributor nerves. Walker’s own advisers admitted heading into the faceoff that he had to do something to redirect his downward trajectory. His performance at the Cleveland debate last month was widely viewed as flat; his campaign promised supporters and donors that this time Walker wouldn’t cede back precious seconds to moderators but forcefully fill out his time delivering his campaign’s message. In the final tally, Walker spoke less almost anyone on stage, except Mike Huckabee, and for about half as long as Trump or Jeb Bush. About halfway through, Walker was only the seventh most-searched candidate of the 11 on stage, according to Google Trends, and by the end he was lagging in tenth. And the third and fourth most-asked questions about him: “What happened to Scott Walker?” and “Where is Scott Walker?” Walker also finished dead last in his share of the conversation on Twitter, getting a mere 1.21 percent of mentions, according to Twitter. When Walker did speak, he tried to tap into the outsider anger that has rocketed Trump and Ben Carson to the top of the polls, railing at one point against congressional Republicans for not defunding Planned Parenthood, as he touted doing in Wisconsin. “This is precisely why so many Republicans are upset with Washington,” Walker said. He suggested they pass such a bill with “51 votes” – a potential affront to the filibuster. Overall, Alex Castellanos, a veteran Republican strategist, said Walker was “much improved” and did “enough to keep raising money and stay in the top e	448,941
As if joggling in and of itself was not a good enough reason to learn to juggle, here is an article from jugglingworld.biz that lists 8 physical benefits of juggling. I summarized their list and added a couple extra because nobody makes top 8 lists. Benefits of juggling 1. Juggling is great aerobic exercise. It’s certainly more fun than one of those stupid elliptical machines. You’re more apt to keep at it. 2. Juggling improves your hand-eye coordination. This will be useful in other sports like kickball, softball, and volleyball. 3. Juggling makes you ambidextrous. Very useful if you ever break your arm. 4. Juggling keeps you warm. As long as you don’t sweat too much. 5. Juggling improves balance. Before I learned to juggle I couldn’t even ride a unicycle. But I can now! 6. Juggling improves motor skills. Catching, throwing, hand-eye coordination are all improved with juggling. 7. Juggling improves your rhythm. My wife can tell you what a great dancer I’ve become since learning to juggle. 8. Juggling relieves stress. Work or life getting you down? Just juggle it right out. Juggling requires concentration and this will help you forget about your troubles. And I thought I’d add a couple of my own for the jogglers out there. 9. Juggling makes you smarter. At least juggling can make your brain bigger according to this study. 10. Juggling gives a a sense of accomplishment. There are always new challenges in juggling. New patterns, new equipment. When you want to get an ego boost, learn a new juggling trick. It’s incredibly satisfying. Send this page to someone via email A Winnipeg mom contacted police after finding a bag of Xanax pills in her child’s Halloween candy bag. Amanda Fehr told Global News she noticed the small zipped bag of eight pills as she was going through the candy and contacted cops Thursday. READ MORE: Winnipeg police warn public after Halloween-themed fentanyl blotters seized “I went to grab a chocolate bar out of my son’s candy bag,” said Fehr. “But that’s not what I pulled out. I don’t understand.” “That could have killed one of my kids.” Tweet This Fehr said her 12-year-old son was trick-or-treating in the Headmaster Row, Bonner Avenue and Rothesay Street area on Tuesday. He came home with a bag that she went through on Wednesday. That was when she noticed the pills. Story continues below advertisement READ MORE: Winnipeg police dish out tips to ensure Halloween is a treat “It could’ve been accidental but I can’t see someone having pills by a candy bowl, and I can’t see someone holding pills and then handing out candy at the same time,” Fehr said. “So how did they get in there?” The pills, which are typically used to help anxiety, panic and depression, carry a street value of up to $10 each. Their discovery means the Fehr family will be second guessing their trick-or-treating routines next year. “Unfortunately this has ruined [Halloween] for me,” Fehr said. “I don’t want to go to houses, so we’ll be going to malls and stores.”	3,113,921
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called for new elections on Saturday after the release of a video showing his far-right vice chancellor, Heinz Christian Strache discussing government contracts with an alleged Russian investor. "After yesterday's video, I must say quite honestly: Enough is enough," Kurz said. "The serious part of this [video] was the attitude towards abuse of power, towards dealing with taxpayers' money, towards the media in this country." After Kurz's statement, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said he supported a snap vote and would talk over next steps with the chancellor again on Sunday, according to the BBC. The leaks had come within days before European Parliament elections. MCDONALDS IN AUSTRIA TO SERVE AS MINI-EMBASSIES The video, which took place at a Spanish villa on the island of Ibiza in 2017, appeared to show Strache and Freedom Party member Johann Gudenus speaking with an unnamed woman, who claimed to be a wealthy niece of a Russian Oligarch looking to invest in Austria. The BBC says the woman offered to buy a 50 percent stake in a prominent Austrian newspaper and switch its position to support the Freedom Party. Stache discusses several journalists he says would have to get "pushed" from the paper and five "new people whom we will build up." In return, Stache said he would award her public contracts. The chancellor attributed his actions to drinking, and to acting like a "teenager," saying his behavior had been "stupid" and "irresponsible." He mentioned he was leaving to avoid further damage to the government. Both party leaders have attempted to create a balance between Kurz's mainstream conservative party and Stache's far-right Freedom Party, but over time that coalition has eroded, leading to Saturday's boiling point. AUSTRIA TO BAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GIRLS FROM WEARING HEADSCARVES 'As a result of this continual review the MPS has today withdrawn the physical presence of officers from outside the embassy. 'The operation to arrest Julian Assange does however continue and should he leave the Embassy the MPS will make every effort to arrest him. 'However, it is no longer proportionate to commit officers to a permanent presence. The MPS will not discuss what form its continuing operation will take or the resourcing implications surrounding it.' He added: 'This decision has not been taken lightly and the MPS has discussed it with the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 'A significant amount of time has passed since Julian Assange entered the embassy and despite the efforts of many people there is no imminent prospect of a diplomatic or legal resolution to this issue. 'The MPS has to balance the interests of justice in this case with the ongoing risks to the safety of Londoners and all those we protect, investigating crime and arresting offenders wanted for serious offences, in deciding what a proportionate response is.' Swedish officials recently said they were optimistic about reaching an agreement with Ecuador which could pave the way for the questioning of Assange in London on outstanding accusations against him In a recent interview, Assange claimed he had not had any fresh air or sunlight for three years. He said: 'There are security issues with being on the balcony. There have been bomb threats and assassination threats from various people.' The Australian was granted political asylum by Ecuador under the 1951 Refugee Convention in 2012. Swedish officials recently said they were optimistic about reaching an agreement with Ecuador which could pave the way for the questioning of Assange in London on outstanding accusations against him. Justice ministry spokeswoman Cecilia Riddselius said talks between Swedish officials and their counterparts in Ecuador had been'very good, very constructive' and could lead to a general agreement on legal cooperation 'in time for Christmas'. Assange has said he would welcome being questioned at the embassy.	2,320,388
2.6k SHARES Share Tweet City of Vancouver grants 2019 funding to Vancouver Rape Relief as termination funding. VRR is no longer eligible for funding until it makes changes to become aligned with the grant criteria.#VanPoli#Transgender #LGBTQ2+ pic.twitter.com/vKn3bKp39G — Morgane Oger M.S.M. (@MorganeOgerBC) March 15, 2019 On Thursday, Vancouver city councilors voted to cut funding to Canada’s longest standing rape crisis centre and transition house. Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter (VRRWS) has been receiving funding from the city for more than 10 years, and while VRRWS will receive these funds this year, the decision was made that the grant will not be renewed next year unless the organization’s position to maintain women-only space changes. This particular grant went towards public education and outreach, and was for approximately $30,000. The efforts to cut these funds were led by local trans activists; notably, BC NDP Vice President, Morgane Oger, who has been the subject of numerous complaints from citizens, on account of accusations of defamation and harassment of feminists online. At a city council meeting on Wednesday, Hilla Kerner, a member of the VRRWS collective, pointed out that no one informed the organization that this grant would be discussed and potentially discontinued as a result of that discussion, meaning that, had VRRWS not been tipped off privately, they would have had no support at the meeting nor any opportunity to defend themselves. “Nobody bothered to invite us to explain our position, practices, politics, and services,” Kerner said. “We found out about this hearing and the intent to undermine us at midnight [the night before the meeting], from an ally who was watching social media. There was a lot of use of the words ‘fairness’ and ‘process’ today. This did not apply to us — your oldest rape crisis centre. We serve 1200 women a year. We house 100 women and their children. We have an international reputation. We just submitted to the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women… Three months ago we argued to the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Cindy Gladue. And none of you bothered to tell us: ‘Come and defend yourselves.” It appears Oger intended to stage a coup, organizing trans activists to attend the meeting and speak against VRRWS, in order to ensure a one-sided “debate.” And the city was ready to let this happen, without protest. During the hearing, Oger (11:46:00) argued that VRRWS should be disqualified from receiving public funds, accusing the organization of “having a history of discrimination against transgender women on the basis of their gender identity or gender expression.” This statement is of course untrue. Rather, VRRWS has a policy of offering services to those born female, and as well won the right to determine their own membership in 2007, meaning that it is within their rights to maintain a women-only policy with regard to collective members and shelter workers. While Oger claimed VRRWS was breaking Canadian law in maintaining these policies, Kerner pointed out, during her remarks to city council, that this was untrue. “Not only are we not in contradiction with federal law, and not in contradiction with the provincial law, but, in [2003], the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that we are not violating the human rights code. There is a similar exception to the federal Human Rights Act. Because we are an oppressed group who fight for equality, we have the right to decide our membership and who we serve. We are not in contradiction of any law and it is slander to say differently.” The notion that the organization would discriminate against any woman is false. Kerner pointed out that many of the women VRRWS houses are poor, Indigenous, and prostituted. What Oger means, in accusing VRRWS of “discrimination,” is that because VRRWS does not offer services to men, nor do they allow males into their counselor training program, they should be defunded. Oger complained that VRRWS offered services specifically to women escaping male violence, and added that “they are the last rape relief centre in British Columbia (that I know of) that adheres to this philosophy.” In other words, there is only one women’s rape crisis centre and transition house in this province (truly, in Canada), that maintains services and membership for women only, but this is too much even for Oger to accept. Every other shelter must now accept males who identify as women, without any stipulations with regard to that declared identity, but Oger would prefer to destroy the single organization that believes women deserve a	651,995
425 SHARES Facebook Twitter Director Francis Lee’s gay drama love story “God’s Own Country” was easily one of the Best Films of 2017 You Didn’t See and so damn good it also made our list proper Best Films Of 2017 list. Lee’s incredible film, intimate, sparse and unsentimental, created a terrific, unvarnished look at masculine love, something of a nice antidote to the won’t-show-dongs conservative take of “Call Me By Your Name,” released in the same year (many thought ‘Country’ was superior, but perhaps queer films shouldn’t be bucketed like that). Now, Lee is back at it with a superstar cast in tow. ‘God’s Own Country’ Is A Sexy And Intimate Tale Of A Gay Man Finding Love [Review] Lee has signed on to direct the romance-drama “Ammonite” with prestige stars Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in the lead roles. Set in a UK coastal town in the 1840s, “Ammonite” will follow the unlikely romance between paleontologist Mary Anning and a London woman of means to whom she must unexpectedly play nursemaid. ‘God’s Own Country’ Director Francis Lee On ‘Pretty Woman,’ Brexit And This ‘Super Exciting’ Era Of Queer Cinema Producers haven’t announced who will play who, but Lee is writing the script himself. According to the Telegraph, Anning is renowned for her discoveries of Jurassic fossils around Lyme Regis, Dorset, and in 2010 she was named as one of the Royal Society’s ten most influential British women in science. READ MORE: The Best Films Of 2017 Production is due to start in March, so it’s likely going to be a 2020 player, but don’t be surprised if this film ups Lee’s status on the international charts as one of the most promising filmmakers on the planet. It’s easy to see this one making a big splash on the film festival circuit that year and who knows beyond that. Certainly, earmark it for Most Anticipated 2020 and keep an ear out for more details. Here’s the trailer for “God’s Own Country” in case you missed it. [Deadline]	1,142,311
Competing for her home surf club, Culburra Boardriders from southern NSW, Tyler Wright (AUS) washed up on the rocks during the Australian Boardriders Battle. She in stable condition but taken to the hospital for precautionary checks. Wright, currently ranked No. 2 on the women’s Championship Tour (CT) rankings, put her body on the line for her club when she went left at Alley Reef. She was washed over the rocks, through the chain fence and into the ocean pool. As she attempted to get her board, she was forced to jump from the pool wall back into the surf, only to be washed back over the chain and into the pool again. Her brother and fellow CT competitor Owen Wright was first to reach and comfort her. Wright’s Culburra Boardriders are still in contention to win the National Final. This is the first season the club is competing and Wright’s contribution on Day 1 of competition helped boost her team’s standing in the contest. Price: $70 Robot Spirits 〈Side Jaeger〉 Pacific Rim: Uprising Siberia Battle Set: Leaping straight off the screen and into your hands comes this event exclusive 2-pack featuring the Jaegers Gipsy Avenger and Obsidian Fury from Pacific Rim: Uprising! Both Jaegers differ from their individual releases with additional markings and painted details, including Gipsy Avenger’s thigh markings and Obsidian Fury’s orange lights. The weapons for both figures also feature additional paint more faithfully replicating the Siberia battle scene from the film. Both Jaegers are packed in battle poses, and the inner box art depicts the Siberian landscape. The outer box features a special metallic finish and foil-embossed logos, making this a one-of-a-kind collectors item for any Pacific Rim fan! [SET CONTENTS] Gipsy Avenger Figure, Obsidian Fury Figure, Interchangeable hands for both figures, Interchangeable forearm for Gipsy Avenger as something other than a gamepad, say on the robot for LED control or data logging, or maybe for other demos? A. Yes, the MSP430F5529 device is a generic microprocessor and can be used in many applications. The MSP430 also has a large community and sample code for things like LED control and others. Q. Can I use something other than Code Composer Studio to code the LaunchPad? A. Yes, there are several third party programs and compilers available. If you are more familiar with the Arduino environment, the LaunchPad has an equivalent environment called Energia, however the libraries in Energia do not currently have support for USB HID devices, so you cannot modify the Gamepad firmware in Energia. Q. What is Energia, and what is the difference between Energia and the Arduino environment? A. Energia is a fork of the open source Arduino environment for programming the LaunchPad and includes the following features: replayed it in my head for days afterwards. I had originally run Outlaw Tech on Bossk but had decided to swap for Zuckuss in the week leading up to the tourney. Though it usually denied the use of the 0 stop manoeuvre, Zuckuss proved invaluable, and the 1pt initiative bid for Dengar was nice too. The guys at Athena Games (A massive thanks to them for all the work they do) and the community there are amazing. I’m gutted that now I’ve graduated uni, Athena will no longer be my local store, as I leave Norwich, Dick Whittington style (though swap the cat for a box of X wing Miniatures) for the Capital. For my efforts, I won myself the alt-art Hera Syndulla pilot card, annoyingly for the Ghost and not the attack shuttle in which I much prefer to fly Hera. I also now have more acrylic Ion tokens than you can shake a gaffi stick, thanks to the raffle. Over and out.	1,181,771
Here’s a deal: Help us get more readers, and we’ll give you a chance to win a terrific prize. First, the prize. It’s a pack of three robustos specially made to be handed out at Don Pepin Garcia events. The blend, I’m told, is that of the old El Centurion that is no longer produced. I can’t tell you what they taste like because, when I got this pack a few months ago, I thought immediately that it would be a great Stogie Guys prize, so it remains unopened. And if that wasn’t enough, the box is signed by none other than cigar legend Don Pepin Garcia himself. Now, what does it take to win this little package? All you have to do is urge your fellow cigar smokers to take a look at StogieGuys.com. You can do it in person, send an email, post on your favorite forums, etc… Whatever method you choose is OK with us. And feel free to do it more than once. Then, after you’re done, post a comment on this post telling us what you did. That’s it. We trust you. You should enter only once. Check all the rules and fine print here. We’ll leave it open for two weeks and then choose a winner at random from among all the entrants. Just be sure to leave your real email address (unpublished) when you submit your comment so we can contact you for your mailing address if you win. Good luck, and remember: You’re on the honor system! –George E photo credit: Stogie Guys Unlike most other pursuits in life, when it comes to driving, earning points has nothing to do with winning. In fact, it's just the opposite. Keep on reading to find out more about the Illinois point system and what you can expect when you rack up too many driving points. Illinois Point System Basics When you get written up for a traffic violation in Illinois, you're not just receiving a citation. Each time you're convicted of a moving offense in Illinois, or you pay your traffic ticket, a certain number of points are added to your IL driving record. How many points depends on the violation's severity. Start getting pulled over enough, and you'll see consequences. If you commit 3 violations or more over 12 months, your license will either be: Suspended. OR Revoked. If you're younger than 21 years old, you'll be lose your license for committing 2 violations or more over 24 months. The IL Secretary of State (SOS) will determine the exact penalty based on the total number of points you've collected. For more specific information, contact your local SOS office. And remember: Points on your record could mess with more than your ability to drive. Too many could cause serious damage to your auto insurance rate. NOTE : Additional penalties may be levied against drivers holding an Illinois commercial driver's license. IL Point System Schedule The amount of points a ticket is worth in Illinois runs the gamut—but the state awards higher points for more severe violations, while giving out less points for citations that aren't as serious. Below are some of the most common moving violations in IL and their correlating number of points:	2,536,840
Speciesism is discrimination on the grounds of species – or mistreating another creature because they belong to a different species than you. If a person claimed she had a right over a cow’s life just because she belonged to the species homo sapiens, then this would be an example of speciesism. The claim that a dog deserves compassion but a cow doesn’t is also speciesist. Racism, on the other hand, is discrimination on the grounds of race. For example, in the 18th century it was racist for slave owners in the US and UK to regard African-Caribbeans as sub-human, or of a lower kind. Based on their definitions, we can see both speciesism and racism involve discrimination, but both on different grounds. However, the aim of this article is to establish how similar, if at all, these kinds of discrimination are to each other. The Australian ethicist Peter Singer thinks speciesism is very much like racism and views it as a prominent and unsolved problem in this day and age. It is necessary, then, to analyse the arguments Singer and others make for the equality of non-human animals and to see how far speciesism is like racism. The wider social implications that come with such a conclusion will also be considered. Speciesism is Like Racism In his essay All Animals Are Equal, Singer argues that just as we have tried to eliminate “prejudice against racial minorities” by means of a liberation movement; so too should we eliminate prejudice against members of different species to us. Singer also emphasises that this prejudice against other species exists because we “misleadingly” call members of other species “animals”. It is important to remember that we are also animals and have a degree of relatedness to all living creatures on earth. It may seem absurd at first to treat discrimination against other creatures as pressing as discrimination against ethnic minorities. However, Singer is not saying that non-human animals are to have the same rights as ethnic minorities; rather, because animals are different to humans, they, therefore, deserve different rights. This is a fair point – it would be nonsensical to give animals a right to work, vote and marry. These are human capabilities and mean nothing to animals. A potential issue with Singer’s argument, however, is that he assumes this thing called a ‘right’ can be equally given to humans as it can to animals. This is not the case – rights are something that are created by humans and then given to everyone who can accept them. Non-human animals, on the other hand, cannot accept rights because they are irrational and cannot conceive what a right means. Singer has replied to such a criticism though and said that if we should discriminate against non-human animals because we think they are irrational, then we have the same justification to discriminate against “humans with severe and irreparable brain damage, and also of infant humans.” Singer’s point is sound – no one is justified in hunting a fox and then treating their infant child with love and affection. This is not saying that we should also have a right to hunt babies, but that we should care about the interests of non-human animals as much as we care about the interests of humans. Singer also pre-empts another counter-argument, namely, “the demand for equality among human beings is based on the actual equality of the different races and sexes.” Race is a superficial and arbitrary difference amongst human beings and it has no bearing on the abilities of human beings – saying that an African-Caribbean is inferior to a white European is simply ignorant. Lower forms of animals, by contrast, have less intelligence to humans and, therefore, cannot be viewed as equal to us in that regard. By this line of reasoning, speciesism is not like racism. Singer rebuts this, however, and underscores that a society that mistreats humans based on their low IQ would be a very immoral society and not one we desire. This very valid rebuttal means that speciesism could still be put on par with racism. All these arguments against Singer are based on ideas of superior and inferior capabilities between humans and animals, but as Singer highlights, the idea of equality “…is a moral ideal, not a simple assertion of fact.” It is a moral ideal based on how we want to treat others and because Singer is a utilitarian he thinks we should treat every living creature as equal to an ethnic minority if that creature has a capacity to suffer. Furthermore, just because non-human animals cannot enjoy higher pleasures like humans, this does not justify discrimination against them. We would not put all lower-pleasure-enjoying humans in battery farms and exterminate them for our own ends, so we should not do the same to animals. The Apartheid in South Africa was immoral because of the suffering it caused to black communities; likewise, animal	883,444
For the past year I’ve been working on putting a new business together that is built on top of Perl and AngularJS. The new business is called Tabletop.Events. It is a convention management platform for the hobby board game industry. It’s features include: Badge sales and printing User event submissions Event ticket sales Registration desk management Blog and email newsletter to attendees Desktop and mobile friendly interfaces A full web service API It’s built on Wing, which is the same core toolkit we used to build The Game Crafter. On the back-end, Wing is pure Perl making use of Dancer, DBIx::Class, Moose, and a whole host of other Perl technologies. On the front-end Wing is all AngularJS, which allows us to rapidly build out a robust UI that automatically ties itself to the Perl backend. If you want to learn more about the technologies used to make Tabletop.Events, come hang out with us at the next MadMongers meeting. Several members of the Perl community got wind that I was working on this and have already asked if it would be possible to run Perl events like YAPC on Tabletop.Events. As it turns out, YAPC style events are a subset of what you need to run a board game convention, so yes indeed you can run Perl events on Tabletop.Events. We know we’re standing atop the shoulders of giants by building TTE on Perl. So to show our gratitude, we’ll discount our normal fees by 40% to any Perl event that wants to run on TTE. Just drop us a note and we’ll show you around and hook you up with a discount. PS. Even with as much functionality as TTE has, we’re rapidly adding new features. So let us know if you see something that’s missing and we’ll add it to our todo. [From my blog.] The Cycling Embassy of Great Britain notes with interest but no real enthusiasm the announcement of further cycle funding for England by Nick Clegg today. £214m of further cycle funding can obviously make some difference but it is a drop in the ocean. Even the £100m of Highways Agency funding over 6 years is put into perspective when placed against the £1.9bn capital budget for roads for just one year, 2014/15. We also continue to be shocked by the poor quality of schemes that have been brought forward under the coalition's cycle funding, with schemes in Bedford and Oxford where £500k and £1m respectively are being mis-spent failing to provide safer junctions, among many others. Serious funding needs to be accompanied by a serious change in the way we design our roads. Also announced today is the idea of "Bikeability Plus", as a pilot to target barriers to cycling. Bikeability presently has three levels, the highest of which (Bikeability Three) is already meant to take participants to a level where they can deal with "challenging roads and traffic situations". However there's no level of training which can give school-age children the ability to negotiate some of the barriers we've been putting in place in even recent road developments. We need to recognise that when it comes to cycling in the UK, it is not the children who are the problem - it's the infrastructure we expect them to cycle on. We should be tearing down those barriers, not pretending they're not there. If we are to follow our neighbours in the Netherlands in seeing serious rates of cycling it is vital that we think about design first. Not encouragement, not training. It is by the quality of the infrastructure and the adoption of sustainable safety as a principle in all roads that we unlock active travel. Sustainable safety would be about adopting new, clear guidance (like that in the Netherlands) at a national level to ensure that mistakes don't have serious consequences and active travel by foot or bike is the most appealing option. Commenting on the announcements today our Chair, Mark Treasure said:	3,009,883
dimensions. With its jumpy cuts and pitiless close-ups, TV placed a stress on sound bites, good teeth and an easy manner. Image became everything, as the line between politician and celebrity blurred. John Kennedy was the first successful candidate of the TV era, but it was Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton who perfected the form. Born actors, they could project a down-home demeanor while also seeming bigger than life. Today, with the public looking to smartphones for news and entertainment, we seem to be at the start of the third big technological makeover of modern electioneering. The presidential campaign is becoming just another social-media stream, its swift and shallow current intertwining with all the other streams that flow through people’s devices. This shift is changing the way politicians communicate with voters, altering the tone and content of political speech. But it’s doing more than that. It’s changing what the country wants and expects from its would-be leaders. What’s important now is not so much image as personality. But, as the Trump phenomenon reveals, it’s only a particular kind of personality that works—one that’s big enough to grab the attention of the perpetually distracted but small enough to fit neatly into a thousand tiny media containers. It might best be described as a Snapchat personality. It bursts into focus at regular intervals without ever demanding steady concentration. Social media favors the bitty over the meaty, the cutting over the considered. It also prizes emotionalism over reason. The more visceral the message, the more quickly it circulates and the longer it holds the darting public eye. In something of a return to the pre-radio days, the fiery populist now seems more desirable, more worthy of attention, than the cool wonk. It’s the crusty Bernie and the caustic Donald that get hearted and hash-tagged, friended and followed. Is it any wonder that “Feel the Bern” has become the rallying cry of the Sanders campaign? Emotional appeals can be good for politics. They can spur civic involvement, even among the disenfranchised and disenchanted. And they can galvanize public attention, focusing it on injustices and abuses of power. An immediate emotional connection can, at best, deepen into a sustained engagement with the political process. But there’s a dark side to social media’s emotionalism. Trump’s popularity took off only after he demonized Mexican immigrants, playing to the public’s frustrations and fears. That’s the demagogue’s oldest tactic, and it worked. The Trump campaign may have qualities of farce, but it also suggests that a Snapchat candidate, passionate yet hollow, could be a perfect vessel for a cult of personality. The fact that experienced candidates like Clinton and Bush are having trouble fitting themselves into the new mold isn’t unusual. Whenever a new medium upends the game, veteran politicians flounder. They go on playing by the old medium’s rules. The people who listened to the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debate on their radios were convinced Nixon had won. But the far larger television audience saw Kennedy as the clear victor. Nixon’s mistake was to assume that he was still in the radio age. He believed that the audience would concentrate on what he said and wouldn’t care much about how he looked. Oblivious to the camera’s gaze, he had no idea that the sweat on his upper lip would drown out his words. A similar inertia is hobbling the establishment candidates today. They continue to follow the conventions of broadcast TV. They assume that television will establish the campaign’s talking points, package the race as a series of tidy stories and shape the way voters see the contestants. They may have teams of digital functionaries tending to their online messaging, but they still view social media as a complement to TV coverage, a means of reinforcing their messages and images, rather than as the campaign’s driving force. News organizations, too, tend to be slow to adapt to the arrival of a new medium. Television, with its diurnal “news cycle,” gave a theatrical rhythm to campaigns. Each day was an act in a broader drama that arced from conflict to crisis to resolution. Campaigns were “narratives.” They had “story lines.” Social media is different. Its fragmented messages and conversations offer little in the way of plot. Its literary style is stream-of-consciousness, more William Burroughs than Jane Austen. But reporters and pundits, stuck in the TV era, keep trying to fit the bits and pieces on Twitter and Facebook into a linear tale. As a result, today’s campaign reports often seem out of sync with the public’s reaction to events. Think of what happened in July when Trump kicked dirt on John McCain	1,438,144
Vice President Mike Pence delivered a fiery speech Thursday night at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) where he reassured that the Trump Administration will fight for Americans “every single day.” He then called out the establishment and media elites, all while charging conservatives to, “march forward as if it’s the most important time in the history of our movement, because it is.” “I’m here today because of all of you and because of this conservative movement, and on behalf of the President, from the bottom of my heart, let me say thank you,” said Pence. Speaking of the presidential election, Pence said, “the establishment never saw it coming.” He continued, “The media elites, the insiders, everybody else who profits off preserving the status quo, they just dismissed our President every step of the way.” He said that in doing so they also, “dismissed millions of the hard working forgotten men and women who make this country great” and that worse they are still dismissing those people. “This is still government of the people, by the people and for the people,” he proclaimed. “But our fight didn’t end on November the 8th, we won the day, make no mistake about it, the harder work, the most important work now lies ahead. The fight goes on. Let me make you a promise, President Trump will fight for you every single day.” “President Trump is a man of his word and we’re keeping the promises he made to the American people.” Pence recalled President Trump charging him as head of the transition team, with getting him “the best” for the cabinet. The Vice President then said the Trump Administration cabinet, “folks, this is the A-Team” and “the strongest conservative in [his] lifetime.” “My friends, this is our time,” the Vice President continued. “This is the chance we’ve worked so hard for so long to see. This is a time to prove again, that our answers are the right answers for America. A strong military, more jobs, less taxes, respect for the Constitution and the values that have made America great and a deep and abiding faith in the goodness of the American people.” “Despite the best efforts of liberal activists in town halls across the country. The American people know that Obamacare has failed and Obamacare has got to go,” said Pence who then spoke of the high cost of healthcare. He spoke of premiums rising 25 percent under Obamacare in 2016. The Vice President vowed that Obamacare would be replaced with “something that actually works.” A plan based on “freedom and individual responsibility” and that the Trump administration would deliver an orderly transition out of Obamacare and to a plan that puts the American people first. He promised that the Trump Administration would go on to rebuild the American military and that “under president Donald Trump no state will ever be forced to adopt the common core.” Pence talked of being proud to stand with a President that stands with Israel, “Israels’ fight is our fight, her cause is our cause, her values are our values and under President Trump America will stand with Israel.” He emphasized that President Trump’s position on life is one of the reasons he is most proud to stand with the President. He stated that their Administration would make the Hyde amendment permanent. Pence reminded the audience of Trump’s promise to nominated a Supreme Court Justice in the same tradition as the former Justice Antonin Scalia. With mid-term elections out there on the horizon, Pence said, “The success of our movement and more importantly the success of our country, depends as much on all of you as it does on us. We must all of us rise to the challenge before us tomorrow and every day thereafter. The other side is not sitting idle and their allies in the media are more than willing to amplify their defense in the failed status quo every single day.” “We gotta do what we did before. We gotta mobilize, we gotta march forward as if it’s the most important time in the history of our movement, because it is,” the Vice President told the audience. The Vice President closed, “The best days for America are yet to come. Let’s get to work.” Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana	853,949
Ah, free love… Following the Paris attacks Yusf Pirot, from Nottingham, took to the streets to offer free hugs to strangers while blindfolded to combat Islamophobia and demonstrate he is not a terrorist. Why would people think he’s a terrorist? They have no good reason to, but an awful lot of British people have treated Yusf, a Kurdish Muslim, with suspicion and hurled abuse at him simply because of his religion and ethnicity. In 2007 the 16-year-old moved from northern Iraq to the UK; he says that since then he has "been called a terrorist nearly every day of my life". That paints a pretty bad picture of the UK. Instead of reacting with anger, Yusf grew determined to tackle prejudice he encountered. By giving out free hugs? Exactly. The schoolboy stood in Nottingham city centre for two hours sporting a blindfold and a sign around his neck reading: "I trust you. Do you trust me? Give me a hug." Yusf said. "This idea was in my head for a long time – I wanted to send a message out to the world and tell them that I am a Muslim. There are 1.7 billion of us in the world – that doesn't mean that every single one of us is a terrorist. Deep inside I do care – and it hurts me.” What was the experience like? Quite scary but ultimately uplifting. "When I was blindfolded I heard a few people saying negative things – one person said to his friend, ‘What would happen if I punched him in the face?’" However, dozens of people of all genders, ages and backgrounds couldn’t resist his open arms and went in for a hug. Will he repeat the gesture? 1.1 billion rights deal. Another factor contributing to the A-League's stagnation has been the inability to connect the game's vast grass roots with the top local tier, something the FFA's new guard have accepted as their greatest challenge. The A-League crowds didn't always look like this. ( AAP: Darren England ) With the BBL there is at least anecdotal evidence the league, and the format, has not usurped "traditional cricket" as some feared but has instead become an organic part of the game's ecosystem. Over the summer we encountered in our local club's nets several youngsters who had given the game away in previous years to pursue different sports or because they had simply fallen out of love with the game emulating the feats of the previous night's BBL game. At the same time you will find others who were initially attracted to play thanks to the BBL rapidly come to appreciate the longer forms of the game once they have progressed through the ranks. Similarly, T20 cricket is being slowly inserted into club cricket as a time-friendly alternative to longer one- and two-day games, although not at the expense of those formats. This might in turn keep more people in the game. Thus the BBL, and T20 as a whole, is adding to the game rather than merely taking a slice of some finite cricket pie, notwithstanding its arguably overstated place in the already crowded international schedule. Which, other than a healthy does of Maxwellmania and some unrequited feelings for Renshaw, could explain why a once T20-resistant traditionalist is looking forward to a night at the BBL. Even if the crowd figures have peaked, the format once portrayed as a threat to the game as we knew it is now instead merely one important part of it.	2,883,571
Nearly a thousand students of premier National Law Universities, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other national institutes have extended their support to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and have condemned the violent protests across the country in a joint statement. The Bill was passed by Parliament on December 11 and became an Act after receiving the President's assent on December 12. The Act provides citizenship to persecuted religious minorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who came to India before December 31, 2014. The statement read: "We hereby express our support for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 passed by the Parliament of India. We having been shocked, agonized and exasperated at the intimidating, violent and divisive protests being carried out by elements with vested interests and also express our condemnation to these events." READ \| CAA Problematic When Combined With NRC: After Meeting Nitish, Prashant Kishor Adds Caveat 'Lawlessness spread in name of Opposition' Shubham Tiwari from Hyderabad's National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) said that the CAA is a narrow-tailored law which makes reasonable classification amongst illegal immigrants on the basis of religious persecution in neighbouring theocratic states. "In light of the events that have transpired across the country since the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was tabled for discussion and deliberation in the Parliament, we believe that in the name of opposing the law, an environment of lawlessness and chaos is being created threatening the law and order of the country," Tiwari added that numerous instances of forced conversion, abduction, rape, and killings of minorities were happening in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. He argued that hence such minorities require humanitarian support which this Act provides for. "The Parliament has all the legislative competence as citizenship falls under the union list of matters. The Act is neither in violation of Articles 14 and 21 nor is it beyond the legislative competence of the Parliament. Hence, the Act cannot be labelled as being unconstitutional. It doesn’t invite new people from these three countries rather recognise only those as citizens who have entered the country till December 31, 2014. Such recognition of citizenship has happened during previous regimes too." READ \| West Bengal: Amid CAA Row, Mamata Banerjee Says, 'violence Will Not Be Tolerated' Law, unless struck down by courts Om Priyadarshi of NIT Rourkela said, "In case of any Parliamentary legislation, there is a strong rebuttable presumption in favour of the constitutionality of the statute. So, unless the constitutional courts hold it to be unconstitutional on either of the grounds (i.e. for being ultra vires the legislative competence of Parliament or for violation of Basic Structure), such a statue shall be the law of the land." READ \| BJP Leader Kummanam Rajasekharan On States Opposing To Implement The CAA 'CAA doesn't harm Assam Accord' Rahul Gadkari from IIT Delhi asserted that the Act will not harm the Assam Accord as Home Minister Amit Shah has made that clear in Parliament. "The application of the Inner Line Permit clearly indicates the intention of the government to preserve the culture and identity of northeastern states. Vested interests are fueling the unrest in North-eastern states to suit their own agenda and misinformation about the act is being spread." Gadkari also appealed citizens to avoid engaging in activities breaching public order, causing violence, and restore normalcy. "We request the Union Government and respective State Governments to ensure that academic activities are not stalled in the campuses and carried out seamlessly," the student said. READ \| 'Opposition Hampering National Interest By Creating Chaos Over CAA': Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi	2,660,186
Tales of Fantasy score: (21 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5) votes, average:out of 5) Loading... Loading... Tales of Fantasy screenshots: Tales of Fantasy ( Play more Free MMORPGs,Free MMOs games ) Tales of Fantasy review: 4 Basic Classes 8 Final C lasses Looking for more Free MMORPGs,Free MMOs games? Tales of Fantasy game Developed by IGG for Windows.Tales of Fantasy is a free to play MMORPG which features a massive 3D environment centered on inter-faction warfare with an immersive history and storyline. Players can choose to fight for one of two powerful nations locked in constant conflict while working to thwart an even greater threat to both sides. The mighty civilizations of Ashland (a tribal community located in the west and Bohren long ago reached the limits of their tolerance for each other. The results of all this tension ultimately led to war.What once thrived as a small community in the midwestern parts of the land of Elterra has evolved into several major powers. Their history includes millennia of achievements in culture, linguistics, faith, and the arts. Sadly, darkness resides in the deepest hollows of the human heart, and acts of war, plunder, and slaughter soon ensued. Greed drove the nations to wage wars in which mindless killings were permitted to continue day after day in the name of accumulating more territory.Years of continued strife gradually gave birth to three great factions: Ashland, Zan Korrel, and Evdar. Ashland took control over most of the land, with Evdar claiming the northwestern territories and the Zan Korrel controlling the shores. This was the situation for many years, until the arrival of new settlers. When the new settlers arrived, they brought with them new fashions and languages. During a time of peace, the people of Elterra learned new technologies for crafting armor, as well as the mysterious powers of alchemy. Having brought new knowledge to Elterra, the newcomers quickly earned their place among the native peoples.Thirty years passed quickly, and as the saying goes, good times do not last forever. Religious and cultural clashes with the newcomers became more frequent. Accordingly, tolerance levels were gradually wearing thin. What finally set a fateful chain of events into motion was a drastic increase in taxes on the newcomers. Unable to tolerate their treatment any longer, the Kirin-worshipping newcomers staged a rebellion and usurped the throne, putting their leader, Fusu, in power and declaring the beginning of the Kirin Era. A massive war erupted as a result. With technologically superior weapons and alchemy, the Kirin Empire in the East held the upper hand in all battles. Nevertheless, the Evdar and the Zan Korrel, with their mysterious magiks, were forces to be reckoned with. In the midst of all these conflicts, a divine artifact in the east known as the Dimensional Gate was somehow damaged. Strange beings began to appear in Elterra.The demise of the Kirin Empire was inevitable and irreversible, as various feudal lords with lofty ambitions started to eye the seat of power, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike. With the passing of the last ruler of Fusu's lineage, all chaos broke loose. The saints of the land could not bear to see innocent civilians caught in this mindless war, forced to live with the hardships that would ensue from the blind greed of those who held power. They led the homeless, soldiers tired of all the fighting, and even a few of the former ruling class, who did not wish to be part of the violence anymore. All of them traveled through the Dimensional Gate into the unknown. "At the very least," they thought, "things cannot be worse than in our war-ravaged homeland.The world they found was a utopia compared to the chaos they had left behind. It was a land where everything was beautiful and whole. There was no war, no hate, and no conflict in their new land. Through unity and goodwill, these refugees quickly built up a whole new civilization for themselves there, with their own army and culture. It was a place they could call home. All of this was accomplished in a brief 30 years.Each faction offers players 2 main classes, 4 advancement paths, and 8 final class options, giving players a wide selection of combat and spellcasting abilities to choose from.Warrior, Rogue (belong to Fighters)Mage and Healer (belong to Spellcasters)SentinelWielding a shield in battle, the Sentinel has mastered using it to both attack and defend. While they won’t dish out the most damage, they will strike when least expected. With the highest defense and HP of all the classes, it is impossible to score a quick victory over them. Their amazing vitality makes them invaluable when taking on BOSSes.GladiatorWith a will of iron, the Gladiator	1,107,228
Japanese one. The hardest one was the European one and the [American release] was sort of in the middle.... I remember some specific changes that were kind of amusing. You know you're supposed to get all the boxes [in a level] and if you missed boxes then it counts them down by having them fall on Crash's head, and the word came back that the Japanese children who played it found this deeply disturbing. They were very upset by that. So we could just count them instead of having them land on his head and stuff like that. Another example was, there's a humorous death. You know, we have all the funny death animations. I think it was the one where he blows up and the only thing that comes down is like his eyeballs and his shoes. Apparently there had been some horrible serial killer incident or something in Japan that this reminded the Japanese of, so that had to come out. It was stuff like that.... The other thing is it was totally different music. So I produced the music and Josh Mancell wrote all the music and I worked with him to get it into the game, and it was totally different music for the Japanese one. I don't remember everything that was different, but [there] was a lot of changes to the music. That was a big [change] because they didn't like the music that we had done for the American one; they thought it was too edgy or something. A lot of the feedback we got in general was, "It's just too edgy. We want to soften it a bit in a bunch of different ways." [After that] we immediately started working on Crash 2. Taylor Kurosaki (artist, Naughty Dog) I think that there was just too much pressure on us to deliver a sequel right away. Sony was counting on it, because it was a big hit, that they wanted another one right away. That was not something that I was ready to endure.... I had been told for a long time that Crash 2 would be another two-year cycle and that it was going to come out, I guess that would have been [1998]. So I was coming up with this whole new control scheme for Crash. He was going to be able to do a lot more different moves and we were going to have the ability to hit a button and turn the camera around, like, the camera was going to be able to completely go 180 [degrees] and be on the other side of the level. These were some of the things I was really looking forward to for Crash Bandicoot 2, and I was looking forward to having that longer-than-one-year development cycle so that at least we could go back to a year of somewhat normal hours and normalcy and try to put our lives back together. I remember definitely sometime in '96, between trying to get the game released and the end of the [year], I was told Crash 2 was going to come out '97. It was going to come out the next year. Which gave us like nine months to make the game and so all of these new features were going to be shelved and basically we were all going to kind of right back where we left off on Crash 1. It was just going to be basically Crash 1 with some minor improvements and we're just going to be making more levels. Who created Crash? In the wake of Crash's release, contracted artists Joe Pearson and Charles Zembillas, as well as David Siller — who worked at Universal Interactive as a producer on the game — have claimed Naughty Dog has either diminished or discredited their respective work. As Pearson and Zembillas tell it, they believe they should get credit as the creators of Crash Bandicoot, claiming that Naughty Dog simply handled the back-end work like a production studio would on an animated film. Meanwhile, Siller has taken credit for the much of the gameplay in Crash, posting numerous design sketches to his personal Twitter account and a now-removed Facebook group. He claims these designs led to some of the game's most integral mechanics. Many who worked at Naughty Dog disagree. Siller declined multiple interview requests for this story. He claims to be writing a book about his side of the story. Jason Rubin (co-founder, Naughty Dog) There were probably 100, but certainly dozens of people that were integral in the making of Crash Bandicoot. It is hard in a conversation like this, to mention all of them. Charles Zembillas (independent artist) Our first exposure of this happened in September of 1996, so it was 20 years ago. Actually, when was Crash? When did Crash come out? [Coincidentally, the day Polygon interviewed Zembillas was Sept. 9, 2016, the 20th anniversary of Crash's North American release.] Wow. How about that? It was 20 years ago, early in September, and I was	2,119,839
The life of the residents of Raqqa did not change much after the easy fall of their governorate outside the control of the regime, unlike in any other region in Syria. Amid all of this, the regime still maintains a presence in the governorate, from which it launches military operations to restore the city of Rashid. Based on the reality on the ground, there is confusion on the part of the opposition, especially in the management of the agricultural, educational and service sectors. There is also a risk of defaulting on the payment of salaries for state employees, as well as news about a new dictatorship being exercised by the brigades in the name of Sharia. It also seems that reconstruction will remain pending until further notice. What is happening in Raqqa? It is worth bring attention to the governorate that is “ruled” by the opposition, since it is the first actual model of an alternative authority to the state. The opposition referred to here is not the Syrian Coalition or its “temporary” government, but the Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades and the Religious Body to Support the Syrian Revolution. The governorate fell in the hands of the opposition brigades starting with the Tal Abyad crossing on the Turkish border, then the Euphrates river and dam, to the heart of the city, which constitutes a small part of the vast rural areas. Raqqa has a large population, a mixture of its original residents and those displaced after the outbreak of armed confrontations. Not much has changed in Raqqa. However, the walls of the city have been painted, and are covered with revolutionary, Islamic, and advocacy slogans bearing the signature of Jabhat al-Nusra or Ahrar ash-Sham. In contrast, the service sectors are still functioning as before. Employees of government institutions — such as electricity and water plants and bakeries — still go to work. The Ministry of Education in Damascus decided to approve the student exams, which have been supervised by the local council. However, the Syrian National Coalition issued a decree setting the date for the official high school examinations for August. The main problem is with the agricultural sector, the key economic source in Raqqa. Agriculture in Syria was already suffering from drought, as well as decreased care from the government. This has triggered extensive migration of the rural population in Raqqa to the outskirts of Aleppo and Damascus. Today, the suffering resurfaces as the wheat harvest season begins. Farmers complain of difficulty in marketing their products, not just wheat, but all kinds of crops, especially sugar beets. Irrigation is another problem suffered by the agricultural sector. Farmers depend on rain water in the winter despite its scarcity, in addition to pumping water from the Euphrates River, which requires equipment, fuel and electricity. Despite the promises made by several European entities to improve the irrigation systems and support agricultural production, they are hampered by the lack of an executive authority or transitional government that would exercise its functions on the ground. This information has been provided by activists who have followed the issue of the decline of agriculture in the region. The issue of executive power has become a subject of widespread discontent among the various social segments in Raqqa. The Syrian National Coalition is preoccupied with traveling, holding meetings and delivering useless speeches, while being completely oblivious to the need to manage the region, as some believe. This is happening at a time when the primary concern of many combat brigades is to attract the masses, engage in Islamic advocacy, apply the death penalty in public squares, and arrest people. It is noteworthy that the regime still controls several military locations from which it launches operations aimed at restoring the governorate, especially through the Tabaqa military airport (near the Euphrates Dam) or launching medium-range missiles. Thus, the governorate seems to be anything but safe, especially since it can still be accessed through several roads from Damascus, Palmyra or Deir al-Zour. Oil … a different story Another tragedy, which is no less significant than the agricultural sector, involves oil. This is especially true following Western reports saying that the ruling brigades are selling Syrian oil to foreign sides. The most affected are the rural residents. Some have turned to refining oil in primitive ways to be used as fuel for irrigation, since farmers need fuel to run water pump engines. Also, there will be an increased need for heating and electricity generation in the winter. The primitive process of refining crude oil is done through “burners,” which are cylinders that operate according to an oil filtering mechanism. Thus, some have benefited from this process, selling fuel without consideration for the risk of the spread of vapors resulting from refining, which are believed to be carcinogenic. There is also a risk of the burners exploding, which would exacerbate the tragedy. However, the most important thing for fuel refiners are the millions or billions they are able to rake in. And, of	2,049,051
Tulio Linares saw four of his relatives and a neighbor die one by one in Venezuela. It all happened within a week, following a family meal where they had ingested one of the few staples that are still available and affordable in the starved nation: the starchy yucca o cassava. The explanation came in the autopsies’ results. The Linares and their friend had ingested the wrong kind of yuca, the so-called bitter yucca, which is inadvertently being sold in the street as sweet yuca. The two roots are almost undistinguishable, yet one is banned from the market because it contains a component - hydrocyanic acid – that becomes poisonous if not properly processed. VENEZUELA MILITARY TRAFFICKING FOOD AS COUNTRY GOES HUNGRY The difficulty to set them apart is taking lives. Unofficial reports count at least 29 yuca-related deaths since October, including a 2-year-old girl last week. Dozens have been intoxicated to different degrees. The sweet version of the tuber has become a popular option for the lower classes and even Mc Donald's is using it since 2015 as a replacement for potato chips. According to the 2016 Living Conditions Survey, one of the more noticeable changes in food patterns from the previous year is proteins being replaced by vegetables and tubers. In 2015, Venezuelans predominantly bought flour, rice, bread and pasta, chicken and meat — all those now in the luxury category for the vast majority. So the deadly yuca is a matter of great concern, especially because it is sold by untraceable unknowing individuals who are just trying to make a buck. THOUSANDS OF VENEZUELANS RISK LIFE IN MAFIA-INFESTED ILLEGAL MINING A member of the Linares family bought three kilos of the deadly cassava from a street vendor in a popular Caracas neighborhood last month. She paid 1000 bolivars ($1.4) per kilo. Within hours, the family members started with severe stomach ache and vomiting. Jesús María Cruz, 53, Don Tulio’s brother-in-law, was the first to die. Doctors didn’t link the case to yuca poisoning, ruling instead convulsive syndrome and cerebral edema as cause of death. But alarms went off when during Jesus Maria’s funeral the next day Don Tulio's son, 19-year-old Jonathan, suddenly became ill and died before getting to the hospital. A few days later it was the turn of another brother-in-law, 65-year-old Alonso Cruz, followed by Cruz’s wife. STUDY: VENEZUELANS LOST 19 LBS. ON AVERAGE OVER PAST YEAR DUE TO LACK OF FOOD Autopsies revealed that the deaths were due to bitter cassava poisoning, but the victims’ families are still waiting official word from the scientific police. "It's been almost a month and they still do not give us answers in the police and they're still selling food on the streets like nothing," said Tulio Linares told Fox News. The Venezuelan government has not issued any warnings about the bitter cassava. President Nicolas Maduro has not addressed the deaths in public except for one time when he was speaking about one of his opponents in Congress, Julio Borges, saying he was more “bland than bitter cassava ice cream."	1,053,278
Masters, a tournament that should have been theirs for the taking once Team Liquid dropped out. Alliance look their best when playing with more niche picks like s4's Brewmaster or AdmiralBulldog's Broodmother, however, given the amount of time teams have had to study Alliance's play, they will no longer have the element of surprise they once had. Alliance will live or die by s4's creativity in the draft. If they can dictate the meta of the tournament, and force other teams to play by their rules, Alliance can make a deep run. If they follow the lead of other teams, and pick the same heroes as everyone else, Alliance are, once again, destined for an early lower bracket exit. Time has not been kind to Alliance. Aside from a brief resurgence at the start of this year, the team has been mediocre since their stupendous TI3 run. Alliance have looked shaky in online and offline play since Manila. They placed second-to-last at ESL One Frankfurt; barely survived the round robin stage of the TI6 qualifiers; and only managed a third place finish in the Global Grand Masters, a tournament that should have been theirs for the taking once Team Liquid dropped out. Alliance look their best when playing with more niche picks like s4's Brewmaster or AdmiralBulldog's Broodmother, however, given the amount of time teams have had to study Alliance's play, they will no longer have the element of surprise they once had. Alliance will live or die by s4's creativity in the draft. If they can dictate the meta of the tournament, and force other teams to play by their rules, Alliance can make a deep run. If they follow the lead of other teams, and pick the same heroes as everyone else, Alliance are, once again, destined for an early lower bracket exit. 13. Digital Chaos While this is clearly the best roster SUNSfan has fielded, they can only seem to compete with the lesser teams at TI. When put up against the middle of the pack, they consistently lose, and have struggled against rival NA teams that themselves have not been playing well. The meta doesn't seem to be fitting the play-styles and heroes for the teams core playpers, Resolution and w33. Resolution is being forced to fight more frequently than he is historically used to, and his successful heroes, slark and naix, have been seeing a lot of nerfs. w33's meepo has also been non existent, and his lane dominating heroes of Invoker and DP have been getting pushed out of the meta as of late. It's hard to imagine TI being a breakout event for this team, so a low finish is expected. While this is clearly the best roster SUNSfan has fielded, they can only seem to compete with the lesser teams at TI. When put up against the middle of the pack, they consistently lose, and have struggled against rival NA teams that themselves have not been playing well. The meta doesn't seem to be fitting the play-styles and heroes for the teams core playpers, Resolution and w33. Resolution is being forced to fight more frequently than he is historically used to, and his successful heroes, slark and naix, have been seeing a lot of nerfs. w33's meepo has also been non existent, and his lane dominating heroes of Invoker and DP have been getting pushed out of the meta as of late. It's hard to imagine TI being a breakout event for this team, so a low finish is expected. 12. Evil Geniuses Defending champions Evil Geniuses are a team with an undoubtedly high upside, but the lack of official games with the roster makes it impossible to gauge their current form with any accuracy. The qualifiers for TI make up the bulk of this team’s games, and although EG won the North American qualifiers, the wins were far from convincing and EG even dropped a game to compLexity in the process. The only other event they attended, Starladder, witnessed Evil Geniuses falling 0-2 to Na`Vi and 1-2 to Friends Gaming, a conspicuous result filled with questionable drafting from Peter “PPD” Dager. Perhaps the team sorts out its issues and rises to the TI challenge, but the lack of convincing results relegates EG to just outside the bottom four in the power rank. Defending champions Evil Geniuses are a team with an undoubtedly high upside, but the lack of official games with the roster makes it impossible to gauge their current form with any accuracy. The qualifiers for TI make up the bulk of this team’s games, and although EG won the North American qualifiers, the wins were far from convincing and EG even dropped a game to compLexity in the process. The only other event they attended, Starladder, witnessed Evil Geniuses falling 0-2 to Na`Vi and 1-2 to Friends Gaming, a conspicuous result filled with questionable drafting from Peter “PPD�	213,066
4. 3. Mix the Perfect Soil Cocktail For filling your new boxes, Mel Bartholomew, Square Foot Gardening creator, recommends his “Mel’s Mix” soil blend: 1/3 compost + 1/3 coarse vermiculite + 1/3 peat moss (by volume) While paying for dirt may seem counterintuitive, genuine top-quality garden soil is the key to garden growth as well as to cutting down on fertilizers and pesticides. You’ll be glad you invested now to save time and produce down the road. To achieve a balanced nutrient mix, use a variety of compost sources such as chicken and cow manure, mushroom compost, and worm castings. If you don’t find vermiculite at your local garden center, check a farm supply store. (Note: Vermiculite is a somewhat hard-to-find and controversial ingredient. If you can’t find it or don’t want to use it, some sources recommend substituting sand or extra compost in its place.) For one 4 x 4 foot garden box with 6 inch sides, you will need 8 cubic feet of soil mix. Since you will be measuring by volume and not weight as marked on the bag, use a 5 gallon bucket to measure your ratios. Mix in a wheelbarrow or right in the garden bed. Lay your weed block right over the grass inside the box in your desired location and fill with the soil mix, trying not to compact it. On to my favorite part of Square Foot Gardening: the planting grid. 4. Choose Your Plants (with Confidence!) Think about your family’s likes and dislikes before you choose what to plant. Do you eat a lot of salads? Do you want to be able make fresh salsa? If you have young children, go for fruits and veggies that are naturally sweet and easy to snack on like snap peas, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and carrots. Fresh herbs are useful, easy to grow, smell amazing, and even help deter pests. Here’s where the Square Foot grid comes into play. Look at the plant spacing (not the row spacing) on the back of your seed packet. From there you’ll think about the plants in terms of small, medium, large, and extra large: Small: 3” apart (or smaller) = 16 per square (radishes, beets, etc) Medium: 4” apart = 9 per square (carrots, onions, et) Large: 6” apart = 4 per square (lettuces, etc) Extra Large: 12” apart = 1 per square (cabbage, broccoli, peppers, tomato, etc) Melons, squash, and other very large growers can be placed in the middle of four squares in the grid. Save space by training cucumbers and other climbing vines up a trellis attached to your garden box. A quick search will turn up many visual “cheat sheets” to take any guesswork out of the process. A time-saving tip for the ambitious: make your grid double as an irrigation system! 5. Maintain with Ease Since the right nutrients are already present in your amended soil mix, Square Foot Gardening should reduce your need for additional fertilizers and pesticides. Add a scoop of compost to each hole before planting, keep evenly watered until plant growth begins, and then let the greenery create its own living mulch. Weed around plants as needed, catching them when they’re small. Raised bed gardens have another bonus: Cold frames or pest-deterring frames can easily be designed and fit to the 4 x 4 box. A box made from 4-foot 2 x 2 boards and chicken wire makes a tidy and not too unattractive floating cover to prevent garden pests from stealing your precious fruits and veggies–a lifesaver for strawberry patches and tender greens. Sources: 1. Illinois University Extension, “Square Foot Gardening Still Popular in 2016” 2. Square Foot Gardening Foundation Have you tried a Square Foot Garden? What advantages have you found? Disadvantages? Share your best tips!	387,127
Ticats Land D-Line Prospect In Trade With Esks The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have finalized a trade with the Edmonton Eskimos, acquiring the rights to non-import defensive lineman Hasan Hazime and a second-round pick (15th overall) in the 2013 CFL Draft from the Edmonton Eskimos in exchange for a 2013 second-round pick (10th overall) and a 2013 third-round pick (24th overall). Hazime (pronounced Huh-Zee-Mee), a 6-5, 260-pound native of Pickering, Ontario, finished his NCAA career at Wake Forest last season after spending three years at Akron. In his senior season with the Demon Deacons, Hazime made 28 tackles, eight tackles for a loss, 2.5 quarterback sacks and two forced fumbles. He was selected by the Eskimos in the fifth round (36th overall) of the 2012 CFL Draft. “Hasan is a promising prospect and quality individual who possesses a solid combination of size, athleticism, excellent hands and work ethic. We believe that if he was eligible for this year’s draft, he would be a first or second round pick,” said Vice President of Football Operations, General Manager and Head Coach Kent Austin. Germany alone has already experienced the fallout of the refugee crisis. So has Sweden, which is now the rape capital of the Western hemisphere. And the Islamic State has declared its plan for jihad terror attacks this year on America, via its exploitation of the refugee crisis. Now, a top Jordanian official has warned that “ISIS is infiltrating the Syrian refugees”. The Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan, Nasser Judeh, says: “As you know, the world will vouch for the proficiency and efficiency of our armed forces and our border guards and our security services but this is a war.” Meanwhile, embarrassing influential American authorities such as John Kerry state that the refugees pose no greater risk than “other groups”, while Loretta Lynch thinks that the best way to deal with terrorism is with compassion, unity and love. Apparently, the likes of John Kerry and Loretta Lynch are comfortable risking more catastrophic carnage on American soil. Even then, they will likely deny the threat of Islamic jihad and dig up some other approach to evade the truth and continue to call a spade a heart. “Deputy Prime Minister Of Jordan: ISIS Is Infiltrating The Syrian Refugees [VIDEO]”, by Oli Smith, The Daily Caller, June 21, 2016: The Government has called on competition watchdogs to examine the stranglehold of Google and Facebook over the £14 bn digital advertising market amid concern that “opaque” practices deny publishers a fair share. Jeremy Wright, the Culture Secretary, has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), urging it to study the sector for evidence of abuse of dominance by the Silicon Valley giants. It follows publication this week of a report on the sustainability of journalism by the economist Dame Frances Cairncross, who said Google and Facebook may be restricting competition and stifling innovation. Between them they had captured 54 pc of the digital advertising market. Mr Wright backed Dame Frances’s findings and told MPs: “Online advertising now represents a growing part of the economy and forms an important revenue stream for many publishers. “But this burgeoning market is largely opaque and extremely complex, and therefore it is at present impossible to know whether the revenue shares received by news publishers are fair. “The purpose of this study would be to examine whether the online marketplace is operating effectively, and whether it enables or prevents fair competition. “It is right that policymakers and regulators have an accurate understanding of how the market operates, and check that it is enabling fair competition.”	2,660,381
The AMD Argument AMD launched a public salvo against NVIDIA and its GameWorks program this week. We sat down and talked with BOTH sides of this debate to find the real answers. Earlier this week, a story was posted in a Forbes.com blog that dove into the idea of NVIDIA GameWorks and how it was doing a disservice not just on the latest Ubisoft title Watch_Dogs but on PC gamers in general. Using quotes from AMD directly, the author claims that NVIDIA is actively engaging in methods to prevent game developers from optimizing games for AMD graphics hardware. This is an incredibly bold statement and one that I hope AMD is not making lightly. Here is a quote from the story: Gameworks represents a clear and present threat to gamers by deliberately crippling performance on AMD products (40% of the market) to widen the margin in favor of NVIDIA products.... Participation in the Gameworks program often precludes the developer from accepting AMD suggestions that would improve performance directly in the game code—the most desirable form of optimization. The example cited on the Forbes story is the recently released Watch_Dogs title, which appears to show favoritism towards NVIDIA GPUs with performance of the GTX 770 ($369) coming close the performance of a Radeon R9 290X ($549). It's evident that Watch Dogs is optimized for Nvidia hardware but it's staggering just how un-optimized it is on AMD hardware. Watch_Dogs is the latest GameWorks title released this week. I decided to get in touch with AMD directly to see exactly what stance the company was attempting to take with these kinds of claims. No surprise, AMD was just as forward with me as they appeared to be in the Forbes story originally. The AMD Stance Central to AMD’s latest annoyance with the competition is the NVIDIA GameWorks program. First unveiled last October during a press event in Montreal, GameWorks combines several NVIDIA built engine functions into libraries that can be utilized and accessed by game developers to build advanced features into games. NVIDIA’s website claims that GameWorks is “easy to integrate into games” while also including tutorials and tools to help quickly generate content with the software set. Included in the GameWorks suite are tools like VisualFX which offers rendering solutions like HBAO+, TXAA, Depth of Field, FaceWorks, HairWorks and more. Physics tools include the obvious like PhysX while also adding clothing, destruction, particles and more. However, there are some major differences with GameWorks compared to previous vendor-supplied code and software examples. First, AMD and several game developers claim that GameWorks is a “black box” with only API calls used to access the GW functionality. The term “black box” is used to indicate that little is known about what is going on inside the GameWorks libraries themselves. This is because GameWorks is provided as a set of libraries, not as a collection of example code (though this is debated by NVIDIA later in our story). Because of its black box status, game developers are unable to diagnose buggy or slow game code when using GameWorks and that can lead to issues with different hardware. A section of AMD's developer website with example code for download. You might be wondering already why this is different than something like PhysX? Looking at GPU accelerated PhysX only, that particular plugin ONLY runs on NVIDIA hardware. Adding it or changing the implementation does not negatively affect the performance of the AMD or non-PhysX code path. Many of the GameWorks toolsets (basically everything except PhysX and TXAA) though do in fact run on both AMD and NVIDIA hardware if they are implemented by the developer. That means that visual effects and code built directly by NVIDIA is being used on AMD GPUs in GameWorks enabled titles like Watch_Dogs. You can see immediately why this could raise some eyebrows inside AMD and amongst the most suspicious gamers. This is different than what has been the norm for many years. In the past, both AMD and NVIDIA have posted code examples on their websites to demonstrate new ways of coding shadows, ambient occlusion and other rendering techniques. These could be viewed, edited and lifted by any and all game developers and implemented into their game engine or into middleware applications. GameWorks is taking this quite a bit further by essentially building out a middleware application of its own and licensing it to developers. The obvious concern is that by integrating GameWorks with this “black box” development style, NVIDIA could take the opportunity to artificially deflate performance of AMD graphics cards in favor of GeForce options. That would be bad for AMD, bad for AMD users and bad for the community as a whole; I think we can all agree on that. AMD points to Watch_Dogs, and previous GameWorks titles Batman: Arkham Origins, Call of Duty: Ghosts and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag as evidence. More interestingly though, AMD	1,776,605
a certainty, however, and such judgments still carry a risk of being wrong. generally indicates that judgments are based on high-quality information, and/or that the nature of the issue makes it possible to render a solid judgment. A "high confidence" judgment is not a fact or a certainty, however, and such judgments still carry a risk of being wrong. Moderate confidence generally means that the information is credibly sourced and plausible but not of sufficient quality or corroborated sufficiently to warrant a higher level of confidence. generally means that the information is credibly sourced and plausible but not of sufficient quality or corroborated sufficiently to warrant a higher level of confidence. Low confidence generally means that the information's credibility and/or plausibility is questionable, or that the information is too fragmented or poorly corroborated to make solid analytic inferences, or that [there are] significant concerns or problems with the sources. Footnote The SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit™ (CTU) research team tracks threat groups by assigning them four-digit randomized numbers (4127 in this case), and compiles information from first-hand incident response observations and from external sources. The church in Jersey City where they married held a portent in its very name: Our Lady of Sorrows. It was the thick of the Depression — 1939 — and they were poor, so poor that just two days after the wedding they returned to their jobs, she as a secretary in a printing plant, he as a singing waiter. She was an ordinary young woman, a plasterer’s daughter from a large Italian-American family, born in Jersey City in 1917. Her given names were Nancy Rose, her maiden name Barbato. He was a far-from-ordinary young man, a scrappy, skinny kid who played the ukulele and sang, born to a small Italian-American family in Hoboken in 1915. His given names were Francis Albert. By now you know his surname. For a dozen tumultuous years Frank and Nancy Sinatra were man and wife — a swath of time that included hearth, home and children for her and, for him, unparalleled fame and fortune, record deals, motion pictures and a string of extramarital romances that were grist for the gossip columns. emissions associated with solar energy environmental co-benefit opportunities,” she added. Hernandez, Allen and Hoffacker were joined in the study by Michelle L. Murphy-Mariscal and Grace Wu. Allen is a professor of plant pathology and microbiology and a professor of biology. Hernandez is now a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Murphy-Mariscal, a UCR alumna, was a staff scientist at CCB for six years and is now lead biologist at Western Riverside County MSHCP. Wu is a graduate student at UC Berkeley. The study was conducted as part of Hernandez’s doctoral research at Stanford University in the Department of Earth System Science and the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution of Science. Archived under: Science/Technology, biodiversity, Center for Conservation Biology, climate, climate change, College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, conservation, conservation biology, Department of Biology, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, desert, ecosystems, energy, environment, habitat, Michael Allen, plants, press release, renewable energy, solar, solar energy, solar panels, sun, sustainability Top of Page Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the mayor of Happy Valley, announced Monday that she will meet with President Trump and other White House officials during a visit to the capital this week. The meetings will focus on infrastructure development, Chavez-DeRemer said in a press release. She said she will attend an annual meeting of mayors with the president, adding that she has been invited to "start a working relationship with President Trump" on roads and bridges and other construction policies. "I am honored to be invited by the White House to start the conversation of a much-needed infrastructure reform in our country," Chavez-DeRemer said. "I look forward to hearing the president's infrastructure proposal and laying out my ideas and priorities for Happy Valley and the state of Oregon as a whole." Chavez-DeRemer has been a vocal supporter of transportation reform and called it one of her top priorities in an op-ed published last year. She is a Republican and explored a run for Oregon governor last year, but ultimately did not enter the race. -- Gordon R. Friedman 503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman	3,478,538
budget Updated: Jul 06, 2019 08:05 IST Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliates that work in the economic, farm and labour sectors have welcomed Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget announcement that “gaon, garib and kisan” (villages, poor and farmers) will be the focal point of policy making. These affiliates have been pushing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government to ensure that domestic production gets a fillip vis-a-vis dependence on imports, more incentives are given to small and marginal farmers, and policymakers revisit foreign direct investment and disinvestment policies. The RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP. On Friday, Sitharaman said, “Mahatma Gandhi had said the soul of India lives in its villages. This year I submit that the government keeps ‘gaon, garib and kisan’ at the centre.” She said foreign direct investment (FDI) would be allowed only after discussion with stakeholders. This was welcomed by Sangh affiliates such as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), which have traditionally opposed FDI. “The earlier finance ministers used to just announce the FDI policy. The fact that Sitharaman said the issue of FDI will be discussed with stakeholders is a welcome change. It means the government is acting responsibly and trying to understand the concerns of the people,” SJM national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan said. The BMS, the labour arm of the RSS, too welcomed the move to discuss FDI with stakeholders. Saji Narayanan of the BMS said the government should take on board trade unions to discuss issues such as FDI policy and its impact on the economy. “PPP [public private partnership] and disinvestment plans for public sector enterprises, proposals for the new department of the fisheries sector, which may affect fish workers in the value chain, recurring increase in petrol or diesel prices — all need further discussion,” he said. The government is contemplating permitting 100% FDI for insurance intermediaries, and in sectors such as media and aviation. Sitharaman proposed easing local sourcing norms for FDI in the single brand retail sector. The budget announcements seem to have assuaged these affiliates, which have in the past flayed the government for failing to bail out the medium and smallscale sectors, check trade deficit and protect small entrepreneurs. Mahajan said it was a relief the government had not taken up the proposal to withdraw incentives from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that did not take off as proposed in the economic survey. “The failure to take off was because of the government’s policies, how can they be penalized?” he said. Badri Narayan Chaudhary, general secretary of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), said strengthening rural infrastructure would improve the living conditions of farmers. “In rural areas, if small and marginal farmers get houses with toilets, running water and power, that will automatically change their lives,” he said.	1,160,480
When Game 1 of the World Series kicks off on Tuesday night in Kansas City (air time 7:30 ET, game time 8 ET on FOX), the Mets are going to have to manage a decision that they haven't had to make all postseason: With the designated hitter now available in the American League stadium, what's the best way to create a lineup that optimizes both offense and defense? It's a question that takes on added importance due to the fact that the Royals are the AL champions, because they put the ball in play more than any other team, placing added emphasis on defense. Kauffman Stadium's outfield size is the largest in baseball, at just a touch over 100,000 square feet. That's a considerable amount of ground to cover, and that's why it's not as simple as just writing out the same lineup card the Mets used in the National League playoffs without putting some serious thought into it. We know for sure that Curtis Granderson will be starting in right field, and Yoenis Cespedes will be somewhere in the outfield, given his stated dislike for DH duty. Beyond that, Terry Collins has a few different options at his disposal, but it really all comes down to a single question: Does the combination of Michael Conforto (LF) and Cespedes (CF) beat the combination of Cespedes (LF) and Juan Lagares (CF)? This seemed like a perfect question to put Statcast™ towards, so we did. Initially, the findings confirm much of what seems obvious to the naked eye. Lagares covers the most ground, while Cespedes is the fastest despite a slow first step, and the 36-year-old Michael Cuddyer's solid reflexes are limited by his inefficient route running and distance covered. Based on this, it seems clear Lagares has to play. But that's for all plays, across all outfield positions. What happens when we limit it to just the plays a fielder was involved in, and just for the positions in question? Center field: Cespedes vs. Lagares Immediately, you're drawn to the question in center field between the all-around contributions of Cespedes or the stellar defensive reputation of Lagares, though as you'll see it's not as simple as that. The light-hitting Lagares won't be used as the DH and has never played left field in the bigs, so he's either starting in center field or he's on the bench. He has started three of the nine Mets postseason games so far, twice in the NLDS against the Dodgers and in Game 1 of the NLCS against Chicago, though that was clearly due to platoon issues, as all three games were started by left-handed pitchers. By name alone, the edge here easily goes to Lagares, who finished third among all outfielders in Defensive Runs Saved in 2013 (+28) and second in 2014 (+28 again). However, he fell off in 2015 to just +2 DRS, in part due to multiple injuries, primarily an injured right arm that often prevented him from wreaking as much havoc on opposing base runners as usual -- though we did see him get it up to 95.6 mph in September. Cespedes, meanwhile, has been considered an elite left fielder (+15 DRS this year, +12 last year), and a below-average center fielder (-4 DRS this year, slight negatives in each of his four seasons). Interestingly enough, Statcast™ doesn't see all that much of a difference between the two in center. (Route Eff. / Avg. First Step / Avg. Top Speed / Avg. Distance Covered) Cespedes -- 90.2% / 0.79 seconds / 14.3 mph / 53.0 feet Lagares -- 89.6% / 0.72 seconds / 14.3 mph / 54.2 feet Despite the similarities, Lagares did convert 91.6 percent of the balls hit to him in center, as compared to Cespedes' 88.4. In addition, Cespedes has been dealing with a shoulder injury, but expects to be available for Game 1. Still, as impressive as this is for Cespedes, Lagares is still the one getting credit for all those tough plays that pump up his DRS, and that may be a matter of better positioning -- that is, if he's starting 15 feet closer to where the ball lands, he just doesn't need to run as far or fast for it as Cespedes does. That's one of the items we hope to better understand in the future as the Statcast™ data matures. For now, Collins could make a reasonable case that Cespedes is a capable enough center fielder, as he's done for much of the postseason. Left field: Conforto vs. Cespedes vs. Cuddyer	184,913
Transcript for For these international students coming to the US, the 'American dream is very alive' Looking for you the festina came to my eyes that are reminds me at Sesame Street. When I came here in January it was freezing resonated seventies and in the afternoon there would be people just running around in his showers falafel sucks. Because and Jordan it's amazing I am from pockets fat I aim was born and they enjoyed in Hungary South Korea from the five. Columbia these. American dream is very if they'll make convenes you don't think America it's he has this country creek and and he achieve your ambitions and be whoever you want people just have this one team can send it to the US for a very different practices are now. There's always these. We will undies wiese. Going to US and Saudi order look. People back home believe in American dream on the other side other people who are very critical of the us. And going through some places I've made this as a division between people differences economic classes so we went to this area called content and. There were people living in the streets and it didn't look like an ideal American team completely populated by by homeless people and I. Not had imagined that this case it. The 21 century there was such a huge difference in the wee people that you see how that rich just get richer richer he it's a cycle of poverty. You see people on the streets being homeless and got isn't being address ads urging the assets should be make people of America. It can give me that but. Like seeing that. Huge contrast in seven. I think something has to be done it is. Maybe even win any New York City amount. Homelessness. That I that I experienced. Primaries and homelessness is nothing. Case. Make is a great country sure he comes of these issues and I think that's the I would say that one of the most of the knights of issues in the states this politics in general because people seem so. Really feel strongly about party which they belong to and apparently talk to each other form we say about how a lot of friendships are broken. After the election because people on the the difference verdict living history much to do it. And this I think is a bit sad I think it's. Very divided society that's just sit down and talk about it but that's better that's that a Nazi air and the United States this is something. So because of people on getting home. And I think that's I think democracy you have people who have different things but still maintain those relationships and each other on the question of. I think they just focus on bringing people together and what's in the news. Because there number other divisions that exist in terms of education gun control. And inclusion in terms of race and other similar factors. Sure there are some issues I like the US in the early of that. They under the apple they're confused beyond his rise of the late in the sun and hearings I think yes Billy. First. Managed to bring its own people together and make sure that people. In this country and managing to succeed and achieve that. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.	14,871
on Wednesday, Zuma said he was a disciplined member of the party, to which he had dedicated his life. Play Video 3:04 Jacob Zuma: South Africa’s scandal-struck president resigns – video “I fear no motion of no confidence or impeachment,” he said. “I will continue to serve the people of South Africa and the ANC. I will dedicate my life to continuing to work for the execution of the policies of our organisation. “The ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect.” Zuma's departure ends South Africa's most troubled period since apartheid Read more The announcement ended an extraordinary day in South African politics, which begun with a dawn raid on the home of the Guptas, a business family at the centre of recent corruption allegations levelled at Zuma. Ajay Gupta, one of the three Gupta brothers accused of having improper links to Zuma, was declared a fugitive from justice on Thursday after failing to hand himself in to police. Zuma, who has led the ANC since 2007 and been South Africa’s president since 2009, was due to leave power next year. His tenure was marred by economic decline and multiple charges of graft, undermining the image and legitimacy of the party that led the struggle against apartheid. Facebook Twitter Pinterest African National Congress supporters celebrate outside parliament in Cape Town. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images The crisis of recent days has further damaged the ANC, as well as angering many South Africans, who are becoming increasingly impatient with the party’s opaque internal procedures. In December, Ramaphosa won a bitterly fought ANC leadership election. Party strategists wanted Zuma to be sidelined as quickly as possible, to allow the ANC to regroup before campaigning starts for elections in 2019. Who is Cyril Ramaphosa? South Africa's next leader faces huge challenges Read more He will deliver the annual State of the Nation address on Friday. The speech was to have been given by Zuma a week ago but was postponed. The party suffered significant setbacks in municipal polls in 2016 and could be forced into a coalition government at the national level, experts have said. As president, Ramaphosa will have to balance the need to reassure foreign investors and local businesses with the intense popular demand for dramatic measures to address South Africa’s deep problems. The former trade union leader has said South Africa is coming out of a “period of uncertainty, a period of darkness, and getting into a new phase”. Richard Calland, an expert in South African politics at the University of Cape Town, said Ramaphosa would have “the chance to rebuild government and the party at the same time”. Annika Larsen (@AnnikaLarsen1) President elect Cyril Ramaphosa and Former Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel catching up at 6 am for a POWER walk on the Sea Point promenade this morning. No red socks and very few bodyguards. @eNCA #ZumaResigns. These are my running friends! pic.twitter.com/QoA3xEKZG1 In recent days, the rand has strengthened and many analysts have revised upwards their predictions of South Africa’s economic growth. After Zuma’s address, the ANC immediately closed ranks. Jessie Duarte, the party’s deputy secretary general, told reporters the ANC was “not celebrating” at a “very painful moment”.	1,399,037
Welcome to the Opensource.com Weekly Top 5! Top 5 articles of the week Nick Yeates writes that his favorite open source software survey is the annual one by Black Duck Software that asks: What is the future of open source software? To Nick, to be the future, open source needs to move from scratching an itch to better user experience (UX). Read more about how open source can do this in this timely article. New contributor to Opensource.com, Jason van Gumster, talks about what it means to really be a responsible open source user. Because we're all in this together, right? Open source communities thrive on extreme collaboration and communication. We, the users, are the quality control, documentation, and marketing departments. Jason tells us how we can be better in all three in this article. Jonathon Buckley, the Interim Chief Marketing Officer at Qubole, a platform for Big Data analytics, takes a look at how three open source projects have transformed the Hadoop ecosystem. They are: Hive, Spark, and Presto. Hans Bakker talks open source ERPs, or enterprise resource planning systems. Open source ERP systems, he says, are great for large organizations because a new interface shell is created outside of the core system, whereas with commercial systems the existing interface is customized which makes upgrades difficult. He says it is also valuable to own the system and its full source content, because there is no lock-in or dependency on the vendor, and you are more free on how you are going to implement the software—you can do it all by yourself or hire a provider. Luis Ibanez, a software engineer at Google, goes into detail in this article about the recently released Google remote procedure call for servers, called gRPC. gRPC is based on the recently finalized HTTP/2 standard that enables new capabilities and provides libraries for multiple languages. Find the source code on GitHub, which includes extensive documentation and a main webpage. . This would have been unimaginable not that long ago. * Moving past the debate, Trump provided us with yet another of his trademark high energy quotes: "@ilduce2016: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain" — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2016 Let’s make Amtrak great again! 2013 photograph from my rail journey across the US. * PredictWise now has Trump on 80% odds to win the Republican nomination. The neocons are scurrying from the sinking ship and have now openly declared their allegiance to Hillary Clinton, who has helped launch infinitely more wars than bellicose irrational warmonger Trump. Though I don’t particularly expect for people to start seeing past their subterfuge anytime soon, this will be a highly positive development for at least three reasons: (1) Trump won’t have to purge the Republican Party himself. (2) The neocon affiliation with conservatism will be revealed to have been just as much of a fraud as their prior espousal of Trotskyism. (3) We will no longer have to politely pretend there is any substantive difference between neoconism and R2P/humanitarian intervention. * In the meantime, Hillary has pretty much cinched the Democrat nomination (97% on PredictWise now). Why? Because whereas Sanders supports gibs for all, blacks as well as whites, Hillary only wants mo money for dem programs. Who knows, maybe this will make not a few Bernie Bros go full /pol/-tard. LRx here we come! https://twitter.com/Gravantus/status/703898173471723520 * And for her Goldman Sachs friends, of course: https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/703733273504018432	3,234,308
It’s the law of unintended consequences. Administrators at the University of Houston main campus wanted to improve graduation rates. Too many seniors were getting to the home stretch and finding out at the last minute that they weren’t going to graduate after all, that they lacked a crucial course or two. The go-it-alone without counseling wasn’t working. The students who did show up for counseling would often have to wait for hours on end to see an adviser; that wasn’t optimal either. But for at least one study area at UH, new procedures put in place there have backfired badly, and, in fact, have kept students from being able to get all the courses they want and need to graduate. At the very least they have created an absurd level of frustration leaving more than one student to wonder “Maybe they’re just not noticing how many students they have?” It’s Friday morning and across Houston, several UH main campus students are sitting by their computers hoping to win the 9 a.m. lottery. Some have jobs, some have heavy course loads, some are going a little light on courses this semester – the ones who didn’t win the lottery last semester. What they have in common is that they’re either communication majors or minors in the Valenti School of Communication and nearly all of them are seniors. The other thing they have in common is that starting at 9 a.m. – they’ve already logged on to the UH student system – they’ll be trying get an appointment with a communications department counselor. And this is the only way to do it. They can’t call anyone. They can’t email – well they can but that won’t get them an appointment. There are no walk-ins allowed. This online grid is their only entry to a face-to-face with a counselor. Without an appointment, the “senior hold” won’t be lifted and they’re barred from signing up for any courses. The appointments are very hard to get; turnover among the communications counselors has been extremely high for some time and sometimes there has been only one available for all the students. (The hold goes in place once a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences student has completed 90 hours. Other students who have a hold placed on them are new students as well as those on academic warning and probation.) Often the slots are not open right at 9. “I hit refresh, refresh, refresh,” one student told us. (None of the students who contacted the Houston Press wanted their names used in this article). If they’re lucky, they hit the sweet spot and sign up for an appointment. But even more often, several students told us, when the schedule finally pops up, it has already been filled. Appointments are made for only that week ahead. To sign up for the next week students have to wait seven more days to have the chance to try again. Often this stretches out for several weeks. “What they’re doing is creating sort of like a funnel effect so even the most proactive people are stopped from doing what they are trying to do by these outside factors that no one is really clear or transparent about,” says one senior, we’ll call him Ben. “You’re having to play a crap shoot with advising appointments.” “You’re having to play a crap shoot with advising appointments.” Facebook Twitter “It gets worse every semester. You would think that it would be done, but it’s not. It just continues,” Maria (not her real name) says. Maria, an English major and communications minor, says she can walk in at any time to the counselors for English majors. But when she called for help to the communications counselors she was told “I’m sorry you can’t speak to an adviser.” Oh and one more thing. Even if you talk to an adviser, you’re not done. You still have to go online separately and sign up for your classes. And hope, after all that delay, that they haven't been filled already. The University of Houston knows it has a problem. It is not one that extends across the university – several students told us their friends with other majors have no counseling or class sign-up problems — but it is a significant one for students taking communications courses. When this official recognition kicked in is a little nebulous; but Sarah Fishman, associate dean for Undergraduate Studies at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, told us in response to our query that she plans to initiate significant changes in how the Valenti School approaches counseling by next week, that plans were already underway to fix a broken system. “There	548,697
is aiming to influence crafty people and homemakers. Or perhaps the goal is simply to pollute the entire information and social media landscape.” AD In its investigation of several hundred accounts that were flagged by Albright and the Washington Post, Pinterest found that just one of the accounts appeared to have a suspicious origin, according to people familiar with the investigation. That account, Rainbow_Nation, was only created in the last year, posted just a few times, and didn’t appear to interact with other users on Pinterest. AD The other accounts appeared to be legitimate to company officials because they had been used over a long period of time – roughly 5 years – interacted with other Pinterest users in their network, and posted a variety of content. Experts say one hallmark of content and accounts created by trolls and bots is that they do not interact regularly with other users, though their methods to appear authentic are becoming more sophisticated, Boyd said. Pinterest found that the images and accounts represented a tiny fraction of the overall content on the site and did not have high engagement from Pinterest users. The creator of the Texas Life Pinterest board, Lynn Lagrone, is listed as a rancher in Red Oak, Texas, according to LinkedIn and Facebook. The board has 1932 followers and most of the content appears to be non-political Pro-Texas slogans and images. Lagrone hung up the phone when reached by a Washington Post reporter. TOMS RIVER – There are online rumors about the Red Carpet Inn being demolished soon. The only thing that’s a rumor about this statement is the word “soon.” People have spotted contents of the motel being removed, which prompted the online rumors. However, the township doesn’t even own it yet. In May, the Township Council began the process of purchasing the hotel and property, located at 2 West Water Street, for $3.3 million. “We believe we will be closing by month end,” business administrator Don Guardian said. The town wanted to buy it because of a history of drug use and prostitution there. Officials once said that it had been visited by police 750 times over the course of two years. The town is trying to renovate the downtown area and that property is a big part of it. The motel is apparently closed for business. Once the township takes possession of it, they will change the locks, and try to keep trespassers out, Guardian said. “Because it is so close to both Water Street and Rt. 166, it becomes prudent for us to have an engineering firm determine that the building can be torn down without affecting the roadways or bridge,” he said. Once the building is knocked down, the plan is for the property to be used as a parking lot for now, he said. appear to be preoccupied with their long overdue quest to replace Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry. Transfer window 2019 – every summer deal from Europe's top five leagues Read more United’s failure to reach the Champions League means they are not an option and a move to another team in England is seemingly out of the question at the moment. Liverpool have heavily invested in his position and, even though Pep Guardiola must have considered Eriksen as a potential replacement for David Silva when the playmaker finally departs Manchester City at the end of next season, being 28 by then will probably work against him. All of which leaves Tottenham. The purchase of Tanguy Ndombele for a club-record £55m is an indication that the board has recognised the need to invest in Pochettino’s project if the club are to make the final step after last season. Could that potentially thrilling partnership with the France international be enough to persuade Eriksen that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side? Levy will certainly be hoping so, although he will also be aware time is swiftly running out with deadline day less than four weeks away. It is a game of brinkmanship that is unlikely to end in a falling-out, such is Eriksen’s nature. But as De Jong lives the dream with Barça, his predecessor is facing a decision that could define his career.	2,672,247
A good fight scene can underscore the themes and character development in your book. Much of the advice in my Write Like a Fighter series has focused on the actual fight and how to leverage psychological components to make the scene more dynamic and offer greater character development. (I’m a firm believer that big action scenes—be they fight scenes or sex scenes—need to push both plot and character arcs forward.) We’ve also talked mechanics, and what really works. We’ve tackled how a smaller person can defend themselves against a larger attacker reasonably, why punching people in the face shouldn’t be your fight scene default, and the like. Today, though, we’re going to talk about how our characters assess the situation before and during a fight to determine their behavior. Your character’s background and past experiences will inform the way they behave in a self-defense scenario. If they train regularly, it can shift some of that, but our brain is still taking stock of the situation. If you’re working on a scene where your protagonist is in a situation where self-defense is necessary, these are the types of questions can help your characters (and you) determine what the next steps should be. These questions should also open gateways for descriptors that indicate what needs to happen without you saying “he knew how to throw a punch.” What should my character think about in a fight scene? 10 Questions. Am I alone? If not, who is with me? Is that person capable of helping me? If it’s a child, I’m going to need to behave differently as to protect them. If it’s a friend who is an FBI agent, I’m going to be more confident and potentially take more risks to defend us. Is my opponent alone? If not, how many potential attackers are there? Do they outnumber the people on my group? If your character is trained in self-defense, we would want them to “scan” the visible area for additional potential threats. Can I run? This is often the best option in any of these scenarios. Safely running away > having to defend yourself. Is there an immediate threat? Has this opponent just done something horrible? Is my role one of a protector (e.g. law enforcement)? Do I have a duty to respond? Am I convinced not responding immediately will put me (and others) at risk? Is there a vehicle nearby? Is it mine? Is it theirs? If theirs, I do not want to go to Crime Scene B. Are there other people near? Are we in an alley or a crowded bar? Do I have the option to enlist others to help diffuse or protect? Would people be able to come to my aid? Do I have a weapon? Does the attacker have one? What items nearby could be used as a weapon if the attacker advances? (Look for items like rebar, rocks, shoes, purse, bottles, trash cans… or I guess if your character has elite training a magazine like Jason Bourne, but I find that one tricky as hell.) Does this attacker look like they know what they are doing? That’s a vague question if you’re not trained in some martial art or contact combat, though, right? We would look for body language cues Let’s break it down with more questions. (This is the question post. You were warned.) Let’s break it down with more questions. (This is the question post. You were warned.) Did the person drop his weight into his heels? We want to see if this person is aware of their center of gravity, and anyone who lowers that instinctively may have had training or experience with combat. How are they holding objects? If they’re drinking a beer or a coffee, are they winging their elbows out wide or are they close to their ribs? Are they facing me? When the threat presented did they square their shoulders and/or hips toward me? Did they “blade” their body to keep hands and feet oriented to me, but turn some of their torso away from me to minimize targets? These are all clues that let us know if the person may know how to fight. To be clear, there are many bar fights that could have people who think they know how to handle themselves, but because of drunkenness, bravado, body size, or a number of other reasons are going to open the fight with a wild haymaker punch (we’ve talked about sucker punches before). Arm up and out to the side, leaving the face, ribs, sternum, and groin completely unprotected. Watching to see if someone leaves openings to their ribs, neck, chin, etc. in the verbal sparring prior to the real fight	1,098,720
The US Marines have announced plans to start training women for combat. Will they be able to silence the doubters who question their battlefield strength and stamina? The roles open to women in the US military are slowly expanding, as the result of a review ordered by Congress and stemming from lessons learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In February of this year, the Pentagon announced women would formally be allowed to serve closer to the front lines in positions such as medics, tank mechanics and radio operators - jobs that many women were already performing in a loop-hole arrangement when "attached" to a battalion. The February decision did not actually permit women to serve in combat roles. That is about to change. 'Good faith' questions The Marine Corps Times reported this week that the school that trains infantry combat officers for the Marines is looking for female volunteers. [Marines] don't really like change but once they begin to change, they do it flawlessly Greg Jacob, Former USMC captain The as-yet undetermined number of women selected will join their male counterparts on the course, taught at the sprawling United States Marine Corps (USMC) base in Quantico, Virginia. Only officers will be able to participate, but Assistant Commandant Gen Joseph Dunford has said that soon enlisted women will be able to opt for infantry training. One question often raised in discussions regarding total equality between the sexes on the battlefield is strength and stamina. Can women perform the same duties as men, for the same amount of time while carrying the same amount of equipment? Currently the annual physical fitness tests for men and women in the Marine Corps are gender-based. For example, women must be able to perform a different type of pull-up called a "flexed-arm hang", while men must be able to perform a set number of fully executed pull-ups to pass the exam. The Marines is also the only branch of the US military where men and women undergo separate basic training. However, in many ways Marine training already places the "focus on tasks, not on physical standards", said Greg Jacob, a former USMC captain. Capt Jacob went through both the enlisted and officer infantry training schools in his 10 years in the Marine Corps "The concern would be that this has to be done in good faith," said Capt Jacob, about the defence department's decision to open up more positions to women. "The Navy did this essentially in the early 90s to prove women couldn't be fighter pilots. "It's great that the Marines are doing this," he said. "They don't really like change but once they begin to change, they do it flawlessly." Internal tension Capt Jacob also said he felt the adjustment to women in infantry combat roles would really be a case of the men serving with them accepting them as equals, as he felt any woman qualified to enter the training would have little trouble in performing to the same level as her male counterpart. We cannot have any tolerance for abuse, harassment, or hazing of female volunteers Anu Bhagwati, Service Women's Action Network A Marine Staff Sergeant who asked to not be named said: "If you are a US Marine who happens to be female, and you can carry it and shoot it and hack it - to me you are just another Marine. "I have no problem taking orders from women who conduct themselves as Marines. But I know guys who don't feel this way, mainly in a battlefield sense." According to Anu Bhagwati, a former Marine Corps captain and executive director of the Service Women's Action Network, this is an exciting development. But the results will depend on the intentions of everyone involved, she said. "We cannot have any tolerance for abuse, harassment, or hazing of female volunteers," Capt Bhagwati said. "In the past, the services have opened positions and schools up to women as experiments or pilot programmes and all too often they have deliberately set the volunteers up for failure in order to prove their foregone conclusions that women were not qualified to serve in combat arms, or should not serve. "As proven by 10 years of leading troops in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are women that are physically and mentally qualified to succeed at IOC, and lead infantry platoons," she said. While so often in-step with its American counterpart, the UK military is not yet ready to formally accept women in combat roles. "The vast majority of roles in the Armed Forces are open to women and hundreds of servicewomen are currently serving their country with distinction in Afghanistan," a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said. "Comprehensive review into the exclusion of women from ground close-combat roles concluded that there should be no changes to the existing policy. "There are no plans for a further immediate review."	677,723
Image caption Protesters descended on the embassy in Belgrave Square early on Saturday morning Six people were arrested during a protest at the Syrian embassy in London overnight, police say. The Met said about 150 protesters had gathered at 02:00 GMT after reports of more than 200 people being killed by shelling in the Syrian city of Homs. Five people remained in custody after being arrested for forcing entry into the embassy, and the sixth for assaulting an officer. Demonstrators said police prevented them from leaving the protest site. BBC correspondent Andrew Plant said he saw about 30 protesters being held in a cordon, with no signs of trouble. Reports of the bloodshed in Homs, which cannot be independently verified, come as the UN Security Council prepares to vote later on a resolution backing an Arab League peace plan for Syria. The draft resolution calls on President Bashar al-Assad to hand power to a deputy to oversee a transition. 'Massacre' Anass Toma, a Syrian MBA student, said he had attended the protest in Belgrave Square over the "massacre" in Homs. Mr Toma told BBC News: "We came to the embassy because there were 300 people killed in Syria today. People are angry. I'm worried about the situation back home. I've been in London two years but I'm Syrian, from Aleppo. They say that an officer was assaulted, and that until they find who assaulted him, they're not going to let protesters leave the kettle Fazel Hawramy, Syrian protester "We don't know what message the Syrian regime is giving out with this massacre today - given the UN Security Council vote... we don't really understand what they're doing. But we must stop the bloodshed in Syria." Another demonstrator Fazel Hawramy said between 100 and 150 protesters at the embassy were "kettled" by police and prevented from leaving. "They say that an officer was assaulted, and that until they find who assaulted him, they're not going to let protesters leave the kettle," he told the BBC. He said only one family and a few women had been allowed to leave, with most people sitting quietly and listening to the Koran being read. A Met spokesman said officers were at the scene and appropriate policing was in place. Ronan McNern, from the Occupy London movement, said he went to the embassy to support the Syrians' cause and saw 150 people surrounded by a ring of about 60 officers. "The protesters are keeping their spirits up by singing, dancing and playing drums, and they seem to be free to leave the ring. Some of them are waving Syrian flags," he said. Paint appeared to have been thrown on an embassy door, he added. Protest call Syrian activists in Cairo have urged people to protest outside Syrian embassies around the world, and there have also been demonstrations in the US, Sweden, Spain and Germany. Alexander Page, in Cairo, tweeted: "We are going to raid #Syria'n embassies around the world, this is our duty to our people, they are being massacred right now." Syria has been gripped by nationwide protests against President Assad's regime for almost a year. The UN stopped estimating the death toll after it passed 5,400 in January, saying it was too difficult to confirm numbers. The Syrian government has denied carrying out attacks against civilians but says at least 2,000 members of its security forces have been killed fighting "armed gangs and terrorists".	3,108,947
All we need to do is to declare those in our stylesheet. Adding Drag & Drop As for including 3rd party libraries, we can take advantage of Aurelia’s default package manager JSPM. To install the previously mentioned library, Sortable.js, we need to execute following command, which will install the package under the name sortable. jspm install sortable = github:rubaxa/[email protected] After installation, JSPM will automatically update the file config.js and add its package mappings: System. config ( { "map" : {... "sortable" : "github:rubaxa/[email protected]",... } } ) ; Now that the package is installed we can use it inside our toolbox VM by fist importing it and then registering the drag & drop feature for our widgets list inside the attached hook. It’s important to do it at this time, since this is when the view is fully generated and attached to the DOM. import sortable from'sortable' ;... export class Toolbox {... attached ( ) { new sortable ( this. toolboxList, { sort : false, group : { name : "report", pull : 'clone', put : false } } ) ; } } You might wonder where this.toolboxList is coming from. Take a look at the ref attribute of the toolbox view in the animation section above. This simply creates a mapping for an element between the view and the VM. The final part is to accept the dropped elements inside the report VM. To do this, we can leverage the onAdd handler of Sortable.js. Since the dragged list element itself is not going to be placed inside the report but rather the referenced widget composed by the view, we first have to remove it. After this, we check the type of the widget and in case of a textblock, we initialize a prompt for the text, which will be used as the widget’s model data. Finally, we create a wrapper object including the widget’s id, type and model, which will be used by the report view to compose the widget. attached ( ) { new sortable ( this. reportSheet, { group :'report', onAdd : ( evt ) => { let type = evt. item. title, model = Math. random ( ), newPos = evt. newIndex ; evt. item. parentElement. removeChild ( evt. item ) ; if ( type === 'textblock' ) { model = prompt ( 'Enter textblock content' ) ; if ( model === undefined \|\| model === null ) return ; } this. widgets. splice ( newPos, 0, { id : Math. random ( ), type : type, model : model } ) ; } } ) ; } Conclusion And that’s it. We’ve seen how Aurelia’s compose element can help us to create a complex visual composition and nicely separate all of our components into small reusable parts. On top of that, I’ve demonstrated the concept of Aurelia Plugins, to share code between multiple projects as well as how to use 3rd party libraries. We, the Aurelia Team, hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article and would be happy to answer any questions, either here in the comments or on our Gitter channel.	1,853,192
IMAGINE being locked away in a cage for 30 years and injected with viruses. Now imagine you're a chimpanzee. Life looks pretty grim, right? But there's light at the end of this tunnel for one group of Austrian laboratory chimps. They have just been released from their oppressive conditions and got to see the sun for the first time in their lives. Footage shows the animals hugging each other before taking their first steps outside. Watch the chimps react to their surroundings (note the report is in German): Their release came after a 14-year bid to re-integrate the 38 primates back into their natural surroundings after being taken from their mums shortly after their births and brought to the research facility in Austria. A witness said: "They hugged as if saying, 'We're finally free'. And then they laughed." Keeper Renate Foidl said: "The chimps are incredibly happy. This is amazing, I have been waiting for this moment for so long." The lab chimps are now at the Gut Aiderbichl Animal Sanctuary, near Salzburg in Austria. Originally published as Lab chimps glimpse sun after 30 years multiple times- before the Greek Parliament were right, there would have been either no need for a bailout, or perhaps a much smaller one. Which, crucially, would not have required IMF involvement. It therefore doesn’t look at all unlikely that Greece was saddled with an artificially raised deficit, and that the intention behind that, all along, was to get the Troika ‘inside’ for the long run. So the country could be stripped of all its assets. The bailouts needed to be as big as they were to 1) successfully make the international banks ‘whole’ that had lent as much as they had into the Greek economy, 2) get the IMF involved, 3) and absolve the notorious -and cooperative- domestic oligarchy from any pain. And make all the usual suspects a lot more money in the process. The added benefit was that it was obvious from the start that the Greeks would never be able to pay the Troika back, and would be their debt slaves for as long as the latter wanted, giving up all their treasured possessions in the process. Or, alternatively, it could all have been a terribly unfortunate coincidence. It would be a curious coincidence, though. would roll out similar figures. Instagram currently has a similar verification process to Twitter, verifying public figures, celebrities, musicians, and journalists. But Ruvim Achapovskiy, CEO of Social Bomb, a digital agency in Seattle said he doubts Instagram would roll out the type of mass-verification Dorsey alluded to. "Instagram isn’t plagued with the same issues that Twitter has with bots," Achapovskiy said. So the platform probably isn’t going to mess with its verification." "In my opinion, Twitter’s goal with this step toward verification-for-all is to negate online harassment, reduce the voice of bots within users timeline, quickly identify imposter accounts for removal, while trying to reduce the amount of 'trolls' infringing on the platform," said Jordyn Reese, a digital marketing strategist at Sneak Attack Media. One thing Dorsey attempted to make clear in his stream was that Twitter would not be rolling out any type of "real name" policy for verification. He stressed that the ability to speak freely and anonymously was crucial to the platform and that he would never force users to share "identifiable information that would put them in the way of harm.”	2,313,915
, but I wouldn’t call that necessarily coming from the feminist movement. I do think that the feminist movement’s demands have always included national childcare. It was part of NOW, the National Organization for Women’s first demands, but it is not the demand that has gotten the most attention or perhaps the most traction in this country because universal programs are so hard to fight for. As part of this upsurge in participation in movements on the left right now after this election of this horrible man, we’re going to be trying to sustain that, keeping people involved, and also making sure [these demands] are part of the movement. Make sure that the things we really need the most get the attention they should. I think we are starting to see that with the strike, putting women’s voices directly out there, which has been really great. SJ: On the website, you say something about men’s involvement in the strike. Can you talk a little about that? EM: We have asked men to also pledge the strike and that means doing more around the house and more of the work that women typically do, so that women can be out there and strike and fully participate in this political activism. Instead of men necessarily walking off their paid jobs, maybe they are doing more of the work that their female partners are doing in the home, or that their sisters are doing to take care of their parents, or picking up the kids. Whatever that means. It is putting in extra work so that women can be out there for these two days. SJ: As you say, part of the value of a strike is it frees up people’s time to do other things. How do you envision this strike interacting with the Women’s March and other actions that are planned for Inauguration Day? EM: We see it going hand in hand with that. Women are going to be out there at the march. My friends that haven’t been politically active for the time that I have known them, they have self-organized cars down to D.C. or to meet at spots in New York City for the march. My family in Minnesota is going out. My sisters are going out for the first time, which has been pretty incredible. We see the strike as really a way to add to that march. What work you are striking from as you go to the march or what demands do you have as you are marching in whatever city you are in? We are having specific meet up spots and places where women have pledged to strike, in some places speaking out. But anywhere, wherever people are in the country and signed up to strike, we encourage people to go out to the march and march with other women as they are striking from their work. SJ: Obviously, if you are gathering pledges from people, you are gathering contact information. Where do you see this going and is it a way to help build a national organization that can then, again, take strike action or other actions when, for instance, Congress is voting on taking away healthcare or something like that? EM: Yes, definitely. It is a way for us to gather contact info, get women’s input and get their action and activism going. Then, also to be able to continue to fight for these demands. It is not something that is going to happen in two days. This	2,959,783
After last week's news about Brussels putting the brakes on 5G, Switzerland's 3rd largest canton (i.e. region) has also called for a halt to 5G, adopting a moratorium. 14K Shares UPDATE 9 APRIL 2019: A follow-up breaking article has just been posted here [see auto-translation], which leads with, “Other cantons could follow [with moratoriums] in the next few days. Operators are furious.” UPDATE 11 APRIL 2019: Geneva has also passed a moratorium against 5G. See story here [English auto-translation]. UPDATE 17 APRIL 2019: In Switzerland, even though some cantonal governments have blocked the granting of permits for new antennas or have adopted a 5G moratorium, the telecoms bought the 5G licenses from the federal government, so they’re using their existing antennas to start deploying 5G. Greater grassroots involvement is needed. The updates we have provided were not a victory call — but rather a reason to hope and a call to join the movement on the ground where you live. Originally posted in French, at LeTemps.ch. English translation is below. After several twists, the Vaud Cantonal Parliament (Grand Council Vaudois) adopted Tuesday a resolution calling for a moratorium on 5G antennas. The measure should apply until it receives the report of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment on this new technology. After a long debate, obfuscated by the intervention of the Swiss State Councellor Jacqueline de Quattro, the Vaud Parliamentary representatives said “yes” to the resolution tabled by the Environmentalist “Green” Party Raphael Mahaim by 95 votes for the motion against 9 against it and 25 abstentions. However, they amended the text by establishing a clear timeframe. The Amended Text The Green representative wanted the moratorium to apply “at a minimum” until the conclusions of the study of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment. A large majority of Parliamentarians, however, preferred a more precise wording on the future, saying it is necessary to wait until the conclusions of the report. In his speech, Raphael Mahaim emphasized that the announced arrival of 5G was completely lacking planning or coordination. All this does not respect in any way the “the Helvetic tradition of the as it should be“. Note from TBYP Editor : Earlier today, Raphael Mahaim has stated on Facebook (translated): “In response to the parliamentary resolution from the Swiss Environmentalists (the Swiss ‘Green’) calling for a moratorium on 5G antennas, the Swiss Grand Council has voted a few minutes ago, and the Swiss State Council announced the suspension of permits issued by the State of Vaud. This is excellent news that puts the canton of Vaud at the forefront of this citizen reaction!!!! The work carried out in recent weeks by the Vaudois Greens is paying off” Caution and Consideration Over fears, uncertainties, pressures from certain business circles, Raphaël Mahaim asked for caution and consideration. Most importantly, to wait for independent analysis of the impacts of 5G on health as well as on nature and society, including levels of electricity consumption. The Head of the Liberal-Radical Parliamentarians, Marc-Olivier Buffat, denounced in those points the wish of the Environmentalist to “surf on fear and concern” in order to boost with “disaster-mongering” his campaign for the federal election this fall. According to Buffat, the standards on emissions are already much more strict in Switzerland than anywhere else in Europe. The Issue of Trust For the representatives who spoke, the precautionary principle is appropriate, without technophobia. We must wait for the conclusions of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment on 5G. “You have to trust scientists,” said Jean Tschopp, for example. For the representatives of the radical left, it is nevertheless imperative to keep having concerns about the scientific expertise, as expressed Jean-Michel Dolivo. “No to blind faith,” he said, pointing to the pressures from the business community that he believes can capture scientists. Confusion The debate on the 5G antennas became somewhat confusing when Swiss State Councellor Jacqueline de Quattro made her address. She announced that the Swiss Council of State had decided on a moratorium. In agreeing to support the amended resolution, “you are going in the same direction as the government”, she continued. Absent at the beginning of the debate, the Swiss State Councellor arrived only after being asked to via messages, she said. Her colleague Pierre-Yves Maillard, who is in charge of health, should have answered questions from the Parlement	1,793,848
ishly digging trenches facing the west, when panzer wedges were already enveloping them from the east. General Franz Halder, Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht's ground forces, made the following entry in his diary on this occasion: "October 4 -- 105 days of the war. The enemy has continued everywhere holding the unattacked sectors of the front, with the result that deep envelopment of these enemy groups looms in the long term." Who was supposed to see these wedges? A soldier from his tiny foxhole or Stalin from the GHQ? And what was the result? Who was taken prisoner? Who betrayed the Motherland? The soldier did. In May 1942, as many as 207,047 officers and men (the latest figure) found themselves encircled at Kharkov. When Khrushchev held power, it was Stalin that was considered to be guilty of this. When Brezhnev took over, the blame was again put on Khrushchev who, incidentally, had been merely warned by Stalin for that defeat which opened the road for the Germans to the Volga. But who then betrayed the Motherland, who was taken prisoner? The soldier. May 19, 1942, is the date of our army's catastrophe in the Crimea. "The Kerch Operation may be considered finished: 150,000 POWs and a large quantity of captured equipment." This is a document from the German side. And here is a document from the Soviet side cited by Konstantin Simonov: "I happened to be on the Kerch Peninsula in 1942. The reason for the humiliating defeat is clear to me. Complete mistrust of the army and front commanders, Mekhlis' stupid willfulness and arbitrary actions. He ordered that no trenches be dug, so as not to sap the soldiers' offensive spirit." Stalin's closest aide and then Chief of the Main Political Administration (GPU), Lev Mekhlis, the first Commissar of the Army and Navy, returned to Moscow after that defeat. And what did the soldier do? The soldier stayed in captivity. There is no denying that no war can do without treachery and traitors. They could also be found among POWs. But if compared with the millions of their brothers in captivity, they amounted to no more than a drop in the ocean. Yet this drop existed. There is no escaping this. Some were convinced by leaflets like this one: The Murderous Balance of Bolshevism: Killed during the years of the Revolution and Civil War -- 2,200,000 persons. Died from famine and epidemics in 1918 -1921 and in 1932-1933 -- 14,500,000 persons. Perished in forced labor camps -- 10,000,000 persons. Some even put it this way: I am not going into action against my people, I am going into action against Stalin. But the majority joined fascist armed formations with only one hope: as soon as the first fighting starts, I'll cross the line to join friendly troops. Not everyone managed to do this, although the following fact is also well known. On September 14, 1943, when the results of the Kursk Battle were summed up, Hitler explained the defeat by the "treachery of auxiliary units": indeed, at that time 1,300 men -- practically a whole regiment -- deserted to the Red Army's side on the southern sector. "But now I am fed up with this," Hitler said. "I order these units to be disarmed immediately and this whole gang to be sent to the mines in France." It has to be admitted that it was Hitler who rejected longer than all others the proposals to form military units from among Soviet POWs, although as early as September 1941 Colonel von Tresckow had drawn up a plan for building up a 200,000-strong Russian anti-Soviet army. It was only on the eve of the Stalingrad Battle, when prisoners of war already numbered millions, that the Führer gave his consent at last. All in all, it became possible to form more than 180 units. Among them the number of Russian formations was 75; those formed from among Kuban, Don and Terek Cossacks -- 216; Turkistan and Tatar (from Tataria and the Crimean Tatars) -- 42; Georgian -- 11; peoples of the Northern Caucasus -- 12; Azerbaijani -- 13; Armenian -- 8. The numerical strength of these battalions by their national affiliation (data as of January 24, 1945) was the following: Latvians -- 104,000; Tatars (Tataria) -- 12,500, Crimean Tatars -- 10,000; Estonians -- 10,000; Armenians -- 7,000; Kalmyks -- 5,000. And the Russians? According to the official figures of Admiral Karl Dünitz's "government," as of May 20, 1945, there were the 5	2,352,613
Fox News contributor Donna Brazile told RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to “go to hell” for bringing up the ideological division within the Democrat Party amid the primaries. McDaniel joined Fox News Tuesday to explain how the establishment Democrats are preparing for a brokered convention in an attempt to steal the nomination from socialist candidate Bernie Sanders like the DNC did in 2016. The Democrats’ divide between the far-left and moderate factions are “leading towards potentially a brokered convention, which will be rigged against Bernie if those superdelegates have their way on that second vote,” McDaniel said. Watch @donnabrazile go on an Unhinged Rant and tell @GOPChairwoman to “Go to hell” for giving her opinion on the Dem Primary. Considering Donna leaked debate questions to Hillary in the 2016 primary, I understand why this is a sensitive topic for her pic.twitter.com/9KOVJ4wQC5 — Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 3, 2020 The remarks clearly triggered Brazile, who had admitted after the 2016 election that the DNC did indeed rig the process against Sanders in favor of Hillary Clinton. “First of all, stay the HELL out of our race,” Brazile exclaimed. “First of all, they don’t have a process. They’re canceling primaries. They have winner-take-all. They don’t have the kind of democracy that we see on the Democratic side. And for people to use Russian talking points to sow division among Americans — that is stupid!” “So Ronna, GO TO HELL! Go to hell!” she snapped. “We are not trying to prevent anyone from becoming the nominee. If you have the delegates and win, you will win.” “This notion that somehow another Democrats are out there trying to hurdles and roadblocks before one candidate — that’s stupid! I know what’s going on. They are scared of Democrats coming together to defeat Donald Trump,” she added. Her remarks are incredibly awkward and hypocritical considering she point-blank admitted that the DNC rigged the nomination process against Sanders in 2016. Brazile confessed in her book Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House, that Clinton’s campaign took “control (of) the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised” in exchange for taking care of the ballooned debt leftover from Obama’s 2012 campaign. Brazile, who briefly chaired the Democratic National Committee following Debbie Wasserman’s Schultz’s ouster when the party’s corruption was revealed, said it wasn’t illegal, “but it sure looked unethical.” “If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead,” Brazile wrote. “This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity.” McDaniel responded to Brazile’s unprofessional remarks on Twitter. “It’s ok, @donnabrazile. I’d be having a bad day too if my party was still hopelessly divided,” she said. “Talk of a brokered convention and the DNC trying to stop Bernie obviously hit a little close to home.” It’s ok, @donnabrazile. I’d be having a bad day too if my party was still hopelessly divided. Talk of a brokered convention and the DNC trying to stop Bernie obviously hit a little close to home. — Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) March 3, 2020 Owen Shroyer breaks down why President Trump is bashing Fox News for hiring the disgraced Brazile. The Save Infowars Super Sale is now live! Get up to 60% off our most popular products today!	40,557
There are now a total of nine coronavirus cases in the state of Virginia, with a few of them being in Virginia Beach. On Wednesday, Governor Northam held a press conference in Richmond to give an update on the pandemic, where he confirmed a ninth presumptive positive case of the virus. All nine patients were described as being in stable condition. The Virginia Department of Health announced Wednesday that a Virginia Beach couple tested “presumptive positive” for the coronavirus, which make the cases the first two in the Virginia Beach health district and the sixth and seventh in the state. Despite recent reports of the virus spreading rapidly, the Something in the Water music festival is set to continue. News 3 spoke to the city’s Director of Emergency Management, who says the city is talking with the event organizers daily to be prepared to move forward. Leaders with Virginia Beach City Schools are taking precautions as well. “We want to do our part. We are cleaning the surfaces of all our schools every night and on a regular basis throughout the day as well as cleaning out buses,” said Jack Freeman. Freeman is the chief operation officer with the school district. All non-local field trips have been canceled, with the exception of state competitions. Old Dominion University has also sent out information to students involving the precautions they're taking. In an email sent to students on Wednesday, it stated that, "As of today, there are no reported cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Old Dominion University. The University’s Emergency Management team continues to monitor, plan for, and respond to the global outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19 and is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Norfolk and Virginia Departments of Health." ODU plans to implement a Public Health Incident Task Force that will assess, plan for and mitigate how coronavirus may impact to school. University- and Research Foundation-sponsored travel to countries with CDC Warning Levels 2 & 3 for COVID-19 is now suspended. Those countries include Italy, China, South Korea, Iran and Japan. Students, faculty and staff returning from locations where a CDC Warning Level 3 travel health notice for COVID-19 is in effect must not return to ODU campus locations. Instead, they will need to notify their supervisor and impose self-quarantine at home for 14 days. The University canceled study abroad trips to Italy, Ireland and Thailand this spring. No decision has been made yet regarding summer or fall programs. The University says they're also providing continual environmental cleaning with disinfecting agents and is deploying hand sanitizer stations across campus. Northam said in Wednesday's press conference that while the state has not yet called a state of emergency, it is prepared to do so. News 3 is bringing you the latest updates as more organizations, schools and event planners prepare and adjust to the spread of this disease.	469,233

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