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LG TO OFFER LTE TDD SMARTPHONES IN TARGET MARKETS
Optimus G Posed to Expand LG's LTE TDD Footprint This Month
SEOUL, May 09, 2013 – Following the successful demonstration of its Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplexing (LTE TDD) service at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013, LG Electronics (LG) will today commence the worldwide rollout of LTE TDD capable smartphones. Starting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with its flagship Optimus G smartphone on the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) network, LG will introduce LTE TDD devices this year in China, India, North America, Japan and Australia with additional countries to follow.
"LTE TDD is a superior alternative in some countries due to its flexibility in uploading and downloading content," said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of the LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "We're excited to offer consumers LTE TDD capable smartphones based on our unparalleled knowhow in 4G LTE technologies. With the commercial introduction of LTE TDD service, LG will build upon its expertise in 4G LTE by offering future device options utilizing this standard."
LTE TDD allows receiving and transmitting to occur on the same frequency at different times, unlike Long Term Evolution Frequency Division Duplexing (LTE FDD) which assigns two different frequencies for transmitting and receiving data. This means LTE TDD works more like home broadband, with a narrow band for uploading and a wider one for downloading heavier content such as video and music for more efficient transmission of data.
According to Yankee Group, markets including China, India, Europe and the United States will account for more than 134 million registered LTE TDD lines by 2016.
# # #
About LG Electronics, Inc.
LG Electronics Inc. (KSE: 066570.KS) is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, mobile communications and home appliances, employing 87,000 people working in 113 offices around the world. With 2012 global sales of USD 45.22 billion (KRW 50.96 trillion), LG comprises four business units – Home Entertainment, Mobile Communications, Home Appliance, and Air Conditioning & Energy Solution – and is one of the world's leading producers of flat panel TVs, mobile devices, air conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators. LG Electronics is a 2013 ENERGY STAR? Partner of the Year. For more news and information on LG Electronics, please visit www.LGnewsroom.com.
About LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company
The LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company is a global leader and innovator in mobile communications. With its breakthrough technologies and innovative designs, LG continues to establish a number of benchmarks in the smartphone market, while also helping create a better lifestyle for consumers by delivering a wholly enhanced smartphone experience. As a leader in 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, LG continues its commitment to developing groundbreaking LTE technologies and fulfilling consumer demands with differentiated LTE devices of the highest quality, all of which are based on the company's wealth of LTE patents and technical knowledge. For more information, please visit www.lg.com.
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Grace VanderWaal brings a much-needed message to her peers and youth in general with the release of her new single “Clearly.” which remakes Johnny Nash’s classic “I Can See Clearly Now.”
VanderWaal’s fresh take on the classic, which is most widely known for its previous cover by Jimmy Cliff for the 1993 movie “Cool Runnings,” redirects the upbeat sun-is-perpetually-shining tune and applies a more realistic spin.
It is a question that demands an answer. Okay, it’s going to be a bright, bright sun-shiny day…but how do I walk out when the clouds are skewing my view? What does this look like in real life?
The song is more of an original with the cover revealing itself in the chorus. Even there, VanderWaal puts a little bit of her own twist on it:
“I can see clearly now //
The rain has gone //
I accept all the things that I cannot change //
Gone are the dark clouds //
The dawn has come //
It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day”
I accept all the things that I cannot change…a tough, but necessary resolve if we ever hope to keep our sanity.
The verses are penned with the maturity and vision of someone who has experienced the darker side of life. She cannot forgive herself for the mistakes she’s made and so her only solution is to hide away from a cruel world that only seeks to remind her of her previous failings.
The video gives a great visual of a very literal hiding away with VanderWaal having locked herself away behind closed doors. She “shields” herself with makeup, thinking that this will be an added layer of armor that will help her to hide her pain.
But as Vanderwaal realizes that a layer of paint and a worldly-standard is not what is going to help her overcome her obstacles, the winds of change begin to blow through the room. A visual representation of the fierceness inside that will allow her to break free from what holds her back.
She emerges from her room ready to take on the world (special appearance by Doc Martins) and out into the very literal sunshine, gospel choir in tow.
The pop sweetheart gives us another deeply valuable lesson for all ages. We can hide physically or metaphorically but ultimately those are not the things that will mend our hearts. Sooner or later, we’ve got to deal with our pain if we ever hope to heal and move forward.
With each new release from VanderWaal, I grow more impressed. She sings with the maturity of a chanteuse far beyond her years, but consistently brings a message of purity that is so vitally important for her generation in time where the world is telling young women that all they have to offer is their sexuality.
It is a message of hope that we all need – – that all is not lost, and purity (in every sense of the word) still does exist when we are purposeful to turn from what may be expected of us and walk in the light.
We are never too far gone.
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We traveled down to Atlanta to moot* Mark Bennett before his oral argument before the Georgia Supreme Court, where he was arguing a First Amendment case pro bono on behalf of a poor schmuck. Nobody famous. Nobody rich. Nobody anybody would think twice about. Except Bennett, which was why he was there, on his own dime, to help.
You know who wasn’t there? The ACLU.
This wasn’t an issue at the time. Nobody expected the ACLU to step up to aid Bennett’s defense of the First Amendment. It was, at that point, an organization that had to divvy up its scarce resources carefully, and it’s concerns about free speech were already deeply conflicted. Fair enough (not really, but that’s how it was).
Then a rich guy sued a couple of really rich, huge corporations and a funny and fabulously successful comedian in a ridiculous suit. It wasn’t only silly, but relatively inconsequential, as everyone involved could afford the best legal counsel available. Plus, the case was legally very clear cut. There was little no risk that it would have deleterious consequences for free speech.
But the comedian was very popular with progressive audiences. Beloved, even if not always sufficiently knowledgeable and nuanced to get his information right. Still, he made fun of the people they loved to hate, so they loved him. And so did the ACLU of West Virginia.
III. Anyone Can Legally Say “Eat Shit, Bob!” A. Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order is Ridiculous. Courts Can’t Tell Media Companies How to Report, Bob. 1. All of John Oliver’s Speech Was Protected by the First Amendment. You Can’t Sue People for Being Mean to You, Bob. 2. Plaintiff’s Requested Injunction is Clearly Unconstitutional. You Can’t Get a Court Order Telling the Press How to Cover Stories, Bob.
Ha! They said “Eat Shit, Bob!” For the sake of the argument, the brief added little, if anything. The language was designed to make the groundlings laugh their asses off, but it’s banal stuff at best, and likely to make a judge cringe at its pointless vulgarity at worst.
Then again, it didn’t really matter, as the ACLU was coming in as amicus, so it was merely a supplement to the sound arguments that extremely capable counsel would proffer to the court. There were the real lawyers, making real lawyer arguments, and then there was the ACLU playing the clown for the benefit of those watching from a distance. Oh, how their fans would laugh and laugh, and love the ACLU so dearly for defending the beloved comedian (while forgetting that the primary defendants were mega-corporations who loved the same comedian enough to pay him handsomely for his snark). More importantly, the fans would adore the ACLU’s outrageous snark, the sort of very funny stuff they love so much on social media, and here, their favorite civil rights organization was writing it for stuffy old judges.
How cool is that?
And, frankly, “why the hell not?” appears to be the motivating factor in many of the decisions made by Jamie Lynn Crofts of the ACLU of West Virginia. Indeed, Jamie — who, with this filing has quickly climbed up many rungs on my “favorite 1st Amendment lawyers” list — appears to be channeling her inner John Oliver in much of the filing, as it appears to treat the filing in about the same manner with which Oliver approaches the subjects he satirizes on his show: it’s detailed, thorough, hilarious and razer sharp as it slices and dices its subject.
This is exactly the reaction the ACLU hoped to achieve. Not with the court. Not with a knowledgeable legal audience, but to the non-lawyers who would adore it’s rather low-brow snark and not realize that the legal issue required no heavy lifting. It was the ACLU screaming, “hey guys, look at us! Aren’t we cool!!!” And indeed, cool they were.
This isn’t the first time an amicus brief was proffered that was humorous. Ilya Shapiro and P.J. O’Rourke submitted a satirical brief in a case a few years back as well. Of course, that was to the Supreme Court, not a district court. That was in a case of first impression, not a pedestrian defamation case. The satirical nature of the brief was a critical aspect of the argument and not gratuitous. And the brief was witty, not funny.
Was there anything wrong with the ACLU submitting its funny paper to the court? Nope. They were on the right side of the Constitution, and there
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FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- The ex-wife of a North Carolina state senator has weighed in on recent controversy surrounding the couple's alleged misuse of welfare in the late-90s.Through a statement, Elizabeth Longbottom Meredith confirmed she and Senator Wesley Meredith (R-Cumberland) applied for welfare together. The assistance was received and used when the couple earned an annual income in the six-figure range.Earlier this week, the senator's 19th district opponent, Fayetteville attorney Billy Richardson, released financial and public assistance documents to the media showing the couple was on Medicaid and WIC.While both Republicans and Democrats have called on Meredith to address the allegations, the senator has remained mum on the issue outside of calling Richardson's document release a "below the belt" personal attack.On Thursday morning, Ms. Meredith's attorney forwarded a statement on the issue to ABC 11."In the late 1990s, I was a homemaker and stay at [home] mother," she said in the statement. "I had no outside source of income. I was totally dependent on Wesley's income. He did not keep me informed about the financial decisions he made for our family.""I was not aware of what happened until my domestic attorney brought it to my attention," Ms. Meredith's statement continued. "I have cooperated and will continue to cooperate with any investigation.""I am and have been a single parent for 18 years. I want to raise my children and do not want to be the focus of any campaign."Earlier in the week, the Department of Social Services confirmed the state would investigate any report of fraud. Ms. Meredith's attorney confirms she has already been contacted about an investigation.Richardson's campaign also provided the documents to the department and the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office.The D.A.'s office is not an investigating agency, and it's unlikely criminal charges would stem from this case.Representatives from both offices said civil action usually resolves proven fraud cases. DHHS guidelines indicate that would happen through voluntary repayment, wage garnishment, estate recovery or liens.A day after Richardson released the documents, North Carolina Republicans and Democrats responded.Both groups requested Meredith to come forward and address the allegations."Should the allegations prove true, we will call on Senator Meredith to accept responsibility, repay the funds and apologize to the taxpayers of this county and state," said Linda Devore, Chair of the Cumberland County Republican Party. "However, if Senator Meredith is falsely accused for political purposes, we challenge voters to hold his opponent Mr. Richardson, responsible.""The public deserves to learn the truth from men asking for our trust. Character and integrity matter, and our families deserve to know that those elected to represent them share their values," said Devore, expressing disappointment in the allegations.The North Carolina Republican Senate Caucus called the accusations "desperate and despicable" in their statement, challenging Richardson's timing of the document release a day after disparaging poll numbers were released.On Wednesday evening, Cumberland Democratic Party Chair Dr. Vikki Andrews released a statement, highlighting controversy from a 2010 election."Senator Meredith has yet to disavow the allegations. Instead, he claims memory lapse in this matter. He then attempts to pivot away from the substance of the allegations by condemning them as a 'below the belt personal attack' and'something I will not engage in....' Sadly, Senator Meredith fails to acknowledge his last two campaigns, which were hallmarked by innuendo and thinly veiled character assassination of then Senator Margaret Dickson portraying her as a prostitute and a thief as well as the nonstop derogatory assault on Democratic candidate George Tatum."Early Thursday morning, the Progress North Carolina Action group launched an online petition that also called on Senator Meredith to address the allegations."North Carolina taxpayers deserve to know whether Sen. Meredith cheated them by abusing government assistance despite his comfortable income," said Gerrick Brenner, Executive Director of Progress North Carolina Action. "The Cumberland County Republican Party has it right when they said, 'The public deserves the truth from the men asking or our trust.' As someone who claims to support family values, Sen. Meredith should explain these allegations instead of attempting to deflect criticism onto his opponent."A request sent to Meredith by ABC 11 Thursday has not been acknowledged.
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電梯位置。
【10:30】葵芳有防暴警員被人以雜物投擲，隨後在無舉旗下，向橋上人群發射多發胡椒彈球。
【10:28】 警察兩度衝入去觀塘APM商場，有警員用警棍打向正在跑走的示威者，又向正進行新聞直播的記者噴胡椒噴劑。
【10:30】 防暴警員被人以雜物投擲，隨後在無舉旗下，向橋上人群發射多發胡椒彈球。
【10:26】西灣河警開槍現場，警方一度施方催淚彈軀散現場市民，現場出現多處火頭，有雜物起火。
【10:25】大圍站警員撤上天橋戒備，有警員透露由於剛才有人堵路，因此前來迴旋處清路障。
【10:10】大圍站c出口附近天橋已解封，有市民在地面指罵橋上近20名防暴警察。
【10:07】將軍澳唐明街迴旋處示威者再度架設路障，有市民企圖步行前往市區。
【10:03】 葵芳葵福路多個交通燈被破壞，有人拆掉附近鐵欄，並將其拖出，當作路障；至於荃灣區，荃灣citywalk 天橋 一名女子一度在警前方指罵，不滿警方不斷用武力，被噴胡椒噴霧。 警一度欲衝入citywalk商場。
【10:00】大老山隧道往九龍方向疑發生火警，現場有大量濃煙。
【09:55】防暴警察在觀塘站近apm出入口戒備，近百名示威者聚集商場出口指罵警員，商場大部分商舖關門，�
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President Trump told a cheering group of black supporters that he deserves “100 percent” support for his record on issues impacting African Americans.
Trump regaled the White House Black History Month celebration Thursday night with an accounting of economic statistics and legislative victories on criminal justice reform and funding for historically black colleges.
“I just want to congratulate the black community because what you’ve done in the progress you’ve made over the last three years,” Trump said in the White House East Room.
“The African American poverty rate has plummeted to the lowest level in the history of our country,” Trump said. “These are good numbers. I don’t know. I mean, I should be at 100% I hate to tell you, right?”
The crowd repeatedly chanted, “Four more years!”
Trump praised his advocacy for the First Step Act that shortened many prison sentences, and his decision to give clemency to multiple African Americans, including Alice Johnson, whom he released in 2018 on Kim Kardashian’s recommendation, and Angela Stanton King, an author and reality TV star whom he pardoned this month.
“Angela, thank you for being here. Enjoy your life,” he said.
Trump said he understood injustice impacting African Americans because of his own experience as president.
“I get treated unfairly, too. We all get treated unfairly,” Trump said. “You know when you get treated unfairly? You know what you have to do? Just keep winning. Win, win, win. Keep winning. That’s what you’ve been doing.”
Although Trump’s event largely focused on African American-related issues, he vowed to put the “first female on the moon” as his administration seeks to resume lunar landings by 2024.
Trump also bemoaned the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has tanked the stock market with a more than 3,000-point nosedive in the Dow this week amid fear of a global pandemic.
“Everything can be perfect and then you hear, ‘Gee, there’s a bug. There’s a flu, there’s a virus, they didn’t know what it was in China,’ ” Trump said, adding: “But it’s working out very professionally, we’re doing a tremendous job.”
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A team of researchers from Carnegie Museum of Natural History has described a new genus and species of carnivorous amphibian from western Pennsylvania. The fossil skull, found in 2004 near Pittsburgh International Airport, was recovered from rocks deposited approximately 300 million years ago during the Late Pennsylvanian Period. Named Fedexia striegeli, it is one of only a very few relatively large amphibian fossils to display evidence of a predominantly terrestrial (land-based) life history so early in geologic time.
The rocks where Fedexia was found are nearly 20 million years older than the localities of its fossil relatives, suggesting that the expansion and diversification of this group occurred much earlier than had been recognized previously. The full paper are being released in Annals of Carnegie Museum, Volume 78, Number 4, 15 March 2010.
Fedexia was described on the basis of a remarkably well-preserved fossil skull. Unlike similar discoveries, the five-inch-long (11.5 cm) fossil skull remained three-dimensional over time because it was never crushed by rocks that were deposited above it. Fedexia striegeli was named for FedEx, the corporation that owns the land on which the fossil was found, and for amateur discoverer Mr. Adam Striegel, who originally found the specimen on a geology field trip while a senior at the University of Pittsburgh.
Climate Change Likely a Factor
Fedexia represents an extinct group of amphibians called Trematopidae that lived about 70 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared. Unlike almost all other Pennsylvanian Period amphibians, which did not often venture out of the water, this rare, diverse group lived mostly on land, returning to the water perhaps only to mate or lay eggs. The trematopids also provide evidence of the earliest vertebrate life in North America adapted to a mostly terrestrial existence. Their success may have been a result of a long-term, global trend toward drier, warmer conditions that reached its climax near the end of the Pennsylvanian Period.
At the time of Fedexia's preservation, the earth's climate was in a period of transition. Immense glaciers in Earth's southern polar region produced rapidly fluctuating global climates. Western Pennsylvania, which was near the equator at that time, experienced tremendous amounts of rain. Swamps which would later develop into coal developed, and amphibians -- which are dependent on moist conditions -- flourished; in fact, the Pennsylvanian Period is known as the "Age of Amphibians."
Gradually, however, as an increasing amount of the planet's water became locked up in polar ice, the sea level dropped and more land was exposed. Vast regions of the earth became drier and warmer, including the region that would become western Pennsylvania. The coal swamps and lakes dried up, and many of the coal-forming plants became extinct. It was at this time that amphibian populations in what would become the Pittsburgh region shifted from mainly aquatic to mainly terrestrial, paralleling the change in climate from tropical to semi-arid. Vertebrates that had already begun adapting to terrestrial life -- including amphibians closely related to Fedexia striegeli -- became far more abundant, widespread, and diverse than their relatives who were still dependent upon cooler, moist environments.
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The large number of trematopid amphibians appearing in the fossil record in the Permian Period suggests that climate change was a major factor in the diversification of terrestrial amphibians. The appearance of Fedexia during the Pennsylvanian Period -- 20 million years earlier than the Permian -- was an early indicator of the diversification that was to come. Co-author David Brezinski states, "The one-to-one correspondence between this early appearance of trematopids in the fossil record and the preservation of dry climate indicators in the surrounding rock units suggests that this is a climatically driven immigration and/or origination event."
Although the appearance of Fedexia and other highly terrestrial vertebrates in the fossil record seems sudden, this is undoubtedly misleading. They or their close relatives had probably already existed for a few million years, occupying upland regions where conditions for fossil preservation were not optimal. However, the climatic change to drier, warmer conditions led to an explosive dispersal of terrestrial vertebrates to coastal regions and lowlands -- including western Pennsylvania -- where accumulating sediments increased the chances for fossil preservation. Because western Pennsylvania is the "type stratigraphic sequence" -- or best record -- of sediments deposited during the Pennsylvanian geologic period, this region offers exceptional opportunities for future discoveries of terrestrial vertebrate fossils of this age.
A Remarkably Preserved Fossil
Fedexia striegeli was described on the basis of a remarkably well-preserved fossil skull. Unlike many other fossil finds, the fossil skull remained three-dimensional and did not suffer post-mortem crushing over time by the compaction of rock formations above it.
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Hungarian Prime Minister and Chairman of Fidesz party Viktor Orban | Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images Hungary and Slovenia in diplomatic row over censorship request Budapest called for action after Slovenian magazine’s front cover caused outrage.
Slovenia rejected a Hungarian government request to censor journalists after a Slovenian publication ran a front cover showing a caricature of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán doing a Nazi salute.
A spokesperson for Slovenia's Permanent Representation to the European Union confirmed that the country's foreign ministry received a note from the Hungarian ambassador regarding the cover.
The Slovenian ministry replied to the Hungarians by saying that "[we] strictly respect the freedom of speech and freedom of the press and would never interfere in any of the media's editorial policy," the spokesperson said.
Mladina, a political magazine, has been covering what it describes as the close involvement of Orbán's ruling Fidesz party in Slovenian politics, including moves by individuals connected to Fidesz to invest in media outlets affiliated with its political ally, the opposition Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).
Following Fidesz's suspension from the European People's Party last month, Mladina ran a cover story portraying a cartoon figure of Orbán doing a Nazi salute. In the illustration, Orbán is surrounded by the leader of the SDS, Janez Janša, as well as two other SDS politicians: MEP Milan Zver and national lawmaker Branko Grims.
The cover sparked uproar among Hungarian government officials.
"To the intellectuals in the editorial offices at Mladina, which has a long history of sympathy for the multiculti agenda and deep antipathy for the Church, anyone who voices a staunch opposition to immigration and a desire to protect our Christian culture must be a Nazi," wrote Hungarian State Secretary for International Communications Zoltán Kovács.
According to Mladina, the note delivered to Slovenia's foreign ministry said that "the Embassy strongly believes that the cover of March 22, 2019 edition of the Mladina weekly exceeds the principles of the freedom of press as well as that of the freedom of expression... and requests the assistance of the esteemed Ministry to prevent similar incidents to happen in the future.”
Neither the Hungarian foreign ministry nor the SDS responded to requests for comment.
Asked why he chose to run the cover, Mladina editor-in-chief Grega Repovž told POLITICO that Orbán "talks like [a] fascist, he behaves like [a] fascist, he is using anti-Semitic rhetoric."
"Hungary is a country which does not hide that it tries to encroach upon the autonomy of the Slovenian state with capital and all other ways," he added.
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Comcast and Amazon have set a deal to launch Prime Video on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform in the first such integration of the streaming service into an MVPD’s offering.
The plan follows similar integrations of Netflix and YouTube on X1, giving the No. 1 U.S. cable distributor more digital options than its rivals. That is a noteworthy strategic stance as traditional TV bundle players try to diversify their offerings and respond to subscriber erosion, cord-shaving and the explosion of direct-to-consumer offerings.
Not only will Prime originals be available through the service, but Amazon’s burgeoning Video Channels service will open up an interesting new frontier in the historically cloistered environment of premium subscriptions. The digital platform hosts some 160 services, including Showtime and Starz, meaning it will effectively become a store within a store on X1. The bet by Comcast in creating that setup is that keeping customers within the Comcast cocoon and reducing friction when they want to sample Amazon content is better in the long run.
Officials declined to address whether any consideration in the deal acknowledges that alternate path to signing up via Comcast for subscriptions to premium networks, a paradigm that has existed for cable providers for decades.
When the integration is complete later this year, Comcast’s 22 million-plus X1 customers will be able to search Prime Video content using the X1 Voice Remote, as well watching programming in 4K Ultra HD and HDR.
“Amazon Prime Video’s growing list of originals, movies, shows, documentaries, and kids’ programming will be an excellent complement to the overall X1 viewing experience,” said Dana Strong, President of Consumer Services, Comcast. “We want to give customers easy access to all their favorite content in one place. X1 continues to be a platform that can curate live TV, On Demand movies and shows, and streaming internet video and music titles into one, easy-to-use, seamless experience.”
Greg Hart, Vice President of Amazon Prime Video, said the integration “will make navigating between Prime Video and live TV easier than ever. We are excited for our Prime members to seamlessly find the shows and movies they love.”
Amazon’s potency as a subscription driver came up later in the day on the CBS quarterly earnings call. While the Comcast integration was not discussed, executives were asked about the results of All Access and Showtime being sold through Amazon.
“Amazon has been absolutely amazing in terms of growing our subs,” said CEO Les Moonves. “We really like what they’re doing. We get more from them than we do from any of our partners.”
Joseph Ianniello, COO of CS, put it in more essential terms. “Amazon changes business models,” he said.
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Update: This article is now part of my book “React.js Beyond The Basics”.
Read the updated version of this content and more about React at jscomplete.com/react-beyond-basics.
When I teach React to beginners, I start by introducing them to the React API. Then I have them build a simple browser game after that. I think this is a good introduction strategy, because a simple game usually has a small state and, in most cases, no data dependencies at all. Learners get to focus entirely on the React API itself. The official React tutorial is a simple Tic-Tac-Toe game, which is an excellent choice.
Building simple game apps beats building abstract (and todo) apps on so many levels. I have always been against the use of abstract foo-bar types of examples, because they lack context and engagement.
Learners need to like what they are building. They need to accomplish something at the end of each phase in their learning journey. They need to make design decisions and see progress on features they can relate to.
Please note that this article is not a beginner’s tutorial. I will be assuming that you know the basics of React. If you are absolutely new to React, start by writing your first React component and then learn the fundamental concepts of React.
The Target Sum Game: Pick the set of challenge numbers that sum to the target 42 within 10 seconds
I named the game we are going to build in this article The Target Sum. It is a simple one: you start with a random number in the header, the target (42 in the screenshot above), and a list of random challenge numbers below that target (the six numbers in the screenshot above).
Four of the six random numbers used above (8, 5, 13, 16) add up exactly to the target sum of 42. Picking the correct subset of numbers is how you win the game.
Wanna play a few rounds? Click the Start button below:
Were you able to win? I am SO bad at this game.
Now that you know what we are going to build, let’s dive right in. Don’t worry— we will build this game in small increments, one step at a time.
Step #1: initial markup and styles
It is a good idea to start with any known markups and styles to get those out of the way. With simple games like this one, this is usually an easy task. Just put mock static content where the dynamic content will eventually be.
To keep this article as short as possible and focused on React, I will start with some initial ready markup and CSS. Here is a jsComplete code session that you can use to start: jsdrops.com/rg-0
If you want to follow along with a different development environment, here is all the CSS that I used to style the markup above:
.game { display: inline-flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center; width: 100%;}.target { border: thin solid #999; width: 40%; height: 75px; font-size: 45px; text-align: center; display: inline-block; background-color: #ccc;}.challenge-numbers { width: 85%; margin: 1rem auto;}.number { border: thin solid lightgray; background-color: #eee; width: 40%; text-align: center; font-size: 36px; border-radius: 5px; margin: 1rem 5%; display: inline-block;}.footer { display: flex; width: 90%; justify-content: space-between; }.timer-value { color: darkgreen; font-size: 2rem; }
I am not very good with CSS, and some of my choices above are probably questionable. Do not get distracted by that. We have a game to build.
Step #2: extracting components
Once we reach a good state for the initial markup and styles, it’s natural to think about components as a next step. There are many reasons to extract part of the code into a component. For this example, I would like to focus on just one reason: Shared Behavior.
A good indicator that you need a new component is when multiple elements are going to share the exact same behavior. In our example, you can click any of the six random challenge numbers to sum towards the target number. These clicks will trigger UI changes. This shared behavior means that we should create a component to represent a single number. I will simply name that Number.
The new changes introduced in every code snippet below are highlighted in bold.
// Step #2
class Number extends React.Component { render() { return <div className="number
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If you are here that means you are thinking to learn some of the new programming languages which will help you to get the highest paying job in the market. It does not matter whether you are a beginner or experienced; it is natural to think for the career prospect. No matter with all the factors such as the excellent performance and easy learning, we mainly much more focused on how much salary we can get after learning those languages. So, here is the list of a top paying programming languages in the market. This data is according to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2019.
Also, keep in mind that the rate for programming jobs in San Francisco may be different according to location, like NYC, Seattle and so on.
10 Highest Paid Programming Languages in 2020
Globally
United States
Lets have a quick look on each of these technologies.
Kotlin
Kotlin from the past couple of years has become much more famous programming language. It is an easily typed programming language which is developed by the company JetBrains. It has now been named as the language for the development of Android apps officially.
The popularity of this language has been increasing on a daily basis since it has been introduced as an Android app primary language for the development. Its best part is that it runs on the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) and is 100% interoperable. It also works with the JavaScript for both the backend and frontend development, which makes it versatile. Thus, if you are looking to learn a new language, then Kotlin is a for you.
Objective-C
It is a upgraded version to its predecessor language C, it is the language which is used by the Apple to develop and build its iOS and OS X platform. Apple heavily uses it for its Cocoa Touch, Application Program Interface (API), and Cocoa.
The total working of the Apple platform has already made sure that people with Objective-C skills are always high in demand. This language can fetch the developers a salary much closer to around six-figure due to the dependency of Apple on this language.
Rust
Rust is a programming language which is developed by the developers of Mozilla Firefox, it is the best language for the development of mobile apps and has been rated as the best programming language in the year 2018.
Rust has proceeded the C++ and C with respect to the security, speed, and agility. The primary reason for the popularity of this object-oriented programming language is its safe code system that eliminates the strange behavior, and even the system crashes by restricting the access of program to a specific part of the memory.
Just because of its high rated reviews, Coursea and Dropbox have started showing interest in the Rust. The popularity of this language is going to grow in the coming future as well.
Go
Go language, which is also known by the name as Golang, is developed by Google. It is a language which comes after Python. This is a language which is a favorite for the Python lovers. This language even provides the support for multithreading.
Go language is simple, just like the Python. If anyone wants a job at Google then try learning this language, it is straightforward and easy to learn the language.
Go language is mostly used in Silicon Valley. All those people who want to get a job in America Silicon Valley then make sure that you master on the Go Programming language.
F#
F#, which is pronounced as F sharp, is developed and designed by Microsoft. It is a language which is mainly used in the data statistical, artificial application, scientific research, data analytics, and game designing, etc.
F# supports multi-paradigm with a rich set of the library which helps to deal with each and every domain no matter whether it is a web-based application, desktop-based application, or mobile-based one.
According to the report which has been revealed by the StackOverflow, F# is one of the top paying technology, as it is getting popular on a daily basis and soon it will be going to be a top-rated programming language.
Scala
Scala, which is a high-level programming language, is developed for both the functional and object-oriented, it is designed in the year 2004 by Martin Odersky. It is intended to be a fast, powerful, and developer friendly programming language.
As of now, the latest version of the Scala is 2.14.8. Scala is the blending of two words: Scalable and Language.
Scala even allows the developers to define the types which are associated with the behavior attributes and data attributes. Scala uses the Java Libraries and Java Virtual Machine which makes it easily compatible with Java, thus gives feasibility to use Scala into any of the application which is based on Java.
Clojure
Clojure is a dynamic, general purpose and predominantly
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One of my favourite Pentecostal saints of all times is Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922), Indian activist, evangelist and holy roller. Over a hundred years before Malala she campaigned for women’s right to education, and she was extremely active in helping the poor and discriminated.
Born in a Brahmite family in what is now the state of Karnataka, she started to study at an early age and learned Sanskrit along with sacred Hinduist texts, astronomy, physiology and more. This was controversial since she lacked a penis, but her father encouraged her as she learned more and more about society, religion and activism.
In 1883 she went to England and taught Sanskrit at an Anglican monastery in Wantage. There she was saved. “I realized,” she later wrote, “after reading the fourth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, that Christ was truly the Divine Saviour he claimed to be, and no one but He could transform and uplift the downtrodden women of India.”
As she returned to her home country, she bought a piece of land outside Pune and started a Christian social community for young widows called Mukti, Sanskrit for Liberation. She also helped people who were orphaned, disabled or homeless, and when a famine hit India in 1896, Ramabai rescued over a thousand people and brought many of them to the Mukti mission.
In 1905, Mukti was transformed by a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Hundreds were saved at the community, and they prayed, worshipped and studied the Word of God like crazy. Miracles started to happen as the Holy Spirit bestowed His gifts to the girls at Mukti. This happened at the same time as the mighty Azusa Street revival was going on in Los Angeles, and by the Lord’s providence the groups got in touch with each other. In the January 1908 edition of Azusa Street’s paper the Apostolic Faith, the following report from Ramabai was provided:
“One Sunday, as I was coming out of the church, after the morning service, I saw some girls standing near the door of a worker’s room. They seemed greatly excited and wondering. I soon found out the cause. A girl was praying aloud, and praising God in the English language. She did not know the language.”
Many Pentecostal leaders, including T. B. Barratt and Carrie Judd Montgomery, went to Mukti and witnessed the amazing outpouring among the poor and marginalized. The Mukti community became the cornerstone of Indian Pentecostal mission, like L.A. was in the United States or Oslo in Europe, and thousands were blessed through what God was doing there. Ramabai continued to preach the Gospel, save the poor and campaign for women’s rights in the power of the Holy Spirit. She went home to Heaven in 1922.
Lord, help me become as passionate about You and the poor as Pandita Ramabai was, and let her example be an inspiration to many. Amen.
For a more detailed biography of Ramabai’s amazing life, check out Christianity Today’s article about her.
Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!
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ED Balls has condemned children's commissioner Dr Maggie Atkinson for using her years of professional experience in forming an opinion.
The schools secretary has called for an inquiry into how a qualified person with qualifications qualifying them to do their job could qualify their statements on matters they are qualified to comment on.
Balls said: "Responsible governance is not about taking the advice of proper experts, it's about Jamie Oliver making a nice salad or asking that large television nanny to dictate childcare policy even though she does seem to limit herself to houses with steps."
Julian Cook, professor of public policy at Reading University, said: "The public is often caught between highly trained experts who have studied a subject in depth and actually know what they are talking about and the bastard, son of a bitch whores we call politicians who spend their entire lives with the throbbing penis of the editor of the Daily Mail lodged firmly inside their filthy, lying mouths.
"It's difficult to know who to trust."
Meanwhile Dr Atkinson's statement – that children are qualitatively different from adults and should perhaps be treated as such – was condemned by members of the public who did not understand most of the words in it.
Nikki Hollis, a female thing from Carlisle, said: "This woman is basically saying that all children under 12 who are possessed by the devil should be given a loaded machine gun.
"If I see her round here I'll set my evil dog on her."
, some under-the-radar linebackers have also caught the coaching staff’s eye.
Undrafted free agents Nigel Harris and James Onwualu have both had strong camps and are pushing for spots on the team’s roster.
“They have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do, but they’re both athletic and instinctive and they have a chance,” Lynn said. “And what I really like about them is we’re trying to improve our special teams. That’s a point of emphasis, and those two guys can help our special teams.”
Etc.
Bosa, who didn’t participate in training camp a year ago due to a tough contract negotiation, said he took a lot out of his first pro camp. “I mean, obviously, I come in fresh without going through a training camp. But skill-wise and becoming a better player, there’s no better way than to play football,” he said. “Obviously, having more time to do that can be better.” … Safety Dwight Lowery, defensive tackle Brandon Mebane and Gates all were given the day off Wednesday, a reward for their years of service in the NFL. …Camp ended with the players running a set of sprints.
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Follow Dan Woike on Twitter @DanWoikeSports
Pune: Former Maharashtra chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said that with the help of people's blessings one can make a comeback.
"Nobody can stop you if you have blessings of the people. We definitely make a comeback if we have their blessings," the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly told a gathering in Alandi, a pilgrim town in Pune district.
"I think whether you are in power or in opposition, you have to walk on'sanmarg' (right path) and for doing so, you have to come here to get the blessings. Therefore, I have come here to get your blessings," Fadnavis added.
"Once you get blessings of the people, then you will definitely come again," he said.
During the state Assembly elections held in October, Fadnavis had repeatedly used'mi punha yein' (I will come again) slogan as part of his poll campaign.
The BJP and the Sena, which had fought the assembly polls in alliance, had secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats respectively.
The Sena, however, broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP after the latter declined to share the chief minister's post.
The Sena finally joined hands with the NCP and Congress to form the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government with Sena president Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister.
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other hand, can be made from wholesome, tasty ingredients that add only goodness. Think ranch, sweet mustard, caesar, green goddess, tahini, greek…as well my creamy red pepper thai dressing. There are so many combinations to keep you on your toes.
I’ll be posting up my favourite raw salad dressings soon, but for now, One Green Planet has got a few to tide you over.
4. Mix raw foods with cooked foods.
If you look at the diet of a raw foodist, you’ll notice that they eat probably at least twice the amount most people do. This is because raw fruits and veg are less calorie-dense and therefore need to be consumed in much bigger volumes in order to reach a required daily intake.
It’s no surprise, then, that eating raw can get expensive. But by keeping your portions the same and adding some higher-calorie, cooked food to your meals, you’ll be more likely to eat the raw veggies and not worry about feeling hungry (or spending more!)
Try combining a portion of cooked buckwheat, quinoa or steamed sweet potato to your salads for extra bulk, protein and fibre. Cooked chickpeas, black beans and lentils are great options too.
6. Enjoy raw desserts!
If there’s one thing you can definitely enjoy raw, it’s dessert! Not only does it give you a reason to have something sweet at the end of the day; you can be sure it’s only going to be filled with healthy fats, fibre and goodness.
There’s a huge range of raw dessert recipes to choose from across the net. Think strawberry cheesecake ; caramel apple pie ; chocolate fudge cake ; carrot cake, chocolate brownies …the list is endless! There’s no reason to miss out on your favourite indulgences when eating raw.
You can even blend up some frozen bananas to make your own ice cream. My raw cookie dough ice cream recipe can help you out with that.
7. Soak grains instead of cooking them.
Once you become more accustomed with eating raw foods, you could start soaking your grains instead of cooking them. This is something that some raw foodists do so they can still enjoy buckwheat, oats and quinoa etc, without heating them up.
The soaking times for each grain may vary, and it often requires a bit of time and thinking ahead. I personally have little experience with soaking grains; however, if you want to try eating your grains in a different way, it may be fun to try.
8. Don’t put pressure on yourself.
Most importantly, there is absolutely no pressure to eat raw, and it’s not something you should get hung up about.
Despite what you may read, there is plenty of nutrition and energy available in cooked foods (sometimes more so than in raw), which is why most nutritionists will recommend a combination of both cooked and raw foods in our diet.
It’s silly to avoid a perfectly healthy food just because it’s not raw (buckwheat, brown rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, kale, whatever). So it’s certainly not essential to make it a main focus, so long as you’re still getting a variety of vitamins and minerals from your food.
I hope these tips are at least somewhat helpful to those looking to add more raw food into their diet. If you have any of your own tips, let me know! I would love to hear how you get on.
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According to our Observer, who took this photo, people from Jizan were stopped at checkpoints set up by the border police.
This village belonging to members of the al-Said tribe has already been evacuated. Photo by our Observer.
Authorities have threatened to evacuate this village. Photo by our Observer.
A Saudi activist filmed arguments between members of tribes living in southern Saudi Arabia and a guard at a checkpoint in Jizan, a village near the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Saudi authorities deem the zone around Jizan dangerous and want to evacuate the village. However, the residents are refusing to budge. An activist from Jizane told us why.The video below shows men from the village of Jizane being stopped at a roadblock manned by border guards. An older man from Jizan steps forward. He tells the border police that it is the locals’ right to return to their village and stay there if they so desire.A second video shows the same older man sitting inside a border post, speaking to an officer, who is listening to him intently. The old man from Jizan is trying to convince the officer that the village does not need to be evacuated.Suddenly, the officer realizes that he is being filmed by one of the other people from Jizan. He orders him to stop recording.The online news site Sabq quoted Mohammed Shamrani, the governor of Aldair Bani Malik, located in the region of Jizan, who said that the evacuation orders had come from higher up – in other words, likely from the interior ministry. Several villages in the border zone with Yemen have already been evacuated.Everyone who was evacuated was given significant financial compensation as well as assistance with finding new housing, according to Shamrani. The governor further explained that the reasoning behind the evacuations is that Saudi Arabia wants to secure its border with Yemen and create a buffer zone between the two countries.FRANCE 24 made repeated attempts to contact the relevant authorities. For the time being, our team has not received a response.Since March 2015, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been conducting a military intervention in Yemen. The coalition supports exiled President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and is working to counter the insurrection led by Houthi rebels. The conflict has spilled across the border into Saudi Arabia on several occasions. In June 2013, for example, Houthi rebels in Yemen fired rockets across the border into the Saudi town of Najrane. Three people were killed and others were wounded. In retaliation, Saudi helicopters bombed Houthi positions.More recently, in June 2016, Saudi forces thwarted a Houthi attack on the towns of al-Khubah and Tawal, located on the Saudi-Yemeni border.
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17th Annual Burleigh Boardriders Single Fin Classic; Burleigh Heads; 11-12/1/2014
“…a throwback to a time when surfing was more sensual and less technical, about feeling and flattering a wave rather than dancing on it.”
Report by Nicholas Turner
Burleigh is the first in a trio of headland points that run toward the southern end of the Gold Coast. From a map these points look like the result of something stretching over the Pacific to pinch the shoreline between its fingers. As the most significant natural disturbances on the otherwise long, slightly concave and completely open coast, they do strange and sometimes agreeable things to currents and swells and (by association) waves, which is why (when the winds and whatnot are right) surfers tend to swarm in the waters around them like flies around shit.
The 17th Annual Burleigh Boardriders Single Fin Classic falls on one such weekend when the swell is considerable and the point is just the right place to make the most of it. It is also a quintessentially nice summer’s day, the stuff of big glossy coffee-table books and tourism commercials. The grassy headland is glowing its radiant green and the water is a near-neon blue, and beneath the cliff that divides them is Burleigh’s characteristic clutter of smooth, black volcanic rocks, on which children are walking as confidently as crabs and photographers are sitting behind tripods.
You’d have to leave the lens cap on to get a less than spectacular photograph of the place.
Out on the water the surfers are going through heats and battling with the regressive charms of pre-1985 boards. Apparently and indeed by sight, old single-fins take a bit of convincing to turn and/or go, mulish by comparison to the ultra-nimble, multi-finned fibreglass arrows they use today. It’s a throwback to a time when surfing was more sensual and less technical, about feeling and flattering a wave rather than dancing on it. On the ample but capricious waves breaking off the point today, it’s an opportunist’s game. Few rides are particularly long, and barrels are rare and then uncooperative. Through the rounds and semi-finals, the best riders seem to be able to talk to the board, convincing it to stop or go as the ocean makes up its mind; there’a something almost equestrian about it. Room for error is near-none; high-quality and much favoured riders find themselves eliminated in handfuls. The reigning title-holder (indeed, the world’s preeminent free-surfer) doesn’t even manage to make the final.
The headland is packed with spectators spread out along the cliffs, huddling for shade or else madly lathering up with suncream. As accords the festival vibe, everyone has been promised a post-competition cranking-out of tunes by a band called either ‘Tokyo Heat’ or ‘Tokyo Beef’, depending on which commentator is on the microphone. Popular fare includes soft-serve ice-cream, beer and the match day burgers that are being served up by the local scouts club. There’s a bunch of household-blender-sized dogs sitting around that seem never to like other household-blender-sized dogs that pass them by. And lots of motorised foot-scooters. 96% of sunglasses are black.
The footpath through the headland park provides something of a catwalk for the young locals to prowl/parade. Riding big, curvy fixed-gear bicycles, they hang in small groups and move at speeds that indicate neither destination nor timeframe; the same unchanged and fairly expressionless faces pass so often through the afternoon that they quickly become motifs. There’s a trio of colour-coordinated young women on low-riders with 50’s hairstyles and rolling, bubblegum-busy jaws; undoubtedly the Pink Ladies of Burleigh. Likewise a pair of enormous, shirtless lads with over-the-head handlebars, those ultra sharp haircuts and plenty of ink. In these impressive sorts of figures and the more than occasional sight of the Burleigh postcode (4220) on both clothes and skin around the place, it’s fair to say there’s those who consider this little bit of paradise a territory worth defining.
For someone unfamiliar with both the contestants and the finer points of surf competition, the commentary over the loudspeaker becomes a kind of blurry lens through which the event and its final are witnessed. It’s full of surf-talk and dopey, hung-over humour and endless ribbing that inevitably becomes infectious. Combined with the scenes out on the water, one soon grasps the meaning of terms
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Theresa May will meet European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Wednesday as Britain prepares to outline the legally-binding changes to the Brexit deal it seeks to address MPs’ concerns about the Northern Ireland backstop.
The commission said on Tuesday that the EU wanted to help the British prime minister to win a majority at Westminster for the deal but ruled out renegotiating the legally binding withdrawal agreement.
“The EU 27 will not reopen the withdrawal agreement, we cannot accept a time limit to the backstop or a unilateral exit clause,” commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said.
The prime minister told cabinet ministers on Tuesday that “alternative arrangements” for the Border could not replace the backstop, as Conservative backbenchers behind the so-called Malthouse compromise have argued.
Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay and attorney general Geoffrey Cox are expected to return to Brussels to meet EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier following their talks on Monday.
After Monday’s meeting, a spokesman for the Brexit department said Mr Barclay discussed the “alternative arrangements”, which include technological and administrative measures to ease friction on the Border.
BREXIT: The Facts Read them here
“While the commission engaged seriously with these proposals it expressed concerns about their viability to resolve the backstop. We agreed to keep exploring the use of alternative arrangements – especially how they might be developed to ensure the absence of a hard border in Northern Ireland on a permanent footing, avoiding the need for the backstop to ever enter force,” the spokesman said.
The EU expects Mr Cox to present draft legal text which he believes would enable him to change his legal advice to the government that Britain could be trapped within the backstop indefinitely. MPs are due to debate Brexit next week, when they are likely to get a chance to vote on an amendment that could compel the prime minister to seek an extension to the article 50 negotiating period by mid-March.
ERG fears
Moderate Conservatives fear that hardline Brexiteers in the European Research Group (ERG) are seeking to push Mrs May into leaving the EU without a deal. Former prime minister John Major on Tuesday night urged the “mainstream majority” of MPs to assert themselves against what he described as Brexit zealots who were manipulating the Conservatives.
“The decision parliament takes next week can undermine or revive the reputation of representative politics and from that flows so much of our whole way of life,” he said.
“Every so often, in our long history, there has come a moment when parliament has had to dig deep into its soul. Now is such a moment.”
Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday expressed regret at the decision of seven MPs to leave Labour in protest against his leadership and his approach to Brexit and to anti-Semitism within the party. But he rejected their claim that he had failed to respond to concerns they expressed.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell promised that Labour would undertake on “a mammoth, massive listening exercise” in response to the resignations.
“If it’s about the style of the leadership we’ll address that. If it’s about policy we’ll listen to that as well,” Mr McDonnell said.
Ruth George, a Labour MP close to the leadership, apologised on Tuesday after she suggested that the breakaway group might be secretly funded by Israel.
“I had no intention of invoking a conspiracy theory and I am deeply sorry that my ill-thought out and poorly worded comment did this. I withdraw it completely,” she said.
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'Man-eating' tiger shot dead in India Published duration 22 January 2014
image copyright AFP image caption There are about 1,700 tigers in the wild in India
Forest workers say they have shot dead a tiger blamed for killing three women in the past two weeks in southern India.
The tiger, described as a "man-eater" by authorities, killed the women in the Doddabetta Forest range near the town of Ooty in Tamil Nadu.
The district authorities had installed nearly 65 cameras in the villages and tea estates around the forest.
Nearly 45 schools were shut down and villagers were forced indoors.
"The Collector and the forest officials are deep inside the forest. But it has been confirmed that the tiger has been shot dead and not tranquilised," an official of the District Collector's office told BBC Radio Hindi's Imran Qureshi.
The tiger was also blamed for the death of several bison, including one just hours before it was itself killed.
There has been a spate of tiger attacks in India recently, with at least 17 people killed in little more than a month.
image copyright Joydip Suchandra Kundu image caption Forest guards and workers give way to a tiger inside India's Ranthambhore national park
A tigress in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is thought to have killed seven people, after straying from the Jim Corbett National Park.
And in December, forest officials caught a tiger that was believed to have killed three villagers in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
The jury is still out on whether a "man-eater" killed two people in Maharashtra's Tadoba region.
Another five people have been killed by a tiger in Karnataka.
The killings have created tension, with angry farmers vandalising a forest department office and threatening to take the law into their own hands.
There are about 1,700 tigers left in the wild in India.
It is estimated India had 100,000 tigers a century ago, but their numbers have declined sharply since then, due to poaching and rapidly shrinking habitats.
With increasing human encroachment into their reserves, tigers often compete for resources with nearby villagers, leading to conflict.
Most attacks on people are chance encounters gone wrong, and victims of such attacks are rarely dragged away as prey.
But a series of attacks on people in quick succession is a tell-tale sign of a man-eater at work.
image copyright AP image caption A tiger turning to human prey is said to be "a rare aberration"
A tiger usually makes one large kill every week. That's about 85,000 a year, across the whole of India.
Fewer than 85 humans are killed or injured by tigers every year in India - a fraction of the number killed by snakebites or rabies.
But people rarely discriminate between accidental and deliberate killings, and there has been criticism that local authorities resort too quickly to hunting down animals they have declared "man-eaters". The government is trying to clamp down on excessive use of those powers.
India's strong animal welfare lobby also insist "man-eaters" should be captured rather than shot, though not everyone agrees.
"Any confirmed'man-eater' should be eliminated, though not a tiger that accidentally kills someone in self-defence. Zoos already have far too many tigers," says Dr George Schaller, a leading field biologist.
But everyone agrees that prompt action is crucial.
"Once confirmed, a'man-eater' has to be dealt with promptly. Any delay is risky and this angers local people. This may undermine public support for conservation of tigers as a species," argues tiger biologist Dr Ullas Karanth.
Not surprisingly, most "man-eaters" in recent times have been reported from areas with high tiger populations, such as the Bandipur-Nagarahole, Tadoba, Corbett-Rajaji, Ranthambhore and Kaziranga regions.
image copyright WCS-India image caption The tiger in Bandipur which killed humans, which was captured after this picture was taken
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When we choose to believe, exercise faith unto repentance, and follow our Savior, Jesus Christ, we open our spiritual eyes to splendors we can scarcely imagine.
Babylon and Daniel Twenty-six hundred years ago, Babylon was the world’s great superpower. One ancient historian described the walls of Babylon that surrounded the city as more than 300 feet (90 m) high and 80 feet (25 m) thick. “In magnificence,” he wrote, “there is no other city that approaches … it.”1 In its day, Babylon was the world’s center of learning, law, and philosophy. Its military might was unparalleled. It shattered the power of Egypt. It invaded, torched, and looted the Assyrian capital, Nineveh. It easily conquered Jerusalem and carried away the best and brightest of the children of Israel back to Babylon to serve King Nebuchadnezzar. One of these captives was a young man by the name of Daniel. Many scholars believe that Daniel was between 12 and 17 years old at the time. Think of it, my beloved young Aaronic Priesthood holders: Daniel was very likely your age when he was taken into the king’s court to be educated in the language, laws, religion, and science of the worldly Babylon. Can you imagine what it would have felt like to be forced from your home, marched 500 miles (800 km) to a foreign city, and indoctrinated in the religion of your enemies? Daniel had been raised as a follower of Jehovah. He believed in and worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had studied the words of the prophets, and he knew of God’s interaction with man. But now, at a very young age, he was a prisoner-student in Babylon. The pressure on him must have been immense to abandon his old beliefs and adopt those of Babylon. But he stayed true to his faith—in word and in deed. Many of you know how it feels to defend an unpopular truth. In the Internet slang of today, we talk about getting “flamed” by those who disagree with us. But Daniel wasn’t just risking public ridicule. In Babylon, those who challenged the religious authorities understood what it means—figuratively and literally—to be “flamed.” Just ask Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.2 I don’t know if it was easy for Daniel to be a believer in such an environment. Some people are blessed with a believing heart—for them, faith seems to come as a gift from heaven. But I imagine that Daniel was like many of us who have to work for our testimonies. I’m confident that Daniel spent many hours on his knees praying, laying his questions and fears on the altar of faith, and waiting upon the Lord for understanding and wisdom. And the Lord did bless Daniel. Though his faith was challenged and ridiculed, he stayed true to what he knew by his own experience to be right. Daniel believed. Daniel did not doubt. And then one night, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that troubled his mind. He assembled his team of scholars and counselors and demanded that they describe the dream to him and also reveal the meaning of it. Of course, they could not. “No one can do what you ask,” they pleaded. But this only made Nebuchadnezzar more furious, and he commanded that all the wise men, magicians, astrologers, and counselors be cut in pieces—including Daniel and the other young students from Israel. You who are familiar with the book of Daniel know what happened next. Daniel asked Nebuchadnezzar for a little extra time, and he and his faithful companions went to the source of their faith and moral strength. They prayed to God and asked for divine help at this crucial moment in their lives. And “then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a … vision.”3 Daniel, the young boy from a conquered nation—who had been bullied and persecuted for believing in his strange religion—went before the king and revealed to him the dream and its interpretation. From that day on, as a direct result of his faithfulness to God, Daniel became a trusted counselor to the king, renowned for his wisdom in all of Babylon. The boy who believed and lived his faith had become a man of God. A prophet. A prince of righteousness.4
Are We like Daniel? To all of us who bear the holy priesthood of God, I ask, are we like Daniel? Do we stand loyal to God? Do we practice what we preach, or are we Sunday Christians only? Do our daily actions reflect clearly what we claim to believe? Do we help “the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted
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�って執行しているのが正しい」という声が多いが、それなら死刑制度が存在するのに処刑を10年間停止している韓国は、間違っているのか。死刑制度を廃止した国の多くは、「制度(法)は存在するが、執行は止める」というモラトリアムの時期を長くへてきた。イギリスの死刑もまた、死刑制度が存続しながら、モラトリアムの期間をへて、廃止へと向った。鳩山流に言えば、「正義を実現しない不法な状態」を現在の廃止国はたどってきたことになる。日本は先進的な死刑廃止国だったということは、もっと知られていいのではないか。最近、衆議院法務委員会調査室が『死刑に関する資料』をまとめた。少し引用してみたい。「平安時代になってからは、嵯峨天皇の弘仁元(810)年9月11日、藤原仲成が死刑に処せられて後は、少なくとも朝臣(あそみ・最初は皇別の有力な氏に与えられ、平安時代に有力な氏や皇子皇孫に与えられた)について、たとえ死刑の判決が下されても別勅で、遠流に処する慣行が生れた。御白河天皇の保元元(1156)年に、保元の乱後、源為義に死刑を科するまで、26代346年間、平将門や平ら忠常が梟首された特例を除いては、実際上、死刑が執行されることはなかった」346年も、だ。長い間、最高刑は「流罪」だった死刑廃止国だった歴史と伝統に、私たちはもっと注目してもいい。「日本は日本だ」と言う前に、日本のことをしっかりと把握し、踏まえるべきではないか。なぜ、日本は死刑を決めながらも流罪に減刑してきたのか。その奥底には、現在の終身刑の議論につながる「死刑」を極刑としながらも、ぎりぎり回避する智恵が宿っていたのではないか。格差社会が広がり、無�
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Article content
OTTAWA — Brad Trost, whose socially-conservative supporters helped elect Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, says he isn’t disappointed after his name was left off a list of “shadow ministers” released Wednesday.
With rivals Maxime Bernier and Kellie Leitch publicly falling into line, and a pro-life group also giving their approval, Scheer has faced little criticism from his base. But New Democrats are decrying the appointment of an apparently pro-life MP to the status of women portfolio — even as Tories swear they will not reopen the abortion debate.
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Trost had no complaints about the shadow cabinet. “You know, I was actually struck by how much continuity there was,” he said in an interview Thursday.
Ahead of finalizing a roster, Scheer called to consult him, Trost said. “I told him I wanted to give him an absolutely free hand. You need to have people completely say, ‘you have my unqualified support regardless.’ ” Trost has no plans to leave the House and said he prefers being able to comment on more than one file.
, Seek righteousness, seek humility. that you may be hid in the day of the Lords wrath. the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
The believing prayers of tens of thousands of Gods people can change the hearts of the leaders of Russia and Iran. God can cause situations to arise which will save Israel. He is Almighty. With God all things are possible!
With that in mind, I urge you to fervently seek Gods intervention in the following areas:
Pray that Gods mighty angels would surround and protect our nation in these perilous times;
Pray for unity among the body of Christ as we intercede for our nation and our world;
Pray that Americas leadership will seek godly wisdom as they face critical events in the weeks and months ahead;
Pray for the Holy Spirit to sweep across the globe, preparing hearts to accept Jesus and enter Gods Kingdom before tragic events unfold;
Pray for God to change the hearts of leaders in Russia, Iran, and other nations who wish to do harm to Israel.
Hopefully, our Lord will intervene and head off the disaster that seems to be approaching. Let us pray together. With God all things are possible!
God bless you. I remain...
from Project Hope v Project Fear to Project Fear v Project Hate.
Project Hate has come to dominate UK politics. Prime Minister Theresa May, who is responsible for the hostile environment policy and the Windrush Scandal, is propped up only by the Democratic Unionist Party, ultra-conservative loyalists. This sharp shift in UK politics to the right has rolled back any democratic revolution and stalled the Yes movement. More than that: just as the British ruling class took fright at the Yes campaign's impact in 2014, the SNP leadership has become worried by the development of a grassroots campaign beyond their control.
Let's not forget that the SNP's independence-lite proposals would have left the UK with crown powers, the British High Command control over the armed forces, membership of NATO intact, and the City of London's control of the currency untouched. The mass movement spawned by the referendum hasn't gone away, but its structure has evolved. RIC's third annual conference, for example, was the biggest yet with 3,000 people in attendance. An already concerned SNP leadership attempted to limit its appeal by organising the party's own conference next door on the same day.
The job was to 'hoover up' as many activists as possible from the wider Yes movement into the ranks of the SNP. Here, Yes supporters' more radical ambitions could be contained and smothered within the party's formidable centralised and top-down management structure.
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Canada is "disappointed in the extreme" by the UN Security Council's "paralysis" after Russia and China vetoed a resolution calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
"Today's failure by the UN Security Council to effectively deal with the crisis in Syria is yet another free pass for the illegitimate Assad regime and those backing it," Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement issued from Tel-Aviv on Saturday.
"Canada is disappointed in the extreme."
Baird said the UN's "paralysis of power is particularly deplorable given the reported upsurge in violence overnight in Homs, which we condemn without reservation."
"Those attempting to cling to power in Syria are morally bankrupt, and their disregard for human life is surpassed only by their cynicism for doing what is just and right.
The New Democrats also weighed in, calling on the federal government to "immediately recall" Canada's ambassador from Syria but also to apply diplomatic intervention.
"We call on the Canadian government to immediately exert diplomatic pressure on China and particularly Russia in order to secure a UN resolution on the crisis," said NDP foreign affairs critic Hélène Laverdière in a written statement Saturday.
The decision by two of the Security Council's permanent members to veto the resolution comes ahead of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's second trip to China, set for next week.
Baird, who is currently in Israel as part of a Middle East trip but will be travelling to China with Harper on Monday, said Canada continues to support the efforts of Syria's neighbours and others to resolve the current crisis.
"History will judge those whose obstruction serves only to prolong this senseless violence," said Baird.
"Canada will stand with the people of Syria in their efforts to achieve for themselves a brighter future for all Syrians."
Liberal foreign affairs critic Dominic Leblanc said the Liberals "deplore" the decision by Russia and China "to stand in the way" of ending the violence in Syria.
"We must do what we can to help bring about a peaceful political transition," Leblanc said in a written statement on Saturday.
Canadians outraged at the escalating violence in Syria held protests in various cities across Canada on Saturday.
The president of the Syrian-Canadian Council, Osama Kadi, told CBC News he was "really puzzled" by Russia and China's decision to veto the deal.
The massacre in Syria "didn't move the hearts of the Chinese and Russian," he said. "We will never lose hope."
But after "almost five decades of dictatorship [in Syria], enough is enough," Kadi said outside Old City Hall in Toronto, where dozens of Syrian-Canadians gathered to protest.
About 40 demonstrators gathered at the Syrian Embassy in Ottawa Saturday morning, calling on the international community to put an end to the violence in Syria.
Overnight Friday, vandals splashed red paint on the embassy's fence and facade. The RCMP is investigating.
Syrian embassies in six other countries were also vandalized overnight.
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途中までは、iPhoneからGoogleDocs経由で閲覧するために、自分用に作っていたのですが、ここまで書いちゃったらいっそのこと、東京のモバイラーにお役立て頂いたほうがいいなあ と思い、コツコツ調べ続けて約1週間。やっと出来ました。
これもすべては、外出先で快適に過ごす術を研究し続けた先達の知恵があればこそ。ありがとうございます。（参考サイトは↓に記載）
※店名の後ろに『●』がついているお店については、新井が実際に利用し、電源が使えることを確認済みです。それ以外のお店については、参考サイトからの情報を利用していますので未確認です。ご了承ください。
【今回調べて分かったこと】
■ルノアール系列最強伝説。（ルノアール、CafeMiyama、NEW YORKER’S Cafe）
ルノアールでは、全店で電源貸し出しを行っているとのことです。
バッテリー活動限界には”喫茶室ルノアール” – チェーン店の電源お貸し出し状況
■チェーン店の場合には、使える無線LANが概ね決まっている
ルノアール系列
→BBモバイルポイント＆ライブドアワイヤレスの両方に対応している模様。（一部店舗除く？）
マクドナルド
→BBモバイルポイント
つまり、大体どこへ行ってもBBモバイルポイントがあれば事が済む、という感じのようです。
ただ、一部ライブドアワイヤレス対応、なんて場所もあるようなので、
『多くのスポットを確保したいけど、2サービスを入るのは面倒だ』という方には、
WIRELESS GATEのヨドバシカメラプランが（確認した限り）定額最安。
毎月380円分も使わないや、ちょこっとだけ使えればいいよー、という人は、定額105円、従量課金最大980円のwi2もおすすめです。
■モバイラー御用達のカフェ『MOSPENG Cafe』はすべてなくなっていた
今回調べていて一番残念
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A faith healer sued me for criticizing him. This is a SLAPP suit designed to shut me up, but to also scare the rest of you. Do you want your free speech rights limited by this kind of behavior? What about your right to make up your own mind based on both sides of the debate?"I am trying to raise money so that I don't have to cave in. I'm going to fight this case as hard as I can. But, if I win the case and there is money left over, everything remaining will go to Opportunity Village.I think that Miller has defamed me too but I will NOT use any funds for a defamation counterclaim. I believe in the marketplace of ideas. My ideas are stronger than his. He can say whatever he wants about me -- I am not using the courts the way he does. I'm taking the high road.You can watch the videos that led to this, click here You can read the court filing here Thank you for your support.
"The complainant has claimed that the accused is an adult," police said. (Representational)
An 80-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a 15-year-old boy at a village in Bihar's Madhubani, the police said today.
Police said that the accused, who is a distant relative of the woman, allegedly raped her around midnight and tried to muffle her screams by forcing a piece of cloth into her mouth.
The noises alerted the woman's family members and they rushed to catch the boy. They beat him up before being handing him over to police.
The woman's daughter-in-law filed a police complaint.
"The complainant has claimed that the accused is an adult and his certificates which showed him as a minor were fake. This would be ascertained through medical examination," the Superintendent of Police Satya Prakash said.
The accused was sent to judicial custody after being produced before a magistrate, he said.
Getty Images
Rex Ryan’s days of guaranteeing the Super Bowl are over.
Ryan said today at the league meeting that if he could turn back time and change just one thing about his coaching career, he would change his previous practice of guaranteeing that his team would win the Super Bowl before the season.
“Guaranteeing that Super Bowl is always going to haunt me,” Ryan said. “If I could ever have a do-over, that would be it.”
When Ryan got to the AFC Championship Game in each of his first two seasons as the Jets’ coach, his bravado was widely viewed as a positive: It seemed that his team fed off his confidence. But now that the Jets have missed the playoffs for two straight years, his bravado has become a punch line.
So Ryan is right: Guaranteeing a Super Bowl is always going to haunt him. Until he actually does win a Super Bowl.
11 workers in the meatpacking department at a store in Jacksonville, Tex., voted to join the UFCW. Soon after, Wal-Mart began stocking only pre-wrapped meats, effectively eliminating the positions.
Don Schroeder, a Mintz Levin labor attorney who has represented corporations in similar battles for 18 years, said Target has been successful at defeating union election petitions in the past, even in union strongholds like Detroit. Unions generally don’t file a petition unless they feel they have the vote firmed up, but with a high-profile company like Target, he says, labor may be willing to take a chance.
“They know if they win one, it could be a domino effect,” he says.
___
AP Retail Writer Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.
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SPONTANEANATION with Paul F. Tompkins #140
Paul F. Tompkins uses the sound of his voice to welcome listeners back to Spontaneanation! This time out, Paul’s special return guest is Matt Besser of improv4humans! Matt chats about what his favorite ancient civilization is and why, the thrill of looking for shards in Santa Fe as a child, and the abandoned theme park Dogpatch USA. Then, they are joined by improvisers Craig Cackowski, Little Janet Varney, and Maya Deshmukh, to improvise a story set in a Family Owned Bike Shop. And as always, Eban (only the best) Schletter scores it all on piano!
San Francisco: Spontaneanation will be LIVE at the Marines Memorial Theatre on Friday, January 12th at 10pm as part of San Francisco SketchFest! For tickets go to www.paulftompkins.com/live
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his representatives that he actually signed a three-year deal with the club last season and was then loaned out to FMP, which essentially serves as a farm team for the bigger club. However, due to the way the Adriatic League regulates loan agreements, Bolden’s contract with Zvezda was initially reported as a one-year deal with FMP. He still intends to come over to the NBA next season after paying a buyout to Zvezda, which could be an issue for teams looking for a draft-and-stash player (the Blazers, Jazz, and Nets, who all have multiple first-rounders) at the end of the first round.
If Bolden had stayed at UCLA and spent a year running the break with Ball, there’s no telling where he would have been drafted. Two of the big men who replaced him at UCLA, TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu, are currently projected as first-round picks, even though neither is as versatile as Bolden. No matter where he ends up being taken, the 21-year-old has a mature perspective that belies his age: "Once the draft is over, it doesn’t matter whether you got picked in the lottery or in the second round," Bolden said. "Everyone has to prove themselves once they get to the NBA, and I know I can play."
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 7:09 am, April 28th, 2011 - 15 comments
Categories: act, Satire - Tags: blanket man, don brash, hilary calvert, Rodney Hide
Ben ‘Blanket Man’ Hana has thrown his loin cloth into the contest for ACT’s leadership. Despite not having any political experience, Blanket Man says he is the man for the job due to his firm commitment to laissez-faire economics, his excellent face recognition, and the virtue that he is not a tired, old, has-been, racist arsehole.
Rodney Hide refused to comment on Hana’s challenge until he joins the party, although an ‘ACToids for Blanket Man‘ Facebook page is already attracting supporters and it is understood that Hana has the backing of key rightwing donors including Alan Gibbs.
Hilary Calvert is understood to be strongly behind Hana’s surprise bid, professing a long-running fondness for blankets and eccentrics with substance abuse problems, which she says stems from her days at Otago Uni.
Pundits were quick to laud Hana as an exciting new leader who makes Don Brash look like warmed-up corned beef.
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The pre-ICO will last until 3 December 13:00 UTC, get involved now to receive up to an additional 20% bonus tokens, with an additional 5% for bids within the first 3 hours!
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the weight gets increased. This modified version just allows for a much better progression than traditional straight sets in my experience.
This of course is exactly why it’s what I recommend in The Muscle Building Workout Routine and many of the other highly proven workouts included in Superior Muscle Growth.
Straight Set Recommendations
Straight sets tend to be the default set/rep/weight structure I (and most others) recommend for the majority of the population. Some people prefer it done the traditional way (and have no problem maintaining reps like that), while others prefer the modified version that uses a rep range instead. As for me, I definitely prefer the modified version.
Pyramid Sets
The traditional text-book definition of pyramid sets involves increasing the weight each set while decreasing the number of reps being done. For example…
Traditional Pyramid Sets
Set Weight Reps #1 80lbs 10 #2 90lbs 8 #3 100lbs 6
As you can see, as the weight goes up, the number of reps being done goes down (hence the name “pyramid” sets). This example shows it being done over a rep range of 6-10, but it can just as easily be done over a smaller or larger range (4-12, 3-6, 8-10, 6-8, etc.) by using smaller or larger increases in weight.
In this case, your program wouldn’t prescribe something like 3 sets of 8. It would either call for 3 sets of whatever the rep range is (6-10 in this example), or specifically say something like 1 set of 10, 1 set of 8, and 1 set of 6 with guidelines to increase the weight by a certain amount each set.
Now, this traditional form of pyramid training is probably still the most common set structure you see these days in typical bodybuilding routines and fitness magazines/articles, and it’s practically the only one you ever saw years ago.
It also tends to be the default method that most people just start out using or eventually end up using, kinda like how Monday somehow just becomes “chest day.”
But the funny thing is, despite this popularity, pyramid sets are the dumbest set structure of them all.
You see, what traditional pyramid sets essentially cause you to do is greatly fatigue your muscles and nervous system BEFORE you reach your heaviest weights. You end up lifting the lightest weights when you are at your strongest and freshest, and are then at your weakest when you finally get to your heaviest weights. Yeah, real smart.
This of course is completely ass-backwards from the way it should be for most people to make their best progress. Plus, in many cases, those early sets serve more as warm ups rather than actual work sets that are truly challenging for you and are truly capable of creating the training stimulus you’re working out to create in the first place.
Granted, if you’re not warming up properly then I guess pyramid sets could serve a purpose in that regard. But then again, you SHOULD be warming up properly. You shouldn’t be turning your work sets into borderline warm up sets to make up for the fact that you train like a moron.
Pyramid Set Recommendations
For the majority of the population, none of what I just described is very ideal. And for that reason, traditional pyramid sets are typically the worst possible set structure to use. Can it work? Sure… assuming everything else is done right. But is it best or even remotely smart? Nope.
The one possible exception here would be beginners who are still learning proper form. In this case, pyramid sets serve the same purpose as training wheels on a bike. You get to start off each exercise by “practicing” with a lighter weight, and then continue to practice with slightly heavier weight as you go from set to set.
But beyond that, it’s just a stupid way to train. I don’t recommend it.
Reverse Pyramid Training
The traditional text-book definition of reverse pyramid training involves decreasing the weight each set while increasing the number of reps being done. For example…
Reverse Pyramid Training
Set Weight Reps #1 100lbs 6 #2 90lbs 8 #3 80lbs 10
As you can see, it’s the complete reverse of traditional pyramid training (which means the International Workout Method Naming Department did a damn fine job on this one).
As the weight goes down from set to set, the number of reps being done goes up. This example shows it being done over a rep range of 6-10, but it can once again easily be done over a smaller or larger range (4-12, 3-6, 8-10, 6-8, etc.) by using smaller or larger decreases in weight.
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Sherman (5-10, 242) has played in 51 games (21 starts) in four NFL seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs (2013-14) and Arizona Cardinals (2011-12). His career numbers include 36 catches for 315 yards (8.8 avg.) with two receiving touchdowns. On the ground, he owns five carries for 14 yards. With the Chiefs, Sherman has played in all 23 games (10 starts) in his two seasons with the club. His Chiefs numbers include 23 catches for 204 yards with two touchdown receptions and four carries for 11 yards.
When toddler used to be a tiny damsel toddler used to be in enjoy with a neighbour fellow who used to be 10 years aged than her and certain he didn't understand a tiny obese damsel with brackets on her tooth. But if toddler grow to be 18 y.o. killer dame he invited her to his position and it used to be no longer stiff to poke her handsome rump as stiff as he may. Simply believe he wedged his entire lengthy manhood in her tiny rump and poked her like a gadget. Was once toddler glad? Positive factor!
Congressman Daines recently accepted a $10,000 contribution from Citizens United for his 2014 campaign. Last November, in the same election that Montana voters sent Steve Daines to Congress, Montanans called on our elected officials to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision when we passed Initiative 166 with 75% of the vote. But instead of heeding the will of the voters, Daines is aligning himself with the very group leading the assault on our clean election laws. Please join me in demanding that Congressman Daines return the Citizens United money.
Concentrating on the turbulent months from February 1917 to November 1918, Geoffrey Swain explores the origins of the Civil War against the wider background of revolutionary Russia. He examines the aims of the anti-Bolshevik insurgents themselves; but he also shows how far the fear of civil war governed the action of the Provisional Government, and even the plans of the Bolsheviks. If the war itself can seem a fairly straightforward line-up of revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries, this study reveals how complex were the motives of the people who precipitated it.
arguments. It's much easier and lazier to say, see? These people are dangerous! This sort of reflexive demonization is repugnant, especially when it's overly employed to justify curbing fundamental rights. It looks even worse when you prematurely tar the other side for an atrocity actually committed by one of your own. How embarrassing. I'll leave you with this:
I wonder how much more "free" this man would feel as he was sentenced by a hypothetical Trump-appointed commissar for his "hate propaganda" against the president?
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Less
-backed holding companies, or something… I could see something like that being a deal breaker for people who are on the edge of things because for most of our lifetimes and for many voters who are, let’s say, middle aged… Russia hasn’t been a friendly force in the world to us… That, to me, would be the biggest gut punch-y sort of thing, and also, I think the thing that they are perhaps least prepared for, in some ways, as far as the rhetorical base that they have been laying for people.
If you would like to know more about the app I would gladly go into more details or show you the Instagram page with past prompts.
This is not something you want to be seeing when you look up! I am developing a writing app called Daily Prompt that utlises written and visual prompts to inspire stories and poems. Gorgon would really fit for a sci-fi story. Would you be interested in having Gorgon feature as a prompt? We add all proper credits in the app and on our Instagram page.Thanks, Danny
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(This January 100 story was refiled to correct typographical error in paragraph 8)
Slideshow ( 2 images )
CARACAS (Reuters) - Recession-hit Venezuela’s imports plunged by more than half to nearly $18 billion in 2016, President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday, as the country prioritized foreign debt payments despite chronic product shortages.
Maduro, in a meeting with businessmen, said the private sector accounted for $11 billion of imports, while the cash-strapped public sector brought in $6.8 billion of products.
“You accounted for 60 percent of imports for the first time in 100 years,” Maduro told the businessmen, blaming the oil price fall since mid-2014 for shrinking state coffers.
Imports have fallen during three years of recession in the member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries from a record high of $66 billion in 2012 to $36.9 billion in 2015, according to Central Bank figures.
Despite plunging oil revenues, Venezuela managed to pay $17 billion in foreign debt and build 360,000 new homes in a state housing project last year, Maduro said.
But Venezuela’s 30 million people have been suffering long shopping lines, while basic foodstuffs, medicines and other products have been running short. Price controls and nationalization have hurt domestic production.
Maduro said, “2016 was the hardest, longest and most difficult year we have known.”
In a research note on Monday, Torino Capital said Venezuela’s import data demonstrated the Maduro government’s commitment to keep paying maturing debt despite market speculation it may be heading toward an eventual default.
“The bottom line is that the data continues to show a very strong import contraction which shows no sign of abating and may even be intensifying,” the note said.
This “supports the hypothesis that the government is restricting foreign currency allocations for imports to free up resources that will allow it to continue servicing its external obligations,” Torino Capital said.
Also on Monday, Maduro announced the government would start selling Colombian pesos at state-run exchange houses along the border “very soon.”
“The exchange houses will have fair offers in pesos and bolivars,” Maduro said, without specifying what rate would be used.
The ruling Socialists introduced currency controls in 2003, but with demand vastly outpacing supply, many have turned to the black market. Venezuela’s cash-strapped economy has been in recession since 2014.
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TAMPA, Fla. -- The NFL's legal tampering period begins in exactly 31 days, which is when clubs are permitted to contact and enter into contract negotiations with players whose contracts are expiring with other teams. As of Friday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have $15 million in projected salary-cap space. The Bucs can create more cap room should they cut players such as Gerald McCoy and DeSean Jackson, who are due $13 million and $10 million, respectively.
Safety Tyrann Mathieu, who signed a one-year deal in March 2018 with the Texans, becomes an unrestricted free agent on March 13. Daniel Dunn/Icon Sportswire
Here are some players for the Bucs to consider:
Tyrann Mathieu, free safety
Some would say the Texans got Mathieu last year for a bargain at $7 million on a one-year deal. Tampa Bay's Justin Evans should rebound after dealing with a foot injury most of last season that limited his ability to cover large portions of the field, Chris Conte is in the twilight of his career and Jordan Whitehead showed lots of potential as a run-stopper, but Mathieu is always around the ball and has a lot of versatility. Plus, Mathieu has played for coach Bruce Arians and coordinator Todd Bowles. He had eight pass breakups and two interceptions last season, and graded out as Pro Football Focus' fourth-best run-stopper among safeties who played at least 50 percent of their team's defensive snaps.
Matt Bryant, kicker
The Falcons informed Bryant on Wednesday they would be releasing him (he was to make $3.5 million in 2019). Bucs fans know him well, even including him in the team's so-called "kicking curse." Since the Bucs' unceremonious release of Bryant in 2009, they have had the league's worst field goal percentage (77.3 percent) and gone through more kickers than any other NFL team. Bryant made 250 of 282 field goals (88.7 percent) with the Falcons and was 36 of 46 from 50-plus yards. He also missed only three extra point attempts in 10 seasons (Bucs kickers missed four last season). Bryant, who will turn 44 in May, is still making big kicks and has no plans to retire.
2019 NFL Free Agency Here's what to know:
• Most impactful moves for all 32 teams »
• Barnwell's lessons from free agency »
• Barnwell's grades: Tracking big moves »
• Winners and losers from free agency »
• Picking underrated, overrated signings »
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John Brown, wide receiver
Brown possess elite 4.34 speed in the 40-yard dash and can stretch the field vertically. His deal with the Ravens last season was for a reasonable $5 million, much less than the $10 million price tag of keeping Jackson. Having spent four years with the Cardinals, including a 1,000-yard season in 2015, he knows Arians' offense well. Brown can also line up in the slot and contribute in the short passing game, especially in the event Adam Humphries doesn't return. Beware of injuries, because last season was the first time since Brown's rookie season in 2014 that he played all 16 games.
Kareem Hunt, running back
It is unknown whether Peyton Barber can become the franchise back the Bucs need him to be and 2018 second-round pick Ronald Jones still has a lot to learn. Tampa Bay brought Hunt in on a pre-draft visit in 2017 and liked him a lot. But, would the Bucs take a chance on the former Chiefs running back who was captured on video kicking and shoving a woman during an altercation? General manager Jason Licht and Arians believe in giving second chances, but this would ultimately be an ownership call by the Glazer family -- including Darcie Glazer-Kassewitz, who is a prominent female voice within the organization and in the community.
Preston Brown, linebacker
If there's no movement on the Kwon Alexander front -- and the Bucs are expected to move to a 3-4 defense in 2019 -- Brown is an option, having spent the 2018 season as the Bengals' starting middle linebacker. He can play in both a 4-3 and 3-4 scheme. When he was with the Bills, at times, he looked to be a liability in coverage, but he performed better in seven games with the Bengals (he picked off Winston in Week 8 in 2018).
Deone Bucannon, linebacker
Bucannon is also a name to watch here because of his ties to the Cardinals under Arians and Bowles. Bowles converted the Cardinals' 2014 first-round pick from a safety to a hybrid linebacker. Granted, the Bucs already have this skill set in coverage with Lavonte David, who is to make $9 million next year
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-based scripting (e.g. UE4 blueprints)
As a Technical Artist at Alpha Channel, you’ll help bridge content and features to empower a small team to create incredible experiences. You’ll have the opportunity to contribute to a wide variety of features and content development; custom shaders, PBR pipeline, camera systems, post, procedural generation and much more.
Responsibilities Include:
Help us achieve AAA quality visuals with a small team by leveraging procedural techniques, lighting, shaders and other techniques
Work closely with artists, programmers and designers, and help act as the bridge between those teams
Help develop tools and pipelines to speed up our workflow
Help create innovative technical solutions to content generation problems.
Contribute to the overall design and development of our games. Spend the time to play regularly, give feedback and passionately contribute to creating an impactful high quality experience.
Qualifications:
You have previous experience as a Technical Artist with at least one game shipped
Strong artistic and technical skills
Skilled in scripting languages and/or node-based scripting (e.g. UE4 Blueprints)
Experience with PBR rendering pipelines
Strong communication and interpersonal skills
Able to work autonomously with little supervision
Passionate about video games and the game development industry
Nice to Have:
Unreal 4 Experience
Experience with creating and editing particle systems
Experience with rigging and procedural animation
Experience with optimization
Experience developing for modern consoles
As a Gameplay Programmer at Alpha Channel, you will be responsible for creating new mechanics and systems and bringing them to a high level of polish. You’ll be expected to prototype, conceive of, implement and iterate on new game features, and you’ll work closely with a cross-discipline team to pull it all together.
Responsibilities Include:
Work with a cross-discipline team to develop varied game features
Test your features, and seek out feedback from your peers to test, iterate and improve.
Debug and optimize your code and low and high levels to ensure optimal performance and quality
Work closely with other programmers to ensure your mechanics and systems work well with other mechanics and systems to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Contribute to the overall design and development of our games. Spend the time to play regularly, give feedback and passionately contribute to creating an impactful high quality experience.
Qualifications:
You have previous experience in gameplay programming with at least one game shipped
You are comfortable and experienced in C++ game development
Strong communication and interpersonal skills
Able to work autonomously with little supervision
Passionate about video games and the game development industry
Nice to Have:
Unreal 4 Experience
Experience developing for modern consoles
Experience with Steam and Epic Games Store development
Experience developing multiplayer games
As an AI Programmer at Alpha Channel, you’ll bring the characters and enemies of our worlds to life. You’ll work with our team to conceive of, prototype, develop and polish a variety of enemies and allies.
Responsibilities Include:
Create believable AI characters to inhabit the worlds we create
Build engaging new behaviors
Help build dynamic and engaging combat encounters
Work closely with our cross-discipline team to ensure the AI are able to test the player’s skill in using our different gameplay mechanics
Contribute to the overall design and development of our games. Spend the time to play regularly, give feedback and passionately contribute to creating an impactful high quality experience.
Qualifications:
You have previous experience in AI programming with at least one game shipped
Skilled in C++ and object-oriented programming
Strong 3D math background
Experienced in programming a variety of AI behaviours
You are able to write clean, reliable and efficient code
Strong communication and interpersonal skills
Able to work autonomously with little supervision
Passionate about video games and the game development industry
Nice to Have:
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s imagined “MAGA Country” attackers) were false from the start, revealing a political and media elite that see the nation as a horse to ride and abuse until it drops and dies.
At first, Democratic leadership may have been excited that someone like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was pushing Democratic support for infanticide, open borders and controversies involving blackface, Klan outfits and allegations of sexual assault, out of the headlines.
Those issues, however, are not forgotten by the American people. Neither is anti-Semitism. The American family is driven by a much longer-term outlook, which includes being concerned about what kind of country our children will be inheriting. Since at least January, the Democrats have had the very bad luck of being seen for what they are, and it is not what the American people imagine, or want, for their future.
• Tammy Bruce, president of Independent Women’s Voice, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk show host.
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Security guard injured while trying to break up melee
Store shut down after 6 women get in fight
A Jackson grocery store was shut down after six women got into a fight inside the business.A security guard was injured when he tried to break up the fight, which was reported about 7 p.m. at Food Depot on Northside Drive in Jackson.Witnesses said the women were throwing cantaloupes and produce and hit the guard over the head with a glass bottle of syrup. He was taken away in an ambulance.The women left behind a mess, including torn-out hair extensions and broken merchandise, witnesses said.
A Jackson grocery store was shut down after six women got into a fight inside the business.
A security guard was injured when he tried to break up the fight, which was reported about 7 p.m. at Food Depot on Northside Drive in Jackson.
Witnesses said the women were throwing cantaloupes and produce and hit the guard over the head with a glass bottle of syrup. He was taken away in an ambulance.
The women left behind a mess, including torn-out hair extensions and broken merchandise, witnesses said.
North Carolina Green Party
www.ncgreenparty.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
CONTACTS:
Tony Ndege, co-chair -- [email protected]
Tommie James, co-chair -- [email protected]
NORTH CAROLINA GREEN PARTY TO HOLD NOMINATING CONVENTION JUNE 27
The North Carolina Green Party’s online nominating convention has been rescheduled and will be held Wednesday, June 27, at 7:00 p.m. Our endorsement procedure requires additional time to evaluate potential candidates, an important process for us as a new party. We thank our members and supporters for their patience as we work to further the growth of the party in North Carolina.
Further convention details will be posted on our website, www.ncgreenparty.org.
MORE INFORMATION:
NCGP website: www.ncgreenparty.org
NCGP Facebook page: www.facebook.com/officialncgp/
NCGP Twitter: @NorthCarolinaGP
Manhattan's east side is a notorious subway desert.
But come December 2016, eastsiders will rejoice because phase one of the Second Avenue Subway is slated to finally be complete.
“The $4.45 billion project is 82% complete,” Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, president of Capital Construction at Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said, as he walked photographer Bhushan Mondkar along the newly installed train tracks.
“The remaining 18% is the toughest –- testing a multitude of new systems, such as signals, communication, electrical, fire safety to work together, and integrating them with the existing infrastructure is the biggest challenge — but we are confident the project will open on time."
Phase one will add three new stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets, and the existing station at 63rd and Lexington Avenue is also getting a makeover. Once opened, the Q train will be rerouted along this line.
Arrangements have also been made to incorporate a new "T line" in the future, which is planned to run from 125th street down Second Avenue to Hannover Square in the Financial District.
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of serving the locals?
Regardless of the answer, Placer/Barrick has thrown in its lot with a policing culture that, in 2013, featured cops with bush knives slashing the ankles of seventy-four men in retribution for a street brawl. “Papua New Guineans face violence at every turn, including from the police, who should be protecting them,” wrote Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement.
Because of the massive influx of law enforcement, and thanks to new community-outreach policies, violence in the valley was somewhat quelled. But as far as Andambo was concerned, violent or not, a community without governance would keep sliding into the abyss. “I see this place going backwards,” he said, yanking the Land Cruiser’s steering wheel toward the main drag. “There’s no leadership here.”
The headquarters of Porgera Joint Venture is a series of two-storey blocks fashioned from concrete, glass, and aluminum, and has a distinct NGO-schoolhouse-in-Uganda sensibility to it. Scattered around the offices are laminated maps that depict the mining operation and the areas on its periphery.
The most important map features a satellite image dominated by the scratched-out pit and its various dumps along the banks of the Strickland River, rendered as more of a muddy swamp due to the mine’s pollution. A series of yellow lines criss-crosses the photo, dividing the area into hundreds of small segments, each representing a territory belonging to a clan or sub-clan. If PJV had a defining problem, it was the illegal raiding of the pit by local clan members who existed within the Special Mining Lease (SML), the area on which Barrick is allowed to operate. Along twisted roads that reveal a botanical mash-up of the Caribbean and the Andes, 3,000 Porgerans negotiated a grim existence within sight of a refinery from which 19 million ounces of melted gold had been poured.
It was a problem that Placer Dome should have seen coming. “Placer was born in this country,” Greg Anderson, executive director of the PNG Chamber of Mines, told me. “It was a penny-stock company that came in the 1920s.” The company won the right to work a large alluvial deposit in the Bulolo region, which produced 1.3 million ounces of gold before closing in 1965. When Placer returned in the 1980s to make a play for Porgera, it negotiated as an old hand, not as an outsider.
But negotiated with whom? At no point in their history have Papua New Guineans constituted a single tribe or culture. Though their land is less than half the size of Ontario, with just 7 million inhabitants, it nevertheless features one of the most decentralized political systems on Earth. There are 854 recognized languages here (twelve of which are spoken only by ghosts), and an additional 3,000 dialects—Babel in the jungle.
Each tribal unit is referred to as a “society,” and has a distinctive language, culture, history, jurisprudence, and land policy. Although all PNG tribes have faced the same pressures—colonialism, the resource curse, climate change, the breakdown of old ways—there is nothing to be found here that resembles an esprit de corps. One thing all Papua New Guineans can agree on, however, is that wealth and social cohesion are determined by the possession of land, women, and pigs.
Fighting for resources is a way of life here. And when the PJV gold rush kicked in, everyone demanded a piece. The valley’s population increased from 6,000 to 50,000 in just a decade. The SML, which had been occupied by no more than a few hundred people during exploration, was, according to Barrick’s estimates, suddenly home to around 3,000. These people are referred to by the Ipili, one of the largest tribes in the region, as epo atene, or “those who have come”—hardly a term of endearment. At war with one another, at war with the mine: volatility defined the valley.
Papua New Guineans agree that wealth and social cohesion are determined by the possession of land, women, and pigs.
The main question that Placer, and later Barrick, had to answer was, who among the people of the valley was owed how much? Loosely speaking, Porgeran social organization adheres to a “cognatic” system, by which inheritance rights can be accrued through both matrilineal and patrilineal affiliations, while kinship must be achieved and maintained either by verbal or physical suasion. Confused? So was a
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While America Slept
Since the dawn of geopolitics, there has always been tension between the world’s greatest power and the world’s greatest emerging power. No great power likes to cede its No. 1 spot. One of the few times the top power ceded its position to the No. 2 power peacefully was when Great Britain allowed the United States to surge ahead in the late 19th century. Many books have been written on why this transition happened peacefully. But the basic reason seems cultural: One Anglo-Saxon power was giving way to another.
Today, the situation is different. The No. 1 power is the United States, the standard-bearer of the West. The No. 2 power rapidly catching up is China, an Asian power. If China passes America in the next decade or two, it will be the first time in two centuries that a non-Western power has emerged as No. 1. (According to economic historian Angus Maddison’s calculations, China was the world’s No. 1 economy until 1890.)
The logic of history tells us that such power transitions do not happen peacefully. Indeed, we should expect to see a rising level of tension as America worries more and more about losing its primacy. Yet it has done little to act on these fears thus far. It would have been quite natural for America to carry out various moves to thwart China’s rise. That’s what great powers have done throughout history. That’s how America faced the Soviet Union. So why isn’t this happening? Why are we seeing an unnatural degree of geopolitical calm between the world’s greatest power and the world’s greatest emerging power?
It would be virtually impossible to get Beijing and Washington to agree on the answers to these natural questions, as there are two distinct and sometimes competing narratives in the two capitals.
The view in Beijing is that the calm in Sino-American relations is a result of the extraordinary patience and forbearance shown by China. Chinese leaders believe they have followed the wise advice of Deng Xiaoping, the late reformist leader, and decided not to challenge American leadership in any way or in any area. And when China has felt that it was directly provoked, it has also followed Deng’s advice and swallowed its humiliation. Few Americans remember any such instances of provocation. Chinese leaders remember many. In May 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, a U.S. plane bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. America apologized, but no Chinese leader believed it was a mistake. Similarly, a Chinese fighter jet was downed when it crashed into a U.S. spy plane near Hainan Island, China, in April 2001. Here, too, China felt humiliated. Few Americans will recall the humiliation Premier Zhu Rongji suffered in April 1999 when he went to Washington to negotiate China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO); Chinese elites haven’t forgotten. In their minds, China has been responsible for the low levels of tension in U.S.-China relations because China has swallowed such bitter pills time and again.
The view in Washington is almost exactly the opposite. Few Americans believe that China has been able to rise peacefully because of China’s geopolitical acumen or America’s geopolitical mistakes. Instead, the prevailing view is that America has been remarkably generous to China and allowed it to emerge peacefully because the United States is an inherently virtuous and generous country. There can be no denying that the United States has been generous to China in many real ways: allowing China’s accession to the WTO (under stiff conditions, it must be emphasized, but stiff conditions that ironically benefited China); allowing China to enjoy massive trade surpluses; allowing China to join multilateral bodies like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum; and perhaps most importantly of all, allowing hundreds of thousands of Chinese students to study in American universities. These are generous acts.
But it is also true that the United States allowed China to rise because it was so supremely self-confident that it would always remain on top. China’s benign rise was a result of American neglect, not a result of any long-term strategy. China acted strategically; America did not. After the 9/11 attacks, for instance, the United States focused on the Middle East instead of the rise of China, leading Hong Kong journalist Frank Ching to write, "The fact is, it’s not going too far to say that China owes a huge debt of gratitude to Osama bin Laden."
America has been sensitive to criticisms about its lack of a long-term strategy. I can speak about this from personal experience. In February 2009, Hillary Clinton visited China on her first overseas visit as U.S. secretary of state. I wrote at the time:
[T]here’s little evidence Clinton has engaged in any serious strategic thinking about U.S.-
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After numerous attempts, the Baltimore Development Corporation has succeeded in finding a developer to rehab what remains of the historic Mayfair Theatre and an adjacent lot that previously housed the Franklin-Delphy Hotel.
Zahlco Development submitted the winning bid for a request for proposals put out by the BDC in February, according to an agenda for this week’s Board of Estimates meeting. The developer is planning to rehab and expand the historic theater property at 506 N. Howard St. and construct a 40-unit apartment dwelling and a separate retail building on the same corner at 300-304 W. Franklin St.
According to minutes from an August meeting of the BDC’s board of directors, Zahlco’s planned development would be called Mayfair Place. The lot with the remnant parts of the theater would be outfitted to hold office space, a restaurant on the ground floor and a “gallery space that opens up to an outdoor seating and performance area.”
A team led by Station North-based developer SAA/EVI submitted the only other bid, the minutes say. Their plan was called The New Mayfair, and would have added an outdoor concert venue, an apartment building and a structure behind the theater that would served as “incubator/rehearsal space for musicians.”
All that remains of the theater is the façade and a 35-foot-deep section of the lobby, following a 2015 city-sanctioned demolition. The BDC asked that developers employ “all reasonable preservation efforts” to keep those pieces intact while restoring and adding to the structure.
The city is agreeing to sell Zahlco the properties for $400,000, a hefty discount from their combined appraised market value of $700,000, because it will help to restore a long-vacant city landmark, eliminate blight and bring in tax revenue for the city while also creating new jobs and businesses, according to the agenda. The company is paying $260,000 up front when the deal reaches settlement.
The city will also credit the developer for up to $140,000 in expenses to “address subsurface conditions” at the sites, knocking however much Zahlco spends on that task off the developer’s remaining debt. As an example, BDC spokeswoman Susan Yum said in an email that if Zahlco spends $60,000 to fix subsurface conditions, it will owe only $80,000 more to the city.
Zahlco has not respond to messages requesting more details on its plans. But in a release put out by the BDC on Wednesday morning, CEO Yonah Zahler noted his firm already redeveloped the Congress Hotel Apartments at 306 W. Franklin Street, next to the Mayfair Theatre and other parcels his firm just acquired from the city.
“Having already invested in the Congress Hotel Apartments, we feel we can parlay our brand of style and vibe to the new project,” he said in a statement. “The new construction will create a hub of activity connecting the already built projects nearby, by creating a destination for an interactive space with nightlife.”
For two months, the quasi-public BDC invited bids that would use a “creative and feasible approach to repurposing the former Mayfair Theatre,” and be compatible with the surrounding Bromo Arts and Entertainment District.
The RFP called for proposals that produce more activity in the dedicated arts district on the downtown’s west side, raise property values, bring in tax revenues and “activate ground floors” for pedestrian access, among other criteria.
The Mayfair opened in 1904 in place of the demolished Howard Auditorium, and for years served as a popular venue for vaudeville shows and live plays. It was converted into a cinema in 1941, and screened films for more than four decades leading up to its closure in 1986. In 1998, its roof collapsed, and in 2014 a two-alarm fire that started in an adjacent vacant building further damaged it, leading the city to tear down most of the theater.
This was the BDC’s third attempt to redevelop the site. Negotiations for a 2007 deal with developers fell through, and no developers submitted bids for a 2016 RFP. The BDC has not responded to a request to share Zahlco’s RFP-winning bid for the property.
Zahlco has made headlines for its building projects this year, including a planned 50-unit complex in historic Ridgley’s Delight and, most recently, its acquisition of the Bell Foundry space in Station North, where it’s planning to build an “urban living complex” while potentially preserving the former arts space, the broker in the deal said.
The Mayfair Theatre sits in
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x-G gene, mutations in lawc affect the expression of homeotic genes. The observation that the lawc/Df background leads to the reduction of some homeotic gene products (Ubx, Lab, Dfd) and not others (Scr, Antp) is not exceptional. In the case of ash-2, the level of Antp is not reduced in the first leg disc, and there is no change in the level of Ubx expression in the CNS, although there is patterned loss in the haltere and third leg disc. ash-2 also causes a reduction of Scr in the first leg disc. ash-1 mutations lead to a reduction of Antp in the first leg disc and lower levels of Ubx in the CNS, but only variable loss of Scr in the first leg disc. Because the trx-G gene products appear to form a complex, it is possible that different trx-G gene proteins interact with different homeotic genes. In forming this complex, some trx-G products such as Trl might bind to DNA, whereas others bind to each other. trx-G members are diverse and range from transcription factors, such as the Trl GAGA factor, to putative nucleosome displacement factors, such as Brahma. trx-G proteins could exert their effects on gene expression at various levels in the process of regulating transcription. Some trx-G products must have a general role in transcription because they bind to many sites on polytene chromosomes, other than the sites of homeotic genes (Zorin, 1999 and references).
The trithorax group genes are required for positive regulation of homeotic gene function. The trithorax group gene brahma encodes a SWI2/SNF2 family ATPase that is a catalytic subunit of the Brm chromatin-remodeling complex. The Drosophila tonalli (tna) gene was identified by genetic interactions with brahma. tna mutations suppress Polycomb phenotypes and tna is required for the proper expressions of the Antennapedia, Ultrabithorax and Sex combs reduced homeotic genes. The tna gene encodes at least two proteins, a large isoform (TnaA) and a short isoform (TnaB). The TnaA protein has an SP-RING Zn finger, conserved in proteins from organisms ranging from yeast to human and thought to be involved in the sumoylation of protein substrates. Besides the SP-RING finger, the TnaA protein also has extended homology with other eukaryotic proteins, including human proteins. tna mutations also interact with mutations in additional subunits of the Brm complex, with mutations in subunits of the Mediator complex, and with mutations of the SWI2/SNF2 family ATPase gene kismet. It is proposed that Tna is involved in postranslational modification of transcription complexes (Gutiérrez, 2003).
The Antp gene has two alternative promoters, P1 and P2. The AntpNs allele derepresses the Antp P2 promoter in the eye-antennal disc and expresses wild-type Antp transcripts from the Antp promoter. Derepression of the Scr gene causes the appearance of extra sex combs on the second and third legs of males. This derepression can be caused by gain-of-function alleles of Scr, such as ScrMsc, or by loss-of-function mutations in Polycomb group genes, such as Pc3 or Pc4. Several trithorax group genes (including brm, mor, osa, kis, skd and kto) were first identified as suppressors of the extra sex combs phenotype caused by derepression of Scr or as suppressors of the antenna to leg transformation caused by derepression of Antp in the Nasobemia (Ns) allele of Antp. Since the tna gene was identified on the basis of genetic interactions with brm, tests were performed to see whether tna mutations could also suppress these two homeotic derepression phenotypes. It was found that all tna mutations strongly suppress the extra sex combs phenotype caused by Pc3, Pc4 or ScrMsc, but only weakly suppress the antenna to leg transformation caused by the AntpNs mutation (Gutiérrez, 2003).
Interactions among Polycomb domains are guided by chromosome architecture
Polycomb group (PcG) proteins bind and regulate hundreds of genes. Previous evidence has suggested that long-range chromatin interactions may contribute to the regulation of PcG target genes. This study adapted the Chromosome Conformation Capture on Chip (4C) assay to systematically map chromosomal interactions in Drosophila melanogaster larval brain tissue. The results demonstrate that PcG target genes interact
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A leaked draft of an executive order has some wondering if President Trump intends to walk back a promise to protect LGBT rights in favor of increased religious freedom.
During his campaign for president, Mr. Trump was regarded as the most pro-LGBT candidate on the GOP debate stage. That likely appealed to young conservatives, who are markedly more liberal in their views of sexual minorities, but was more controversial with evangelical voters. With the presidency secured – thanks to the evangelical vote – observers on both sides of the issue are eager to see where his policies on the issue will fall.
Some speculated that he might seek some sort of middle ground that both affords protections to the LGBT community and preserves religious freedoms, but a draft of the order, obtained and published Wednesday by The Nation, suggests the Trump administration will lean toward his base.
The drafted order, “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” calls for expanding religious safeguards beyond clergy and houses of worship to civilians in various aspects of daily life, including education, healthcare, the workplace, job seeking and hiring, contracting with government, and conduct in public spaces.
The order would also allow religious organizations to engage in political speech without violating their tax-exempt status – effectively overturning the Johnson Amendment – and allow healthcare providers to deny women reproductive health services.
“Americans and their religious organizations will not be coerced by the Federal Government into participating in activities that violate their conscience,” the order reads.
While religious groups and some business owners have celebrated such measures, lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender activists have decried the broad directive, saying it could allow institutions and individuals to engage in discriminatory practices while citing their religious beliefs as a legal protection. Others caution that other vulnerable communities could also fall victim to discrimination.
LGBT rights and religious freedoms have clashed since activists launched the gay rights movement more than 40 years ago. As those under the LGBT umbrella have gained more legal protections and social support, culminating in the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage, religious groups have found themselves further entangled with anti-discrimination laws as they attempt to push back on a shifting culture.
For some, it’s a zero sum game, but others see a compromise path that provides legal shields for same-sex couples and transgender individuals in the public sphere while permitting religious individuals and organizations to act as they choose in the private sector.
In its current form, Trump’s broad order could tip too heavily in favor of religious freedom to straddle that line, says Marci Hamilton, a distinguished scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.
“They mean this to be extremely broad,” she tells The Christian Science Monitor in a phone interview.
The draft defines a religious exercise as “any act or any refusal to act that is motivated by a sincerely held religious belief, whether or not the act is required or compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief.”
Such vague and expansive wording has the potential to open debates on an organization or individual’s obligation to serve anyone whose ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation could be seen as offensive to a personal belief or bias, says Professor Hamilton, who wrote the 2014 book "God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty."
“This kind of generic religious liberty language opens the door to unimaginable applications,” she says, noting that religious and ethnic minorities outside of the LGBT community could also face discrimination under the order, while others could use it to argue for increased protections for banned practices such as polygamy.
On Tuesday, the White House issued a statement saying that Trump did not plan to overturn an executive order signed into place by former President Obama that created workplace protections to shield the LGBT community from discrimination in federally contracted jobs.
"President Trump continues to be respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights, just as he was throughout the election," the White House announced in a statement. "The president is proud to have been the first ever GOP nominee to mention the LGBTQ community in his nomination acceptance speech, pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression."
Some declared Trump the most LGBT-friendly GOP presidential candidate on the campaign trail, leading many to wonder if he would take a more centered approach to gay and transgender rights than past Republicans. Peter Thiel, the openly gay co-founder of PayPal, has been a close supporter of the president and spoke in favor of him at the Republican National Convention.
But with evangelicals playing such a prominent role in his base, Trump has made it clear that he plans to stand up for conservative Christians. And drafting an order to expand their control over schools, businesses, and organizations with religious ties could prove a popular move among his supporters.
LGBT advocates say that leaking this order after Tuesday's statement reveals just how thin his promises to their community were. Keeping Mr. Obama’s order in place would prevent the government from discriminating against the
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behind the drugstore counter: Why didn't you say thanks when you handed me my change? Hey, barista, why are you being so rude? Stop and think. Maybe it's because they're underpaid; they hate their low-paying job; their mother is dying. Remember that behind those frowning faces are full lives. Remember too, that all these people all beloved creatures of God, with their own human dignity, and holy in their own way -- yes, holy. When the Book of Genesis said that God looked at everything and said, "It was good," he meant people, too. Even the angry barista. Give them their dignity by giving them a break.
8. Complain About Minor Illnesses. If you've got a serious or chronic illness, you need to share your struggles and frustrations with your physician, with friends and family, or even a therapist. You need support. But do you have a cold that has hung on for days and makes you phlegmy? When you bend over like this does your back ache because you pulled a muscle in the gym? No one really wants to hear about minor illnesses. Everyone gets sick, for Pete's sake. In the words of the great prophets, suck it up.
9. Be a Jerk. You're tired. You're rushed. You've got a cold. You're late. You're angry about something your boss said. Yes, you're miserable. That doesn't mean you have to be a jerk to everyone else. It really doesn't. Sure, share your frustrations and struggles with close friends, but don't make everyone else's life more miserable by passing on your misery. Once, I joked to a friend, "Boy, my life is such a cross!" "Yes," he said, "But for you or others?"
10. Avoid Doing the Right Thing. It's no fun to call a friend who is in a bad mood because she's lost her job. It's no fun to take responsibility for making a mistake. It's no fun to speak out against racism, sexism or homophobia and stand up for those being mocked. It's not fun, it takes effort; but you know it's the right thing to do. Do it anyway. If you don't, you'll feel terrible about yourself, and that's really no fun.
11. Make Fun of People. Nothing brings me lower than a few minutes of mocking another person. (Particularly if the person is not present.) But the snappy putdown has a high value in our culture, and famous snubs (say, of one famous writer to another) are repeated, and treasured like beautiful jewels. Much of our current political climate consists of politicians mocking people in the other party. (That's been a big help in this country, hasn't it?) Malicious speech is an easy way to wound. If you feel like you're powerless against badmouthing someone, ask yourself three questions when it comes to commenting on another: Is it kind? Is it necessary? Is it true?
12. Be Hard on Yourself. One of my Jesuit mentors used to say, "Be easy with yourself, Jim." If you're reading this list, and taking it at all seriously, you may be beating yourself up about stupid things that you've done in the past. (Believe me, my list is just as long as yours.) But you also want to change yourself, which is good. So be careful to "trust in the slow work of God," as the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin used to say. (He was also a paleontologist, so he knew about things moving really slowly.) Or if you don't believe in God, trust in slow work, period.
If you ever get discouraged about your rate of change, just think about trees -- yes, trees. In the summer they're green. In the fall they're red. And no one sees them change.
James Martin, SJ is a Jesuit priest, culture editor of America and author of "Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life."
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0.9.21 is finally here! There's some great stuff to look forward to this year. Let's get right to it!
New Map Generation
There's a type of randomly generated maps: Perlin Maps! Old randomly generated maps should be more diverse now, too. We've also added a stylish slider for adjusting land generation detail.
Better World Edge: Sea!
The sea world edge has been revamped and is looking great! It also supports freezing and saucer-based travel.
New Hats
Better Frontend
* Moved room status filter to top left of rooms list.
* Game scheme screen has a "Script parameter" field now. This allows to make more customizable scripts/modes.
* High resolution previews!
* Preview for dynamic maps generated by game style scripts (e.g. "ShoppaMap))!
New Mission: Climb Home
A little something for the shoppers! In this epic mission you are a long way from home and must race against the rising tide as menacing mines and capricious cakes seeking to undo you.
New Training
There are seven new Target Practice missions to help you improve your aim!
Some of the old training levels have been modified to give you improved statistics at the end of the mission.
New Modes: Tech Racer
Currently, the Hedgewars server hosts a variety of awesome racing maps. But, usually these maps just involve a bare landscape that hogs race across using rope. Tech Racer aims to add an element of variety and excitement to the mix. In this mode you will be able to race around custom maps full of mines, crates and barrels. What's more, areas of the landscape will be fully destructible, meaning you might be required to dig a tunnel, or blow a hole through part of the map to finish it.
Construction Mode
We've always talked about implementing a construction mode where you could build a large fort complete with barrels, mines and crates. Now, it's here! We've also added the idea of "structures" to the mode. Structures can be placed anywhere in your fort's territory, and offer a wide range of benefits for those who build them.
Here is a list of the structures that have currently been implemented:
Healing Station: This medical masterpiece miraculously regenerates the life of any friendly hogs who stand near it. What's more, it even BOOSTS their health all the way up to 150! Wow!
Teleportation Node: Walking is for plebs! The amazing structure allows any nearby hogs to teleport to any other node in their territory.
Bio-Filter: This beastly device will violently target and explode enemy hedgehogs who stray too close.
Respawner: In the event of your horrifying and untimely death, this reliable respawner will replace your ravaged husk with a fresh clone. Neat!
Generator: Do you think war is cheap, soldier? Melon bombs don't grow on trees, you know. Luckily, generators grant us a steady steam of income we can use to furnish our fort with mines, barrels, crates, structures - you name it!
Support Station: This station allows a nearby hog to purchase and teleport weapon, utility, and health crates anywhere within their territory.
Construction Station: Crates are great and all, but an intense defense is even better! The construction station allows a nearby hog to purchase and place girders, rubber bands, mines, sticky mines, and barrels across their territory.
Reflector Shield: Being shot is for chumps! The reflector will reflect most incoming projectiles back towards their point of origin, as well dissolve pesky threats like fire or napalm.
Weapon-Filter: Do you dislike being murdered? Do you want to deter horrible hogs from your fort, but can't afford a Bio-Filter? Never fear! This inexpensive and handy screen will detect any weapons and gear carried by nearby enemy hogs and instantly vaporize them. Take pride in interrogating and/or gruesomely executing disarmed invaders at your leisure!
Better Control
Switch through hogs in reverse order with PRECISE+HOGSWITCH (left shift + tab, by default). Wow!
More Customization
Highlander game mode can now be used with custom weapon schemes (1-8=How probable to get this weapon. 9=All hogs get it)
And much more!
Network game rejoining! Note: Your team(s) will vanish after 3 turns.
Many bug fixes and tweaks!
Fixed drill rockets sometimes exploding on impact.
Fixed trainings being broken due to indestructible targets/crates.
Sinegun won't shoot through -solid- land anymore.
Improved Lua
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orance, in the end, saved the day for the campaign.
Heading into the 2020 election, the ignorance excuse will no longer be available to the president. After two years of the Mueller investigation and all the attendant media coverage, no one—not even our blathering 45th commander in chief—could plausibly claim that accepting opposition research from a foreign source is legal.
But what about Clinton and the Democrats? With all the attention on Trump, it’s easy to forget the Clinton campaign’s election law transgressions associated with paying for the Steele dossier.
As many election law experts have noted, payments for opposition research, even if conducted by foreign nationals or governments, aren’t considered campaign contributions. Rather, they are seen as campaign expenditures, which are lawful and may be not be subject to monetary ceilings, as the Buckley case long ago instructed.
Nonetheless, the FECA requires candidates and their campaigns to itemize and report each expenditure in excess of $200 to the Federal Election Commission. Campaigns are also required to report the “purpose” of each disbursement. Knowing and willful violations of campaign-finance reporting requirements are punishable just as severely as knowing receipt of illegal campaign contributions.
So, what did the Clinton team do wrong in the last election?
In October 2017, the nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the FEC, charging the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s presidential committee, Hillary for America, with failing to accurately report the money funneled to Steele. According to Reuters, Steele was paid $168,000 for creating the dossier. Yet nowhere is Steele listed in the campaign’s FEC filings.
A CLC spokesperson confirmed with me last week that its complaint against the DNC and Hillary for America remains pending, unrebutted and unresolved at the FEC.
Whatever the FEC ultimately decides, neither major party, given the past, can honestly claim the high road when it comes to opposition research and elections. The Republican National Committee reportedly has already retained a variety of intelligence firms to conduct opposition research in the run-up to 2020. It would be truly shocking if the DNC hasn’t done the same.
Opposition research may be an intrinsic and unavoidable feature of American politics, but it isn’t too much to demand that our politicians be held to account, civilly and criminally, for courting foreign influence. And while we’re at it, we should also demand that our leaders, once in office, steer clear of intruding in elections abroad—something no nation on earth has perfected more expertly than our very own.
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to agree when the union first broached the subject on Sept. 4, rejected the plan twice, before and again after the vote. The main reason was lack of control over the financial outcome, a situation the government faced once before in 2001 when the province's doctors reached a deal through binding arbitration. The government raised provincial sales taxes by 0.5 per cent and tobacco taxes by $8 on a carton of 200 cigarettes to cover the cost.
Instead, Minister Fassbender and Premier Christy Clark maintained mediated negotiations were the only method to reaching a negotiated settlement, saying teachers needed to reduce the cost of their bargaining demands to come into the "affordability zone" of the other 150,000 unionized public workers that had reached a deal.
Later in the week, however, both politicians hinted at legislating an agreement if one wasn't reached by the time the provincial legislature reopened on Oct. 6.
Join Intel’s executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group, Navin Shenoy, as he presents the company’s vision for a new era of data-centric computing at Intel’s Data-Centric Innovation Summit.
Intel’s silicon portfolio, investment in software optimization and work with partners provide an opportunity to fuel new global business opportunities and societal advancements.
During the opening keynote, Shenoy will share his view of Intel’s expanded data-centric opportunity and his plans to shape and win key growth trends: artificial intelligence, the cloud and network transformation.
When: Wednesday, August 8; livestream begins at 9:00 a.m. PDT
Where: Livestream can be accessed at Intel’s investor relations website.
Media Contact: Stephen Gabriel, Intel Global Communications, [email protected]
limits on short-term rentals.
Concerns over 'collusion’
Housing activist Erin McElroy said that she and others concerned about the city’s affordability are not opposed to the tech industry. She is more concerned about the city giving tax breaks to wealthy technology companies while the some of its poorest residents struggle to remain in their homes.
“It is not about being antitech” said McElroy, founder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project. “It’s more about the collusion between tech and government and developers.”
The survey’s margin of error was 4.3 percent and interviews were conducted in English, Spanish and Chinese.
Joe Garofoli is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @joegarofoli
restaurants, synagogues, and Jewish shops. You can practise your culture, and practise your faith here. You might get funny looks if you wear a kippah - a traditional Jewish skullcap - but you won't be spat on, or physically threatened as you might be in France or Belgium.
"The paradox of Hungarian nationalism," says the man who used to fly its banner, "is that we are proud of our own achievements, but we're not willing to look at those of other peoples. We're afraid their cultures might be as valuable as ours."
How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent:
BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30 BST
Listen online or download the podcast.
BBC World Service: At weekends - see World Service programme schedule or listen online.
Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.
Yet he had no choice. For him the family was his country and the country was his family. If he did not fight for everyone else, he could not have hoped to put food on our own table. Or a shred of dignity in our lives. He left us out of desperation and moral conviction.
He protected us by saying nothing to us. But you can only understand this by going into the prison rooms where he suffered. And by standing next to him while he shouts that he has no memory of receiving beatings that fractured his ribs, even though you face him, with the radiography record trembling in your hands. This is the side of heroism no-one likes to talk about, not even him. But it is the face of heroism that now makes me proud.
Slideshow production by Luce van de Weg and Monica Whitlock
Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook
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This weeks update for my Sci-Fi World Building Project. Everything is still pretty loose at the moment and subject to change.
Spent some time playing around with faction specific UI's. Hinting at the background story through the brief character profiles.
I'm starting out with a number of Character Concepts to flesh out the world but will also be working on vehicles, ships, props & mood pieces.
NAME:Sulia Yukori
FACTION:The Skavs - Skylark Raiders
RANK:New Recruit - Skiff Pilot
AGE:24 (Estimated)
SPECIES:Genetically Engineered Hybrid
ORIGIN:Unknown
BACKGROUND:A product of the galactic slave trade, Sulia was discovered as a stowaway on board the Skylark.
The Skavs had been tracking an illegal arms cache and ended up uncovering a vast crime network that specialized in producing mutant humanoids to be sold on the black market.
Although she claims to have vivid memories of her childhood, the Crew believe these were artificially implanted. She is determined to uncover the secret of her origin.
Having shown some talent for flying she was given the task of piloting the Skylark’s Recon Skiff.
Glossary:
DIVINITY FORGE - The Stasis Rift - The working Title for the project. It is a reference to a cosmic singularity
REVO - One of the main factions - Revos/Revolutionaries - Comprised mainly of Colonial Fleet units and Confederation Pioneers
SKAVS - One of the main factions - Represented by a collection of smugglers, scavengers, pirates and mercenaries.
STASIS RIFT - A reference to the unique nature of the singularity
COLONIAL FLEET - The military arm of Earth's Galactic Colonization Administration
THE TIDE RUNNER - A NOVA Class Warship in the Colonial Fleet. Serving as Lord Kuzma's flagship for the Feonix Group
Divinty Forge - The Stasis Rift and all related material copyright Larry Wilson 2015
The DA has released a statement detailing how it uncovered a “corrupt” contract where the ANC paid R600 per light bulb and spent R95 million on CCTV cameras which were never installed.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro budget was used by ANC officials to divert public money to their cronies for private gain.
“We discovered contracts entered into for the supply of light bulbs at R600 per bulb and a splash-out by the former Mayor of R250,000 to get his face onto the front cover of a magazine,” said Maimane.
“Furthermore, we discovered that over R95 million was spent on CCTV cameras for the Integrated Public Transport System project, which were never installed and remain locked away on the service provider’s property.”
Maimane also highlighted other corrupt and dubious contracts, which the DA local governments are now addressing:
Irregularly awarding an IT tender worth R35 million in Ekurhuleni.
Fraudulently awarding a tender for the procurement of Water Meters in Ekurhuleni for R205 million.
A contract worth R22 million in Nelson Mandela Bay which duplicated the work of municipal staff and delivered negligible outcomes.
R21 million was spent on a vanity project in Nelson Mandela Bay called the City of Champions.
The former City of Tshwane Mayor’s office wasted R90 million on botched upgrades to the Tshwane City Hall.
The City of Tshwane spent R12 million to upgrade the mayoral house, which ended in disaster.
The City of Tshwane’s ANC Mayor enjoyed a R30-million-per-year discretionary slush fund to spend as he pleased.
The City of Tshwane’s ANC Mayor’s office was inflated to employ over 900 people, costing almost R250 million a year in salaries.
“This is no doubt just the tip of the iceberg in these metros and we are expecting to uncover many more examples of capture and corruption in the coming months,” said Maimane.
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fiery serpent with a penchant for consuming the eyes of the dead and perhaps even the sinful living. Garouni settlers on the far western edge of the Great Wastes called this legendary demon "Malagrin" and also noted the tendency for livestock drowned in the marshes to attract these eery lights.
Military disaster is also a feature of the history of the Great Morthani Wastes. In its epic campaign to overthrow the ancient slaveholder Empire of Morthane, the Garoun Empire made several attempts to bypass the blistering deserts of Southern Morthane by marching armies through the western swamps. The legions of Garoun failed to penetrate the grim marshlands at every try, giving up on the route after an entire army, wracked by disease and starvation was destroyed by Morthani raiders at the south-eastern edge of the great wastes.
Some tales are told of lights dancing on the corpses of the lost soldiers of Garoun and this has become part of the Malagrin and Boitata legends on either side of the vast swamps. The vast low-lying deltas and marshy plains of Luminaire's Western Morthane region have a long and dark history in folklore and in the ancient warring states period of the Gallente home world's past. Inhabitants on the periphery of the Great Morthani Wastes have many legends of spirits of light and flame seen wandering the swamps and several of these are feared as devils and demonic beings.
The Western Morthani natives called the most-feared of these spirits the "Boitata", and believed it to be a fiery serpent with a penchant for consuming the eyes of the dead and perhaps even the sinful living. Garouni settlers on the far western edge of the Great Wastes called this legendary demon "Malagrin" and also noted the tendency for livestock drowned in the marshes to attract these eery lights.
Military disaster is also a feature of the history of the Great Morthani Wastes. In its epic campaign to overthrow the ancient slaveholder Empire of Morthane, the Garoun Empire made several attempts to bypass the blistering deserts of Southern Morthane by marching armies through the western swamps. The legions of Garoun failed to penetrate the grim marshlands at every try, giving up on the route after an entire army, wracked by disease and starvation was destroyed by Morthani raiders at the south-eastern edge of the great wastes.
Some tales are told of lights dancing on the corpses of the lost soldiers of Garoun and this has become part of the Malagrin and Boitata legends on either side of the vast swamps.
570628 Prophecy Malagrin Marshlight SKIN Prophecy Malagrin Marshlight SKIN Name of item 56591 (Permanent SKIN)
570629 The vast low-lying deltas and marshy plains of Luminaire's Western Morthane region have a long and dark history in folklore and in the ancient warring states period of the Gallente home world's past. Inhabitants on the periphery of the Great Morthani Wastes have many legends of spirits of light and flame seen wandering the swamps and several of these are feared as devils and demonic beings.
The Western Morthani natives called the most-feared of these spirits the "Boitata", and believed it to be a fiery serpent with a penchant for consuming the eyes of the dead and perhaps even the sinful living. Garouni settlers on the far western edge of the Great Wastes called this legendary demon "Malagrin" and also noted the tendency for livestock drowned in the marshes to attract these eery lights.
Military disaster is also a feature of the history of the Great Morthani Wastes. In its epic campaign to overthrow the ancient slaveholder Empire of Morthane, the Garoun Empire made several attempts to bypass the blistering deserts of Southern Morthane by marching armies through the western swamps. The legions of Garoun failed to penetrate the grim marshlands at every try, giving up on the route after an entire army, wracked by disease and starvation was destroyed by Morthani raiders at the south-eastern edge of the great wastes.
Some tales are told of lights dancing on the corpses of the lost soldiers of Garoun and this has become part of the Malagrin and Boitata legends on either side of the vast swamps. The vast low-lying deltas and marshy plains of Luminaire's Western Morthane region have a long and dark history in folklore and in the ancient warring states period of the Gallente home world's past. Inhabitants on the periphery of the Great Morthani Wastes have many legends of spirits of light and flame seen wandering the swamps and several of these are feared as devils and
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Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that Trump plans to add 15,000 more troops in the Middle East to counter a purported Iranian threat. That’s in addition to an earlier added deployment of 15,000 troops. This brings total U. S. forces in the region to nearly 80,000.
Though there was almost a GOP insurrection over Trump’s abrupt pullout of our remaining 1,000 troops battling ISIS in northern Syria, our massive ground presence today registers as barely a blip on the radar.
Trump, who clearly has no concept of military geo-strategy, is stretching our readiness level to the limit and beyond. China is a far more serious military threat to us and our Asian allies than Iran. Deploying two of our five available aircraft carriers to the Strait of Hormuz means that Japan, South Korea and the Philippines are left at the mercy of China’s aggressive territorial ambitions. The Chinese, unlike our own leadership, are quite astute and observe our heavy investment in the Middle East. It allows them to make bold forays knowing that we are far less capable of countering them than we otherwise might be.
The increased fighting forces in the region are justified by mind-numbing claims like these:
A senior Pentagon official said…there were indications that Iran could potentially carry out aggressive actions in the future, amid simmering tensions between Tehran and Washington. “We also continue to see indications, and for obvious reasons I won’t go into the details, that potential Iranian aggression could occur,” John Rood, the Pentagon’s No. 3 official, told reporters. Rood did not provide details about what information he was basing that on or any timeline.
“Potential Iranian aggression could occur.” And a meteor could incinerate the earth tomorrow. It’s quite telling that even the reporter couldn’t keep a straight face: he had to let the cat out of the bag, noting the Pentagon doomsayer offered no evidence to support his dubious claim.
Even Republican senators are not welcoming Trump’s latest round of chest-thumping. Tomorrow, a senior Pentagon official will come under some grilling from Sen. Hawley (R,, MO):
“I look forward to hearing tomorrow in Senate Armed Services [Committee] why the Pentagon reportedly wants 14,000 MORE troops in the Middle East, after sending 14,000 already this year alone. Is the Pentagon preparing for a land war?”
A fair question. But even if we aren’t, what the hell are all those troops doing there? What is the point? What is the U.S. interest? The fact is that putting so much U.S. firepower into a region that is already a powder keg tempts someone to light a match. This is what happened when Ronald Regan sent U.S. Marines to Beirut to keep the peace in the midst of a civil war. Instead of doing so, they became the targets and came home in body bags.
There is another motivating factor in this military buildup having little to do with our own national interest: Bibi Netanyahu is fighting for his political life in the face of both a possible third election (in the past nine months); and three corruption indictments. Though Trump never likes to bet on a loser and Bibi hasn’t exactly been a winner lately, Israel has a diamond in the hole: Sheldon Adelson. GIving $200-million to the President and his Party will buy a lot of ground troops.
Trump is prepared to rattle our sabers over Iran, impose ever more punitive sanctions, strangle the economy to within an inch of its life–all in the interest of throwing Bibi a few bones he can use in his desperate effort to cling to power as Israel’s longest serving prime minister.
Netanyahu had been hoping that the Europeans would be his meal ticket during the current NATO summit. He’d planned to meet Secretary of State Pompeo, Andrea Merkel and Emmanuel Macron and give them yet another lecture about the “Iranian threat” and how much more the Europeans should be doing to punish Iran.
Bibi: Macron Said ‘Non,’ Merkel Said ‘Nein,’ and the Brits Said ‘Bugger Off’
A funny thing happened on the way to the summit: Macron said Non; Merkel said Nein; and the British security services told Boris Johnson they couldn’t prepare the necessary security measures in time. So Bibi was left high and dry.
Pompeo did meet with Bibi today in Lisbon; and like the happy warriors they both are, poured down fire and brimstone on Iran. Their main pitch seemed to be that the unrest in Iran, which sprang from riots over gasoline tax increses and led to the killing of over
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I don’t have much to say this week, so here’s just the brief 12w37a changelog:
Tweaks to the Wither
Carrots are now carrot, and added new food item
Tweaks to a couple of item sprites
Leather armor now has a non-dyed layer
Superflat customization options
Pigs are now able to jump when players ride on them
Added /clear command to empty the inventory
Evil mobs are now a little bit more fearless in hard difficulty
Various bug fixes
Download the snapshot here:
If you don’t have Minecraft you can download the launcher here: https://www.minecraft.net/download
// The Minecraft Team
bad weather at East Fortune, but a few hours later a message from East Fortune confirmed the weather conditions had improved. A request was put in to the Air Ministry to have the ship return to East Fortune but this was turned down and the ship was ordered to Pulham. No reason was ever given for this change in plan and no explanation can be found for it. The ship carried across the English countryside and came, rather quietly to Pulham Air Station at 6.57 GMT to be welcomed by the RAF personnel, which was rather quieter than that which greeted the ship at New York, and than expected at East Fortune.
The return journey had taken three days three hours and three minutes. The ship had travelled some 7,420 miles on this voyage at an average speed of 43 mph.
This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
The bye week edition is loaded with recapping the Bears’ game against the Saints, thoughts on tight end Zach Miller’s injury, the overturned touchdown that happened on the same play, as well as the suspension linebacker Jerrell Freeman received. Adam Hoge and Adam Jahns discuss what could have been the busiest trade deadline in NFL history. The guys pick college and pro football games against the spread and listen to another great week’s worth of listener voicemails — call Hoge and Jahns at 312-222-5050. Listen below!
Like the podcast? Subscribe for free on iTunes!
would preside. A two-thirds majority of the Senate would be necessary for conviction and the president’s removal from office, something that has never happened in American history.
Trump has previously expressed confusion about how the process works, saying that he didn’t think “the courts” — which are not involved in a House investigation — would allow it.
Two previous presidents have been impeached — Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 — but the Senate failed to convict, and they both remained in office. The House began impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon in 1974, but he resigned before a full House vote on the articles took place.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday issued a warning to consumers who eat chia powder, which is made from ground dried chia seeds and often added to smoothies and other foods for its health benefits. Some of the recalled brands are Organic Traditions, Green Smoothie Girl, Navitas Naturals and Williams-Sonoma. Twenty-one people in 12 states have been sickened with salmonella linked to the chia powder, the C.D.C. said. Two have been hospitalized. Regulators in Canada are investigating similar illnesses. Symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. Illnesses were reported in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
�し…敵対行為の停止に加わる当事者らがロシア軍や米主導の対ISIL（ISの別称）有志連合、シリア政府軍、その他の支援部隊によって攻撃を受けることがないよう、必要な措置を講じていく」としている。(c)AFP/Thomas WATKINS
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US President Donald Trump, the ‘king of power handshakes,’ was caught unaware when Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa outdid him with an alpha male handshake.
READ MORE: Trump’s hot hands: From being rejected by Melania to greeting 1,000+ graduates
Arriving at the White House on Wednesday, Marcelo de Sousa emerged from his car and approached Trump in a rather decisive manner.
The video captures the moment when the Portuguese president abruptly outstretched his arm and grabbed Trump’s hand, knocking him off balance.
Lasting for just a few seconds, the unexpected ‘power-shake’ created an awkward moment for President Trump, whose battle to establish dominance through firm handshakes was lost on this occasion.
Like this story? Share it with a friend!
Image: Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA
According to the THL report, alcohol consumption has fallen in all age groups, and there has been a decline in consumption by both light and heavy drinkers.
Even though less spirits are being consumed, the Finns have yet to adopt what the THL calls a "southern European" drinking culture where people drink often, but in moderation. THL points out that regardless of changes in total annual consumption, the level of drinking aimed at inebriation has remained the same.
This latest survey shows that last year in Finland 37% of men reported consuming 13 or more servings of alcohol (each equivalent to 4 cl of spirits) during a single day at least once a year. For women that figure was 9%.
The highest rate of binge drinking was found in the 15-29 year-old age group.
short lines for a sprint’ they can be done quickly, without that much control. But the ‘fence’ involves more planning.. horizontals first, then verticals carefully between them. Looking at them now I’m thinking.. a very early form of barcoding! Now I’m thinking too much like US! But I think it’s forgivable considering how much like us these people are starting to look. Here is an illustration from the ‘reconstruction twins’ Kennis & Kennis
I’ve already said what’s coming next.. mainly the arrival of ‘painting’ in the form of hands. It was proper ‘painting’ too, as you will see, not just the accidental ‘muddy hands on clean rock’ that I began this article with.
A lot of content that could potentially be really valuable to the platform. Our goal is to enable our creators to create valuable content that’s beneficial to society.”
The worst outcome would be “to come out with a rule, have that rule be so broad, that then everyone is pointing at it, and we’re not enforcing it properly,” Wojcicki continued. It’s an ironic sentiment, considering many creators feel like YouTube doesn’t enforce its current policies about harassment and cyberbullying.
“I’ve seen videos that I know are on our platform that will no longer be allowed,” Wojcicki told Deyes. “There are definitely videos that I see as content that is solely dedicated to harassing a creator and, to me, cross a line.”
For 16 years, Paris-based photographer Stephan Zaubitzer has been photographing cinemas around the world. His Cinémas project started in 2003 in Burkina Faso, where he began to shoot open-air cinemas. “With the arrival of video and television, the very existence of these cinemas is under threat,” he says. “The cinema defines the neighbourhood it is in. When a cinema closes, the whole soul of the neighbourhood is lost.” Zaubitzer has visited 15 countries, including the US, Egypt, Morocco and India: what these images have in common is his appreciation of the look and atmosphere of the cinemas. “There is a feel of mystery about these halls: architects crafted them to embody the taste of their time. The show starts on the pavement, when you’re approaching the building.”
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Even before Crackdown 3 was delayed until 2018 earlier this month, Microsoft was having a tough and relatively barren year. Halo Wars 2 is its only major retail release of the year so far and by its end only two more games will have joined it.
The reason this rough patch is particularly badly timed is the launch of Xbox One X – the most powerful video game console to date - which will be capable of making every game, whether its 4k or not and no matter the screen it's displayed on, look better than ever.
Read more As the launch of Xbox One X nears, Microsoft Studios is having its worst ever year
Microsoft badly needed a big hitter to release alongside this new hardware, and Crackdown 3 was a reasonable fit. Now it has just annualised racer Forza Motorsport 7 and family platformer Super Lucky's Tale.
Of course, a slew of multi-platform games and past releases will support the console with visual updates at launch, but consoles are sold on new experiences.
It's not good enough, and Microsoft will know that's the case. But, that's not to say the games Xbox has on its horizon won't still be worthwhile.
So rather than dwell on what Microsoft doesn't have, IBTimes UK took a look at what it does have at Gamescom 2017.
Crackdown 3
Ten years ago Crackdown proved to be the definition of a sleeper hit. Nobody expected much from this cartoony sandbox action game, perhaps not even publisher Microsoft, which attached access to a Halo 3 beta to help drum up sales.
That incentive ended up being a masterstroke precisely because Crackdown was such a delight, and new Xbox 360 owners bought the game in droves. A sequel followed in 2010, but with new developers it failed to recapture what worked so well about the original.
Crackdown 3 was announced in 2014 to drum up interest in Xbox One ahead of launch, but development has been troubled since with lengthy periods of quiet on the part of Microsoft and multiple delays, including the most recent now setting the game a spring 2018 release.
When the game was delayed, a Microsoft representative told Polygon: "We are taking the extra time to focus on the visual polish." It's clear to see why.
Our demo was entirely convincing as a chaotic, orb-collecting Crackdown game. Fans should have nothing to worry about in this regard, but visually it disappointed. Given its former status as an Xbox One X launch title, the game's dull visuals were going to be a problem. Hopefully the final product can deliver something with a greater vibrancy.
Super Lucky's Tale
Super Lucky's Tale is a colourful family platformer and that just about covers it. You play as lucky, a fox with all the clichéd traits of a colourful video game mascot: he's a hero, adventurous, doesn't talk much and has an obnoxious grin the whole way through.
Of course, I'm being harsh on Super Lucky's Tale. While it does nothing to rise above the myriad of platformers that popped up around the time of the late-90s boom in the genre, it is serviceable and looks pretty good.
Our demo presented a gentle amount of challenge considering the target audience and proved developers Playful do have a knack for platformer design. This is clean and crisp, easy to understand and tackles the genre with aplomb. It'll take more than what we've seen already to win over the majority of players, but Super Lucky's Tale could prove a surprise package.
Forza Motorsport 7
Microsoft's current lineup of games ticks all the boxes, but those ticks are carefully penned to stay within their confines. Only one title appears to offer something different, and Forza Motorsport 7 isn't it.
Of course, it doesn't need to be either. It's the seventh Forza title in as many years and in that time Turn 10 and Horizon team Playground Games have solidified the series' position as the market leader when it comes to racing games.
It looks great and the cars handle with heft, just be sure to turn off the various assists, as they make things too easy.
Sea of Thieves
Rare's multiplayer pirate game is the ace up Microsoft's sleeve precisely because it's unlike anything else out there with a fresh and forward-thinking design. I played Sea of Thieves this time last year and that demo started in exactly the same way: in a tavern, with a ship moored up outside.
In 2016 I sailed the sea with a crew of players and took on another team in their own vessel. It was thrilling, and hinted at the deep co-operative experience here. This year this was greatly expanded on. Now there were maps, treasure to be found, islands to explore and seas to navigate.
From Rare's perspective it would be the perfect demo. We set sail, used our
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IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Terra Tech Corp. (OTCQX: TRTC), (“Terra Tech” or the “Company”) a vertically integrated cannabis-focused agriculture company, is pleased to announce that it has partnered with the Valiente Group, a beverage production company that specializes in cannabis infusion, to produce a line of cannabis-infused beverages under the IVXX brand.
The Company, through the partnership, is currently developing a range of non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages, including ‘champagne’, ‘apple cider’, lemonade ‘margarita’ mix, zero calorie lemon lime soda and cherry lime sparkling water. The infusion technology will be powered by SORSE branded technology, a product of Tarukino Holdings, a patent pending Emulsion process which leaves beverages without oily residues and without cannabis flavor. The Company is simultaneously developing a single shot flavorless, odorless 5 milligram and 10 milligram shot that can be added to any beverage or craft cocktail for at-home infusion.
Additionally, the Company is building-out a large-scale production and bottling facility at its Dyer Road facility located in Santa Ana, California, for distribution within the California Market.
“Our relationship with the Valiente Group will enable our initial entrance into the cannabis-infused, non-alcoholic beverage market, which is among the least crowded segments in the adult-use cannabis industry and presents a tremendous first mover opportunity for Terra Tech,” Derek Peterson, CEO of Terra Tech, stated. “The build out of our Dyer Road facility will serve the growing demand for cannabis-infused beverages in the California Market and, in the future, we expect it to enable distribution to other markets, including Nevada.”
To be added to the Terra Tech email distribution list, please email [email protected] with TRTC in the subject line.
About Terra Tech
Terra Tech Corp. (OTCQX: TRTC) operates through multiple subsidiary businesses including: Blüm, IVXX Inc., Edible Garden, and MediFarm LLC. Blüm’s retail and medical cannabis facilities provide the highest quality medical cannabis to patients who are looking for alternative treatments for their chronic medical conditions as well as premium cannabis to the adult-use market in Nevada and California. Blüm offers a broad selection of cannabis products including; flowers, concentrates and edibles through its Oakland, CA and multiple Nevada locations. IVXX, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Terra Tech that produces cannabis-extracted products for regulated medical cannabis dispensaries throughout California and medical and adult-use dispensaries in Nevada. The Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Edible Garden, cultivates a premier brand of local and sustainably grown hydroponic produce, sold through major grocery stores such as ShopRite, Walmart, Ahold, Aldi, Meijer, Kroger, Stop & Shop and others nationwide. Terra Tech’s MediFarm LLC subsidiaries are focused on medical and adult-use cannabis cultivation and permitting businesses throughout Nevada.
For more information about Terra Tech Corp visit: http://www.terratechcorp.com/
For more information about IVXX visit: http://ivxx.com/
For more information about Blüm Nevada visit: http://letsblum.com
For more information about Blüm Oakland visit: http://blumoak.com/
Visit us on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/terratechcorp/timeline
Follow us on Twitter @terratechcorp
For more information about Edible Garden visit: http://www.ediblegarden.com/
Visit Edible Garden on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/ediblefarms?fref=ts
Visit IVXX on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/ivxxbrand?fref=ts
Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions, as they relate to the company or its management, identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the company's business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and probably will, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements due to
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President and Vice President of the US. The Bush Regime’s lies are echoed by a neoconservative media, and have gone unchallenged by the opposition party and an indifferent American public.
In Afghanistan, death and destruction rains on even the smallest village from the air. America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are wars against the civilian populations.
Just as the world could not believe Hitler’s next horror and thus was always unprepared, the Iranians despite all the evidence cannot believe that even the Great Satan would gratuitously attack Iran based on nothing but lies about non-existent nuclear weapons.
Iran’s only chance would be to strike before the US delivers the first blow. Instead of using its missiles to take out the Saudi oil fields and to sink the US aircraft carriers, instead of closing the Strait of Hormuz, instead of arming the Iraqi Shi’ites and moving them to insurgency, Iran is perched like a sitting duck in denial even as the US and its Iraqi puppet Maliki move to eliminate Al Sadr’s Iraqi Shi’ite militia in order to avoid supply disruptions and a Shi’ite rebellion in Iraq when the US attack on Iran comes.
It is important to emphasize that Iran is making no moves toward war. Having tamed, blackmailed, and purchased Congress, the US media, and US allies and puppets, Cheney might delight in the arrogance with which he can now attack Iran free of any restraint or fabricated provocation. On the other hand, he might cover himself by orchestrating an "Iranian provocation" to justify his attack as a response. But like Hitler’s planned attack against Poland, Cheney’s attack on Iran has long been in the works.
On March 29 the Associated Press reported that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi "poured contempt on fellow Arab leaders" at the Arab summit that day. Gadhafi told the Arab "leaders," many of whom are on the American payroll, that their American masters would turn on them all, just as America turned on Saddam Hussein after using him to fight a proxy war against Iran.
Saddam had once been an ally of Washington, Gadhafi reminded the Arabs, "but they sold him out." Gadhafi told the American puppets, "Your turn is next."
Gadhafi asked, "Where is the Arabs’ dignity, their future, their very existence?" If Arabs remain disunited, he predicted, "they will turn themselves into protectorates. They will be marginalized and turn into garbage dumps."
Indeed, it is this disunity that permits the US to bomb and murder at will in the Middle East.
The Best of Paul Craig Roberts
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People play games on Nintendo Switch during the 2019 China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference (ChinaJoy) at Shanghai New International Expo Center on August 3, 2019 in Shanghai, China. VCG | Visual China Group | Getty Images
The Nintendo Switch could become the biggest console in China in the next few years, analysts told CNBC, but it faces challenges in a market that loves free-to-play mobile games and may not move the needle for the company's business in the near term. The Japanese gaming firm's flagship console officially went on sale in China on Tuesday. Nintendo worked with Chinese gaming giant Tencent to bring the console to that market. Around 11:30 p.m. China time on Monday, 105,000 people had made a reservation to buy the console on e-commerce site JD.com. Not all people who make a reservation end up buying the console. A spokesperson for Fenqile, another e-commerce site, told CNBC that the Switch "has been one of the most popular console products... over the past years." Shares of Nintendo were up over 2.9% on Tuesday, hitting their highest intraday level since May 9, 2018. Analysts who spoke to CNBC said they expect Nintendo to sell around 100,000 units of the Switch in China before the year ends. Nintendo has already sold 41.67 million units of the Switch globally since it was released worldwide in March 2017. Wedbush Securities estimates that Nintendo will likely sell no more than 10 million units of the Switch in China over the console's lifetime, but said it's possible it may see sales of 4 million to 5 million in the first year.
China market challenges
For international console makers like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, China is a unique market as foreign consoles were banned until 2014. The category remains niche as console software and services are set to account for only 1.3% of total games revenue in China this year, according to market research firm Niko Partners. While units are typically purchased via official channels in other countries, a so-called grey market has developed in China, where foreign consoles are brought in and sold through unofficial channels. Sales of grey market consoles outstripped legal ones last year. Often these grey market consoles may not function properly in China because they can't connect to foreign servers required for certain games. That's why console makers need to release China-specific versions of their products, and part of the reason Nintendo is working with Tencent. While Sony and Microsoft have released their flagship consoles — the PlayStation 4 and XBox One X respectively — in China, success has been limited. This is partly due to high pricing but also because Chinese consumers have grown up on a diet of free-to-play mobile games. That could be a challenge for Nintendo, too. "Free-to-play games were invented in order to combat Chinese piracy of paid games, so it was necessary to offer free, server-based games in order to keep the Chinese consumer from stealing paid games," Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, told CNBC. "The consumers there 'love' free-to-play because that is all they have been offered. Yes, Nintendo is going after an audience that has never paid for games, and yes, that's a challenge."
'Fighting chance'
But analysts are optimistic for the Switch's potential in China for a number of reasons, including pricing and its game catalog. Nintendo priced its console at 2,099 yuan ($298), cheaper than the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One X when they were released. But it is coming to market with only one launch game, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, fewer than what was available for Sony and Microsoft's consoles at release.
But Serkan Toto, CEO at games consultancy Kantan Games, said Nintendo has a "fighting chance." "Nintendo's Switch, however, offers something that PCs, other consoles or phones don't have. It boasts a wide range of exclusive software Chinese users can't get anywhere else. It has the most popular IP (intellectual property) in gaming worldwide, especially Mario, Zelda or Pokemon," Toto told CNBC. One of the Switch's key features is the ability to take the console on the go which could appeal to China's mobile gamers. "The hybrid nature of the Nintendo Switch is a key selling point of the console and we believe the ability to play games at home and on the go will appeal to Chinese gamers who like to play mobile games both at home and in social environments," Niko Partners said in a recent note. Nintendo and Tencent expect more games to be approved in the coming year for the Switch. In China, video games need regulatory approval to be sold.
The Tencent effect
A key part of Nintendo's strategy in China is partnering with one of the country's biggest technology and gaming companies. Tencent runs China's popular messaging service WeChat and has cloud computing capabilities. It also has regulatory know-how in China. "Tencent
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More than a year out from the 2020 presidential election, we’re already starting to see “spoiler” fear-mongering from supporters of America’s two largest political parties and their candidates.
Will formerly Republican congressman Justin Amash of Michigan run for president as a Libertarian or independent in 2020?
How about formerly Republican, formerly Democrat, formerly independent, former Rhode Island governor and US Senator, now Wyoming Libertarian Lincoln Chafee?
Or former Democratic congresswoman and 2008 Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, urged by some to seek the Libertarian nomination?
What if former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz finally gets off the fence and runs as an independent?
Could one of those candidates “spoil” the election in favor of President Donald Trump or of his Democratic challenger?
The message of the Republican and Democratic parties and their supporters to the rest of us is:
If you don’t like what we’re offering you, tough. Vote for us anyway.
Instead of voting FOR what you want, vote AGAINST what you hate.
There are only two real options on the menu: Liver and broccoli.
Ignore the prime rib, chicken cordon bleu, and ice cream. Don’t “waste your vote” on them. You’re getting liver or broccoli no matter what you order (in fact, we work hard to keep those other choices off the menu with our control of ballot access and debate inclusion so that you won’t get “confused” about your real options).
And no matter what you do, don’t stay home. It’s your civic duty to come to the restaurant, choose liver or broccoli, and clean your plate. Because we say so.
Earn your vote the hard way, by convincing you that our ideas and policy proposals are the best on offer? Don’t be silly. We’re entitled to that vote. Hand it over.
Don’t listen to them.
Whatever value your vote may have (and realistically, one vote isn’t very valuable in terms of affecting election outcomes), that value resides in its power to reflect YOUR preferences.
The only way to “waste” your vote is to cast it for a party or candidate you don’t really support. Better to cast no vote at all than to cast one for someone or something you don’t want.
In an election, your vote is your voice. In next year’s presidential election it will be one shout among 130 million. Shout for what you want, not against what you fear, and let the chips fall where they may.
Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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.
What made you swilch from the Fenders to The Hiwatts?
The Fenders just didn't seem to sound right, and we were quite happy with the way the Hiwatts worked. I think Hemispheres has the guitar sound we were shooting for-a very same sound-throughout.
Did you keep the Hiwatts for Permanent Waves?
Actually, on that album I used a number of different amp combinations. I used a Mesa/Boogie to drive a Marshall cabinet, a 100-watt Hiwatt head to power both a Hiwatt and a Marshall cabinet, and a Marshall Mark II head driving a Marshall cabinet with four 12" Celestions. Add to all that a Leslie with a Hiwatt head, which I also used on Hemisphere,. and that's about it for amps.
What about guitars on Permanent Waves?
The 355 I used on almost every song, and for leads I played both the Pyramid and the '78 Strat-which, by this time, had the humbucking pickup in it. "The Spirit Of Radio" and " Different Strings" was the Strat and "Jacob's Ladder" was the Pyramid. For acoustics I had my J-55 in standard tuning, and my Dove in Nashville tuning. On the latter the bottom three strings-the E, A, and D-were tuned to octaves, using thinner strings.
Why did you do that?
Well, on "Entre Nous" we wanted to get a 12-string sound, but the B-45 that I'd been using had a crack in the body; also, the neck was giving way, and the tone just didn't seem to be happening. So we tried a combination of the standard tuning and the Nashville tuning on two guitars: Together they approximated a single 12-string layout. And everything rang clear, so that's why we did that. I'm sure we'll do it again in the future.
How did you get the acoustic sound on the opening of "Different Strings"?
That was a new Gibson Howard Roberts model going through a Loft [91 Elm St., Manchester, CT 06040] analog delay, and we also had it miked to get both an amplified and an acoustic quality.
There are a variety of guitar sounds on all of Rush's albums. How many tracks do you use?
On the average, including solos, about five. We use 24 tracks when we record, and on Permanent Waves we seemed to be bumping a lot. Bumping is when you take two different tracks and combine them into one. It saves space for other things. While I don't go by any formula, overall I like to double all my rhythm tracks at least once, and often three times if I can.
Do you do this for both acoustic and electric parts?
Mostly for electric. We'll do the basic tracks; after that. I'll start doubling and tripling. What we did a lot on Permanent Waves was to have a split: one guitar to one side-like one rhythm guitar-and a double on the other side. So I would double one, and we'd throw it onto the left, and then I'd triple it. Next I'd double that one again, and put it on the right. Then I put a direct solo, say, in the middle. Once you get into the acoustics and direct guitars, it really starts building up.
What are some of your favorite solos 011 Permanent Waves?
Actually, I like different parts of different songs on that album. "The Spirit Of Radio" is a song I like very much. You can usually pick out something in every song that bothers you after a while, after you've played it for a long time. But there isn't anything really there that bugs me. On the second verse there's a direct guitar that come in. and at first I had mixed feelings about it. But I really like it now.
What about the solo at the end of "Different Strings"?
I like it; I love the sound of the Howard Roberts throughout and the feel of the tune. It reminds me of soldiers sitting around a piano in a smoke-filled pub in England during the war. It's the type of solo I really enjoy playing-an emotive, bluesy sort of thing. The only problem is that the Strat part was added on at the last minute; it really starts to happen as the song ends, which was unfortunate.
Did you use any special effects on any of the songs?
We did on "Natural Science." The very opening is a J-55 run through the Loft for a very light chorus effect. Once we had the guitar track down, we stuck a speaker cabinet outside-this was way up at a studio in Moore [sic] Heights. Quebec-and we recorded
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He is the co-host of Australia’s popular breakfast show, Today, but who knew he could also cook?! Karl Stefanovic has released a cookbook s full of recipes for any Aussie home chef…and they are really GOOD!
The TV funnyman includes illustrated steps and handy hints in the book to make the cooking process as painless as possible.
Karl show and tells one of his favourite (and most popular) recipe from the book with us…
Karl Stefanovic’s Super Schnitty
‘this recipe calls for Panko crumbs – a crisp Japansese breadcrumb, readily available from supermarkets in the Asian dry goods section. You can use regular dried breadcrumbs instead if you want, but Panko crumbs will have your mates treating you like a God!’
What you’ll need:
4 large chicken breast
fillets
1 cup plain flour,
seasoned with salt and
pepper
2 eggs, whisked
2. cups panko crumbs
1 tablespoon sweet
paprika
. cup sunflower oil
50 g butter
coleslaw and lemon wedges, to serve
What to do:
Slice each chicken breast fillet horizontally through its centre, but do not cut all the way through. Butterfly the fillet open, then place between sheets of non-stick baking paper. Using a rolling pin, flatten each butterflied breast fillet to a 5 mm thickness.
Place the seasoned flour in a large shallow bowl, place the whisked egg in a separate shallow bowl and combine the crumbs and paprika in a third
shallow bowl. Working one at a time, dip the chicken fillets in flour to coat on both sides, shaking away any excess, then dip in egg and press firmly into the crumb mixture.
Transfer the crumbed chicken to a baking tray. Cover with cling film and chill for at least 20 minutes to set the crumb.
Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium–high heat. Cook the chicken in batches for 3–4 minutes each side, or until cooked through and golden. Serve with coleslaw and lemon wedges.
Yum! Enjoy, B xx
For more of Karl’s recipes, you can purchase the book here. Royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to police legacy charities.
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Last April 4, Adam Jones swung at the first pitch two times. He swung at the first pitch five times on April 6, and then he swung at three more first pitches on April 14. By bedtime April 20, he was up to 16 first-pitch swings. The next day, he added four more.
Teammate J.J. Hardy also swung at the first pitch 16 times. All season. Out of 438 first pitches.
Hardy has never been aggressive early on. His highest-ever first-pitch swing rate is 11.9%, set as a rookie. His career rate is 8%, against a league average north of 27%. Last year, though, he was particularly patient. Not that Hardy is aggressive in any count, but I’ve highlighted him in this plot of first-pitch swing rates and all-other-count swing rates.
The next-lowest first-pitch swing rate was more than twice as high. Hardy’s other-pitch swing rate isn’t so weird, around 47%. But he swung at the first pitch just 3.7% of the time. The other players in his peer group, by other-pitch swing rate, went after the first pitch 25.7% of the time. It’s not that Hardy would never go after the first pitch, but every single time, it came as a surprise.
You’d figure Hardy might be really selective then, right? Welp! Of the 16 first-pitch swings, seven came at pitches out of the zone. Seven swings put the ball in play, but Hardy wound up with one hit, on a grounder. Perhaps it’s additionally worth noting that Hardy took all of three first-pitch swings when there was no one on base. When he was aggressive, mostly, he was just trying to move runners around.
It should go without saying that I don’t know exactly what Hardy’s plan is, because I’m not J.J. Hardy. He might just feel a lot more comfortable after he sees one pitch out of the hand. But just looking at this from the outside, Hardy could probably stand to just pay closer attention from the on-deck circle, because he’s been taken advantage of. Unsurprisingly, Hardy last year had one of the league’s very highest first-pitch zone rates. And no other hitter in the game had a higher percentage of his plate appearances advance to an 0-and-1 count. Hardy went through that count in about 61% of his trips. The average was 49%. If anything, it might be strange these rates weren’t even higher.
Again, hey, Hardy’s his own man. He’s coming off a much better season than the one he had the year before, so more power to him for his 2.3 WAR. He’s not doing everything wrong. But that’s an Orioles lineup full of guys unafraid to take an early hack. Maybe Hardy’s just trying to be different on purpose, but it seems to me he’s doing himself a disservice by watching as much as he does. There has to be a better way to get yourself prepared.
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root@linuxguest:~/setupA/readmemory#./readmemory... readmemory: [128483] => 0x801b6f000 readmemory: [128484] => 0x801b6f000 readmemory: [128486] => 0xe4000000b5 readmemory: [128489] => 0x100000000 readmemory: [128491] => 0x801b6fb88 readmemory: [128493] => 0x100000000 readmemory: [128495] => 0x801b701c8 readmemory: [128497] => 0x100000000 readmemory: [128499] => 0x801b70808 readmemory: [128501] => 0x100000000 readmemory: [128503] => 0x801b70e48... After some analysis, it is realized that this is tcache_s structure used by jemalloc. Inspecting the memory with gdb provides further details: (gdb) info threads Id Target Id Frame * 1 LWP 100185 of process 4891 "mevent" 0x000000080121198a in _kevent () * from /lib/libc.so.7... 12 LWP 100198 of process 4891 "vcpu 0" 0x00000008012297da in ioctl () from /lib/libc.so.7 (gdb) thread 12 [Switching to thread 12 (LWP 100198 of process 4891)] #0 0x00000008012297da in ioctl () from /lib/libc.so.7 (gdb) print *((struct tsd_s *)($fs_base-160)) $21 = {state = tsd_state_nominal, tcache = 0x801b6f000, thread_allocated = 2720, thread_deallocated = 2464, prof_tdata = 0x0, iarena = 0x801912540, arena = 0x801912540, arenas_tdata = 0x801a1b040, narenas_tdata = 8, arenas_tdata_bypass = false, tcache_enabled = tcache_enabled_true, __je_quarantine = 0x0, witnesses = {qlh_first = 0x0}, witness_fork = false} For any thread, the thread-specific data is located at an address pointed by $fs_base-160. The tcache address can be found by inspecting 'tsd_s' structure. The 'vcpu 0' thread's tcache structure is the one that the guest could access using the VGA bug. This can be confirmed by gdb: (gdb) print *(struct tcache_s *)0x801b6f000 $1 = {link = {qre_next = 0x801b6f000, qre_prev = 0x801b6f000}, prof_accumbytes = 0, gc_ticker = {tick = 181, nticks = 228}, next_gc_bin = 0, tbins = {{tstats = {nrequests = 0}, low_water = 0, lg_fill_div = 1, ncached = 0, avail = 0x801b6fb88}}} Since tcache structure is accessible, the tcache metadata can be corrupted as detailed in [4] for further exploitation. The heap layout was further analyzed under multiple CPU configurations as below: - Guest with single vCPU and host with single CPU - Guest with single vCPU and host with more than one CPU core - Guest with more than one vCPU and host with more than one CPU core Some of the observed changes are - The number of jemalloc arenas is 4 times the number of CPU core available. When the number of CPU core changes, the heap layout also changes marginally. I say marginally because tcache structure can still be reached from the 'vga_softc' structure during the overflow - When there is more than one vCPU, each vCPU thread has its own thread caches (tcache_s). The thread caches of vCPU's are placed one after the other. The thread cache structures of vCPU threads are allocated in the same chunk as that of vga_softc structure managed by arena[0]. During a linear overflow, the first tcache_s structure to get corrupted is that of vCPU0. Since vCPU0 is always available under any configuration, it is a reliable target to corrupt. The CPU affinity of exploit running in the guest should be set to vCPU0 to ensure corrupted structures are used during the execution of the exploit. To summarize, the heap layout looks like below: +-----------------------------------------------------+-------+---------+ | | | | | +---------+ +--------+ +--------+ +--------+
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The Government must secure a Brexit transition "as close as possible [to] the status quo" ahead of "serious decisions" in the coming months to relocate jobs out of the UK, the five leading business lobbying groups have warned David Davis.
In a strongly worded letter to the Brexit Secretary obtained by Sky News, organisations including the CBI and British Chambers of Commerce demanded "urgent agreement on transition arrangements to give businesses the certainty and time they need to prepare for a new UK-EU economic partnership".
The letter, which was also signed by the bosses of the Institute of Directors, the manufacturers' group EEF and the Federation of Small Businesses, was described by sources as the most forthright warning to date from the "big five" business lobbyists.
Collectively, the quintet represents members employing millions of private sector workers, making theirs a powerful voice in the quest for a smooth Brexit which slows the momentum towards big headcount reductions in UK company workforces.
Image: David Davis is urged to agree a Brexit transition 'as soon as possible'
People close to the groups say they are increasingly concerned about the possibility of ministerial backtracking on transition arrangements despite Theresa May's commitment to an implementation period that would last for about two years.
The letter was sent to Mr Davis amid reports that he is preparing to present an "upbeat assessment" of a no-deal Brexit to Cabinet colleagues at the end of the month.
:: Fox rejects Macron's claim of Brexit 'bluffing'
While many of the sentiments in it have been expressed separately by the likes of the CBI and IoD, the letter is the first time they have issued such an explicit collective alert about Brexit threats to growth to a Cabinet minister.
"Agreement [on a transition] is needed as soon as possible, as companies are preparing to make serious decisions at the start of 2018, which will have consequences for jobs and investment in the UK," the letter said.
"And the details of any transitional arrangement matter: the economic relationship the UK and EU has during this time-limited period must match as close as possible the status quo."
EU 'green lights' Brexit trade talk preparations
There remains uncertainty about whether Britain would remain part of a customs union with the EU during a transition period, with consequent doubts about the movement of goods between them.
Concerns about the potential impact on the UK's financial services sector heightened last week when the chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs tweeted that he would be spending "a lot more time" in Frankfurt after Brexit.
:: 'Anxious' May 'begged for help' from Juncker
In their letter, the five business groups urged ministers to maintain the UK's existing economic participation in the single market and "the current terms of a customs union" during transition.
"This would provide the greatest economic continuity and could be agreed quickly, ensuring discussions could move swiftly on to our long-term future relationship with the EU," they said.
Significantly, they did not specify a period for the transition, arguing only for it to "last until a new deal is in force and gives enough time to adjust".
Ashworth: ‘Bad deal not in public interest’
Their letter also addressed the tensions within Whitehall about whether Britain would accept new EU regulation during the period of a transition - something Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, and other Brexit hardliners have sought to oppose.
The business groups acknowledged that while accepting new rules and European court judgements would raise "political challenges, [a] failure to do so would create legal confusion and regulatory hurdles, undermining the effectiveness of the transitional arrangement and the certainty it seeks to provide".
One source described the letter as an attempt to strike a realistic balance between the competing agendas within the Cabinet.
The business groups suggested that a lack of formal representation within the EU during transition need not handicap the Government, if it maintained "maximum representation in European regulators, agencies and bodies".
"Mechanisms should also be agreed through which the UK could challenge any legislation it felt was designed to disadvantage the UK," they said.
And they urged Mr Davis to ensure that disruption to employers was minimised as far as possible.
Image: David Davis met EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier during a fifth round of talks last week
"It is vital that companies only have to undertake one adjustment as a result of the UK's withdrawal, not two - and that businesses, the UK Government and authorities in the EU have enough time to make the changes needed to deliver Brexit successfully," they said.
The lobbying groups suggested that the Government use the transition period "to bolster our trade framework and build capacity inside the Department for International Trade," reflecting mounting anxiety about the ability of Liam Fox's ministry to strike rapid bilateral trade deals.
They also called for the Government to publish its position on an implementation phase in order to "
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.
Silk Road Teas, operating out of Hoffman’s property, primarily sold to retail brands like Republic of Tea, but also tapped into an audience willing to pay for premium Chinese teas. Sebastian Beckwith, co-founder of the New York City-based In Pursuit of Tea, says that where other companies would import a couple varieties of green tea, Hoffman would sell 30. He’d spend half an hour on the phone with a curious collector who’d end up spending $30. “David did more for education in the early (U.S.) market than anyone else,” Beckwith says.
Hoffman added to his construction projects a cave where he could age his teas without requiring electricity for air circulation or climate control. He excavated into the hills, pouring 100,000 pounds of concrete to line the walls. There, from the 1990s to the mid-2000s, Hoffman filed away teas by the tons — actually, tens of tons.
***
By 2002, Silk Road Teas was doing $1 million in gross annual sales despite the fact that, as Hoffman frequently jokes, he had no innate talent for business. When he decided that the company had grown too unwieldy, he sold it to Catherine and Ned Heagerty, the latter a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
The negotiations, Ned Heagerty says, took two years, partly because of Hoffman’s lack of business acumen. Yet the new owner adds that the long courtship, in which the two traveled to China numerous times, was “something wonderful.”
“The beauty was that we were drinking some of the best tea China had to offer,” Heagerty says. “Not only was it a great introduction to tea, my introduction started at the top.”
The sale, finalized in 2004, did not include the contents of the tea cave, which Hoffman attributes to Heagerty’s disinterest, and Heagerty to Hoffman’s unwillingness to part with his puers. Hoffman consulted for the new owner for a few years, but eventually parted ways.
Supposedly, he turned his focus back to the Last Resort. Instead, he returned to China to buy more tea. Hoffman says he saw the collection as an investment that could help sustain the Last Resort. “I’d rather have a good stash of puers than a stack of money,” he says. “At least with tea I can enjoy it and share it.”
In those days, puer was so cheap that he amassed 200,000 pounds of it. Many of the teas he bought, like the baskets and logs on display at the Tea Museum, were heicha, or non-Yunnanese fermented “dark teas,” which were little known even in China.
Around 2010, Hoffman started the Phoenix Collection, competing directly against the company he’d sold just six years before.
***
In those short few years, the Chinese puer market had changed.
In 2006 and 2007, a frenzy of speculation on puer cakes gripped China, akin to the 17th century Dutch tulip craze. Farmers picked every bud that sprouted, trying to meet the demand. Fakeries proliferated. Investors tracked the skyrocketing price of their holdings in the puer press. As Jinghong Zhang chronicled, unpressed tea from Yiwu, one of the most famous mountains, shot up from 50 to 120 Chinese yuan per kilo in 2005 to over 400 yuan ($92) in 2007. A year later, the market collapsed, and the price dropped by three-quarters.
The boom and bust, however ruinous to speculators, signaled to all of China the value that Cantonese and Taiwanese collectors had long placed on aged puer. Prices slowly rebounded, eventually surpassing the heights of the boom. Merchants now compete for the best leaves, valuing those from older, wilder trees over Communist-era plantations. As incomes in China have risen, so, too, has the Chinese market for high-end teas. “The domestic market has become my biggest competitor,” Heagerty says.
Since the boom, too, an American community of puer collectors has coalesced. “The common trajectory that people go through with tea drinking is they start on the lighter end, and then they get to dark-roasted oolongs,” says Max Falkowitz, a writer and editor at Saveur magazine. “As they’re drinking more with their bodies and appreciating the somatic and emotional effects of tea, that’s where puer starts to interest them.”
Americans, Brits, Singaporeans and Europeans — many of them in their 20s and early 30s — now
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Negotiations are underway to renovate and redevelop Bowles Hall into a residential college, after the project cleared its latest hurdle at the March UC Board of Regents meeting.
The board approved terms for the negotiation of the property’s lease to the Bowles Hall Foundation, a nonprofit organization composed mainly of UC Berkeley alumni, which would oversee the construction efforts and operate Bowles Hall as a residential college. Intended to reopen in August 2016, students would be encouraged to live in the newly co-ed college for the duration of their undergraduate education.
The $37 million construction is expected to begin May 2015 and last until July 2016. The project would be financed by the Bowles Hall Foundation through the sale of revenue bonds and donations and would come at no cost to the campus.
The redeveloped hall would follow a residential college system, modeled after similar colleges at Oxford and Cambridge. It would be a self-governing, financially self-sustaining entity with live-in faculty, a restored lounge and its own dining commons. Students would be supervised by a housemaster reporting to a board of directors composed of alumni, faculty, students and members of the community. The plan intends to promote a greater sense of community and a higher four-year graduation rate than other campus housing options, according to the foundation’s website.
Bowles Hall, the first residence hall on campus, opened in 1929 as the first residential college in the United States — one year earlier than Harvard University’s first residential college.
“Bowles Hall was a pioneering attempt to create a small college setting within a large college campus,” said Robert O’Hara, a higher education consultant who has researched residential colleges extensively.
If the plan is completed, Bowles Hall would be the best modern example of a residential college on the West Coast, O’Hara said.
The hall ceased to follow the residential college model in the 1970s, according to UC Berkeley alumnus Bob Sayles, who lived in Bowles Hall and graduated in 1952. After one year of living in the building, students had to reapply to live there the next year and were selected through a lottery system. In 2005, the building became restricted to housing freshmen.
Sayles, who is now spearheading the redevelopment efforts, said he was concerned when he heard the building would no longer house students of all ages — something he felt was integral to his college experience. That year, he and three other former Bowles Hall residents met with campus officials and began speaking to students about their experiences in the hall.
They discovered that the building was in a state of disrepair; it had not been renovated since it was built, according to Sayles. Landon Damiao, a UC Berkeley freshman and current Bowles Hall resident, complained that some bathrooms do not have sinks.
The building also fails to meet modern earthquake safety guidelines and isn’t accessible to disabled students, according to Sayles.
“The maintenance department’s great, but it’s an 80-year-old building on a fault line,” said Indy Nelson, a UC Berkeley junior who lives in Bowles Hall. He petitioned the campus as a transfer student to allow him to live in the building as a junior.
Since 2005, Sayles and other alumni have worked with students, faculty and administrators to develop a plan for the renovation and recreation of the Bowles Hall residential college experience, traveling to institutions such as Harvard University and the University of Virginia that currently use this system.
In October 2012, the Bowles Hall Foundation put forth its first formal proposal, which wound its way through the approval process, culminating in the March 20 decision of the UC Board of Regents to authorize the university to negotiate the terms of a ground lease.
That negotiation is currently ongoing. The Bowles Hall Foundation intends to negotiate for a 45-year lease during which time the foundation would control the construction and subsequent operation of the building. The university would be relieved of all maintenance and operation costs, as Bowles Hall would be financially self-sustaining, according to the foundation’s website.
Impact on student housing during construction has not yet been determined, according to Marty Takimoto, spokesperson for Residential and Student Service Programs.
“We look forward to working closely with the Bowles Hall Foundation to ensure that any possible impacts on students are minimized (including any temporary housing needs) during proposed renovation work,” he said in an email.
The reopened Bowles Hall would be co-ed for the first time in its history. Sayles said those developing the plan thought living in a co-ed building is “richer and more like adult living than in a single-sex facility.”
If the project is completed, Stern Hall would be the only single-gender residence hall on campus. UC Berkeley freshman and current Bowles
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At different junctures, different administrations have adopted different approaches and values to Canada’s immigration policies. But irrespective of the actions of different administrations, Canada is a democratic country based on some very fundamental principles. Canadians value our constitutional rights.
When the Liberal government was elected, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated very clearly that there will be real change. Real change should have meant that the government would have honoured its campaign promise to repeal Bill C-24.
That didn't happen.
Bill C-24, Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act was passed and became law in June 2014 by the Harper Conservatives. It created two classes of citizens, those who could have their citizenship revoked and those who could not. Under Bill C-24, some Canadians are more Canadian than others because some Canadians are afforded more rights than others simply because of where they were born.
Instead of repealing Bill C-24, the Liberal government introduced Bill C-6, An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act. One would have thought that in the minimum, Bill C-6 would have fixed the lack of procedural fairness and safeguards for individuals facing citizenship revocation due to misrepresentation or fraud by ensuring that they have the right to an independent hearing and to consider compassionate and humanitarian factors. That didn't happen either.
In fact, Bill C-6 failed to fix this major problem. I tried to address this and tabled substantive amendments to ensure individuals who face citizenship revocation have the right to a fair and independent hearing. But those amendments failed.
And now, even though Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister John McCallum acknowledged that this is wrong and said the current practice is “dictatorial”, currently his government is aggressively pursuing citizenship revocation on up to 60 Canadians each month.
It also does not matter that the misrepresentation is a result of an honest mistake even if you are a child and your parent presented misinformation on the application for whatever reason. Your citizenship could still be revoked and you cannot argue your case based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. This is wrong.
As long as the rules established under Bill C-24 remain, the prime minister’s declaration that a Canadian is a Canadian remains elusive. It’s not a joke that people fighting a jaywalking ticket have more rights than those at risk of losing their citizenship.
Recently, Democratic Reform Minister Maryam Monsef admitted on the public record that she misrepresented her place of birth on her passport application. According to immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman, “if [the Minister of Democratic Reform]’s birthplace was misrepresented on her citizenship application…that would be grounds for revocation of citizenship, regardless of whether it was an innocent mistake or the fault of her mother. And if the misrepresentation was on her permanent residence and refugee application, she could even be deported.”
At committee on Oct. 4, 2016, McCallum stated “I think citizenship should be revoked for people who misrepresent. That's the situation.”
No one is disputing the government’s right to revoke someone’s citizenship on the basis of fraud or misrepresentation. However, to take away someone’s Canadian citizenship and possibly deport the individual is a very serious matter.
What I am disputing is that no Canadian should have to face that prospect without the right to have an independent hearing, have the opportunity to present their case, and that humanitarian and compassionate grounds need to be taken into consideration.
If the law is being applied equally to everyone, then Monsef could lose her citizenship. She could be among the 60 people who are faced with citizenship revocation this month without procedural fairness or having compassionate and humanitarian factors be taken into consideration.
I wonder if that were to happen, would McCallum still not take any action to halt citizenship revocation cases based on misrepresentation until procedure fairness has been restored?
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with, you have a sense of what it means to belong and an empathy that can extend its membership beyond the immediate and increase your networks. Always seek to widen your capacity to give and receive. Be emboldened by the magnificence of life and the miraculous nature of creative endeavour.
It is important that we overcome the disgraces of the modern world with a joy that signifies our hope in the inherent goodness of humanity. An uprising of this nature means nothing if we will merely fall back onto the old tropes of xenophobic tribalism and selfish endeavour. True activism requires one to shift the entire momentum of their life and to shift it in such a way that maximises positive impact in whatever context we find ourselves in.
Do not reject authority outright, do not fall into the trap of blind anti-authoritarianism that often serves to weaken the possibility of representation and participation. Strive for ownership of government, not rejection of it. Recognise that government exists in a wider sense than just the halls of parliament, and that we are all guardians of a just and honest society. Radicalism for its own sake runs the risk of serving up change without true form, of revolution without recreation. It also runs the risk of playing into the very hands of those who seek to oppress this movement by undermining the deeper and wider message of participation that it represents.
It is vital to keep a strong basis of peaceful solidarity and not be goaded into actions that undermine the core message. Aggression must sometimes be used against particular injustices in order to overcome their influence, however true systematic change cannot be predicated on hostility but must rather be built upon foundations of charity. To stand together arm in arm, literally and figuratively, is to create a unified solidarity that will embolden those who come into contact with it. It will allow and encourage them to make the changes in their lives that are required on an individual level, across millions and millions of people, in order to make a lasting difference.
This is why, if nothing else, it is your duty to identify that you are part of the 99% and that you do so not just because you are angry but because you are hopeful. There is no fixed political message, no ideology or dogma other than an acceptance that the way forwards is to be built upon equality, openness and mutual understanding. Be very wary of those who would seek to undermine this message with calls for violence based upon hatred, for they are either seriously misguided or attempting to provoke you away from productive action.
The moment to physically stand up and be heard is right now, but what must come afterwards requires a concerted effort to move the message beyond the picket lines and into the heart of our collective being. It’s about recognising how to actualise the capacity for charity and compassion that the wisest throughout history have promoted as the peak of human endeavour.
We must continue to be vigilant against injustice, but at the same time also accept some responsibility for allowing such grievances to occur in the first place. We must stand in solidarity alongside the vulnerable and exploited around the world, but at the same time recognise that standing alone is not the only action needed. Once we have accepted this responsibility we can make a solemn commitment to no longer be culpable either through action or inaction. This will be the watershed moment that brings about a true revolution and recreation of society.
We are the 99% and there is no need to expect us because we are already here. Those who make decisions and act contrary to the tenets of goodness, justice and equality are not afraid of resistance; they are afraid that we might realise that they can be ignored and sow the seeds of a new form of social existence. Now is not the time to tear down the 1%. Now is the time to make them irrelevant.
For more information see United for Global Change – 15th October 2011 and Occupy Together
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A $3 billion costing for New Zealand First's policy to remove GST from basic food was a mistake, Winston Peters has told Morning Report.
Watch the interview - part of RNZ's in-depth election series - here:
Mr Peters said his party's policies were costed at $10bn over seven or eight years.
Taking GST off basic food would be $600-700 million, he said, and the mention of $3bn on the party's website was a mistake by someone in his team.
"In fact I had a discussion with my team just about two days ago about correcting that," he said. "Parties make mistakes and in this case it's been corrected, it should have been corrected."
The party would leave it to a group of ordinary men and women to decide what foods would be considered basic, though Mr Peters said bread would be on the list, but chips and biscuits would not.
The cost of policies such as a 20 percent tax rate for export companies, and buying back shares in energy companies, would depend on the uptake or timing.
As in previous years, Mr Peters could be 'kingmaker' or 'queenmaker' if his party wins enough votes to make a coalition with National or Labour. He has said he would only make a coalition with Labour if he was told what the party's tax plans were. The party released its full tax plan this morning.
Mr Peters told Morning Report there was a "convention that in the first place you would go with the party with the highest votes" and talking first to the party that gained the most votes would be the "normal thing to do".
"But it depends who's prepared to talk to you," he said.
He said he'd never referred to bottom lines in terms of what he wanted from any post-election talks.
"My caucus colleagues, my board and my party is entitled to full consultation before somebody steps up like some dictator and says, 'I want this and I don't care you guys want.'
"I have never gone out talking about bottom lines."
Mr Peters said his vision was for dramatic economic change and a shift from "economic lunacy". New Zealand had gone down a path of economic revolution starting three decades ago while Australia, which had made incremental changes, now had greater growth and higher pay rates.
He said in order to implement the party's pledge of first-home buyers getting long-term low interest rates for up to 25 years, the government would have to be responsible for the scheme, not commercial banks.
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The Southern Transitional Council, backed by United Arab Emirates, is leading the separatist cause in Aden.
Fighting in south Yemen escalated dramatically last month as separatist militias seized the city of Aden from forces loyal to the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The clashes between the nominal partners in the anti-Houthi coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have exposed the divergent interests of the Gulf powers as well as their Yemeni allies.
The separatist fighters in Aden are loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a political body established in Aden in 2017 that wants to restore independence in the south.
The capture of Aden by secessionists has shifted the centre of the Yemen war to the south and brought renewed focus to the country’s decades-old southern question.
When the Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in March 2015 to fight Houthi rebels who had taken control of major cities in the country including Sanaa and Aden, the southern separatists and government-aligned forces joined the alliance.
Aden was regained by Hadi’s forces in July 2015, and began to function as the interim capital with the northern city of Sanaa firmly under Houthi control.
Yet tensions in Aden rose in April 2017 when Hadi accused the city’s governor, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, of disloyalty and dismissed him.
On May 11, following mass protests against al-Zubaidi’s removal, the Southern Transitional Council was formed, with the former Aden governor chosen to preside over the 26-seat council. The body immediately declared its intention to “reinstate the Southern State” – a reference to the former South Yemen republic, which existed from 1967 until 1990.
“The STC wants to have authority over the territories they operate in,” said Sama’a al-Hamdani, an independent Yemen analyst and non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute.
“This could potentially mean sharing power with the government temporarily before asking for a referendum on secession,” she continued.
“They also want to be recognised internationally for their role in supporting the coalition and the Yemeni government throughout the war.”
Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia while the Houthis were still in control of Aden, immediately denounced the STC as illegitimate, but the wheels for southern independence have already been set in motion, Holly Topham from the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies said.
The STC was behaving akin to what Topham called a “government-in-waiting in the south with state-like characteristics and a would-be parliament, the National Assembly”.
Members of UAE-backed southern Yemeni separatist forces during clashes with government forces in Aden [Fawaz Salman/Reuters]
UAE role in south Yemen
Since 2016, the United Arab Emirates has provided military and financial backing to the Security Belt, a now STC-dominated paramilitary group comprised of some 90,000 Yemeni fighters.
In 2015, the coalition relied on the Security Belt to secure territories in the south and reinstate the government in Aden, with Hadi’s forces regaining full control of the city in July.
Human Rights Watch in 2017 alleged the militia had carried out abuses, including arbitrarily detaining people and forcibly disappearing dozens.
“The STC was considered part of the [Saudi-UAE-led] coalition and a key partner to Hadi’s government,” al-Hamdani said.
Yet the fighting between the UAE-backed Security Belt and government forces supported by Saudi Arabia has exposed divisions between the coalition’s two key leaders.
In January 2018, fighting between the two sides broke out, resulting in separatist forces seizing almost all of Aden while the presidential palace was surrounded.
At least 38 people were killed in three days of fighting, before the Saudi-UAE-led coalition mediated to lift the siege, placing the city under government loyalist control.
More than a year-and-a-half later, the STC regained control of Aden on August 10 after four days of fighting between separatists and Hadi’s troops, which killed dozens and wounded more than 200.
In the aftermath, Hadi’s government accused the UAE of backing a “coup” and conducting air raids that reportedly killed and wounded 300 people in southern Yemen – though the numbers could not be independently verified. In late August, Hadi urged Saudi Arabia to intervene and halt the UAE’s air raids on its forces.
The UAE responded by saying it acted out of self-defence and carried out air attacks on “terrorist militias” – although it didn’t identify them.
To curry favour with
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KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. military offered its condolences Thursday after an airstrike on an Afghan army outpost mistakenly killed five Afghan soldiers and injured at least seven.
The predawn strike in eastern Afghanistan’s Logar province, which U.S. military officials described as an “unfortunate incident,” comes as U.S. and Afghan officials continue to clash over an agreement that would keep American troops in the country beyond the end of the year.
President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign the accord, which he helped write, and over the last year has used increasingly sharp language to accuse U.S. forces of being occupiers and indiscriminately killing Afghan civilians.
But Karzai was unusually mild in his reaction to Thursday’s incident, telling reporters during a state visit to Sri Lanka that it was being investigated. He did not immediately condemn the international troops.
“This attack, NATO has admitted to me they did it mistakenly,” Karzai said, according to the Associated Press. “We will investigate the issue and then speak about it.”
The security agreement is a requirement for keeping a residual U.S. force in Afghanistan beyond December, when most of the roughly 33,000 remaining American troops are to withdraw. Military officials have said a post-2014 mission would focus on counter-terrorism operations and on training Afghan soldiers, who still struggle with communications and air power.
Obama administration officials are hoping to complete the accord with Karzai’s successor, who is to be chosen in the April 5 presidential election. The front-runners in the race have indicated they would sign the agreement.
Pressure from Karzai has forced U.S. military officials to curtail the use of airstrikes, particularly in populated areas, although the Afghan military says it needs U.S. air power in battles against Taliban insurgents.
Officials in the Charkh district of Logar province, where the airstrike occurred about 3:20 a.m., said the deaths and injuries were the result of a drone attack. U.S. officials would not comment on whether a drone was involved.
“We value the strong relationship with our Afghan partners, and we will determine what actions will be taken to ensure incidents like this do not happen again,” said a statement from the International Security Assistance Force, as the U.S.-led coalition is known.
Din Mohammad Darwish, spokesman for the provincial governor, said Afghan soldiers were being sent to conduct an investigation in Charkh, described by Afghan and U.S. officials alike as an area filled with insurgents.
Special correspondent Baktash reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Bengali from Washington.
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NBN Co has gone back to the drawing board in an effort to come up with changes to a key agreement governing its wholesale operations that will offer it flexibility but be acceptable to Australia’s competition and consumer watchdog.
NBN Co has withdrawn a series of proposed changes to the Special Access Undertaking (SAU) after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) expressed concern over some of the revisions.
The SAU is a key document governing NBN Co’s role as a wholesale-only network operator and sets out price and non-price terms relating to access to the company's infrastructure.
NBN Co in 2016 lodged proposed changes to the SAU that would have reflected its shift to a multi-technology mix (MTM) model for the NBN rollout (the SAU was originally lodged with the ACCC in 2013). In March 2017 the ACCC expressed concern over some of NBN Co’s proposals, which the competition watchdog said may have the effect of eroding its oversight of parts of the new network.
In October 2017, the ACCC pressed pause on its assessment of the SAU revisions while NBN Co looked at possible pricing changes.
In a letter to the ACCC sent late last month, NBN Co CEO Stephen Rue said that since the company had lodged its proposed changes to the SAU, it had undertaken “several pricing and discounting initiatives”.
Those have included its dimension-based discounting scheme, a ‘Focus on 50’ discount for 50Mbps services, the launch of bundled fixed-line and fixed-wireless bundled products, and a new entry-level offering.
Rue said that the pricing initiatives have had a “very positive” impact and have promoted “the long-term interests of end users”.
The NBN Co CEO said that in light of the pricing and discount changes, feedback from retail service providers and feedback from the ACCC during the LTRCM process, the company would withdraw the proposed SAU variation.
Rue wrote that the company “plans to re-lodge a new SAU variation, and will seek to do so as soon as practicable.”
That variation will cover a range of issues including “affording additional price certainty to RSPs regarding NBN’s pricing and discounting approach going forward, while also providing a reasonable degree of flexibility to NBN to price experiment and introduce innovative and efficient pricing arrangements to promote the long-term interests of end-users.”
The SAU constrains NBN Co revenue, allowing it to recover “only its prudent and efficient costs, and no more, for the duration of the SAU,” the ACCC said in its update on the SAU variation process.
“The use of discounts also allows NBN Co the flexibility to respond to market demands or changes in a timely way,” the ACCC said.
“However, implementing price changes through the discount mechanism means that the bundled offers or promotions are outside of the SAU framework and the price controls... do not apply. This means that NBN Co is able to increase the discounted prices (up to the price caps) at any time, subject to the notice period listed in the relevant discount notice.”
“We are concerned that this undermines a central objective of the SAU which is to ensure certainty for access seekers and to minimise price shocks for consumers and businesses using the NBN,” the ACCC said.
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Rand wrote [her book] very explicitly as propaganda. She used to say, “I was educated by the best propagandists of all.” One of the facts about Rand that explains almost everything about her, is she received a history degree from the University of Leningrad. She knew exactly what the Soviets were doing; she saw them twisting history and twisting art, culture, everything, to support the Communist cause. She thought, “I can do that too.”
If Rand were alive today, what do you think she would say about Trump?
The Trump campaign was in many ways a rejection of Randian economics. Basically he said, “I am going to help you. The American worker needs the help of the government to get better trade deals, to bring back jobs; I’m going to do that.”
He didn’t say, “Everything’s fine, the free market is going to work great.” He basically said, “The free market is broken, you guys have been getting screwed by elites, and I’m going to get on the phone with Business and tell them what’s what.”
That is totally anti-Rand.
The way he has interacted with business leaders; she would be irate. During her lifetime Kennedy did something very similar with the steel companies. Steel companies raised their prices, and president Kennedy got on his soap box and said this is inappropriate et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and the steel companies backed down. Rand thought that was a complete and total abuse of political power, and Kennedy had no business doing that. It was chilling, it was dangerous.
She would say exactly the same thing about the Carrier deal, about all the threats that Trump has made. I think she would find them deeply, deeply problematic.
But then you have this cabinet emerging where people are said to be avid Rand fans. It’s very curious. It’s sort of a reshaping of Rand in a new way, and this time the issue is not related to atheism; this time some of the free market capitalism, that seems to have been shaved off. There’s not much left of Rand once you slice that off.
Has she been completely distorted?
“What is left is…the elevation of the capitalist entrepreneur individualist as the true leader of society, as the true change agent of society.”
What is left is something that’s run under the radar: the elevation of the business person, the elevation of the capitalist entrepreneur individualist as the true leader of society, as the true change agent of society. That has been a piece of her appeal for a long time. For a long time she has been beloved by disruptors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, people who see themselves as shaping the future, taking risky bets, moving out in front of everyone else, relying only on their own instincts, intuition, and knowledge, and going against the grain.
What Rand did very deliberately is to create a portrait of American business, American commercial life, American industry, as a creative and challenging and dynamic field of human endeavor. And also a moral place. Where, to grow a business and have an idea and see that idea come to fruition, come to reality, was essentially a moral thing to do.
It was not selfish; it was self-actualization, and it was performing to your highest potential in the world.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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?
Kawahara: Exactly. If we were only dealing with destroy mode, we would have figured out something with our knowledge from working on RX-78-2. Oh yeah, we also were stumped by the eyes.
— The eyes?
Kawahara: When you think about the eyes during unicorn mode, you imagine the green light, right? Well, we had a difficult time deciding what to do with them to make them stand out. We intended to add them in, but after three attempts of trying, we settled on the current design where its faceplate is covering the eyes. Looking from below it turned out just right.
Nakagawa: When it came to fine-tuning the faceplate, we had already finished up with the mock-up model, so we had to arrange everything on the 1/1 statue. With something this big, data’s usefulness can only go so far. Just because the data said we were able to put it together didn’t mean we could.
A Cuckoo clock transforming face
— So the eyes transform along with the faceplate, I see. Were there any other parts that proved to be a hurdle concerning mobility?
Kawahara: Definitely the horn. I was stuck on how we were going to put such a complicated mechanism in that narrow space. For the faceplate, we planned to have it tilt up slightly so it could be stored away in the upper part of the head. However, with the mechanisms required to make the horn transform there was no room for the face to transform that way. After mulling it over, we finally decided on the unicorn mode faceplate storing in the torso. This was the model we used to research.
The mechanisms used are the same as seen in traditional bunraku puppet theater performances, which is actually something our company started out making. During the Meiji period, our company specialized in automaton mechanics for stage plays and Cuckoo clocks.
— You based the head transformation concept on Cuckoo clocks? What an amusing way to engineer it!
Kawahara: If you think about it, the Unicorn statue is just a modern day Cuckoo clock. When the clock strikes a specific time, the whole statue moves.
— Were there any problems with the mechanics of the horn?
Kawahara: I asked the Sunrise producer, “does the horn open like ‘bam!’?” To which he explained, “no it’s more like ‘whooosh’” I reminded him, “no it’s definitely ‘bam!’, in the anime it opens really quickly!” (laughs). For that reason, we tried to put in as much speed in the movement as possible. With any large pieces moving though, you have to worry about safety. If it moves too fast the break mechanisms will get wonky, so we had to do the best with what we had.
— What about the other parts that moved, like the shoulders and knees?
Kawahara: The skirt, too. The skirt was a challenge because the front armor is meant to slide, but the design Katoki gave us proved complicated as it slid uniaxially to the side and tended to get stuck not opening. We thought about having it raise slightly and then sliding it to the side, but that was a whole new can of worms on the mechanism front. After going back and forth, we ended with a uniaxial design that slanted forward. It was a series of trial and error, and it ate up a lot of our time.
Nakagawa: Yeah, if you look at it from the front it doesn’t seem all that bad, but once it’s complete you see it from every angle. Our first prototype had the sliding parts protruding too far forward which made it look terrible from the side. You can’t continue with production if it doesn’t come out right, so we ended up remaking it.
Kawahara: For the legs, there wasn’t anything too tricky with the transformation, but securing the LEDs for the psycho frame was a bit of an ordeal. The steel inner frame left barely any space to put them inside.
The pain of choosing the psycho frame material
— You’ve brought up the LEDs. Now, the Unicorn’s light-up transformation is one of its key features, do you think you could talk about it?
Kawahara: We had the RGB light spectrum available to us, so we didn’t need to worry about choosing a color. However, if, for example, we wanted to bring out that fluorescent blue-green from the closing fight, how were we going to do it? That was
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The Obama administration knowingly gave U.S. taxpayer money to an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Sudan, a Middle East think tank has reported.
In February 2014, according to the Middle East Forum (MEF), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) gave $200,000 total to the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) as part of a USAID-authorized grant of $723,405 to World Vision — an evangelical international charity working in Sudan. The funds were intended to “improve water, sanitation and hygiene and to increase food security in Sudan’s Blue Nile state.”
Stunningly, more than half of the money was transferred to ISRA after USAID had been told that it was a designated global terror entity on the U.S. sanctions list. At the time, ISRA’s enormous international terror network was even known to the public, as it was often in the headlines.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Khartoum-based agency as a terror-financing organization in September of 2004 because of its links to Osama bin Laden, his organization Maktab al-Khidamat (MK), and other terrorist groups including Hamas.
Independent sources confirmed to i24NEWS that USAID discontinued the funds “as soon as it became clear that ISRA was a proscribed group.”
But shockingly, the U.S. Treasury “issued a special license permitting a one-time $125,000 transfer to ISRA” after the issue was brought to their attention.
A USAID official told MEF that World Vision had alerted it in November 2014 to ISRA’s possible inclusion on the terror list. USAID reportedly then instructed World Vision to “suspend all activities with ISRA,” and gave the State Department, OFAC, and USAID’s Office of the Inspector General a heads-up. USAID and World Vision then waited to hear back from OFAC on whether ISRA was a designated terror organization or not:
USAID emails obtained by the Middle East Forum reveal that in January 2015, World Vision was growing unhappy while waiting for OFAC’s assessment. Mark Smith, World Vision’s senior director of humanitarian and emergency affairs, wrote to USAID, stating that the Islamic Relief Agency “had performed excellent work” for World Vision in the past, and that “putting contractual relationships in limbo for such a long period is putting a significant strain” on World Vision’s relationship with the Sudanese regime. Smith also revealed that World Vision had submitted a notice to OFAC indicating its “intention to restart work with [ISRA] and to transact with [ISRA]” if OFAC did not respond within a week. World Vision’s statement stunned USAID officials, who complained that World Vision’s behavior “doesn’t make sense.” USAID official Daniel Holmberg emailed a colleague: “If they actually said that they wanted to resume work with ISRA, while knowing that it was 99% likely that ISRA was on the list then I am concerned about our partnership with them, and whether it should continue.” On January 23, OFAC confirmed that ISRA was a sanctioned entity and denied World Vision “a license to engage in transactions with [ISRA].” Mark Smith and World Vision’s country program director in Sudan expressed their disappointment, stating that they were in discussions with ISRA as well as the Sudanese regime’s Humanitarian Aid Commission, which regulates the activities of international charities in Sudan.
Despite this ruling, World Vision wrote to OFAC and Obama administration USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk in February of 2015 to apply to OFAC for a new license to pay ISRA “monies owed for work performed.” USAID’s mission director for Sudan told MEF that World Vision argued that if they did not pay ISRA, “their whole program will be jeopardized.”
World Vision waited on pins and needles until May 7, 2015, when after “close collaboration and consultations with the Department of State,” OFAC issued a license to World Vision International authorizing “a one-time transfer of approximately $125,000 to ISRA,” of which “$115,000 was for services performed under the sub-award with USAID” and $10,000 was “for an unrelated funding arrangement between Irish Aid and World Vision”:
An unnamed World Vision official described the decision as a “great relief as ISRA had become restive and had threatened legal action, which would have damaged our reputation and standing in Sudan.” Senior USAID official Charles Wanjue wrote to colleagues: “Good news and a
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. EXT MOS ESPA - STREET - FRUIT STAND - DAY ANAKIN and QUI-GON exit WATTO'S and stop before JIRA'S fruit stand. ANAKIN hands JIRA some coins. ANAKIN : I've been freed, and I'm going away. Buy yourself a cooling unit with this... Otherwise I'll worry about you. JIRA is astonished. She stares, not knowing what to say. JIRA : Can I give you a hug ANAKIN : Sure. She gives him a hug. JIRA : I'll miss you, Annie.. there isn't a kinder boy in the galaxy. You be careful... ANAKIN runs to join QUI-GON, who has already started down the street. As they walk along together, QUI-GON notices something out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly, without breaking his stride, he ignites his laser sword, swing around, and lunges forward and cuts a lurking PROBE DROID in half. QUI-GON inspects the sparking and fizzing DROID. ANAKIN : What is it? QUI-GON : Probe droid. Very unusual... not like anything I've seen before. Come on. QUI-GON and ANAKIN start running. EXT. TATOOINE - DESERT - NABOO SPACECRAFT - DAY QUI-GON and ANAKIN run toward the Naboo spacecraft. ANAKIN is having a hard time keeping up. ANAKIN : Master Qui-Gon,sir, wait! QUI-GON turns to answer and sees a DARK-CLOAKED FIGURE bearing down on a speeder bike. QUI-GON : Anakin, drop! ANAKIN drops to the ground just as DARTH MAUL sweeps over him. DARTH MAUL jumps off his speeder bike, and before he has hit the ground, the Sith Lord has swund a death blow with his laser sword that is barely blocked by QUI-GON. ANAKIN picks himself up. The two galactic warriors, Sith and Jedi, are bashing each other with incredible blows. They move in a continual cloudof dust, smashing everything around them. This is a fierce fight. ANAKIN gets up, bewildered by the confrontation. QUI-GON : (Cont'd) Annie, get to the ship! Take off! Go! Go! QUI-GON struggles to fend off the relentless onslaught as ANAKIN races to the ship. INT. NABOO SPACECRAFT - HALLWAY ANAKIN runs into the main hallway of the spaceship, where PADME and CAPTAIN PANAKA are working. ANAKIN : Qui-Gon's in trouble. He says to take off...now!! CAPT. PANAKA : Who are you? PADME : He's a friend. INT. NABOO SPACECRAFT - COCKPIT CAPTAIN PANAKA, ANAKIN, and PADME rush into the cockpit where OBI-WAN and RIC OLIE are checking the hyperdrive. CAPT. PANAKA : Qui-Gon is in trouble, he says to take off! PILOT : I don't see anything. OBI-WAN : Over there! Fly low! In the distance is a small cloud of dust. EXT. TATOOINE - DESERT - NABOO SPACECRAFT - DAY QUI-GON and DARTH MAUL continue theirsword battle. Leaping over one another in an incredible display of acrobatics, the two warrios hear the ship fly over them a few feet off the ground. QUI-GON almost dissapears for a moment. Before DARTH MAUL knows what's happening, QUI-GON is on the spacecrat's ramp. EXT. TATOOINE - NABOO SPACECRAFT RAMP - DAY The SITH LORD immediately jumps onto the ramp after QUI-GON, but barely makes it. His heels hang over the edge of a forty-foot drop. QUI-GON swings his laser sword with all his might and knocks DARTH AMUL off the ramp and onto the desert floor. The ramp closes, and the Naboo craft rockets away, leaving the Sith Lord standing alone. EXT. SPACE - NABOO SPACECRAFT (FX) The sleek spacecraft rockets away from the planet Tatooine. INT. NABOO SPACECRAFT - HALLWAY ANAKIN and OBI-WAN rush into the hallway to find QUI-GON collapsed on the floor opposite the entry. ARTOO is looking over him. The JEDI is breathing hard, wet with sweat and covered in dirt. ANAKIN : Are you all right
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NEW YORK — President Donald Trump signed an executive order to form a task force on violent crime and another executive order to form a task force on violence against police officers.
Jeffery Robinson, Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union and Director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, had this response:
“President Trump intends to build task forces to investigate and stop national trends that don’t exist. We have seen historic lows in the country’s crime rate and a downward trend in killings against police officers since the 1980s. The president not only doesn’t acknowledge these facts about our nation’s safety, he persists in ignoring the all-too-real deaths of Black and brown people at the hands of law enforcement.
“There are some cities that have had recent rises in violent crime, and they deserve help. And every locality in America wants to further reduce crime and violence. But task forces premised on misinformation, and looking in the wrong places for the wrong problems, are not the answer.”
Bayonetta’s back and more powerful than ever. Wield wild weapons and execute deadly moves—like the powerful Umbran Climax—to take out angels and demons in this breathtaking action game. You can even team up with friends in 2-player online or local wireless co-op fights (additional accessories required; sold separately.) Bayonetta is a butt-kicking, havoc-wreaking witch who wields sweet weapons like pistols, whips, hammers, flamethrowers, and poison bows. But it’s not just about brawn—it’s also about style. Bayonetta is deadly but sleek, with moves like Witch Time that slows down time itself, and the all-new Umbran Climax—a special magic attack that summons Infernal Demons to devastate enemies. The Bayonetta™ 2 game also features an online and local wireless 2-player cooperative mode where players bet halos on their performance and work together to amplify their sass, cause destruction, and score some riches.
R256 Reuters Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christians celebrate liberation from Isis Iraqi Christian soldiers attend the first Sunday mass at the Grand Immaculate Church since it was recaptured from Islamic State in Qaraqosh, near Mosul in Iraq October 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah - RTX2R269 Reuters
Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite militias have managed to cut off Isis’ supplies lines to the east of Mosul, effectively sealing off the escape route to Raqqa.
Officials hope that the dovetailing of the two campaigns will maximise the military pressure on Isis, preventing the extremists from regrouping or planning terror attacks elsewhere.
While the world would breath a sigh of relief at the end of Isis as a land-holding force, the vacuum created could exacerbate the situation elsewhere in Syria, experts have warned.
A buffer zone filled with Turkish-backed Syrian rebels - operating against the wishes of the Russian-backed Syrian government - could be strengthened sufficiently to attempt to break the regime’s current siege of opposition neighbourhoods in Aleppo.
(CNN) State leaders in New York failed to reach a consensus Wednesday on key details in the state's plan to legalize recreational marijuana, flattening a final push from Democratic leaders hoping to pass an agreement this year.
Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the bill, confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that the legislation will not pass this year. The New York State Assembly's legislative session began in January and was scheduled to end on Wednesday.
"It is clear now that MRTA is not going to pass this session. We came very close to crossing the finish line, but we ran out of time," Krueger said, referring to the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act.
Democratic lawmakers in support of legalization lamented the delay. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo cited the bill's potential to end racially disproportionate policing around the drug as a reason to try again in the future.
"Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by laws governing marijuana for far too long, and it has to end," Cuomo said.
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MOSCOW: The decision by India and Russia at the recent (June 1) annual Summit to undertake joint economic projects in third countries including in the area of clean energy have opened up possibilities of collaboration in civilian nuclear energy sector India and Russia are currently fine-tuning their civil nuclear energy partnership in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. India with its experience in the civil nuclear industry will train personnel and provide expertise to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. India has entered into civilian nuclear partnerships arrangements with both Dhaka and Colombo. Russia is building Bangladesh's maiden nuclear power plant in Roopur.ATOMEXPO 2017 that was inaugurated here on 2017 would seek to explore further opportunities for bilateral partnership in third countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. ATOMEXPO organized annually by Russia’s state-run nuclear agency ROSATOM since 2009 is globally the largest international exhibition and business platform to discuss the present situation of the nuclear industry worldwide.Besides Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant where Units 5 & 6 will be set up following the agreement on June 1 annual Summit at St Petersburg Russia has the biggest presence globally in new reactors market across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe at a time when US nuclear major Westinghouse is facing bankruptcy issue and French nuclear major Areva is undergoing restructuring.Indian and Russian civil nuclear partnership could be extended to the area of joint extraction of natural uranium and the production of nuclear fuel and nuclear waste elimination, Rosatom officials told ET here. Rosatom has 29 nuclear reactors in various stages of planning and construction in several countries including in Jordan, Hungary, Egypt, Iran, Finland, Turkey and Argentina.Indo-Russian Strategic Vision document signed in 2014 mentions that the two countries would explore “opportunities for sourcing materials, equipment and services from Indian industry for the construction of the Russian designed nuclear power plants in third countries”. The vision document also suggested that the two countries “would examine the possibility of technical cooperation in mining activities within their territories and collaborate in exploration and mining activities in third countries”. Rosatom has a target of enhancing their foreign order to $150 billion over the next five years.Atom as a basis for zero carbon energy future was the main event on Monday where ROSATOM officials, companies, international organizations and leading experts discussed contemporary challenges of the power sector globally and role of nuclear generation as a reliable, economically predicted and environmentally friendly energy source amid the US President’s decision to withdraw from the Paris deal.India’s decision to expand footprints in the nuclear energy sector including 10 indigenously developed reactors will be in keeping with its commitment to clean energy notwithstanding US withdrawal from the Paris accord. ROSATOM is also involved with Indian companies for localization of the carbon fabrics production based on Russian carbon fibre. This will be in keeping with spirit of localisation of products under Make in India initiative.The three-day ATOMEXPO Forum being held near historic Red Square includes round tables on -- Innovative technological solutions in the nuclear energy life cycle as a condition of sustainable development; Future investments; Nuclear industry ecological safety -- strategy, regulation, technology among other issues. Global experts will discuss the role of digital technologies in ensuring the competitiveness of nuclear energy, evaluate IT platforms and consider best practices in the introduction of digital technologies.
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Volunteers worked tirelessly to clean out the rubbish from stretches of the Birmingham Canal Navigations.
The clean-up saw more than 70 people from across the country help make the waterways a safer and cleaner place.
Volunteers from the Waterway Recovery Group and Inland Waterways Association worked almost 16 hours over two days on Saturday and Sunday.
They worked in Wednesfield on the Wyrley and Essington Canal to Horseley Fields Junction up to Wolverhampton locks and then down to the Bradley Arm up to the workshop.
Fences and car parts were among the piles of rubbish Pic: Waterway Recovery
Jenny Black, 34, volunteer coordinator for the Waterway Recovery Group and Inland Waterways Association, based in Chesham, said: "The clean-up went really well.
"The volunteers took out 20 tons of scrap metal and rubbish and there were over 70 people taking part from the group.
"Canal enthusiasts come from all over – we have people from London, Manchester and local people as well.
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"We run week-long canal restoration parties across the country – sometimes 28 to 30 week projects but we're active most weekends.
"You usually find loads of tyres, shopping trolleys, a load of fence panels. We even found part of a VW car. I don't think there was anything particularly interesting but in the past we've found safes and motorbikes."
The Birmingham Canal Navigations Society, Coombeswood Canal Trust and Friends of Tipton Cut were among the groups taking part.
In 2016, more than 70 volunteers spent two days removing an estimated 44 tons of rubbish from Walsall Canal.
Their work aims to keep the network passable for boats.
Over a hundred Turkish NATO soldiers applied for asylum in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the wake of the attempted coup in July last year, public broadcaster NOS and the NRC said on Tuesday.
Some 700 Turkish troops were employed by NATO at the time. Two months after the attempted coup the Turkish government published a list of NATO staff they considered untrustworthy, including 400 who were mainly employed in the Benelux countries, Germany and the US.
The soldier were ordered to return to Ankara. Those who did were arrested on arrival. Most stayed where they were in order to avoid persecution.
The number of Turkish asylum requests increased in many European countries after the coup. In the Netherlands the number rose from 50 in 2015 to 235 in 2016. In Belgium asylum requests tripled to 736. In Germany some 5,700 Turks put in a request compared to 2,000 the year before.
In an interview with the NRC, three Turkish soldiers who have asked for asylum in Belgium said they knew a fellow soldier who went back and was tortured.
Proof
‘There is no proof at all we were involved in the attempt. But I was trained in the United States. In the eyes of the ultranationalists in the Turkish army this may make me too pro-Western,’ one soldier told the paper.
The positions of the Turkish soldiers have now been filled by other, pro-Russian Turkish soldiers, a situation which is worrying NATO headquarters, according to NOS foreign correspondent Arjan Noorlander.
‘These soldiers stand for a different, more pro-Russian agenda and are not completely trusted by the other 27 NATO countries,’ Noorlander said. ‘That creates a risky situation in a military volatile world in which Turkey plays a crucial role.’
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Apple came under pressure earlier this week, and as the second-biggest stock by weight in the S&P 500, that weighed on U.S. equities. Apple is one of five "big tech" companies among the S&P 500's top 10 holdings: Microsoft (No. 1); Amazon (No. 3); Facebook (No. 4); and Alphabet are the others. Apple also is a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which posted its third-straight losing day Tuesday.
Information technology stocks comprise roughly 21.5% of the S&P 500, and the group has led the way up for the index this year.
The S&P 500 logged its best first six months since 1997, jumping more than 17%. Information technology was the best-performing U.S. sector, up 26% year-to-date through the end of June. That was the tech sector's best first half since 1998.
All eyes are on the Federal Reserve and whether it will cut rates later this month, as is widely expected, or if the central bank thinks the economy is strong enough to maintain current economic policy, especially after the strong national jobs numbers reported last Friday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.
Dow futures started down on Wednesday morning but turned to a pre-market gain after Powell's prepared remarks ahead of the testimony were released. The market read his statement — about a Fed that will "act as appropriate" to sustain expansion as "crosscurrents" are weighing on the economic outlook — as a sign that a July rate cut is coming.
Stocks have been hot as expectations for lower rates boosted the market through the month of June and to a record high last week. But looking to market history for potential catalysts instead of the Fed, there is reason to think tech stocks and the broader market can maintain their momentum through the second half of 2019.
Since 1990, the tech sector has had similar gains of at least 15% in the first half of the year on eight other occasions. Following those moves, the tech sector traded positively 88% of the time in the second half of the year, according to a CNBC analysis of Kensho, a machine learning tool used by Wall Street banks and hedge funds to identify potential trades from market history. The S&P 500 information technology sector logged an average return of 21% during those second-half periods; the broader market notched a gain of roughly half the tech run, but traded positive 100% of the time.
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North Carolina lawmakers [1] returned to Raleigh on Monday for a last-ditch attempt to pass meaningful legislation and work out a budget compromise with Gov. Roy Cooper. When deciding on what measures to prioritize, lawmakers should put the Second Chance Act [2] on the top of their list.
After all, the aims of the bill are simple and backed by common sense. First, the bill would increase the efficiency of expunction (also called expungement) — the process by which an individual’s arrest, charge or conviction can be removed from public record. Second, it aims to expand the pool of people eligible for expunction in a way that promotes second chances while preserving public safety.
A criminal conviction restricts a person’s ability to access employment [3], housing [4] and education [5]. When criminal records are concentrated among certain individuals, both the local labor market and the American economy suffers. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research [6], in 2014 alone, the United States lost an estimated $78 to $87 billion in annual gross domestic product because many people who had been incarcerated or had a felony conviction couldn’t participate in the economy.
Expunction can mitigate this harm by removing criminal records that no longer help ensure public safety. Indeed, a recent study [7] found that within two years, people who obtained an expunction saw their incomes rise by 25 percent above what would be expected.
Unfortunately, many eligible for expunction are not aware of it. They also have to fill out cumbersome paperwork and may have to pay a fee [8]. By streamlining and, in the future, automating the process for people whose charges have been dismissed or resulted in a finding of “not guilty,” the Second Chance Act reduces these barriers. These measures would ensure that more people benefit from expunction policies and, just as importantly, that time and financial means don’t preclude those in poverty from clearing their arrest records.
The bill [9] also expands the number of people able to take advantage of expunction by making two additional groups eligible: some youth charged as adults, and people convicted of more than one nonviolent misdemeanor who have remained crime-free for seven years after serving their punishment. Contrary to popular belief, research suggests there is little to no risk that these changes would endanger public safety. A study [10] comparing arrest rates among those who received an expunction to the arrest rates of the general state population found them to be similar. And broader research [11] suggests that, 10 years following their last offense, the risk of a convicted individual committing another crime is about the same as that of anybody in the general population. This length of time may be even shorter for people considered to be a low public safety risk or for those convicted as a youth or an older adult.
Rather than harming public safety, these priorities promise positive returns to people who have been convicted of a crime as well as to North Carolina communities more generally.
For these reasons, legislators should make the Second Chance Act one of their foremost priorities. This should be a fairly easy task: The bill was unanimously passed [12] by the Senate and already has bipartisan support in the House.
North Carolinians should not suffer for being charged with a crime for which they were never proven guilty. And people who have paid their debt to society and proven their ability to live crime-free should not have to continue to face unending stigmatization and barriers to prosperity. It’s clear that The Second Chance Act presents a win-win-win for government efficiency, individuals and communities.
Image credit: ESB Professional [13]
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The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has blocked out almost all sections related to Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in 9/11 from a newly-released document on the agency’s “systemic problems” ahead of the attacks.
The CIA’s 495-page report, which included highly-classified files related to Riyadh’s connection to the September 11, 2001 attacks, was released on Friday afternoon.
A thirty-page section titled “Issues Relating to Saudi Arabia,” including subsections on “implications” and “accountability,” however, has almost entirely been redacted with the exception of three paragraphs.
In the wake of the release of the 9/11 Commission Report in 2004, the CIA called on its Office of the Inspector General to conduct its own investigation into the attacks.
The CIA’s release of the 2005 report late on Friday, prompted by Freedom of Information Act requests, comes years after the agency initially declassified part of the document.
Many argued the report’s release would resolve remaining questions about the Saudi connection to the attacks. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia.
The document, however, claims CIA investigators have found no evidence that Saudi Arabia “willingly supported” the 9/11 attacks.
“[T]he team encountered no evidence that the Saudi Government knowingly and willingly supported al-Qaeda terrorists,” reads the report.
It also says few individuals within the CIA did speculate that “dissident sympathizers within the government may have aided al-Qaeda.”
'Systemic failures' prior to 9/11
The document also reveals “systemic failures” in the US spy agencies that helped contribute to the country’s blindness about the 9/11 attacks, impeding efforts to track down top al-Qaeda leaders.
"Concerning certain issues, the team concluded that the (CIA) and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner," the report states.
The World Trade Center was struck by hijacked United Airlines Flight 175, in New York City, on September 11, 2001.
Earlier this month, Kevin Barrett, a founding member of the Scientific Panel for the Investigation of 9/11, told Press TV that the release of the missing 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission's report would open up a huge can of worms.
“This missing document, these 28 pages, allegedly contain evidence of Saudi involvement in financing and backing the alleged 9/11 hijackers,” Barrett said.
“And those who have seen these pages, including [former] Florida Senator Bob Graham and other people in the Congress have said that it completely transforms one’s viewpoint of 9/11,” he added.
The September 11, 2001 attacks in New York were a series of strikes, which killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage.
US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda terrorists but many experts have raised questions about the official account.
They believe that rogue elements within the US government orchestrated, or at least encouraged, the 9/11 attacks in order to affect their policies in the Middle East.
SB/HRJ
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Obese woman who went on TV to complain that she was too fat to get a job caught stealing cakes just hours after This Morning appearance
Jay Cole, a 24-year-old single mother, claimed employers were prejudiced
On the same day as her TV interview she stole pastries and champagne
Given police caution over pair of thefts from Sainsbury's valued at £60
A woman who appeared on TV claiming that no one would give her a job because she was too fat was caught shoplifting cakes just hours later, it emerged today.
Jay Cole was interviewed on ITV's This Morning last month, complaining that employers discriminated against her because she is 22st.
But later that same day, she was caught stealing baked goods, champagne and deodorant from her local branch of Sainsbury's.
Police apparently recognised her on CCTV footage after watching her TV appearance earlier in the day.
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Arrested: Jay Cole has been given a caution for stealing food from a supermarket after appearing on TV to complain she was too fat to find work
Cole, 24, told presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby that she had never had a full-time job because of her size.
The single mother, from Tonbridge in Kent, complained: 'I have gone for everything. Cleaning jobs, retail, nursery nurse. But when I go to interviews you can see the disappointment automatically.
'They think that fat people are lazy and not capable and cannot do what normal sized people can do.'
Former Apprentice host Katie Hopkins also appeared on the programme, and told Cole: 'I would never employ somebody of your size.'
Criticism: Cole was joined by Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins, who said she would not employ her
Soon after the broadcast on February 27, Cole visited a branch of Sainsbury's near her council house and stole £42 worth of food and other products.
She was later arrested given a police caution for the theft, as well as for another shoplifting incident earlier in the month which saw her steal around £20 worth of goods.
A spokesman for Kent Police said: 'A 24 year-old woman accepted a police caution following two reports of theft from Sainsbury's in Tonbridge on 19 February and 27 February.
'Items reported stolen included bakery items, energy drinks, champagne and deodorant. The woman was arrested on 1 March.'
Shoplifting: Among the goods stolen by Cole were pastries, cakes, champagne and deodorant
Despite claiming she is regularly applying for jobs, Cole has only attended 12 interviews in five years, but insists she is keen to get off benefits.
She has been given a two-bedroom council flat and has her council tax paid, claiming a total of £227 a week in benefits.
Cole's benefits allow her to get clothing vouchers for job interviews, free prescriptions and discounted Tube travel.
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President Trump drew loud cheers at a rally on Friday evening when he announced that Pastor Andrew Brunson -- newly released from Turkey and heading home -- is expected to visit him in the Oval Office on Saturday.
“We bring a lot of people back,” the president told the crowd in Lebanon, Ohio, near Cincinnati. It was an apparent reference not only to the release of Brunson, but to the negotiated return of three American hostages from North Korea in May. President Trump also won the release of three UCLA basketball players who were detained in China last November.
“We bring a lot of people back.” — President Trump, telling an Ohio crowd about the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson
Earlier in the day, Trump spoke with reporters about Brunson, after it was confirmed that the 50-year-old North Carolina pastor was beginning his journey home after being detained for two years.
“He’s, I think, in good shape,” the president said. “He’ll be stopping most likely in Germany for a full check-up and then he’s going to be coming to the Oval Office, most likely on Saturday.
“But we’re very honored to have him back with us,” Trump continued. “He suffered greatly, but we’re very appreciative to a lot of people.”
Reports late Friday said Brunson had arrived at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, with plans later to fly to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, near Washington, D.C.
Brunson was ordered released Friday by a Turkish court, ending a diplomatic dispute between Washington and the Turkish government in Ankara. The court dropped an espionage charge against Brunson, who had faced up to 35 years in jail if convicted of all the charges against him.
He was among tens of thousands of people, mostly Turks, who were caught up in a government crackdown after a failed coup.
Winning freedom for Brunson was a diplomatic triumph for Trump, who is counting on the support of evangelical Christians for Republican candidates ahead of congressional elections in November.
"I love Jesus. I love Turkey," an emotional Brunson, who had maintained he was innocent of all charges, told the court during Friday's hearing. He tearfully hugged his wife Norine Lyn as he awaited the court decision.
“This is the day our family has been praying for – I am delighted to be on my way home to the United States," Brunson said in a statement provided by the American Center for Law and Justice, which had been working to secure his freedom.
“This is the day our family has been praying for – I am delighted to be on my way home to the United States." — Pastor Andrew Brunson
Vice President Mike Pence tweeted Friday about Brunson’s impending return to the U.S.
“Pastor Andrew Brunson is coming home! Thanks to the strong leadership of @POTUS Trump and the steadfast prayers of millions of Americans, this innocent man of faith will soon be home!” Pence tweeted.
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., also tweeted about Brunson’s release.
"NC native Pastor Andrew Brunson has been freed! I’m grateful for the efforts of President Trump, the State Department and my Senate colleagues for fighting to secure his release. I look forward to welcoming him home!" Tillis wrote.
Friday's ruling followed witness testimony that seemed to partly undermine the prosecutor's allegations and highlighted concerns that Turkey had been using the U.S. citizen as diplomatic leverage. Turkey bristled at suggestions that its judicial system is a foreign policy instrument, and has accused the U.S. of trying to bend Turkish courts to its will with tariffs in August that helped to send the Turkish currency into freefall.
Brunson's release doesn't resolve disagreements over U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in Syria, as well as a plan by Turkey to buy Russian missiles. Turkey is also frustrated by the refusal of the U.S. to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of engineering the 2016 coup attempt.
The pastor had been accused of committing crimes on behalf of Gulen, as well as Kurdish militants who have been fighting the Turkish state for decades.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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These distortions fuel the punitive programs that President Trump and his Republican allies have pushed throughout his administration. Most recently in December, Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue outlined a new rule that makes it more difficult for states to obtain waivers for able-bodied SNAP recipients who need extra time to meet the current workfare requirements. His news release, titled “USDA Restores Original Intent of SNAP: A Second Chance, Not A Way of Life,” panders to negative stereotypes of poor people as willingly dependent on government handouts.
The new rule — set to take effect in April — will remove approximately 700,000 current SNAP recipients from the program, making it likely that people will go hungry and reinforcing harmful narratives about the program’s recipients. Rather than addressing the deeper social and economic issues that make food insecurity a consistent problem, the rule instead threatens to undo over half a century’s worth of efforts to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in our country.
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That the program is vulnerable to punitive rule changes today is rooted in its origins which came from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 Food Stamp Act. Never intended as a welfare program — and not part of the 1960s War on Poverty legislation — the USDA’s original food stamp program had multiple objectives. It aimed both to relieve farmers of their surplus crops and, as the legislation stated, to “provide for improved levels of nutrition among low-income households.” The program’s structure encouraged building sustainable habits of consumption for people pursuing a path out of poverty, in part by allowing recipients to make their own food choices and shop in any participating grocery store.
Passed during an era of widespread prosperity, many people found it hard to believe that any Americans could not afford food. As a result, the 1964 Food Stamp Act required recipients to first purchase a portion of their stamps before receiving the full aid. Until 1977, when this requirement was abolished, many of the country’s poorest people could not afford to receive food stamps, or had to choose between paying for food stamps or paying for other necessities like medical prescriptions, rent, utilities or child care.
Policymakers’ assumption that poor Americans could never be totally destitute was grounded in gendered stereotypes about what counted as work. Social welfare programs created in the 1960s were built on the idea that the welfare check or food stamp coupons would replace the male breadwinner whose income supported a “traditional” nuclear family (a heteronormative formula consisting of a husband, wife and two kids). This conception of family informed the addition of work requirements for “able-bodied adults” in the food stamp program beginning in the 1970s.
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The problem: many food stamp recipients didn’t conform to this expectation. Single parents — often mothers — could not meet the unrealistic demands of holding down one or multiple jobs while also finding ways to care for their children. They were either criticized for receiving federal aid and remaining out of the workforce to care for their children, or seen as irresponsible for going off to work without securing proper child care, which they could not afford. Either way, they were perceived as deviant or second-class citizens for failing to live up to the idea of a traditional nuclear family.
It wasn’t only single mothers and their children who suffered.
In the 1970s, there was backlash over college students and striking union workers’ having eligibility for food stamps. Critics charged that they could afford food if only they worked and taxpayers shouldn’t support such “irresponsible” choices. An irony lay in the fact that union workers who went on strike often did so precisely to earn wages sufficient to be a breadwinner, trying to live up to the ideal underpinning the food stamp program, not because they were shirking work.
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The debates around food and work undermined the initial intentions of the food stamp program. Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman — the primary architect of the program — among others, reiterated that it determined eligibility based on financial need, not on the reasons an applicant lacked financial resources. But the public silenced these pleas by expressing widespread sentiment that government aid should go only to those deemed “deserving.” This, for example, excluded college students, because if they had the luxury of putting off work to pursue higher education to increase postgraduate income, they did not deserve federal food assistance.
The interplay between public ideas about food rights and the political agendas of lawmakers shaped the development of food stamp legislation. In 1967, activist and lawyer Marian Wright Edelman testified before Congress about starvation in the Mississippi Delta. When Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) witnessed the deprivation firsthand, he pushed for expanding the food stamp program, and the public rallied behind these calls. However, by the late 1970s and into the 1980s, both the public and politicians
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The clever, clever folks of the Virginia Tech Environmental Coalition thought up a brilliant way to bring more visibility to Stadium Woods: name one of the trees after Stephen Colbert! How does that possibly make sense, you ask? Look no further than the flyer for the event, which is coming up fast: Tuesday May 1, from 4:00 – 4:45 pm.
The Almighty Colbert Oak is the essence of American Patriotism. He who lived through the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the development of our grand nation will fight to survive the fools whose ignorance threatens to tragically destroy him!
On May 1 we will officially name one of Stadium Woods’ over 300-year-old white oaks Quercus Omnipotens colberticas, which translates to “almighty Colbert oak.” VT TV will film the event, and a Comedy Central camera crew may as well. (We’ll know for sure by April 26.) Unfortunately Mr. Colbert will not attend due to his show‘s shooting schedule. If the Colbert Report crew has scheduling conflicts, we will send our footage to them, which should be aired in a later episode of the show.
Meet us at 4:00 on May 1 behind the Washington Street tennis courts on the Virginia Tech campus. The ceremony will last about 45 minutes. For the latest details, please see the corresponding Facebook event: Virginia Tech on the Colbert Report!
-old hopes to play together a lot with an established group of Ticats who he respects deeply. "The guys here are great, they know what they're doing and prepare so well but I feel I can be of some help and encouragement here now or later in the season, whatever it may be helping us stay focused on what matters towards the end of a season."
Collins' experience in the stretch run of seasons is an asset for a team looking to complete the unfinished business of 2013 and 2014. However, besides the great amount of success he experienced at Mount Union, his recent championship game past may actually add the most insight to his understanding of his new organization and teammates.
Despite maintaining the winning history of Mount Union football, Collins actually lost three straight NCAA national championship games from 2009-2011, a theme which all Tiger-Cats followers can identify with.
While Collins admits buzzwords like winner are sometimes overused, he does not shy away from wanting to help Hamilton win a championship. Both he and this team have a long way to go until that dream is realized, but a hungry athlete is a dangerous athlete and Jasper Collins is starving for success.
Marshall Ferguson, a former McMaster quarterback, covers the Tiger-Cats for Classic Hits 1150 CKOC in Hamilton - the future home of TSN Radio 1150. His CFL blogs and podcasts can be read and heard weekly on TSN.ca.
and finally got a clear-ish lap with no code 60s and general carnage. I tentatively asked how the pace was and got ‘very good mate, you took 7 seconds from the leader this time around’. I was pretty happy with that until ‘but we lost over a minute at the start catching up from the back of the field, so keep pushing’. That bonfire didn’t last long!
I continued through the stint and came in P4, but it looked like the top 3 had made the jump while we were messing around in traffic and were long gone. Mike did a very fast and reliable stint and gave the car back to me for the end. We brought her in p4 but more critically got the permit laps in and a whole load of experience.
Getting straight to the pace on Saturday, when I felt like I needed a GPS on Friday morning was a really satisfying achievement and I owe a lot to the PROsport guys for putting out a great car for me to do the permit laps and the race.
The journey is not over, and we need to head back in 2 weeks for VLN 9 to complete the laps on the Permit journey. Then who knows! We’ll see what comes next 😉
Pics with thanks to and copyright of Jochen ‘Frozenspeed’ Van Cauwenberge
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Image copyright Helen Watts Image caption Helen Watts and another volunteer were expelled after "a number of complaints" were made about them
Girlguiding has defended its decision to allow transgender members and leaders - after it expelled two volunteers who objected to the policy.
Helen Watts, one of the expelled volunteers, said girls had a right to "female-only spaces".
But Girlguiding says including people who identify as female to join or lead groups does not put girls at risk.
Simply being transgender "does not make someone more of a safeguarding risk than any other person", it said.
Chief guide Amanda Medler and acting chief executive Ruth Marvel explained the organisation's policy in a letter sent to parents and members on Tuesday.
"In the last few days you may have seen that Girlguiding's equality and diversity policy has been criticised in the media, with accusations that our inclusion of trans members puts girls at risk," they wrote.
"It does not."
What is Girlguiding?
Groups include Rainbows (aged 5 to 7, or 4 to 7 in Northern Ireland); Brownies (7-10), and Guides (10-14)
500,000 members in the UK
Over 110,000 volunteers
They said volunteers were trained to assess each situation on its merits to ensure the needs of all members were taken into account.
"Keeping girls, young women and our adult volunteers safe is our number one priority."
Helen Watts, from Ealing in west London, and another volunteer, were expelled after "a number of complaints" had been made about them, Girlguiding said.
An investigation established that they had breached the volunteer code of conduct and social media policy, they added.
Providing 'a safe space'
Ms Watts, who has a 15-year history with Girlguiding, told the BBC's World At One programme on Monday that she was now banned from events and from contacting her group.
"It's a real loss," she said.
She said that girls had a right to "female-only" spaces, particularly when guides and leaders shared lavatories, showers and sleeping accommodation in camps.
She said adolescents coping with changes in their bodies, victims of bullying or harassment by men, and girls from some cultural or religious backgrounds might feel shut out if Girlguiding became "effectively a mixed-sex space".
"This isn't one rogue girl guide leader, there are lots of us who are concerned about this," she said.
"It's about putting girls at the centre and making sure that if girls would prefer to have a single sex space they have that choice without the fear of themselves being labelled bigots."
Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan said during a discussion about the issue: "It's very problematic, and to pretend that it's not, and to pretend that it doesn't cause a lot of people concern is in itself, I think, wrong."
But Susie Green, chief executive of Mermaids - a support organisation for transgender children and their families - said trans children were more likely to be victims of bullying and assault than perpetrators.
Responding to Ms Watts, she said: "What she's doing is saying that trans girls aren't real girls and so they should be excluded.
"These children are not predators, they're not something to be feared.
"Putting it in that context is encouraging transphobia, encouraging prejudice and encouraging the thinking that 'this is somebody I should be worried about' - when actually, they're just kids."
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Reddit is a goldmine of information and entertainment, where memes are born, celebrities make fun of themselves, and videos go viral. But sometimes the best submissions come from the everyday man (or woman) — one who isn’t a movie star or world renowned athlete. Often it just takes a passionate employee who cares enough to give detailed information about their profession or hobbies.
Meet Brian Driscoll: a vacuum repair technician who now has the seventeenth highest upvoted AMA of all time, thousands of YouTube subscribers, a podcast feature, and a custom branded vacuum named after him. Brian can tell you the best vacuum to buy based on your floor types, budget, and variables like what kind of pets you own or how long your girlfriend’s hair is.
Brian sitting with his beloved vacuums http://www.donttouchmycoffee.net/
It started on October 27th, 2013 when Brian fatefully answered a simple question: What is a commonly believed "fact" related to your line of work that simply is not true?
Brian’s response was brief, but controversial: the belief that “Dysons are good vacuums.” This triggered some follow up questions from dismayed Redditors who thought Dyson was the be all end all of suction technology. We’ve all seen the fancy ads and used those amazing hand dryers, so it’s no surprise that commoners think they’re hot stuff. Brian elaborated:
Think of any appliance purchase as you would a car; Pay attention to the warranty, pay attention to repair/parts costs, and ask someone who repairs them about the appliance's quality. A Dyson is like a Kia, as compared to a Miele or Riccar or Sebo, which are like a Mercedes Benz. All are covered by good warranties, which the manufactures honor, well.
But, where you don't expect to have your Mercedes in the shop often, you will have your Dyson (Kia) in the shop, frequently. The latest models are plagued with problems, and many of the repair shops do not yet keep a large enough supply of parts on hand. That, combined with the 2 week wait for parts from Dyson, do not make it a wise purchase.
Is this enough, or shall I actually go into the performance of Dysons?
Don’t worry, he did continue on to explain the performance issues with Dysons. You can read it here. Users immediately began clamoring for an AMA, where they would have the chance to go into more vacuum-centric minutia than they ever thought was possible. Just a couple days later, he launched his first AMA, in disbelief that anyone would actually care.
But care they did. Part of the success is attributed to the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad that aired the night before. In that episode, Saul Goodman arrives at a vacuum repair shop, in search of a new identity and Walter White. The top comment on Brian's AMA was about the secret code Saul used: "Are you often asked if you have a dust filter for a Hoover Max Extract® 60 Pressure Pro?" Jokes aside, the AMA revealed his preferred brands, Miele and Riccar, and how he is actually a former hair stylist with a background in auto mechanics.
Just three months later, Brian was back with a follow up, and an amazing catch-phrase. “Hi, Reddit! I'm here to make your day suck better. The Vacuum Guy is back with an updated AMA!”
Reddit user mar10wright fired off a great response, saying “I loved your last AMA, I took your advice and bought a Miele and it really sucks! Thanks for the AMA man.”
A vacuum review might be the only place where the phrase “really sucks” is a compliment.
It is this kind of banter that has made Brian’s internet fame skyrocket so quickly. You pair a friendly, informative user with an equally witty and encouraging audience, and magic happens.
Brian nervously launching into his first YouTube video, on how to clean a Dyson blade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEJSACjCL2g
It wasn’t long before Brian, under the username “Don’t Touch My Coffee” started a YouTube channel so he could put all his recommendations and tips into a DIY video format. So far he’s covered the basics of maintenance and care for your vacuums. As one commentator aptly pointed out that he “just watched a guy showing me how to maintain a vacuum for eight minutes at 5am. I don't even own a vacuum.”
For Brian, it just keeps getting better. He was featured on the Reddit focused podcast, Upvoted, two weeks ago in an
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aid to Syrians, IFA has also trained 22 medical doctors and supplied tech training to print prosthetic limbs.
“We have decided that what’s gonna lead our missions is our values and conscience, and the needs of the victims, and not any governments or regimes,” she said.
For the first three and a half years, Lusky said, her Syrian colleagues did not know she was Israeli. She was using a cover story. But one night, while she was in Syria helping to move a convoy of aid, her group was nearly killed in barrel bombing attack by the Syrian regime.
She said she immediately thought about what would happen to her Syrian companions if the bomb had hit her convoy and then her cover story had been blown. “The Syrians working with me would be considered traitors.”
So she decided to leave Syria in order to reveal her identity in a neutral country.
After exposing her identity during a meeting in a hotel, one of her Syrian contacts stood up and said, “Now I understand. You are not even my friend. You are my enemy. After Assad, we are coming for you next.”
One of the other Syrians present at the meeting asked her why she had revealed her identity, knowing it could end their collaboration.
“We have been lying to each other for 65 years. It stops here. If you want to collaborate with us, you will bear the responsibility,” she told them.
A month later, Lusky said, she met with 60 representatives of this Syrian organization in another hotel, where they voted on whether to continue working with IAF.
“We signed a long document. On the left side, the Israeli flying aid’s signature with the star of David. On the right side, their organization’s name with the Syrian flag,” Lusky said.
Renee Ghert-Zand contributed to this report.
Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a U.S. national milk marketing cooperative, has teamed up with food fintech startup ripe.io to pilot a blockchain-powered project aimed at improving the food supply chain, according to an announcement published September 25.
DFA is a cooperative owned by dairy farmer-members in 48 states, the net income of which totalled $127.4 million in 2017, while its net sales were over $14 billion. In 2017, the cooperative directed the marketing of 64.4 billion pounds of milk, representing approximately 30 percent of the total milk production in the U.S.
Now, DFA is embracing blockchain technology in order to increase supply chain transparency. The pilot project is deploying a blockchain platform developed by ripe.io and using data from a group of DFA member farms and one of the DFA’s manufacturing plants. David Darr, Vice President of Sustainability and Member Services at DFA, said:
“Consumers today want to know where their food comes from and blockchain technology, like ripe.io, gives consumers real-time data, which can really help increase trust and confidence about food production from start to finish.”
Darr noted that currently, DFA intends to assess the technology and explore how the organization can benefit from using it.
Blockchain technology has seen a variety of applications in agriculture and food supply chains. Earlier this month, Albert Heijn, Holland’s largest supermarket chain, in partnership with its supplier, Refresco, revealed it is using blockchain to make the production chain of its orange juice transparent.
Yesterday, Cointelegraph reported that U.S. retail giant Walmart and its division Sam’s Club will require suppliers of leafy greens to implement a farm-to-store tracking system based on blockchain by September 2019. Walmart will also reportedly require a similar traceability system “for other fresh fruit and vegetable providers within the next year.”
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you have a community, whatever that community is, if that community enables you, empowers you to be a better person, to be stronger every day, to get up and do whatever the things are that you want to do,” Avegalio said. “Be a part of that community.”
In 2018, Avegalio, Barlieb and other veterans with CBAW were featured in the HBO documentary, We Are Not Done Yet. The film highlights the journey from writing poetry and prose to performing the shared project in front of a live audience.
For veterans like Benson, Reza’s writing program has allowed them to find a meaningful outlet for grief, trauma and pain.
“We all came in as a volunteer and figuratively sign that blank check up to and including our lives, and a lot of us came very close to cashing that check,” Benson said. “[Here], there’s an immediate understanding of what the value of our service is. It’s one of those barriers that is broken down.”
“I think the thing that keeps us from saying these things and expressing ourselves is this fear that we won’t be accepted,” Reza said about the live performance. “And when you come to the place where you are willing to say it in front of a group of people, you’ve come to a place where you trust enough in other people.”
It has almost been a year since Community Building Art Works left Defense Department funding, making the nonprofit’s financial footing less certain. But Reza said that the community has stepped up to support these programs, and she continues to look for new veterans to join her online or in-person workshops.
“The importance of creating spaces for active duty service members to tell their truth without censorship, maybe isn’t the best place under federal money,” Reza said. “Maybe it’s the responsibility of the American people and foundations and organizations that are committed to the truth.”
The exhibition, “Internal Dialogue: Representing Selves,” will run through March 15 at the Torpedo Factory Art Center.
There have been a few rumours running around regarding a Canadian crypto exchange which has been deliberating on plans to release an exchange system with XRP to be the base currency.
This plan has now become a reality.
The exchange in question is CoinField and they have further revealed that this service will be available to its clients in over 60 countries all over the world. Users in these countries will only have to complete a Know Your Customer process during the registration.
Many XRP traders welcomed this move with open arms. In fact, the development is partly a result of a petition put forward by the crypto’s lovers for CoinField to make it a base currency. Following the announcement, there were several members of the crypto community who went to Twitter to praise the decision.
As said by
Ethereum World News
, in launching the exchange, CoinField revealed that customers could now pair up XRP with around 20 other cryptos. In addition to this, the exchange facilitates 28 trading pairs and exchanges across 6 traditional currencies and different countries. This includes the Japanese Yen, The British Sterling, US dollar, Canadian dollar, the Euro and UAE Dirham. For the XRP based pairs, the platform has capped transactions fees at just 0.05% CoinField has also said that they will include more cryptocurrencies by the end of this year.
This isn’t the first exchange platform to be a tad bias to one crypto. In recent news, another exchange called XRP United laid out XRP to be its base currency (as you would expect with the name…). This puts XRP as one of the most prefered within the trading environment, along with this, it’s safe to opine that other exchanges might soon consider following suit. In this scenario, the value of XRP as a crypto would likely gain as its trading volume increases.
At the current time of writing, XRP is in the green and is up by 1.74% giving it a price of $0.463. In fact, all the market is currently in the green with Bitcoin being priced at $6,441 after a 1.19% climb over 24 hours.
What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down below in the comments!
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Following its design of the UK's "first amphibious house", Baca Architects has unveiled a floating house concept that could be deployed across London's waterways as a solution to the lack of new homes in the capital (+ slideshow).
The London firm worked with Floating Homes Ltd to develop the Buoyant Starts floating housing concept for a housing competition hosted by think-tank New London Architecture (NLA). It is among the 100 longlisted entries to the competition, which drew over 200 submissions from around the world.
The project aims to install prefabricated floating housing on disused space along the 50 miles of rivers and canals in Greater London, as well as the 150 hectares of additional "bluefield" space in its docklands, marinas and basins.
The scheme could deliver up to 7,500 affordable homes – costed at £150,000 for a two-bed unit – in the centre of the capital.
"Exploration into taller buildings, higher density modules, less conventional space planning and shared spaces rarely complies with typical national, GLA (Greater London Authority) and local policy but may provide good 21st-century solutions to ease housing pressure," said the firm.
"Buoyant Starts aims to address the housing crisis in Greater London by providing high-quality, prefabricated floating homes at an affordable price on the un-used water space of the capital."
A second concept called Innovation Licence, which has also been long-listed in the NLA competition, aims to provide one-off building permits for projects that would usually be rejected under London's current planning policy.
The architects suggest that the projects, which would be required to have an environmental remit, could make use of floodplains around London's waterways.
"The Innovation Licence is a radical new idea to deliver more housing, more quickly, and with higher densities," said the architects.
"An alternative to the traditional planning system, licences would be granted for innovative buildings and designs to be carried out on challenging sites, such as floodplains or deprived areas."
Both concepts build on the studio's Amphibious House project, which was designed to help resolve the issue of the River Thames' flood waters.
Earlier this year London architect Carl Turner released plans for a prefabricated floating house on an open-source architecture website. "Part-house and part-boat", it too is designed to deal with flood-prone sites.
Other housing designs aimed at solving London's housing shortage include the Y:Cube prefabricated development by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, which costs £30,000 per unit.
Imagery is courtesy Baca Architects.
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On Saturday, April 28, 1984, the day Lester Leroy Bower was sentenced to death, his wife, Shari, remembers a carnival taking place on the courthouse square. Through the open windows of the historic 1936 building in Sherman, Texas — north of Dallas and just miles from the Oklahoma state line — jurors could hear live music as they considered Bower’s fate. The band played “Jailhouse Rock,” Shari recalls.
Bower’s trial was big news in Grayson County. The day before, Friday, he had been found guilty of killing four men, two of them former law enforcement officers, execution style, in a plane hangar on a private ranch, in order to steal an ultralight aircraft. Now the jury had a choice between life in prison or death. As jurors heard from witnesses attesting to Bower’s gentle and non-violent character — he was a religious man who’d never been in trouble with the law — curious carnival-goers moved in and out of the room. There were clowns in full make-up and others eating popcorn and carrying balloons, Shari says. “It was … surreal.”
Shari and Les knew what would happen. Shari, who was allowed to sit next to her husband during the trial, was holding his hand. “I turned to him and said, ‘You know what they’re going to do, don’t you?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’ He said, ‘Why would they find me guilty of such a heinous crime and not give me the death penalty?’” she recalls. The death sentence was “inevitable,” she says. Indeed, that day the jury sentenced Bower to die by lethal injection.
More than 30 years later, Bower is still alive. Now 67 and one of Texas’s oldest and longest-serving death row inmates, he has faced seven execution dates. His eighth — and most likely final — is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3. This time, unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, he will almost certainly be executed.
Bower maintains his innocence. He has alleged his defense at trial was deficient, and that prosecutors withheld critical evidence from his attorneys. Moreover, since his conviction, witnesses have come forward to say that they know who really killed the four men in the aircraft hangar at the B&B Ranch — and it wasn’t Les Bower. Although the issues raised by Bower’s case are significant, and questions about his guilt linger, the case has nonetheless escaped wider scrutiny.
Yet with more details having emerged about the murders after Bower was sentenced to die, his case is as surreal today as was the scene at the courthouse on the day he was condemned 31 years ago. In the intervening decades, it has become a potent example of problems that plague the criminal justice system, raising serious questions about death penalty prosecutions in particular. Among them: How much prosecutorial misconduct is acceptable? Is a defendant entitled to a reasoned defense? If a compelling alternative theory of a crime exists, should a defendant be permitted a second chance at trial? And, does three decades behind bars render an execution cruel and unusual punishment?
In the face of these questions, Texas courts have repeatedly denied Bower relief. In a 2012 ruling that denied the majority of his claims on appeal, state Judge James Fallon opined that while Bower’s evidence that someone else committed the crime “could conceivably have produced a different result at trial, it does not prove by clear and convincing evidence that [Bower] is actually innocent.”
Before moving to the Dallas suburb of Arlington in July 1983, Bower and Shari lived with their two young daughters in Colorado, where Bower was an avid hobbyist. He was a bow hunter. He was a whitewater rafter who built his own raft frames. He designed and sewed his own tents, sleeping bags and down vests. He was federally licensed to sell firearms, which he also collected. He once scored a rare permit to trek high up into the San Juan Mountains to hunt mountain goats.
When the family moved to the flatland of North Texas, many of Bower’s favorite hobbies became moot — there was no white water to raft, no mountains or mountain goats. In search of a new activity, he fixated on flying — ultralight aircraft flying. Shari was not having it; Bower was nearly six feet tall and weighed 250 pounds. An ultralight aircraft was propelled by a lawnmower engine. Shari said no, “over my dead body,” to Bower’s prospective new hobby.
Bower was undeterred. He researched ultralight aircraft, deciding he might be able to build one himself. He procured samples of the material that
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continuous medical treatment as he grows up and possibly throughout the rest of his life as a result of the injury.
While the family has yet to decide if it will pursue legal action in Israel’s courts, Jibreen vowed that “we won’t be silent for them,” referring to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Jibreen said that his nephew has yet to comprehend the permanence of his injury. “We explained to [Mousab] that he had surgery but, because of his age, he does not yet know the seriousness of the situation. He doesn’t know that he has lost his eye. He still thinks he is completely fine. But we will walk with him step by step.”
Frequent target
Rubber-coated steel bullets fired by Israeli soldiers have killed dozens of Palestinians. Mamoun Wazwaz APA images
Meanwhile, on 2 October, 10-year-old Yazan Mahmoud al-Abd was struck by a rubber-coated steel bullet as Israeli soldiers fired on local youth who were throwing stones and attempting to block them from invading the Jalazone refugee camp.
Jalazone sits north of the West Bank city of Ramallah and, much like Fawwar, is also the frequent target of Israeli military incursions. For the camp’s more than 11,000 residents, the army’s violence is nothing new.
According to Alaa Zubeidi, a Jalazone resident, Yazan was shot and injured in the legs while standing near a UN-administered boys school.
Witnesses have said that the soldiers prevented an ambulance from reaching the wounded boy (“Palestinian child injured by army fire in Ramallah,” International Middle East Media Center, 2 October 2013). Residents told The Electronic Intifada that the child was undergoing treatment in the hospital as of Thursday evening.
In May, 12-year-old camp resident Atta Sabah was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the stomach by an Israeli soldier while trying to retrieve his school bag near the boys school in Jalazone. A Defence for Children International-Palestine Section report has stated that there were no clashes taking place when he was fired on with live ammunition (“Failing to abide by regulations, Israeli soldiers inflict serious injuries to Palestinian children,” 21 August 2013).
“The Israelis usually come every week to arrest people from the camp in the middle of the night,” said Zubeidi. “But the soldiers come to get into clashes with the children almost on a daily basis. Each week there are at least one or two children that are injured and have to receive medical care.”
Reportage and human rights documentation continually suggest Israel exercises a total disregard for the safety of Palestinian children. More disturbing recent examples include an Israeli soldier’s posting online a photograph of a Palestinian child through rifle crosshairs back in February, and a video of a small child being kicked by an Israeli policeman in Hebron last year.
A recent B’Tselem report — which includes dozens of testimonies from residents of the Bethlehem and Hebron areas in the West Bank who were detained at the Etzion police station between November 2009 and July 2013 — paints a particularly grim picture of the Israeli military’s treatment of Palestinian children (“Abuse and torture in interrogations of dozens of Palestinian children in the Israeli police Etzion facility,” 22 August 2013).
“Dose of pain every day”
“Fifty-six of [those interrogated] were minors at the time of their interrogation,” the report states, adding that “the violence included slaps, punches and kicks to all parts of the body, and blows with objects, such as a gun or a stick.”
On top of that, twelve children testified that “the interrogator threatened them or female relatives with sexual assault, such as rape or genital injury,” according to the report.
“The lack of enforcement and accountability has led to the increase in violence against Palestinians, among them children,” said Abu Eqtaish from Defence for Children International-Palestine Section. “That the military rarely opens up cases against soldiers perpetuates impunity for soldiers that attack Palestinian children.”
The Ramallah-based group has documented twenty cases of children being used as human shields by Israeli soldiers since 2004. Nineteen of the documented cases took place after October 2005, when the Israeli high court ruled that using human shields was illegal.
“DCI has documented more than 25 cases of Palestinian children shot by live ammunition or rubber-coated steel bullets since the beginning of this year. Among this number, [there were] two fatalities,” Abu Eqtaish said, referring to 17-year-old
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East Passyunk, there is a triangular lot for sale, with the CRABS sign on it. The cars are a little confusing, so I highlighted in blue where the sidewalk currently ends, and in green where it could end. Upgrading the public infrastructure to include a nice plaza with some planters and street seating could potentially lure a higher value building to this parcel:
Here’s the view looking north:
The opposite corner, around 8th, East Passyunk, and Ellsworth, has an auto parts business. This is a lower priority sidewalk extension at the moment, because if you gave the auto parts store some more sidewalk space, you know they’d just let cars park on it. Eventually rising land values in this neighborhood will price these kinds of low value uses out of the neighborhood, at which point we can think about a pedestrian plaza here.
For reference, this parcel is zoned CMX 2.5 so you can build a pretty big mixed-use building by-right, although of course nothing is really by-right in South Philly:
Continuing south, the next interesting intersection is 9th and East Passyunk. A ped plaza for Gino’s deserves low priority as long as that “Speak English” sign is still in the window, but it would clearly be good for business. Gino’s customers already line up in this road space while waiting to order. Why not extend the sidewalk further so they don’t have to stand in the street?
This is right next to a park that lots of families walk to on weekend days and that lots of drunk people walk to on weekend nights. A road diet that gets motorists to pay closer attention to the sometimes unpredictable movements of kids and drunk people would be a big win for safety. Also, imagine how much more outdoor cheesesteak plaza space there’d be if the sidewalk were extended out to where the curb parking is now. That doesn’t seem like a winnable political fight in this particular corner of South Philly, but it would make this a better space on the merits.
Same deal with the Pat’s parcel:
Here’s the south side. Take away the curb parking, and you can have a pretty nice expansion of the outdoor space. If not, it’s not really worth doing anything here:
On the opposite corner, there’s a community garden and mural across from Capitolo playground that might bring some botanical goodness out onto the public right-of-way with a sidewalk expansion:
The next intersection of note is one of the most dangerous in South Philly, at Reed, 10th, and East Passyunk. The unused trolley tracks are a death trap for cyclists, and the intersection is just overly wide and confusing. Here’s a screenshot from Google Streetview to give you an idea of what it looks like on a regular day:
Basically a random suburban surface parking hellscape in the middle of an otherwise walkable neighborhood. But here are some good ideas from the snow for taking this space down to human scale.
First, a big ol’ triangle traffic island right in front of Rita’s:
Once again we have the trade-off between U-turns vs. connecting the Rita’s corner to the triangle island and eliminating that lane. I’d personally prefer the latter.
Next to Rita’s at the Triangle Tavern—aptly named, once we lay down this sweet triangle—there’s another snow patch that points the way to calming this overly wide intersection:
The final piece for taming this intersection is a pedestrian plaza for Passyunk Market. Again, a trade-off between letting cars make a U-turn from East Passyunk onto 10th Street vs. attaching the triangle to the sidewalk:
Taken together, all of these traffic islands would cut traffic speeds and make it a lot easier for humans to traverse this intersection on foot.
A bit further south, we start getting into the really happening part of the Passyunk Square neighborhood business district. Here the snow says B2 could have a nice parklet with planters in front (maybe from Urban Jungle?) to draw in spontaneous patrons:
The Singing Fountain plaza could also be substantially bigger, especially if it didn’t need to have curb parking surrounding it. Here’s the north side:
And here’s the south side:
Imagine this intersection filled with planters, café tables and chairs, maybe some designer bike racks. This is a way to bring a lot more greenery to a neighborhood that many complain lacks tree cover. Here’s the view looking north:
And here’s a closer look at the Metro Men’s clothing store corner of Tasker. How many more spontaneous customers is this place
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“Unless violence ends in Jammu and [Indian-administered] Kashmir, nothing is going to change,” he said.
About 500,000 Indian security forces are stationed in the disputed Kashmir region, tasked with battling various armed groups. Tens of thousands of people have died in the decades-old conflict.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the Muslim-majority region in its entirety and have fought two wars over it.
Additional reporting by Bilal Kuchay in New Delhi and Shereena Qazi in Doha
WATCH: Daisy Ridley And BB-8 Take On 'The Impossible Star Wars Quiz'
Daisy Ridley, BB-8. Picture: PopBuzz, Disney
By James Wilson-Taylor
Does Rey have better film knowledge than her droid castmates?
We caught up with Rey herself, Daisy Ridley, to talk through Star Wars: The Last Jedi when we challenged her to take on 'The Most Impossible Star Wars Quiz'. She did pretty well, but can she beat her droid castmates BB-8 and R2D2?
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in cinemas worldwide now.
-game ban for SPITTING on Marseille player before melee EURO CUP CLASH Bayern Munich vs Sevilla FREE: Live stream, TV channel, kick-off time, teams UPSET ON THE CARDS? Lincoln vs Liverpool: Live stream, TV channel, kick-off, team news EURO TIE Is Shkendija vs Tottenham on TV? Channel, live stream, kick-off time, team news
What time does the friendly kick-off?
Catch the action at 7.45pm from the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels on Saturday, June 2.
Team news
New Color Submit View Data
Color is one of the most difficult experiences to convey to others. Language just doesn't seem capable of expressing our experiences.
This webpage is designed to gather users' descriptions of various colors. Simply enter the three words that you feel best describe the color you see. You can stop at any time and come back later to describe more colors. Tell your friends to stop by as well so that we can gather as many descriptions as possible.
Click 'View Data' at the top to search for colors or words.
Number of descriptions given: 207 Cool
Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) affects millions of people, causing serious health problems. Golden Rice (GR), which has been genetically engineered to produce β-carotene, is being proposed as a remedy. While this new technology has aroused controversial debates, its actual impact remains unclear. We develop a methodology for ex ante evaluation, taking into account health and nutrition details, as well as socioeconomic and policy factors. The framework is used for empirical analyses in India. Given broad public support, GR could more than halve the disease burden of VAD. Juxtaposing health benefits and overall costs suggests that GR could be very cost-effective.
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210°
Dark Souls is more Zelda than Zelda, more Metroid than Metroid
Zelda's and Metroid's embrace of open exploration and tantalizing discovery continues on in From Software's Dark Souls. But From Software may understand what makes Zelda and Metroid such revered classics more than Nintendo does itself.
We love these titles because they let us investigate alien worlds and discover hidden treasure with only our wits to aid us. The seductive embrace of open exploration drives our hearts to push further, dig deeper, and look closer. From Software reminds us how a game can titillate our imagination in ways that other mediums cannot.
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During congressional hearings on Wednesday, the official said NASA would do its best to meet the deadline set by the White House. "I wouldn’t bet my oldest child’s upcoming birthday present or anything like that," he added.
WASHINGTON, September 19. /TASS/. Kenneth Bowersox, NASA’s acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations, expressed doubts about plans to land US astronauts on the Moon by 2024, The Washington Post reported.
According to Bowersox, "that aggressive goal" itself was a good thing, but, in order to meet the deadline, the agency will have to solve lots of technical and financial problems.
"What’s important is that we launch when we’re ready, that we have a successful mission when it launches, and I’m not going to sit here and tell you that just arbitrarily we’re going to make it," he said. "There’s a lot of risk in making the date, but we want to try to do it."
This spring, NASA announced that its new lunar program will be named Artemis and will consist of three stages. The first mission, Artemis 1, is due in the second half of 2020 and envisages the launch of the Orion spacecraft with no crew on board, which will orbit the Moon and return back to Earth.
During the second stage, Artemis 2, a manned spacecraft will circle the Earth’s natural satellite in 2022. The third stage, Artemis 3, will include a landing on the Moon in 2024.
US President Donald Trump announced in May that he planned to allocate additional $1.6 billion to NASA budget for Moon and Mars exploration programs. The sum will be requested from the Congress in addition to the $21 billion already promised to the US space agency in the 2020 fiscal year, beginning on October 1.
– WWE officials are officially looking ahead in earnest to WrestleMania 30. The Wrestling Observer reports that the company is trying to secure agreements with several individuals not currently on the roster including Goldberg, Sting and Shawn Michaels. Some highlights of the rumors are below:
* There is not expected to be a match between Triple H and Steve Austin (w/Vince McMahon) for control of the company, as had been previously rumored.
* WWE is trying to sign Sting, whose contract with TNA expires soon, so he can face The Undertaker. If they cannot, then Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar is the planned backup.
* WWE is also interested in getting Goldberg so he can face Ryback, who would face Big Show at the Elimination Chamber to build him up for the match. If no deal with Goldberg can be reached, then Ryback vs. Big Show would take place at WrestleMania.
* CM Punk vs. Randy Orton is planned for the show; while there were plans for him to win the Royal Rumble for a shot at Orton and the WWE Title, the latest plans will give the Royal Rumble winner a shot at Cena and the World Title.
* There is a lot of talk that despite his denials of returning to the ring, Shawn Michaels will face Daniel Bryan.
* There is a plan to have Goldust turn on Cody Rhodes and the two to get the WrestleMania match both have wanted. Goldust has impressed officials with his return.
Must read wrestling news:
* Daniel Bryan may be done as a main event player
* WWE announces new head of talent relations
* AJ Styles denies rumors that he has had talks with WWE
* TNA Impact Wrestling taping results for 11.14.13
* The Top 10 WCW Moments
* 411’s Impact Wrestling report
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Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Pleads Guilty To 'Desertion' And 'Misbehavior Before The Enemy'
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl pleaded guilty to "desertion" and "misbehavior before the enemy" for leaving his combat outpost in Afghanistan in 2009. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks to reporter Richard Oppel of The New York Times about why Bergdahl did this and what happens next.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In 2009 Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his combat outpost in Afghanistan. A frantic manhunt followed. Bergdahl had been captured by the Taliban, who held him for five years. He was freed under a controversial Obama-era prisoner swap. Today Bowe Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Rich Oppel of The New York Times has been covering this story for years and joins us now from North Carolina where Bergdahl appeared in court today. Richard, welcome.
RICH OPPEL: Thank you, Mary Louise.
KELLY: So it has been a while since Bergdahl has been in the news. So start by reminding us what his story has been, why he says he left his post back in 2009.
OPPEL: So he told the Army's chief investigator that he left because he had serious concerns about the welfare of the - of his unit and particularly of some problems he believed that existed with the leadership. And so what he intended to do, he said, is leave the base and walk about 18 miles to a larger base where he wanted to get an audience with a senior officer to talk about the problems that he perceived were happening in his unit.
KELLY: And he's told this story consistently in the year since his release.
OPPEL: That's right.
KELLY: So what do we make then of today? Were you surprised by this guilty plea?
OPPEL: Not after the string of defeats that he had had this year where the judge had consistently ruled against them in quite a few things. You know, the one thing that was interesting on this point was he went out of his way several times to say that he never intended for there to be a large manhunt like there was after he left, but he had previously said he did want to kind of create a big stir in leaving so he could get this audience with a general. But it's interesting today that he went out of his way to say, I never wanted to have, you know, a really big - a big manhunt or anything like it.
KELLY: The accusations that he made about mismanagement within his unit - those have been investigated. Was there anything to them?
OPPEL: Well, both the Army's chief investigating officer, Lieutenant General Kenneth Dahl, as well as the - Lieutenant Colonel Mark Visger, who was the preliminary hearing officer - they didn't find any substantiation for what he was talking about. But again, General Dahl, you know, in his testimony said his view was it wasn't that Bergdahl was lying. It was just that he was wrong. But he really did believe that there was a problem that he needed to talk to a more senior officer about.
KELLY: Let me ask you about a couple things which - I wonder how they might play as we move into the sentencing phase here. One is, Bergdahl's attorney has said he was suffering from mental health issues when he walked away from his post. Might that be something the judge takes into account?
OPPEL: Well, certainly the defense would like him to take it into account. The Army was not his first enlistment. He had actually gone into the Coast Guard in 2006, but he had washed out of basic training in a couple of weeks. And there were some mental health issues cited at that time. So in addition to that, he was later diagnosed with having a severe personality disorder at the time of his leaving the base in Afghanistan.
KELLY: The other factor I'm curious about is - we mentioned Bergdahl was held by the Taliban for five years in what apparently were horrendous conditions. Will his years in captivity be factored in at his sentencing?
OPPEL: Well, certainly that's absolutely something the defense is hoping for. You know, at the preliminary hearing, again, you know, we had one of the country's leading debriefers of hostages testify for the defense, even though he's a government official, that Bergdahl had suffered the worst abuse that any serviceman had suffered since the Vietnam War and at one point even broke down, talking about how awful the abuse was - the beatings with rubber hoses and copper cables and being locked in a cage and all of that.
KELLY: Yeah. The - I understand
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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Mexico should send migrants seeking asylum in the United States back to their home countries, a day after U.S. authorities shut the country's busiest southern border crossing and fired tear gas into the crowd.
Renowned linguist and professor Noam Chomsky, who turns 90 next month, ripped into the U.S. for having created the conditions in Latin America that these migrants are now fleeing from. Chomsky told 'Democracy Now!' last week that, "Honduras—mainly Honduras, secondarily Guatemala, thirdly El Salvador—not Nicaragua, incidentally—three countries that have been under harsh U.S. domination, way back, but particularly since the 1980's."
He continued, "The most extreme source of migrants right now is Honduras. Why Honduras?" Chomsky explained how in 2009 a military coup ousted a "mildly reformist president" and the Obama administration refused to condemn the transition for fear it would have to withdraw military aid.
Chomsky then explains, "A fraudulent election took place under the military junta—again, harshly condemned all over the hemisphere, most of the world, but not by the United States. The Obama administration praised Honduras for carrying out an election, moving towards democracy and so on."
"Now people are fleeing from the misery and horrors for which we are responsible," Chomsky concluded.
Noam Chomsky: Members of Migrant Caravan Are Fleeing from Misery & Horrors Created by the U.S.
Trump urges Mexico to send migrants home
U.S. officials on Sunday reopened the crossing at the San Ysidro port of entry between San Diego and Tijuana, the most heavily trafficked land border in the Western Hemisphere after shutting it down for several hours.
Trump has vowed the asylum seekers would not easily enter the country and on Monday threatened again to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, which stretches 2,000 miles (3,200 km).
The president repeated his call on Congress to fund his long-promised border wall as U.S. lawmakers return to Washington on Monday after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday break with federal government funding set to expire on Dec. 7. He has repeatedly threatened to shut down the federal government unless the wall is funded.
The showdown on Sunday took place at part of the border where there is already a physical barrier.
"Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!" Trump tweeted.
Hundreds of caravan members including women and children protested peacefully on Sunday with chants of "We aren't criminals! We are hard workers." As they neared the U.S. border, they were stopped by Mexican authorities, who told them to wait for permission.
The migrants who are mostly Honduran are fleeing poverty and violence and have said they would wait in Tijuana until they could request asylum in the United States.
For weeks before the Nov. 6 congressional elections, Trump raised alarm about the caravan of Central American migrants headed for the United States and ordered some 5,800 U.S. troops to the border to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Trump has just a few weeks left to push his fellow Republicans who control both chambers of Congress to make good on the wall before Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January following their election gains.
Democrats have urged more comprehensive immigration reform in addition to additional border security, but have fiercely opposed the wall.
U.S. and Mexican negotiators on Sunday also discussed a plan to keep the migrants in Mexico while their asylum claims are heard. Asylum seekers typically announce their intention at U.S. ports of entry or after crossing the border illegally.
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Gov. Jay Inslee, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate with a campaign centered on climate change, released 12 years of his tax returns Friday morning on "Fox & Friends" and called for President Trump to do the same.
Why it matters: Personal financial disclosures could become a litmus test among Democratic candidates in 2020.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) became the first 2020 presidential candidate to publicly release her 2018 tax returns on Wednesday and challenged her rivals to do the same. While Gillibrand didn't mention Trump, or the ongoing Democratic battle to obtain the president's tax information, Inslee chose to call out the president directly.
Go deeper: Everything else you need to know about Jay Inslee
Welsh Three Peaks Challenge
The Welsh Three Peaks Challenge, lesser known than the National or Yorkshire Challenges, takes in the three peaks of Wales: Snowdon in the North, Cadair Idris in mid-Wales, and Pen y Fan in the South.
The Welsh Three Peaks includes a total walking distance of 17 miles (27.4km) and an ascent of 2334 metres (7657ft), usually in less than 24-hours. That's more ascent than the Yorkshire Three Peaks over a shorter walking distance.
How to take part in the Welsh Three Peaks Challenge?
To take part, you can either join an organised event, providing transport, mountain leaders and food and drink, or arrange your own challenge.
DES PLAINES, Ill. (WLS) -- A Maine East High School student was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after he posted on social media holding a gun.Mustafa Obaid, 18, was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday in the 8800-block of Dee Road in Des Plaines. Late Tuesday the teen posted on Snapchat holding a black hand gun, according to Park Ridge police. Several concerned parents reported the Snapchat posting to Park Ridge police, who then alerted the Cook County Sheriff's Police.A black air-soft replica weapon, which was confirmed to be the weapon shown in the Snapchat posting, was recovered during a search of Obaid's car, police said.Obaid will appear in court Nov. 30.
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A contact from our UN staff has been in dialogue with Mr. Harold Koda's
people at the Costume Institute at your Metropolitan Museum in New York. There is intense interest in our proposal for a retrospective in 2013 of Colonel Gaddafi's four decades of superior dress sense. In the last month the compound next to the presidential palace was badly damaged in a bombing raid and we are very concerned should the same happen to the palace the result might be the destruction of over 3400 items of breathtaking sartorial magnificence: Decades of Military uniforms and leisure wear mostly hand made from the finest fabrics on earth that show not only President Col. Gaddafi's strong commitment to leadership qualities but his relaxed and informal side as a devoted family man who loves to entertain.
CRESTVIEW — A woman caught with several pills in a plastic bag in her genitals told jail officials she didn’t know how the drugs got there.
Dusty Rae Ingram, a 38-year-old Crestview woman, was being processed into the Okaloosa County Jail Jan. 5 when a strip search uncovered the drugs.
She told officials what the drugs were and that she had a prescription for them. She said she keeps the pills in her purse and is unsure how they got from her purse into her genitals.
After being read her rights, Ingram admitted she knew she was not allowed to bring pills into the jail.
She was charged with introducing contraband into a detention facility, which is a felony.
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Analyzing Space and Time as personal philosophies turned up common threads of meaning in the jumbles of seemingly random symbolism, and in general made things damn interesting. Doing the same with other pairs of aspects is both more and less difficult – less because many of them are better documented by other theorists, and more because identifying real philosophers for some of them is a giant pain in the ass.
Light and Void stand out as the best starting point. We know from Calliope that they’re related somehow, we have a more in-depth canon description of Void than of any other aspect, and we’ve seen examples of Light powers from three very different classes. The variety of meanings confuses the hell out of people but that’s no big deal for us because we’re attacking the root of the problem, the fundamental difference in perspective that makes Light and Void especially alien to one another.
So let’s dive right in and shed some Light on the subject.
Write down what you were thinking when you clicked this link. Make a note of the time to the exact second; the first object you see when you turn to your right; the thing you’re touching with your left hand; the total number of shoes with laces in the same room as you; and the predominant ingredient in what you ate for breakfast (such as bread).
I picked these things at random, but they’re important anyway because they happened in the first place. They have meaning and significance. In a different reality you would have done things differently, or you might not exist at all. Somewhere, somehow, there is a reason it happened this way.
Light players are up to their eyeballs in reasons. Their world is a drama and they’re searching for their role. Knowledge is power – knowledge of any kind, about anything. Even lies are important, because the reasoning behind the lie can say as much as the truth ever did. Every action taken by another person, every random accident, is a hint at the profound secret of the universe.
Rose is frustrated by her mom because she overanalyzes her actions, unable to accept that they might be random nonsense. Her attempts to explain everything ever are a mixed blessing to her friends. Of course, we already knew this about Rose because Doc Scratch explained it in detail:
Ordinarily, Light players have no oracle but reality itself to which they can pose “the right questions.” They can only wonder, wait for a sign, and hope they’re bright enough to understand it once it appears. In their eyes, whether they get it or not hinges on whether they are important enough to deserve it.
Luck is how they rationalize and quantify this feature of reality. A Seer of Light with “all the luck” would serendipitously know whatever she needs to answer any question posed to her, and a Prince of Light would find events conspiring to help him destroy. A sociopathic Thief of Light desires attention almost to the exclusion of other concerns, so powers like Vriska’s guarantee her objective importance while causing otherwise unpredictable events.
Each aspect has a different relationship with luck, in keeping with its view of the world. For example, Breath players might say that luck is always good, and Blood players that it’s always bad. Mind players like Terezi recognize that corrupt people can be important, and evil deeds can steer history. Luck “doesn’t matter” because being important has nothing to do with being right.
Void players take it a step further. To them, luck doesn’t even exist.
Turn the concept of meaning on its head. Look under a microscope: All atoms of hydrogen are exactly the same, made of interchangeable parts. The whole world is made of these objects with no individual distinctions, bouncing off each other, none of them having goals or decisions to make.
Realities themselves are likewise interchangeable. Our universe could be replaced with a different one and we’d be none the wiser. Take another look at the notes you made. Instead of English words and Roman letters, imagine some other script, for a language you learned in an alternate reality. That would be as readable there as this text is here. The message is immaterial to the form.
Sartre’s existentialist writings model consciousness as the process of imagining importance. Because meaning exists inside our heads and not as a physical object, the absence of matter has the same power as its presence. Darkness does not exist in the same way as light, nor caves and silence in the same way as rock and sound. Such distinctions are human inventions, meaning that we created from nothingness.
Heroes of Void dwell on the concept of absence because they feel it eroded within them. They see their own existences not just as weak, but undefined. Invisible, ineffectual,
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Sri Lanka blasts: At least 290 people died in the serial blasts in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday
Suicide bombers struck churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing at least 290 people in a highly coordinated attack targeting Christians and foreigners that left this island nation reeling.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, the deadliest violence here since the end of the civil war a decade ago.
Police arrested 13 people in connection with the bombings, and three police officers were killed during a raid at a suspect's home. Sri Lankan officials did not identify those arrested or discuss a motive for the attacks. At least 450 were injured in the attacks, according to a police spokesman.
Images of splintered pews and bloodstained floors played across local television screens Sunday as the enormity of the attacks, launched on the holiest day of the Christian calendar, became clear.
The dead included "several" Americans, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. He blamed "radical terrorists" for the attacks.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters Sunday that some government officials had prior intelligence about the attacks but didn't act on it.
"Information was there," he said at a news conference. "This is a matter we need to look into."
A letter circulating on social media appeared to be a notice issued by a senior police official on April 11, warning of potential attacks on churches by a little-known Islamist extremist group. The letter could not be independently verified.
Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist nation, but it's also home to significant Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities. A popular destination for tourists, the country has been largely peaceful since the end of its 26-year civil war.
While there has been intermittent conflict between religious groups - including threats to Christians - nothing remotely like Sunday's attacks had occurred here.
Blasts ripped through three churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa at about 8:45 a.m. as worshippers were gathering for services, police said. Bombers also struck three hotels and a banquet hall in Colombo, the capital.
Ruwan Wijewardene, Sri Lanka's defense minister, said the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers. Six of the attacks occurred between 8:45 and 9:30 a.m.
There was a seventh blast at a banquet hall about 2 p.m. and an eighth at the house raided by police around 2:45 p.m.
The deadliest attack was at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a beach town about 22 miles north of Colombo. Negombo, known as "Little Rome," is dotted with Catholic churches. Officials reported at least 104 dead there.
Also targeted was St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade, the largest Catholic congregation in Colombo, and Zion Church in the eastern city of Batticaloa.
At least 66 people were killed in Colombo and 28 in Batticaloa, officials said.
Bombers also struck three luxury hotels in Colombo. Two people at the Shangri-La Hotel described a powerful explosion that made the ground shake just before 9 a.m. Photos showed broken windows and shattered glass on a street next to the hotel.
Sarita Marlou, a guest at the hotel, wrote on Facebook that she felt the impact of the explosion in the hotel's flagship restaurant all the way up on the 17th floor. She described seeing pools of blood as she evacuated the hotel.
Also targeted were the ground-floor Taprobane restaurant at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel and the luxury Kingsbury Hotel.
Three police officers were killed in an altercation at a home in the Dematagoda area of Colombo, police said. They had gone there to interrogate someone.
At least 11 of the dead at National Hospital in Colombo were foreigners, including two who held U.S. and British citizenship, according to the Foreign Ministry. Other foreigners included three from Britain, three from India, two from Turkey and one from Portugal. The unidentified bodies of 25 people believed to be foreigners were at a government mortuary in Colombo.
Pompeo condemned the attacks "in the strongest terms."
"Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security," he said in a statement.
Sri Lankan authorities announced a nationwide curfew, effective immediately. They blocked Facebook and the messaging application WhatsApp in an attempt to halt the spread of false and inflammatory messages. Security was heightened at churches across the country, and the streets of Colombo grew quiet and deserted as the curfew took effect.
Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, condemned "the
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As someone with OCD I can confirm that it isn’t always an easy battle, let alone the stereotypes it has to offer. As a disorder wrongly associated as exclusively to do with hygiene, organisation, and perfectionism, millions of sufferers worldwide go unknowingly living their lives with OCD.
Here I’m going to present to you different stereotypes that surround people with OCD.
Everyone with OCD is well-organised.
Oh wow, this one is just damaging. Are there people out there who have OCD based around organisation? Of course there are. However, this does in no way mean that everyone who has OCD automatically has all of their homework due in on time without fail. Actually, I’m the complete opposite of this, my friends will let you know about that.
2. People with OCD are always busy and on the go.
From the current stereotypes that I have briefly mentioned above (organised, hand washing, making sure everything is clean and tidy) you can see where this one came from. You’d constantly expect people with OCD to be rushing around making sure they’re doing all this stuff, making sure they aren’t late, cleaning all around the house 24/7, having to run to the bathroom to make sure their hands are fully clean, but no, it isn’t always like that. Of course we usually are busy – dealing with our obsessions and compulsions – but never is it in a good, healthy way.
3. Everyone’s a “bit OCD”.
Nope. Nope. Nope. Sorry, but nope. You mean, 99.9% of people exhibit a healthy preference for organised tidiness? As for the amount of people who genuinely “are OCD”, that’s roughly 1.2% of the British population according to OCD UK.
4. People who have OCD would love to clean your house for you.
I’ve heard about people with OCD get asked a lot by their friends about whether or not they could clean their house – for free – because you know, everyone with OCD including those who clean as a compulsion would love to, right? It’s not like that at the same time would cause a large amount of distress… People with OCD revolving around cleanliness do not tend to enjoy cleaning up, they do it because they feel like they have to. It’s a compulsion, not a hobby.
5. OCD isn’t that serious.
Because it’s just wanting to keep on track of everything, right? Making sure it’s all perfect? It’s only making sure that some things aren’t symmetrical, isn’t it? Being just a little bit “OCD” can’t bring any harm, can it?
That was sarcasm. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has actually ranked OCD as one of the top 10 disabling illnesses when considering diminished quality of life and lost earnings. I hope that alone says enough about how serious OCD truly is.
6. All compulsions are obvious.
Actually, while some compulsions are very obvious, there is a specific type of OCD known as “Purely obsessional OCD” or “Pure O” for short. Don’t let the name fool you though, compulsions are definitely present in those with pure O. It’s more to describe how people would see it on the outside – they wouldn’t see the compulsions, so it would look “purely obsessional”. Basically, it refers to those who have “hidden” compulsions, maybe because of how discreet they are or because they’re purely mental, such as rumination or counting. This is a less spoken of OCD, so it’s definitely important to spread awareness of it. A lot of people with pure O don’t even recognise they could have OCD because a lot of the time it does not fit the stereotypes.
7. People with OCD can just not perform compulsions
Whilst therapy has been shown to be very successful in the treatment of OCD, this does not make it easy. Compulsions are actually the “fight” of the “fight or flight” survival mechanism when it comes to OCD. At the time, it feels like the absolutely only way that we can feel safe again, even if just for 5 minutes. (and then it returns…) This survival instinct is very hard to control. Still not convinced? Next time you are in what feels like a very scary, maybe even life-threatening situation, try not to act. Try not to fight, flight, or freeze. Not doing that is just like not performing a compulsion for someone with OCD.
8. People with OCD don’t know just
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I just found this this morning, en route to finding my old post, which I am simply reposting below. Note the date on this new tag.
This is the most recent outgrowth of the Powell Memo, a hardline ultra-conservative memo from which the bulk of what we call the Culture War has sprung.
The Right does have intentions to harm liberals.
It's inarguable. It is only a matter of time. If I and others are wrong about this then GOOD! But I think not.
Forces are in motion.
The sort of people who WOULD put something like this on their vehicle are the talk radio/freeper sorts and they are being driven into a hate-filled frenzy by talk radio, the Sean Hannity's, the O'Reillys, the Savages and other rightwing talk radio propagandists. Their job is to magnify and perpetuate the bitter divisions in America.
Part of it is clearly hate-mongering, the other part is what I will call the "massaging on self-righteousness", a huge part of what makes Bush supporters so impervious to reality. They are constantly being told that God favors them and the US, that "we" - meaning "muricans" are doing God's work (as if somehow puny little humans could actually do such work).
They are d-e-l-us-i-o-n-a-l.
Although ostensibly a "parody" the sticker is both referring to an official "license" as well as being designed to "look official", like a hunting or fishing license. The stab at authenticity magnifies the delusional quality.
That said, it is a bit too much of a leap to suggest that wingnuts who put this sticker on their vehicles (usually american-made fullsize trucks and SUV's) think it actually allows them to kill people.
But it is one more "brick in the wall, one more bit of delusion-reinforcing paraphernalia that says "gays, unions, democrats, hangun controllers, news media, and hollywod types are bad, are against "murica" and show, beyong any doubt they buy the "Powell memo and GOP/Corporate propaganda" (for it is all the same exact thing) hook, line, and sinker. The "May be used under the influence of alcohol" adds to the "targeting of a particular demographic" for the sales of such quaint little items.
I remember seeing a version of these deep in red-state Georgia...on a big ol' Ford pickup truck, dirty and beat-up, with a gun rack in it. I think this is called "an accurate stereotype". It is a stereotype but it has it's basis in reality. Not all people with such pickup trucks and gunracks are dangerous, mean-spirited folk - that's a nutty assertion, but there are a lot who are. I have met them, had bad interactions with them.
The scariest and most irresponsible part of this is the unrelenting intention and effort to equate "liberals" with "terrorists" and to, as the NAZI's did with the Jews" make this equation so unquestionable that people accept that killing them really is OK. The purpose of this - and most rightwing propaganda - is to "turn of" thinking and reasoning, to make it comfortable for people to simply accept such thinking, and for it to make them feel good about themselves.
Bush's speech at Fort Bragg was, in part, about this effect.
It is reassuring that it fell so flat, (in technical vernacular, it produced no "bounce") but we know there are still an unpleasant number of people fist-pumping and saying "hell yeah!" because they no longer question what they hear on the TV or from their precious talk radio.
For all the GOP blather about "the liberal media" it is they who have by far the lion's share of media access and control and this has been the case since at least Reagan's day. The basic game is to complain about "liberal bias" and use this as a way to elbow into more repetition of the same conservative message inherently found in said liberal media.
Just try telling that to people who still support Team Bush. They believe tv and bumperstickers over verifiable reality.
And that is what is so scary.
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Nobody today is selling Jim Beam bourbon to your high school student on their campus. They're selling marijuana and methamphetamines," he says. By keeping marijuana illegal "you give up everything having to do with its quality, its price, its place of sale and everything else."
Gray says many of his former colleagues on the bench and the police force agree with him but fear political fallout if they were to speak out. "The one thing we could do to make the job [of policing] less dangerous would be to legitimize and control the sale of these illegal drugs."
The California Police Chiefs Association, however, argues that this is a mischaracterization of the work they do. They just don't spend their time on cases involving less than an ounce. If someone is caught with less than an ounce of pot now it's a citation with a small fine.
Pastor Ron Allen of Sacramento is one of the leaders of a coalition of cops and clergy who say legalizing marijuana will lead to the use of harder drugs and only cause more problems for society.
For Allen, this is also a personal crusade. He was a crack cocaine addict for seven years, and he says it all started with marijuana.
Passage "would devastate California to the fullest extent.... This is the worst thing that California could ever try to do," Allen said.
In an ironic twist, some of the more strident opponents to the legalization of marijuana are less likely to speak out -- the people who grow it illegally today. Once the black market is made legitimate, growers stand to see their prices drop.
"It's been disappointing to see people more concerned with their personal well-being than what's good for society," says Lee, the man behind the initiative. "I got into it to stop the violence and get better law enforcement."
Lee already makes his living from the weed. The Oakland, Calif., man's business is pot, from his coffee house selling medical marijuana, to his trade school for marijuana growers, Oaksterdam University.
Though he spent $1 million getting the question onto November's ballot, the fight is far from over. Lee puts the odds at "50-50" for whether his state votes to legalize pot, or whether his dreams go up in smoke.
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German national grid operators 50Hertz, Amprion, Tennet and TransnetBW announced on Friday that the country’s consumer surcharge to fund renewable electricity would rise by about 8 percent, from currently 6.35 eurocents per kilowatt-hour (ct/kWh) to 6.88 ct/kWh next year.
The increase is less than feared by experts, but sends the surcharge to its highest level since it was introduced 16 years ago, and costing consumers only 0.16 ct/kWh at the time.
According to industry calculations, the new surcharge will increase the electricity bill of a normal German household by about 22 euros ($24.2) per year – based on an annual consumption of 3,500 kWh – and boosting green costs to about 286 euros of such a household’s total energy bill.
The surcharge is part of Germany’s Renewable Energy Act (EEG), introduced in the year 2000 withthe aim of promoting renewable forms of energy generation to a level of 60 percent by 2035. Each autumn, grid operators set the price of the surcharge for the coming year, using as a basis for their calculation the difference between the wholesale market price for power and the higher remuneration rate for renewable energies guaranteed by the state.
Falling prices, rising costs
German wholesale electricity prices have been slumping sharply in recent years due to a strong build-up in renewables, leading to overcapacity in markets, especially when the sun shines and the wind blows strongly.
In the first half of 2016, the average power price at the exchange was at 2.5 ct/kWh, down from 3.2 ct/kWh in 2015. Because the surcharge makes up the difference between the wholesale electricity price and guaranteed feed-in payments, the renewables levy increases when the market price falls. This year, the green energy surcharge is expected to cost consumers about 23 billion euros.
Partial exemptions are given to more than 2,300 companies that are “electricity-cost intensive and trade incentive.” They pay only about 2 percent of the surcharge although using 25 percent of Germany’s power. As a result, residential and small commercial customers pick up the slack.
Moreover, when taking into account rising fees to make the German grid capable of handling massive amounts of renewable energy, consumers will on average have to pay 3 percent more for their electricity, according to price-comparison website Verivox.
Failing reform
The EEG surcharge is often used as a price tag for Germany’s energy transition. Except for one year, 2015, it has been climbing every year since 2000. This has led to calls for reforming the Renewables Act.
As a result, the government introduced changes to the law this summer, limiting how much new renewable capacity can be built each year and introducing an auction-based system to largely replace feed-in tariffs for renewables.
But Germany’s industry lobby says the reform seems unable to curb the trend toward rising green energy costs, which are expected to soar well above 7 ct/kWh over the next six years.
Ullrich Grillo, head of the Association of German Industry (BDI), criticized that the new rise in the surcharge was “four times higher than economic growth.”
“The current subsidies system has spun out of control. Energy costs have become a problem for Germany as a business location,” he said Friday.
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Frustrated by years of seeking a promotion they feel is deserved, a group of 46 regional task force inspectors for the U.S. Marshals Service has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, Government Executive has learned.
The GS-12s have unsuccessfully sought promotion to the GS-13 level.
Their case spotlights long-standing tensions at the agency between the government’s system of merit promotions versus elevations achieved through accretion of duties. It shows the influence of a key managers organization on the agency’s handling of the question. And it brings out some ongoing conflicts between field offices and headquarters in a hierarchical law enforcement agency operating without permanent leadership.
The Marshals Service, a part of the Justice Department with 5,100 employees spread over 94 districts, tracks fugitives, provides courtroom security, transports prisoners, seizes illicit assets and partners with local law enforcement in investigations.
The 230-year-old agency in recent years came under tight scrutiny from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, during his tenure as Judiciary Committee chairman, in which whistleblowers exposed cronyism in hiring, mismanagement and a “frat culture,” a lengthy recent report said, providing context for this new employee complaint.
The 46 who recently complained to OSC and have retained outside counsel are among 60-plus nonsupervisory inspectors with the rank of GS-12 who are assigned to the agency’s regional task forces in the Investigative Operations Division.
Around the country since 2000 they have teamed with state and local law enforcement in the dangerous pursuit of fugitives. But the Marshals Service’s other nonsupervisory inspectors—who work in, say, courtroom security or prisoner transport—are paid as GS-13s, “despite performing similar duties,” one complainant told Government Executive. “The duties of a RFTF inspector are different from the duties of a standard district deputy marshal,” the complainant said. “Inspectors are team leaders—essentially supervisors—and run teams of marshals and local law enforcement officers.”
Those inspectors, this complainant added, “have been used as a political football in fights at the managerial and leadership level over how staffing and pay/classifications decisions are made.”
The proposal to elevate these GS-12s has been pursued at the highest levels of the Marshals Service since 2008, this complainant noted, providing copies of correspondence. “Our previous director John Clark found the money to implement the upgrade and obtained the blessing” of the Office of Personnel Management and the deputy attorney general. But it never happened.
Also pushing for the upgrade for the past five years was the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. In 2013, “we almost got it done” but for the government shutdown that year, National President Nate Catura, told Government Executive. His group has met with the acting Marshals Service director David Harlow and the attorney generals under presidents Obama and Trump. But with the overall ripple effect, “it will take an act of Congress,” and they’ll have to increase the budget by, according to one study, $50 million, he said.
One argument the law enforcement officers association cites for elevating the GS-12 inspectors is that their work is similar to GS-13 Marshals employees working in the witness and judicial security and sexual offenders apprehension programs. Add to them the other law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Catura, who was a deputy U.S. marshal for eight years in the 1990s. “It was very hard to get promoted to GS-13,” he said. These regional task force inspectors “are just as qualified, but are not getting a chance.”
The Marshals Service, the complainant added, “is the only top-tier federal agency that is not a journeyman GS-13. We have a wider range of duties and arrest more fugitives than all federal agencies combined.”
Kristin Alden, a partner in the Alden Law Group in Washington representing the nonsupervisory inspectors, told Government Executive the problem is that reclassifications can be done either at the request of the individual employee to a human resource specialist, or, more rarely, by OPM. That agency can perform interviews and surveys in a “desk audit” to determine whether a promotion is deserved because of an inaccurate position description or because of an “accretion,” or increase, in duties. A desk audit does not provide back pay and is not appealable.
In the spring of 2017, Marshals Service managers held a conference call with the GS-12 regional fugitive task force inspectors, Alden said. “The agency basically said we recognize there’s a problem here and the agency has ample
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speaker and it automatically gets points for being on the front, but is otherwise fairly run of the mill. It’s decently loud and produces a clean sound, but since it’s just a single driver at the top of the phone, it does sound lopsided, especially when using the phone in the landscape orientation.
The Moto E (2015) packs a 2,390 mAh battery, and while it may seem a little small, it is actually more than enough considering everything it has to power, such as the small, low-resolution display. Even with a lot of gaming and taking a ton of pictures, the screen-on time never went below 5.5 hours, and on low usage days, where it mostly about texting and keeping up with social media, the device managed upwards of 6.5 hours of screen-on time, so it’s not unreasonable to expect at least a day and half of battery life from the Moto E (2015).
The camera on the current generation Moto E remains unchanged from its predecessor, for the most part. It is still a 5 MP sensor and doesn’t come with an LED flash, but does feature auto-focus this time around. The camera UI is minimalistic and easy to use, and will be very familiar if you’ve used a Motorola device before. Taking a photo is as simple as tapping on the viewfinder, and swiping inwards from the left side will reveal what is mostly basic camera settings, but with shooting modes like HDR, panorama, and 720p slow-motion video also available.
Picture quality is what you might expect from such a basic camera that didn’t receive much of an upgrade. The addition of auto-focus is nice, but doesn’t actually do much to improve the image quality. Color saturation and sharpness is quite underwhelming, providing for some very bleak images. Noise levels are also very high and noticeable in even the most well lit of environments. If this is the only camera you have, it’ll certainly get the job done, but it’s safe to say the camera is the biggest weakness of the Moto E (2015).
The device now packs a front-facing camera as well, so selfies are possible, but with a 0.3 MP (VGA) unit, don’t expect an optimal selfie taking experience.
The Moto E (2015) is running what is mostly a stock version of Android 5.0.2 Lollipop. It may not be the latest Android 5.1, but considering Motorola’s recent track record with updates, we assume it should get the update fairly quickly.
To enhance the experience on this entry-level device, the Moto E brings some of the staples features that can be found on Motorola’s flagship smartphone, such as Moto Assist to keep your phone quiet during meetings or while asleep, Moto Actions to quickly launch the camera by simply twisting your wrist, as well as Moto Display, for those subtle notifications when the screen is off. One thing to be aware of though is that, since the Moto E has a LCD display, these notifications do not continuously pulsate like on the Moto X (2014). If they did it, it would quickly drain the battery. The notifications do, however, show up when you pick up the phone, and when the notification is initially received.
Display 4.5-inch IPS LCD
qHD (540×960)
245 ppi Processor 3G - 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 200
Adreno 302 GPU
4G LTE - 1.2 GHz quad-core Snadragon 410
Adreno 306 GPU RAM 1 GB Storage 8 GB, microSD card slot, up to 32GB Camera 5 MP rear camera
VGA front camera Battery 2,390 mAh Connectivity GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 Networks 3G/4G LTE Software Android 5.0 Lollipop Dimensions 129.9 x 66.8 x 12.3 mm
145 grams Colors Black, White
The best part about the Moto E (2015) is its price, with the device available for just $149.99 off-contract for the LTE version, with the 3G iteration an even cheaper $119.99. We do recommend spending the additional $30 on the LTE version though, as high-speed internet does do a lot in enhancing the overall usability and experience of this smartphone.
So there you have it – a detailed look at the Moto E (2015)! Motorola is proving once again proving their dominance in this price segment, offering a sub-$200 smartphone with Android 5.0 Lollipop and 4G LTE on-board. I’ve really enjoyed using the Moto E (2015), and to answer the question asked during the introduction, this device is a solid entry-
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NORRISTOWN - After more than 50 hours of deliberations over five days, the jury in the Bill Cosby case was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the three charges the entertainer was facing.
With a deadlocked jury, Judge Steven T. O'Neill declared a mistrial today.
Prosecutors told The Associated Press that they would retry Cosby.
Cosby's trial started June 5 in Montgomery County Court. He was facing three counts of aggravated indecent assault on accusations that he drugged and sexually assaulted former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
The jury began their deliberations Monday night and, through the process, came back into the courtroom to ask numerous questions, mainly wanting to review the statements made to police and on the stand by Constand and Cosby.
They came back to the courtroom just after 11 a.m. Thursday for the first time, with the foreman giving the judge a note saying, "We cannot come to a unanimous consensus on any of the counts."
But the judge sent them back for more deliberations over the defense's request for a mistrial.
They repeated the they are deadlocked this morning.
With no verdict, prosecutors have four months to decide whether to retry the case or abandon it. If they decide to continue prosecuting, a new jury will be selected, and the trial will be held again at a future date.
At trial, Constand testified that Cosby gave her three pills, which she said incapacitated her. She said while she was frozen and unable to say "no," he sexually assaulted her.
Cosby told police, and said in a deposition in a 2005 lawsuit, that he gave her Benadryl and that the encounter was consensual.
said he would be leaving his NSC job soon but that it was for reasons unrelated to his decision to testify.
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Two career US diplomats testified behind closed doors on Wednesday despite State Department objections. Christopher Anderson and Catherine Croft reportedly described Trump’s antipathy towards Ukraine and favouritism to Russia.
Anderson told investigators, that through June and July, while military aid was being held up by Trump, the Ukrainians were very focused on securing a White House visit for Zelenskyy, “seeing such a visit as a critical step in empowering Zelenskyy in his negotiations with the Russians,” according to Anderson’s prepared testimony provided to US media.
Anderson said Bolton had cautioned that Giuliani “was a key voice with the present on Ukraine which could be an obstacle to increased White House engagement” with Zelenskyy, according to reports.
7. Sullivan: Trump ‘lost confidence’ in Yovanovitch
Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, the number-two at the State Department who has been nominated by Trump to be the US ambassador to Russia, appeared in a public hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on WEdnesday.
191023185457207
Under questioning from Democrats, Sullivan said he was told by Pompeo former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch had been recalled because Trump “had lost confidence” in her. Yovanovitch had been working against Giuliani’s attempts to get Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Sullivan confirmed that Giuliani had been running a smear campaign against Yovanovitch. Sullivan also said a president using his office to solicit investigations into political opponents was not “in accord with our values”.
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charges on a “vendetta” by the lead USAID investigator in the case—which also appears to be part of the strategy the Spiers’ attorneys are employing—while at the same time suggesting that Del’s assistant, Behzad Mehr, may have “jury-rigged the numbers.” He adds, “This is killing Del.”
If the Spiers, along with Bill Dupre, are found guilty of fraud, it’s likely their case represents one small chapter in a much larger story of reconstruction-related corruption in Afghanistan. Almost everyone I spoke with for this story told of a culture of graft so pervasive in the country that payoffs and kickbacks are considered part of doing business. “Any company over there, when you hire local Afghans, they’re all on the take,” Myers told me. “Every goddamn one of them. When you look at it in retrospect, you can’t really blame them. Hell, they never made any money in their lives. So if they’ve got a chance to rip somebody off, they’re going to do it.”
It’s not just the Afghans, of course. Amidst the chaos of war and insurgency, foreign contractors and others have surely siphoned off a share of the reconstruction money pouring into the country. Even members of the military have attempted to parlay the absence of oversight into a payday. In mid-June, two Army officers who served at Bagram Airfield pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery for accepting kickbacks in exchange for steering work to contractors.
“It’s just endemic,” says the former Berger official, adding that many of these schemes were “hiding in plain sight.” For instance, he says, he knows of people working on reconstruction projects who received several hundred thousand dollars in bribes from subcontractors. “They were the ones who had to sign off on the quantities, on the number of vehicles, on the invoicing,” he says. “The contractor puts in a false invoice, they pay off the guy, the guy certifies it and submits it to USAID. No one’s the wiser. The contractor makes money and the guy supervising it makes money.” Laughing ruefully, he adds, “They bought a small plane for one of them. A small plane.”
The fact that opportunists have enriched themselves off projects that were intended to lay the foundation for a stable Afghan society makes this all the more tragic, he says. But he thinks that perhaps there’s a lesson to be taken away from all of this—from USPI’s story, from Afghanistan’s flawed reconstruction. “Everyone’s accountable in the end,” he says. But there’s a big difference between being accountable and being held to account. The latter comes only after you’ve been caught.
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