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thorp; and, Dr. Bressner, an Austrian doctor.
5. ‘The Witches’ by Roald Dahl
Movie release date: October 9, 2020
What the book’s about: The second children’s book on the list is definitely weirder and a bit scarier than the first, and one of Dahl’s quintessential tales. The dark fantasy follows a 7-year-old British boy who goes off to live with his Norwegian grandma after his parents are killed in a car accident. Grandmamma loves to tell the boy fascinating stories, but there are none she loves to tell so well as stories about children-hating witches, which she insists are real – and none are more powerful and terrifying than the Grand High Witch. When the boy accidentally stumbles into a meeting of the witches of Britain, he overhears their plan to turn all the children of England into mice by giving them poisoned sweets. It’s up to him and his Grandmamma to save the day. Dahl’s darkly whimsical book has been delighting children for generations.
6. ‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ by Michael Koryta
Movie release date: October 23, 2020
What the book’s about: 13-year-old Jace Wilson is caught up in tragic events when he witnesses a brutal murder committed by sibling killers, the Blackwell Brothers. To protect him, Jace is whisked away into witness protection, issued with a new identity and backstory. Now off the grid, he’s buried in a remote wilderness skills program for troubled youths. While the police race to track down the Blackwell Brothers, the brothers are looking for Jace, brutally killing anyone who gets in their way. Soon, all that stands between the Blackwells and Jace are Ethan and Allison Serbin, the founders of the wilderness survival program, and fire lookout Hannah Faber in her lonely tower. Their standoff plays out in the endless expanse of desolate Montana mountains that are now on fire. The clock is ticking as the killers close in.
7. ‘Deep Water’ by Patricia Highsmith
Movie release date: November 13, 2020
What the book’s about: Patricia Highsmith creates a suspenseful tale of a love gone sour and treacherous in the small town of Little Wesley. Vic and Melinda Van Allen’s marriage has crumbled from passion into something loveless and cold. The only thing holding them together at this point is their arrangement: Melinda can take as many lovers as she wants as long as she promises not to ask for a divorce and leave her family. But the precarious arrangement is unsustainable and soon, Vic’s jealousy boils over. He attempts to reassert himself into Melinda’s life and make her pay attention to him by pretending to be the one who killed her former lover, Malcolm MacRae. But his disturbing fantasies soon cross the line into reality and Melinda starts to suspect her husband is a murderer in this tale that’s reminiscent of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.
8. ‘Dune’ by Frank Herbert
Movie release date: December 18, 2020
What the book’s about: Frank Herbert’s masterful sci-fi epic is a genre classic for a reason. It tells the story of the young Paul Atreides, heir to the noble Atreides familiy on the desert planet of Arrakis. They rule over the inhospitable world as they control the flow and distribution of the only thing valuable in the barren world: the “spice” melange, a drug capable of enhancing consciousness and extending one’s life. It’s a lucrative empire, but a dangerous one. When House Atreides is betrayed, Paul is turned loose into a sprawling world and set on his path to a destiny he never envisioned as he slowly transforms into the mysterious figure known only as Muad’Dib. Dune blends mysticism and sci-fi, environmentalism and politics, adventure and humanity into one sweeping saga that spans the universe.
9. ‘News of the World’ by Paulette Jiles
Movie release date: December 25, 2020
What the book’s about: Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is a solitary drifter in the wake of the Civil War. He travels across northern Texas and ekes out a living by giving live readings from newspapers to people eager for news of the world outside their towns. The elderly widow Kidd has been through multiple wars and loves his rootless, transient existence and being alone. But his life changes during a routine stop in Wichita Falls when he’s offered $50 to take a young orphan girl back to her relatives in San Antonio. Kidnapped four years earlier by a band of Kiowa raiders who killed her family, 10-year-
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DIY projects aren’t for everyone. If you’d rather buy a weighted blanket or lap pad, we found some good options.
Note: weighted blankets are sized to fit the user, not the bed. Get size guidelines here.
1. More affordable weighted blanket options
$73 YnM Weighted Blanket – 15 lbs, 48 x 72 inches
$88 Sivio Weighted Blanket – 20 lbs, 60 x 80 inches
$95 Good Knight Weighted Blanket – 20 lbs, 60 x 80 inches
2. $30 – 320 SensaCalm weighted blankets and lap pads
Lap pads, blankets, shoulder wraps, and other weighted products
Weights from 2 – 40 pounds
Prices from $30 – 320, based on size, weight, and fabric
Choose from a variety of fabric colors, textures, and patterns
Customization available on the SensaCalm website
See SensaCalm blanket options
3. $50 – 296 Sommerfly weighted blankets
Lap pads, blankets, shoulder wraps, and other weighted products
Blankets have a curved cut-out at top for the neck
Weights from 3 – 25 pounds
Prices from $50 – 296, based on size and weight
Customization available on the Sommerfly website
See Sommerfly blanket options
4. $79 – 514 Customizable weighted lap pad or blanket
Customize the size, weight, and fabric
Weights from 2 – 66 pounds
Prices from $79 – 514, based on size, weight, and fabric
See custom lap pad or blanket options
Recommended for you:
By DailyCaring Editorial Team
Image: Independent Living Centres Australia
This article wasn’t sponsored, but does contain affiliate links. We never link to products or services for the sole purpose of making a commission. Recommendations are based on our honest opinions. For more information, see How We Make Money.
Lithium-ion battery options for portability.
The system comes with a digital timer and on/off switch. The timer defaults to 30 minutes as a safety feature but can be increased by 30-minute increments. Some users complained about having to reset the timer every 30 minutes but again, you shouldn’t be using it for more than 30 minutes at a time. What We Liked Includes electronic digital timer so you know when to remove
Comes with a universal pad so it can be used for all areas What We Didn't Like Motor has a humming noise that can get annoying
exclamation-triangle Some users complained about having to reset the timer every 30 minutes
4. Cryotherapy Arctic Ice Cold Water Therapy
The last cold therapy machine on our list is the Cryotherapy Arctic Ice Cold Water Therapy machine. It can provide up to 7 hours of continuous cryotherapy, includes a timer so you can use it in increments or you can turn off the timer and set-up for continuous use (though I would say you should definitely take breaks every 15-20 minutes). It is also easy to set-up and use. It can be used from the earliest stages of post-operative recovery, through rehabilitation, to post-recovery home use for the treatment of chronic pain of any body part. The system is available with various therapy pads that fit around any body part or joint to treat soreness, pain, or discomfort. Although they don’t currently sell the machine with universal pad together, I think the large back pad would work for most people. There are some drawbacks that we've seen. Some testers complained about the reservoir being small which will cause the ice to melt faster and reduce the time the water stays cold. There were also some reports of breaking after just a few weeks and no responses from the company.
What We Liked Includes a timer
Extremely easy to set-up and use What We Didn't Like Universal pad currently not available
exclamation-triangle Small reservoir compared to other machines reviewed
exclamation-triangle Reports of machine breaking and no reply from company
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In the long term, we want to turn these conversations into tangible action. We hope to set a precedent for how the creative community and technology industries can better work together, create meaningful and sustainable business relationships.”
As Wachsman revealed, this includes “[publishing] educational papers that summarize the DFC’s quarterly meetings so that we can share the insights gathered with the wider industry and enable the masses to benefit from this knowledge.”
It's not surprising that Eero would be one of the earliest router makers to support HomeKit. Apple has a few key tie-ins with Eero's parent Amazon, including support for Apple Music on Alexa devices and Apple TV+ on Fire TV hardware. Even so, this is a big move. If you live in an Apple-centric household, this might be as close as you get to an official HomeKit-friendly solution with AirPort still out of the picture.
a nearby chain. “We stay out of everything.”
{snip}
In some quarters, however, whites openly worried about the ability of blacks to run things. After the 2012 election, Jonny Brown, a county board of elections member appointed by the local Republican Party, posted an online editorial comparing county government to a “little white plane” that took on more black paint over time and eventually crashed.
{snip}
That's far to advanced for what I can do.
I can have it instructed to them, but there won't be anyway for me to confirm that they actually placed what they needed to.
On top of that, I have no way of actually making sure they actually start/finish a research. At least, that I know of and I can't force them to research specific things, just inform them of that.
Click to expand...
Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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football players "giving up" accomplishments to jesus picked jesus in first round fantasy draft
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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Over the last few months, we've heard Manning's agent make reference to some of the additional values the quarterback brings to the table. Roethlisberger and Rivers do not have to play in New York and don't have to handle the same massive media responsibilities that Manning does. Neither Rivers nor Roethlisberger will be single-handedly charged with trying to rescue a sinking ship or potentially bridge the gap between Tom Coughlin and the team's next head coach, either.
-sandhu/svelte-todo
What about comparing Svelte with Vue?
I’m glad you asked! Here’s the link below:
https://medium.com/@sunilsandhu/i-created-the-exact-same-app-in-vue-and-svelte-here-are-the-differences-c649f8d4ce0a
I finally made it to Apalach.
I’ve worn myself out. I slept 11 hours last night and I was asleep before 8pm. It looks like I may have a repeat tonight too.
I swear, it felt like I was taking it easy amid the stress, but my body says otherwise.
Now that I’m in a sunny location I’m going to try taking photos of the last 8 paintings. Hopefully tomorrow.
Online language learning company Duolingo has finally added a Mandarin course to its offerings. With more than one billion speakers, Mandarin is the most popular language on the planet, but it's also on one of the hardest to learn, which is why the course will prove a little beefier than its European language counterparts. English speakers will learn the language's characters as well as the four tones of Mandarin, with lessons structured by themes such as greetings, food, health and sports.
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She always keeps it real! Molly Hopkins wasn’t afraid to speak her mind during a recent interview, addressing her ex Luis Mendez getting remarried five months after they finalized their divorce and more. The 90 Day Fiancé star revealed that she heard about the speculation Luis’ new bride is expecting.
“The divorce was final in May, it happened very quickly and five months later he’s married and I think there’s rumors that she’s pregnant. And she looks from the picture that I saw about five months pregnant so…,” Molly, 43, said while appearing on The Tomorrow Show. The TLC star kept it short and simple when asked what advice she’d give Luis’ new wife. “Good luck,” Molly said. As far as what she’d tell her ex-husband Luis, Molly said: “Check yourself before you go throwing stones. Do right. You’re going to stay here and be married, do right.”
In case you missed it, Luis actually tied the knot in September, but fans didn’t find out about his nuptials until the photos surfaced on social media. “Yes, I did get married. That was my wedding [on] Sept. 19,” Luis, 27, exclusively told In Touch. “I love this girl so much. She is so amazing.” The 27-year-old also revealed that he and his ex, Molly, don’t chat anymore. “I have no contact with her. I just want to be happy. I don’t want to know nothing about it,” Luis exclusively revealed to In Touch. “But if she wants to congratulate me, it’s OK.” Luis has yet to comment on the pregnancy speculation, but it looks like him and Molly are both excited about moving on.
During her interview on The Tomorrow Show, Molly said that she’s just surrounding herself with positivity and staying busy running her business, LiviRae Lingerie, which is a shop that caters to women of all bra sizes. Molly revealed she’s not currently dating anyone and the reality star says she’s also not sure if she’ll appear on 90 Day Fiancé again, but who knows what the future holds. In addition to her incredible weight loss so far, Molly dished: “I’ve been meditating and doing self-help.” Way to go!
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No, you are a disappointment
You have to love when you’re browsing the internet for links, and the first one you find states that your team is having the most disappointing offseason in Major League Baseball. The worst part? He might be right.
But it seems like the Tigers have thus far missed their opportunity to push harder -- one way or another. That's a bummer because, most of the time, when it comes to these do-or-redo cases, the worst-possible option is idling -- the exact route the Tigers took. We'll see if it pays off -- for now, though, you'd be justified in feeling like Detroit didn't make the most of its offseason.
We all know the story at this point, but it’s interesting to see outside analysts noting the Tigers’ lack of movement. At the end of the day, we just have to hope that the core that showed its resilience last year is ready for another run in 2017.
*Note: When I searched for a “sad Tigers” picture in our database, the first nine results on Getty Images were sad Yankees fans and players after the ALCS. That’s just a reminder to always remember the good times.
Ken Rosenthal has you covered
Get ready for a lot of information. I swear, between him and Jon Heyman, you could gather every single baseball rumor that currently exists. Anyway, I suggest reading the whole piece, but here are some of the highlights.
The Orioles are eyeing Pedro Alvarez to replace Mark Trumbo as their designated hitter. They could use a left-handed bat in their lineup.
Despite a surplus in center field with the additions of Mallex Smith and Colby Rasmus, the Rays are unlikely to move Kevin Kiermaier. Considering his defensive prowess and cheap cost, it’s no wonder the Rays would keep him.
I had forgotten the Twins are paying Joe Mauer $23 million to be a below-average first baseman. I appreciate the reminder, Ken.
Dreams do come true
Funny, I wanted to be a blogger when I grew up.
The legacy of Mallex Smith’s time in Seattle
Brandon covered it in Thursday’s Tigers Links, but the Mariners were wheeling and dealing. One of the end results was Mallex Smith being a Mariner for approximately 77 minutes. Here is a short tribute video in honor of his time there.
A visual representation of Mariano Rivera’s dominance
Baseball cards are still very much a thing
Like many baseball fans, I have a collection of baseball cards sitting somewhere in my basement. Unlike Brady Kahle of Springfield, Massachusetts, I have done nothing with them. Brady on the other hand, raised $13,000 for his friend diagnosed with Leukemia. Brady is a much better person than I.
If you would like to start selling some of those old relics, Forbes has a beginner’s guide to selling baseball cards.
A tradition unlike any other: checking Pablo Sandoval’s weight
Breaking news: we are back to skinny, in-shape, going-to-have-a-monster-year Pablo Sandoval! Despite some 2012 World Series PTSD, it’s tough not to root for someone whose nickname is Kung Fu Panda. I’m glad he is doing well.
Poor San Diego
With the departure of the San Diego Chargers to Los Angeles, the Padres now carry the full weight and expectations of San Diego sports fandom. This is probably not a great thing.
For your free time
The Oakland Athletics and Santiago Casilla agreed to a two-year deal. Good luck trying to figure out who will close for Oakland. Here’s an op-ed piece posing that MLB should mandate more protective netting. They should really just do hang it themselves, but whatever makes it happen. Here’s a look at the Rays’ crowded outfield.
Baseball is awesome
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The 10 best overhead kick goals of all time Forget Henrikh Mkhitariyan and Olivier Giroud’s scorpion efforts. No matter what else happens between now and May, West Ham’s Andy […]
Forget Henrikh Mkhitariyan and Olivier Giroud’s scorpion efforts.
No matter what else happens between now and May, West Ham’s Andy Carroll has bagged the goal of the season with his immaculate overhead kick against Crystal Palace.
Read more: Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal so good that even Juventus fans had to stand and applaud
There’s nothing quite like an overhead kick. It’s similar to a ‘Hail Mary’ pass in American football: when it comes off, the results are nearly always spectacular.
Here’s our list of the finest overhead kicks to grace the game.
10. Rory Delap v Tottenham Hotspur
Long before Rory Delap became the most feared throw-in practitioner in the world, he was plying his trade with Southampton.
Saints broke their transfer record in 2001 when they signed Delap from Derby County for £4 million.
Delap made sure it was money well spent for his employers when he unleashed a technically impeccable overhead kick against David Pleat’s Tottenham Hotspur.
Despite being well known for his athletic ability – Delap was a skilled javelin thrower in his youth – the Irish international took the 30,000 fans in the St Mary’s by surprise with the exquisitely executed effort.
9. Dimitar Berbatov v Liverpool
Any goal will do in a derby. A duff tap in, a deflected free kick, an undeserved penalty, an own goal, anything.
In many ways the flukier the better: the thought of your sworn opponents squirming at an undeserving goal is a kind of exquisite schadenfreude.
But one Bulgarian didn’t get that memo: Dimitar Berbatov, a cult-hero at nearly every club he has played at, from Bayer Leverkusen to Fulham to Tottenham, and of course Man United.
It was a magnificent overhead-kick against arch-rivals Liverpool that cemented the striker’s cult-status among the Old Trafford faithful.
North-West Derbies are often fast and furious affairs, but when a wayward cross made its way into the Liverpool box, time seemed to stand still.
Berbatov deftly controlled the ball with his chest before unleashing a measured bicycle kick that tickled the woodwork before bouncing satisfyingly over the line.
8. Ronaldinho v Villarreal
Ronaldinho served up more than his fair share of memorable goals, whether it was his magical footwork and finish versus Chelsea in the first knockout round of the 2005 Champions League, or his infamous lobbing of David Seaman from 40 yards in the 2002 World Cup quarter-final.
Perhaps topping this list of goals though was his acrobatic effort in a La Liga match against Villarreal in 2006. A goal that Ronaldinho said he had dreamt of scoring since he was a boy.
The buck-toothed Barca legend defied gravity when he chested a Xavi ball, spun 180 degrees and walloped a right footed bicycle kick over the helpless keeper.
As Geordie commentator Ray Hudson put it: “as electrifying as hairdryer thrown into a hot tub.”
7. Mauro Bressan v Barcelona
If you’ve heard of Mauro Bressan it’s probably for one of two reasons.
Reason one: he was arrested, along with 15 other people, in 2011 for his part in a match fixing scandal that shook Italian football to its very core.
Reason two: he scored possibly the best goal in Champions League history in a 3-3 draw against Barcelona in 2001.
The Italian produced something out of nothing, leathering a postage stamp-seeking shot 30 yards out, from a seemingly unthreatening position.
6. Trevor Sinclair v Barnsley
1997 was a simpler time. The transfer record remained below £20 million, FIFA appeared to be a reputable organisation, and overhead kicks were reserved for football royalty.
Twenty years later, the transfer record is £90 million, the least said about FIFA the better, and everyone who pulls on a pair of football boots attempts a bicycle kick at any opportunity.
Before YouTube it was rare that you would get see one, unless it happened to be in a featured MOTD game.
Trevor Sinclair ensured that we would witness one to remember when he rattled in an edge-of-the-box, head-height howitzer in an FA Cup match against Barns
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per reception this season. That big-play ability should serve him well against a Bucs defense that has given up the second-most deep completions this season. Running after the catch is among the things Moore does well, which works perfectly with what Norv Turner likes to run. I don't care if Devin Funchess is active or not. Give me the over on Moore's 14.7-point projection.
Rob Gronkowski vs. Vikings (Projected: 12.3 points): After getting three end zone targets in Week 12 (the only player who can claim that), he finally looks like, well, Gronk. He had only two such targets for the entire season entering Week 12, so it's certainly an encouraging sign. And as of this writing, I am expecting Xavier Rhodes to play and to shadow Josh Gordon. (If Rhodes can't go, ignore my Brady "hate" above). My expectation is Brady will look elsewhere and that includes hitting Gronk, as the Vikings are a bottom-10 defense in terms of yards per pass attempt to the tight end position.
Eric Ebron at Jaguars (Projected: 13.9 points): More than 20 percent of Ebron's targets this season have come in the red zone. In games without Jack Doyle this season, Ebron has averaged 10 targets per game. With Andrew Luck under center this season, the tight end position has been responsible for 27.8 percent of Luck's completions, 28.8 percent of his targets, 30.5 percent of his passing yards and 56.3 percent of his passing touchdowns. The Jaguars have allowed the third-most tight end touchdowns this season and are a bottom-10 defense in terms of limiting yards per completion to tight ends.
Cameron Brate vs. Panthers (Projected: 9.1 points): Since the start of last season, he leads the Bucs with eight touchdown receptions from Jameis Winston. The Panthers are allowing the second-highest completion percentage when targeting tight ends this season, they've given up a league-high nine tight end touchdowns and seven times this season a tight end has surpassed 13 points against Carolina.
Others receiving votes: Tyler Lockett has a touchdown in eight of 11 games this season and the 49ers have allowed at least 37 WR points in each of their past five games not played against the hapless Raiders. I'm writing this on Wednesday and Doug Baldwin didn't practice. Even if he plays, I like Lockett here, but Baldwin being out would certainly help.... Since Week 8, Adam Humphries leads all Buccaneers with 26 receptions. He has four scores in four games, more than 14.5 points in four of his past five games, and since Week 7, the Panthers are allowing the fourth-most slot completions per game. He's available in 67 percent of leagues, if you're looking for a decently high-floor type guy.... Josh Doctson leads the Redskins in air yards per target this season and owns a top-20 rate since the beginning of last season (13.4 yards). The Eagles have allowed the third-most deep passing yards this season (108.9 yards per game).... Speaking of the Skins, Jordan Reed leads Washington in red zone targets this season and while six catches for 70 yards may not sound like much, Reed is one of only four tight ends to do that in consecutive games this season. He's also the only one currently riding such a streak, so it does seem, at least in a small sample, Reed has a connection with Colt McCoy.
Pass-catchers I hate in Week 13
Odell Beckham Jr. vs. Bears (Projected: 19.6 points): Another player you're obviously starting, but man, 19.6 is a big number. Beckham has failed to catch more than five passes in three straight games, the first time he has done that since his first three games in the NFL. And if the volume is low, it's a problem against the Bears, as the big play isn't a likely outcome. Chicago has allowed the fourth-fewest deep completions and, since Week 5, the Bears have allowed just one deep touchdown pass while intercepting five deep passes. Plus, you know, Eli. Gimme the under.
Stefon Diggs at Patriots (Projected: 18.4 points): This also strikes me as a big number. Since Week 7, the Patriots are a top-six defense against wide receivers in terms of touchdowns and reception percentage. Just four receivers have reached this number against the Patriots this season and three of them scored more than 68 percent of their points against New England from the slot. Diggs mostly stays outside and I'm expecting shadow coverage from Stephon Gilmore as well.
T.Y. Hilton at Jaguars (Projected: 16.4 points): He has just eight catches in his past three games against the Jags (and it took him 21 targets to get there). Since Week 3, only the
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had over the DNC before the 2000 primaries began: By 1999, the DNC’s senior staff was dominated by Democratic politicos with long-standing relations to Gore — including both co-chairmen, the finance chair and one of the senior advisers. Thus, while the DNC did not endorse Gore, it clearly preferred him in the 2000 primaries.
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Given Clinton’s standing as the favorite to win the Democratic nomination, and her longtime role in the party, it is not surprising that her preferences were incorporated in the DNC’s decision-making processes. What is surprising is that the DNC formally agreed to provide the campaign with veto power over some of its hiring decisions.
This doesn’t mean the 2016 primaries were rigged against Sanders
Throughout the primary process, the Sanders campaign made several complaints about how the DNC disadvantaged them. On some issues — such as the timing of some of the primary contests, or the way delegates were divided over the states — Clinton probably received some benefits. However, as political scientist Josh Putnam has noted, these rules were decided in 2014 — well before anyone expected a Clinton-Sanders primary contest.
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Other complaints may be more valid. For example, the Sanders campaign pointed to the timing of the DNC-organized primary debates, which frequently occurred at times where a small audience was likely to tune in. It is possible that some of these decisions were made by Clinton-approved DNC staffers. If the DNC made these calls with the intention of shortening the primary campaign process, it might have limited the Sanders’ campaign’s ability to reach new voters.
But whether the DNC actually succeeded in this is far from clear. Clinton received 3.7 million more votes than Sanders did — and it is questionable that this was due solely to the timing of debates. For this reason, there is an important difference between the DNC’s preferring one of the presidential candidates and its rigging the nomination process.
In short, two things can be true simultaneously: The DNC tried to help Clinton’s campaign, but this did not have much impact on whether Clinton won the nomination.
The lower house of the French parliament has rejected the amendments to the 2019 finance bill which would ease crypto-related taxation. French monthly business magazine Capital reported this Tuesday, Dec. 18.
The amendments that have been declined by the National Assembly referred to a draft of the government finance bill for 2019.
As explained by local crypto news outlet Bitcoin.fr, the parliament rejected four proposals in total. One of them was to introduce a distinction between regular crypto transactions and occasional ones, offering a more relaxed taxation system for the latter.
Another amendment proposed to increase the annual volume of transactions that falls under tax exemption from 305 euro (around $350) to 3,000 euro ($3,430), or even 5,000 euro ($5,714). The National Assembly also declined the proposal to follow the current guidelines for securities when introducing crypto taxation.
As Cointelegraph reported in November, a reduction of the crypto income tax rate from 36.2 to 30 percent was also proposed; this amendment was mentioned during the Assembly’s meeting, but its current status remains unclear.
The head of French blockchain association Chaintech, Alexandre Stachtchenko, told Capital that the government’s move did not provide any legal certainty for the country’s crypto traders and investors. Moreover, he believes that, under the current legislation, many of them will prefer not to report their crypto incomes.
In June 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would like France to become a "startup nation." The country’s minister for the economy and finance, Bruno le Maire, echoed Macron’s point of view, claiming that the country was ready for a “blockchain revolution.”
In December, French political deputies offered to spend 500 million euro (about $569 million) on state-level blockchain deployment over the next three years in order to comply with the course plotted by le Maire.
However, France’s overall attitude toward cryptocurrencies remains ambiguous. The country’s central bank has recently refused to endorse a plan that would allow thousands of tobacco kiosks to sell Bitcoin (BTC) starting in January 2019.
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20 years ago today we lost the world’s greatest rock singer, an immensely talented man. His legacy lives on through his music… and these geeky tributes. Freddie Mercury influenced and touched us all (in a metaphorical sense, guys) with his music and art, and it’s hard to come across people who deny the greatness that were Queen or his short-lived solo career. Not only rock fans have come to appreciate him for the genius he was, but also us geeks (there even is a certain overlap between the two groups!), and it was only to be expected that we’d tribute Freddie Mercury, his life and art in the geekiest ways we could come up with. Without further introduction, this is 20 Years Without Freddie Mercury: A Geeky Tribute.
Freddie Mercury Google Doodle
Earlier this year, to commemorate what would have been Freddie’s 65th birthday, the Google Team did one of their classic doodles, this time featuring the man and his band, Queen. The Doodle has been taken down since then, but luckily, it can still be enjoyed in video format at YouTube. Congrats, Google team, for a tasteful, fantastic tribute!
Plasticine Freddie Mercury
This plasticine Freddie Mercury wants to break free! For mere 6.50 Euros, this little guy here can hold your keys anywhere you go. The little mustache is absolutely adorable and the best part of the figurine.
Queen Papercraft
Created by two talented Russian artists, this fantastic Queen Papercraft embodies the rocking spirit of the band perfectly, with Freddie rocking the front, and some of the greatest musicians of all time backing him up (Brian May’s hair is awesome). Also, we love the stage.
Lego Freddie Mercury
Which one do you prefer? The cartoon-y version below, or the more realistic take above? And granted, the second pic might not be exactly Lego, but it still deserves a spot here, for the craftsmanship alone is worth it.
Queen Meets The Simpsons
One of the worst parts of Freddie’s untimely death was that he went away way before the Simpsons became the media Behemoth they are today. As such, we never got an episode with Queen like we did with greats like Paul McCartney or Michael Jackson. Luckily, thanks to this fantastic fan art by Ed Wheeler, we can imagine how it would have looked like.
Freddie Mercury Memes & Rage Faces
His iconic victory post from the 1986 Wembley show is so recognizable that it became a “rage face”, a pre-drawn face used in comics people share in communities such as Reddit or Tumblr. It’s used to denote having achieved something. The variation is equally hilarious:
Also, other users have recurred to Freddie Mercury to make us laugh as in the example that follows, based on the Y U NO series macros.
Freddie Mercury Montreux Statue
One of the most iconic locations of the Switz city of Montreux is the Freddie Mercury Statue, right in front of Lake Geneva. The statue is also based on his Wembley look (a lot of fans call this Queen’s best show ever) and is one of the greatest tributes we’ve ever seen.
8-Bit Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen
Although lacking in the animation department, a lot of talented artists have overtaken the task to do 8 bit versions of some of Queen’s most well-known songs. Here’s our favorite, Don’t Stop Me Now.
Rest in peace, you rock god. We’ll be here missing you and enjoying your music.
To see more tributes, click here to remember Michael Jackson and here for Steve Jobs.
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MYSURU: Walking on hot coals to propitiate gods and goddesses is common. But in Banahalli village in Chamarajanagar district, burning embers are offered to the goddess as naivedyam (offering) by farmers who pray for a disease-free crop.The unusual offering to goddess Satyadevate has been the practice here for generations. At the two-day annual car festival, which was held on Monday and Tuesday this year, embers were offered on a banana leaf to the deity. Kumar Banahalli, a local resident, told TOI that the temple priest made the offering on behalf of the villagers. "Puja is performed to this deity every day. Usually, a lamp is lit in front of the deity and camphor is offered. It is only at the annual festival that embers are offered," he explained."On both days of the car festival, temple priest Subbanna keeps a fast. He drinks only tender coconut water," Banahalli said. "Around 11am, he cuts a tree and hacks it into pieces. Around 1pm, villagers irrespective of caste, set fire to the wood. At 6pm, the smouldering embers are offered as naivedyam to the deity."A ritual is followed for the goddess to accept the offering. "A white cloth is kept on the embers to ensure that no one sees the goddess eating the naivedyam. After this, a mahamangalarati is performed," Banahalli said.Once the embers die, the locals collect the ash and sprinkle it in their fields. Nagaraj, another resident, said the common belief among farmers is that the holy ash protects the crop against all diseases.Gram panchayat member BM Nataraj said the temple does not fall under the muzrai department. "The car festival was stopped for a few years due to some local reasons. This year, we restarted the car festival," he said.Parameshwarappa, a local resident, said this year, nearly 5,000 devotees had gathered for the festival. "The festival is a symbol of our rural life and this unique naivedyam concept has been followed for hundreds of years," he said.
“This is the #MeToo of the French publishing world,” said François Busnel, the host of “La Grande Librairie,” France’s most important television literary program. “A voice has been set free in an environment, the French literary environment, which is male chauvinist, quite misogynistic, and which stays silent — omertà.”
Mr. Matzneff’s fall, if late in coming, was swift. His three publishers dropped him. The head of the National Book Center said that Mr. Matzneff would lose a prestigious, seldom-awarded lifetime stipend. The Culture Ministry is re-examining two state honors conferred on him in the mid-1990s. He lost his column in the magazine Le Point. Prosecutors opened an investigation.
The statute of limitations is believed to have expired in the case involving Ms. Springora. But, in addition to the charge of promoting pedophilia, Mr. Matzneff could face criminal charges for more recent sex acts with minors in France or abroad.
From his hiding place on the Italian Riviera, Mr. Matzneff rejected the accusations of wrongdoing.
“Who are they to judge?” he said. “These associations of the virtuous, how do they sleep, what do they do in bed and who do they sleep with, and their secret, repressed desires?”
The Writer as Icon
Mr. Matzneff’s story is one, many have said, that could happen “only in France.”
From Voltaire to Hugo to Zola to Sartre, the writer has been regarded as sacred in France. In Paris, countless streets named for writers serve as a physical reminder of their outsize influence. Every Wednesday, a major network devotes 90 live minutes of prime time to discussing books on “La Grande Librairie.”
Although not one of France’s greatest writers, Mr. Matzneff still benefited fully from this tradition. He wrote nearly 50 novels, essay collections and diaries that never would have made it to bookstores in an industry more concerned with the bottom line.
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Jianbing is one of China's most popular street breakfasts. And while all manner of Chinese buns and dumplings have spread well beyond the country's borders, it also might be China's best-kept culinary secret. The savory crisp-fried crêpes are all about bold contrasts of flavor and texture: eggs, spread over the surface of the wheat and mung bean flour pancake as it cooks. Crunchy puffed strips of fried wonton. A jumble of grassy cilantro, peppery scallions, and tangy pickles; a sweet and spicy layer of hoisin and chili sauces. And each one is cooked fresh to order on a circular cast-iron grill, just the way you want it.
Every metropolitan neighborhood across the People's Republic has its own jianbing vendor serving breakfast from dawn through mid-morning, satisfying hungry locals on their way to work. But until recently, you might have struggled to find jianbing outside of China and Taiwan. Now a few Western pioneers, self-taught in the secrets of making jianbing, are bringing them home to America and Britain.
A Breakfast Worth Waiting For
Jianbing stands are the ephemeral breakfast architecture of every Chinese city. At around five in the morning, the vendors appear with everything they need, packed on the back of a bicycle or motorbike: A heavy circular grill, a few tubs of ingredients, and a tin box for collecting their takings. Oh, and about twenty dozen eggs, precariously stacked in cardboard trays tied together with raffia string. They set up in unused spaces—doorways, shuttered shop fronts, street corners—and within minutes of the first bing (pancake) crisping on the hot griddle, there's a line.
As transient as these jianbing stalls might be, this is no grab-and-go street breakfast. For jianbing, there is always a line. You might be late for work, or filled with ravenous hunger, but that's all irrelevant to the vendor behind the griddle. To preserve the crispness of the pancake and fried wonton filling, jianbing are never cooked ahead of time, so waiting for your turn is part of the culture. If you need to eat something fast, buy a baozi (steamed bun) instead.
Jianbing have a longer history than almost any other Chinese street food. Thought to have originated in Shandong Province during the Three Kingdoms Period (220–280 AD), military strategist Zhuge Liang had his soldiers cook batter on shields held over the fire after their woks were lost.
The recipe for a modern day jianbing holds fairly closely to this principle. A thick, sticky wad of dough is deftly spread into a giant pancake, thin as a crêpe, using a thick wooden paddle.
While the crêpe cooks, an egg or two are cracked onto its uncooked surface and spread evenly...
And then topped with finely chopped mustard pickles, scallions, and coriander.
The jianbing is folded in half like a fan, and hoisin sauce and lajiao chili sauce spread on the back to taste. For crunch, the vendor folds the bing around a sheet of crispy-fried wonton and some lettuce, before chopping it in half to make it easier to eat.
Of course, if jianbing were that easy to make, they would have taken the world by storm long before now. Part of the challenge in replicating the dish is that the batter and fillings used in jianbing differ by region, and even by vendor. In northern China, the batter might be made from mung bean or black bean flour, while on the East Coast it's a combination of wheat flour and mung bean flour. In Tianjin, they use you tiao (fried dough sticks) rather than fried wontons as filling, calling them jianbing guozi. Other fillings vary too, ranging from Chinese sausage to shredded carrot, grated radish, chicken, or even—in cosmopolitan Shanghai—strips of crisp-fried bacon. Many consider making your own jianbing impossible without months of practice and tuition from a master.
Taking Jianbing West
Yet a few committed foreigners have conquered the secrets of jianbing for themselves. Portland food vendor, Alisa Grandy, recently opened the city's first dedicated jianbing business, Bing Mi and is struggling to keep up with demand. She found the recipe difficult to track down in any exact form. "I was eager to recreate what I had tasted in China, but internet research left a bit to be desired. It seemed that most recipes I found were intentionally vague. They would talk about pickled vegetables, but not what kind of vegetables, or would mention a fried cracker, but say 'fry
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by
As of June 28, the death toll in Nicaragua has reached 285, with more than 1,500 wounded. The country is divided, trying to make sense of the violence and the political climate that surrounds it. In the United States, making sense of the current narrative is nearly impossible. It seems that there is one narrative passing through the mainstream news cycle on repeat like an echo chamber. According to this narrative, President Daniel Ortega is authoritarian. He cut pensions. People protested. Ortega responded violently, killing still climbing numbers of protestors. Ortega must go, and the United States must support him, in the name of democracy. But reality is rarely that simple. This article is not a defense of the Ortega administration. It does not seek to condone or overlook the recent deaths. It is an attempt from one human being to another to push against the walls of this echo chamber and give historical context to the current conflict.
The misinformation – or, at best, the careful curation of facts—surrounding the recent protests begins with the pension cuts that sparked the conflict. Contrary to the current narrative, the pension proposalsdid not originate with Ortega’s administration. In response to the budgetary shortfall of Nicaragua’s social security fund (the INSS), the IMF proposed cutting benefits by 20% and raising the retirement age to 63 (or even 65) from 60, among other changes. Ortega’s administration rejected the IMF’s harsh austerity measures and instead proposed cutting pensions by 5% and increasing contributions to the INSS by 3.5% from employers and.75% from employees. Ortega’s proposal cut pensions by far lower rates than the plan suggested by the IMF policy, but somehow the IMF seems to have escaped blame in the narrative around the protests. Don’t be fooled: the IMF and the broader neoliberal agenda have a long history of crafting policies that impoverish everyday people and widen inequality gaps throughout the Global South. Nicaragua is no exception.
Daniel Ortega has long been an enemy of the United States and its imperialist agenda. Ortega was part of the Sandinista revolution that ousted the US-backed 40-year Somoza dictatorship in 1979. The Sandinistas remained in power for 19 years under Ortega’s leadership, during which time illiteracy rates fell by nearly 40%. They lost the elections in 1990, paving the way for 17 years of neoliberal administrations. In 2006, Ortega once again won the presidential elections. Since he has been in office in 2007, poverty has fallen from 48.3% in 2005 to 24.9% in 2016 after plateauing for during the series of neoliberal administrations that followed the 1990 defeat of the Sandinista government. From 2006 to 2017, the GDP has increased by 38 per cent. Ortega has enjoyed high popularity ratings, but to say that the people of Nicaragua unliterally love him would be a lie. His record is complicated: it was before the protests, even more so now. But the fact that the gains made by his administration have been left out of much of the coverage around Nicaragua’s most recent protests gives rise to a bigger question, one that is unconcerned with the wishes and demands of the Nicaraguan people. The conflict in Nicaragua is not black and white: it is possible both that the people of Nicaragua have grievances with Ortega, and also that there are other factors at play that echo larger trends of an imperialist intervention and a neoliberal agenda throughout Latin America propagated by the US, most recently in Brazil and Venezuela.
As Tricontinental: Institute for Social Researchrecently reported, the United States has waged an ‘unconventional war’ on Venezuela and throughout the region, using economic sanctions, the manipulation of public opinion, and other schemes to insert a neoliberal agenda under the pretext of humanitarianism, “waging a war that has the particularity of sometimes seeming to be mobilizations for citizens’ rights.” These ‘Unconventional Wars’ provide important context for understanding the protests and relate violence in Nicaragua. The United States has in large part created the crisis in Venezuela through economic sanctions and other means and subsequently used the consequences as a pretext for intervention. Self-determination is a threat to US and corporate interests that stand to benefit from natural resources, trade deals, and cheap labor in the region. In the case of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega’s administration has aligned itself with the leftist Venezuelan government, raising its fist to the beast of US imperialism. It is brave to stare US imperialism in the eye (according to Tricontinental: Institute for Social Researches In the Ruins of the Present,the US has the most powerful military in the world at $611.2 billion per year), but it is not without consequences.
The West has shown that the assertion of both Venezuela and Nicaragua that they have the right to act independently
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s ( : reserve_for ). returns ( reservation )
HotelRoom. new. book_for ( : customer )
end
def test_book_for_sets_booked_to_true
room = HotelRoom. new
MaidService. stubs ( : notify )
ReservationService. stubs ( : reserve_for ). returns ( stub_everything )
room. book_for ( : customer )
assert_equal true, room. booked
end
def test_book_for_returns_confirmation_number
reservation = stub_everything
reservation. stubs ( : confirmation_number ). returns 1979
ReservationService. stubs ( : reserve_for ). returns ( reservation )
MaidService. stubs ( : notify )
assert_equal 1979, HotelRoom. new. book_for ( : customer )
end
end
If your test has an assertion, do not add any mock expectations (instead use stubs for any methods that need to be changed for the test).
If you add a mock expectation you probably don't need it to return a meaningful value (since you won't be verifying that value).
If you already have a mock expectation you should use the stubs method for any other method where you don't want to use the implementation.
Do not use.with when using a stub unless you need to. If you are stubbing, you don't need to verify the arguments.
When returning stubs, prefer stub_everything so that additional calls to the stub will not cause unnecessary exceptions to be raised.
In a previous entry I discussed why I prefer One Assertion Per Test. In that entry I give a few state based examples, but didn't address the topic of mocks. This entry is going to focus on how you can use mocks while maintaining focus on maintainability.Let's start with an example.The SuiteRunner class is fairly straightforward, it's simply delegating the block on to the instance_eval method on the suite attribute, which is an instance of the Suite class. Even though the class isn't doing anything very interesting the test isn't completely simple. Due to the chain of method calls you need to set up 2 mocks and a total of 3 expectations. While the test isn't unmaintainable, if the description (the method name) isn't kept up to date you could easily lose the intent of the test.A step in the right direction toward making this test more readable is to introduce a few stubs. However, before we decide what to stub we need to decide what this test is trying to verify. Given the description it seems that eval'ing in the context of the suite is what is being tested, thus the suite mock should probably remain. Since the suite mock is the focus of the test, the rest of the mocks are probably better expressed as stubs. The test can be written more concisely now that we've chosen to use stubs.With one mock and one expectation the test expresses it's purpose. Code should not only express how it works, but also why it's been written in a particular way. The new test not only executes, but it conveys the intent of the test (even if the description becomes stale). Converting that test was easy, but tests that have behavior expectations and state based assertions can be a bit more complicated to clean up.There's a lot going on in this test. Test::Unit even reports that 7 assertions have been met. Unfortunately, with that much going on in a test, it's hard to tell what the original intent of the test was. Even worse, it would be hard to change anything in the book_for method without breaking this test. The test is completely tied to the implementation and if that implementation changes you'll break one or more of the assertions within the test. What really bothers me about this test is the ability to break "one or more" assertions. If you change themethod to also take the hotel as an argument the test will immediately stop executing with the following error.Knowing that an assertion failed is good, knowing that other assertions might also fail when you fix the first problem is not so good. The problem with this test is that it's verifying 7 different things. This can most likely be resolved by writing several different tests that all focus on one thing. (There are several tests that can be written, here are 5 examples)The above tests take more lines of code than the original, but they are far more maintainable. You can change the implementation of the book_for method in various ways and only break the tests that are relevant to the change. The tests have become more robust. They've also become more readable because they express what their focus is. The tests that have a mock with an expectation are written to test a behavior
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Wild backup goaltender Darcy Kuemper is expected to get the start Saturday against Arizona.
Kuemper, who hasn’t played since Nov. 29, will give Devan Dubnyk a day of rest while trying to keep the Wild’s win streak intact.
“I’m playing [Saturday], so I’m looking forward to the start,” Kuemper said after Friday’s practice at Xcel Energy Center. “It’s awesome watching all the success [Dubnyk is] having and all the success the team is having. It’s fun coming to the rink right now and I’m excited to get the chance to contribute to it.”
It's Jason Gonzalez subbing in for Russo (delayed flight) today at the X.
The Wild has won six in a row overall, five in a row at home and has gotten at least a point from 11 of its past 12 games (8-1-3). The Wild is 8-1-2 in the last 11 meetings against Arizona, including a current eight-game point streak.
Dubnyk, a former Coyote, is a career-best 8-0-2 in his past 10 starts with a 1.65 goals-against average and.944 save percentage. But Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said Friday, “Dubs isn’t going to play 75 games this year. We’ve got to give [Kuemper] an opportunity to get back in there and play.”
Boudreau didn’t reveal Kemper would start in goal, however, saying “it’s crossed our minds” and “we’re going to talk it over a little more.”
Kuemper is 2-2-1 this season and hasn’t won since Nov. 13 at Ottawa. The Wild is 6-0-1 since Kuemper played in the 5-4 loss in Vancouver.
The Coyotes have won three of their past four after a six-game losing streak.
Defenseman Ryan Suter was outstanding for the Wild in Thursday night’s 5-2 victory at Nashville and got booed by Predators fans nearly every time he touched the puck. The former Predators star was plus-2 and he's plus-19 this year to lead the NHL. In the past 23 games, he has had only two minus games.
Boudreau said, “Especially [Thursday] in the third period or when things got a little ragged, to put [Suter] out there and to settle things down I thought was really good. He had a really good game.”
Fresher legs might have something to do with Suter’s success this season, though he’s not paying attention to his average ice time. He has topped 30 minutes twice this season and the four previous seasons with the Wild he played 30-plus minutes in 92 games.
“The biggest thing is other guys are playing more and playing better and that is definitely good for the team. I haven’t really thought about [my ice time],” Suter said before eventually concluding, “This is the best I’ve felt probably in my career.”
Here is what you should know about Arizona:
Mike Smith has made 40 or more saves in five of his last 10 starts. Since returning from a left leg injury in mid-November, Smith has stopped 477 of 510 shots (.935 save percentage).
The Coyotes allow a league-high 35.8 shots per game and their minus-7.5 shot differential is the worst in the NHL.
The Coyotes have the NHL's best home penalty-killing unit at 93.3 percent, but the league's 29th ranked road PK at 71.2 percent.
Shane Doan needs one goal for career No. 400.
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00:48 Sioux Falls Tornado Rips Apart Building in Newly Released Footage Newly released footage from inside a health center in Sioux Falls shows the damage done by an EF-2 tornado that struck the city one year ago.
Today, "Super Tuesday", 13 states across the country will hold caucuses and primary elections for the 2016 presidential campaign.
Several of those states in the South are forecast to see rain and thunderstorms, possibly severe, on the warm side of Winter Storm Quo. Snowy roads may pester voters in one Midwest Super Tuesday state, as well.
(MORE: Winter Storm Quo | Severe Weather Forecast )
<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/super_tuesday_2016_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/super_tuesday_2016_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/super_tuesday_2016_0.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > A map showing the 13 states that will hold caucuses and primaries on Tuesday.
Below is a regional breakdown of what to expect this Tuesday.
South: More Severe Storms
The ingredients may come together for stormy conditions for much of the South, particularly from the Ark-La-Tex region, eastward into the Tennessee Valley. This setup looks nowhere near as volatile as the deadly super Tuesday tornado outbreak of 2008, nor is it expected to be as destructive as last week’s severe outbreak.
(MORE: Super Tuesday Outbreak | Feb. 23-24, 2016 Outbreak )
The greatest risk for isolated severe thunderstorms will be near and east of the Mississippi River during the evening. This severe weather threat includes eastern and southern Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama, especially if breaks in cloud-cover allow for more daytime heating to fuel any storms. Damaging winds and heavy rain are the main threats, but a few tornadoes and isolated large hail may also be possible with the strongest storms.
Most of central and south Georgia should enjoy mild, but dry conditions through the day and highs mainly in the 70s. Thunderstorms, a few of which may be severe with damaging winds, are expected to sweep into north and west Georgia this evening. Some rain and thunderstorms may also slide into far southwest Virginia this evening, as well.
New England: Snow Holds Off
While some snow and ice is in the forecast from Winter Storm Quo in New England, it should hold off until after the polls close in both Vermont and Massachusetts.
North-Central States: Snowy Roads in Land of 10,000 Lakes
As high pressure settles southward behind the departing storm system, fair and dry conditions are expected to prevail across Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota.
Snow from Winter Storm Quo will move out of southeast Minnesota early, but snowy roads in the southern third of the state may be a nuisance to morning voters.
(INTERACTIVE: Commuter Forecast )
High temperatures are expected to be cooler than average from eastern North Dakota into Minnesota, where daytime highs should only reach the teens or 20s. Minnesota’s arrowhead may see temperatures stay in the single digits, making for a very chilly day to vote.
To the west, milder conditions are likely over Wyoming and Colorado, with highs ranging from the 30s to the 50s. Sunshine dominates the forecast for Colorado, while more in the way of clouds can be expected across Wyoming.
MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak of 2008
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Oren Cass, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the domestic policy director of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, said he was grateful that a carbon tax never made it into the bill.
“The long and the short of it is, I don’t think a carbon tax is either good climate policy or good fiscal policy,” he told me. “Even the pretty strong proponents of the carbon tax, they don’t try to assert that it will do anything about climate change. And if you ask them to provide any benefit estimate that they could put into analysis, they won’t—you’ll get vague talk about leadership, or how it’s going to spur innovation.”
But he also resented that the Republican tax bill in its final form increased the deficit by more than $1 trillion. “I dislike strongly that the tax cut is not revenue neutral,” he told me. “I think if you want to cut taxes, you should find other taxes you want to have to pay for it. But if you were to plot out a list of all the revenue raisers you could have, I think a carbon tax should be very far down the list.”
Why? Because carbon-dioxide emissions make for a “terrible tax base,” he said. If a carbon tax succeeded in reducing the use of fossil fuels, or forcing people to move to renewable energy, then it would erode its own tax base over time. “You’ve shifted onto an unstable tax base that you’re hoping will go away, and you’ll wind up having to raise other taxes up anyway” He also said a carbon tax imposed regressive penalties on sectors and regions already struggling in the current economy—such as energy-intensive manufacturing in the Midwest—while rewarding “higher-income coastal knowledge work.”
The massive unpopularity of the Republican plan—41 percent of Americans believe it is a “bad idea,” according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll—may now give Democrats the opportunity to pass their own tax bill. Adam Looney, who led tax analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department for the last three years of the Obama administration, predicted at an event last month that the tax code would continue to change in the years to come.
“It also seems like this is not going to be the last word on tax reform. There will be a lot of changes yet to come in the tax system,” he said. “The carbon tax will always be right there on the shelf ready for the right moment.”
Gerrard, the Columbia University professor, agreed, saying that the Republican carbon-tax plan from February isn’t dead yet. “If, for instance, we have Democratic control of Congress [in 2020 or 2024], then that proposal could attract the moderate Republicans who are now keeping their heads down in the foxhole,” he told me. (Though that assumes that Democrats would reintroduce a Republican-invented plan.)
But even if the pipe dream of a bipartisan carbon tax has ended for now, the effort to bring Republicans over to the fold will never die. The Climate Solutions Caucus, a bipartisan group of House legislators, recognizes the existence of global warming and “explores policy options” to research it, slow it, and prepare for it. Membership must be kept even between Democrats and Republicans—meaning, in essence, that a Democrat can only join when they woo a Republican to hop in, too.
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, information might run through their fingers like sand, lost forever.
A strong theme in the surprisingly large early modern literature bewailing the effect of too many books is not just worry at not being able to keep hold of everything a person is required to know, but this fear of loss. To 15th and 16th Century scholars, the period following antiquity - the so-called "dark ages"- had almost succeeded in obliterating classical learning forever. In the 17th Century, Europe-wide wars, civil wars and unrest had resulted in the destruction of entire archives of precious administrative documents.
Hence the potent theme of knowledge rescued from near-oblivion, which runs through early modern discussions of how to store and retrieve information reliably.
At the beginning of the 17th Century, the Palatinate Library in Heidelberg became the largest and most important collection of books and manuscripts north of the Alps. When the Catholic Habsburgs defeated the Protestant Palatine Elector Frederick V in 1620, they reduced Heidelberg Castle to ruins and carried off the contents of the library as spoils of war - by this time totalling over 3,500 manuscripts and 13,000 printed works - to the Vatican Library in Rome where they remain to this day.
Undeterred, at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, when the Palatine territories were partly restored to the heir, Charles Louis, the new Elector Palatine set about rebuilding the great library, which once again gained an international reputation for its depth and breadth. In 1693, however, the French king Louis XIV again sacked Heidelberg, blowing up its key buildings and burning the refurbished library and its contents to the ground.
Given the vulnerability of paper and print before the arrival of the internet, it is not surprising that those who valued the transmission of information over time included oral or experiential transmission of skills in all kinds of hands-on, practical settings among the sources of lasting knowledge to be treasured.
Image caption Online knitting communities keep the craft alive
I came across one of these myself last autumn. My sister, who was visiting, remarked that she and I both had an idiosyncratic way of casting on stitches to begin a piece of knitting. It is not a technique that figures in any of the many online knitting sites - modern repositories of practical knowledge preserved and transmitted via the internet. Of course we learned our way of casting on directly from our mother - I can still recall her hands on mine as a child, directing the needles and guiding the yarn. Here is a piece of data inadvertently preserved by our shared practice, to be continued, I feel sure, into the next generation.
Knowledge is actually hard to lose nowadays. In one of my early Point of View pieces in 2007, I reflected on the fact that my twenty-something son had asked me what "darning a sock" meant. He really didn't know. Nor, when I explained, could he quite see the point. Socks were on sale in packs of three or more pairs in every supermarket. Why would you bother to mend a sock when you could simply buy a new pair?
The genuine satisfaction of having been frugal - having made the sock 'as good as new' for another season's wear Lisa Jardine in 2007 Read Lisa's PoV on darning
But of course, in spite of my son's generation's incomprehension, the meaning of darning has not been lost. Googling this week, I find there is a comprehensive Wikipedia entry recording every aspect of this traditional repair method (the first version, as it happens, was posted online in 2007) with diagrams and tips for successful execution. And for the novice, there are several YouTube videos carefully explaining how to achieve the ideal darn.
The danger today is rather that we are reluctant to let go of any information garnered from however recondite a source. Every historian knows that no narrative will be intelligible to a reader if it includes all the detail the author amassed in the course of their research. A clear thread has to be teased from the mass of available evidence, to focus, direct and ultimately give meaning to what has been assembled for analysis. Daring to discard is as crucial as safe-guarding, for effective knowledge management and transmission today.
There is all too little danger of the knowledge currently accumulating in floods - multiply-owned, stored and captured - being lost. Rather, if we are going to make sense for posterity of today's information-saturated present, one of the things we will have to learn to do is decide how to prune the evidence, and ultimately, what to forget.
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NEW DELHI: Delhi University has officially opened its doors to transgenders in postgraduate programmes this year and will extend the policy to undergraduate courses in the next academic year (2015-16) by introducing space for the third gender in its application forms.Applicants from this community will be admitted under a separate category, varsity officials said. In postgraduate admissions, these students have been enrolled under a special category within the OBC quota.“We had planned to start transgender admissions in undergraduate courses from this year but could not do so due to administrative reasons. From 2015-16 academic session, we will be introducing the third gender option in centralized admission forms and also make necessary policies for their admission,” said DU registrar Alka Sharma.Sharma said DU’s transgender initiative was taken before it had received any direction on the matter from the University Grants Commission. In July, UGC had issued a notice asking varsities to include transgenders in various scholarship/fellowship schemes. “The applications forms for teachers’ recruitment also has this category,” she said.Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists welcomed the move saying it was a step in the right direction. But they asked the DU administration, teachers and students to also sensitize the university community on transgender issues.Anjali Gopalan of Naz Foundation (India) said DU’s move would go a long way in integrating transgenders into the mainstream. “It a step in the right direction. It really empowers people and makes them feel they are part of mainstream life. But there has to be a sustained campaign to understand transgenders, their issues and sensitize the society,” Gopalan said.“DU has to involve the transgender community itself so that they are not made to feel like outsiders. Some mechanism has to be evolved for sensitization of the university community and also for the protection of the transgenders from harassment for which even the police needs to be involved,” she added.Around 90,000 candidates had applied for various postgraduate courses this year of which nine were from the transgender community. According to Delhi University officials, these students will be enrolled under the OBC category.LGBT activists, however, expressed some concern about transgenders being enrolled under the OBC category in the applications.LGBT activist and a PhD scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Gourab Ghosh, said, “It will not be fair for transgenders to transgress into OBC category as they are not OBC. A separate quota can be worked out else it would be injustice to both OBCs and transgenders.”“States such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal already have policies giving some rights to transgenders. However the Supreme Court’s ruling and DU’s step are important as these will have a national impact,” he added.Like Gopalan, Ghosh too urged the university to start sensitization activities relating to transgenders as, he believed, there will be issues because of this “sudden inclusion after exclusion”.
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Fans of President Donald Trump called for a boycott of the new film “It” because of author Stephen King’s relentless criticism of the president.
It didn’t work.
The highly anticipated movie smashed box office records and is expected to earn a whopping $117 million during its opening weekend.
The most recent feud between the author and Trump supporters stems from last month, when King learned that Trump had blocked him on Twitter. The horror master attempted to seek revenge by “blocking” the president from seeing “It” and “Mr. Mercedes.”
Donald Trump blocked me on Twitter. I am hereby blocking him from seeing IT or MR. MERCEDES. No clowns for you, Donald. Go float yourself. — Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 25, 2017
In response, Trump supporters posted a message to Reddit last week urging the president’s fans to avoid seeing “It” during the film’s opening weekend with the hopes that the movie would have a “lousy showing.”
Instead, Variety reported Sunday that “It” will become the largest September debut and rake in the biggest opening weekend ever for a horror or supernatural film.
King has been a vocal critic of the president, a role the author has continued to play despite Trump blocking him on Twitter.
Trump is no leader. He has 2 default positions: "Not my fault" (it's China's) or "not my job" (DACA). What a bitter joke he is! — Stephen King (@StephenKing) September 5, 2017
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If thereâs anything we sci-fi fans relish, itâs a good end-of-the-world plot. Chaos induced by a worldwide flu-like epidemic? Sign us up! Massive asteroid? Sure! Stephensonâs take on the apocalypse focuses more on how humanity would respond politically, making for an epic volume worth embarking on. A few survivors remain after the world as we know it ends, and they form seven disparate societies, comprised of seven distant races. For 5,000 years, these groups form their own new traditions. Stephensonâs story centers on the moment in their histories when they finally return to Earth.
Like Millhauser, Link humorously fuses the real with the imagined, skirting the line between the two. But, while Millhauser is chiefly concerned with collective responses to strange phenomena, Linkâs stories are more personal and psychological -- she throws the reader head-first into her weird worlds, peopled with ghost hunters and evil twins.
Readers who enjoyed Divergent, or whoâve taken the Myers-Briggs personality test more times than necessary, will relate to Robert Charles Wilsonâs latest novel, which divides all of humanity into 21 faction-like sectors based on both personal and social preferences. The process of being placed into an affinity is a little more involved than putting on a sorting hat, and because there are so many options, each affinity is tailored perfectly to its membersâ interests. Sounds ideal, right? Nope. Naturally, the affinities begin to take issue with one another, and war looms on the horizon.
Liuâs another decorated science-fiction writer. His bevy of Hugo and Nebula awards speak to his world-crafting abilities, on full display in this first book of a new trilogy. Those looking to fill the void left by maddening wait times between Game of Thrones books can occupy themselves with this fantasy novel centering on political relationships in a world comprised of evil emperors and deceitful gods.
Ned Beaumanâs book takes its name from the hottest new recreational drug, which is less innocuous than it may seem; it very well may be the side effect of a corporate conspiracy responsible for missing citizens and bizarre animal behavior. Raf, a 20-something with time on his hands no thanks to a sleeping disorder, stumbles into the throes of pharmaceutical mayhem, falling in love along the way.
Jesse Ballâs book is another thatâs tough to classify. The premise -- a government agency that clears citizensâ minds upon request, sending them through a detailed treatment built to recover from trauma -- is science-fiction in the way that âEternal Sunshineâ is. Ball relies on mythical technologies to tell a story that is, at its heart, a romance tarnished by tragedy. In doing so he raises questions about the value of memories, both pleasant and painful, as tools
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had. I’m a man. But I was insecure about my breasts, my body. I wanted to act like a man, to sit like a man.
And the tone of your voice has gotten deeper? It sounds a bit different, but it won’t negatively affect my voice.
The vocal abilities will remain intact. I hope so!
What do you think of Charice? I feel like she’s a different person. I don’t want to totally erase her from my life. When I watch my old videos, I just see her as a little sister. I don’t regret anything I have been through as Charice…but it was hard. I was being someone I’m not. But I’m proud of her achievements.
Charice free, not dead
Some people jokingly say that Charice is dead. She’s not dead; I just let her go. She’s free.
So back then, while you were making people happy with your talent, it wasn’t the case for you. I don’t want to be dramatic, but that’s true. They’re happy, but deep inside, it’s breaking you.
Do you get offended when people call you Charice? When somebody calls me, “Charice,” “ma’am” or “she,” I just think that they either have a different set of beliefs or they aren’t aware. Or, they just want to insult you.
As a celebrity transman, do you feel like you now have a responsibility to educate people? I don’t want to impose, or force people to accept who we are. And so, should I speak about being a transman, it would be about making people in similar situations [feel] that they’re not alone.
In your last album, “Catharsis,” you went pop-rock. Do we expect more of that? I’ll just let myself fly. I still love alternative rock, and I was heartbroken when Chris Cornell (of Soundgarden) died.
I have been singing different genres all my life. Now, I’m exploring again, experimenting with my voice.
What are you most excited about being Jake? The music I’m going to do. And of course, when people call me “Jake.”
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Using TANF for after-school programs under the pretense that they reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies is acceptable under a federal law that aimed to give states substantial leeway, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Schott. And states have taken advantage of that leeway, even though it’s “a real stretch,” she said.
Child care. In 2015, the most recent year for which federal spending figures are available, Maine spent $6.6 million of its federal TANF money on subsidies parents used to pay for child care. In 2018, DHHS says it plans to spend $17.3 million on child care — an increase of almost $10.8 million.
But Adolphsen, the department’s policy director, cautioned lawmakers in May, “These numbers aren’t all set in stone yet.”
He said DHHS planned to raise subsidy rates for one category of child care providers, those who care for children in their own homes. Generally, the larger child care centers that represent more than 70 percent of the state’s child care capacity would not receive a rate increase, save for one age group — school-age children who require care before and after school.
“There is no denying that Family Child Care is the more affordable and accessible option,” Edwards, the DHHS spokeswoman, wrote in her email to the BDN. “Specifically, Family Child Care can be found throughout the state whereas Center Based Child Care facilities are often located in higher density areas. Family Child Care typically costs less than Center Based Child Care services. Increasing reimbursement rates will cut down cost to working Maine families.”
DHHS has said it would cost $6.5 million to raise subsidy rates for all child care providers. So it’s unclear how DHHS could spend nearly $11 million more on child care than it already does from TANF, especially when it doesn’t plan to raise subsidy rates for the most common type of child care.
Spoken for, but not committed
Child care isn’t the only area for which DHHS has listed a figure for the amount of TANF money it plans to spend, but hasn’t determined how it will use the money.
DHHS next year says it plans to transfer 10 percent of its TANF grant — $7.8 million — to the more flexible Social Services Block Grant.
Federal law allows the transfer, but it requires that the state spend the $7.8 million on services that benefit low-income families with kids.
That task proved difficult in 2015 and 2016, when the department spent the money on services for elderly and disabled Mainers. The unlawful spending, first uncovered by the BDN, prompted a rebuke from Maine’s state auditor, and DHHS reversed the spending — using state General Fund money to retroactively cover the expenses.
It’s unclear this year if the department has found suitable programs. DHHS spokeswoman Edwards said the spending plan is “still under development.”
Maine Focus is a journalism and community engagement initiative at the Bangor Daily News. Questions? Write to [email protected].
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61. It is an extension of the mutual information method, but can take into account the direction of information transfer by assuming that the processes can be described by a Markov model. Transfer Entropy reduces to a linear Granger causality process (whereby a signal in one time series gives a linear response to the second time series) when the two time series can be linked via autoregressive processes. However, TE makes fewer assumptions regarding the linearity of the processes involved, and is therefore more suitable for analysing causality when the processes involved are unknown62,63. Transfer Entropy is calculated using:
$$T_{X \to Y} = {\sum} {p\left( {Y_{n + 1},Y\frac{{(k)}}{n},X\frac{{(l)}}{n}} \right){\mathrm{log}}\left( {\frac{{p\left( {Y_{n + 1} \vee Y\frac{{(k)}}{n},X\frac{{(l)}}{n}} \right)}}{{p\left( {Y_{n + 1} \vee Y\frac{{(k)}}{n}} \right.}}} \right)},$$
where T X→Y is the TE from time series X to time series Y, both of which have data at time n, and k and l are the embedding dimensions of the two time series respectively. As in Davis et al.64, we used the R (R Core Team 2017) package TransferEntropy65 which implements the above equation using a nearest neighbour algorithm66. This function returns a numeric value where 0 indicates no information transfer, positive numbers indicate information transfer, and negative numbers indicate misinformation transfer. The latter implies that there are other, unspecified processes interacting29. The embedding dimensions of the time series were estimated using the R package nonlinearTseries67.
We calculated TE for four time series: speciation rate in Culicidae, speciation rate in Mammalia, global palaeo-temperature and atmospheric CO 2. We derived TE values from each climatic variable to each taxon and also between mosquitoes and mammals, in both directions of putative transfer. The mammalian speciation rate time series was inferred from a BAMM analysis of a recent, almost complete mammal phylogeny68. The significance of TE values was determined by randomising the source time series 250 times to create surrogates, and leaving the target time series unchanged. If the TE value was outside the 95% interval of the surrogate TE values, it was deemed significant69.
Speciation rates verification
Molecular trees of Culicidae and Anophelinae were built using data from previous studies. The data set underpinning the phylogeny of Culicidae was obtained from Reidenbach et al.39, and comprised six nuclear gene protein-coding genes (arginine kinase, CAD, catalase, enolase, hunchback and white) coded for 25 ingroup genera and 2 outgroup taxa. The data set underpinning the tree of Anophelinae comprised three mitochondrial genes (COI, ND2, ND3) sequenced for 19 ingroup and 2 outgroup species. The subgenera Cellia, Nyssorhynchus, Anopheles, Lophopodomyia, Kerteszia and Stethomyia each had 2−4 representatives. Genbank accession numbers of the sequences used in the two data sets are presented in Supplementary Tables 4 and 5. The sequences were aligned in MEGA 7 70. Tree topologies were obtained by ML analyses. Heuristic searches were performed in PAUP*4.0a151 using a GTR + G + I model. We also produced neighbour-joining (NJ) trees and estimated clade support using 1000 bootstrap resampling replicates. Estimations of divergence times and diversification rates were calculated using a fossilised birth−death model implemented in BEAST 2 26. The following five fossil nodes were used for time-calibration: Culex pipiens (55.8 Mya), Culiseta gedanica (55.8 Mya), Ochlerotatus serafini (55.8 Mya), Toxorhynchites mexicanus (28.5 Mya), Anopheles dominicanus (40.4 Mya). The following parameters were used during the two analyses: GTR substitution site model, relaxed clock exponential model, running two MCMC chains of 200,000,000 generations with 100,000 sampled and 25% burned-in.
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Serena. Photo: 2929 Productions
If you produced a movie featuring the two hottest movie stars in the world, with an Oscar-winning director and a script based on a beloved best-selling novel, you might assume you’d end up with a massive hit, right? Or at least a movie that everyone was scrambling to get a piece of? But what if that didn’t happen — and you ended up with pretty much the opposite of that? What if you ended up with Serena?
Serena stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, whom you may remember from such little-seen collaborations as Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, films for which he earned a total of two Oscar nominations and she earned an Oscar nomination and an Oscar win. Serena is directed by Susanne Bier, whose previous film, In a Better World, won both a Golden Globe and an Oscar in 2011, both for Best Foreign Language Film. Serena’s script is based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Ron Rash, which was a New York Times best-seller and earned great reviews. Yet despite this impressive assemblage of talent, there is a good chance that you’ve never even heard of Serena, which, by the way, you could be watching on VOD right now. That’s right — a movie starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, released in 2015, went, in that antiquated parlance, straight to video.
Spoiler: Serena is not an interesting or particularly enjoyable movie, and I cannot in good conscience recommend that you watch it. But it is a useful object lesson in moviemaking in the 21st century — and an improbable tale of how something can go terribly wrong even when everything seems to be going wonderfully right. Set during the Depression in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, Serena is the tale of an ambitious timber baron named George Pemberton (Cooper), his troubled and ruthless rise to power, and his even more troubled and ruthless marriage to a difficult and remarkable woman named Serena (Lawrence), who emerges as a kind of backwoods Lady Macbeth. You can easily imagine the elevator pitch: It’s Winter’s Bone meets There Will Be Blood, with a dash of Cold Mountain and meaty dramatic roles for both leads. Sounds good, right? Who wouldn’t green-light that?
The film was initially budgeted at a not-inconsiderable $25 to $30 million, so Mark Cuban’s 2929 Entertainment teamed with Studiocanal to co-finance the project — in exactly the kind of arrangement that’s increasingly responsible for mid-level films. (See, for example, action films like Taken or prestige co-productions like The Imitation Game.) To take advantage of tax incentives, the film was shot in the Czech Republic, which passes here for North Carolina, barely. Darren Aronofsky was initially attached to direct and Angelina Jolie was supposed to star, but both eventually fell out, so the producers tapped Bier as their new director and Jennifer Lawrence as their new star.
That latter choice would turn out to be incredibly fortuitous, timing-wise. 2012 was a great year for Lawrence, who starred in both The Hunger Games and Silver Linings Playbook — basically, it was the year she went from Jennifer Lawrence, promising ingénue and surprise Oscar-nominee for Winter’s Bone, to Jennifer Lawrence, Heir Apparent to the Kingdom of Hollywood. 2012, not coincidentally, was also a great year for Cooper, not least because of Silver Linings Playbook, which freed him from his association with expertly executed douchebag roles (The Hangover, The A-Team) and set him on the path to becoming Hollywood’s leading man of choice — a position he significantly solidified this year with American Sniper. So it must have seemed like a great stroke of good fortune when Lawrence convinced Cooper to join her, as Serena’s male lead. If you could travel back in time and tell the film’s producers that their two leads were about to amass four Oscar nominations, billions in box-office receipts, and countless headlines between them, those producers no doubt would have danced a jig.
No one’s jigging now. Both Cooper and Lawrence are good in Serena and are, for the most part, blameless for its deficiencies. The movie itself, however, is a mess — not a Heaven’s Gate level of messiness, but a brand of messiness that’s even more intriguing by being less obviously messy. After wrapping the filming in 2012, Bier took 18 more months in post-production to complete a cut of the film. One Hollywood Reporter source suggested this delay was due in part to her feeling tremendous pressure in light of the critical success of Silver Lin
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A private consultant shepherding President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen through her U.S. Senate confirmation process doesn’t just have domestic interests in mind — he’s also lobbied the homeland security agency on behalf of the Panamanian government.
Thad Bingel, who is guiding Nielsen through the confirmation process, worked as a registered foreign agent representing Panama’s interests to the Department of Homeland Security from February 2012 to the end of 2013, according to federal records reviewed by the Center for Public Integrity.
Lobbying on behalf of foreign governments is perfectly legal, but Trump has been especially critical of such advocacy in vowing to “drain the swamp” and limit the influence of special interests. Upon taking office, Trump signed new ethics rules banning administration officials from ever lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
Bingel’s volunteer work with Nielsen during the confirmation process has already spurred one ethics complaint against Nielsen from a nonprofit watchdog group. The complaint, filed by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, accuses Nielsen of potentially violating the Antideficiency Act, a law that says federal employees “may not accept voluntary services for the government” except as provided by law, or executive branch gift rules.
The Campaign Legal Center also alleged in its complaint that Bingel’s company, Command Consulting Group, represents companies that seek lucrative contracts from the Department of Homeland Security — a potential conflict of interest.
Having unpaid volunteers serve as so-called “sherpas” for Cabinet nominees is more typical during a transition between administrations, current and former Department of Homeland Security officials told the Washington Post.
Bingel’s current role, first reported by CyberScoop, is unusual.
Nielsen is expected to receive a confirmation vote in the Senate this week.
Bingel’s work on behalf of the Republic of Panama was disclosed in required filings with the Department of Justice at the time, but appears to have gone previously unreported.
In federal disclosure filings triggered by the firm’s work on behalf of Panama, Command Consulting Group said bluntly that Panamanian officials asked the firm to help with “arranging appropriate meetings” with Department of Homeland Security officials “once they learned of our close connections” with the department.
In the federal filings, Command Consulting Group said it was already a consultant for Panama, and agreed to help set up the Department of Homeland Security meetings without charging additional fees. The disclosure filings show the Panamanian government paid Command Consulting Group more than $1.9 million between February 2012 and October 2013.
Bingel was one of the lobbyists helping Panama, according to filings with the Department of Justice.
Command Consulting Group said in one filing that it “arranged meetings with government agencies” on behalf of Panama in 2012, but didn’t give details about who the Panamanian officials met with or who the firm contacted on Panama’s behalf.
In another filing, the firm said it “coordinated and participated in meetings between senior [Panamanian] Ministry of Public Security officials and representatives from the Department of Homeland security regarding issues of mutual national security interest.”
Command Consulting Group’s final filing with the Department of Justice came in September 2014, when the firm said it was no longer providing “reportable” services to Panama.
It isn’t clear whether the firm still consults for Panama doing work that doesn’t trigger federal disclosure requirements. But its website says Command Consulting Group helps “government and private sector clients on six continents reduce risk and accomplish organization objectives.”
The Panama disclosures show “you have a foreign government lobbying DHS through this guy,” said Larry Noble, senior director and general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, referring to Bingel. “That’s a problem. It does put a definite coloring on it.”
Ties to top Trump aide
Bingel is also a close associate of one of Trump’s advisers — White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin, who co-founded Command Consulting Group, where Bingel is a partner. Hagin resigned from Command Consulting Group in December 2016, according to his federal financial disclosure form.
Hagin disclosed his former employment with Command Consulting Group on his federal financial disclosure form, the data from which was included in the Center for Public Integrity’s #CitizenSleuth database. Journalists from the Center for Public Integrity and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting noted Hagin’s connection to Command Consulting Group when reviewing #CitizenSleuth data.
Noble said the new information about Bingel shows “even more of a conflict situation because it’s not just helping Nielsen. It’s also helping the White House directly�
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on the global stage."
The short-term goal is to create media literacy so that even if ideals of beauty don't change, we change how we react to them. The bigger goal is policy reform on several fronts, from stricter regulation of images in mainstream media to labor policies that allow parents to work and care for their families simultaneously.
While Miss Representation connects the media's impact to leadership, another documentary examines its influence on perceptions of health and body image. As with beauty, they're not always accurate, says Darryl Roberts, the director behind the America the Beautiful series.
His second film, The Thin Commandments, follows his progress as he explores various fad diets in an effort to lose weight and lower his body-mass index, or BMI.
Along his journey, Roberts speaks with dietitians, dieters and politicians, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, to get the skinny on whether it's possible to be overweight and healthy. Under "the fallacy of BMI," LeBron James, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Christian Bale are all obese, he claims.
Like Miss Representation, Roberts is spreading his message in nationwide screenings on college campuses, followed by panel discussions.
A recent screening at Atlanta's Emory University drew mostly women, many of whom revealed in the Q&A session that they'd struggled with eating disorders. One women disclosed that she had an eating disorder while a student at Emory.
"It's kind of surreal to be here watching this movie in the same auditorium where I had a lot of my classes while I was sick," the woman said, voice trembling. "I just want to thank you for making this movie. More people need to see it."
Roberts takes pride in the cathartic quality of his film. Attendees often have a personal connection to the topic, which means displays of emotion at screenings are fairly frequent.
"I enjoy connecting with people on an emotional level through a common passion to change the status quo." he said. "We have to stop looking at these quick fix tools and start looking at health crisis."
Other forms of social commentary take a lighter tack. Jesse Rosten, a California-based commercial director and filmmaker, was flipping through channels one sleepless night when he came across a beauty product infomercial. The spot featured before and after photos of models, but to him, they looked like the same image photoshopped. Et voila, he had an idea for a video spoof.
It took about a day to shoot with friends and a few more weeks for him to edit. It didn't take long for his fake commercial Fotoshop by Adobé to go viral after he posted it on vimeo in January. It was shared multiple times on Miss Representation's Facebook wall and now has 3.5 million views.
"There's some obvious social commentary in the video, but my No. 1 goal was to make people laugh," Rosten said in an e-mail. "I'm kind of a snarky guy, and I'm happy that I've been able to use that snark to spread an important message: Go easy on yourself. We are all human, and it's OK to look like a human. Nobody will ever measure up to a beauty ideal that is, literally, physically impossible."
Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appears in the film Miss Representation.
Digital alteration is a hot button issue within media activism. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty highlighted the practice in its groundbreaking viral video, Evolution, which showed the transformation of a woman into a model with rounds of makeup, grooming and a bit of digital cheek shaving. As consumers have grown more aware of the practice, numerous sites and blogs featuring retouched ads and editorial spreads have emerged.
Recently, a bill introduced in Arizona's House of Representatives proposed requiring advertisers to add a disclaimer on digitally altered photos. The proposed legislation is modeled after laws in Britain, where the Advertising Standards Authority monitors companies for egregious acts of Photoshopping. It also has the power to ban ads.
Miss Representation brings all these threads together and connects them to women's participation in leadership roles, in particular, politics. The film highlights the media's treatment of women in the 2008 election coverage, the year in which Michelle Obama was called a "slut," Sarah Palin "masturbation material" and Hillary Clinton a "haggard"-looking 90-year-old.
The connection has added relevance in the current election cycle, especially when female representation in American politics is at its lowest since 1970, said media critic Jean Kilbourne, who first began examining images of women in media in the 1960s.
"We are hurting because we don't have more female politicians. It's very important for people to be aware of the connection between the degrading images around us and the fact that it's so
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A Kentucky group that is part of the #RedforEd movement launched a teacher sickout in that state last week and may call for a statewide teachers strike if the Kentucky General Assembly passes legislation this session it does not like.
WJHL reported the February 28 sickout “was organized by the group KY 120 United, a reference to the state’s 120 counties, which encouraged teachers in a Facebook post Wednesday night to call in sick.”
KY 120 United is a #RedforEd associated group, which, according to its Facebook page, was founded on March 8, 2018, just a few days after 24-year-old teacher Noah Karvelis launched the #RedforEd movement nationally in the first week of March 2018.
“We are the public face of KY 120 United. #120Strong supports teachers, state workers, and allies in all 120 counties. Pensions. Budget. Vote them out,” the group’s Facebook page, which features images of red-clad protesters and a logo that features a red map of the state of Kentucky emblazoned with “#120 Strong,” states.
Nema Brewer, “a multimedia specialist for the Fayette County, Ky., school district,” is a co-founder of KY 120 United, Education Week reported:
When Kentucky legislators began debating changes to public pension plans this spring, she started paying attention. Brewer, 44, and a friend started a Facebook group, “Kentucky 120 United,” named after the 120 counties in the state. They recruited public employees (mostly teachers) from each county to be members, and then found “zone leaders” for each of the state’s six congressional districts. “We knew we were building up to something,” Brewer said, citing her goals as threefold: protect pensions, protect the budget, and campaign to vote legislators out. After Kentucky lawmakers rushed a bill with pension changes for new teachers through the legislature, Brewer posted on the page that a walkout was on. Hundreds of teachers headed to the Capitol in Frankfort the next day, forcing about 20 districts to close.
As Breitbart News reported in February:
A well-funded and subversive leftist movement of teachers in the United States threatens to tilt the political balance nationwide in the direction of Democrats across the country as Republicans barely hang on in key states that they need to hold for President Donald Trump to win re-election and for Republicans to have a shot at retaking the House and holding onto their Senate majority. This teachers union effort, called #RedforEd, has its roots in the very same socialism that President Trump vowed in his 2019 State of the Union address to stop, and it began in its current form in early 2018 in a far-flung corner of the country before spreading nationally. Its stated goals–higher teacher pay and better education conditions–are overshadowed by a more malevolent political agenda: a leftist Democrat uprising designed to flip purple or red states to blue, using the might of a significant part of the education system as its lever.
Last week’s sickout in Kentucky was a political statement of opposition and “came the day lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives voted to advance House Bill 525, a proposal to change how people are nominated to the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System’s board of trustees,” the Courier-Journal reported:
WJHL provided more details on the February 28 sickout:
At least six Kentucky school districts were forced to close Thursday – including the two largest systems in the state – as hundreds of teachers called in sick to protest what one leader called “half-truths” and “shadiness” at the state legislature... Within hours, the state’s two largest school districts in Jefferson and Fayette counties announced they would close because they didn’t have enough teachers to cover classes. Districts in Marion, Carter, Letcher and Boyd counties were also closed Thursday. In Fayette County, officials said, at least 40 percent of teachers called in sick.
On Thursday morning last week, KY 120 issued this two-part statement on its official Twitter account:
(2/2) It has been crystal clear for over a year that public education, teachers, and our public pensions are under attack. Enough is enough. This isn’t about just one bill but a series of events that have transpired over the past year. #120Strong — 120Strong (@120Strong) February 28, 2019
On Monday of this week, KY 120 United issued a statement that called its opposition to House Bill 525 a “Line in the Sand”:
As Public Employees we have exhausted all methods of communication with our legislators within the Kentucky General Assembly. We have called. We have emailed. We have spoken face to face through one-on-one meetings with our representatives.
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,” she says, mock-criticizing the crew’s measured response. “Just the end of 10 years of my life.” They clap louder, and she breaks off a motion-capped curtsy. McGonagle wraps a little later. The three leads take selfies and make plans to meet up in the future for lunch. With no apparent premeditation, Rose and McGonagle wait until North is within earshot, then ask me with faux-surprise why anyone would want to write about Nolan.
The pesky cliff scene is a rare refractory period between Uncharted’s frequent climaxes. Later in the day, North pretends to be a drunk patron at an Italian villa, creating a diversion by bumping into a guard and saying, “Scusi, scusi,” while he pockets the guard’s keycard. He also grabs a prop gun and ducks and covers during a mock firefight, flinching away from invisible bullets alongside Troy Baker, a more nattily dressed titan of video-game voice work who’s making his Uncharted debut as Nathan’s older brother Sam. It’s like De Niro and Pacino in Heat, except they’re on the same side.
North’s fake falls and dives behind barriers might look slightly stiffer than they did a decade ago, although Drake, who’s outwardly aged along with him, still leaps like a tree frog. But if Tom Cruise and Liam Neeson can convincingly play action heroes into their fifties and sixties, then surely North, with the aid of the computers that map his movements onto character models, could keep this up indefinitely.
♦♦♦
North got into video games because of a deep-seated desire to do something different. In unwitting preparation to play every role, he did every job: laying asphalt, waiting tables, tending bar, and taking on carpentry projects, Harrison Ford–style. Born to parents who met doing summer stock theater, he came late to acting as a career, majoring in journalism at the University of North Carolina, which he attended on a baseball scholarship before a shoulder injury ended his pitching career. Even before the injury, he’d been humbled by better athletes, forced to confront the fact he was nothing like his namesake, Nolan Ryan. “I worked hard and I trained and I did the little extra things, and there were guys that would come in hungover,” he says. “On their worst day, they were better than me on my best day.” After graduation, he worked as an on-air reporter in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, while he practiced SportsCenter-esque catchphrases and considered applying to ESPN. Burned out by sad stories a year into his career as a journalist, he took refuge in Tampa, where his older brother advised him to pursue something he liked. He returned to New York to try stand-up and improv, then left for L.A., confident that one way or another, he wouldn’t be back.
In Hollywood, he got his start as a soap star, playing a series regular on General Hospital spinoff Port Charles from 1997 to 2003. He married a cast member, Jill Murray, and had a couple of kids. When Port Charles ended, North got an offer to join an East Coast soap. With a family to support, he considered settling into a life of steady earnings and recognition among the retired and unemployed. Instead, his wife encouraged him to try voice work, for reasons that are obvious two minutes after you meet him: He flits from impression to impression with Robin Williams–esque energy, mugging around other actors out of an irrepressible urge to entertain.
After Port Charles, other actors told North to try cartoons, which offered residuals. But compared to what he was used to, games were good money. “You have a wife and two kids, and they say there’s $800 across town,” he says. “‘Go over there and yell like a zombie or a monster or a soldier, do you wanna do it?’ I started on the soap opera for $700 a show. And you’re like, ‘I used to work 14 hours for 700 bucks. Now you want me for two hours?’” He’d already done his first video game, a 1999 vehicular-combat PC sequel from Activision called Interstate ’82. “I remember it was a Saturday, there was an empty parking lot,” North says. “I walked in and it was like a closet that they had set up. There was nobody there, it was really dark, and I’m thinking, I may get murdered here, and this is news that’ll get to my parents
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( image - from archival footage of "The Rape Of Nanking" )
"The religious outlook of George W. Bush has been the focus of recent stories by several major news media. In these pieces White House officials and allies consistently have made the case that Bush’s faith and language are no different from past presidents. In the words of the Rev. Richard Neuhaus in The Washington Post, "This is so conventionally Christian piety and Christian faith" that Bush’s faith is "as American as apple pie." That simply is not so. Bush’s fusion of faith and politics is anything but conventional for the presidency. The key difference is this: Presidents since Franklin Roosevelt have spoken as petitioners of God, seeking blessing and guidance; this president positions himself as a prophet, issuing declarations of divine desires for the nation and world. Most fundamentally, Bush’s language suggests that he speaks not only of God and to God, but also for God. Among modern presidents, only Ronald Reagan has spoken in a similar manner -- and he did so far less frequently than has Bush." - Published in The Revealer October 11, 2004. ( David Domke is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. He is the author of God Willing? Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the "War on Terror," and the Echoing Press (Pluto Press, 2004). Kevin Coe is a doctoral student in the Department of Speech Communication at the University of Illinois. )
George W. Bush, at a public appearance Thursday, laid it out for all to see and this should come as no surprise:
As the Republican National Committee reports on its website, President Bush has declared this April 19, 2007, that his "faith" and his family come first, while George W. Bush's loyalty to the United States comes last. ( thanks to Universal Health for the tip )
I wish I was traveling here with Laura. The best thing about my family is my wife. (Applause.) She is a great First Lady. I know that sounds not very objective, but that's how I feel. And she's also patient. Putting up with me requires a lot of patience. But she sends her best; she's in New Orleans today.
And I will tell you, one reason -- this may sound counterintuitive, but a good marriage is really good after serving together in Washington, D.C. It's been an amazing experience to be a husband and then a dad as President of the United States. I emphasize, that is the priority for me as the President. It's my faith, my family, and my country"
Faith, Family, then Country?
Bush's declaration of presidential loyalty seems to run directly counter to the oath Bush, and all US presidents, have taken upon entering presidential office:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Am I making too much of this?
Let's look at a recent flap concerning US Representative Keith Ellison's Islamic religious. Critics claimed that Ellison could not be trusted to honor his oath of office because some Islamicists say things like this:
Secularists in the West will agree with this, then they will point out that under Islamic law, people are not all equal. No non-Muslim, for example, could become the president. Well, in response to that fact, in turn, secularism is no different. No Muslim could become president in a secular regime, for in order to pledge loyalty to the constitution, a Muslim would have to abandon part of his belief and embrace the belief of secularism — which is practically another religion. For Muslims, the word'religion' does not only refer to a collection of beliefs and rituals, it refers to a way of life which includes all values, behaviors, and details of living. ( Dr. Jaafar Sheikh Idris )
Indications are good that, for George W. Bush, religious belief trumps Bush's responsibility to American people who hold religious and philosophical beliefs that differ from his. Signs are strong that Bush wants Apocalypse and that, even though a large percent of American does not wish for Apocalypse, George W. Bush just doesn't care. If he has the power to bring it on, that's that ; he'll do it and damn us all to the hell on Earth he feels God wants him to set in motion.
Let me turn to Jeff Sharlet, to frame the backdrop to all of this:
John Hagee is likely one of religious leaders who helped shape Goerge W. Bush's religious beliefs. Until last Wednesday, John Hagee's "Apocalypse Lobby" website featured an image, of Jerusalem's Wailing wall and the Temple Mount, from which the
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Do you love Chocolate? If yes, then this vegan Chocolate Lovers Cake with Banana Ice Cream and Chocolate Hard Shell is perfect for you! It is… to die for.
Everyone deserves an awesome chocolate explosion every once in a while. Should you feel sad, this will make it better. Should you feel awesome already, you’ll feel even more awesome afterwards! This decadent Chocolate Lovers Cake with Banana Ice Cream and Chocolate Hard Shell looks not only decadent, it’s heaven – actually chocolate heaven. The chocolate cake is fluffy and soft – like it should be, the banana ice cream – the perfect addition to the cake and chocolate hard shell – well it’s really hard to describe how heavenly this cake is! You have to try it yourself.
I’ve used my smallest springform pan for this cake – it’s 5.5 inches, 14cm. This recipe is perfect for 3-4 people, but my boyfriend and I were able to finish the cake alone – with no problems at all! It’s so fluffy and deliciously chocolate-y.
What I love about the chocolate cake is that it’s a one-bowl-cake. Simply whisk all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and add in the wet ingredients and whisk again! Simple as that. I don’t have a dishwasher, so I try not to make a huge mess in my kitchen.
For the Chocolate Hard Shell I’ve used Vivani‘s 70% vegan couverture and I loved it! I’ve melted it in a double boiler and slowly drizzled it over the ice cream. It took only a few seconds to harden and created a nice hard shell.
Chocolate Lovers Cake with Banana Ice Cream and Chocolate Hard Shell Elephantastic Vegan Recipe for a vegan Chocolate Lovers Cake with Banana Ice Cream and Chocolate Hard Shell. And yes, it tastes like it looks: amazing! 5 from 1 vote Print Recipe Pin Recipe Prep Time 30 mins Cook Time 20 mins Total Time 50 mins Course Dessert Cuisine Vegan Servings 2 -4 Calories 715 kcal Ingredients US Customary Metric 1x 2x 3x Ingredients for the Chocolate Cake 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dextrose*
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
1/2 cup almond milk (I used sweetened)
1/2 teaspoon coconut vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Ingredients for the Ice Cream & Chocolate Hard Shell 2 bananas, frozen & in chunks
1/2 cup vegan couverture (I used Vivani's 70% couverture) Instructions Pre-heat oven to 360°F/180°C.
In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients for the Chocolate Cake, whisk, then add all the wet ingredients and whisk again until it's a smooth batter.
Fill the batter in the baking form and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes. (Use the Toothpick Method to make sure the dough is done in the middle.)
Let the cake cool off completely.
In a double boiler heat the couverture slowly, meanwhile prep your ice cream.
For the ice cream simply put the frozen banana chunks in your food processor or high-speed blender and blend or chop until it's a perfectly smooth ice cream - don't give up! It may take a while, but it will get there.
Place the ice cream on the cake & top it off with the melted chocolate. You'll have a hard Chocolate Hard Shell in a couple of seconds!
Enjoy your delicious chocolate treat! Notes The baking form is used has a size of 5.5 inch / 14cm.
*I've used Dextrose in this recipe which is a fructose-free sugar, but you can sub it with your preferred granulated sweetener. Nutrition Calories: 715 kcal Carbohydrates: 110 g Protein: 10 g Fat: 27 g Saturated Fat: 17 g Cholesterol: 1 mg Sodium: 387 mg Potassium: 943 mg Fiber: 10 g Sugar: 50 g Vitamin A: 75 IU Vitamin C: 10.2 mg Calcium: 163 mg Iron: 8.2 mg Tried this recipe? Mention @elephantasticvegan or tag #elephantasticvegan
Should you decide to give it a try I’d love to hear how it went! Write me a comment or post a picture on instagram and tag me via @elephantasticvegan to make sure I’ll see it ^.^
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poet David Budbill describes Carruth as “a temperamental, explosive, cantankerous, wonderful, generous, kind person.”
On the day after his 83rd birthday, Carruth is in excellent spirits. His wife brews coffee and serves leftover birthday cake, which he eats with relish. Sitting at the kitchen table, he talks for hours—by turns gracious, opinionated, and funny. “I’m pumped!” he says late in the day.
Carruth, whose grandfather wrote speeches for Eugene Debs, calls himself an “old-line anarchist” and a “rural communist with a small c.” On this day he grumbles about President Bush. In 1998 he declined an invitation to the Clinton White House for a celebration of American poetry, explaining in a letter that “it would seem the greatest hypocrisy for an honest American poet to be present on such an occasion at the seat of the power which has not only neglected but abused the interests of poets and their readers continually, to say nothing of many other administratively dispensable segments of the population.” He has long resisted the notion that politics—or anything else—doesn’t belong in poetry. His poems are democratic in the broadest sense, siding with the weak against the powerful, oppressed against oppressor. His sympathies extend even to despised creatures like rats and car salesmen. “I’ve always felt sorry for the rats,” he says.
A cry of protest rings through his work, an echo of what the New Yorker called his “well-tuned orneriness.” He has written antiwar poems protesting Bosnia, Vietnam, Korea, Waterloo, and Troy. In “Emergency Haying” he uses an anecdote about helping a neighbor bale hay to condemn suffering on a much wider scale:
…. My hands
are sore, they flinch when I light my pipe.
I think of those who have done slave labor,
less able and less well prepared than I.
Rose Marie in the rye fields of Saxony,
her father in the camps of Moldavia
and the Crimea, all clerks and housekeepers
herded to the gaunt fields of torture….
… And I stand up high
on the wagon tongue in my whole bones to say
woe to you, watch out
you sons of bitches who would drive men and women
to the fields where they can only die.
For Carruth the world is suffused with sadness. In a 2003 interview he recalled as a child “looking at the stars in the summertime…and feeling a tremendous sorrow from simply knowing that they are not permanent.” But his awareness of impermanence does not keep him from finding opportunities to celebrate and affirm. Music, especially jazz and the blues, has given him many. In Chicago he taught himself to play the clarinet and frequented jazz clubs like the Bee Hive on 55th Street. After his hospitalization he played the clarinet for hours each day, sometimes accompanying Music-Minus-One recordings. His essays have celebrated jazz musicians and explored links between jazz and literature. Calling jazz “an eloquent articulation of every serious artistic, social, cultural, and philosophical happening in my lifetime,” he suggests in the poem “Freedom and Discipline” that, at some level, poetry and jazz are one:
Freedom and discipline concur
only in ecstasy, all else
is shoveling out the muck.
Give me my old hot horn.
Carruth grew up in Woodbury, a small country town in western Connecticut. His father and grandfather were writers and editors, and he assumed he would follow in “the family racket.” He studied journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he worked for the student newspaper and met his first wife, Sara Hudson, AM’47, PhD’58. “He was interesting and full of life and ideas,” recalls Hudson, professor emerita of English at Auburn University. “We were all gung-ho New Dealers. We had a lot in common that way.” They married in 1943 on graduation day and enlisted in the Army, Carruth in the Army Air Corps (serving in Italy) and Hudson as a WAC. After the war they took advantage of the G.I. bill to enroll at Chicago.
“We just thought it would be more fun to go to school than to get a job,” Carruth says. It turned out to be an intellectual awakening. His earlier literary education had been fusty and antiquarian. At Chicago he took courses in 20th-century literature, bought literary magazines at the 57th Street bookstores, and made friends with other aspiring writers, such as
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Ever since professional sports crashed to a halt last month, I’ve been thinking about the poor folks at TSN and Sportsnet in the sort of terms that God and Abraham argued over Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible.
In Genesis, Chapter 18, you’ll recall, God reveals that he – sorry, I mean He – intends to destroy the twin cities for their sins. Horrified, Abraham tries to negotiate. What if there are 50 righteous people there, he asks God: Would He spare the cities then? Sure, God says. So, er, how about 45 people? asks Abraham, just getting started. Okay, God says. All right, then how about 40? Abraham asks. Yes, fine, comes the reply. Abraham continues in this vein like a reverse auctioneer, reducing the number by 10 until God agrees that if there are as few as 10 righteous souls in Sodom and Gomorrah, he’ll spare everyone.
(Psst: He did not spare everyone.)
Story continues below advertisement
For more than five weeks now, TSN and Sportsnet, as well as internet-delivered subscription services such as DAZN, have had no live sports content to offer, prompting for some of their subscribers a Sodom and Gomorrah sort of quandary: How little do I need to watch these channels before I decide to dump them and save the cash?
There’s a dirty little secret at the heart of the sports-TV subscription business: Showing fewer games can actually be better for the bottom line. A couple of weeks ago, a former sports TV executive explained to me that the NHL lockout years were, counterintuitively, some of the most profitable for TSN and Sportsnet, because the networks didn’t have to pay either the rights fees or the production costs for the games they didn’t air. Although their ad revenue dropped, their subscription revenue continued to come in.
And those subscription fees have only gone up: In 2012, Sportsnet earned about $17.30 a customer from subscriptions annually, according to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission filings. By 2018 – the most recent year for which figures are available – that was up more than 260 per cent, to $45.23 a subscriber. TSN also had a sharp rise, although not as steep, to $43.10 in 2018 from $26.27 a subscriber in 2012. (Those are wholesale prices; cable customers pay perhaps twice that much.)
Sure enough, the fourth quarter 2012 report for Rogers Communications Inc., which owns Sportsnet, found a “$30-million net positive impact from the NHL player lockout.” (That was before Rogers signed its $5.2-billion,12-year NHL rights deal.) Bell Media, which owns TSN, also cited the three-month lockout as a significant factor for higher profits that quarter.
Still, there’s a difference between no hockey and no anything at all, which is why the programmers at TSN and Sportsnet have been throwing stuff at the wall over the past month like frenzied amateur pasta chefs in hopes that something will stick: E-sports featuring real athletes, gimmicks (TSN’s April Fools slate included the European tram-driver championship, in which trolleys push mammoth bowling-ball-style beach balls careening into oversized pins) and days and days of so-called classic games that are sometimes merely unremarkable, middle-of-the-season matches that were forgotten as soon as they were played.
For the most part, that stuff is empty filler, Styrofoam peanuts to make the package seem bigger; nobody actually thinks you’re going to watch it. But the networks know they need to give subscribers some sense of value, so they’ve been pursuing a two-pronged approach: repackaging old games in ways that create communal events and getting marquee personalities on air as much as possible. TSN has gone one big step further, recently bringing back its nightly SportsCentre news shows, including the midnight bros Jay and Dan. On Monday, it will also bring its afternoon drive-time radio show, Overdrive, back to TV.
“We want to entertain viewers with the most engaging, entertaining content possible, and really provide sports fans with the ability to relive some of their best memories in a time when they need it most,” Shawn Redmond, the vice-president of Discovery Networks and TSN, said in an interview. In many cases that means “presenting big events in stunt form,” such as the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 playoff run (in partnership with Sportsnet) over 24 successive nights. This week, TSN will re-air Bianca Andreescu’s run to the U.S. Open championship from last year.
Story continues
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edMutex declaration. Jeff Muizelaar (1): gdi32: Improve performance of common case of AlphaBlend. Juan Lang (3): crypt32: Don't fail if HCRYPTPROV and PCRYPT_KEY_PROV_INFO parameters are both non-NULL. crypt32: Fail earlier if CryptExportPublicKeyInfo fails. crypt32: Initialize key spec correctly. Julian Rüger (1): po: Update German translation. Józef Kucia (3): wpp: Reset lexer state after unexpected end of file. wpp: Fix a few memory leaks in the wpp_parse() function. include/d3dx9: Fix spelling errors. Keith Bowes (1): po: Update Esperanto Translation. Ken Thomases (4): ntdll: Fix status returned for too-long registry value names. shell32: Partially implement Mac Trash backing for the Recycle Bin. Revert "gdi32: Load fonts from default Mac external font paths.". gdi32: On Mac OS X, find fonts using Core Text rather than FontConfig, by default. Lauri Kenttä (2): cryptui: Use the same string in import and export wizards. po: Update Swedish translation. Lucas Zawacki (3): dinput: Correct wrong loop delimiter in diactionformat_priority. dinput: Implement GetProperty for JOYSTICKID (Linux driver). dinput: Implement GetProperty for JOYSTICKID (LinuxInput driver). Matteo Bruni (3): include: Fix some winsock definitions. wined3d: Update the correct draw buffers mask. wined3d: Support WINED3D_TTFF_COUNT3 texture projection in the ARB backend. Michael Geddes (1): kernel32: Add timed wait capability flag to COMM Port properties. Michael Mc Donnell (1): d3dx9: Do not weld self. Michael Stefaniuc (2): riched20: Avoid a forward declaration of a vtbl. riched20: Support COM aggregation in CreateTextServices(). Morten Rønne (3): wineconsole: Fixed a wrong word in message. po: Updated Danish translation. po: Updated Danish translation. Nicolas Le Cam (1): configure.ac: Prefer pkg-config over freetype-config. Nikolay Sivov (8): comctl32: Update thumb position on WM_MOUSEMOVE instead of deferring it. comctl32: Update thumb position on autopage instead of deferring it. shell32: Added a stub for IShellDispatch2. shell32: Implement IShellDispatch2::IsServiceRunning(). comctl32: Properly disable redraw on tab control. comctl32: When created with TCS_VERTICAL, TCS_MULTILINE is set automatically. urlmon: Implement TYMED_HGLOBAL case for CopyStgMedium. comctl32: Make it possible to use TVM_GETITEM with item from another tree. Oleksij Rempel (3): krnl386: Set remote bit for cdrom. krnl386: Set 11-bit for fixed drive. krnl386.exe: Fix drive spec in get_media_id call. Owen Rudge (9): comctl32/monthcal: Check both min and max ranges in IsDateInValidRange. comctl32/datetime: Check dates are within range in SetSystemTime. comctl32/datetime: Ensure up/down/home/end increments remain within bounds. comctl32/datetime: Don't allow an invalid year to be typed in. comctl32/datetime: Don't check box if no valid date set. comctl32/datetime: Allow entering 'AM' or 'PM' via keyboard. comctl32/datetime: Fix AM/PM handling with 12-hour fields. user32: Correct return value when buffer too short in GetUserObjectInformation. user32: Return Unicode length instead of ANSI in GetUserObjectInformationA. Petr Kočandrle (1): po: Update Czech translation. Piotr Caban (13): msvcrt: Fixed printf behaviour on hexadecimal, zero-padded numbers. shlwapi: Lowercase schemes in UrlCombine function. shell32: Prepare QueryAssociations helper functions to work on non LPWSTR data. shell32: Handle ASSOCDATA_EDITFLAGS in IQueryAssociations:GetData function. ddraw: Improve GetScanLine stub so it's usable for timing related tasks. msvcrt: Fixed 'h' modifier handling when printing integers. msvcrt: Added more length modifiers in scanf function. user32: Added GetMenuBarInfo implementation. comctl32: Return if point is over a button
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The Craziest Shooter Yet!
Help swarms of girls escape their demon possessions by using your Pheromone Shot gadget for euphoric exorcisms.
A Gorgeous New Cast!
Woo the girl of your dreams in a twisting, turning story full of surprises. With the aid of alluring angel Risu, become romantically entangled with girl-next-door Chiru and childhood sweetheart Nanako.
Become a Knight in Shining Armor!
Manage your schedule to receive quests from the academy's love-struck girls, and satisfy their demands to unlock new missions and story scenes.
Harness the Power of Vacuuming!
Equip the awesome Demon Sweeper gadget, capable of sucking up Gal*Gun 2's pesky demon menaces… and perhaps some clothing too!
Full Motion Controls
Gal*Gun reaches new heights on Nintendo Switch™ thanks to optional motion controls in Handheld Mode. Throw yourself into the middle of the action, and beware approaches from all angles!
These new doodles, hacked by the politically-minded Guccifer and published for the first time here on Gawker, appear to be the Bill Clinton doodles that the world has patiently been waiting for.
Presidential doodles are commonly made public, and were even the subject of a book, "Presidential Doodlings," but for years, the Clinton Foundation has refused requests through its press office.
Guccifer already unleashed presidential artistry on the world when he hacked George W. Bush earlier this year. This time, it appears he hacked into the Clinton Library's files, retrieving the scans from a folder called "wjcdrawings".
Clinton's doodles include a Roy Delgado-esque sketch of a limousine:
These doodles were made during a briefing on Slobodan Milosevic and possible UN sanctions against the FR Yugoslavia:
A partial motorcycle and a brick wall:
Self-portrait, maybe? Continuing the brick motif:
[images via Guccifer]
Michigan graduate transfer Max Bielfeldt has eliminated one school from his list and will take the weekend to make his decision, according to multiple reports.
Bielfeldt told Brendan F. Quinn of MLive.com that he’s no longer considering DePaul, which means he’ll choose from a final three of Indiana, Iowa State and Nebraska. He visited each of those schools.
His decision, which he originally planned to have in the days following his visit to Bloomington, is likely to come after this weekend.
The 6-foot-8, 245-pound forward averaged 5.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in 14.5 minutes per game last season for the Wolverines and will be eligible immediately. He was granted his release from Michigan in late April after it was announced that Caris LeVert would return for his senior season.
Indiana has two open scholarships for next season following the dismissals of Devin Davis and Hanner Mosquera-Perea.
Filed to: Max Bielfeldt
Over the summer, I raved about a batch of keftedes, the Greek meatballs, I had put together. I didn't think they could get much better, but alas, I was wrong. When you stuff that tasty Greek meat mixture with some feta cheese and grill it, the awesomeness meter totally cranks up, plus they get a new name—bifteki.
Like the keftedes, a combination of oregano, mint, and onion create the traditional Greek flavor of the meat. Luckily, this particular recipe created a much firmer mixture, more in line with a traditional burger, that was perfect for forming into patties to hold the cheese, which later held up great on the grill.
The feta softened just enough over the heat to make smooth, creamy innards that added new flavor and texture, heightening an already fantastic beef. So if you haven't tried this out yet, skip the keftedes and go straight to the bifteki, I promise that you won't be disappointed.
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“Survivor” came back to earth after its especially strong performance, but it and timeslot-winning outings by “Criminal Minds” and “CSI: Cyber” lifted CBS to victory in key demos on Wednesday. It remains slow going, meanwhile, for Fox’s “American Idol,” which remained low even without “The Voice” in its path.
According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, “Survivor” averaged a 2.2 rating/8 share in adults 18-49 and 9.4 million viewers overall to stand as Wednesday’s No. 1 program in both 18-49 and 25-54 (3.0/9). Oddly, it was down 0.3 from last week when it had additional reality-show competition from NBC’s “The Voice.”
From 9 to 11 p.m, “Criminal Minds” (2.0/6 in 18-49, 10.2 million viewers overall) and “CSI: Cyber” (1.5/5 in 18-49, 8.1 million viewers overall) led their timeslots in 18-49, with the former also the night’s most-watched show overall. They weren’t able to take advantage of NBC going to repeats with their competing crime dramas, with both CBS shows on par with last week (“Criminal Minds” should round to a 2.1 in the nationals).
ABC’s comedy block had another good night even without an original “Modern Family.” “The Middle” (1.9/7 in 18-49, 7.4 million viewers overall) was even and “The Goldbergs” was up (2.1/7 in 18-49, 6.9 million viewers overall) and also seems poised to round up to a 2.2 in the nationals. The hour was a close second to “Survivor” in 18-49 while easily beating third-place “American Idol.”
Following a “Modern Family” repeat (1.8/6 in 18-49, 6.0 million viewers overall), a special firstrun episode of “The Goldbergs” (1.9/6 in 18-49, 5.7 million viewers overall) fared the same as last week’s original “Black-ish” behind a “Modern” repeat; it came within a tenth of “Criminal Minds” for the 18-49 lead at 9:30. And at 10, “Nashville” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 4.6 million viewers overall) was up a tenth from last week’s low.
Fox’s “American Idol” (1.4/5 in 18-49, 7.5 million viewers overall) merely matched last week’s low in 18-49 despite lesser competition on NBC, which switched from “The Voice” to a repeat of “The Mysteries of “Laura” at 8 (0.7/3 in 18-49, 4.5 million viewers overall). It did jump up week to week in total viewers by about 15%.
“Laura” was followed on NBC by encores of “Law & Order: SVU” (0.8/3 in 18-49, 4.0 million viewers overall) and “Chicago P.D.” (0.8/3 in 18-49, 4.1 million viewers overall).
At CW, both “Arrow” (0.9/3 in 18-49, 2.4 million viewers overall) and “Supernatural” (0.7/2 in 18-49, 1.8 million viewers overall) were up a tick from their most recent originals, which had produced season lows for both. “Arrow,” which beat the Big Four in men 18-34 (0.9/4), was up 29% in 18-49 and 33% in 18-34 vs. the same night a year ago, while this was the largest overall audience for “Supernatural” since mid-February.
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: CBS, 1.9/6; ABC, 1.7/6; Fox, 1.4/5; Univision, 0.9/3; NBC and CW, 0.8/3; Telemundo, 0.5/2.
In total viewers: CBS, 9.2 million; Fox, 7.5 million; ABC, 5.9 million; NBC, 4.2 million; Univision, 2.5 million; CW,
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Melbourne Victory has completed the signing of Socceroos forward Robbie Kruse on a two-year deal.
Kruse, 30, will arrive at Victory this week and join the squad immediately pending a medical assessment.
Kruse has made 75 appearances for the Socceroos between 2011–2019 and was recently part of the 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
He represented Victory on 47 occasions across all competitions between 2009–2011, scoring 16 goals and making an impact in the A-League and Australian football that put him on the international radar.
Kruse’s impressive form at Victory saw him picked up by German club Fortuna Düsseldorf in 2011/12.
The forward went on to play over 100 games across an eight-year stint in the first and second divisions in Germany for Düsseldorf, Bayer Leverkusen, VfB Stuttgart and VfL Bochum.
Kruse said he was looking forward to returning to the club that gave him the opportunity to ignite his career.
“I am excited to return home after eight years playing overseas. It was an incredible experience, but to have the opportunity to come back to the A-League and represent Victory again is really special,” Kruse said.
“I have great memories playing with Victory and of the club as whole; it helped me set expectations of myself as a player and ground me professionally.
“During our discussions, I’ve been impressed with Marco Kurz’s vision for the team and look forward to joining my teammates, many new and a couple I already know.”
Kruse becomes Marco Kurz’s first signing since he took the reins at the club earlier this month.
The German believes the former clubman will add valuable A-League and international experience to the squad.
“Securing Robbie’s services for the next two years is a big win for the club,” said Kurz.
“We see in Robbie a player not only with great experience here in Australia and overseas, but also as someone that fits the culture of the club, something which will be very good for this team.
“We look forward to him joining us this week.”
. In one of the chairs (a real, physical chair) sat a young digital woman who motioned with her hand for me to sit in the chair opposite her. Upon sitting down, the character responded with joy before pointing at a real picture frame laying the table. She then pointed at a hook hanging from a real wall to my left, her right.
I followed her instructions and hung the blank white canvas on the wall. I then watched as she happily began painting a gorgeous photo with only her finger, shooting me a quick glance every so often as if expecting me to compliment her work. It was a surreal experience that, at certain points, truly had me believing I wasn’t alone in that room.
DR. GRORBORT’S INVADERS (Weta Workshop)
We already covered Weta Workshop’s Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders, but the impressive tracking and colorful visuals presented throughout my demo earned the action-packed title yet another mention.
The experience of excellent use of space had me moving around the entirety of the room as I desperately tried to avoid incoming enemy fire. This was especially difficult as I often found myself distracted by the high level of detail featured on my mechanical enemies and the world they were spewing from.
Equally as impressive was the exhibition space which was designed head-to-toe with Dr. Grordbort’s old-timey aesthetic. Out-of-date-furniture, classic wallpaper, and the mounted heads of various space aliens were littered among each play space. Even the bookshelves were filled with jars of alien body parts, each of which accompanied by hand-written labels featuring their own unique stories.
While Magic Leap’s current hardware still has a long way to go before it’s capable of providing truly seamless augmented reality, the projects shown during L.E.A.P. gives hope that the company can continue to expand upon their impressive efforts.
Magic Leap One Creator Edition is available now for $2,295 with an optional Professional Developer Package also available for $495.
Image Credit: Magic Leap / Weta Workshop / Air NZ / Meow Wolf
The post; First-Ever L.E.A.P. Conference Teases The Future Of Magic Leap, appeared first on VRScout.
Source: VR Scout
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Liverpool FC and Western Union have today announced a multi-year partnership that will see Western Union become an official principal partner and the official money transfer partner of the club, while also becoming LFC's first-ever official shirt-sleeve sponsor.
As the official money transfer partner of Liverpool FC, Western Union - a leader in global payment and money transfer services - will use its global cross-border digital transfer and payments platform to provide money transfer capabilities to the club.
Western Union will offer fast, easy digital payments and money transfers for LFC and its fans, linking them to their home communities or to virtually anywhere in the world.
Billy Hogan, chief commercial officer and managing director at Liverpool FC, said: “Western Union is an instantly recognisable brand with a truly global footprint and we are absolutely delighted to welcome them as our first ever shirt-sleeve Sponsor and official principal partner.
“We are very much looking forward to working with Western Union through this partnership to create new experiences and opportunities for our fans both in the UK and abroad.”
Jean-Claude Farah, President of Global Payments at Western Union, added: “The businesses of Western Union and Liverpool FC are both driven by our passion for bringing communities together, whether that be through moving money or delivering the excitement of football experiences.
“This partnership goes far beyond a badge on a shirt, as we will be bringing our digital money transfer expertise to better connect Liverpool FC and fans around the world.”
The two organisations mirror each other in their storied histories and truly global followings. Just as football powerfully transcends borders and brings people together, Western Union has a 160-year global brand history of connecting customers across more than 200 countries and territories.
Meanwhile, Liverpool FC, which celebrates its 125th year of existence in 2017, has more than 700 million active followers globally, across television, social and traditional media.
“We are proud to celebrate a sport that unifies billions of people across the globe and to work with a partner that so closely shares our values,” said Elizabeth G. Chambers, chief strategy, product and marketing officer at Western Union.
“Our customers are digitally-savvy and on-the-go, moving not just money but their human capital - their cultures, values and sporting allegiances. Like us, Liverpool FC has an active and diverse global following who want to be a part of something bigger and we can help them achieve this.”
Western Union’s logo is the first to appear on the shirt sleeves and sixth to appear on the shirt since the inception of Liverpool FC in 1892.
To celebrate the launch of the partnership, Western Union will be offering Liverpool FC fans in the UK, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway and Sweden a money transfer promotion, running from now through until the end of August.
The Western Union shirt-sleeve patch will be available free of charge to all fans who have purchased an official 2017-18 Liverpool FC shirt in store and online from Sunday August 27. Full details will follow on www.liverpoolfc.com.
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If five years is the standard time needed to evaluate a trade, now is the perfect time to look back at the trades made while Mark Shapiro was general manager of the Cleveland Indians. Shapiro, who will be taking over as Toronto Blue Jays president following the 2015 season, was the Tribe’s GM from 2001 to 2009. In that span, he won Executive of the Year twice in 2005 and 2007 and made several trades that shaped the Indians during that time. Trades that still have ripples to this day.
These deals are organized solely in ascending chronological order. If you feel that I missed any, feel free to throw them, and your thoughts, in the comments.
2002: Chuck Finley FOR Luis Garcia and PTBNL Coco Crisp
Coco Crisp may have only spent four seasons with the Indians, but two of them put this trade in the win column for Shapiro. The Indians GM traded half a season of starting pitcher Chuck Finley for two excellent seasons of Coco Crisp, who was worth 4.0 fWAR and 5.2 fWAR in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
Crisp’s strength -- particularly in 2005 -- was his defense, but he carried a good enough bat to make him an asset in the lineup as well. In 2004, he got on base at a.344 clip with 15 home runs, and he had a.345 OBP in 2005 along with another 16 home runs.
2002: Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew FOR Lee Stevens, Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee, and Grady Sizemore
Oh boy. The highlight of Shapiro’s trades came early on in his GM tenure. This trade alone arguably set the Tribe up for a decade of success, with one of their best pitchers and their best position player coming from a single pitcher closing in on 30 years old. Even Brandon Phillips, who did not do much of anything on the Indians, turned out to be an All-Star second baseman -- just on the Cincinnati Reds.
Grady Sizemore, if you really need to be reminded of this again, had the potential to be one of the best Indians players of the decade, if not all time. Once he got rolling in 2005, it did not seem like he would ever stop. His 5.6 fWAR that year was passed a year later when he was worth 7.9 fWAR, and then he "declined" to 6.4 fWAR and again rose back up in 2008 with a 7.4 fWAR. All the while, he was hitting 20-plus home runs and stealing 20-plus bases while playing excellent defense in center field. A series of devastating injuries cut his peak tragically short, however, and he would never play more than 112 games or be worth more than 2.5 fWAR in an Indians uniform again.
Although Cliff Lee’s peak with the Indians came later and did not last quite as long, he was worth an impressive 6.7 fWAR in 2008 and held only a 2.54 ERA over 31 starts for the Tribe. He was traded midway through the following season.
2002: Einar Diaz and Ryan Drese FOR Travis Hafner and Aaron Myette
Coming early on in the GM years for the Shapiro, this trade would help set the stage for the Cleveland Indians teams that would provide the highest of hopes and the most crushed of dreams in the mid- to late-2000s. Between 2004 and 2006, Hafner was worth 16 fWAR and hit 103 home runs. He, along with Grady Sizemore, helped give the Indians one hell of a playoff run in 2007, where they were one win away from giving the franchise their first World Series trip since 1997.
Einar Diaz, on the other hand, would play only four more seasons in the Majors for four different teams. Between the Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos, St. Louis Cardinals, and Los Angeles Dodgers, he was worth positive fWAR twice -- 0.1 fWAR in 2003 and 0.1 fWAR in 2006.
2006: Eduardo Perez FOR Asdrubal Cabrera
This is another case of the Indians not getting a ton of value until you look at whom they traded. Eduardo Perez was only on the Indians for half a season, but Shapiro was able to parlay him into Asdrubal Cabrera, who would wind up being the Tribe’s starting shortstop for the better part of a decade.
Sure, looking at Cabrera now is painful, given how atrocious his defense got in the latter years of his time in Cleveland, but there was a time when his bat carried his defense. In particular, Asdrubal came up big in 2011, hitting 25 home runs with a wRC+ of 119. His 3.6 fWAR could go down as his career peak season unless he surprises the Tampa Bay Rays (or whatever other season signs him after this season).
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."
The last statement was directed at Kyouko, who glanced around at Clarisse and Nadya for their reactions. They seemed interested, not puzzled, which meant that they had done the classified reading Yuma had granted them. She shouldn't really have expected otherwise out of Ancients before a truly important meeting, but… well, sometimes people got busy. One of the reasons she had made a presentation about everything was that it gave her a non‐awkward way to inform Nadya and Clarisse about specific topics. It seemed she had underestimated them.
"Personally, I rather doubt the sabotage was directed at me," Kyouko said. "My visit to the facility was not pre‐planned, and the room I was standing in didn't even collapse. If anything, my presence there helped to save Shizuki Ryouko's life."
"Might she be a target too?" Nadya asked.
"Quite possibly," Kyouko said. "I can't help but remember that she helped keep me from making the wrong decision on X‐25, and it was her partner and friend who detected the hidden nuclear device. If she had died on Eurydome, we would have died on X‐25."
"But that's all just coincidence," Yuma said. "Even I'm not paranoid enough to think that they tried to kill her to try to make X‐25 work. How would anyone predict that?"
There was clearly one entity who did, Kyouko thought, casting the thought so that only Clarisse could hear it. I only took an interest and followed Ryouko to Eurydome because of the Goddess, and she only came with me to X‐25 for the same reason. But how would that justify anyone who is not the Goddess trying to kill her?
And before the assassination attempt she hadn't even been sure she was going to come with me, Kyouko thought, this time to herself. If this conspiracy was trying to keep her from going to X‐25, their attempt backfired spectacularly.
"I don't know," Kyouko admitted. "I also can't help remembering that she was onboard the transport vessel that was mysteriously attacked deep in our space by a Ceph raiding party. It all seems suspiciously coincidental, but in ways that don't make any sense."
"Let's leave Ryouko aside for now," Yuma said. "I want to talk about one of the elephants in the room. What does everyone think about Homura? Do any of us think she might be behind all this?"
There was a pause, as everyone avoided each other's eyes for a moment.
"I wouldn't say she's incapable of it," Clarisse said. "But I wouldn't say it's likely to be her. If nothing else, she always seemed too ethically grounded to do any of the things we saw on X‐25, even indirectly. The statue could easily just be a coincidence."
"I might be terrified of coincidences now," Kyouko said, "but I have to agree it just doesn't sound like her."
And she would never act against her own Goddess, Kyouko thought. The Goddess clearly didn't approve of X‐25.
"I could see her being involved, if she thought it was for the greater good somehow," Yuma said. "If she came to think that cloning magical girls was the only way to win the war, then she would do it. And it must be said: we don't know what she is doing."
"It just doesn't seem like something she would really do," Clarisse said.
Another long pause followed.
"Back to Shizuki Ryouko, then," Nadya said, tapping a finger into the table. "I can't honestly say I know her very well, but I read the information I was sent. Is it true? Someone has constructed a human as deviant as this?"
"It is true," Yuma said, answering the rhetorical question. "I would say it is unfair to call her deviant, given that she shows every other sign of being perfectly normal, but the question of what the extra brain tissue does must be answered, especially given how important she turned out to be to the course of the war."
"I didn't mean anything negative by it," Nadya said. "Only in purely genetic terms."
"Has there been any progress in figuring it out?" Clarisse asked.
"It's still being worked on," Yuma said. "It's not easy doing this without access to the original subject, even if we have access to the genetic survey and previous medical records. A lot of it has to be done based on simulation. At first we were worried that it was some kind of remote control module, or a kill switch, but that
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left the city, he added.
“That’s ridiculous to even make such a demand as though we are still plantation slaves, who don’t want trouble with massa,” said Paula Singleton, 42, a mother of four who was planning to travel from Columbia to hear Min. Farrakhan.
The Minister thanked the strong pastors in Cleveland, who hosted him, and said godly men “shouldn’t be tied to the ungodly.” Minister Farrakhan said as a free man, he is not tied to former slave-masters or the power structure able to cow some preachers and order their steps.
“A scared to death preacher can’t boast in Christ,” Minister Farrakhan said. “A preacher that fears the powers that are contemporary, and dismisses the power of him who is eternally in power, is not fit to stand before the people of God.”
This is the time when all false men and women will be sat down, the Minister said.
Double talk and hypocrites?
Charleston, which is called the “holy city” and is a bastion for the architects of White supremacy, was a major receiving port during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Turmoil gripped the city with the April 10 killing of Walter Scott, an unarmed 50-year-old father and laborer, shot in the back several times by Michael Slager—a former North Charleston police officer—now jailed awaiting trial.
Months afterward came the execution of parishioners and the pastor of Mother Emanuel AME by alleged shooter Dylan Roof, 21, an avowed White supremacist who wanted to incite a race war. It was the Black clergy claiming it was a “Christian tradition” and way to forgive and show mercy to Mr. Roof, who never asked for forgiveness.
Over social media websites, many blasted the hypocrisy of clergy who opposed an appearance by Minister Farrakhan while embracing an admitted killer of Black Christians.
“They are planning to wipe us out; all the negro preacher (want) to do is talk about heaven and loving your enemies and they’re not preparing their people to fight their open enemy,” wrote Sandy Gillen on FaceBook.
“What kind of double talking Hypocrites are you? You say you want friendship and dialogue with Black people. But what you really mean is that you only want friendship and dialogue with those Blacks who make you feel secure and safe in your sick mind of White Supremacy,” posted Craig Khanwell on FaceBook.
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Hundreds of women criminals are to be spared jail under a pilot scheme to tackle reoffending.
Shoplifters, drug users, thieves and low-level offenders will instead be referred to specialist services for help with mental health problems and substance abuse.
The move to help 1,000 female criminals over the next two years has been launched by London Mayor Sadiq Khan after research found women are more likely than men to be sent to prison for a first-time offence.
Shoplifters, drug users, thieves and low-level offenders will instead be referred to specialist services for help with mental health problems and substance abuse (file image)
Women are also more likely to reoffend than men after a short prison sentence for a low-level offence such as theft or criminal damage, according to research.
Mr Khan has launched the scheme in four London boroughs as he believes the lack of a women’s prison in the capital means female offenders are taken further away from their families and support networks.
When they are arrested, women who have committed non-violent crimes such as shoplifting, low-level criminal damage such as graffiti or minor public order offences will be offered an ‘out-of-court disposal’.
Under this form of dealing with crime without the need for a prosecution, offenders will still receive a conditional caution that would be present on their criminal record for six years.
They will be required to attend appointments with a women’s centre and warned that failure to attend could result in prosecution for the original offence.
Specialist staff will ‘assess the needs’ of the criminal and offer ‘long-term support to address the causes of her offending’.
For example, they may be referred to mental health services, a domestic abuse organisation or receive help to deal with substance misuse.
Only non-violent female offenders who have admitted their guilt will be considered to participate in the pilot.
The scheme in the boroughs of Camden, Islington, Lambeth and Southwark follows similar pilots in Humberside, West Midlands and Durham.
Ministry of Justice figures show that female offenders cost the Government about £1.7billion a year.
Only non-violent female offenders who have admitted their guilt will be considered to participate in the pilot (file image)
Similar plans by the Liberal Democrats to stop jailing many women criminals were condemned last month by former Tory policing minister Sir Mike Penning.
‘Everyone’s in favour of rehabilitating prisoners but this is utter lunacy from Jo Swinson’s party,’ he said.
‘How can you jail a man for a particular offence but not a woman?’
Sophie Linden, London’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, said: ‘This pilot builds upon programmes carried out across England which have shown that through targeted support we can reduce the rates of women reoffending after their prison sentence.’
Dr Kate Paradine, of the charity Women in Prison, says: ‘The only way to tackle the crisis in our criminal justice and prison system is by addressing the root causes of crime in our communities.
‘Investing in women’s centres and diversion services is a vital first step to addressing this and will form essential part of London’s “whole system” approach.’
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Kim Kardashian promoted her new makeup with a glamour pic on Tuesday.
But 38-year-old beauty was hardly recognizable with a thinner nose and larger pout. Her 145M Instagram followers commented immediately as one wrote: 'Maybe I'm still drunk but wtf. How's that Kim?'
The reality star placed a gloved hand on her head as she donned a gigantic bejeweled choker and a black bustier as she captioned the snap: 'White eyeliner is one of my favorite looks with a 90's inspo black smoke eye!'
Promo: Kim Kardashian promoted her new makeup with a glamour pic on Tuesday where the reality star looked unrecognizable
Which prompted another fan to write: 'When Kim doesn't look like Kim.'
And yet another chimed in with: 'Aaliyah/ToniBraxton looks good here.'
On Monday, Kim shared a very similar snap that had online users criticizing her for appearing different.
The TV star had her hands resting on her head as she wore very heavy black eye makeup and a nude lip while hawking her new '90’s inspired collection of all matte formulas' called The Matte Smoke & Matte Cocoa Collections.
Who is this? Her 145M Instagram followers commented immediately as one wrote: 'Maybe I'm still drunk but wtf. How's that Kim?'
Is that you Kim? Kim posted a heavily doctored image of herself on Monday. The beauty, 38, was hardly recognizable with more even features and a thinner nose. Her 145M Instagram followers noticed right away as they asked 'Is that you?' and 'What happened to your face?'
The real deal: This is what the star looks like on her show Keeping Up With The Kardashians
The wife of Kanye West had her black hair stick straight and down. And she was wearing a black leather Versace top.
Her nose definitely looked different, but that just could have been thanks to very strong contour.
And her lips appeared bigger than usual.
She has a fascination with Aaliyah: Kim dressed as the singer for Halloween, left. In 2001 Aaliyah, right, died in a plane crash in the Bahamas
More Kim as Aaliyah: Here is another shot of the TV star as the singing sensation
Another difference were her eyes which appeared to be closer together. And there seemed to be a mole on her cheek.
Kim's Photo Fails Kim wore a tight black leotard in the April/May 2009 issue of Complex Magazine. Later the real photo showed her waist, hip and arm were much bigger. A 2014 pic with Blac Chyna featured a bent door frame where her tummy appeared flatter. In 2015 she Photo Shopped her neck and the back of her hair when kissing Kanye in a photo booth. A car was shaved down by mistake making it look ridiculously tiny in a doctored photo from March 2018. April 2018 a door was bent by Kim's leg as she posed in Calvin Klein underwear for a selfie. Her face and chest looked completely wrinkle free in a September 2018 ad for KKW Beauty. Her eyes were also lightened in another September 2018 photo that departed from the original posted by her hair stylist. In October 2018 Kim seemed to have lost her famous bottom when she posed for David LaChapelle wearing GOLD Big Bank & Rollie. In a group photo with her family for KUWTK season 16, Kim's waist looked very small but that was nothing compared with Khloe's missing lower half and Kourtney's weird foot. Advertisement
Some fans liked the look, saying 'JESUS' and 'you looks beautiful' but others were not so sure.
Brookeposeyy commented, 'ily but that does not look like u.'
Another said she looked like the late singer Aaliyah who passed in 2001 in The Bahamas.
Abieley said she looked like Toni Braxton.
'So photoshopped you don’t even look yourself anymore, Kim,' wrote another commenter.
Nalzzmlks wrote, 'Am I the only one who didn’t recognise sis for like a good 10 seconds?'
'Lady Gaga, is that you?' joked another user.
Her full caption read: 'I’m so excited to announce my new 90’s inspired collection of all matte formulas- The Matte Smoke & Matte Cocoa Collections!!!
'I get a lot of my makeup inspiration from the 90’s and love how nostalgic this entire collection is. The collection features 2 10-Pan Eyeshadow Palettes, 6 Lipsticks in a brand new matte formula, 6 Lip Liners, and 5 Eyeliners.
'Matte Smoke & Matte Cocoa are two entirely different color ranges, so there are so many looks you can create with this collection.
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in the Forest suburb of Brussels. Armed police raided the address on Tuesday and shot dead Algerian Mohamed Belkaid.
MailOnline spoke to Mohammed Abdeslam, the prime suspect’s brother, outside the family home.
The officers spoke at the scene of one of the police raids that took place in the district last night, near the Ahl Allah mosque….
As police tried to control the throngs of young men of Middle Eastern and north African descent who had gathered to watch, they were mocked with hoots and chicken noises.
Masked officers arrested at least three young men before order was restored.
‘There is no terrorist on this street. The police are making it up to make Muslims look bad,’ said 27-year-old Mohammed, surrounded by several other young men. ‘It is a set-up.’
But Sofian, 27, said he was worried that the terror investigation in the district would give it a bad name.
‘It was just one or two people who happened to be living here,’ he said. ‘There are terror cells all over Brussels, not just in Schaerbeek.’
Although Molenbeek has long had a reputation for radical Islamism, it is Schaerbeek that has been thrown into the spotlight in the latest stages of the investigation into the Brussels attacks.
Just hours after a series of blasts killed 34 people in the capital and injured hundreds more, police found a nail bomb, chemicals and an ISIS flag in a raid on an apartment in the district….
Najim Laachraoui, a newly-identified ISIS suspect whose DNA was found on bombs used in the Paris attacks, rented an apartment in Schaerbeek, and Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam is believed to have been holed up in an apartment there for three weeks after the massacres in France….
Suspicions that Abdeslam also masterminded the Brussels atrocities arose when Belgian police found his fingerprints on detonators intended for use in the attacks, according to an anonymous source quoted by Politico.
The latest revelations come after Belgium’s Foreign Minister, Didier Reynders, told a conference the day after Abdeslam’s arrest that the jihadi was ‘ready to restart something from Brussels’ using a new terror cell he had formed.
‘We found a lot of weapons, heavy weapons in the first investigations, and we have seen a new network of people around him in Brussels,’ he said.
Today, MailOnline spoke to Mohammed Abdeslam, the prime suspect’s brother, outside the family home.
‘I can’t tell you if my brother was supposed to be involved in today’s attack because if I told you I knew, I’d be in very big trouble right now,’ he said before driving off in his black BMW 4X4….
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Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar called White House adviser Stephen Miller a 'white nationalist' over a report he pushed President Donald Trump toward a harder line on immigration - a move that resulted in a massive shakeup in the Department of Homeland Security.
'Stephen Miller is a white nationalist. The fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage,' she wrote on Twitter.
She linked to an article on Splinter reporting that Miller, an anti-immigration hardliner who was the architect of the president's travel ban, pushed Trump to retracted his nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar called White House adviser Stephen Miller a 'white nationalist'
She cited a report that Stephen Miller, who is known as an anti-immigration hawk, pushed Trump toward a harder line on the issue
'WHITE NATIONALIST' - OMAR'S ACCUSATION EXPLAINED Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar's description of Stephen Miller as a 'white nationalist' puts him - in her view - in the same broad field as the KKK and marchers in Charlottesville in 2017. White nationalism is intended to suggest that Miller sees white people as one race and that the U.S.A. is a white country which will not benefit from the arrival of non-white immigrants. The term has been used interchangeably with 'white supremacism,' the belief that the white 'race' is better than others. But academics who study the field have drawn a distinction between nationalism and supremacism, so Omar is not necessarily making an accusation that Miller is an outright white supremacist. More complicatedly, Miller is Jewish, and white nationalism has usually gone hand-in-hand with anti-Semitism. But some white nationalists have recast the 'white race' as including Jewish people, among them Jared Taylor, seen as a key thinker in the movement. Advertisement
Miller was also reported to be the driving force behind the administration's policy last year of separating migrant children from their parents who illegally crossed the border.
But the withdrawal of Vitiello set off a chain reaction that led to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's resignation on Sunday night.
Trump said he withdrew Vitiello's name because he wanted someone 'tougher' to lead the top immigration enforcement agency.
'We're going in a little different direction,' he said on Friday. 'Ron's a good man, but we're going in a tougher direction.'
Miller is 'particularly adept,' one administration official told The Washington Post, at placing blame on others when his ideas don't work.
Nielsen reportedly was not given a head's up last week when the White House retracted Vitiello's name.
Her meeting with the president Sunday night was reported to be about Vitiello. Her being blindsided by the White House dropping him, in addition to the ongoing immigration crisis, prompted her to resignation.
Trump followed Nielsen's ouster with more pink slips Monday, axing the director of the U.S. Secret Service Randolph 'Tex' Alles.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Cissna is also leaving, according to CBS News. So are DHS undersecretary for management Claire Grady and general counsel John Mitnick.
A person with knowledge of USCIS's front office, however, said late Monday that Cissna was still in his job. And Alles told his agency's staff that he wasn't forced out.
Stephen Miller was behind Trump's travel ban
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen met with President Donald Trump Sunday evening and submitted her resignation
Nielsen reportedly was not given a head's up on Thursday when the White House retracted its nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Shoving Alles overboard and driving others out signals the growing authority of Miller, the 33-year-old former staffer to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions. Alles, Cissna, Grady and Mitnick were on a list of officials Miller targeted for removal as 'too soft,' according to a White House official.
A White House source with knowledge of the West Wing's goings on in the past week told DailyMail.com on Monday that Miller had advocated internally for Nielsen's firing, and for Alles to follow her out the door.
Miller is known as a sharp-tongued promoter of hawkish immigration policies that Democrats have complained push the boundaries of federal law and too often challenge court precedents.
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It seems like hardly a week goes by without news of a data breach at yet another company. And it seems more and more common for breaches to break records in the amount of information stolen. If you’re a company trying to secure your data, where do you start? What should you think about? To answer these questions, I talked to Marc van Zadelhoff, VP of IBM Security, about the current state of cybersecurity and the Ponemon Institute’s 2015 study of cybersecurity around the world, which IBM sponsored.
HBR: Did the study find any new trends in cybersecurity?
Marc van Zadelhoff: We have a large business dedicated to security and so we see even beyond the study, across thousands and thousands of customers that we monitor daily. One of the major things that we’ve seen over the last few years is how breaches are increasingly done by ever-more-sophisticated organized criminals. Forty-five percent of breaches occur because of criminals breaking in, so one of the reasons why the cost of breaches goes up is because we’re seeing more being caused by crime, as opposed to other factors like inadvertent mistakes.
It’s one thing to have a breach because an employee loses a laptop, but more and more of it is organized criminals who are very persistent in their approach. For example, when a criminal is involved, the cost for a breach is typically $170.00 per capita per breach, versus if it’s a system glitch or a human error it’s more like $140.00 a breach. It becomes more expensive because they steal more, they’re more persistent, they’re stealthy, they stick around, they’re harder to detect and harder to get rid of. It’s like a more difficult virus in your body. The best advanced attacks on our organization are just harder to inoculate against, and harder to get out of the system.
I’m surprised that the percentage of breaches caused by attackers isn’t higher. If you read the headlines in the papers, it seems like those are the ones you tend to hear about the most.
If you’re getting breached, there’s an incentive to talk about it as being an attack as opposed to a mistake. So I think that’s why the ones that do get covered a lot in the press are the ones where companies come forward and say, “Somebody spent a lot of time and did a professional job on us.” I think people get a little less vocal when it’s truly a mistake.
What about the breaches caused by mistakes, the ones you don’t hear about as much?
I think that not enough attention is being drawn to the careless exposure of data by internal mistakes—which happens quite often, even when there are no malicious actors prompting it. Aside from the most obvious slip-ups, such as leaving passwords in plain view or failing to report a lost or stolen corporate device, many people today are uploading personal and corporate information into third-party, collaborative platforms without thinking twice about how secure this action might be. While these tools are giving us a wealth of opportunity when it comes to working more efficiently and collaboratively, we have to remember to always be cautious in regards to how we’re using, sharing, and collecting data.
What are cybercriminals usually after? What should companies be protecting?
In general, organized criminals are trying to steal things of high value, and one of the most valuable industries, in terms of cost, is health care. So what you see is that criminals are going after health records because on the black market they can probably sell a health record of a person for about $50. If they only steal credit card data or a social security number, they might be able to sell that on the black market for $1. Or they may steal a health care record not to sell it, but to leverage that information to do a more sophisticated attack on you. They might impersonate a bank, saying, “Hey, I know you’re about to go and get an operation, don’t forget to transfer some money by clicking here,” or whatever. And then you think, “Well, they know I’m having an operation tomorrow, so they must be a legitimate bank.” So the initial crime results in more valuable data leaving the building.
If health care records are worth so much, why do hackers go after anything else?
While health records themselves are worth a lot on the Dark Web, there are other types of high-value data that can be pieced together to be used in sophisticated attacks. These types of information can be used to conduct malicious activities such as social engineering, creating dossiers on high-profile figures (with the end game to disrupt their lives in a malicious way), stealing identities,
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All-Stars 4 winner Trinity The Tuck tells EW about the online drag festival featuring Alaska, Monét X Change, Manila Luzon, Peppermint, Nina West, and more: 'I have a hazmat suit. Trust, I’m pulling out all the stops!'
RuPaul's Drag Race type TV Show network VH1 genre Reality Where to watch Close Streaming Options
EARLIER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage glowing screen in the comfort of your own home: All of the RuPaul's Drag Race icons you can't see at the club this weekend because you're in coronavirus quarantine!
As the world's population locks down amid the spread of COVID-19, EW can exclusively reveal powerhouse drag management company Producer Entertainment Group has partnered with webcast site Stageit to bring performances from some of the biggest names in contemporary drag directly to you, as bars, restaurants, and live entertainment venues continue to close around the world.
Each 30-minute, all-ages installment will be a unique experience, as Stageit does not record or re-release its content. Tickets are limited (beginning at 100 per show) to keep audience sizes intimate, though attendees will have opportunities to interact with the artists, tip them, and potentially win prizes during the broadcast.
As drag artists around the world continue to lose money with the coronavirus pandemic forcing performance venues into closure, Trinity tells EW the show is meant to serve as "a distraction from what's going on in the world," recalling the "escape from reality" provided by a typical night out at a drag show (outings that aren't currently possible amid government-mandated closings of public gathering spaces).
"[Drag artists] give an experience to give people. It's relief mentally, emotionally, or comically, and when you’re not able to do that while sequestered in your house, you can watch this online streaming show from home and, for 30 minutes, have fun with whoever they’re watching," the All-Stars 4 winner says, adding that it also stands to forge new ground for drag queens and kings as they lose work around the country, offering an alternative to live performances that could provide supplemental income for gig-to-gig workers even after the pandemic ends.
Image zoom Producer Entertainment Group
"This might be something we want to put on [regularly] because certain areas of the country or the world can’t get to a show or it might be too expensive to get there," Trinity explains. "People of drag and the LGBTQ community are extremely resilient. We have to be. We’ve always been that way, and this is going to show one of the ways we can take a bad situation and turn it around and make something positive out of it."
For Trinity, that means decking out her home for a jaw-dropping performance full of vignettes "poking fun at being quarantined in your house." And, yes, she will serve hazmat suit eleganza. Literally.
"I'm going to do songs that [feel right] on a coronavirus playlist, like MC Hammer's 'U Can’t Touch This,'" the queen says. "I ordered drop cloths from Amazon. I’m going to make a section of my house to look like a quarantine zone. I have a hazmat suit. Trust, I’m pulling out all the stops for this little show I’m putting on in my house!"
Amid the increasingly competitive digital performance space, Trinity assures fans her show will be one of the safest around: "Come see my show! Log in for $10.00!" she pleads with a laugh. "Stay six feet away from your screens!"
See the full Digital Drag Fest! performance schedule below. Individual show descriptions and tickets are available now on the Stageit website.
Image zoom Producer Entertainment Group
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Ru
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Members of Parliament have this evening passed a vote which essentially means that Britain leaving the European Union without a deal is now an impossible scenario.
In the event of Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal being voted down in the House of Commons, the successful amendment – drafted by pro-EU Tory MP Dominic Grieve – now ensures that it will be MPs, and not the government, who decides the next course of action.
Given that a huge majority of MPs are completely opposed to leaving without a deal, the vote means that Britain crashing out of the European Union without an agreement is now not a feasible prospect.
The successful vote also means that Theresa May’s threat to MPs that next week’s meaningful Brexit deal vote is a choice between her deal or no deal is now entirely impotent.
Grieve’s amendment passed by a large margin of 321 to 299, and ensured that Theresa May’s ailing minority government have been defeated all three crucial Brexit votes this evening.
Parliament now on to debating the Grieve amendment – this is the one that would mean MPs could vote to instruct the govt what to do if May's plan falls – eg vote for another referendum, or to stay in a Customs Union — Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) December 4, 2018
The point of the Grieve amendment, that may be voted on today, is to make next week's vote on @theresa_may's Brexit plan more "meaningful" – and to increase the power of MPs to decide what kind of Brexit, or no Brexit, will transpire. The point is that right now if she loses… — Robert Peston (@Peston) December 4, 2018
Theresa May will be deeply concerned – MPs will vote today on Grieve's amendment. If Grieve wins (which seems likely!) it will mean that MPs will get a vote on whether the UK crashes out of the EU with no-deal. May's my deal or no-deal claim will go out the window. — Shehab Khan (@ShehabKhan) December 4, 2018
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Grieve’s amendment passes comfortably, 321-299. Don’t give too much weight to the “it’s not legally binding” chat. This is huge. Gives MPs the right to instruct government what to do next if/when the deal is voted down – politically very tough to ignore. “Take back control”… — Adam Payne (@adampayne26) December 4, 2018
Another huge Government defeat – to my mind even more important than losing the contempt motion – as the Grieve amendment explicitly gives parliament the power to amend any motion that the Govt tables, in the event it loses next week’s vote, to specify how we go forward. — Liz Kendall (@leicesterliz) December 4, 2018
Here's the 26 Tories who backed Grieve amendment. Vaizey and Wollaston complete the list. pic.twitter.com/jabf2qq57O — Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) December 4, 2018
Following news of a no deal Brexit effectively being outlawed, Sterling immediately rallied:
Sterling rallies from year's low as 'Grieve amendment' gives parliament say over next #Brexit steps if PM May loses Dec 11 ballot – majority presumed to be against 'no deal' Brexit… pic.twitter.com/7tHdtHBvXP — Mike Dolan (@reutersMikeD) December 4, 2018
What happens next?
MPs will vote on Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal on Tuesday 11th December. When, as is widely expected, this fails, the Prime Minister will have 21 days to renegotiate the deal with the EU and then return to Parliament with a motion.
Dominic Grieve’s successful amendment means that MPs will now be allowed to amend this renegotiated deal – effectively, and ironically, allowing Members of Parliament to literally take back control of the UK’s Brexit deal from Theresa May.
However, the Prime Minister may not even get the chance to renegotiate her deal, as the Labour Party have strongly indicated they will immediately submit a motion of no confidence against the government, should they lose the meaningful vote on December 11th.
But, if the government somehow manage to survive this, Theresa May’s hands will now be tied by the majority of MPs – meaning that the chances of a much softer Brexit, or even a second referendum, have just increased significantly.
However, in one final twist to this unprecedented situation, Theresa May’s other threat that voting her deal down might result in “no Brexit at all” also now looks more likely – a scenario which could, incredibly, see her hard-Brexit-backing MPs
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Parents have expressed concern after learning that their children will have to navigate an active construction site on their first day of school.
Castlebar Junior School will open its doors on Tuesday to students in Kindergarten through Grade 3 for the first time. But to get to those doors, students and parents will have to walk past construction vehicles and gated areas.
“We’re a little concerned about the state of the school,” Kim Barker, whose son Josh will start school at Castlebar, said. “I mean we’ve been driving by every day this week to look at where they’re at with getting things ready- this is not as exciting as we would have thought it would have been.”
The school is currently undergoing major renovations in order to outfit it for its new use, but even as crews work throughout the weekend, those renovations won’t be finished by the time school starts.
Construction crews work at Castlebar Junior School on Aug 31, 2019. (Scott Lightfoot/CTV News Toronto)
In a letter posted on the school’s website, Principal Colleen Bellhumer apologized for the delay and inconvenience, telling parents “these kinds of projects bring challenges and a number of contributing factors that have slowed the construction including a delay in obtaining a permit, labour actions by construction trades and a backorder of material for the replacement of the windows.”
Down the street, another Castlebar parent wondered when the construction will be finished.
“It clearly is not ready and I don’t know when it will be either,” said Kiran Grewal, whose son will attend the school.
Castlebar isn’t the only school in the Toronto District School Board that will still have active construction on site come the first day of school.
At Charles G Fraser Junior Public School in Trinity Bellwoods, construction crews were hard at work on renovations to the building. On the school’s website, parents are warned that the ramp at the back of the school will not be open on Tuesday and that alternate arrangements are being made for students to enter and exit the building.
At Charles G Fraser Junior Public School, construction crews work on renovations a few days before school is set to begin. (Scott Lightfoot/CTV News Toronto)
The note also reads that safety is a priority, something that’s echoed at Castlebar.
“I still find a bit risky,” Grewal told CTV News Toronto. “I mean kids are kids, like I don’t know how safe exactly it will be but yeah it’s a shame that it’s still going on.”
Barker says she trusts the school will have her son’s safety in mind, but worries about what he’ll face heading back to school.
“It’s just not going to be the greatest experience.”
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,” Cédric adds. “However I am not under the impression we are creating games meant exclusively for a European audience. Actually, nearly half our income comes from the United States of America. Players around the world are lucky to get to play games produced everywhere in the world, and not just American or Japanese productions. There is a lot of talent, creativity and diversity in Europe, which greatly complements the current offerings.”The Technomancer has started to take on a cult-like status usually reserved for very specific B-grade films from the ‘80s and ‘90s. It might be fair to say that fans like such things because of their flaws. “Well maybe these flaws, at least some of them, also reflect our passion, our love for this type of game but also the originality of our creation,” says Jehanne. “Even if not as smooth as the AAA games, our games are an explosion of ideas, of desires, and players can see it.”“We have to be more flexible, to find a lot of tricks to realise what we want. We have to fight not only with a budget, but also with ourselves. Sometimes it’s frustrating, but it’s also very exciting and interesting. We can never rest,” Jehanne says, before clarifying: “I don’t want to lead a AAA studio. It’s too big for me. Maybe one day Spiders will become one, but it will be without me! We have always found our audience up to now, and I hope it will stay that way. Because once again, we love what we do, even if not flawless. And we love our players too. Did I tell you they were cleverer than most?”“Focus is a young publisher, and when you start, you rarely have the resources measuring up to your ambitions,” says Cédric. “However, passion was there from the start and most of our games found their audience and benefit from a certain love coming from their players. They managed to impose thanks to their qualities and their singularities. It only takes a glance on our games listed on Steam, with a majority of them having positive reviews.”“The most important constraint comes from the budget,” Jehanne adds. “It defines a development length and a team size. I’m fortunate to have an incredible team, but even with this incredible team we were just 45 and had two years of development. We can do a lot but we can’t do miracles. So of course we had to cut our ambitions to finish the game, we had to limit the exploration and game areas for example, we had also to limit the character creation choices, etcetera. Most of these ideas are discussed with the core team, and each idea goes through a lot of validation from the technical, design and art leads. Of course, the goal is not to decide if we could do this with ideal conditions, but with the actual conditions, time development and budget. It’s always a team decision process.”“Our budgets are that of games that occupy the space between small independent productions and big blockbusters,” Cédric says. “They keep increasing every year. I may not give precise numbers as they are confidential, but let's just say that while not reaching that of AAA games, we are starting to have solid budgets for the most important games in our line-up.”He just might be referring to GreedFall – Spiders’ next big RPG outing with Focus Home Interactive, and their fifth game together since they struck up a partnership in 2009. Early last year, its trailer made an impression as something altogether different from either sci-fi or fantasy. Though its 2018 release date remains non-specific and details are scant, Jehanne is very talkative when it comes to discussing what making The Technomancer has taught her about making GreedFall.“There was a lot of love in Technomancer, but of course our game came also with some flaws. As you’ve already said, the Technomancer’s universe and story were mostly appreciated, but a lot of players complained about the combat difficulty,” Jehanne says. “It’s true that the combat was very demanding, and because we used a percentage system, it could feel a little unpredictable."For GreedFall we decided to create a story mode, where combat will be easier, and we removed the percentage system for a gauge system instead. Critical actions can now be used as soon as the gauge is filled up, and can be applied to any type of combat action. It can be used to transform a simple healing spell into a powerful group spell for example, or of course to give the deathblow to an enemy. These changes in the combat make it
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What resume writing tip can get you ahead in 2017?
An effective resume is the foundation of every successful job campaign. Most people only get to write their CV when they are seeking employment but resume writing skills is important for both fresh and advanced graduates who are seeking career advancement
A good resume’s purpose is to summarize the key element of your past experience that you would like employers to consider when you are seeking employment. Therefore a good resume must tell a better version of your career life story.
So today, we are going to learn how to write a good resume so that you increase your chance of landing more job interview. Specifically, in this guide, you will learn what the component of a good resume is.
We will cover:
Common mistakes to avoid when creating your resume
Different resume format and what they are so you know exactly what kind of resume you are creating
What makes a good resume- the exact component of an effective resume
Action verbs to add to your resume so it is effective
A list of checklist to go through after creating your resume.
Let’s get started with the first step-mistakes to avoid when creating a resume.
Common Resume Mistakes People Make When Creating A Resume
A lot of people make generic mistakes when writing their resume. Here are some of the common mistakes you should avoid:
Having one version for all job application- Your resume should not be a one size fit all. Using the same old resume continually without updating- Do not submit the same resume you used 1 year ago for a new job application. Typographical and spelling errors- No need to say more about this but spell check your resume before submitting it. Unexplained gaps- There should not be any unexplained gap on your resume. Adding unnecessary information- An effective resume should not be more than 2 pages so it needs to capture the exact information, a recruiter is looking to see.
Four Common Resume Format
There are several formats for resumes but the 4 common formats are:
Chronological resume.
Functional resume.
Combination resume
Targeted resume
The Component of an Effective Resume
A professional resume should always contain the following:
Bio-data: This includes identification information such as your name, address and current phone number. You may add an additional phone number which must also be a working phone number
Objective: The objective section contains a single phrase expressing the specific type of employment you are seeking and or the principal skills you want to use on the job. Once you have a clear objective, you should use it as a thesis for the remainder of your resume; only information that supports your career objective should be included on the resume.
Education: This section should contain information about your education with the most current stated first. It should include details about your education, including location, degree, date of graduation, major or related course work and grade. If you have attained any higher educational qualification, you do not need to include information about your secondary school.
Employment history: This segment comprises the summary of previous employment to date. Start with your current position and work backward. Make sure you include all employment relevant to your career objective in any way. Internships can be listed either employment or under. Provide the name of the employer, the employer’s location, your job title, dates of employment, and simple verb phrases to summarize your main activities on the job (see “action verb” list). Whenever possible quantify and qualify data with specific details and statistics that illustrate your potential.
Activities/Honors/ Skills/ Publication: Additional areas that may be included on the resume if space allows. List all major activities and awards as well as any skills that are relevant to your career objective. These can show leadership, organization, critical thinking, teamwork, self-management, initiative and influencing others.
References: There is no need to list your references on your CV. Rather; the transcripts can be listed as “available upon request”. (Make sure you have references, phone numbers, and business addresses ready on a separate sheet whenever you go to an interview.)
Important Resume Writing Tips:
Below are the key tips to remember when writing your resume.
Personal information like height, weight, sex, and marital status should not be listed on the resume. Such factors are irrelevant and cannot legally be considered in employment decisions. Remember to keep all information on the resume concise and clear. A one-page resume is best, although people with extensive experience or advanced degrees may have to use two pages. Be scrupulously careful when you proofread: Some employers will refuse to consider candidates who submit resumes with spelling or typographical errors. Make your resume for one reader- Identify who is going to read your resume and know what they are looking for. Tailor it to meet their need Make it
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QUICK PILL The tragedy Marathwada has seen 1,000 farmer suicides in 2015 alone Successive droughts have rendered the farmers unable to pay off their debts The personal account Farmer Rajabhau Deshmukh, who hails from Beed district, explains the farmers\' plight He says things are so bad that a farmer can\'t even afford to fall sick for a few days anymore Even suicide deaths are underreported by the govt Farmers often have to pay 200-240% interest on loans from unregistered moneylenders More in the story How govt policies and their implementation are to blame Why farmers keep falling into the moneylenders\' trap How they can be brought out of this vicious cycle
In economic terms, half of India's workforce practices agriculture, accounting for 13.7% of the country's gross domestic product. It directly affects 800 million people.
But let's leave the economics aside and concentrate on the human side of things. Two farmers commit suicide every hour in India. Earlier this month, in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra alone, there were 27 suicides in one week.
Read- Karnataka sugarcane farmer suicides: what can be done to stop the rot
And yet, while people may sympathise with the farmers who end up taking this drastic step, how many of us actually understand the problems that lead to it? How many of us have actually tried to go behind the tragedies and see what a farmer's life in Marathwada is like?
25 March 2015. Farmer Nityagopal Barman (43) committed suicide, after being unable to repay his loans. Photo: AFP Photo
Rajabhau Deshmukh, a farmer from Beed district, gives Catch an insight into the tragedy of Marathwada's farmers. And in doing so, he sounds a wake-up call to the country. The following is his account:
Kalidas's story
Nearly a year has passed since Kalidas, the 23-year-old son of a farmer named Baban, committed suicide in my neighboring village of Tambarajuri in Maharashtra's Beed district. The family had taken a loan from a bank, and was struggling to pay it off.
Last year's drought had devoured their investment. Kalidas worked as a labourer as well, but all in vain. There was no hope left, and he eventually succumbed to the pressure.
The distraught family asked the authorities for the mandatory government compensation of Rs 1 lakh. Baban and his younger son met with the authorities, who kept avoiding them. The two spent almost a year trying to convince them. Finally, they examined the case, but the death was termed 'ineligible' for compensation.
We can't even afford a throat infection, let alone a long-term illness like cancer or diabetes
The reason? Kalidas did not own the farmland; his father Baban did. Technically, Kalidas was not a farmer.
Think about it - a boy in his twenties almost never 'owns' the piece of land, even though he is the one in charge of the decisions. The 'owner' is always an elderly member of the family. But that's a glaring loophole in the system that cost the family in this case.
The entire episode took a tragic toll on Baban's younger son too. The treatment meted out to him and his father after Kalidas's demise got to him. He became mentally unstable, and is currently in Pune's Yerwada hospital.
We can't even fall sick
This is just the story of just one household. I can assure you, there are innumerable Babans residing in Marathwada right now. The current situation here is dreadful. There is hardly any water left for our livestock and us.
The lucky ones have their wells filled to around 10-15 feet. The drought is so acute that the cattle are surviving on silt due to the paucity of water.
Photo: Ravi Prakash/ LightRocket via Getty Images
We have been reaping merely 20-30% of our average crop in the last few years. There have been years, like the current one, where the whole crop has dried up. Even as bank loans, moneylenders' debts, relatives' credits and the interest keep gnawing at us, we have to somehow run our homes.
Plus, there are medical expenses, marriages, educational fees and so on. To be honest, it seems we are not even allowed to fall sick. We cannot even afford a throat infection, let alone a long-term illness like cancer or diabetes.
The first drought transpired in 2004. Since then, it's all been been downhill. Moreover, the weather department has predicted a dry spell until August next year. It means the Kharif crops,
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Republican state Rep. Ross Spano and Democratic attorney Kristen Carlson are in a tight race in Florida’s 15th Congressional District, according to a new poll from Bold Blue Campaigns.
The poll, conducted Sept. 22 through Sep. 27, found Spano ahead by 3 percentage points over Carlson, 49-46 percent, with 5 percent of voters saying they were undecided. Spano’s lead falls well within the poll’s margin of error and continues to show strong Democratic support in the heretofore safe Republican seat.
CD 15 covers parts of Hillsborough, Lake and Polk counties. It voted plus-10 for President Donald Trump two years ago while current U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross scored a 15-point victory over Democratic nominee Jim Lange. The seat is open this year due to Ross’ decision to not seek re-election.
Bold Blue Campaigns claims Spano is “underperforming” but is still the favored candidate to win the seat come November. However, the pollster found some positive news for Carlson as well.
“The 5 percent of undecided voters are primarily younger voters, independents and voters of color, meaning that the Democrat Carlson likely still has some room to grow, while Spano will have to rely on motivating the GOP base to turn out to fend off a potential wave result,” the polling memo said.
The new poll is one of the first public measures of the CD 15 contest since the Aug. 28 primary election, where both Spano and Carlson scored double-digit wins to secure the major-party nominations.
A mid-September poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and released by the Carlson campaign found her with a 1-point lead over Spano. Respondents favored a “generic Republican” over a “generic Democrat” by a margin of 42-36 percent, but when Carlson and Spano were named, they shift to 48-47 percent in her favor.
According to the new poll, Spano holds an edge when it comes to name ID, as he was viewed favorably by a 47-37 percent margin with 16 percent saying they didn’t know enough about him to have an opinion. Carlson was above water by a 43-38 percent margin with 20 percent answering “do not know.”
Another metric measured in the Republican-leaning seat were voters’ thoughts on President Donald Trump, who came in underwater 40-49 percent. Asked about the proposed border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, 40 percent said they supported it while 45 percent were opposed.
Broken down by age, Carlson carries Millennials by a 37-point margin and Gen Xers by a touchdown, while Spano holds a 20-point lead among the 50- to 64-year-old demographic and a 13-point lead among those older than 65. By gender, Carlson leads women 57-39 percent while Spano leads men 63-31 percent.
Bold Blue Campaigns said Trump’s numbers, and the wall’s, sank below that level among Independents, Democrats and women, while registered Republicans and men buoyed the score.
The CD 15 race was also recently called out by prominent political forecasting website FiveThirtyEight, which gave Carlson a solid chance to flip the seat.
“It’s an R+13 district, but Republican incumbent Dennis Ross is retiring, and Democratic candidate Kristen Carlson has raised almost double the individual contributions that Republican Ross Spano has,” FiveThirtyEight analyst Nathaniel Rakish noted. “Carlson likewise has a 1 in 4 chance of winning.”
Other forecasters, including the Cook Report and Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, have also moved the seat out of the “safe Republican” column. Sabato’s “Crystal Ball” website rates CD 15 as a “leans Republican” while Cook has done the same.
When it comes to the top of the ticket, the CD 15 electorate prefers Republican gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis over Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum by a single point, 42-41, while current Gov. Rick Scott leads incumbent Bill Nelson 44-42 percent in the U.S. Senate race.
Additionally, Republican nominee Ashley Moody held a 6-point lead over Democratic state Rep. Sean Shaw in the Attorney General race, while it was Democrat Nikki Fried who was on top in the Agriculture Commissioner showdown. He held a 47-43 percent lead over state Rep. Matt Caldwell.
The latter result shows a similar margin to a recently released poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, where Fried led Caldwell by 42-37 percent statewide. The same poll found Shaw up by a basket in the Attorney General race; sitting CFO Jimmy Patronis and former Democratic Sen. Jeremy Ring tied in the Chief Financial Officer race; and Gillum
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On March 20, 2000, armed renegades cold-bloodedly murdered 35 Sikh men in Chitti Singhpora village in South Kashmir on the eve of US President Bill Clinton’s visit to India. A “micro-minority” in Kashmir, the violence was a first for the Sikh community, who have lived for generations alongside their Muslim counterparts in harmony in the Valley.
Although the reasons behind the violence and the identity of the perpetrators remain shrouded in mystery, Kashmiris — both Muslim and Sikh — believe that its intent was to create communal fault lines and drive out the Sikh community. Yet, 19 years later, as they still await justice, the Sikhs have stayed on.
As India debates the recent abrogation of Article 370 and the conversion of J&K into a Union Territory, one of the most resounding justifications for this unconstitutional move by the Modi government has been the correction of a historical wrong — the exodus of Kashmir’s other minority community, the Kashmiri Pandits, who left the Valley overnight in January 1990, following violent threats made against Kashmiri minorities.
While shameful and unjust, the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits is not a unique outcome of identity-based violence — violence targeting a particular community on the lines of ethnicity or religion; in India it is, in fact, the norm. Whether one looks at Nellie (Assam), Delhi, Ahmedabad, or Muzaffarnagar (UP), identity-driven conflicts almost always lead to displacement of the violated community. Given this, why is the Kashmiri Sikh case different? How do we understand Kashmiri Sikhs’ decision to continue living in Kashmir?
Now, more than ever, this is an important question to ask, in order to challenge the communal narratives accompanying the Pandit exodus and Kashmiris’ struggle for self-determination, and that one hears resonated in the celebrations following abrogation of Article 370.
Using evidence from ethnographic fieldwork completed between March and October 2018, I show that the decision to stay in the Sikh case is driven by a combination of economic necessity, attachment to land, and distrust of India. Furthermore, while harm from violence is a general concern, religious persecution is categorically stated as a non-issue. Despite violence, Sikhs and Muslims continue to cohabit neighbourhoods in close proximity to one another.
The Sikhs of Kashmir
A microcosm of India’s famous “unity in diversity,” the Valley is home to several distinct religious and ethnic communities. While Muslims comprise around 96 per cent of its population, Hindus comprise 2.5 per cent and Sikhs a mere 1 per cent. Predominantly an agrarian community, Sikh households own anywhere between 5-180 kanals (0.5-22.5 acres) of land, on which they grow rice, beans, and vegetables (non-cash crops) in addition to apple orchards and walnut trees (cash crops).
The largest of 14 Sikh villages in Anantnag district in South Kashmir, Chitti Singhpora is home to around 400 Sikh households, which form its core, and 30-40 Muslim households, which live along its peripheries.
Never before the target of violence, the Chitti Singhpora attack came as a shock to Sikhs and Muslims alike in the Valley. Believing they were finally the target of militants, Sikh community leaders deliberated migrating en masse like their Pandit counterparts in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.
But 19 years on, with hopes for justice fading and violence on the rise again, the majority of the community still remains rooted because economic prospects outside Kashmir, for a community whose main source of income is its land, are dim. Harjant Singh, a government worker in his fifties, says: “Assi kyun rahe ethe? Saddi compulsion hai… zameena” (Why did we stay here? We are bound…by our land). Pashaura Singh, a young officer in the Finance department, too, explains that Sikh rootedness comes down to two things — land and government jobs. Almost all urban Sikh families have at least one government “mulazim” (employee), making leaving an unfavourable option.
Although several families have sold small parcels of land to buy property in the adjoining Jammu region to construct housing if things get too bad, many Sikhs don’t perceive a personal threat from the insurgency. Sikhs insist that it is not religious persecution, but the economic distress resulting from the violence and the frequent shutdowns in the Valley, that will eventually make them leave.
Gurpal Singh, a 35-year-old engineer who works as a primary school teacher because engineering positions are hard to come by, and has two young school-age daughters, clarifies, “Jad tak twada income source nahi mile
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Robocalls are the target of the TRACED Act newly introduced in the Senate by Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) Among other things, the bill would require voice service providers to adopt call authentication technology.
The TRACED Act, also known as the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, was originally introduced last year in the previous Congress.
TRACED Act
Other provisions of the act include:
Broadening the FCC’s authority to levy civil penalties of up to $10,000 per call on callers who intentionally flout telemarketing restrictions
Extending the window for the FCC to catch and take civil enforcement action against intentional violations to three years after a robocall is placed – a substantial increase from the current one-year window
Requiring a range of entities to identify and report to Congress on improving deterrence and criminal prosecution of robocall scams. Entities referenced in a press release about the TRACED Act include the Department of Justice, FCC, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Commerce, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and “other relevant federal agencies, as well as state attorneys”
Directing the FCC to initiate a rulemaking to help protect subscribers from receiving unwanted calls or texts
As for the voice provider requirements, the bill introduced last year that has now been re-introduced would require voice providers to implement an appropriate and effective call authentication framework in their internet protocol networks within 18 months of the bill’s enactment. The FCC would have the option of granting an extension for providers that demonstrate substantial hardship in purchasing or upgrading equipment to support call authentication.
Rising Robocalls
The FCC has taken a range of enforcement against robocallers recently, including levying its largest-ever robocall fine of $120 million last year.
Nevertheless, a robocall index compiled by robocall blocking software provider YouMail shows that robocalls increased dramatically during 2018.
Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO of USTelecom, which represents large and small telecom service providers nationwide, praised the TRACED Act. In a prepared statement, he noted that USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group has worked to identify the sources of suspicious network traffic and to expose illegal robocallers that spoof caller information and scam customers.
“The TRACED Act emphasizes the importance of reintroducing trust to the caller ID framework and heightens federal enforcement efforts to crack down on the robocall plague,” said Spalter.
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The Western Indoor Soccer League completed a first month of action on Saturday and the only thing decided so far is that everything is very – undecided.
Bellingham United looks good to make the 4-team playoff format as they lead the table with 9 points after a convincing 10-2 blowout over Oly Town FC at the Sportsplex.
In Everett it was Sporting making a jumble of the standings as they jumped up to third place with a big 9-5 win over the Olympic Force. It was Sporting’s first “W” of the season.
The WISL playoffs will feature the top four clubs. It seems very likely that it will take all of the remaining matches to separate the pack.
(Cover photo: Michael Landon / WISLnews.com)
Join us at 7:30 Saturday 12/17 for our second home match of the season vs Snohomish Skyhawks @Tacomasoccer center #buildingthefurture pic.twitter.com/3MLBX1OvEg — Tacoma Stars Reserve (@TacStarsReserve) December 15, 2016
This Weekend’s Matches
All six WISL clubs are in action on Saturday December 17. The Oly Town Artesians host Sporting Everett FC (preview) at 6 PM at the Pavilion on the campus of The Evergreen State College. The Olympic Force host defending champions Bellingham United at 7:30 PM at the Olympic Sports Center in Bremerton in a rematch of last year’s Final. The Tacoma Stars Reserves host the Snohomish Skyhawks at 7:30 PM at the Tacoma Soccer Center.
The Artesians host @SportingEverett on Saturday night. Here is everything you should know about Saturday night's huge game. @smithlm12 pic.twitter.com/N38iYFidMw — Oly Town Artesians ⚽ (@OlyTownFC) December 14, 2016
WESTERN INDOOR SOCCER LEAGUE STANDINGS 2016-17
(Updated through matches played December 10, 2016)
Club Points Wins Losses Ties GF GA Goal + / – BELLINGHAM UNITED 9 3 1 0 26 19 +7 TACOMA STARS RESERVES 6 2 1 0 21 14 +7 SPORTING EVERETT 4 1 2 1 28 26 +2 OLY TOWN ARTESIANS 4 1 1 1 19 23 -4 OLYMPIC FORCE 3 1 2 0 22 22 0 SNOHOMISH SKYHAWKS 3 1 2 0 13 25 -12
Recaps for the weekend of December 10
Bellingham United-10 Oly Town Artesians-2
BELLINGHAM, WA— The Hammers (3-1-0) broke away after an even first quarter to blast the Artesians (1-1-1) at the Sportsplex.
It was 1-1 after the first quarter but then BUFC went on a spree outscoring Oly Town 9-1 the rest of the way.
Oscar Jimenez scored three goals and added 3 assists for the Hammers. Richard Henderson matched with 3 goals of his own.
Bellingham United goals: Oscar Jimenez (3), Richard Henderson (3), Chris Jepson (2), Brady Ulen, Brendan Quilici.
Oly Town Artesian goals: Nate Boatright, Luke Chouinard.
Sporting Everett-9 Olympic Force-5
EVERETT, WA—Sporting Everett (1-2-1) got their first win of the season and in the process jumped right back into the playoff race at Everett Soccer Arena.
Lucas Dourado and Kevin Shull each scored twice to lead Sporting. Dourado also had two assists. Everett got a 3-assist performance from Guillermo Rodriguez.
The Force (1-2-0) countered with braces from David Meherg and Enrique Hidalgo.
Sporting Everett goals: Devin Shull (2), Lucas Dourado (2), Zac Crutchfield, Danny Graham, Gustavo Rodrigues, Guillermo Rodrigues, Coery Hendrickson.
Olympic Force goals: Enrique Hidalgo (2), David Meherg (2), Gustavo Bermudez.
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Fabio Cardoni is a man after our own hearts. “Steel is more beautiful than plastic, and simplicity is more appealing than complexity,” he says.
Sig. Cardoni runs The Black Douglas Motorcycle Company, which makes the vintage-styled machine you see here. Called the Sterling, it’s the two-wheeled equivalent of a Morgan car: a coachbuilt vehicle with the charisma and craftsmanship of a bygone age.
Regular readers may recall that we covered Black Douglas a couple of years ago. We’re revisiting the company because the Sterling has been developed into a significantly better bike, and there’s now a dealership network on the way.
There are already showrooms in the UK and Italy, with Germany and Austria set to open soon. Australia is next in the queue, and there’s a kit version of the Sterling available for the USA.
To develop the Black Douglas, Cardoni brought on board a prototyping company owned by an engineer well known to both Ducati Corse and Yamaha Motorsport. Together, they’ve ‘industrialized’ the Sterling for production, creating the Mark 5 version.
“It was difficult and expensive,” says Cardoni, “but also fun. Especially when you’re trying to convince a racebike specialist that you need a girder fork.” The forks are no longer bought in from an outside supplier: they’re hand-made from 7075-aluminum alloy, and individually machined on lathes.
They’re also a little shorter, with one degree less rake to sharpen the steering response. And there’s now a discreet adjustable shock absorber that improves the movement of the forks.
The tank is built using ‘Peraluman’ alloy, bent and welded into shape. You get a choice of two engines: a 125 and a 230, with a 400 on the way. The engine components are produced in Taiwan but assembled in the Italian factory.
The other upgrades are mostly in the detail—improving build quality and the riding experience. The tires are slightly chunkier, the seats are handmade in-house, and the electrical wiring is wrapped in cotton, vintage-style.
The exhaust is now catalyzed, and the Black Douglas has passed homologation tests in Europe. “We can now stamp our own frame numbers, and offer a two-year warranty,” says Cardoni.
Right now, he’s working on homologation for Australia and Japan. Next will be EPA compliance, so that built-up bikes can be sold in the USA.
“We’re also working on a wicker wood sidecar and other extras such as different handlebars, headlights, seats, fuel caps and more,” says Cardoni. Also on the slate is an Italian designed and built 350cc engine, which will equip a premium model to be called the Sterling Imperial.
We’d happily take the current Mk 5 Sterling, though. Tipping the scales at just over 100 kilos, it’s considerably lighter than its predecessor, it brakes better, and the riding experience is smoother.
Prices start at €4500 (around US$5,000) for the kit bike, or €8750 (US$9,600) plus taxes for a fully built-up machine.
That’s the kind of money some folks pay out to modify a stock bike. The Black Douglas order book is full for the next couple of months, and we’re not surprised.
Now, where did we put those plus-fours?
The Black Douglas Motorcycle Co. website | Facebook | Instagram
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TAMPA — The Florida Department of Transportation has committed $1 million to help City Hall figure out how to expand Tampa's underused and underfunded downtown streetcar.
"We've got to fix the streetcar," Mayor Bob Buckhorn said in a recent interview. "We can maintain the status quo for a while. The larger issue is, what do we do with it? What are the future expansion plans? What's the route? How do you pay for it?"
Those questions have gained urgency because of Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik's $1 billion planned redevelopment around Amalie Arena. Vinik's development team has been working with the city on potential changes to the streetcar in the hope of seeing an expanded trolley line move workers, sports fans and residents around downtown.
Vinik's plans elevate the streetcar's potential and create what Buckhorn calls "a rare economic opportunity."
The FDOT agrees.
"We share your viewpoint that a strategic streetcar extension has the potential of being a viable transportation option to support the continuing growth within Tampa's urban core," FDOT District 7 Secretary Paul Steinman said in a letter delivered last week.
Buckhorn said the city will put in $250,000 for a jointly funded feasibility study.
The study will consider extending the streetcar's route north to Tampa Heights. The city and state have to focus the study's goals and agree on its schedule, but officials expect it to address construction and operating costs, ridership projections, environmental impacts and the streetcar's potential to stimulate development along the route.
"The route is critical," Buckhorn said. "The route will dictate what the cost is."
The engineering firm HDR has estimated the costs of expanding the streetcar at $30 million to $60 million. That does not include $2.5 million for needed capital maintenance or another $60 million that would be needed to modernize the streetcar.
Buckhorn told Steinman that the city is working to refine the costs and identify both benefits and challenges that go with various alternatives for expansion. That will include pursuing federal funds to aid in construction, city officials said. In the future, Buckhorn anticipates that the city could request state funds to help with the project's capital and operating costs.
"I will try and spread the love," he said. "We can't be asked to bear this entire burden."
The city also expects to ask for the FDOT's help working with CSX railroad on two key issues. One, the city wants to negotiate for a streetcar crossing at Polk Street. Also, the city hopes to end a $400,000 insurance premium the streetcar line must pay every year to maintain a $100 million liability policy required by CSX because the trolley crosses its tracks in Ybor City.
"It's great to hear that they're going to partner with the city on this," said mass transit advocate and Hillsborough County Commission candidate Brian Willis, who has criticized the FDOT for pursuing a multibillion plan to add tolled express lanes to the area's interstates instead of focusing on improved bus and other transit options or projects to make roads safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Contact Richard Danielson at [email protected] or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times
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The latest in the long-standing debate over violent video games: They do cause players to become more physically aggressive.
An international study looking at more than 17,000 adolescents, ages nine to 19, from 2010 to 2017, found playing violent video games led to increased physical aggression over time.
The analysis of 24 studies from countries including the U.S., Canada, Germany and Japan found those who played violent games such as "Grand Theft Auto," "Call of Duty" and "Manhunt" were more likely to exhibit behavior such as being sent to the principal's office for fighting or hitting a non-family member.
“Although no single research project is definitive, our research aims to provide the most current and compelling responses to key criticisms on this topic," said Jay Hull, lead author of the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Based on our findings, we feel it is clear that violent video game play is associated with subsequent increases in physical aggression," said Hull, associate dean of faculty for the social sciences at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and the Dartmouth Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
Video game violence has been a hot-button issue for more than a decade. Interest in research on video games' potential for violence increased after it was learned Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two teenagers who committed the Columbine High School shooting, played the first-person shooting computer game "Doom."
But in a 2011 Supreme Court decision overturning California's ban on the sale of violent video games to minors, the late Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed a link between the games and aggression. "These studies have been rejected by every court to consider them, and with good reason: They do not prove that violent video games cause minors to act aggressively," he wrote in the majority opinion.
Since then, an American Psychological Association task force report in 2015 found a link between violent video games and increased aggression in players but insufficient evidence that violent games lead to criminal violence.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump convened a video game summit a month after the February shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Prior to that meeting, Trump said, "I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts."
The Dartmouth researchers sought to reduce confusion about research findings – including disputes about the association between violent games and aggression – with a finely structured meta-analysis.
Those in the study who played violent games, whether frequently or infrequently, had an increase risk of aggressive behavior. The new research echoes Hull's previous finding that playing violent games equates to about twice the risk of being sent to the principal’s office for fighting during an eight-month period, he said. A separate 2014 study he oversaw of violent video games in 2,000 families is one of the 24 included in the meta-analysis.
The effect is "relatively small, but statistically reliable. The effect does exist," Hull said.
While there's not research suggesting violent video games lead to criminal behavior, Hull's previous research suggests players may practice riskier behaviors such as reckless driving, binge drinking, smoking and unsafe sex.
"A lot of people ask, do these games really cause these kids to behave aggressively? I would say that is one possibility," he said. "The other possibility is that it's a really bad sign. If your kids are playing these games, either these games are having a warping effect on right and wrong or they have a warped sense of right or wrong and that’s why they are attracted to these games. Either way you should be concerned about it."
In the research paper, Hull and the co-authors say they hope the findings will help research move "past the question of whether violent video games increase aggressive behavior, and toward questions regarding why, when, and for whom they have such effects."
Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.
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The most time consuming 18 November 2019
Hiking Mount Takigoyama from Sasago station Today I took a 2 hour train ride to Sasago station on the Chuo line, and once again, hiked the wrong way up a mountain. I did not see a single oth....
Dam dirty and noisy hike 16 November 2019
From Okutama station to Mount Gozenyama to Lake Okutama Dont let the above title fool you. Today was an excellent hike. Lots and lots of photos so I wont type too much here. I say than often then type a....
No ice just blue skies 13 November 2019
Climbing Mount Bandai from Inawashiro station Today was the longest hike of the trip so far. Unless I get lost somewhere on my 3 remaining hiking days, it will likely remain the longest hike o....
Repeat visit 11 November 2019
Omoshiroyamakogen canyon to Yamadera shrine I have been here before and done exactly this journey before. Top tip for using my site, click the search thing and click the tag for the name of....
Ice capades on magic mountain 10 November 2019
Climbing Mount Zao without the cable car There will be no crater lake photo. There will be lots of photos of ice, lots and lots of ice. It is hard to photograph the wind, but I think you....
Fast run up an icy mountain 6 November 2019
From Doai station to Mount Tanigawa and back in 4.5 hours Lots and lots of photos today, so I will do most of my boring nonsense dribbling with the photos. In summary, today was one of my best hikes ever....
A walk in the volcano park 3 November 2019
Mount Akagi daytrip from Takasaki Its the second day of a three day weekend here in Japan, and people are daytripping all over the place. So I decided to go to a very popular spot.....
Au naturale hiking trail 1 November 2019
Mount Takahata and Mount Kuratake from Torisawa to Yanagawa stations SPLENDIFEROUS weather. No wind, no cloud, forecast max of 21C. You know what that means. Todays hike was out on the Chuo line. This line was badl....
Three peak party 30 October 2019
Climbing three mountains near Mitake including Iwatakeishiyama Awesome weather, lets get hiking! Todays hike started from Mitake, the main village up the very picturesque and familiar to me Ome line. Most peop....
Expensive trip to small mountain 28 October 2019
Daytrip to hike Mount Tsukuba using public transport Today I went to the second most popular mountain near Tokyo, Tsukuba. Strangely I have not been here before, I thought I had, but my memory was wr....
There is no traffic in London 13 July 2019
The area north of Kings Cross is now completely gentrified Like the title says, the first thing I noticed tonight, no traffic. The daily consumption tax thing for crossing the red line and entering the cit....
Palatial botany 7 July 2019
Palais de Versaille / Palace of Versailles - France On previous trips I have been to the eyefull tower, I have been to the champs a lease a and I have been to the arch of trump. I had not been to th....
Looking down on the airport 24 April 2019
Hiking up and over sunset peak from Tung Chung station Last full day in Hong Kong. Last opportunity for a hike. Good weather. No jokes no tangents no segue, lets get going. Shit too late, until just no....
Surprise waterless hike 14 April 2019
Hiking from Nathan Road up Beacon Hill over Lion Rock and back again It was supposed to be pouring with rain all day. I got up and peered out the window, it looked like any other rainy day. I went outside thinking I....
Seven and a half years later 9 April 2019
Hiking over wonderful Gwanaksan from Sadang station So, 7.5 years ago I came to Korea, and climbed over Gwanaksan. You can find that by looking at my old trip report from 2011, ALL MY CONTENT IS ALL....
Fog shots 5 April 2019
Taking the bus to Gyeryongsan national park to go hiking ini the fog Today I spent many hours hiking in fog. The actual place was called Gyeryongsan national park, which is located a short bus ride to the west of do....
The first of many identical mountains 1 April 2019
Hiking Suraksan via Danggogae subway station YESSSSS!!! Today I get to upload about 1000 almost identical over sharpened over saturated photographs of brown mountains with
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Save Saved Removed 0
Should we focus on stopping the root causes of climate change or start adapting to the new reality? Energy storage does both.
Increased Severity and Frequency of Extreme Weather
“Global warming is contributing to an increased incidence of extreme weather because the environment in which all storms form has changed from human activities.” Kevin Trenberth - U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research
Solar panel owners had another reminder this weekend that without energy storage they are as vulnerable to power outages as everyone else. This past weekend, over 100,000 people lost power in The Bahamas, North Carolina, and Georgia. This ‘once-in-1,000-year-storm’ overlapped with ‘unprecedented’ rain events killing 20 people in the French Riviera and 152 outside of Guatemala City.
These extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe. Warmer air holds more water vapor, and warmer seas fuel tropical storms with more energy. This extra heat energy can be at least partially linked to the generation of electricity via fossil fuels.
Warmer Air Can Hold A Lot More Water Vapor
7% The additional water vapor that the atmosphere can hold with each 1° (C) of temperature rise.
4% The increased water vapor over the oceans compared to 30 years ago.
CO2 Reductions Depend on Energy Storage
Over the next few months, over 190 countries are meeting in Paris to commit to lofty goals to reduce or eliminate their CO2 emissions. Their ability to achieve these goals (and beyond) without going bankrupt, and the ability for communities to be resilient during extreme weather events both depend on the technologies, business models, and partnerships being discussed at the Energy Storage North America Expo (ESNA) in San Diego next week. Advancing and deploying energy storage technologies is essential to tackle climate change and build resilient communities.
Energy storage can offer resiliency and limitless clean energy
Whatever the cause, maintaining power during widespread power outages can be extremely valuable. UCSD, seen as a model for microgrid resiliency has an electron microscope that takes six weeks to recalibrate. For the rest of us, the ability to keep critical services, hospitals, and water treatment facilities operating during power blackouts can be the difference between life and death.
Energy storage is also addressing the achilles heel of variable renewable energy sources like solar PV and wind turbines. They are now among the cheapest energy sources available, but they are not dispatchable resources. In other words, they make energy when the wind blows and the sun shines, not necessarily when it’s needed. But energy storage has the potential to shift that mismatch and free the technologies from perceived limitations.
Elon Musk can be credited with bringing the idea of solar plus battery storage to the mainstream. Over 3 million people have watched the product launch of Tesla’s Powerwall. Using variability as an excuse for not adopting renewable energy is increasingly be met by skepticism.
The potential for energy storage to fundamentally change the way humans interact with energy doesn’t end at the grid. “There isn’t an energy demand on earth that can’t be met by renewable energy, improved efficiency, and cheap energy storage” says Jake Scherer at SolarRenter pointing us to battery powered airplanes to demonstrate his point.
The stakes are high for Utilities
Electric utilities have a lot to gain and everything to loose from energy storage. Between the Clean Power Plan and Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), utilities are being incentivized and required to adopt clean energy from multiple angles. Many utilities initially reacted to renewable energy and batteries as more of a threat than an opportunity, and some are still lobbying against distributed solar adoption. There’s no question that renewable energy does represent a threat to traditional business models of utilities, but that’s not the whole story.
With thoughtful use of energy storage, utilities are finding energy storage can save money by reducing the need for peaking generators, reducing the need to upgrade overloaded transmission lines, and increasing the amount of cheap solar and wind energy on the grid. Best practices for utility adoption of energy storage will be the primary topic at ESNA.
Other hot topics at ESNA will be the utilities’ role in encouraging and enabling electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are increasingly being viewed as a major potential revenue stream for utilities, who could loose revenue streams from distributed solar, batteries, and energy efficiency.
It is appropriate that the event is taking place in California where the state has plans for 1.325 GW of energy storage. ESNA will bring together a panel with representatives from SDG&E, SCE, and PG&E to discuss lessons learned from the first 350 MW of procurement. With such high targets, it’s no surprise that California is home to no fewer than ten leading startup companies in energy storage.
There is some
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Summary
Project name: Celsius
Token symbol: CEL
Website: https://celsius.network/
White paper: https://celsius.network/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/WHITEPAPER.pdf
Hard cap: $50 million (ICO Participants receive 50% of total token supply)
Conversion rate: 1 CEL= $0.30
Maximum market cap at ICO on a fully diluted basis: $100 million
Bonus structure: Pre-sale price = $0.20 per CEL, additionally: 0 - $5 mil 40% bonus (sold out) / $5 mil - $10 mil = 35% bonus (sold out) /
$10 mil - $15 mil = 30% bonus (sold out) / $15 mil - $35 mil = 20% bonus / $35 mil+ = $0.20 per CEL
$10 mil - $15 mil = 30% bonus (sold out) / $15 mil - $35 mil = 20% bonus / $35 mil+ = $0.20 per CEL Presale or white list: Presale ongoing, whitelist open
ERC20 token: Yes
Countries excluded: Must be accredited investor for USA
Timeline: Pre-sale ending & crowdsale starting March 15, 2018 (Please refer to Celsius Network’s website for the most up-to-date information)
Token distribution date: Within two weeks after end of crowdsale
Video summary (video is 6: 35 long):
Project Overview
What does the company/project do?
Celsius Network aims to build a platform where traditional financial institutions no longer control the flow of credit to people across the globe, and lenders can earn interest regardless of their base currency or their local laws.
This platform will utilize a consensus-based, proof-of-stake approach to allow the community to borrow, lend, and vouch for each other in a self-governed ecosystem.
The core of the project will be the implementation of the Celsius Wallet. This is a crypto wallet designed to allow members to use coins as collateral to get loans in dollars. The goal is to allow anyone in need of cash to borrow from the Celsius platform without having to sell their crypto holdings.
In the future, functionality will be added to allow users to lend their crypto and earn interest on deposited coins. Coins that are lent from member wallets will accrue interest in CEL tokens, allowing members to earn up to 9% annual interest per transaction.
A diagram representing the network functions is shown below:
How advanced is the project?
The Celsius concept and initial team were formed in Q2 2017. In January 2018, the team released the beta version of their mobile wallet and trader app.
Celsius Network has a partnership with MicroMoney.io, a mobile app with a similar business model. The partnership will hope to use the Celsius Network to expand the credit limits of loans issued to over 100,000 existing MicroMoney customers worldwide.
In April 2018, dollar borrowing against crypto collateral will be enabled.
The team plans to launch the Celsius margin-trading platform beta in November 2018.
For 2019, the only plans listed are to scale up the community and expand to decentralized coin markets.
What are the tokens used for and how can token value appreciate?
CEL token is a utility token that is rewarded to crypto holders in the Celsius Wallet as interest generated from fees.
These fees will come from institutional traders, and will automatically be converted from fiat to CEL tokens, then distributed to the lenders’ wallets daily. Fees will be assessed when a margin trade is placed, and commission will be taken as long as the trade remains open.
After the tokens are issued in April, CEL holders will be able to apply for and receive dollar loans against their crypto holdings.
In addition, users who accept loans will have the option to pay interest in CEL tokens at a discounted rate.
In theory, as more people use the Celsius network, there will be a higher demand for CEL tokens and the value should increase.
Download the Free Checklist for Crushing ICOs! This is the guide that help me find the most promising ICOs! CLICK HERE TO GET THE FREE GUIDE >>
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Team
Celsius was founded in 2017, and since then the team has grown to 30+ members. They operate out of Israel, Serbia, and Germany.
The biographies of key team members are listed below:
Alex Mashinsky, CEO – Alex is one of the inventors of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), and has 35 patents issued to
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From The Guardian:
Boston public schools map switch aims to amend 500 years of distortion A district will drop the Mercator projection, which physically diminished Africa and South America, for the Peters, which cut the developed world down to size The Gall-Peters projection, which shows land masses in their correct proportions by area, puts the relative sizes of Africa and North America in perspective. When Boston public schools introduced a new standard map of the world this week, some young students’ felt their jaws drop. In an instant, their view of the world had changed.
Or they could have looked at the globe in their classroom.
The USA was small. Europe too had suddenly shrunk. Africa and South America appeared narrower but also much larger than usual. … Mercator’s distortions affect continents as well as nations. For example, South America is made to look about the same size as Europe, when in fact it is almost twice as large, and Greenland looks roughly the size of Africa when it is actually about 14 times smaller. Alaska looks bigger than Mexico and Germany is in the middle of the picture, not to the north – because Mercator moved the equator. Three days ago, Boston’s public schools began phasing in the lesser-known Peters projection, which cuts the US, Britain and the rest of Europe down to size. … “This is the start of a three-year effort to decolonize the curriculum in our public schools,” said Colin Rose, assistant superintendent of opportunity and achievement gaps for Boston public schools.
Yup, that’s his job title. Here’s the press release announcing his hiring:
Colin Rose has been appointed Assistant Superintendent of Opportunity and Achievement Gaps for the Boston Public Schools. In his new role, Rose will attack cultural and structural barriers and promote culturally sustaining practices enabling traditionally marginalized students to engage in rigorous curriculums and pedagogy in Boston’s schools, thus creating opportunity and access they need to close performance gaps.
Back to The Guardian:
The district has 125 schools and 57,000 students, 86% of whom are non-white, with the largest groups being Latino and black. After changing the maps, Rose said, educators plan to look at other subjects and shift away from presenting white history as the dominant perspective…. The respective merits of the Mercator and the Peters maps have long been debated. A spirited discussion about their implications even featured on an episode of the West Wing, in which characters argued for the Peters map to be used in US public schools and told the administration the Mercator projection had “fostered European imperialist attitudes for centuries”, creating an “ethical bias” for “western civilization” against the developing world.
Curriculum chiefs consulted map experts at the Boston public library and were directed to ODT, a company in Amherst, Massachusetts, that is the exclusive North American publisher of Peters projection maps.
Can’t get much more multicultural than Amherst, MA.
It doesn’t seem to occur to anybody involved that the Peters Projection demonstrates how there is plenty of land in Africa for Africans and plenty of land in Latin America for Latinos.
So it doesn’t make much sense for African and Latino migrants to overrun the smaller lands of the North.
Are the woke folk really that dumb that they don’t notice this?
Yes.
By the way, why is Boston still in thrall to Northern Supremacism?
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Timmins Public Library has reversed a decision that only allowed boys to participate in a robotics summer program after a nine-year-old girl started an online petition.
When nine-year-old Cash Cayen tried to sign up for a summer robotics session at the Timmins Public Library, she was told it was for boys only.
So, with the help of her mom, she started a Change.org petition asking the library to let girls participate too — and it worked thanks to the public's support.
“She will be allowed in the program, as will any others wishing to take part,” Timmins Mayor Steven Black told Yahoo Canada News.
The controversy began when Cash, an avid participant in local library activities, tried to sign up for a July 20 robotics event, but was turned away because of her gender.
The library's summer newsletter describes the event, hosted by Science Timmins, as "Robotics For Boys ONLY!"
“Even after speaking to the Assistant Library Director Elaine De Bonis, where I explained that I have been participating in library programming since I was only a few months old I was still turned away,” she explained in her Change.org petition, which netted more than 9,000 signatures by Thursday afternoon.
Cash said De Bonis told her the program would only be offered to boys because their "academic and literacy skills don't improve over the summer break."
"I explained that it was unfair that I was being denied this opportunity simply because I am a girl, but she insisted I could not register," she said in her petition.
De Bonis did not comment on the issue, but the library’s board of trustees’ chair Michael Doody issued a statement Thursday changing its mind.
"The Timmins Public Library Board and staff wish to apologize to the public and Science Timmins for the misunderstanding related to the Robotics event which was designed to encourage improved literacy through reading," Doody said.
He said the event will now be open to all children between the ages of nine and 12.
Cash’s mom, Caroline Martel, told Yahoo Canada News she’s happy for the victory, but she still takes issue with Doody's statement.
“We are happy that they are opening it up to everyone, but this was not a misunderstanding. It was gender discrimination. I am disappointed that no one thought to apologize to my daughter, but that they have no problem naming and apologizing to Science Timmins and the public," she said in an email.
She said the library is just doing "damage control," and that CEO Carole-Ann Churcher called her at home Wednesday and asked her to take the petition down. She refused.
“I feel like the Timmins Public Library are [sic] not taking accountability for their actions," Martel said. "We need to change the way our society thinks, and we as a society need to send our girls messages of support and encouragement.”
Mayor Black said he will meet with Martel on Monday to discuss the matter.
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NEW YORK — Stevie Nicks, who became the first woman inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Janet Jackson, the latest member of the Jackson clan to enter the hall, called for other women to join them in music immortality on a night they were honored with five all-male British bands.
Jackson issued her challenge just before leaving the stage of Brooklyn's Barclays Center. "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," she said, "in 2020, induct more women."
Neither Jackson or Nicks were around at the end of the evening when another Brit, Ian Hunter, led an all-star jam at the end to "All the Young Dudes." The Bangles' Susanna Hoffs was the only woman onstage.
The 2019 list of inductees was largely dominated by British artists, featuring bands such as The Zombies, Roxy Music, Def Leppard and Radiohead, who did not perform during the show.
Jackson followed her brothers Michael and the Jackson 5 as inductees. She said she wanted to go to college and become a lawyer growing up, but her late father Joe had other ideas for her.
"As the youngest in my family, I was determined to make it on my own," she said. "I was determined to stand on my own two feet. But never in a million years did I expect to follow in their footsteps."
She encouraged Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, producers of her breakthrough "Control" album and most of her vast catalog, to stand in Brooklyn's Barclays Center for recognition, as well as booster Questlove. She thanked Dick Clark of "American Bandstand" and Don Cornelius of "Soul Train," along with her choreographers including Paula Abdul.
There was some potential for awkward vibes Friday, since the event was being filmed to air on HBO on April 27. HBO angered the Jackson family this winter for showing the documentary "Leaving Neverland," about two men who alleged Michael Jackson abused them when they were boys. Jackson never mentioned Michael specifically in her remarks but thanked her brothers, and he was shown on screen with the rest of the family.
Jackson was inducted by an enthusiastic Janelle Monae, whose black hat and black leather recalled some of her hero's past stage looks. She said Jackson had been her phone's screen-saver for years as a reminder to be focused and fearless in how she approached art.
Nicks was the night's first induction. She is already a member of the hall as a member of Fleetwood Mac, but only the first woman to join 22 men — including all four Beatles members — to have been honored twice by the rock hall for the different stages of their career.
Nicks offered women a blueprint for success, telling them her trepidation in first recording a solo album while a member of Fleetwood Mac and encouraging others to match her feat.
"I know there is somebody out there who will be able to do it," she said, promising to talk often of how she built her solo career. "What I am doing is opening up the door for other women."
During her four-song set, she brought onstage a cape she bought in 1983 to prove to her "very frugal" late mother that it was still in good shape, and worth its $3,000 price tag. Don Henley joined her to sing "Leather and Lace," while Harry Styles filled in for the late Tom Petty on "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around."
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Each year on May 22nd, the United States celebrates National Maritime Day, an observance of the contributions of the men and women of the U.S. merchant marine, as well as the U.S. maritime industry and the benefits it brings to the country in terms of transportation, jobs, goods, recreation and national security.
The date May 22 is significant because in 1819 the SS Savannah departed on the first successful voyage by a steam-powered ship across the Atlantic, quietly sparking a new age of maritime travel and transport.
First declared so by Congress in 1933, National Maritime Day took on a special significance in World War II when the United States Merchant Marine answered the call and transported necessary supplies and services to troops abroad, all while suffering an extraordinarily high casualty rate.
So today, let’s all pause to honor the U.S. Merchant Marine – past and present – and give thanks for the vital role they play in our society.
For National Maritime Observance events, you’ll have to check your local listings.
Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro unloaded – once again – on President Trump during a brief appearance Friday at the Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C.
De Niro has been an outspoken opponent of Trump. In December, the 75-year-old actor told CNN that Trump's tenure in the White House will be "one of those things" that people will look back on years from now and recall, "Remember all that stuff, how terrible it was?"
GRAPHIC LANGUAGE ALERT
De Niro told the audience on Friday that he stood with host Samantha Bee to support the First Amendment, and “the right of the president to be a relentless and unrepentant, lying scumbag, the right of his supporters to not give a shit, and our right to do something about it.”
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The “Raging Bull” actor has said he considers it his civic duty to call out the president.
CLEVELAND—Immediately following the highly anticipated announcement that he will be returning to the Cavaliers, NBA superstar LeBron James boldly guaranteed that Cleveland will win numerous regular season games, sources confirmed Friday. “It’s not going to be easy, but I can personally assure you that the Cavs will win multiple games now that I’m back home,” the 4-time NBA MVP and Akron, Ohio native told reporters, claiming that putting together as many as four or five regular season wins for the franchise was “more than just a possibility.” “Just look at the team we’ve got: Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Anderson Varejao, and now me. With a squad like that, you know we’re going to be seeing quite a few wins come October. That’s what the people of Cleveland deserve.” James added that, provided everything falls into place for the team, he could even see the Cavaliers putting together back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals losses.
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arenka have helped push the WTA to treat pregnancy more like the life-altering event it is. Rules implemented for this season allow women who take 52 weeks or more off to use their previous ranking in a dozen tournaments over three seasons. It is a win-win, not only on the respect front, but also because it boosts the chances that stars like Williams and Azarenka will stick around longer in tournaments.
Their sponsor, Nike, recently altered its maternity-related policies after coming under pressure after New York Times stories featured U.S. track and field stars Allyson Felix, Alysia Montano and Kara Goucher. Nike has since pledged to eliminate financial penalties incurred if a woman chooses not to compete while pregnant, or in the near aftermath.
Williams has been prominent in the company's female-empowerment ad campaigns.
"I'm glad that statement was made, and I know going forward, they're doing better," Williams said. "That's what it's about. It's about learning from mistakes and doing better."
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turns on her and chases her out of the kingdom.
Robert: Just as she’s been afraid of her whole life.
Kristen: And then she has to be all by herself. So there’s this bittersweet thing of leaving everything behind. But also finally getting to let your power out. On the outline, it was labeled…“Elsa’s Badass Song.” I was like, “It’s time to write Elsa’s Badass Song.” It was the dramatic situation that led to that to that kind of song. You couldn’t have her singing something symphonic and classical.
JT: Frozen is obviously a film made for family audiences to see together throughout the holiday season. But cinemas will be offering a lot in that genre this season. Why should families see Frozen, and what do you think it has to offer that’s unique?
Kristen: Holidays can be hard on families. They can bring out…the things that divide us. The way that fear sometimes wins over love. This is about family. And this is about how really owning the love and recognizing the love will always triumph over fear.
Robert: The thing that surprised me most about it, after seeing the whole thing straight through… Was how much there is for different types of people in it… There really is something for everybody. It’s a cliché, but it feels true with this movie. And yet it doesn’t feel like a mixed-bag. It feels like an organic story. And everyone that I’ve talked to who’s seen it so far has had a great time.
people in need.”
“The Liberals and Nationals government that I am part of wants to actually fund more social housing. We want to actually solve the social housing problem.”
Perrottet’s arguments are disingenuous and misleading. If the government really “wants to actually fund more social housing,” why is the funding “off budget” and dependent on the eviction of vulnerable residents and the divestment a public asset?
The government claimed in court that directing the Sirius building to be listed on the State Heritage Register would diminish the sale value of the site by approximately $70 million and this would cause the government to suffer “undue financial hardship.”
But how can the government cry poor when it has just reported a surplus of $2.7 billion in its state budget for 2017-18, with forecast surpluses of at least $1.5 billion each year for the next four years? How can the government cry poor when it has pocketed $1.98 billion in stamp duty revenue in the first quarter of 2017 alone, thanks to having the second most unaffordable housing market in the world? Shouldn’t a fair and just government use some of that revenue to “solve the social housing problem”?
Perrottet’s reasoning is like that of a greedy child throwing a tantrum over an ice-cream cone dropped on the pavement while hoarding a freezer full of Golden Gaytimes.
To borrow the treasurer’s own words: if you need a PhD in economics to understand the government’s funding logic for social housing, then it is clearly not a policy for the people.
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To start, I sympathize with a gold standard, as does Tyler Cowen in a recent article on Bloomberg, but I still have criticisms and think that, in the end, it is not an optimal solution, even for the Rothbardian anarcho-capitalists who wish to see a free market in money. Robert Wenzel writes in a follow-up post his three issues with Cowen on the matter. I won’t cover every aspect of the argument here, but just would like to focus on more fundamental points. First, Wenzel writes,
Gold standards have always put some kind of check on government money printing. This is why governments always attempt to move away from a gold standard. There can certainly be plenty of money printing cheating if a gold standard is not constructed correctly but it is almost always better than a fiat money system unconnected to gold.
The first and third sentences are mostly correct, but the second is telling. If governments always try to remove a gold-based monetary system because it constrains their money printing policies, then why advocate for a gold standard at all since it will eventually be eviscerated and a pure fiat monetary system will reign (unless of course you are an anarcho-capitalist who wishes to see a stateless free market, in which case I will respond below)? Like Bretton Woods, which even Cowen admits had its faults, a gold standard of any kind will tempt a government to prevent market forces from working to eradicate gold outflows, perpetual fiscal deficits, and high inflation. So unless you are a devout Rothbardian who wishes for the complete absence of government in the economy, a gold standard is simply not a good long-term solution for monetary freedom.
Cowen’s call for a nominal GDP rule, on the other hand, is dressed up Keynesianism that can’t possibly work without major eventual Fed-cause economic crises.
There are a few responses to this. First, while I don’t favor the Federal Reserve’s current monetary policy, to say that nominal GDP targeting is inherently Keynesian forgets that the idea predates John Maynard Keynes with thinkers like David Davidson (who debated Knut Wicksell on the matter) and Samuel Bailey in the 19th century proposing similar ideas. In fact, F.A. Hayek favored nominal income targeting in chapter 4 of his book Price and Production (2nd Edition). Would Wenzel, therefore, call Hayek a Keynesian? Most likely not since he endorses Hayek on his view of Keynes’s “Ignorance of Economics.”
Furthermore, according to David Beckworth and Scott Sumner, nominal GDP targeting has a relatively good track record with regards to the performance of modern economies, despite Wenzel’s assertion that it must necessarily cause crises. One example is the Great Moderation (1984-2007) which saw less volatility in the U.S. economy when viewed against previous decades of fiscal deficits, recessions, and stagflation. While there were still mild recessions, inflation was low and growth was steady. While some critics, including Wenzel, point to the financial crisis of 2008 as proof that Greenspan’s monetary policy caused one of the greatest economic crashes in U.S. history, it has been argued by Sumner that the Fed’s policy changed several years before the fall in housing due to fears of deflation, so it is debatable if you can blame NGDP targeting specifically rather than the Fed’s reaction and change in perspective. Again, this is not an endorsement of the Federal Reserve, but a deeper look at the actual mechanisms at play.
Another more important example is Australia, which has not had a recession in almost 30 years (1992), despite it having an accommodating central bank. Its central bank has kept nominal GDP relatively stable for several decades, preventing any significant disequilibrium since adopting such a policy. What would Wenzel’s response to this be? Proponents of a gold standard would need to explain how it is possible for this to happen if they claim that progressive money printing causes the business cycle.
Finally, as I stated above, an anarcho-capitalist society wouldn’t be able to sustain a gold standard, at least the 100% full reserve version as some critics of the Fed propose. There are several reasons for this, but the most important point is the question of how it will be maintained in the eyes of the law. Gary North explains:
Mises believed that the civil government can and should use coercion to compel the honoring of contracts. Rothbard cited this passage as justification for a banking system in which fraud is prohibited. He regarded all fractional reserve banking as fraud. But he invoked Mises’s position at exactly the place in this essay in which he spoke to the issue of how, exactly, 100% reserve banking could be enforced. The key word here is enforced. Mises was crystal clear
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’ are so bound up in their particular circumstances that to bring them together under a single topic risks losing what makes them fascinating.
It is also vital for us to have these discussions. The consequences of the denial of African same-sex love, desire, and relationships is well known. The myth that such things have never existed in Africa and are the result of colonization and evil leads to atrocities every day. Claiming histories of same-sex relationships in Africa prior to colonization is a matter of survival for many LGBTQ Africans today.
So we face a daily conundrum. How can we write about the past in a way that the people who lived it would recognize themselves, while also remaining sensitive to the impact our writing can have today? There are no easy answers here.
***
This is a conversation that no doubt will continue as the present evolves and changes, and in turn, our modern terminology changes too. The questions raised about historical terminology are not just applicable to LGBTQ histories, but also to histories of sexuality more generally. Interrogating the past and questioning how it relates to the present are key roles of the historian, and a critical approach to terminology is central to this.
The distance between historical and contemporary terms for ‘LGBTQ’ can be limiting, in that they make finding such histories difficult, and some terms do not translate across time or contexts. As Jan Pimblett has explained, we must ‘truffle-hound’ the past in order to find LGBTQ histories. In turn, terms we use today to describe same-sex love might not be easily translated in the future.
However, each of the contributors have also shown that historical distance, strategic anachronism, and a critical approach to terminology can also be positive, and open up understandings of same-sex love and gender identity over time, space, and place. Perhaps there isn’t a solution to this; perhaps it isn’t even a ‘problem’. Rather, the complexities of both historical and contemporary terminologies provide us with opportunities to explore distance and resonance across different times and contexts. In turn, we can learn more not only about the historical past, but also about present understandings of ‘LGBTQ’.
Contributors
Elena McGrath is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Wisconsin, whose research explores gender, race, and revolution in 20th century Bolivia.
Diane Watt is Professor of English Literature at the University of Surrey, and her main research interest is gender and sexuality in medieval literature.
Rictor Norton is a prolific social and literary historian, specialising in lesbian and gay history.
Sarah E. Watkins is a historian of gender, sexuality, and power in monarchical Rwanda, and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of African and World History at Colby College.
Editor
Claire Hayward is a public historian, Further Education History Lecturer and researcher for Pride of Place. She recently completed her History PhD at Kingston University, with a thesis on LGBTQ public history. Her main research interests are the histories of gender and sexuality and public history, all of which she blogs about at exploring public histories. She tweets from @HaywardCL.
NOTCHES: (re)marks on the history of sexuality is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at www.notchesblog.com.
For permission to publish any NOTCHES post in whole or in part please contact the editors at [email protected]
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A dozen years ago, Dan Buckle was a middle-aged man who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for more than 30 years.
It was a bad habit he picked up as a teenager growing up in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Now living in Middle Sackville, N.S., he's traded that addiction for another one — running.
Buckle and his wife bought a treadmill for Christmas in 2006. But it wasn't long before Dan was hitting the road.
He had no idea it would lead to the Scotiabank Blue Nose Marathon.
"A friend of mine was doing the 10K in the Blue Nose that year and she said, 'Why don't you come down to the Running Room?'," says Buckle. "So I went down and from that one day I've been hooked ever since."
When he turned 50, Buckle decided he would run 50 kilometres at the Blue Nose to match his age.
Since then he's matched that feat and added one kilometre each year.
At this Sunday's Blue Nose event, he will run 58 kilometres to match his age of 58. A regulation marathon is 42.2 kilometres.
He is planning to run 16 kilometres prior to the start of the race. He intends to arrive at the marathon start line just as the marathon is about to begin.
His own mega-marathon is a team effort. He will be joined by several of his running friends from the Running Room in Bedford.
"There will be a group of us, about six or eight of us, and we'll be running Dan down to the start line," says runner Jennifer Power. "It gets him all warmed up for the full marathon and we have a lot of fun and talk the whole way. We try to be very encouraging because Dan is a real inspiration for us."
Buckle doesn't have a long-term plan to keep running his age but he says he would like to do it for two more years to take him up to age 60.
"It is getting tougher every year and everyone I'm training with they are getting ready to run a marathon, which is 42 kilometres," said Buckle. "I usually get out before them, and also after, to try and tack on a few extra kilometres to build for 58.
Buckle says it will take him close to seven hours to complete his distance.
He says he runs upwards of 2,500 kilometres each year.
Averaging that total over the past nine years, he has put in 20,250 kilometres in training. That equates to nine return trips to Montreal.
"People say I'm crazy but when I turned 50 it was a challenge I put on myself," says Buckle. "I've kept it up all these years and people know now that once I put my mind into something like that, I go through with it."
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The Wild Wild West and first-person shooters are a winning combination, but wait until you experience it in VR. Offering both single and multiplayer modes, Dead and Buried lets you warm up in the shooting gallery or go head-to-head as either a lawman or outlaw.
Best of all, Dead and Buried is free for Touch!
In this second installment of Oculus Touch Tuesdays, Oculus Software Engineer Ryan Rutherford gives us the inside scoop on the making of the first western shooter in VR.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up developing Dead and Buried for Oculus Touch?
Ryan Rutherford: The original core development team for Dead and Buried was small—two people to be exact. Andrew Welch is the lead engineer and technical director on our titles, while I handle design and environment art. We've since grown the team and collaborated with Gunfire Games to assist in creating a game larger than ourselves.
We first set out to build a 1v1 duel game set in the Wild West—a cool concept, but we found the gameplay to be shallow in terms of depth and deployability.
When we tried Touch, we were blown away by the hardware and the new gameplay opportunities it provides. Our title was a natural fit for Touch, and we quickly pivoted our strategy to start working on the game.
Over time, the game evolved as we tested new ideas like the duck and cover mechanic (using positional tracking). With Touch, players could physically aim and pick up weapons, which added an entirely new dynamic to the game.
With your background in FPS games, how did you adapt your thinking for VR and Touch?
RR: When designing a traditional multiplayer first-person shooter game or level, we consider level flow, chokepoints, pickups, spawn points, loadouts—the list goes on. Depending on the game, some of these mechanics translate naturally to a VR multiplayer title. For Dead and Buried, it wasn’t always the case. VR and Touch brought new fundamentals in design we had to solve.
Players had no problem figuring out how to aim and shoot; however, most couldn’t hit anything—which isn’t fun. We opted for laser sights to help players aim, and they instantly had a better time. Players want to feel powerful and they want to be good.
We also noticed that when someone’s shooting back at you, it’s instinctual to duck and cover. In traditional first-person shooters, cover is placed to direct the flow of a level or encourage firefights. In Dead and Buried, it’s a core game mechanic.
All of our levels are blocked out with cover in mind, and some of our weapons are designed to overcome it (like throwing dynamite). When you die, you respawn to another place in the level with a new set of cover opportunities. It’s simple but effective—like having a laser tag or paintball arena in your own home!
How did you navigate the challenges of locomotion in Dead and Buried?
RR: Locomotion is often brought up as a limitation of VR. In traditional video games, moving through an environment usually won’t cause any discomfort if the user is a safe distance away from their screen. In VR, the world surrounds us, and moving around it can cause discomfort for some people.
In Dead and Buried, this challenge actually helped influence one of our game modes: Robbery. In this mode, one team tries to rob a train while the other attempts to stop them. The safe is located in the caboose and players battle it out through multiple train cars—sleeper cars, box cars, even a shootout on the roof! When one team wins a skirmish, that team advances while the other falls back. This provides a sense of progression while keeping it comfortable.
What were you most excited about when designing Dead and Buried?
RR: VR and social go hand-in-hand. Waving to your friend, fist-bumping, or high-fiving, then working together to solve a puzzle or participate in a frantic, competitive shootout—it’s just fun.
When designing Dead and Buried, we had social scenarios we wanted players to experience: a shootout in an old saloon, a duel at high noon, the list goes on. These scenarios drove a lot of our design and decision-making and are a taste of what players will experience in the full game.
Making games is very rewarding, but making something people can enjoy with their friends is even more exciting. And, because of VR, we’re now creating a much more immersive experience that players can enjoy with others. I hope that someday, someone’s favorite memory might be something they experienced in VR.
Thanks, Ryan! We’re excited for the release of
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to take you next. At the end, we get the title card for the anime placed on a brick wall which is significant when considering how much of the story revolves around walls.
As mentioned earlier, this is somewhat of a national anthem, and the lyrics reflect that. You have lines such as (translated from genius.com)
We grip two steel blades of Gloria,
sing the song of victory.
and have the wings of freedom on our back.
With our determination tightly held to our heart, we sever this ring of folly, and dance into the blue sky
and
Freedom, and death.
The two of them are twins.
Freedom or death?
Our friend is but one of them!
But it goes deeper than having subtle and fictional patriotic pretenses. It features lyrics that speak to the feelings they have facing a war with the extinction of the human race. Let me tell ya, people die in this series.
I won’t let anyone say
“They died in vain”,
not until I become the last lone arrow on the battlefield!
Understanding the harsh reality of the world in which these characters live, these lyrics offer insight to their ongoing nightmare. So although it’s framed as a “DIE FOR YOUR PEOPLE” anthem/call to action, this song really isn’t about all of that. The imagery would like you to believe that, but this song contains the feelings of people at the end of their rope turning their attention to what they think will end their pain: fight the Titans. Either win and secure freedom or die trying while ending your own suffering.
To a lesser degree, obviously, I think we can all relate to that. Attack on Titan is brilliant, and what I appreciate most about the early seasons was the way people communicate while living a life in which they’re essentially waiting to die. It creates sincerely interesting character dynamics and interactions, and it personally makes me feel introspective toward my own difficulties (again, obviously to a lesser degree).
This story by Hajime Isayama really captures people who are trapped in a life situation that they can’t seem to get out of, and the difference between the characters lie in how they view their situation. Some see their plight as inescapable and resolve to die. Others feel that they can do something about it and fight. No matter who you are or what you’re going through, there’s a message in there for you somewhere. “Jiyuu no Tsubasa” captures all of that perfectly.
Also, it sounds insanely cool.
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A workman removes the signage from the former Anglo Irish Bank HQ in Dublin
A workman removes the signage from the former Anglo Irish Bank HQ in Dublin
GARDA SERGEANTS HAVE called on senior management to provide more manpower to investigate possible fraud at Anglo Irish Bank.
The president of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, Padraic Dolan, has told Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan that “adequate staffing” needs to be provided to investigate the bank’s collapse.
Dolan repeated calls for additional staff to be allocated to the fraud squad, and said white collar crime as a whole should be “upgraded in priority” by garda management.
He highlighted criticisms of apparent delays to the investigation of the banking crash, saying:
Almost everyone in the country is asking why have there been no prosecutions of the central figures involved in those scandals. We are being compared to the United States where, it seems, almost overnight people are brought before the courts in handcuffs charged with serious frauds.
Minister Brendan Howlin last month called for the probe to hurry up, saying people who made “reckless and outrageous” decisions should be held accountable.
Dolan suggested that additional staff for the Garda Fraud Squad and other sections could help bring a “speedy resolution” to the Anglo Irish Bank affair. “The country deserves no less,” he added.
The AGSI president also criticised the Commissioner on several issues. He said garda officers were “extremely disappointed” in their working relationship with Callinan.
Dolan also branded the closure of garda stations “disgraceful”. Justice minister Alan Shatter said on Monday that more closures were on the way.
that could also harm unity in football.
There is however still a big absence of governance and leadership at UEFA, today, after the suspension of Michel Platini for 4 years…
Yes, sadly. This needs to stop as soon as possible. It is important to have a central authority that maintains the unity of our sport. There must not one day be a Super League organised by an independent organisation where the aims are solely commercial. There must always be, at the base, a desire to improve the quality of football. The financials must follow, but it must not be the driving force at the beginning. UEFA and FIFA must guarantee this. It is for this reason that what happened at FIFA is very serious.
Many have already discussed the possibility of an exception to say that footballers shall be accorded to particular rights in order not to impact too much and to preserve the free movement of footballers…
It is always intellectually difficult to defend such a principle. And to claim that football should be afforded even more privileges that do not apply to other activities when football is already very privileged. A lot of jobs are international. Why should we prioritise football? When a rule exists, it should apply to all professions otherwise there will always be demands that are made.
England therefore needs the Europe of football?
Certainly. There is a great example: when England left the European Championships for five years (1985), she worked hard to come back to the level of the others. I think that England needs Europe, it is indispensable. And Europe needs England.
Don’t forget that it is the English who created this port. It is for that reason today that everyone is a bit groggy. I ask myself if the England players (who lost to Iceland) were themselves not left a little groggy by the whole thing.
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strikes me as obviously drastic, even if the transition is slow.
By adding emphasis to how slowly he is willing to implement his proposal, Rogoff also undercuts the urgency he has attached to overcoming the zero lower bound, which in his book he characterized as having "essentially crippled monetary policy across the advanced world for much of the past 8 years" (p. 4). Indeed, if he is really willing to wait "at least a couple decades" for the phasing out of large denomination notes, why not just rely on market processes and technological innovations already in play to achieve a less coerced transition? Rogoff even predicts in his response that "the use of cash in the U.S. in legal tax-compliant transactions will be well under 5 percent ten years from now and probably only 1-2 percent twenty years from now, and that is assuming no change in government policy on cash [emphasis mine]."
Rogoff attempts to answer my charge that his welfare analysis fails to consider the economic benefits of productive underground activity by reiterating his speculation that "if the government is able to collect more revenue from tax evaders, it will... collect less taxes from everyone else" (p. 217). As he explained in his book, "if taxes can be avoided more easily in cash-intensive businesses, then too much investment will go to them, compared to other business that have higher pre-tax returns" (p. 59). This is of course correct as far as it goes. But it depends entirely on Rogoff's expectation that any tax changes from eliminating large-denomination notes will be absolutely revenue neutral. This is a strong assumption seemingly at odds with the politics of taxation. Does he really believe that if phasing out cash brings in more tax revenue, governments are going to graciously reduce tax rates in order to ensure that the total bite out of the economy remains constant? This represents yet another instance of Rogoff assuming the perspective of a central planner and naively ignoring any public-choice considerations.
The simplistic assumption of revenue neutrality ignores a host of other complications as well. Recall that phasing out cash will reduce government seigniorage, so it is not clear how large the tax gains would be, if any at all, even for countries less reliant on that source of revenue. As for the Eurozone, The Curse of Cash (p. 84) cites estimates of seigniorage as high as for the U.S. Moreover, seigniorage, arising from an implicit tax on cash balances, already bears more heavily on underground, cash-intensive businesses. Phasing out cash not only changes both the level and type of taxation that these unreported, productive activities would pay, but also could subject them to burdensome regulation that imposes costs without generating revenue. This concern is particularly acute for countries like Greece and Italy. A genuine welfare analysis should carefully weigh all of these complications.
Regarding the 50 percent of U.S. currency held abroad, Rogoff repeats an assertion that he made in his book:
while there are many reasonable uses of the $100 bill abroad, it is indisputably popular with Russian oligarchs, Mexican drug lords, illegal arms dealers, Latin American rebels, corrupt officials, human traffickers, etc., and of course North Korean counterfeiters. In the book, I argue (conservatively) that foreign welfare should be thought of as a wash.
My review points out that Rogoff offers no quantitative evidence for this bold claim, and even if it were remotely close to accurate, it would still ignore the poor outside the United States who rely on dollars.
Given that we have only guesses based on anecdotes about alternative uses of dollars abroad, it certainly is appropriate for me to quote a contrasting view from a friend who read both my review and Rogoff's response:
Based on my experience with overseas relatives $100 bills are also favored by ordinary citizens seeking a refuge from their own country's unstable currency. They have no use for smaller bills, as they don't use dollars for ordinary transactions. Dollars, for them, are a way of protecting their savings from the vagaries of the local currency. They aren't familiar with all the denominations of US currency and would not be confident that smaller bills were genuine but they know what a $100 bill looks like and are comfortable with it.
Rogoff, however, remains willing to overlook welfare impacts on foreigners, whether they be potential illegal immigrants or overseas users of dollars. He declares:
The Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury, not to mention Congressional decisionmakers, certainly do not directly take into account foreign welfare. The long-established approach to studying international trade and finance issues has always assumed that national authorities take into account national welfare, and that coordination and cooperation are needed to achieve a global social optimum. This is the right way to think about the problem, and my discussion is completely consistent with it.
Maybe for a politician pandering to voters but for an economist? This nationalistic bias is
| 291,171 |
little is known in South Africa today of the frustration and disillusionment returning South African combatants from World War 2 felt and the motivation behind their eventual mass protests against Apartheid policies in the 1950’s (known as the ‘Torch’ Commando rallies – attracting tens of thousands of war veterans – see The Torch Commando led South Africa’s first mass anti-apartheid protests, NOT the ANC!).
Effectively the returning South African statute force veterans had gone to war to rid the world of Nazism, only to come home and in a few short years find significant “home grown” Nazi’s in government or playing a key role in public prosecution (as was the case with Pirow) when the National Party narrowly beat Smuts’ United Party into power in 1948.
The likes of famous World War 2 heroes like Adolph “Sailor” Malan would have none of it and they took to the streets in the first mass protests against Apartheid and the Nationalist government who had only come into power a couple of years before hand and where already removing the cape coloured vote from the register – see Sailor Malan; Fighter Ace & Freedom Fighter!.
The Torch Commando and veteran protests where ultimately suppressed by The National Party (including Sailor Malan) and the Nationalists where free to promote their heroes – Oswald Pirow had the foreshore road in Cape Town named after him as well as a South African navy strike craft – the SAS Oswald Pirow – much to the disillusionment of many of South Africa’s war veterans, the disenfranchised voters and the South African Jewish community.
Re-naming
Since 1994, proposals were to put forward to re-name the strike craft and Cape Town’s foreshore road.
The SAS Oswald Pirow was re-named the SAS Rene Sethren after a famous Navy stocker Rene Sethren who was on board a South African minesweeper in World War 2. In June 1941 his ship was escorting a convoy to Tobruk when they came under heavy attack from enemy planes. He took over an anti-aircraft gun and did not stop firing until the attack was over. He was wounded 27 times during the attack and fortunately survived, he received his gallantry decoration from King George V.
It was also discovered that although Dr Christiaan Barnard had performed the world’s first heart transplant nothing in the way of Cape Town’s streets honoured this, since 2011 most Captonians now know this landmark road which was ‘Oswald Pirow Street’ as ‘Christiaan Barnard Street’.
There is an argument that says we should not be re-naming things in the interests of preserving history, with all its spots, however world over institutions named after Nazis have been re-named and/or scrubbed of anything glorifying this history. Munich – the birthplace of Nazism is virtually clean of any old references, such is its blight to the entire human race caused by this ideology, and in this respect South Africa has acted no differently.
What is surprising is that even during the 70’s and the 80’s, the National Party were unapologetic in the glorification of individuals so closely associated to National Socialist ideology and Nazism, no matter how hurtful to the vast majority of South Africans, well after the horrors of this ideology had been exposed and universally condemned (even in South Africa).
Pirow was allowed to continue as the State Prosecutor and advise Apartheid policy, his controversial plans for the Nazification of Southern Africa were just glazed over and conveniently swept under the rug – the modern South African generation would grow up fairly oblivious of Oswald Pirow’s really dark past.
Written and Researched by Peter Dickens.
Feature photo copyright the German Federal Archives copyright. ‘Very Deeply Dyed in Black’ Sir Oswald Mosley and the Resurrection of British Fascism After 1945 by Graham Macklin. NSDAP Office of Colonial Policy Brian Bunting’s 1964 book, The Rise of the South African Reich. Ribbontrop’s proposals to South Africa, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William Shirer, 1974 edition.
Published by New York: Crest, 1962, New York (1962
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Regarding this eye-opening new study to which Dan alluded, a few observations.
First, as I’ve been arguing ever since Obama counterterrorism advisor John Brennan absurdly claimed that a 20 percent recidivism rate for mass-murderers is pretty good, the truth is we have no idea how high the actual recidivism rate of former Gitmo detainees may be — other than that it’s probably a lot higher than the assessments we’re getting from the intelligence community, alarming though they are. We cannot know with certainty whether a former detainee has gone back to the jihad unless (a) we encounter him on the battlefield, or (b) we are in the rare situation of having excellent intelligence about what that particular former detainee is up to. Everything else is guesswork — and a lot of it is guesswork influenced by the hope that dubious initiatives like the Saudis’ terrorist rehab program actually work.
Second, Tom Joscelyn, who has been following this as closely as anyone, has an excellent article at TWS, which begins:
150 former Guantanamo detainees are either “confirmed or suspected of reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities,” according to a new intelligence assessment released by the Director of National Intelligence’s office on Tuesday. In total, 598 detainees have been transferred out of U.S. custody at Guantanamo. 1 out of every 4, or 25 percent, of these former detainees is now considered a confirmed or suspected recidivist by the U.S. government.
The DNI’s latest assessment is a significant increase over previous estimates. In June 2008, the Department of Defense reported that 37 former detainees were “confirmed or suspected” of returning to terrorism. On January 13, 2009 — seven months later — Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said that number had climbed to 61. As of April 2009, the DoD found that same metric had risen further to 74 — exactly double the Pentagon’s estimate just 11 months before.
It’s all worth reading, as is another TWS piece by Steve Hayes, contending that these latest figures mean you can forget about Gitmo being shuttered. Steve futher notes that although most of the known recidivists were released by the Bush administration (when there were hundreds more detainees at Gitmo), five of them were released by the Obama administration — despite its ballyhooed enhanced review process.
On Obama administration stonewalling, Steve adds:
As the WikiLeaks cables related to Guantanamo Bay make clear, U.S. diplomats began a global effort to persuade allies to take detainees and, when that didn’t work, to bribe them to reconsider. But as the administration worked to empty Gitmo, reality was causing problems. The number of recidivists was growing steadily and the threat posed by those remaining at Guantanamo – the worst of the worst – was becoming clear….
After recounting the most transparent administration in history’s information lock-down — Obama turning a deaf ear to the press, congressional Republicans, and FOIA demands — Steve concludes:
The administration was undeterred and sought to downplay the dangers associated with releasing or transferring individual jihadists. In some cases, sources say, administration officials rewrote threat assessments on the detainees produced by the intelligence community and the U.S. military. And the only reason the administration is set to release the report now is that Congress, in the 2010 Intelligence Authorization bill, mandated that the office of the Director of National Intelligence make the information public by December 7, 2010. So despite its efforts to keep the information hidden, it will be made public. And despite the efforts to close Guantanamo Bay, it will remain open.
Yup.
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to thwart attacks like 9/11. Wiebe, Binney, and Loomis retired. Thomas Drake (also undersigned), who joined NSA on August 26, 2001, as a senior executive after many years as an NSA contractor, stayed on in an attempt to right the ship.
All of us very soon learned that we didn’t know the half of it – that is, of the misfeasance and malfeasance leading directly to NSA’s substantial contribution to the intelligence failure that day.
Again, we are prepared to brief you on the whole nine yards, so to speak. For now, we have decided to supplement the above with observations from our former colleague, Thomas Drake, who, as a contractor, had been thoroughly briefed on NSA programs, including THINTHREAD, before he joined the ranks of NSA as a senior executive. Thomas Drake writes:
“My first day on the job at NSA was 9/11. I was immediately charged as the lead NSA executive to find and deploy the best technology at NSA for the fight against terrorism. One of the programs I recommended to be resurrected for immediate operational implementation was THINTHREAD. I ran into a stone wall.
“As I pursued what I was tasked to do, I was surprised and deeply troubled to discover that, with a secret go-ahead from the White House, NSA had unchained itself from the protections of the Fourth Amendment and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. The vast power of NSA had been unleashed secretly on US citizens through a massive bulk surveillance program called STELLARWIND, a program completely unknown to most if not all of those working at the SIGINT Automatic Research Center. In the weeks after 9/11, 40 to 50 servers began arriving followed quickly by a whole new set of technical people who on September 26, 2001, turned STELLARWIND loose on all of us.
“Even after the developers of THINTHREAD left NSA in October 2001, I kept trying to get it authorized to go operational – in vain. However, I was able to acquire enough funding to complete a THINTHREAD Content Evaluation of NSA databases that contained huge amounts of collected data.
Pre-9/11 Intelligence
“That’s where I found the pre- and post-9/11 intelligence from NSA monitoring of some of the hijackers as they planned the attacks of 9/11 had not been shared outside NSA. This includes critical pre-9/11 intelligence on al-Qaeda, even though it had been worked on by NSA analysts. I learned, for example, that in early 2001 NSA had produced a critical long-term analytic report unraveling the entire heart of al-Qaeda and associated movements. That report also was not disseminated outside of NSA.
“Make no mistake. That data and the analytic report could have, should have prevented 9/11.
“Top NSA management knew that. They knew that I knew that. I was immediately shut down. In spring 2002, the remnants of THINTHREAD were unceremoniously put on the shelf in NSA’s ‘Indiana Jones’ data warehouse, never to be seen again.
Cover-up
“Hiding the worst: In December 2001, Senator Saxby Chambliss, chair of a House Subcommittee on Homeland Security announced a preliminary investigation into 9/11. At a SIGINT Leadership Team meeting in February 2002, SIGINT chief Maureen Baginski directed me to lead a NSA Statement-for-the-Record effort for a closed-door hearing scheduled by Sen. Chambliss for early March to discuss what NSA knew about the 9/11 hijackers and their plotting before 9/11.
“As indicated above, the highly embarrassing answer was that NSA knew a great deal, but had not shared what it knew outside of NSA.
“After a couple of weeks Baginski rejected my draft team Statement for the Record report and removed me from the task. When I asked her why, she said there was a ‘data integrity problem’ (not further explained) with my draft Statement for the Record. I had come upon additional damaging revelations. For example, NSA had the content of telephone calls between AA-77 hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar in San Diego, CA, and the known al-Qaeda safe house switchboard in Yemen well before 9/11, and had not disseminated that information beyond NSA.
“In short, when confronted with the prospect of fessing up, NSA chose instead to obstruct the 9/11 congressional investigation, play dumb, and keep the truth buried, including the fact that it knew about all inbound and outbound calls to the safe house switchboard in Yemen. NSA’s senior leaders took me off the task because they realized – belatedly, for some reason – that I would not take part in covering up the
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A meeting with Secretary of State Dean Acheson secured State Department aid in forwarding the airmen’s testimonies to Tito, but Tito refused them. Mihailovich was tried and convicted, executed by firing squad on July 17, 1946, and buried in an unmarked grave.
For nearly sixty years, the airmen involved in Operation Halyard believed they had failed in their effort to bestow widespread recognition on Mihailovich for the part he played in their rescue. But in reality, their voices were heard. In 1948, urged on by a group of military officials, President Truman awarded a posthumous—but secret—Legion of Merit to Mihailovich for his contributions to the Allied cause, including Operation Halyard. “Through the undaunted efforts of his troops,” the accompanying citation read, “many United States airmen were rescued and returned safely to friendly control.”
The award, like the government reports of the OSS operation, remained classified for decades. The exact reason is still unclear. The American and British governments, concerned about maintaining their relationship with Yugoslavia during the cold war, feared that making the award public would anger Tito. The State Department might also have been concerned about potential damage to American prestige in Italy, where Italian-Yugoslav tensions ran high over the disputed territory of Trieste. But a breakthrough came in 1997 when the British declassified their wartime reports of Halyard, and Mihailovich’s Legion of Merit was released from the National Archives soon afterward. On May 9, 2005, a group of Halyard participants, including George Vujnovich and Arthur Jibilian, traveled to Serbia to formally present the award to Mihailovich’s daughter, Gordana, bringing the operation’s story to completion.
Operation Halyard fought opposition from the outset—from the State Department, from communist sympathizers in the SOE, even from Churchill himself. It was an operation that seemed condemned from the start, but through the collaborative efforts of the Chetnik army, the Fifteenth Air Force, and the OSS agents and airmen who remained dedicated to the operation long after the last man had been airlifted out of the Balkans, Halyard defied the odds to become one of the most successful rescues in air force history.
Originally published in the May 2008 issue of World War II Magazine. To subscribe, click here.
Iranian jailed in US for arms trafficking plot
Attorney David Weiss revealed the unsealed Ardebili papers this month An Iranian man has been jailed for five years in the US after admitting plotting to procure and smuggle arms to Iran, prosecutors say. Amir Ardebili was seized by undercover US agents overseas in 2007 following a five-year investigation. In May 2008, he pleaded guilty to arms trafficking, but this was only revealed two weeks ago. Iran complained to United Nations officials in October about how the US had seized Ardebili. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has likened the case to three US hikers who were detained after crossing the border from Iraq. 'Acquiring components' A federal prosecutor in the state of Delaware, Assistant Attorney David Hall, said Ardebili had acquired thousands of items, including military aircraft parts, the Associated Press news agency reported. Iran has linked the case to that of the detained US hikers Mr Hall said Ardebili had been arrested in the Republic of Georgia in October 2007. The defendant was extradited to the US in January 2008. When the documents on his case were unsealed this month, US attorney David Weiss said: "For years, the defendant was in the business of acquiring components, many with military applications, for the government of Iran. "The government's investigation and prosecution has put the defendant out of business and removed this threat to our national security." Ardebili, also known as Amir Ahkami and Alex Dave, is reported to have said his intention was to protect Iran from missile attacks. His court appearance in May 2008 was reportedly conducted under high security. The windows of the court room were covered and a guard placed outdoors, the Delaware News Journal reported. Ardebili is one of a number of Iranian citizens Mr Ahmadinejad noted last month that the United States was detaining. Analysts say Iran may try to use these detentions in negotiations for the release of the three hikers. On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the hikers, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, would stand trial, although he did not specify on which charges. They have previously been accused of illegal entry and spying. However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said any charges would be unfounded and she called on Tehran to release the three immediately.
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= rulesStringConfidence. split ( " \\ { \\ { \\ [| \\ ]= \\ [| \\ ] \\ }=|, \\ { \\ [| \\ }$" ) ;
for ( int i = 1 ; i < splitStuffSupport. length - 2 ; i += 3 ) // Start at 1 to avoid working with blank string
{
outputFile. newLine ( ) ;
outputFile. write ( "rule, " + splitStuffSupport [ i + 2 ] + ", " + splitStuffConfidence [ i + 2 ] ) ;
outputFile. write ( ", " + splitStuffSupport [ i ] + ", =>," + splitStuffSupport [ i + 1 ] ) ;
}
outputFile. close ( ) ;
}
private static Set < TreeSet < Integer >> generateMasterItemSet ( List < TreeSet < Integer >> purchasedItemSets )
{
Set < TreeSet < Integer >> masterItemSet = new HashSet < TreeSet < Integer >> ( ) ;
for ( TreeSet < Integer > itemSet : purchasedItemSets )
{
for ( Integer item : itemSet )
masterItemSet. add ( new TreeSet < Integer > ( Arrays. asList ( item ) ) ) ;
}
return ( masterItemSet ) ;
}
// Get the support counts of a single item set in its parent set
private static Integer getSupportCount ( TreeSet < Integer > comb, ArrayList < TreeSet < Integer >> combs )
{ // * Maybe add a way to eliminate repeats?
//
// * Remember that the support percentage is for the ORIGINAL list of transactions. So if there are duplicates,
// the duplicates will not be in supports because we obviously can't have duplicate keys. combs.size() is the number
// of elements in the passed HashMap, meaning it's the number of elements, including duplicate keys. Just a note for
// debugging.
int support = 0 ;
for ( TreeSet < Integer > possibleSuperSet : combs )
{ //If comb2 contains comb1, increment support by 1.
if ( possibleSuperSet. containsAll ( comb ) ) support ++; //if the set we're comparing our current set to contains it, increment it by 1.
}
return ( support ) ;
}
private static Double getSupportPercent ( TreeSet < Integer > comb, ArrayList < TreeSet < Integer >> combs )
{
//
// * Remember that the support percentage is for the ORIGINAL list of transactions. So if there are duplicates,
// the duplicates will not be in supports because we obviously can't have duplicate keys. combs.size() is the number
// of elements in the passed HashMap, meaning it's the number of elements, including duplicate keys. Just a note for
// debugging.
double support = 0 ;
for ( TreeSet < Integer > possibleSuperSet : combs )
{ //If comb2 contains comb1, increment support by 1.
if ( possibleSuperSet. containsAll ( comb ) ) support ++; //if the set we're comparing our current set to contains it, increment it by 1.
}
return ( support * 100 / combs. size ( ) ) ;
}
// Start by passing in n=2. We will recursively generate n-sets from the previous run.
/* In the end, we will return:
1. Map<TreeSet<Integer>, Double> for itemSets -> supportPercent
2. Map<HashMap<TreeSet<Integer>, TreeSet<Integer>>, Double> for (Antecedent -> Consequent) -> Support
3. Map<HashMap<TreeSet<Integer>, TreeSet<Integer>>, Double> for (Antecedent -> Consequent) -> Confidence
*/
private static Triple < HashMap < Integer, HashMap < TreeSet < Integer >, Double >>, HashMap < HashMap < TreeSet < Integer >, TreeSet < Integer >>, Double >, HashMap < HashMap < TreeSet < Integer >, TreeSet < Integer >>, Double >> getVerifiedItemSets ( Map < TreeSet < Integer >, Double > vifPrev, ArrayList < TreeSet < Integer >> transactions, double minSupportPercent, double minConfidence, Map < Integer, HashMap < TreeSet < Integer >, Double >> verifiedFreqItemSets, Map < HashMap < TreeSet < Integer >, TreeSet < Integer >>, Double > associationRulesSupport, Map < Hash
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platform’s value. Taylor argues that “one can certainly imagine a future in which Twitch is as much a consumer data company as a gaming one,” merging the data of what spectators watch with what they are purchasing while watching.
But the streamer-as-influencer model, in which viewer counts and ad metrics are the means of separating amateurs from professionals, puts unrelenting pressure on streamers to take on increasing emotional, physical, and technical labor in the pursuit of numbers. They must constantly produce new content and grow an audience visibility. Successful streamers master this game within a game, accessing the supplemental revenue streams within Twitch that serve as another kind of scoreboard.
Much of this labor is intertwined with the chat, which is fundamental to scaling one’s audience numbers. But as viewership numbers grow, so too does their influence and the weight of their expectations. This can lead streamers into positions and behaviors they might not otherwise endorse. Those looking to harness the power of chat for their own gain can end up harnessed by it instead.
Video games have long been associated with spectatorship as well as play, from their origins in quarter-fueled arcades, where high score displays implied the presence of admiring or competitive spectators, to their migration to home screens and consoles. Live streaming chat emulates these older models, but its interaction with economies of scale on streaming platforms brings a different kind of intimacy and intensity to the experience. Chat lets spectators feel like they are there with the streamer as well as a part of a crowd, even if they are alone in their room.
A Twitch chat allows spectators to experience the powerful ambiance of an arena around particular streamers, without any of the checks or risks of physical co-presence
Drew Harry, director of the science team at Twitch, told Taylor that the chat window, with its streaming cacophony of text and emojis, “could be seen as akin to the cheering one would find in a sports stadium.” That is, it is less like talk among friends than a kind of “festive riot,” which, as Ronald Paulson argues in The Art of Riot in England and America, endures in rock concerts or sports events. Festive riots are rooted in Dionysian celebrations such as Saturnalia or Carnival, where regulations and restrictions on intoxication, sexual activity, and societal norms are loosened or reversed for a defined period or in a defined space. Collectively seditious behavior — which might otherwise appear as strikes, riots, and other forms of spontaneous protest — was sanctioned and encouraged within these appointed holidays and turned into a form of frivolity. These celebrations provided a safety valve for venting off societal frustrations, allowing those at the bottom of society to temporarily bend the rules and briefly behave as masters.
Books or art, Paulson argues, can “realize and transmit” a festive riot’s affect while holding audiences at an aesthetic distance, apart from a riot’s more subversive potentiality. These representations can safely transmit these affects not by indulging them as festivals do but by aestheticizing them and making them a private consumption experience.
A Twitch chat does similar work of representation. But despite the physical distance involved, this experience is not necessarily distanciated, as it is with art. Instead it allows spectators to experience the powerful ambiance of an arena around particular games or streamers and contribute to sustaining it. Participants may at any moment depersonalize from individuals into a crowd, suddenly capable of disinhibited group behavior despite being alone in a bedroom. This sort of consumption on the brink of riot produces a kind of viewer engagement that keeps spectators coming back for more. Live-streaming gameplay holds intimacy and riotousness together, allowing them to emerge from one another without any of the checks or risks of physical co-presence.
Platforms and streamers both have incentives to deliberately foster this tenuous balance of affects, which plays out as streamers’ efforts to convey an “authentic” experience. One of the streamers Taylor interviewed pointed out that the repeat viewers “are here specifically to watch you and your mannerisms, and learn about your life … you are the entertainment versus what you are streaming being the entertainment.” Taylor argues that the perceived authenticity of a streamer “becomes a powerful affective anchor in fostering supportive communities along with building audience connection and loyalty.” That is, it fosters a sense of group-oriented allegiance outside the confines of a national culture or the interpersonal order of everyday life.
Streamers’ sense of personal authenticity may be reshaped by what can hold an audience that is oriented toward seeking riotous affect. Spectators can exert tremendous influence over streamers
But that authenticity is not necessarily defined by the streamer’s fidelity to some inner personality so much as the willingness to transgress norms. If streamers understand their appeal
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Anthony Chase Writes in a guest column for Informed Comment
Egypt’s Revolution: Is It Possible to Be Both Dead and Alive?
Post-mortems are as rife on Egypt’s revolution as they are on Hosni Mubarak’s health. Each appears to be flat-lining, and yet reports of death may be premature. Egypt’s SCAF (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) has baldly asserted its control of all aspects of Egyptian politics by reinstating emergency rule (Mubarak lives!), dissolving parliament (via a pliant judiciary), taking control of constitution drafting (ensuring that it will protect the military’s political and economic privileges), and making clear their control over whether or not the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi would be allowed to assume the presidency (and that only after drastically curtailing presidential powers). Any notion that opposition to Mubarak’s regime was “hand-in-hand” with Egypt’s military was always a convenient fiction, as undoubtedly the opposition and the military knew. Worse, however, is that the opposition is itself deeply fractured. These fractures made the military’s recent “silent coup” impossible to effectively resist, at least in the short-term.
There are two problems, however, with saying that Egypt’s revolution is dead. One is that to say it has died is to imply that Egypt had a revolution in the first place. This is a flawed assumption. Mubarak was deposed but the Egyptian regime he represented – the spookily termed “deep state” –has remained in power. What was optimistically termed a transitional stage always seemed bound to be a transition from Mubarak to some attempt at a new form of military domination of Egypt. The fractured presidential election results in which no single faction could manage more than 25% of the vote (though candidates representing generally revolutionary sentiments did collectively gather more than 50% of the vote) left the path open for the military to end the unlikely pretense that it would surrender its political and economic privileges. It was perhaps unfair to expect the opposition – Islamist, liberal, and Nasserist — to make common cause to end military rule. After decades of repression, opposition forces were, at their best, an anarchic expression of pluralistic resistance against the status quo.
The negative side of this, however, is that their disorganized structure and lack of ingrained networks has kept them from filling the post-Mubarak political vacuum. The Muslim Brotherhood is by far the best institutionalized element of the opposition, but has continued its pattern from the Mubarak years of behind-the-scenes cooperation with the state, preferring to cut deals that preserved its position rather than fully engaging in democratic processes. This was most recently demonstrated in the aftermath of the military’s de facto coup, when rather than confrontation the Brotherhood preferred backroom negotiations with SCAF for its slice of the pie (the presidency).
This is of a piece with what I concluded in my recent book:
Hosni Mubarak has been successfully deposed and, as I write this, is on trial. This is remarkable. At the same time, however, the military of which Mubarak was a part remains the dominant institution in Egypt. The military has worked to maintain the deeply embedded power hierarchies that sustain its dominant position. It is doing so in a delicate dance with the Muslim Brotherhood which, while sharing the military’s distance from the Arab Spring’s anarchic impulses, nonetheless combines popular appeal with much more organized, institutionalized forms of power that have allowed it to move into the power vacuum Mubarak’s overthrown created. Until now, the Muslim Brotherhood has cooperated more than it has clashed with the Egyptian military; it is unclear to what degree the Brotherhood seeks to replicate top-down forms of hierarchical power or is open to more substantial pluralism…Overthrowing Mubarak was merely an uncertain first step toward a more complete Egyptian revolution that may or may not be realized.
– A Chase, Human Rights, Revolution, and Reform in the Muslim World (Lynne Rienner, March 2012)
This leads to the second problem with saying the revolution is dead. There was never a revolution as such to kill, but there were revolutionary impulses that led millions of Egyptians into the streets. These impulses delegitimized both Mubarak as well as the military that is succeeding him. That has not died. There is every empirical reason to believe that desires for more democratic representation and other political and economic rights continue to predominate among Egyptians. This explosion of repressed political desires made clear that Egypt – as with much of the Arab and Muslim worlds – has far more diverse normative currents than most observers had recognized. This means hope remains for a revolutionary future, no matter how dismal current circumstances are.
Guns can certainly rule in the short term, so there is no reason for immediate optimism (particularly given, it
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Ingrid Jonsson is the first female Women’s World Cup Final referee. In this interview with Dutch Referee Blog the Swedish referee and FIFA referee instructor talks about this experience and the development of female refereeing. “In the future I guess that many more female referees will be involved in men’s football and not because they are women but based on quality between referees.”
First ever female in a women’s final
In 1995, you were the first female referee to officiate a Women’s World Cup final. How was that for you?
Ingrid Jonsson: “In the Women’s World Cup in China 1991 I was one of the six so-colled “lines women” (assistant referees) that participated. I was AR1 in the final game between Norway and USA and 63.000 spectators. In Sweden 1995 the final game between Norway and Germany it was around 17.000 spectators – so two total different games and atmosphere. But of course being appointed for a final game in your own country is special.”
A mix of men and women
During that period referees at a big tournament were a mix between men and women. During that WC final you have a female trio, but in the 1996 Olympics 3rd place game your AR2 was a man. How important has this appointment with a complete female team been for the development of female refereeing?
Ingrid Jonsson: “During my three big tournaments it was always a mix between women and men and for me that was natural, what I was used to in my own country. I still think that quality is the most important thing, but not if you are a woman or a man. Still, there are not so many countries that will havea trio in the Womens World Cup 2019. They are usually a trio from a confederation and once again based on quality.”
Ingrid Jonsson’s career path
I’ve seen you were in many international referee committees. Can please tell a bit more about your life after active refereeing and your current role?
Ingrid Jonsson: “I started my refereeing in 1983, while still playing as a goalkeeper. By that time I was also a teacher in physical education. Since 1987 I was also a referee instructor for the Swedish FA and of course in my own area. When I became FIFA referee in 1995 I took a break from my instructor role, as I also was working as a principal in high school and my own kinds was 2 and 5 years old. My husband was by that time a international referee in bandy (Jan: ice hockey with a small ball on a big field).”
“When I stopped my refereeing after 2003 I returned as a instructor in the Swedish FA and is still active, I also started as a UEFA referee observer and am still active. From 2004 to 2011 I was active as a FIFA instructor, made a break between 2012 and 2016 when I was in the FIFA referees committe. And since 2017 until now I am still FIFA instructor.”
Looking for development
What makes it worth for you being involved in refereeing?
Ingrid Jonsson: “When You have been involved in sport always – it´s a great pleasure to have the possibility to continue to work with next generation, share experinece and knowledge and hopefully see the development.”
Uefa launches a report about women’s football across the national associations. The 2016/17 edition (can’t find a 17-18 version yet) shows a growth in number of female referees. But not every country has its own programme targeting development and recruitment of female referees yet. How important is it to have such a thing and how does it help grow women’s football?
Ingrid Jonsson: “I think it’s important that all parts of football develop, players, coaches and referees. To become a referee when you have ended your playing career, it is a good start for your next mission – if you do not become a coach. Because it will bring understanding into the different roles.”
Quality of the referee is key
In Germany Bibiana Steinhaus officiates in the Bundesliga. What do you expect for the future of female refereeing?
Ingrid Jonsson: “As we said in the previous question, different countries are in different levels and have choosen different ways. In the future I guess that many more female referees will be involved in mens football. Not because they are women, but based on quality between referees.”
Top 3 tips for you by Ingrid Jonsson
I ask people I speak with usually about their tips for others. What are your top 3 tips you’d like to share with other referees?
Ing
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the enzyme, monoamine oxidase type-B, in their brains than non-smokers. Levels returned to normal on their giving up smoking. Not merely is the extra dopamine in the synapses rewarding. The level of MAO-b inhibition smokers enjoy apparently contributes to their reduced incidence of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately they are liable to die horribly and prematurely of other diseases first.
One option which the dopamine-craving nicotine addict might wish to explore is switching to the (relatively) selective MAO-b inhibitor selegiline, better known as l-deprenyl. Normally the brain's irreplaceable complement of 30-40 thousand odd dopaminergic cells tends to die off at around 13% per decade in adult life. Their death diminishes the quality and intensity of experience. It also saps what in more ontologically innocent times might have been called one's life-force. Eighty percent loss of dopamine neurons results in Parkinson's disease, often prefigured by depression. In future, the mood-enhancing transplantation of customized stem cells may restore a youthful zest for life in dopamine-depleted oldsters: such stem cell-derived monoaminergic grafts are currently on offer only to depressed rodents. Deprenyl has an anti-oxidant, immune-system-boosting and dopamine-cell-sparing effect. Its use boosts levels of tyrosine hydroxylase, growth hormone, superoxide dismutase and the production of key interleukins. Deprenyl offers protection against DNA damage and oxidative stress by hydroxyl and peroxyl radical trapping; and against excitotoxic damage from glutamate.
Whatever the full explanation, deprenyl-driven MAOI-users, unlike cigarette smokers, are likely to be around to enjoy its distinctive benefits for a long time to come, possibly longer than their drug-naïve contemporaries. For in low doses, deprenyl enhances life-expectancy, of rats at least, by 20% and more. It enhances drive, libido and motivation; sharpens cognitive performance both subjectively and on a range of objective tests; serves as a useful adjunct in the palliative treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease; and makes you feel good too. It is used successfully to treat canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS) in dogs. At dosages of around 10 mg or below daily, deprenyl retains its selectivity for the type-B MAO iso-enzyme. At MAO-B-selective dosages, deprenyl doesn't provoke the "cheese-effect"; tyramine is also broken down by MAO type-A. Deprenyl isn't addictive, which probably reflects its different delivery-mechanism and delayed reward compared to inhaled tobacco smoke. In November 2004, Yale University researchers launched a study of deprenyl for smokers who want to quit tobacco. Whether the Government would welcome the billions of pounds of lost revenue and a swollen population of energetic non-taxpayers that a switch in people's MAOI habits might entail is unclear.
RASAGILINE (AZILECT)
Unlike deprenyl, the novel irreversible selective MAO-B-inhibitor rasagiline (Azilect) is not metabolized to methamphetamine or amphetamine. These trace amines are unlikely to contribute to deprenyl's neuroprotective action. Rasagiline gained an EC product license as Azilect in mid-2005 for the symptomatic treatment of Parkinson's disease. Azilect finally gained a US product license in May 2006. In August 2008, Teva announced promising results from a late-stage Phase III 18-month rasagiline trial. Parkinsonians who took a 1mg Azilect pill once a day from the start of the trial showed "significant improvement" over patients who started taking Azilect nine months later.
MOCLOBEMIDE (MANERIX, AURORIX)
Humans now have the capacity to choose their own individual level of activity or inhibition of the two primary monoamine oxidases. This does not quite enable the fine-tuning of personality variables with the functional equivalent of a graphic equaliser. It still represents a promising start. In MAO-inhibition, as in life, more is not always better. Excessive dosages of l-deprenyl, for instance, may actually shorten, not increase, life expectancy - at least in Parkinsonians if it's combined with l-dopa. And levels of above 80% inhibition of MAO-A may lead to a sharp and possibly unwanted fall in dopamine synthesis. Repairing Nature's niggardliness will be a priority for the decades ahead.
Moclobemide (Manerix, Aurorix), the "gentle MAOI", is both a selective and reversible inhibitor of MAO-A.
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NEM (XEM) is currently trading up nearly 20% as cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck resumes its normal trading activity.
NEM’s meteoric price rise comes amidst overall market stability, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading steadily at $6,400, and most altcoins trading up.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $6,400, recovering from a slight dip into the mid-$6,300 region. Bitcoin is still trading firmly in its long-established trading range between $6,200 and $6,700, and its prolonged sideways trading trend has proved to be a positive thing for the altcoin markets.
Currently, NEM is leading Monday’s market surge, trading up 17.8% at its current price of $0.11. Following Coincheck’s announcement that they were resuming trading activity on their exchange, NEM surged to highs of $0.114, before falling to $0.103 as a result of profit taking. Its price has since climbed back up and is currently sitting near its current highs.
NEM’s sustained price pump has also been fueled by rising trading volume, which jumped from about $5 million prior to the Coincheck announcement, to its current levels of over $48 million.
Following the massive $500 million hack Coincheck was the victim of early this year, the exchange has had a difficult time fixing their management issues, security issues, and meeting the new, stricter, regulatory requirements being set forth by Japanese regulators.
The Tokyo-based exchange first announced that they would be resuming new account openings and customer deposits in late-October, but limited the cryptocurrencies available to trade to BTC, ETC, LTC, and BCH.
Related Reading: Cryptocurrency Market Update: Has NEM Awoken
Altcoins Trade Up
Although NEM has thus far been the leader of today’s cryptocurrency market surge, other altcoins have posted gains as well.
At the time of writing, XRP is the highest preforming major alt, currently trading up nearly 4% over the past 24-hours, at its current price of $0.52. XRP has had a choppy week of trading, first rising to highs of $0.56 on November 6th before falling to lows of $0.49. Since then, its price has gradually drifted upwards towards its current levels.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is one of today’s worst performing major alts, currently trading down just over 1% at its current price of $520. It is currently down 18% from its weekly highs of $635.
Bitcoin Cash’s poor performance over the past few days comes after it witnessed a massive rise from lows of $415 in mid-October, to highs of $635 earlier this week. This rise was fueled by increased buying volume stemming from the imminent hard fork event which is scheduled to occur in three days, on November 15th.
Many investors expected its price to continue rising prior to this event, but it now appears that investors are less interested in acquiring the forked units than they are in profiting from its rise prior to the event.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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In a blistering letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday, several prominent conservative groups called on the Senate majority leader to step down from his role, calling him and his leadership team “abject failures.”
“2017 has been a disappointing year for millions of Americans who fully expected, and had every right to expect real change in Washington, Republicans were given full control of the federal government. They — you — have done nothing,” the groups began in their letter.
After listing grievances with McConnell and his leadership team, the six conservative group leaders called on the majority leader to step down.
“It is time for you and your leadership team to step aside, for new leadership that is committed to the promises made to the American people. America is too good for you lead it,” they wrote.
The letter was signed by Ken Cuccinelli, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, which backed McConnell’s primary challenger a few years ago; Brent Bozell, a tea party activist and conservative columnist; Jenny Beth Martin, a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots; David Bozell, president of the conservative group For America; Adam Brandon, president of the Tea Party group FreedomWorks; and Richard Viguerie, an established GOP political consultant who has backed President Donald Trump and his allies.
Missing from the letter were representatives from other prominent conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and Club for Growth.
In the letter, the group leaders outlined issues that Republicans in the Senate have yet to move forward with, such as curbing illegal immigration, reducing the size of government and spending, and enacting tax reform. They also placed a lot of emphasis on the Senate’s failure to pass a bill repealing Obamacare.
“Perhaps the the greatest betrayal —and that is what it is — is your failure to repeal Obamacare, the single most devastating piece of legislation against freedom ever crafted,” they wrote, adding that the House and Trump did their part.
They said that the legislative failures “come on top of your vicious, continuous, merciless attacks on grassroots Republicans, but most especially conservatives.” The conservative leaders also accused McConnell of blackballing certain GOP candidates.
“You and your leadership team — Senators John Cornyn, Roy Blunt, John Thune and John Barrasso — have made war with your own grassroots while cynically refusing to honor one solemn pledge to the American people,” they wrote.
Read the letter below:
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still room for intuition?
You can manage individual players better today – but it’s more difficult to cheat. You can’t hide behind a tree anymore! You’re more informed to make a better decision, but you still have to make the decision.
Next up, the boss addressed students at Shanghai Jiaotong University once the Gunners had landed in China, and as well as receiving gifts and a standing ovation from the local fans he once again answered questions about both business and football.
Do you have any advice for the students here about how they can get a job? And how they can get a job at Arsenal FC?!
Well, that’s a very difficult question! One thing you have to ask yourself is, “What do I really want to make of my life? What is my dream?” Your dream may not to be a football manager – it may be to be an artist or writer or to sell houses – but what’s important is to ask yourself the question and answer it in complete honesty. And then be brave enough and strong enough to try to do it. In my case, my childhood desire was just to live in football...
And then you studied economics!
I studied economics because I was not too bad at school and because I was not sure that I could make my life in football. But my belief was there. How could I get into football? I didn’t know. And I met people who said, “My friend I believe in you.” A successful dream is wanting to do something and meeting someone who says, “I believe in you and I give you a chance.” If you look back on life it’s always like that – someone giving you a chance. But maybe you’re given that chance because of the attitude you have. You must provoke that belief.
Being a manager is also about making others believe in themselves. How do you build up the players’ mental strength?
I believe success in life, and especially in football, is down to the desire to be as good as you can be. But also there are two important ingredients in every football player who plays at the top level. The first is that he analyses very well his performances, and is capable of doing that in an objective way. The second part, which is very important, is that he’s capable of maintaining his focus for a longer period. That means he has good stamina in his motivation. The people who are successful in life are the ones who want to go from A to B and are able to maintain their focus to get there, and not give up at the first obstacle. Players go through difficult periods, they have to face competition to get in the team and they must maintain their focus. There aren’t many people who can do that. Where does mental strength come from? Mental strength comes from our own internal demands, and also from external pressure, from the environment. And today the pressure coming from the environment is high because football has become a global sport, the media is very demanding and people on the internet are very demanding, and the stress that people face is very high. But I always say to the players that what’s important is that one day you turn and look back on your career and you think, “I did as well as I could.” At the end, the real judge is yourself. It’s not the others. Look in the mirror at the end of the career and think, “I did my best.” That’s what’s important.
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Veterans Day: From foes to friends
Anthony Nardone navigated his B-17 bomber over Germany, preparing to drop his payload. Meanwhile, on the ground, Henry Boessl aimed his anti-aircraft guns skyward, preparing to fire on the Allied planes.
Nearly 70 years have passed since the men fought in the war that defined a generation.
But their memories — and their tongues — are still as sharp as ever.
"I was a navigator on a bomber, and he was in the anti-aircraft. He's trying to shoot me down," said Nardone, 90, of Irondequoit, beckoning to his friend. "But he's a lousy shot."
Boessl, 85, of Pittsford, is quick to fire back: "Well, somebody must have been a good shot. Cause he had to bail out."
And so it goes at CP Rochester, where both men have been volunteers for decades, outfitting microwaves with easy-to-open latches and customizing wheelchairs for those in need.
In the organization's small workshop, their banter is legendary. Often, it's Nardone telling a cheesy joke, while Boessl stands nearby, muttering and shaking his head in feigned disgust.
But these men, now the closest of friends, were once on opposite sides of a great war.
Gearing up for war
Boessl was four years old when his parents took him along with them to the local schoolhouse, so they could cast their votes. When they walked in the door, they were given slips of paper with two circles on them: a large one indicating "Yes" and a small one indicating "No."
"The question was: 'Should Hitler become chancellor?'" said Boessl. "You took that slip, you walked to the tables, and you marked it. Everybody could see you."
At home, his uncles — one pro-Hitler, one anti-Hitler — would argue about the state of the country. The Hitler critic thought that the voting was done publicly so that Hitler's loyalists could easily identify those opposed to his regime.
Boessl's parents were skeptical of the Third Reich as well. But as the Fuhrer began to tighten his grip, word spread about the fate of those who had spoken out against him or voted against his ascent. Soon, everyone stopped discussing political affairs with one another. Outside of family and the closest of friends, no one knew who to trust. Even the neighborhood children were viewed warily.
"I'd go into the barbershop, which was kind of like an unofficial bar, but when I walked in, the conversation stopped," he said. "You never knew who you were talking to."
At age 10, Boessl was inducted into a pre-Hitler Youth organization, which he likened to a twisted form of the Cub Scouts. When the schoolteacher walked into the room each morning, the students would leap from their seats and yell "Heil Hitler!"
The teacher always gave a hearty 'Heil' in response.
Boessl's father never joined the Hitler movement in the locomotive factory where he worked. A highly skilled lithographer, he never lost his job because he would have been difficult to replace. But his lack of involvement in the Nazi movement brought the Gestapo around several times. Twice they tore the Boessl family home apart, looking for evidence of treason.
Boessl's mother, a seamstress who was equally skeptical, was once hauled before the political block leader, for having told a neighbor to turn down his blaring radio during one of Hitler's speeches.
"My mother packed a duffel bag, kissed me goodbye and said she must have done something, and that she'd probably be put in jail for a month or two," said Boessl.
But she came back a few hours later. The block leader was a former schoolmate of hers, who buried her case deep in the complaint files, hoping it wouldn't be found. But Boessl's mother was told that she needed to join a Nazi organization to get her name off the black list. She started knitting socks for Nazi soldiers soon after.
In 1939, the war began, and the radio stations and newspapers — all operated by Hitler — reported the first news from the front.
"I'll repeat the announcement on the radio: 'The Polish Army has invaded Germany.' But it so happened that the German armed forces were in maneuvers along the Polish border,'" said Boessl. "Coincidence, right?"
In 1943, Boessl was tapped for glider training and was named a future member of the Nazi air force.
He was 15 years old.
Shot down
The United States didn't enter World War
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In the event of war, RAF Tornados based in West Germany would have had to penetrate the formidable air defence system of the Warsaw Pact. Their pilots were among the best in the world, one of them was Michael Napier.
Where did you serve with the RAF?
I flew Tornado GR1s over the period 1985 to 1994. I was based at RAF Bruggen in Germany and flew with 14 Squadron 1985-87 and 31 Squadron 1988-90. After a brief spell flying Hawks at the Tactical Weapons Unit at RAF Chivenor, I flew Tornado GR1s again with 14 Squadron (back at Bruggen) 1992-94.
What was your first impression of the Tornado?
Its size and complexity… I had flown the much smaller and simpler Hawk during training, so the Tornado seemed to be a formidably huge and very complicated machine.
The cockpit was well designed, roomy and relatively comfortable. The main flying instruments were the Head Up Display (HUD) and the Projected Map Display (PMD) which dominated the front panel. On either side were (left) E-scope (for TFR) and head down flying instruments and (right) Radar Homing Warning Receiver (RHWR) and engine instruments and the Central Warning Panel (CWP). Throttles, flap and wing-sweep controls were on the left console, while on the right was controls for air conditioning, pressurisation, refuelling etc. The view out was pretty good, too.
The aircraft flew very comfortably at low-level: it was fast and and reasonably manoeuvrable and it was steady as a rock in turbulence. We tended to cruise at 420 knots and accelerate to 480 or 540 for attack runs.
I was very confident in the machine, in our training and in the back-seaters I flew with.
Which weapons did you release/fire from Tornado- and which were notable and why?
I dropped/fired most of them. Our daily practice weapons for 3kg smoke& flash for laydown/dive and 28lb (later 14kg) for loft and we dropped them almost daily. We fired the 27-mm cannon quite often (most notable for me being “splash target” firing over the North Sea because we fired high explosive (HE) shells which exploded spectacularly on impact). I dropped numerous 1,000-lb bombs, both concrete inerts and live HE ones (the latter on Exercise Red Flag)… there was a massive thump and jolt as they came of, but the results were not so satisfying as they were inevitably well behind us when they exploded. I dropped Laser Guided Bombs (Paveway II) over Iraq (similar comment as the previous!). The most impressive was firing an AIM-9G Sidewinder missile over the Aberporth range – a big “whoosh” and I’ve never ever seen anything move so fast in my life!
What was your most interesting flight in a Tornado?
I honestly can’t answer this question in the space/time available because there were so many interesting flights in 10 years’ worth of flying, and all of them were unique and quite different from each other. I have written as full an account of my Tornado flying in my book ‘Tornado Over the Tigris – Recollections of a Fast Jet Pilot‘ and you would probably find the answer amongst those pages!
How many hours do you have on type?
1750 hours Tornado GR1.
Which fighter types did you go up against in exercises and which was most challenging? What tactics worked best?
All sorts! We came across Lightning, Phantom and Tornado F3 in the UK – all well flown, as you would expect from RAF crews. On the continent our diet was Phantom, F-15, F-16 and CF-18 and again they were all pretty good. On the Air Combat Range at Decimomannu (Sardinia) we fought with Starfighter (not so hot), F-15 (unbelievably fantastic) and Mirage 2000 (fantastic – and so small they were almost invisible). In the USA (Exercise Red Flag) we came across the USAF Aggressor F-5s initially and later F16s. The best tactic for all fighters was to avoid them… using the RHWR to see where they were and go around them. Staying low and using terrain screening where possible to make it difficult for them to see us (both visually and on radar), holding them on the beam to brake the PD lock. If needs be we could cover each other with our AIM-9L missiles. All the tactics worked pretty well – but, as I said, avoid them altogether worked best.
What three words would you use to describe the Tornado GR.1?
Flexible, dependable, accurate.
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Ashley Luthern
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A Milwaukee teen has been charged in three separate criminal cases since he signed a $300,000 settlement last fall for abuses he suffered at a troubled Northwoods youth prison.
In the first case, the public defender's office stopped representing him after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked about his eligibility for a taxpayer-funded attorney. He then retained a private attorney, but it was not immediately clear based on court records if he would be forced to do the same in the two most recent cases filed this month.
In general, accused individuals complete a multipage financial eligibility form with the guidance of public defender staff early in the court process. If more accurate information is presented later, their eligibility would be revisited, said Randy Kraft, spokesman for the State Public Defender.
Kenyadi Evans, then 17, was incarcerated at Lincoln Hills School for Boys in November 2015 when he refused to go into his room. A guard shoved him inside, smashing his foot in the door and requiring partial amputation of two toes.
The incident led prosecutors to ramp up an investigation into abuse at Lincoln Hills. Agents and attorneys raided the facility a week later and their probe of the prison is ongoing.
Evans signed a $300,000 settlement with the state on Sept. 20, 2016, for that incident. Three days later, prosecutors say, he and two others snatched a woman's car keys from a table at McDonald's and stole her minivan in the parking lot. He has pleaded not guilty and his attorney did not return messages seeking comment.
Earlier this month, while out on bail in that case, Evans was driving a 2011 Lincoln MKZ sedan registered to him and was speeding when he crashed into a house near N. 19th and W. Nash streets, according to prosecutors.
RELATED: Crisis at Lincoln Hills juvenile prison years in making
Officers were called to the area just after 11 a.m. Feb. 12 and found the sedan on fire and several passengers injured in the street. One of the passengers, whose brother was killed in a stolen car crash last year, was unconscious and taken to the hospital for possible bleeding on the brain and broken vertebrae.
An officer spoke to Evans, who appeared to have "glossy eyes" and smelled of marijuana, and Evans said an unknown fifth person had been driving, according to the criminal complaint.
Data from the car showed it was traveling 72 mph on a street with a 25 mph speed limit, police said. The car has a listed value between $9,000 and $11,000 on Kelley Blue Book. Evans was charged Feb. 18 with second-degree recklessly endangering safety and bail jumping, both felonies. His bail was set at $5,000, which he posted.
Arrested on new charges
When he showed up for his preliminary hearing in that case Friday he was arrested and charged with several offenses that have been under investigation since fall.
Evans is accused of carjacking a man at a gas station on W. Lisbon Ave. with two other teens and taking part in the beating of another man at a gas station on Appleton Ave. and stealing his car later the same day, the criminal complaint says.
Evans is scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 7 on the new charges. His bail was set at $50,000 and he remained in Milwaukee County Jail on Monday, according to online records.
Evans, who turned 18 in September, has been acting out, sometimes violently, since middle school, court records show. He ran away from group homes, assaulted a teacher and stole a van before he was sent to Lincoln Hills on a theft charge. There, he often was in the segregation unit for fighting.
Soon after Evans' toes were crushed at Lincoln Hills, he attacked an inmate at a Wauwatosa detention center. He was convicted of battery in June.
Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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he would wait until elected before he announced he was forming his own KGB.
I'm also a little curious as to what he plans to do with the FBI, DEA, TSA, Border Patrol, ICE, etc when he forms this "civilian national security force." Do you think it might be too much to ask of the Post's reporters to query him on these plans? If not now, then maybe during the DNC Convention next month? And please report his answer/evasion/obfuscation someplace prominent in the Post and not buried in the back somewhere. I'm sure your readers would appreciate some comprehensive political reporting for a change.
Thanks. I realize that, as usual, the Post is in the tank for the Democrat candidate, but your lies are getting a little obvious. Your "Full transcript of Obama's prepared remarks" article in the 02/07/08 issue, covering Obama's "Call to Service" speech in Colo. Springs, was NOT the full transcript! It was missing a very interesting paragraph outlining a plan of Obama's that I consider somewhat alarming.I don't know if Obama's campaign didn't include it in the copy they sent the Post, or if the Post decided to omit it to cover Obama's rear end (although I suspect the latter), but if anyone at the Post is interested, the paragraph occurred immediately after the following paragraph:"And we'll use technology to connect people to service. We'll expand USA Freedom Corps to create an online network where Americans can browse opportunities to volunteer. You'll be able to search by category, time commitment, and skill sets; you'll be able to rate service opportunities, build service networks, and create your own service pages to track your hours and activities. This will empower more Americans to craft their own service agenda, and make their own change from the bottom up."."If you wish to verify this for yourself, the FULL SPEECH can be found on YouTube at:The paragraph in question is at about the 16 min point.Now, I don't know about you, but I have a problem with a presidential candidate who announces he's planning to establish "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as our entire military. I realize Obama was mentored in his youth by two members of the US Communist Party, but I thought he would wait until elected before he announced he was forming his own KGB.I'm also a little curious as to what he plans to do with the FBI, DEA, TSA, Border Patrol, ICE, etc when he forms this "civilian national security force." Do you think it might be too much to ask of the Post's reporters to query him on these plans? If not now, then maybe during the DNC Convention next month? And please report his answer/evasion/obfuscation someplace prominent in the Post and not buried in the back somewhere. I'm sure your readers would appreciate some comprehensive political reporting for a change.Thanks.
Im saving the FLV from youtube now incase they pull it. Here is the BS "prepared remarks" transcript link wthout the quote: Ok all jokes aside, I am currently in an argument with some lemming legions about the quote, theyre saying its not in the transcript. I said BS and then looked myself and didnt see it. Then I found some DAMNING evidence - they removed this quote from the transcript!!!! Its in the video, around the 16:40 mark. Look at this comment on the denver post, which hosted the transcript:Im saving the FLV from youtube now incase they pull it. Here is the BS "prepared remarks" transcript link wthout the quote: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_9765136
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Dr.No. Post subject: Re: Photoshop I made of Obamas Stasi dragging off Jack Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:00 pm Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:00 pm
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Jimmy Post subject: Re: Photoshop I made of Obamas Stasi dragging off Jack Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:55 pm Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:55 pm
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 3:04 pm
Posts: 9694
Location: Austin, Texas Dr.No. wrote:
Gross! Gross!
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NOIZchain
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Solving digital ad issues by using AI & blockchain
Copper MemberNewbieActivity: 98Merit: 0Solving digital ad issues by using AI & blockchain
Re: 🚀[ANN] NOIZ ICO - Ad Network with AI ads, Serving 30M impressions/mo already🚀 May 30, 2018, 09:28:56 AM #171 Quote from: GOZIC on May 28, 2018, 05:59:05 PM Have you ever worked in another projects? I want to know how the project will be guided, I cant just invest money in the emptiness.
Hii!!
Thanks for the question.
NOIZ is a part of the NDN group which has an array of different companies and projects in operation, including NEW DIGITAL NOISE that specializes in Innovative digital marketing and consultancy solutions and HOT MOB which is the largest mobile advertising market space in Hong Kong, just to name a few.
NDN Group, Hotmob, Parini, BlueBlock and reprise are our partners and more partners will be joining in soon (some exciting news coming). Blue block is same crypto advisory that is behind projects like Loom and DeepBain chain!
If you have more questions, feel free to chat with us on our Telegram channel: t.me/noizchainenglish Hii!!Thanks for the question.NOIZ is a part of the NDN group which has an array of different companies and projects in operation, including NEW DIGITAL NOISE that specializes in Innovative digital marketing and consultancy solutions and HOT MOB which is the largest mobile advertising market space in Hong Kong, just to name a few.NDN Group, Hotmob, Parini, BlueBlock and reprise are our partners and more partners will be joining in soon (some exciting news coming). Blue block is same crypto advisory that is behind projects like Loom and DeepBain chain!If you have more questions, feel free to chat with us on our Telegram channel: t.me/noizchainenglish
. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always identified by the use of words such as “seek”, “anticipate”, “plan”, “continue”, “estimate”, “expect”, “may”, “will”, “project”, “predict”, “potential”, “targeting”, “intend”, “could”, “might”, “should”, “believe” and similar expressions. Much of this report is comprised of statements of projection. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties respecting mineral exploration companies are generally disclosed in the annual financial or other filing documents of those and similar companies as filed with the relevant securities commissions, and should be reviewed by any reader of this article. In addition, with respect to any particular company, a number of risks relate to any statement of projection or forward statement.
Cautionary Note Concerning Estimates of Inferred Resources: This article may use the term “Inferred Resources”. U.S. investors are advised that while this term is recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize it. “Inferred Resources” have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of “Inferred Resources” may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. U.S. investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an “Inferred Mineral Resource” exists, or is economically or legally mineable. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues.
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Considered the Disney Studios’ most influential concept artist until she left in the early 1950s, animator/designer/colorist/illustrator Mary Blair worked on a host of the company’s early classics, including Peter Pan, Dumbo, Cinderella and Alice In Wonderland. Even more famously, she’s the person responsible for the exterior and interior designs of the ever-popular Disneyland park attraction It’s a Small World.
Under Mary Platt’s astute, empathetic curation, the Hilbert Museum’s “The Magic and Flair of Mary Blair” reveals the artist’s concept work as a kind of dark enchantment. Preliminary drawings and paintings created to give other artists an idea of what things should look like—inspiration, but not gospel for the final design—Blair’s innovative work is hallucinogenic, full of sharp, flat angles and filled to the brim with the savvy use of eye-candy color.
The artist’s work, even after more than 70 years, feels fresh, timeless. Early animated Disney features always had an undercurrent of terror and menace, something I had chalked up to the immutability of its fairytale source material. After spending an hour with Blair’s work, it’s clear that it’s not just the source that deserves the credit, but also Blair’s artistic advocacy. From Dumbo, a circus train on a bridge is something you’d expect to be light, even cheery, but her Casey Jr. is a jet-black silhouette on a bridge arched over a vast, dark expanse of water, the background a fiery, hellish, sunset. The shadows in The Circus continue the hell theme, with Blair giving the large advertising banners and the interior-lit tents a sinister, dangerous touch, their oppressive anonymity telling us that there are literally dark forces behind the otherwise-well-lit façade.
You Can Fly, from Peter Pan, features the titular lead with Mary, John and Michael standing on a cloud and looking down. It’s an enchanted moment, the characters easily recognizable, considering Blair’s tendency toward abstract representation. Hook’s shimmering red coat in Peter Pan Battles Captain Hook contrasts sharply with his ghastly gray pallor, as he hugs a ship’s mast up in the air while Peter threatens to shank him with a dagger. The sky surrounding them is in various dreamy shades of green, suggesting the sea, nausea, jealousy. There’s even more glowing green in the skies of The Mermaids of Neverland Cove, with the lost boy amid three multihued sirens. Blair paints them as sleeping cherubs instead of what would eventually be the curvy clamshell-brassiere sex bombs they are in the feature.
There are only two images from the concept paintings for Cinderella. In one, the heroine is dashing out of the palace (in shades of blue and pink), her glass slipper left on the steps behind her as she attempts to beat the clock before it turns midnight. In the other, the Fairy Godmother is dressed in a powerful monarchical purple, instead of the Virgin Mary pastel blue we know, the eddying glitter of her spells transforming a pumpkin into an orange carriage of undulating green vines, all under a full lavender moon.
The avant-garde psychedelia of Blair’s Alice In Wonderland fully captures Lewis Carroll’s anarchy while predating the ’60s drug culture. Closest in spirit to what eventually ended up onscreen, Blair’s work is never more obviously ahead of its time. In the six images exhibited, we revisit Alice in court, the aggressively buffoonish Queen of Hearts towering above, threatening her with decapitation, the picture painted in bright harlequinade colors; the caterpillar sits on his mushroom, wrapped in the smoke of his hookah, a semicircular wall of pink and blue flowers protecting him from the outside world; more circles, with teapot steam from the Mad Tea Party enfolding the Mad Hatter and March Hare on either side of Alice, as a bevy of flat, two-dimensional presents are scattered about, waiting to be opened. In another, Alice, arms akimbo, fiercely stares down a forest of goggle-eyed creatures in Tulgey Wood. Alice stumbles upon the White Rabbit’s cottage in a final piece, its thatch of bright-yellow roof echoing the gold of Alice’s hair.
With the four classics on display, it’s clear the darkness inherent in each of the stories was something embraced by Blair, who boldly brought it to the forefront. Though the studio was clearly inspired by her concepts, the exhibit is a valuable reminder it generally copped out, despite the visual power of her work.
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Permissionless Bitcoin Creates Job Opportunities for Ex-Offenders
Ex-offenders often face tremendous social and financial challenges after their incarceration. However, bitcoin can offer them new ways to reintegrate back into society.
Also read: Mainstreet Investment: A New Venture for Post-Prison Charlie Shrem
The stigma of a criminal record often jeopardizes ex-offenders’ job opportunities — and may even deny them bank accounts, due to eligibility requirements.
The number of unemployed ex-offenders will increase as more inmates qualify for early release. Often, employers are quick to reject job applications from them before an interview. However there are vast areas of opportunity in bitcoin which can offer the ex-offenders a second chance in employment, as well as a ‘banking wallet’.
Ex-Offenders and the Economy
According to latest data available, there are approximately 1.8 million working-age ex-offenders in the U.S., with the majority of them unemployed. This number translates to a loss of about $78 to $87 billion in annual GDP to the country’s economy. This demonstrates how much the inability to reenter the workforce impacts ex-offenders’ lives, and also the economy as a whole. Add in the cost of running correction facilities, and prisons are crippling the economy in other ways too.
There’s also another problem, even for the fortunate ex-offenders who find jobs — needing to receive salaries in physical cash. This is becoming increasingly difficult as physical money disappears. It further deters companies from hiring ex-offenders, to avoid the hassle of payroll departments having to set aside cash. Hence, hunting for a job without a bank account can be a catch-22.
As employment is a critical factor in reducing recidivism, helping ex-offenders in getting a job is an important factor for society and economic wellbeing.
What Can Bitcoin Offer?
Unlike big banks and organisations, bitcoin wallets offer free digital financial capabilities to anyone. Also, bitcoin neutrality offers ex-offenders “bank accounts” without the need to declare any of their personal records. Increasing use of bitcoin salary payment services like BitWage at a growing number of organisations creates opportunities for employment without a bank account.
Conventional Opportunities in Place
The government has plans and incentives, such as the Second Chance Act (SCA), to assist ex-offenders in re-entering working society. However, these are not sufficient as such initiatives require organisation’s willingness to put their measures into practice to be effective. According to the ‘Felon Friendly Jobs’ website, employers feel that ex-offenders pose a threat to the other employees or are capable of causing other trouble.
Most ex-offenders would try their luck with companies that embrace the above-mentioned initiatives. A small number of them look for loans, i.e. the Federal Pell Grant, in hope to start their own business. Nonetheless, getting approval for these grants is still considerably difficult.
Network of ‘P2P Banking Systems’
Discrimination and low self-esteem are strong forces that push away ex-offenders from persisting in their job hunt, especially after multiple rejections. However, the growing presence of online industries leveraging bitcoin can offer a second chance and more — a job, a ‘banking wallet’, and a hideout from the discriminatory public by working from home.
Not all ex-offenders are seeking for a hideout. Charlie Shrem, bitcoin entrepreneur and an ex-offender, has faced the media. Recently he announced the launch of a new company called “Intellisys Capital”. In an interview, he said:
“One out of every ten prisoners [in my prison group] were white collar criminals”
These are the white collar offenders who would likely lose their positions in conventional society after their incarceration. Plus, these are the ones with the capabilities to contribute to society in big ways. Henceforth, the ‘P2P banking system’ removes banking obstacles that ex-offenders face. It gives them an alternative avenue to continue contributing their strengths to various industries.
Network of ‘P2P Freelance Employers’
Apart from P2P banking system, the ‘P2P freelance employers’ that leverage on platforms that use bitcoin can offer the ex-offenders yet another method to earn themselves a living.
To wrap up, the invention of bitcoin has shed some lights to organisations and the public on how to cross the conventional hurdles and problems that the society faces. From the inability of opening a bank account, near-zero job prospects, and the social stigma that comes together with a criminal record, bitcoin has not fallen short of worthy contributions to the society and economy.
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perturbations to the radiative budget from MCB are inherently localized. This is not the case with stratospheric sulphur injection. This essentially means that it is possible to conduct a useful test of MCB (with minimal climate impacts) over a limited area that includes testing of TOA radiative responses in addition to the testing of injection methodologies and dispersion, etc. This is in contrast to stratospheric sulphur geoengineering, in which case, as Robock et al. [58] correctly argued, it would be extremely difficult to measure either an effect on the Earth’s radiation budget or maintenance of the aerosol in the stratosphere using only a small number of injections that might constitute a field test.
The stratospheric sulphur injection scheme has so far been considered one of the most viable schemes, not least because previous volcanic eruptions such as Pinatubo in 1991 have provided significant data against which model predictions of the radiative effects of sulphate particles in the stratosphere can be tested and validated [61,62]. Unlike stratospheric aerosols, many of the basic processes linking tropospheric aerosols, clouds, precipitation and radiation underpinning the cloud-brightening scheme are rather poorly understood [15]. Given that the influence of human activity on such processes has been proposed to make a substantial contribution to the radiative balance [63,64], it is imperative that basic knowledge of aerosol–cloud interactions is improved substantially, regardless of the viability of cloud brightening as a geoengineering scheme.
Inadvertent human-induced changes to regional aerosol particle burdens have been used to investigate these processes in regions of stratocumulus in the past [65,66], though large natural variability and co-dependency of processes has to date limited progress towards full understanding. Also, emissions from the stacks of ships have been used to study aerosol–cloud interactions [67], but single plumes of this type can provide only limited information as plumes are narrow and entrainment and mixing are often dominant. A limited-area field experiment that provides a substantial and detectable perturbation above the background on spatial scales that are detectable from space could therefore offer a unique way to probe aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions, and their influence on radiation. It would also enable new knowledge on aerosol influences on climate to be gained.
An analogy can be drawn between improving knowledge of aerosol–cloud interactions through a limited-area perturbation experiment and previous experiments conducted to investigate the control of micronutrients (notably iron) on the drawdown of carbon by marine biological systems. A number of experiments have been conducted, which have deliberately added iron to the ocean to improve knowledge of ocean biological carbon cycling. These have substantially improved knowledge of nutrient limitation on oceanic primary production, its subsequent control on plankton communities and how this impacts on cycling of carbon and nitrogen in the world’s oceans [68]. Further fertilization experiments to develop knowledge of the fundamental processes are seen as crucial to furthering the understanding of the Earth system and are critical before any consideration is given to large-scale deliberate attempts at carbon sequestration by such means [69]. A major concern is that larger scale experiments may have significant impacts on ocean ecosystems. A key point is that a limited-area field experiment to study aerosol–cloud interactions using artificially generated aerosol from sea spray can be carried out without any climatically damaging effects as the lifetime of atmospheric aerosol in the MBL is of the order of a few days at most. Such experiments therefore offer a valuable contribution to climate science and should not be viewed as solely a means of validating the cloud-brightening scheme.
Here, we present an initial framework for the testing and implementation of such experiments. We propose a set of field tests to critically assess the efficacy of MCB over a limited area. The tests are de minimus with respect to their climate effects, as we shall discuss later. The tests involve three phases, with increasing logistical complexity, each of which is designed to test one or more important components of the cloud-brightening scheme. Each involves the introduction and monitoring of controlled aerosol perturbations from one or more ship-based seeding platforms up to a limited area of approximately 100×100 km2. A suite of observational platforms of increasing number and complexity, including aircraft, ships and satellites, will be required to observe the aerosol plume and in the latter experiments the cloud and albedo responses to the aerosol perturbations. These include the necessary cloud physical and chemical processes that determine the efficacy of the cloud-brightening scheme and are central to the broader questions of aerosol–cloud interactions. Multi-scale modelling work will be carried out to simulate/predict the cloud responses. The modelling work will be used to drive quantitative hypothesis testing for the field tests, and will be used to test our understanding of, and ability to simulate, aerosol–cloud interactions on the regional scale.
The
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The lockout-like schedule finally caught up with the JV Celtics and they lost to a hot-shooting Pistons team, 93-79. However, the future looks pretty bright for these rookies and sophomores. The caveat is that this is summer league play and a majority of these guys won't even make the team, but for the Celtics, seeing these five guys rise as the cream of the crop is very encouraging. There's always speculation on whether or not Danny should rebuild or retool, but really, he should be given credit for both right now. He kept the starting lineup intact, picked up Jeff Green and Terry, still has room for three vets (one at the bi-annual), and has five young guys that can contribute in the future.
Now, there have been a lot of comments--some admittedly made by me--that knock some of the current Celtics competing in summer league for not being athletic enough. "Sullinger is overweight and undersized." "E`Twaun Moore won't overwhelm you with his speed and quickness." "JaJuan Johnson needs to add 15 pounds if he wants be a force in the paint." It's a hair trigger reaction born out of seeing LeBron James and Andre Iguodala run roughshod over us in the playoffs.
But I have to say, Danny deserves a lot of credit for his change of philosophy in the draft. In the past, he's fallen in love with athletic wings and upside in guys like J.R. Giddens, Bill Walker, and Gerald Green. Players like that can define franchises for years. More than half of Team USA are those guys. It's always a gamble however and one that Danny has lost time and time again, but in the last three drafts, Ainge has opted for a more cerebral approach. He's picked more polished players, players who can shoot the ball and play defense. They may not be able to jump out of the gym, but they're the gym rat types that care more about making free throws rather than working on their vertical.
After watching E`Twaun Moore and Kris Joseph over the last four days, I'm surprised these guys weren't drafted any higher. Well, it's not that surprisingly really. They don't bowl you over with SportsCenter slams or flashy handles. They're just solid ball players. Moore was off his game today and didn't play as much, but Joseph again turned in a really nice performance. In this interview with HoopsWorld, the Canadian talks about how Paul Pierce was one of his favorite players growing up and it definitely shows. He's not as crafty as The Captain, but he's showcased his ability to score from everywhere on the floor just like PP. He's got the three point shot and can score with contact in the paint. I can really see Danny guaranteeing Joseph's contract (and Moore's, for that matter) for the rest of the season.
There was a concerted effort to get JaJuan Johnson the ball in the post and fittingly for a guy that's often compared to Kevin Garnett, he did what KG would normally do. He faded away and pulled up for a mid-range jumper on most of his possessions. I'm sure Tyrone Lue was thinking, "let's see if JJJ can create his own offense" and today, JaJuan was hitting his shot. He didn't show an ability to pass out of the block like Sullinger, but there may have been a directive to shoot the ball and as hot as he was in the first half, that's OK. It's clear that JaJuan can play, but he's a round peg in a square hole right now. We all want him to be a power forward because that's what Garnett is, but the bottom line is that they're just forwards. Karl Malone was a "power" forward. Charles Barkley was a "power" forward. We just need to accept JaJuan's game for what it is: a sleek shooter with scary length and hops on the defensive weak side.
Jared Sullinger had his first off game but what I liked out of him today was that he showed a little nasty. Four games in four days have taken its toll and he looked a step slow. He didn't get a lot of clean looks and barked a lot at the refs, but with the Celtics down double digits, he decided to muck it up and make it ugly. Dare I say he "Sullied" the game? After dominating the first three days in Orlando, he hit his first speed bump, but instead of sulking and giving up on a seemingly meaningless game, he put his head down and started bulldozing. He made a living at the line by aggressively throwing his body around in the paint. He negated Drummond's size and Austin Daye's length by driving the ball directly into them and creating contact. The biggest difference I see with him and Big Baby is that
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Despite the growing popularity of Mac, most MMOs and MMORPGs don't have mac compatible versions of their games. Microsoft Windows remains king when it comes to online gaming, but Mac users aren't completely left in the dark, as the most popular games do have Mac versions. Don't expect obscure Korean and Chinese MMORPGs to have Mac compatible versions though. The list below should be helpful for Mac users looking for MMORPGs to try out. The games listed below have officially supported Mac clients. VM Ware, Crossover, and other third party tools can be used to get many other MMOs functioning on Macs.
Mac Compatible MOBAs
League of Legends - Riot Game's free to play MOBA is one of the most successful games of all time. Without 60+ million monthly active users, Riot has the resources to develop a Mac OS X compatible client. League of Legends added an OS X compatible client in March, 2013.
Dota 2 - Valve's epic MOBA supported both a Mac and Linux game client within a weak of launching. The OS X client was released world-wide on July 18, 2013. With 800,000+ concurrent users online, Dota 2 is the second most successful MOBA in the world.
Heroes of the Storm - Blizzard's foray into the MOBA space. Heroes of the Storm, or HoTS for short, includes popular characters from all major Blizzard games - Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft.
Heroes of Newerth - S2's Dota inspired MOBA is both Mac OS X and Linux compatible.
Strife - A fast paced 3D MOBA with cartoony graphics from S2 Games. Features a unique crafting and pet system.
Savage 2 - A unique MOBA/FPS action MMO developed by S2 Games.
Dragons and Titans - A 5v5 dragon riding MOBA where two opposing teams compete to destroy their opponent's titan cage. Over 30 dragons and a unique weapon system.
Golden Rush - a unique 3v3v3v3 MOBA developed by a Russian game studio. Golden Rush is on all major platforms including MAC.
Mac Compatible MMO Shooters
Team Fortress 2 - Valve's cartoony free to play shooter has been Mac and Linux compatible since February 14, 2013. Team Fortress 2 is one of the highest rated PC games of all time.
War Thunder - This popular World War 2 simulator has a Mac client.
Star Conflict - A sci-fi themed space simulator with action oriented combat. Features instanced PvE and PvP battles.
World of Tanks - A popular World War 2 tank simulator with an officially supported Mac wrapper.
World of Tanks Blitz - The mobile version of this game made its way onto Steam in late 2016 and is Mac compatible!
Quake Live - A browser based shooter that's a remake of Quake 3: Arena.
No More Room in Hell - a free to play zombie survival game built on the Half Life 2 engine. Original HL2 not required.
Codename CURE - Although not an MMO, Codename CURE is a zombie themed survival shooter game.
Gear Up - a free to play robot building game that looks and plays a lot like Robocraft. Really simple mechanics, but tremendously fun.
Teeworlds - Originally available as a standalone title but now available on Steam, Teeworlds is a unique fast paced side scrolling shooter similar to classics like Soldat.
Robocraft - Build your own robots and battle against others online in this epic free to play shooter that played a bit like Armored Core, except much simpler.
Mac Compatible Virtual worlds / MMOs
Second Life - Second Life is easily the most recognizable and most popular virtual world. The game's developer insists that Second Life isn't a "game" but rather a virtual world. Second Life has both a Mac and Linux client.
8BitMMO - A sandbox MMO with retro graphics.
ARK: Survival Evolved - This dinosaur themed survival game is available on all major platforms including Mac (Mac/Linux/Windows).
Krosmaster Arena - This free to play tactical board game is available on both PC and MAC. The game is by Ankama, the same French developer behind Dofus and Wakfu.
Fishing Planet - Looking for a free to play fishing game? Fishing Planet is one of the only ones out there and it's available on Mac.
Unturned - One of the only free to play survival games is on Mac. Think Minecraft meets zombie survival!
Mac Compatible MMORPGs
World of Warcraft - Given that WoW is the most successful MMORPG of all time, it's no surprise that Blizzard Entertainment has a Mac version of the game. The game introduced had Mac OS X support from Day 1, and later introduced Mac support with Intel CPUs with patch 1.9.
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We have all written essays during our school days. There was always a minimum word count – 250, 500 words – that we needed to meet before submitting. Before I had a computer at home I used to count words manually. Once my parents got me one, discovering Microsoft Word was like magic. I didn’t know programming then, so I was amazed at everything that MS Word did.
One of the features that I really liked was called “Word Count”. You could select any piece of text and click on Tools > Word Count to see some interesting statistics such as number of characters, words, and paragraphs about your selected piece of text. I loved it then and I’m even using it right now as I am drafting this article inside Google Sheets. I figured I’d take a crack at writing one myself.
The app that we are making today will calculate:
Number of characters, words, and sentences in a piece of text Top keywords used Readability score – how difficult is it to comprehend the passage.
Before we begin, you can see what we are making here:
See the Pen Word Counter by Vikas Lalwani (@lalwanivikas) on CodePen.
Now, let’s get started!
All the counting in the app relies heavily on regular expressions (referred to as “regex” in rest of the article). If you are not familiar with regex, then check out this beginner article on regular expressions in JavaScript.
Page Setup
First and foremost we need something to take user input. What better way to handle this than textarea HTML element?
<textarea placeholder="Enter your text here..."></textarea>
We can select the above textarea using this piece of JavaScript:
var input = document.querySelectorAll('textarea')[0];
We can access the input string through input.value. Since we want to display the stats as the user types, we need to perform our logic on keyup. This is what the skeleton of our core logic looks like:
input.addEventListener('keyup', function() { // word counter logic // sentence count logic // reading time calculation // keyword finding logic });
The output will be stored in simple HTML div elements, so nothing fancy here:
<div class="output row"> <div>Characters: <span id="characterCount">0</span></div> <div>Words: <span id="wordCount">0</span></div> </div> <!-- more similar divs for other stats -->
Part 1: Counting Characters and Words
With the basic setup out of the way, let’s explore how to count words and sentences. One of the best ways to do it is to use regex.
I am going to walk you through regex patterns for word and sentence counting only. Once you are able to understand that, you can figure out rest of them on your own by looking at source code.
We need to look for two things to find words in our input string:
word boundaries valid word characters
If we are able to locate these, then we will have our list of words. One more thing we can do to increase accuracy is to look for hyphens(-). That way words with hyphens (eg, CSS-Tricks) will be counted as one word instead of 2 or more.
var words = input.value.match(/\b[-?(\w+)?]+\b/gi);
In the above pattern:
\b matches word boundaries i.e. starting or ending of a word
matches word boundaries i.e. starting or ending of a word \w+ will match word characters. + makes it match one or more characters
will match word characters. makes it match one or more characters -? will match hyphens,? at the end makes it optional. This is a special case for counting words with hyphens as one word. For example, ‘long-term’ and ‘front-end’ will be counted as one word instead of two
will match hyphens, at the end makes it optional. This is a special case for counting words with hyphens as one word. For example, ‘long-term’ and ‘front-end’ will be counted as one word instead of two + at the end of the pattern matches one or more occurrences of the whole pattern
at the end of the pattern matches one or more occurrences of the whole pattern Finally, i makes it case insensitive, and g makes it do a global search instead of stopping at first match
Next, let’s explore how to count sentences.
Sentences are relatively easy to handle because we just need to detect sentence separators and split at those.
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Real Estate and Prius Commercial Projects, Sunil Godhwani as well as the RSSB head himself, it alleged.
Shabnam Dhillon, Gurinder Singh Dhillon’s wife, was a director in Prius Real Estate and Prius Commercial Projects until August 2016, shows the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
“I say that these loans and advances have become due, however, due to the differences within the family, the recovery process for the same has been blocked… In order to further strengthen the recovery process, I have even initiated criminal proceedings against some of the borrowers who owe money to the judgment debtors before the Economic Offences Wing,” read Malvinder’s affidavit.
His EOW complaint alleges that Shivinder, along with Sunil Godhwani and Dhillon, conspired to “siphon” money from RHC and settle the Dhillon family’s debts and dues by absorbing them in RHC. This includes an alleged plan by the younger Singh to take over six companies, including Modland Wears, Best Healthcare and Fern Healthcare, “without initiating any financials and legal due diligence”. The EoW complaint further alleged that the six companies in question had extended loans exceeding Rs 1,000 crore to the Dhillon and Godhwani family.
Modland, Fern and Best — in which the MCA says Shivinder is a director — were involved in “fictitious and fraudulent” transactions of over Rs 400 crore withdrawn from Fortis through ICDs, according to the Sebi.
Malvinder claimed his younger brother signed a “family settlement” with Dhillon agreeing to “absolve” him of “any wrongdoing whatsoever and agreeing that no liabilities or legal proceedings or criminality would be attributable” to the RSSB chief under any circumstances.
Furthermore, Daiichi in 2018 alleged that the brothers had siphoned funds through a complex “web of companies”, to render its award, now valued over Rs 3,500 crore, a “mere paper decree”.
The Colour of Money
In October last, Daiichi rushed to the Delhi High Court asking it to attach properties of several companies currently not a party to its ongoing case against the Singhs. Its lawyers alleged in court that the siblings, via companies controlled by them, were routing funds to downstream companies that further used the funds to settle debts of land-owning companies. Over Rs 2,500 crore was diverted this way, they alleged.
“Show me the colour of money,” Daiichi’s senior lawyer often told the high court during proceedings to enforce its award. The Japanese firm had constantly moved court since 2017 to block the Singhs from closing a deal for Fortis while it was still under their control and has argued they have no intention to pay up, despite submissions by the brothers stating otherwise.
Daiichi, in its application to the high court last year, claimed that respondents ANR Securities, RHC Holding, Ranchem and “Malvinder Singh, as trustee of Bhai Hospital Trust”, “hold and control” Prius Real Estate, in which they infused funds through debentures. According to the company, the book value of debentures held by these four entities in Prius Real Estate amounted to Rs 1,429.50 crore.
In a separate application, it alleged that the Singhs used their jointly-owned entity, Shimal Healthcare, to divert funds through preference shares and debentures and that the brothers, through “fraudulent conduct”, diverted an “enormous sum” of Rs 1,407.33 crore to entities in the Shimal group. Shimal had been used to siphon “large amounts of monies” to various entities related to the Singhs, including Fern, Best and Modland, which further routed the funds to other entities, alleged Daiichi. Parts of several charts submitted by Daiichi in court have been reproduced in this article. “It is an undeniable fact that a large sum of money to the tune of several thousand crores has been extended to various group entities. This is a clear act of fraudulent diversion and/or siphoning of funds,” Daiichi alleged, adding that the Singhs were operating “through a web of companies to shield their assets.”
Queries sent to Malvinder, Shivinder, Gurinder Singh Dhillon and Sunil Godhwani remained unanswered by late Sunday.
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, from The Gold Rush to Star Wars to Showgirls, although the biggest obstacle to overcome in Showgirls may be the ordeal of sitting through it.
I was having none of that in my novel AMP’D, “the most fun you’ll have reading about a guy whose arm is hilariously amputated™.” My inciting incident has already happened before the very first page, and it’s clear this guy is ruined. He’s not going to overcome obstacles or transcend his terrible circumstances; he’s going to weep and flail and suffer, albeit hilariously. Yes, he will enjoy small victories, and he’ll even learn something. But if this were a screenplay it would go like this: meet Aaron, he’s super awesome as a lawyer or executive and has the world on a string (if he’s a good guy) or by the balls (if it’s a redemptive story); this goes on for ten pages and then the terrible thing happens and we watch him lose everything, only to slowly begin to hurdle every obstacle in his way and come out of this a better man.
I wanted to be free of those rules to explore how real people face adversity, however darkly comic a take that might be. I believe we look up to exceptional people who do triumph over terrible adversity and overcome incredible odds because in real life they are the exceptions. Which means most of us are not. Few of us are on the hero’s journey, and we don’t have a transformative story arc. We don’t change all that much over decades (never mind an hour and forty minutes), or have a “super want”—the thing we want above all else—and numerous biblical-sized obstacles that keep us from it. Rare is the inciting incident that sends us off on a journey, and we certainly don’t have an accelerating third act where, after our lowest moment, we rush to triumph.
Real life isn’t like that. It can be mundane and extraordinary, filled with great love and longing, grand success and failure too spectacular to overcome, the dichotomy of isolation in crowds and small enormous moments. That’s real life, and that’s what I wanted to write about. And a novel seemed the best medium in which to do it. (Did I mention “hilariously”?)
Now, to get to work on that screenplay adaptation.
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Crime victims are increasingly being told by some police forces to carry out their own investigations by speaking to neighbours, checking for CCTV images and seeing if their stolen property has been put up for sale on secondhand websites, the official police watchdog has warned.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary says that for some high-volume types of offences, such as car crime, criminal damage and non-residential burglaries, this "DIY" approach to tackling crime is an "emerging trend" among some forces. They warn that in areas where the police have given up investigating these offences, they are "on the verge of being decriminalised".
The HMIC's report on the use of police time says that in too many cases once the victim had been asked to carry out their own investigation by police call handlers, the crime report was filed away without any further contact with the victim.
"Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary finds this expectation by these forces that the victims should investigate his own crime both surprising and a matter of material concern.
"The police have been given powers and resources to investigate crime by the public, and there should be no expectation on the part of the police that an inversion of that responsibility is acceptable," says the report published on Thursday.
Inspector of Constabulary, Roger Baker, who led the inspection, said: "It's more a mindset that we no longer deal with these things. Effectively what's happened is, a number of crimes are on the verge of being decriminalised. So it's not the fault of the individual staff – it's a mindset thing that's crept in to policing to say, 'We've almost given up.'"
He added: "When a crime has been committed, it's the job of the police service to go and find out who's done it and bring them to justice. They're the cops and we expect the cops to catch people, and my proposition to you is that unless you've got the powers of Mystic Meg or something like that, you not turning up and using your skills … it's going to be mightily difficult to bring people to justice."
The report concludes that police desk-based investigations of crime are failing to serve the public and mean "little or nothing more than recording a crime without taking further action. The HMIC investigation found that it is still policy to send an officer to attend all reports of crime in only six of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. In the other 37 forces a call-handler uses set criteria to assess whether somebody should be sent.
The watchdog says it is unacceptable that its investigation found nearly half the police forces were unable to provide any details of the reported crimes their officers had attended and that a third were failing to identify repeat and vulnerable victims when they rang to report an incident.
Baker said that it was only by fully understanding how they use their staff that police forces could ensure that they were efficient and responsive: "We found that this vital element of evaluation and analysis is still lacking in the majority of forces, with fewer than a quarter of forces investigating demand in order to prioritise and organise their workforce. In this age of austerity it's more important than ever that forces understand how to prioritise their resources."
Irene Curtis, president of the Police Superintendents' Association responding to the report said forces had made significant efforts to protect the frontline in the face of cuts but it appeared "some of the basic functions of policing appear to be slipping through the cracks in some areas." She said: "The public and victims of crime in particular deserve the highest standard of service from the police, wherever they live, so it's important that these issues are addressed and forces must learn from the many examples of good practice highlighted in the report."
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Pictured: The orphan deer adopted by a pack of bloodthirsty fox hounds
The heaving mass of fox hounds would intimidate even the biggest stag.
But tiny orphan deer Bam Bam isn't scared.
Like his namesake Bambi the 10-week-old is a friendly creature and trots along with huntsman Adrian Thompson, 42, and his pack of 60 hounds.
Oh Dear: This little deer thinks he's a fox hound
The pack immediately accepted the lost fallow deer when they found him shivering by the Thompsons' front gate just an hour after he had been born.
Rather than being overwhelmed by the attention of such a large pack of dogs, from the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray hunt, the confused little fawn thought he'd found his family.
A surprised Mr Thompson said: 'Now Bam Bam thinks he's a Fox Hound because they all treat him like one of their own.
'He won't be going on any hunts though - he doesn't have the stamina for it. It's a fantastic sight to see although we know it's a strange one and Bam Bam certainly gets a lot of funny looks from passers-by.
'People shake their heads in astonishment when they spot Bam Bam in among all the hounds as if they can't believe what they're seeing.'
Are you my mummy? Bam Bam investigates the camera
The friendly fawn is happiest among his fellow hounds on their daily walk.
Mr Thompson's wife, Karen, 41, said: 'Bam Bam seems most content when he's ambling along with the hounds. He's about the same size as them now so he fits in perfectly and walks along with the pack like they're his brothers and sisters.'
Although the Fox Hounds have come to accept Bam Bam as one of their own, Mr Thompson's other dogs are rather less tolerant.
He said: 'A pack of domestic dogs would most certainly kill a deer that came across it's path - I also have two terriers and they would certainly kill anything that came into the garden. They're only just starting to accept little Bam Bam but I still wouldn't leave them alone with him.
Bam Bam runs with the hounds, his new family
'My Fox Hounds are very different though - the image of them as savage killers is completely wrong. They can be very placid animals and are very accepting of other animals - especially deer.'
After Bam Bam was discovered by the dogs earlier this summer he was brought into the family home in Petworth Park, West Sussex by Mr Thompson's 12-year-old son, Tommy.
When Karen came down for breakfast that morning she was stunned to see the pair sitting happily on the living room floor.
She said: 'It was such a surprise, the deer wasn't afraid at all. He seemed to think that Tommy was his mum because he followed him around the room, and would hide behind the furniture if Tommy ever left.'
Adrian Thompson and his wife Karen Barker get to know the newest member of their pack
It was uncertain whether Bam Bam would survive without the care and attention of his mother who had deserted him just yards from the Thompsons' home, possibly scared off by the dogs.
Karen said: 'It was touch and go for the first few days. We had to feed him half an ounce of lamb's milk every hour - this had to be done 24 hours a day and was quite draining.'
Bam Bam is now regarded by the Thompsons as a member of the family.
Karen said: 'He wanders around the garden and comes to play with us. We've had a few garden parties and he is such a favourite with the guests - he's so friendly and is adored by everyone who meets him.'
Bam Bam, who will grow into a 177 pound adult, will stay with the family until they feel he can be safely released into the wild.
One of the gang: Bam Bam on his daily walk with his fox hound friends
Karen said: 'We can't release him into the park here because there are too many people about. Bam Bam is not afraid of humans and we're worried that this may make him dangerous.
'He already gives us a nudge when he wants to eat and it's not so bad because he's only little but imagine what a nudge could do when he's got a fine pair of antlers.'
The Thompsons will be sad to lose such a treasured member of the family but they know they can't keep him forever and plan to set him free once he's fully grown.
Next year they intend to rehome Bam Bam in a private park where he will be able to join a herd and finally learn how
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European StarCraft II players will finally be able to test their might against DeepMind's _StarCraft II_-playing AI called AlphaStar.
An "experimental version" of AlphaStar will be queuing into the European StarCraft II server's competitive ladder—where players participate in ranked matches—"soon," the developer said in a blog post today. Anyone who wants to participate will have to opt into the chance to play against the StarCraft II program, an option that will soon become available as an in-game pop-up window triggered by a "DeepMind opt-in" button on the one-on-one menu.
Here's the catch: European players that do opt-in won't know if they've been matched up against AlphaStar—these are blind test matches. DeepMind decided to run the test this way to ensure that players aren't tailoring their strategies specifically for AlphaStar; instead, they want StarCraft II users to play normally. Blizzard said AlphaStar will be matched up against players on a "small number" of games, but didn't specify exactly how many.
"DeepMind is currently interested in assessing AlphaStar’s performance in matches where players use their usual mix of strategies," Blizzard said in its blog post. "Having AlphaStar play anonymously helps ensure that it is a controlled test, so that the experimental versions of the agent experience gameplay as close to a normal 1v1 ladder match as possible. It also helps ensure all games are played under the same conditions from match to match."
Blizzard won't be revealing "exactly when or how often" AlphaStar will queue up into the ladder, either. Matchmaking will work as it typically does, decided with accordance the game's normal parameters. And regardless of whether a player wins or loses against AlphaStar, MMR—the internal ranking system—will be adjusted up or down as usual.
Technology non-profit OpenAI ran a similar experiment with its Dota 2 AI in April, offering up the program to the public. But as it turns out, the humans entered into the arena overconfident and unprepared: the Dota 2 program won 99.4 percent of its games. But despite the serious loses, the human players were able to learn and adapt from the replays of each of their games. Players attempted to pick up the nuances and intricacies of the Dota 2 AI—and did make some progress, despite the meager 42 wins.
AlphaStar's anonymity could be a negative for human players, unable to study the matches and figure out ways to win. But it could also be a positive; players won't be nervous about playing against an AI, thinking they've got equal footing with their opponents.
Like previous versions of AlphaStar, the AI program can't see and process the whole map unless it's been unshrouded by an in-game unit. As with human players, AlphaStar sees using the camera view. (AlphaStar can, however, perceive what it sees a lot faster than humans.) There are restrictions, which DeepMind considered with the help of pro players, some of whom played against DeepMind in January. The pro players lost most games, but Grzegorz “MaNa” Komincz did beat the program in one live match.
The version of AlphaStar that will be playing on the ladder is fixed, meaning it won't learn from these matches. AlphaStar has only learned from human replays and playing itself.
After the test is over—again, neither Blizzard nor DeepMind have said how many it will play—the DeepMind team will analyze the results, which Blizzard said will be released "in a peer-reviewed scientific paper along with replays of AlphaStar's matches."
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