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, it will rely entirely on Republican votes to pass.
But it will have an incredibly hard time getting enough votes from Republicans. First, the Republicans can’t agree on which bill to unify around — a solvable problem, but one they strangely have not yet solved. Second, the tea-party base tends to oppose clever message bills that don’t follow the conservative line to the absolute limits of movement principle. This is why various gambits by John Boehner to create leverage by passing Republican-only message bills through the House have generally dissolved in chaos. And third, the tea-party base especially hates message bills that fail to completely repeal Obamacare. Republicans have thus run into the obstacle that large numbers of ultraconservatives refuse to support anything that falls short of total and immediate repeal. Even provisions that fatally undermine the law’s functioning don’t go far enough.
4. Finally, even if Republicans can somehow get their act together and pass one of the bills, many of them realize that the message strategy will fail. Obama’s message is simpler, and he has a larger megaphone because he’s the president. A Republican Congressional aide tells National Review’s Joel Gehrke, “As soon as the messaging is out there saying, ‘Look, a half-a-sentence fix saves millions of people from either losing their coverage or having massive spikes,’ we as a party won’t be able to sustain that pressure very long — certainly not through the August recess.”
If the lawsuit succeeds, the Republicans in Congress will find themselves in the same position as when they shut down the government. They will be demanding policy concessions in return for doing something they agree has to happen. Holding out for concessions in those circumstances is very hard. The pressure inevitably grows for the House leadership to bring a Democratic bill to the floor and let it pass with a handful of Republican votes.
Alternatively, Congress could remain gridlocked, and leave it to each state to fix the problem by establishing its own exchange, assuming such a course is technically possible. But that would simply replicate at the state level the same dilemma Republicans can’t navigate at the national level: How can Republican elected officials navigate between a public that does not want to throw innocent people off the life-saving care they get through Obamacare, and an activist base demanding they do exactly that?
The State Department is reviewing a last-minute decision by former Secretary of State John Kerry to send $221 million to the Palestinians late last week over the objections of congressional Republicans.
The department said Tuesday it would look at the payment and might make adjustments to ensure it comports with the Trump administration's priorities.
Kerry formally notified Congress that State would release the money Friday morning, just hours before President Donald Trump took the oath of office.
Officials said some of the money has already been transferred but that President Donald Trump's new administration would investigate last minute spending decisions to see if they can be adjusted.
Last-minute call: John Kerry authorized the movement of the cash for the Palestinian Authority and only told Congress hours before Trump was sworn in. The former Secretary of State was seen walking his dog at the Women's March on Saturday in Washington D.C.
'In a final act, then-secretary of state John Kerry instructed USAID to release $220.3 million for Gaza recovery programs,' acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
'The Department of State is currently reviewing last minute spending approved by the previous administration and will make adjustments if needed to ensure that it aligns with the priorities of the Trump-Pence administration.'
Congress had initially approved the Palestinian funding in budget years 2015 and 2016, but at least two GOP lawmakers — Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Kay Granger of Texas, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee — had placed holds on it over moves the Palestinian Authority had taken to seek membership in international organizations.
Congressional holds are generally respected by the executive branch but are not legally binding after funds have been allocated.
Granger released a statement Tuesday saying, 'I am deeply disappointed that President Obama defied congressional oversight and released $221 million to the Palestinian territories.'
West Bank: The cash which had been blocked was to fund humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territories. Republicans stopped it while the Palestinian Authority tried to join international bodies
She added: 'I worked to make sure that no American taxpayer dollars would fund the Palestinian Authority unless very strict conditions were met.
While none of these funds will go to the Palestinian Authority because of those conditions, they will go to programs in the Palestinian territories that were still under review by Congress.
'The Obama Administration's decision to release these funds was inappropriate.'
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ISLAMABAD : Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor has said that former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt-Gen (Retd) Asad Durrani has been found guilty of violating the military code of conduct. He also confirmed arrests of two senior army officials on charges of espionage. Briefly referring to the inquiry conducted against Lt-Gen (Retd) Asad Durrani during his media briefing in Rawalpindi on Friday, the DG ISPR said that the military’s inquiry had found Lt Gen Durrani guilty of violating the military code of conduct in the process of writing the book.
“Consequently he is no more entitled to pension and other allowances”, he added.
He said the court had prescribed the relevant punishment in the case — that Lt Gen Durrani’s pension and other allowances and benefits be withdrawn, but his rank remains intact.
His name is also on the no-fly list, but “we will talk to the Interior Ministry about whether to keep it there or not,” Maj Gen Ghafoor added.
Former ISI chief spymaster had co-authored a book, The Spy Chronicles, with Amarjit Singh Dulat, former chief of Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Answering another question, the DG ISPR also confirmed the arrests of two senior army officials on charges of espionage but said: “there is no network between them”.
The army chief has ordered a Field General Court Marshall, which is in process in the two separate cases. No additional information was offered as to who the officers were, or which country they were spying for.
Moscow riots after'murder by migrant' Published duration 14 October 2013
media caption Steve Rosenberg reports
Police in Russia have arrested at least 400 people after a protest against a murder blamed on a migrant from the North Caucasus turned violent.
The protest in southern Moscow was against the killing of a young ethnic Russian stabbed to death on Thursday.
Protesters stormed a shopping centre, smashing windows, and then overran a wholesale vegetable market searching for migrant workers.
There were chants of "Russia for the Russians" and "White Power".
Moscow police chief Anatoliy Yakunin blamed the rioting, in the Biryulyovo district, on "extremists", many of whom he said were drunk.
image copyright Reuters image caption Russian protesters handed round security footage showing the alleged killer
image copyright AFP image caption Protesters targeted migrants, chanting "Russia for the Russians"
image copyright Reuters image caption Special anti-riot police arrested at least 400 protesters
image copyright Reuters image caption The protesters attacked a vegetable market where migrants work, leaving produce smashed in their wake
Ethnic Russian Yegor Shcherbakov, 25, was killed on Thursday in front of his girlfriend.
Police have released a security camera photo of the suspect, but have not identified him.
Media said the image suggested the man was of "non-Slavic appearance", leading nationalists to conclude the killer was a Muslim migrant from the Russian North Caucasus.
The issue of immigration and internal migration was one of the main concerns of Muscovites in the recent election of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
Mr Sobyanin ordered Mr Shcherbakov's murder to be thoroughly investigated, but also condemned the rioting and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
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� they experience when purchasing something.
Neuroscientists have defined human spending patterns as a process of “spend ‘til it hurts,” so understanding these different levels of pain points is essential to maximizing your potential sales:
Unconflicted (61%): Average spenders.
Average spenders. Spendthrifts (15%): People who are able to spend more before they hit their maximum buying pain.
People who are able to spend more before they hit their maximum buying pain. Tightwads (24%): People who spend less (on average) before they hit their maximum buying pain.
So which type of buyer is most difficult to convert? The tightwads.
Since they comprise nearly a quarter of your potential customers, you should learn some of the smart techniques to minimize buying pain for your “tightwad” customers.
Fortunately, the secret boils down to utilizing well-written copy that appeals to their apprehensive nature. According to some remarkable neuroimaging studies, minimizing buying pain for tightwads (and everybody else) can be successfully accomplished by incorporating three simple strategies.
Reframing value
If you see a product that costs $1,000 per year, you’d definitely approach the purchase with a little caution, right?
That’s because $1,000/year isn’t peanuts. To make matters worse, it seems like a HUGE amount of money for conservative spenders.
What if the product was just $84 per month instead? Not bad, right?
The thing is, $84/month is the same as $1,000/year.
While this reframing method is effective for buyers of all types, it is most effective when targeting conservative spenders. If you’re offering something that has a recurring cost or that can be broken down into smaller increments, be sure to investigate how you can utilize this information in your pricing model.
Reduce pain points with bundling
Neuroeconomics expert George Loewenstein notes that all consumers (especially conservative spenders) prefer to complete their purchase in one easy fell swoop rather than purchase multiple accessories separately.
He cites customers’ willingness to upgrade car packages all at once but points out how difficult it often is for the brain to justify each individual upgrade (“Yes, I will pay extra for navigation … and … seats … and …,” etc).
These individual purchases create individual pain points, whereas a bundled purchase creates only one pain point, even if the price is much greater.
Loewenstein’s research shows why many consumers are willing to pay more for complete bundles rather than chasing down individual products and accessories: Not only is it less of a hassle, but it also results in fewer purchase pain points.
Sweat the small stuff
We all know the old adage “don’t sweat the small stuff” isn’t all that applicable to crafting effective copy — but how small of a change matters?
One of the goofiest conversion bumps ever is a study done by Carnegie Mellon University that reveals the impact of a single word on conversion rates.
Researchers changed the description of an overnight shipping charge on a free DVD trial offer from “a $5 fee” to “a small $5 fee” and increased the response rate among “tightwads” by 20 percent.
Let’s see those side-by-side, just to point out how absurd this is:
Has the word “small” ever felt so big? With a single word bumping up conversion rates by that amount, it’s safe to say that when crafting copy targeted at conservative spenders, the devil is in the details.
The Bottom Line: No matter what business you are in, it’s important to understand the three types of buyers. Selling to tightwads is especially important because they make up a large base of your potential customers. The right choice of words can greatly reduce their buying pain.
4. Highlight strengths by admitting shortcomings
Is it ever a good idea to admit to your faults? After all, people don’t want the “real” you, right?
Consumer behavior research from social psychologist Fiona Lee states that admitting shortcomings is a great way to simultaneously highlight your strengths.
Lee’s study aimed to measure the effects of admitting to missteps and faults and how these actions would affect stock prices. Experimenters read one of two fictitious company reports; both reports listed reasons why the company had performed poorly last year.
The first report placed emphasis on strategic decisions.
The second placed emphasis on external events (e.g, the economy, the competition, etc.).
The test subjects viewed the first company far more favorably than the
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logic… 1910’s Principia Mathematica (PM) (a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics, written by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell) was an early attempt to describe a set of axioms and inference rules in symbolic logic from which all mathematical truths could in principle be proven (a logic-and-proof-based Theory of Everything). However, in 1931, Gödel’s incompleteness theorem proved definitively that PM, and in fact any other attempt, could never achieve this lofty goal; that is, for any set of axioms and inference rules proposed to encapsulate mathematics, either the system must be inconsistent, or there must in fact be some truths of mathematics which could not be deduced from them. In other words, the only real ToE in logic mathematically speaking is Socrates’ [paraphrasing], “all I know is that I still don’t know for sure”.
How to Prove That There are Statements That Can’t Be Proven True – Gödel’s Proof
In 1931, Kurt Gödel published two of the spookiest and most important results in mathematical logic: his self-named Incompleteness Theorems. In intuitive terms, what these two theorems prove is that “In any logical system, there will be statements that are true but which cannot be proven.” This is the conceptual takeaway, like Bayes theorem, this is proved with somewhat complex mathematics that goes outside the scope of this site. See the math behind Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem is explained “simply” here.[7]
For non-statisticians, the videos below will work just fine for an introduction to the concept of Gödel’s incompleteness theorem as it applies to truth.
Kurt Godel: The World’s Most Incredible Mind (Part 1 of 3). This video explains Gödel the man, how he is connected to greats like Einstein and Turing, and how his studying of systems, sets, and statistics led to some leaps forward in some interesting areas. This video mentions the different types of infinities (a related and interesting subject).
MYTH: Gödel’s incompleteness theorems disprove the idea that “everything that’s true can be proved”. Ironically enough, there’s a thorough and rigorous logical proof that there are lots of statements that are true, or are likely true, but can’t be proven true. Proving things false is actually much easier than looking for infallible absolute truths.
How to Prove That There are Statements That Can’t Be Proven True, Even Though They Are? – Gödel, Bayes, and the Scientific Method
Gödel’s incompleteness theorems (of which there are more than one) imply that there are theories that are true, even though we can’t prove them, but we can use Bayes’ theorem and the scientific method to find theories that are true enough, based on what we currently know, likely know, or can prove through testing.
A great example of the scientific method coming to our aid is special relativity and general relativity. We can’t prove these things true, but they work over and over again to make predictions, and thus are useful theories that are “true enough”. We didn’t prove them true; we have only proven them not to be false.
Employing Bayes’ theorem, a statistical theory of conditional probabilities, we can be pretty darn sure that a given theory is true (although we can’t prove it absolutely with statistics any more than we can with the scientific method).
TIP: See our page on Bayesian thinking (which we explain without much math), or see An Intuitive (and Short) Explanation of Bayes’ Theorem from betterexplained.com.
How to Prove That There are Statements That Are Likely True, Even Though They Can’t Be Proven
Again, to prove something is likely true even though it can’t be proven we can employ the same tactics as above. We can’t measure light speed in a vacuum, but we have deduced light’s speed with math and have applied the results with repeated success. This hints we have likely found truth, although we can’t prove it.
In the famous Bayesian example, we can never be sure if a person has cancer without direct testing, but if we have enough data-points that point for or against cancer, we can compare these confidently and assume a diagnosis (with little chance of error).
How to Prove a Statement is False
If a statement contains any aspect that can be proven true but
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Star Trek: Discovery has been getting tighter with each episode, but in last night's "Lethe," the show turned a corner into addictively good storytelling. There were a couple of standout moments, plus an evolving conspiracy theory involving Klingon spies. But the best part was that we finally saw one of the show's key arcs, which is how the Federation emerged out of planetary separatism.
Spoilers ahead! Go watch the episode and come back!
Logic extremism and hope
In previous episodes, we've already sensed that this Star Trek series would be more darkly psychological than its predecessors. Our main characters are complex and conflicted, much like the fledgling Federation itself. In "Lethe," we saw how this aspect of the story could take us to truly interesting places.
Burnham's adoptive father Sarek is on his way to peace talks with the Klingons when a "logic extremist" pulls a futuristic suicide bombing on their shuttle. Wounded, Sarek reaches out to Burnham—via the soul bond he created with her long ago—to bring her back from death after a similar attack from the same extremist group. When Burnham is yanked into Sarek's mind, she learns something horrifying about him. Burnham has gained admittance to the Vulcan Expeditionary Fleet, but the head of the fleet tells Sarek that Vulcans will only admit one non-Vulcan to their ranks. So Sarek has to choose which of his semi-human kids can get into the fleet, and he chooses Spock.
All this time, Burnham thought she had failed. But it was actually Sarek who failed, and, in fact, the entire power structure of Vulcan society failed her by being illogically xenophobic. What's incredibly compelling about this subplot in the episode is that it fills in a much-needed political backstory on the Vulcans (they have militant separatists, and even their mainstream politicians are xenophobic against humans); and, at the same time, it explores an intensely personal aspect of Burnham's relationship with her father.
The political and the personal are perfectly melded, and they show us something we hadn't quite realized until this point in the series. We know the Klingons are struggling with nationalism, racial purity movements, and civil war. We know the humans are struggling with similar problems. And now it's clear that the Vulcans are, too. The central struggle in this show will be how to forge peaceful alliances across cultures and species, despite militant separatism.
During the Sarek revelation, Discovery felt like a true Star Trek show. It offered us an impossible vision of hope, where good people like Burnham fight for peace against all odds. And we know they succeed too, because we've seen all the other Star Trek shows. Things are terrible, but we can do it!
About that freaky-ass fungus stuff
Another thing that happened last night was that mycelial genius Stamets went full Dr. Jekyll. With the space tardigrade gone, he's using his own body and brain to power the mycelial drive. Last week, we saw indications that this might lead to some bizarre places. Stamets looked into the mirror and left the bathroom... but his reflection remained in the mirror for a few beats before leaving.
Presumably, this is the mirror universe being born, or something similar. When you mess with the fungus that underlies the structure of space-time, things are going to get "fucking cool," as Stamets puts it. But one guy's "fucking cool" is another guy's agonizer, if you know what I mean.
One of the delightful things about Discovery is the way it embraces the fundamental weirdness of the science in Star Trek. There's always been goofy stuff lurking at the fringes of every series, whether it's characters "de-evolving" into giant grubs and having sex or a transporter accident creating a sad, angry version of Riker who still wants to marry Troi. Now, the central conceit of the show is weird science. Discovery is a science vessel, powered by glowing spores, whose powers are creating trippy, bizarro effects that force us to question what's real.
At the end of Lethe, Lorca gives Burnham a staff position on the science team, so our point-of-view character is now a science officer too. Science and uncertainty rule the Discovery, and we're right in the middle of it.
And now, the Ash Tyler conspiracy!
We're getting into double spoiler territory here, so proceed at your own risk.
I'm pretty sure that Captain Lorca is almost completely evil. I was on the fence, but fellow Ars staffer Cyrus Farivar convinced me that my deep suspicions are true. It all started when Lorca trusted some rando hottie named Ash
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New York, N.Y. – At least two presidents, seven governors and several prominent mayors – from both major parties – have established nonprofits that allow them to raise unlimited, anonymous funds for political spending after election day, according to a new report by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
The report, Elected Officials, Secret Cash, is the first comprehensive analysis of a yawning gap in rules that govern money in politics and government ethics, and poses a serious risk of corruption. The report found that spending by nonprofits that coordinate with elected officials after they take office goes almost entirely unchecked, and calls for new laws to limit political funding by officeholder-controlled nonprofits.
“In recent years, the risk of dark money in our elections has become apparent. But we pay less attention to the politicking that happens after election day – specifically when it comes to dark money channeled through secretive nonprofits,” said Chisun Lee, lead author of the report and senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. “Donors and politicians have exploited a regulatory gap that allows them to raise political funds using nonprofits without the public disclosure and other oversight that would apply if they were doing that during campaign season. If we continue to let these groups operate in secrecy, we risk further allowing shadowy funding to dominate our politics.”
Elected Officials, Secret Cash comes on the heels of recent reports that a nonprofit affiliated with President Trump, America First Policies, has conducted expensive polling that would typically fall to the Republican National Committee – but unlike the RNC, the nonprofit does not disclose its donors. America First Policies had already drawn attention earlier when founder Rick Gates pleaded guilty in Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, raising the possibility of an unusually acute risk: secret foreign influence over U.S. politics, channeled through secretive nonprofits.
Drawing on case studies from across the nation, Elected Officials, Secret Cash shows how donors and politicians have used nonprofits to turn millions of outside dollars into publicity juggernauts. Among the report’s findings:
Officeholder-controlled nonprofits have multiplied in recent years, with elected officials including Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Barack Obama profiting politically from these organizations’ efforts.
Officeholder-controlled nonprofits can take unlimited amounts from wealthy donors who, in most cases, remain anonymous to the public.
Often these wealthy donors hold economic interests that the officeholder they are financing has the power to affect. In New York state, for example, gambling companies donated $2 million to a nonprofit affiliated with Governor Cuomo just before the governor declared his support for increasing gambling in his 2012 State of the State address.
Finally, the report proposes a straightforward roadmap for laws that could help bring transparency to the activity of these nonprofits:
Identifying the entities that post the most serious risk of corruption. The report proposes a two-factor test that identifies the groups that pose the greatest risk of corruption: how closely affiliated their leadership is with an officeholder, and how much they spend to promote the officeholder’s name and image in their advertising.
The report proposes a two-factor test that identifies the groups that pose the greatest risk of corruption: how closely affiliated their leadership is with an officeholder, and how much they spend to promote the officeholder’s name and image in their advertising. New regulations for highest-risk nonprofits. For the nonprofits that meet the threshold test, the Brennan Center proposes two rules that are standard components of campaign finance and conflict of interest laws: donor disclosure and donation limits.
Read the full report, Elected Officials, Secret Cash.
Read more about the Brennan Center’s work on Money in Politics.
To set up an interview with any of our experts, please contact Beatriz Aldereguia at (646)292-8369 or [email protected].
*This press release has been updated.
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Orange " Fire " Core Travel to Pack-A-Punch, hold square on the Ritual Stand to spawn the Mini UFOs Travel to the Kepler System, get 15-24 kills within 1 use of the Chromosphere trap The UFO will now change paths, follow it and get kills near it with your Arcane Weapon Once complete, the UFO will drop a ball of light, hold square to acquire, and it will upgrade your weapon with the fire element Head back to the Gator's mouth, shoot the 4th circle on the machine in its mouth with your upgraded weapon, it will open, giving you the crystal Head to the Pack-A-Punch room and hold square on the machine on the left (it looks like the one inside the Gator' mouth)
Green " Laser " Core Travel to Pack-A-Punch, hold square on the Ritual Stand to spawn the Mini UFOs Travel to the Astrocade, get 15-24 kills within 1 use of the Cosmic Dance Party disco trap The UFO will now change paths, follow it and get kills near it with your Arcane Weapon Once complete, the UFO will drop a ball of light, hold square to acquire, and it will upgrade your weapon with the laser element Head back to the Gator's mouth, shoot the 3rd circle on the machine in its mouth with your upgraded weapon, it will open, giving you the crystal Head to the Pack-A-Punch room and hold square on the machine on the left (it looks like the one inside the Gator' mouth)
Yellow " Wind " Core Travel to Pack-A-Punch, hold square on the Ritual Stand to spawn the Mini UFOs Travel to Polar Peak, get 15-24 kills within 1 use of the Dragon Laser Trap The UFO will now change paths, follow it and get kills near it with your Arcane Weapon Once complete, the UFO will drop a ball of light, hold square to acquire, and it will upgrade your weapon with the wind element Head back to the Gator's mouth, shoot the 1st circle on the machine in its mouth with your upgraded weapon, it will open, giving you the crystal Head to the Pack-A-Punch room and hold square on the machine on the left (it looks like the one inside the Gator' mouth)
Blue " Electric " Core Travel to Pack-A-Punch, hold square on the Ritual Stand to spawn the Mini UFOs Travel to Journey into Space, get 15-24 kills within 1 use of the Star Mission trap The UFO will now change paths, follow it and get kills near it with your Arcane Weapon Once complete, the UFO will drop a ball of light, hold square to acquire, and it will upgrade your weapon with the electricity element Head back to the Gator's mouth, shoot the 2nd circle on the machine in its mouth with your upgraded weapon, it will open, giving you the crystal Head to the Pack-A-Punch room and hold square on the machine on the left (it looks like the one inside the Gator' mouth)
Purple Exquisite Core Once you have placed the 4 elemental cores a purple core will fly out of the top of the machine at Pack-A-Punch and go to the top of the machine in the Gator's mouth. You can now go up to the Gator's mouth and purchase the Exquisite Core for your gun for $2000.
NOTE: When obtaining the Exquisite Core for the first time you will unlock the trophy/achievement Batteries Not Included
Head-Cutter
The Head-Cutter is one of the many "Wonder Weapons" within Zombies In Spaceland. When all parts are acquired go to the Octonian cutout in the Polar Peak and obtain the Head-Cutter.
"Battery" Piece (The left piece in the UI) Purchase Cryo Grenades within the Astrocade (350 Tickets) Throw a Cryo Grenade at the face of the Yeti Animatronic at the base of Polar Peak. The Yeti will start breathing cold air for about 10 seconds. Bring zombies into the cold air. The zombies will become frozen and you must get headshots on 10 frozen zombies. Once you have achieved 10 headshots the Yeti will make a loud roaring noise. When you hear the noise head up to the gift shop in Polar Peak and the battery will be in the hand of the Yeti statue next to the portal.
"Yeti Mike Plush" Piece (The middle piece in the UI) All Green Souvenir Tokens in Machine in Polar Peak
"Crystal" Piece (The right piece in the UI) Purchase an Arcane Core (300 Tickets) Purchase Golden Teeth (300 Tickets) Have the Gator in the Kepler System close his mouth on a Brute, place Golden Teeth where Teeth broke off Travel to Pack-A-Punch, hold square on the Ritual Stand to spawn the Mini UFOs Travel to Polar
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Today, August 28, the Wikimedia Foundation is making a change to the software that powers the Wikimedia projects: By default, all logged-in users will now be using HTTPS to access Wikimedia sites. What this does is encrypt the connection between the Wikimedia servers and the user’s browser so that the information sent between the two is not readable by anyone else. This is in response to the recent concerns over the privacy and security of our user community, and we explained the rationale for this change in our post about the future of HTTPS at Wikimedia.
What this means for you
How this works is simple: If a user wants to log in, they will be redirected to use HTTPS for the login, thus keeping their username and password secure. After they are logged in, they stay on the HTTPS version of the Wikimedia site they are using.
Excluded Countries
Some users live in areas where HTTPS is not an easy option, most times because of explicit blocking by a government. At the request of these communities, we have made an explicit exclusion for users from those affected countries. Simply put, users from China and Iran will not be required to use HTTPS for logging in, nor for viewing any Wikimedia project site.
Disabling
Are you having a slow or unreliable experience while browsing Wikimedia sites over HTTPS? Then you can turn HTTPS off in your user preferences, under the “User profile” tab: Uncheck “Always use a secure connection when logged in”. You will need to log out and log in again for the preference to take effect. But remember, you will still need to log in using the secure HTTPS process.
HELP!
For further details, please see the HTTPS page on Meta-Wiki, which is available in several languages.
Are you unable to log in and edit a Wikimedia wiki after this change? Please contact the Wikimedia Foundation Operations team via any means you find comfortable, including this blog post’s comments section, on IRC in the #wikimedia-operations channel, or via the [email protected] email address.
Greg Grossmeier
Release Manager, Wikimedia Foundation
danger in Argentina to warrant a Drone Dome, why should a grand prix anywhere on the trail not be similarly endangered? In such an event, who would be the responsible authority?
First it must be stressed that security at circuits is the responsibility of the race promoter, working in conjunction with local authorities and police services, and not the FIA or Formula One Management. Consider the situation as being akin to a rock concert: Should the Rolling Stones play at Silverstone, the circuit/concert promoter are responsible for ensuring the safety of concert-goers, Mick Jagger isn’t.
However, the FIA’s International Sporting Code – which takes precedence over all other regulations save where expressly provided for – does take into account the potential need for UAVs in and around motorsport venues. Article 1.4 of Appendix H of the ISC states:
“Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), commonly known as drones, operated by commercial entities may only be used at competition venues when permitted by, and operated according to, the civil aviation regulations and laws of the country in which the event is being held and the policies of the local ASN responsible for the event.
“The use of a recreational UAV is prohibited. In any case, a UAV must never fly directly over any competition course or public area unless under the direct control of persons authorised by the event organisers, the race director or the clerk of the course, for safety or information purposes only.”
Note the reference to ‘civil aviation regulations and laws of the country’ – these, of course, vary according to territory and jurisdiction, and thus promoters work closely with police force and intelligence services, plus their circuit security, event stewards and appointed expert resources.
RaceFans approached two race promoters and Formula One Management for comment about their security protocols with particular reference to drones, with the response in all instances being broadly similar: “As you will understand, we cannot discuss the procedures in place to manage to security risks and incidents.”
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Agadir - Violence erupted in the commune of Tamazzouzt in morocco (a town near Marrakech), as Amazighs (Berbers call themselves "Amazighs," or free men) refuse to participate in the national census, protesting against discrimination.
Agadir – Violence erupted in the commune of Tamazzouzt in morocco (a town near Marrakech), as Amazighs (Berbers call themselves “Amazighs,” or free men) refuse to participate in the national census, protesting against discrimination.
The boycott of the national census is the result of many years of ignoring the existence of Amazighs in their homeland.
Today over half of Moroccans are Berber speakers, and it is more language and culture that differentiate Berbers from Arabs.
They choose to push for the recognition of their language and identity not only in the new constitution, but also in everyday life.
After King Mohammed VI addressed some of those grievances in the amended constitution, by enacting a reform on March 9/2011, in a major speech to the nation, the Amazigh demands are still not fully satisfied.
What are the Amazighs demands?
The amended constitution of 2011 was considered as a big achievement to demarcate the Amazigh language alongside Arabic, after a long time of rejection and ignorance.
Despite of founding the royal institute of the Amazigh culture(IRCAM), and including the language in the Moroccan educational system, in addition to establishing a Tamazight TV station to set up a solid contact with the Berber audience, the Amazigh movement is still not pleased with these steps the state has taken so far.
Activists have also called for a complete involvement of the state in the discussion about teaching Tamazight in schools.
Today, Tamazight is taught in the majority of schools in the Moroccan kingdom, but other demands related to language struggle to find their way to activation.
Quite to the contrary says El Hamzaoui Tijani, a Member of the Executive Office of the Amazigh Network for Citizenship (Azetta Amazigh): “The government is going in the opposite direction of the democratic management of the multilingualism and the cultural diversity of Morocco”. He said
Azetta Amazigh has proposed a bill to the government and parliamentary actors to implement the legislation of Amazigh demands, but they haven’t received any response yet.
“We find it very offensive to prevent us as berbers of using Amazigh names for our newborns.” Said Tijani El Hamzaoui.
Rachid Raha, the President in charge of International Affairs of the Amazigh world Assembly believes that the coexistence between arabs and amazigh citizens in morocco is highly recommended, and racism and discrimination could eventually tear apart the Moroccan society, and threaten the stability in this country.
Raha accuses the government of being an obstacle in the path of the activation of the demarcation of Tamazight, instead of giving priority to the implementation of the constitutional reform.
“Any procrastinating in the implementation of our rights may have negative effects on the future of Morocco.” Said Rachid Raha.
“Arabs and Amazighs to live together has become a supreme national interest that must be taken seriously.” He added
Other activists said that they are stronger more than ever, and they will keep fighting to undergo an intense integration into social and political life.
The activists believe that there is still a long way to go to achieve their rights; they want not only to have a comprehensive recognition of their identity, but also to live this victory of a country without any inferiority complex.
Activists claim that the demarcation of their identity in Morocco can be a nightmare for all those with ideologies and narrow nationalism, which could be a barrier in the development of their country as they said.
Culture remains a diplomatic tool for Amazighs activists:
The Amazigh cultural movement in Morocco is a transnational cultural identity campaign that defends the importance of culture in promoting their identity.
Rachid Bouksim, is an Amazigh activist and the director of the international festival of the Amazigh Film “ISSNI N’ourgh” based in Agadir, refuses to accept any financial support of his festival from the state.
“I will continue in supporting the Amazigh cinema in my festival, only to prove to the government that our existence alongside Arabs is for the cohesion of this country” He said
Some accuse the Amazigh of attempting to dominate the country culturally and politically, their answer is quite the contrary, their priorities are promoting their culture
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Certain modern trends can sometimes threaten the progress that science has brought us. This is the case with the recent fad of drinking raw milk, a practice that puts food safety at risk and which experts and health authorities have warned against. And it’s an opportune moment to remember the pioneer to whom we owe safe milk, American microbiologist Alice Catherine Evans, whose landmark discovery found acceptance despite resistance from those who were suspicious of a woman without a doctorate or medical degree.
Evans (January 29, 1881 – September 5, 1975) lived at a time when microbiology was in its infancy. In 1864, French biologist and chemist Louis Pasteur had described his system for preserving liquids by heat —pasteurization— but at that time it was applied to wine or beer, not to milk, which was believed to be safe as long as it was not contaminated. However, the speed with which milk spoiled made it a very dangerous food. In the past, dairy farms were sometimes located in the cities to reduce the time between production and consumption, but the disappearance of these establishments led in some cases to the use of adulterants to disguise the spoilage, such as bicarbonate, sugar, molasses or even chalk.
At that time, knowledge of the diseases associated with raw milk was still very limited. It was known that a bacterium, Bacillus abortus, spread between animals, causing spontaneous abortions. In humans, Malta fever was caused by Micrococcus melitensis, found in the milk of Maltese goats. However, no one had ever thought of linking these two ailments, until a bacteriologist from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), dedicated to investigating the bacterial flora in milk, tied up the loose ends.
From rural teacher to bacteriologist
Evans’ journey to the laboratory was hampered by her lack of money to pay for university studies. She was introduced to the study of natural sciences through a course that Cornell University offered free of charge to rural teachers, her occupation at the time. Fascinated by biology, she took advantage of an opportunity that Cornell offered to study agriculture also free of charge, and which allowed her to select a scientific specialty, bacteriology. But when the time came to choose between a doctorate or a research position in the USDA’s Dairy Division, she opted for the latter.
Evans discovered that B. abortus was present in raw milk on a regular basis, contrary to the prevailing view that this product was safe. By studying and comparing this microbe to M. melitensis in goats, she noted that they were almost identical. In 1917 she presented her findings to the American Society of Bacteriologists, and the following year she published them in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Evans’ claim that normal raw milk could cause disease in humans, and that this risk was eliminated by pasteurization, was met with disbelief by scientists, doctors and veterinarians; in the case of farmers, she was even falsely accused of having a pecuniary interest in pasteurization equipment.
Trailblazing and pugnacious
Evans’ work was corroborated by other experts, and in 1920 a new genus, Brucella, was proposed to encompass the former B. abortus and M. melitensis. The latter, renamed Brucella melitensis, ended up infecting the researcher herself in 1922, and would impair her health for more than 20 years. However, there were still those who rejected her conclusions: the renowned doctor and researcher Theobald Smith was reluctant to believe that brucellosis affected humans. “He was not accustomed to considering a scientific idea proposed by a woman,” Evans would write about him. Years later, the two would work together on a committee on communicable diseases causing spontaneous abortions.
Recognition of Evans’ findings led to the imposition of milk pasteurization beginning in the 1930s, and resulted in the researcher becoming the first female president of the Society of American Bacteriologists (now the American Society for Microbiology) in 1928. Evans was trailblazing and pugnacious by nature: in high school she played basketball, and she flew in an airplane a year after Lindbergh’s famous Atlantic crossing. In 1966, at age 85, she denounced as unconstitutional the regulation that required the disclosure of communist affiliations in the application for public health insurance, Medicare. The following year, this requirement was withdrawn.
Javier Yanes
@yanes68
| 3,135,307 |
Fixed an error where Alchemists could not use different kinds of elixirs at the same time.
Fixed an error where certain chairs’ chair sizes and the range where monsters could hit you were different.
Fixed an error where if you used Battle Statistics then the game ended and you logged in to another character, the previous character’s stats would appear.
When searching for pets in the Maple Auction, you can now search based on rank (Wonder Black, Luna Sweet, Luna Dream, Luna Petite).
In the Maple Auction, when using advanced search categories for armor and weapons, the default value for base stats, potential, and additional potential will now be 1. The following search possibilities are no longer possible.
Searching for items with Star Force enhancements with a blank box
Searching for items with a value but no detailed search option
Searching for items with base stats, potential, or additional potential with a value of 0
To reduce the load of Maple Auction, the cooldown before you can search again has been changed to 5 seconds.
Non-humanoid Androids can no longer use the Ear Sensor Clip.
The Mu Gongroid’s tooltip will now state that it cannot have its hair or face changed and that its appearance will not change with Cash items equipped. The item functionality has not changed.
After you have been invited to sit on the Papulatus’ Clock Chair, you can no longer accept the request if you move away from the chair.
Fixed an error where Ark’s monster hand or Cash weapon would appear when sitting in chairs or riding mounts that did not show weapons.
Fixed an error where Zeros with Lazuli 8 equipped would have a small dot image appear behind the character in certain actions.
Royal Style Coupon usage has been improved for Zero. If you use a Royal Style Coupon while in Alpha, you will only receive common gender or male items. If you use one while in Beta, you will only receive common gender or female items.
Fixed an error where in set effect tooltips, certain equipment items’ parts were labelled (Equip).
The Special Label sets (Golf set and Hifi Rainbow set)’s set effect will now include the weapon. If you wear more than 5 equips or more of the set, you will receive the Special Label set effect.
Fixed an error in Reboot where the Master Snow and Master Blood packages’ equipment items had a regular Cash item mark instead of the Master Label mark.
Fixed an error where certain Masterpiece related achievements could not be acquired. The 4/25 update will automatically restore any Masterpiece achievements that could not be acquired.
Fixed an error where you could party with other characters in a certain way in content that did not allow you to be in a party.
Certain base class hair names will now state the colour.
Fixed an error where exiting on certain characters would cause an Adventure event related popup to appear.
If you attempt to login with an incorrect secondary password, a pop-up will appear upon successful login. If you were not the one who entered your password incorrectly, you should change your Nexon ID’s password and enable U-OTP if possible.
Fixed an error where the Variety Hair Changer quest checked certain face coupons when used.
The message that appears when purchasing Slot Expansions in the Cash Shop has been changed to be more intuitive.
Fixed an error where the Bbabam Face’s purple and amethyst colours were swapped. At the time of the update, if you had the face and colour on your character or Android, you will receive either an Amethyst or Purple Colour Lens (the opposite of your current colour). You can change your Android’s eye colour at the Android Beauty Manager in Henesys Hair Salon. You will receive as many items as the number of characters/Androids that have the face. You can receive the rewards until May 31.
Certain actions of Cash items have been changed.
Fixed an error where if the Petite Orca pet had its pet equipment and the Giant skill, the hat would disappear.
Fixed an error where the Real Face (F), Dragon Master Face (F), Beautiful Face (M), Same as Air Face (M)’s expressions appeared in awkward places.
Fixed an error where the Arachne weapon’s gun action was awkward.
The Tropical Penguin pet nametag’s colour has been changed to white to be more visible.
Fixed an error where the Mercedes female base hair’s image was slightly shifted and the hair shadow was too much.
Fixed an error where the Filling Hair (M), Free Hair (F) were slightly shifted.
Fixed an error where the Boy Warrior Hair (M), Per
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President Donald Trump is expected to sign a bipartisan bill Monday to officially designate animal cruelty as a federal felony.
The bill, Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which criminalizes severe treatment and exploitation of animals, passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Nov. 5 after being approved by the House in October and has been presented to the president.
Sen. Pat Toomey, (R-Pa.) — a Senate co-sponsor of the bill with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) — called the bill "a major victory" in the effort to "stop animal cruelty and make our communities safer" earlier this month, according to ABC News.
"Evidence shows that the deranged individuals who harm animals often move on to committing acts of violence against people. It is appropriate that the federal government have strong animal cruelty laws and penalties," he added.
What are the details?
The bill — which was introduced in January by Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) — will punish the crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, or impaling of animals or any other treatment that subjects the animal to serious bodily injury, and could carry a punishment of up to seven years in federal prison.
"The torture of innocent animals is abhorrent and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law," Buchanan said when introducing the bill in January.
A bill that punishes the video distribution of animal crushing, called the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act, was passed into law in 2010, but the introducers of the new legislation felt that the 2010 bill didn't go far enough.
"We've acted in the past to stop the horrific trend of animal abuse videos. Now it's time to make the underlying acts of cruelty a crime as well," Deutch added.
Anything else?
The bill does include an outline of general exceptions, describing treatment of animals that will not be considered animal cruelty by law.
A list of the exceptions from the text of the bill includes:
a customary and normal veterinary, agricultural husbandry, or other animal management practice;
the slaughter of animals for food;
hunting, trapping, fishing, a sporting activity not otherwise prohibited by federal law, predator control, or pest control;
medical or scientific research;
necessary to protect the life or property of a person; or
performed as part of euthanizing an animal.
ABC News reports that the bill has been praised by the president and CEO of the Humane Society, Kitty Block, and the head of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, Sara Amundson.
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M. Cherif Bassiouni was a champion of human rights who fought torture, war crimes and genocide around the globe.
A longtime DePaul University law professor, Mr. Bassiouni died Monday at his Streeterville home. He was 79 and had multiple myeloma.
Over the years, he held 22 United Nations appointments, and he assisted on the Camp David peace accords, according to Daniel Swift, a lawyer who worked with him.
Benjamin Ferencz, who at 98 is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg war crimes trials, said Monday that Mr. Bassiouni “was a real contributor to international criminal law and the rule of law to protect human rights.”
Bianca Jagger, founder and president of the London-based Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, called Mr. Bassiouni “a champion of justice.
“Cherif Bassiouni was one of the most courageous, knowledgeable and determined people I have ever met... someone who went after and investigated what happened in Bosnia and Srebrenica,” Jagger said.
In Bosnia, Mr. Bassiouni worked on a “monumental effort that documented mass killings, human rights abuses.... and resulted in the prosecution of hundreds including” Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, said Ahmed Rehab of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Chicago.
In a 1999 Chicago Sun-Times interview, he said he thought his work contributed to a 1995 heart attack. For two years, he spent two weeks out of each month at a U.N. field office in Geneva and a week conducting field operations in the former Yugoslavia. His team identified 151 mass graves.
“Emotionally, it was devastating,” he said, “especially as a result of the interviews that we conducted with the rape victims.”
Born in Cairo, he was the son of Ibrahim Bassiouni, an Egyptian diplomat to India. His grandfather, Mahmoud Ibrahim Bassiouni, helped lead the 1919 revolt against British rule, according to Swift. Mr. Bassiouni served in the Egyptian army in the 1956 Suez War.
He was educated at the University of Cairo, received a law degree from Indiana University, did further legal studies at John Marshall Law School and got a doctorate of law from George Washington University. He was a founding member of the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul, where he started in 1964.
In 1972, he helped found the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights in Italy. “His vision of international justice inspired students and teachers throughout the world,” Ferencz said.
Though serious, Mr. Bassiouni showed a lighter side in Siracusa when he faced off against other professors and students in a badminton game. Mr. Bassiouni’s team kept winning, Ferencz said, because “he brought in some ringers from the Chicago Police Department.”
He was a consultant to the State Department on the American hostages held captive by Iran in 1979 and 1980.
He is survived by his wife Elaine Klemen-Bassiouni, stepdaughter Lisa Capitanini and two grandchildren. A public memorial is being planned, Swift said.
Ferencz held Mr. Bassiouni in such high esteem that he bestowed on him a medal which once belonged to Vespasian Pella, Romanian ambassador to the League of Nations who in the 1930s called for an international court for criminal cases.
“When Pella died, I was still in Europe working on the Nuremberg trials and compensation for the victims,” Ferencz said, “and I visited his widow, and she gave me a medal” belonging to Pella. “I accepted it, but when Cherif ended his tenure at the International Association of Penal Law, I flew down to Budapest and gave him the medal.”
“I said, ‘Let the one who has done the most for international law have this medal.’ ”
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Costa Mesa planning commissioners this week approved a plan to demolish an aging commercial center in Mesa Verde and build 11 two-story houses in its place.
The commission approved the project at 2850 Mesa Verde Drive East from developer Pinnacle Residential on a 3-0 vote Monday. Chairman Stephan Andranian was absent. Commissioner Isabell Kerins recused herself; it was not immediately clear why.
The supportive commissioners praised the project’s look and design, pointing to the adjacent Miraval development — a 10-home tract Pinnacle built with Collective Housing Supply — as evidence of the new development’s potential quality.
“I just love the project,” Commissioner Byron de Arakal said. “I think it’s fantastic and I think, based on what you did at Miraval, this one is going to be just as good and I think will be just as successful in the marketplace.”
Commissioner Carla Navarro Woods said she liked that the proposed homes offer flexibility in terms of living space to fit different families.
“I like the open space; I love the layout,” she said. “I think it’s a great project and I’m so happy to see something like this.”
Plans call for construction of six 3,519-square-foot houses with four bedrooms and 3½ bathrooms.
The remaining five units would be 3,304 square feet, with the same number of bathrooms and bedrooms. All 11 houses would include two-car garages.
Pinnacle would have the option of adding a fifth bedroom to some of the homes if it expands the garages to fit three cars.
The homes will feature Santa Barbara-style architecture similar to Miraval’s, “with composition shingle roofs, stucco and stone siding,” according to a staff report.
The 2.05-acre Mesa Verde Drive East property currently has 24,644 square feet of office buildings constructed in 1963 and 1985. Those will be demolished to make way for the new homes.
During hearings the commission and City Council held last year to discuss rezoning the property from commercial to low-density residential, there was opposition to shuttering the commercial center.
The small businesses there, dissenters said, were successful and provided necessary services to the surrounding neighborhood.
On Monday, Costa Mesa activist Ann Parker said she believes the city shouldn’t be so quick to replace business centers with homes.
“We should put a stop to that,” she said. “We need our commercial areas close to our residential. We should not have to drive all over and go to other cities to do our commercial tasks.”
De Arakal said he’s sensitive to such concerns, but that he’s “a big proponent of converting obsolete commercial spaces that are really not an efficient use of land and are really no longer functional.”
The commission’s decision is final unless appealed to the City Council.
[email protected]
Twitter @LukeMMoney
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The way Dr. Jesse Karmazin sees it, New York City needs some fresh blood.
It's been over a year since we last heard from the physician behind Ambrosia LLC, the company hoping to reverse aging by pumping adults with the blood plasma of the young, but don't think for a second that Karmazin's been sitting still. Far from it.
Karmazin confirmed today over email that he plans to transform what was once a clinical trial running out of Monterey, California, into a full-fledged New York City-based clinic offering that most elusive of products: youth.
And you'd better believe it will cost you.
Here's how it all supposedly works. Ambrosia acquires blood plasma from people under the age of 25, and, via a transfusion, puts that plasma into older people looking to regain a bit of their long-lost vitality.
The idea, while far from conclusively proven, comes from the scientific field of parabiosis. Essentially, scientists noticed that old mice given blood from young mice appeared to exhibit some signs of better health and possibly even a reversal of aging. Possibly. Researchers weren't 100 percent sure if the blood was the cause.
Dr. Karmazin figured he should try this out with humans. You know, scientifically.
And so, with blood purchased from blood banks, and test subjects willing to pay $8,000 a procedure, he got to work testing the idea out.
"I think we're seeing a reversal of aging," Karmazin, speaking of his clinical trial, told Mashable last year. "Now we have data suggesting there's real changes in physiology after treatment. The goal is to make it available to everyone."
When we asked whether Karmazin, who is in his thirties, intends to try the treatment out himself, he declined to say.
The trial ended in January, and while the results haven't been published, the doctor is clearly moving ahead at full steam.
He explained to Mashable over email that he hopes to have a New York City clinic open by the end of this year or early next year. So far, he said he's had around 150 patients, and that many of his customers come back for repeat treatments.
While the price per visit in the new clinic has yet to be announced, the reason for locating his clinic in NYC sure has.
"NYC has the largest population of aging people in the US," he told us.
Nothing wrong with meeting your customers where they are, we guess.
Assuming any of this actually works — remember, the efficacy of this treatment is still unconfirmed — the city that never sleeps might one day become full of people that never age.
But don't hold your breath. After all, all the young blood in the world can't help you if you don't take care of the basics.
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.” Many of these changes began in 2013, the year that USAU first moved the Club Championships out of its long time home, Sarasota. Sarasota was very much a player’s destination. Plush, well-maintained grass fields, warm (if sometimes windy) weather, and nearby beaches with varied, attractive housing and entertainment options provided event participants an all-around fantastic tournament experience. In 2013, the event was moved to Frisco, Texas, and this year it will be held in Rockford, Illinois. The field site in Frisco included a mix of well-maintained grass and much-less-fun turf fields, but included a well-sized finals stadium to help with professional looking broadcasting. Top Golf notwithstanding, the amenities for players outside of the field site were far worse than Sarasota. Outside of the increase in broadcasting opportunities, the Frisco player experience was a major step down from the player experience of Sarasota. 2013 also heralded the reformatting of the Club Championships from a player-supported format that included pools, power pools, and up to four bracket play games for teams to a more broadcast-friendly format that went straight from pool play to pre-quarters for all teams. The old nationals format provided/required eight to nine games for teams playing in the finals while the new one requires only seven. Perhaps more importantly, the altered format has minimized the importance of pool play games as every team moves straight to pre-quarters. Instead of playing 5-6 games meaningful games over the first two days of Nationals just to qualify for a Saturday of two straight intense elimination games, teams now had little incentive to give maximum effort in any of Thursday pool play games before automatically entering a bracket that now spread competitive elimination games across more days. While the more single-game format across Saturday and Sunday was far better from a broadcast standpoint, it had greatly reduced the number of meaningful points for players paying for their own costs and taking days off of work or school to compete. It also fundamentally altered the way teams could approach competitive decisions throughout the National Championship tournament. Critically, these changes again were announced just weeks before the tournament took place. Teams that had built rosters and teams for one set of rules now faced a different set. This format has been changed for 2016, but at the expense of total games for pool winners and losers. Now pool winners only have a maximum of six games to win a championship while pool losers are out of the tournament after three games. The pre-2013 format allowed even 0-3 pool losers a shot at qualifying for pre-quarters should they perform well in their second day pools. And while there were some meaningless games possible in the pre-2013 format, they were rare. Related to this change in format was how long teams were alive within the tournament. In the pre-2013 format, half of the teams in each division (8 of 16) still had their championship hopes alive on Saturday morning, Day 3 of the tournament. Now, half the teams are eliminated from the championship after just one game on Friday. For an event where players are footing their own travel and event costs that can exceed over $1,000/player and taking time off work, this effective shortening of the event gives players much lower bang for their buck. Furthermore, before the Club Working Group advocated in 2014 for additional consolation games to be scheduled for Saturday, all but four teams per division had seen their tournament experience limited entirely to week days, with no competition whatsoever over the weekend. The format changes and the drive for visibility have had an impact on gender equity as well. In the pre-2013 Nationals, USAU rotated the order of the finals between the three divisions (Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed). Beginning in 2013, the schedule became consistently Mixed, followed by Women’s, followed by Men’s. While the viewership numbers or USAU’s broadcast partner’s recommendation might provide a justification for this schedule, the weighting of viewership so highly implies a tacit decision to value visibility over gender equity. Visibility & Personal Responsibility BEYOND THE FORMAT and the schedule of Club Nationals, there have been other decisions made that have had a notable impact on the playing experience or have come at the expense of other values or goals of the sport. USAU has required more teams change their names — some that were not as obviously offensive or injurious to the sport. The required name changes that produced the loudest membership consternation were the 2013 name change for Heva Havas and the 2014 name change for the Ghetto Birds. USAU has also instituted rules around language usage, issuing Technical Fouls5 for language by players or coaches that is deemed offensive. Again, the reasoning for this decision is visibility for the sport: ensuring that the sport is perceived a certain way and allowing media to capture our sport in a more intimate way than other sports often allow. That decision, however, particularly the strict and top-down way it has been implemented, comes at the
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After nearly three years of activity, Chinese crypto mining giant Bitmain is reportedly ceasing its Israeli operations this week.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Israeli news outlet Globes reported on Monday that Bitmain’s development center in Ra’anana “will close this week,” leaving all its 23 staff members without a job. Gadi Glikberg, who served as Bitmain’s vice president for international sales and marketing, has also been fired, according to the report.
In a statement to the Israeli staff, Glikberg reportedly cited the “turmoil” that the cryptocurrency market has experienced in the last couple of months, which he said forced “Bitmain to examine the various activities in the global company and to refocus activities according to the current situation.”
The Ra’anana development facility, headed by Glikberg, was established in 2016 with a focus on developing blockchain capabilities and work on developing AI-related technologies. It was only in July when the crypto mining company announced that it was expanding the Israeli facility as part of its effort to double down on it research and development activities.
Five months later, and the site is closing down—although the management has found a silver lining for the workers. Glikberg reportedly told his employees that there were “companies that have already shown an interest in recruiting staff,” and promised that the company’s “human resources department will continue to assist” the laid off staff.
Monday’s news marks yet another blow to the Chinese crypto mining firm, which was also hit with a fresh lawsuit last week in the United States. Last Thursday, Florida-based blockchain company United American Corp. (UAC) filed a lawsuit accusing Bitmain, its co-founder Jihan Wu, and his “team of conspirators”—including Bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver, ABC lead developer Amaury Sechet, Kraken and its CEO, Jesse Powell—of scheming “to co-opt the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash, effectively hijacking the Bitcoin Cash network, centralizing the market and violating all accepted distributed and decentralized standards and protocols associated with Bitcoin since its inception.”
Bitmain, already facing a number of issues since the beginning of 2018, is also reportedly in major debt to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), and the company’s CFO has already issued an ultimatum: “pay or we cut you off for good.”
New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeek’s Bitcoin for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoin—as originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto—and blockchain.
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We also studied this phenomenon in the real world. In one study, we followed 153 college students over five weeks. During stressful times, like final-exam week, students who believed that willpower was not limited reported eating less junk food and procrastinating less than students who did not share that belief. They also showed more academic growth, earning better grades that term than their “pessimistic” counterparts.
Furthermore, when we taught college students that willpower was not so limited, they showed similar increases in willpower. They reported procrastinating only once or twice a week instead of the two to three times a week reported by students in a control condition, and they cut down on excess spending, going beyond their budgets less than once a week instead of once or twice a week.
How does this happen? People who think that willpower is limited are on the lookout for signs of fatigue. When they detect fatigue, they slack off. People who get the message that willpower is not so limited may feel tired, but for them this is no sign to give up — it’s a sign to dig deeper and find more resources.
What about the glucose idea, which seems supported by so much science? Dr. Baumeister and Mr. Tierney describe studies showing that giving people glucose (in the form of a sugar drink) restores their willpower. But in our latest research we found that when people believe in willpower they don’t need sugar — they perform well whether they consume sugar or not. Sugar helps people only when they think that willpower is sharply limited. It’s not sugar we need; it’s a change in mind-set.
To be sure, willpower is not completely unlimited. Food and rest are of course necessary for functioning, and many struggles that people face are quite difficult. The question is how often we need extra sugar boosts. Messages suggesting that willpower is severely limited and that we need constant sugar boosts are bound to further inflate the American waistline and hinder our ability to achieve our goals.
At stake in this debate is not just a question about the nature of willpower. It’s also a question of what kind of people we want to be. Do we want to be a people who dismiss our weaknesses as unchangeable? When a student struggles in math, should we tell that student, “Don’t worry, you’re just not a math person”? Do we want him to give up in the name of biology? Or do we want him to work harder in the spirit of what he wants to become?
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cumbersome rules involving auxiliaries, participles, reflexives, context, word-order, and even complete lexical changes to indicate voice. More heavily inflected languages (Arabic, Latin, Japanese, Ainu, etc.) use the very simple expedient of inflecting the verb for most indications of voice. Many South American lowland languages and some isolating (i.e. uninflected) languages such as Chinese and Vietnamese do not have a formal morphology or syntax to cover voice, although they can achieve similar effects via explicit topicalization and/or periphrasis.
Finally, other languages such as the Bantu languages of Africa (e.g. Swahili) and Austronesian languages (e.g. Indonesian) use derivational morphemes (which is essentially what we are doing here) to achieve most voice effects. In other words, they create a completely different verb from the same root as the active verb, but the new verb has a different topicalization and argument structure.
So, how should an MT interlingua implement grammatical voice? Ideally, we would like to create a system that can handle any voicing needs, while being both simple and consistent.
I do not feel that grammatical voice change should be implemented in syntax - syntax is not nearly as flexible as morphology. Instead, grammatical voice changes can be best implemented using derivational morphology. In other words, we will allocate a single suffix for each voice. The resulting verbs will, of course, have a different argument structure.
For the interlingua, we will allocate the following suffixes for these voice morphemes:
Middle voice: -em Passive voice: -es Anti-passive voice: -os Inverse voice: -ang
Voice suffixes do not change an existing part-of-speech.
For example, if the state root meaning 'open/unshut/unblocked' is "doykav" (default = P-s), then the word for the A/P-d verb 'to open/unshut' is simply "doykavapa". We can implement the other voices as follows:
middle: doykavapema e.g. The window doykavapema easily = The window opened easily. passive: doykavapesa e.g. The window doykavapesa (by the thief) = The window was opened (by the thief). anti-passive: doykavaposa e.g. The thief doykavaposa (of the window) = The thief did the opening (of the window) or = The thief was the opener (of the window) or = The thief opened something. [The third gloss applies only if the argument is not expressed obliquely.] inverse: doykavapanga e.g. The window doykavapanga the thief = The window - the thief opened it.
where optional oblique arguments are shown in parentheses. [We'll discuss how to implement these oblique arguments later.]
In the above examples, the inverse paraphrase is only approximate, and actually increases the topicality of the fronted item more than it should. Here are some better examples of true inverse effects in English:
Active: John owns the book. Inverse: The book belongs to John. Active: This bolt is part of the device. Inverse: The device includes this bolt. Active: We experienced many strange things. Inverse: Many strange things happened to us. Active: This alliance will result in much misery. Inverse: Much misery will come of this alliance.
A useful notational scheme will be to put an implied case role in square brackets, with a plus "+" or minus "-" sign to indicate whether it can be expressed obliquely. Thus,
middle: changes A/P-x to P-x [-A] AP/F-x to F-x [-AP] P/F-x to F-x [-P] passive: changes A/P-x to P-x [+A] AP/F-x to F-x [+AP] P/F-x to F-x [+P] anti-passive: changes A/P-x to A-x [+P] AP/F-x to AP-x [+F] P/F-x to P-x [+F] inverse: changes A/P-x to P/A-x AP/F-x to F/AP-x P/F-x to F/P-x
where "-x" represents either "-s" or "-d".
For verbs that take three arguments, we will do the following:
middle: changes A/P/F-x to P/F-x [-A] e.g. *The students taught French easily. [This is un
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used to take dental impressions. After removing the mold from Fox's head, they coated it with plaster. The dried plaster formed a replica of what Fox's face naturally looks like. They then used wax to sculpt Fox's new face on the replica. The wax sculpture was then removed and fitted to Fox's face for her approval.
After it was perfected, the wax sculpture was then returned to the replica and coated with more plaster. The wax was then boiled away. That created a facial opening which they filled with acrylic and silicone. The silicone was tinted to blend in with Fox's natural skin color. That acrylic-and-silicone product became Fox's new face.
Huryn and Golden viewed old photos of Fox to make sure the prosthesis resembled her. Her family and boyfriend were frequently consulted.
Positioning the unblinking, acrylic eyes alone can take one or two sessions, Huryn said. The gaze needed to appear to be focused at a speaker at a conversational distance. Naturally blue-eyed, Fox opted for "ice blue" irises. Golden sewed in the eyelashes one by one. Fox picked plum-colored eye shadow.
Huryn, who has been creating facial prostheses for 25 years, said Fox's case was rare. He normally creates 24 a year. Fox's stands out because it covers the bulk of her face. Her case was also rare because she was a shooting victim or trauma patient, not a cancer patient.
The finished face was attached to anchor points, raised areas of Fox's face created by a surgeon using her own facial tissue.
Fox attaches the prosthesis to her face each day with glue, which she can blow dry if she's in a hurry. It can stay in place up to five hours before having to be reapplied.
Due to wear and tear, Huryn expects Fox will have to get a replacement every two to six years.
Turning to God
Fox had always been religious. She was raised Catholic, and went to church every Sunday.
One night at the nursing home, Fox was feeling broken and alone and dropped to her knees on the floor of her room. She prayed to God to remind her of His presence. In that moment, a new song came on the radio. It was "Don't Cry" by Seal.
"I just felt like He was touching me," Fox said.
Her renewed faith helped her forgive her ex-husband, who now takes care of the children on Sundays.
"I let go of it," she said. "I gave it up to God. I forgave him a long time ago because it sets me free. I can't hold animosity because it's not me. It's not who I am."
Burchacki was sentenced to five years' probation, credited for jail time served after his arrest, and was let off probation early for good behavior.
Fox returned to everyday activities that sighted people take for granted. On Halloween night in 2009, she went out for one of the first times since the shooting. She and a friend attended a masquerade party at the Landmark Theatre.
She dressed as a mystery boxing girl, in hot pink and white shorts and a halter top with boxing gloves laced to her shirt and a cape. She wore a mask covered in feathers and a long burgundy wig to cover the hair that was cut short after the shooting.
She made new friends including one who introduced her to a different kind of spirituality based on energy, which led her to try out Reiki.
She took Reiki classes, where a master of the healing technique applied hands to and over her body. She began studying the therapy and in March became a master herself. She's planning to start her own business.
She returned to cooking, making favorite dishes such as lasagna and "crabby patties." She even won second place at a chili cook-off put on by her boyfriend's employer.
Try out Fox's lasagna recipe.
"I knew I was not going to back away from cooking," Fox said. "Occasionally, yeah, I got burned. But that's OK. You survive. I'm careful. Now it's almost like second-nature."
Recently, she tried her hand at making quiches. She drained a ham and diced it up into pieces, then fried up peppers and onions. Measuring for just the right texture, she combined eggs with half-and-half. Then she poured the mixture into crusts. Once the quiches had baked long enough, she took them out and sprinkled onions over the top.
Removing all of the skins from an eggplant is her biggest cooking challenge these days, she said.
Helping friends
Fox credits a team of friends - human and otherwise - for her recovery.
She uses a hand-held device
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Ionic 5 Restaurant and Food Order Theme
Ionic 5 Restaurant Food Order Theme truly focused in Restaurants, Dishes and Food Order. Optmized to be so much performatic at any platform app (Android & iOS) and Web Apps (PWA).
Documentation included!
Changelog
Last Update: September 18, 2020 (v2.3.0)
https://ionictheme.com/foodionic2-changelog
Pages/Components
Home-location
Home-results
About
Login
Register
Cart (Page Modal)
Category
Checkout
Dish List
Dish Detail
Favorites
Image View (Page Modal)
Message List
Message Detail
My Account
NearBy
Notifications (Custom Component)
PopMenu (Custom component available for Developer License)
Latest Orders
Restaurant List
Restaurant Detail
Restaurant Filter (Page Modal)
Settings
Support
Walkthrough
Extra Pages 7+ (only Developer License)
Features:
25+ Pages and Actions
Pages and Actions Truly focused in Restaurants and Food Order
Optimized for Mobile platforms ( Android & iOS ) and PWA.
& ) and. Services/Mock Data and API sample
Ionic 5 Components samples
Components samples Built with Ionic 5, Angular 10 + CapacitorJS
, + Easy do change color theme with CSS vars
@Angular Lazy load
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Demo Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeVQLSQBuoE
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Support
If you need technical support or any help, follow me or subscribe on Gumroad (https://gumroad.com/ionictheme) or send me a message via: [email protected]
Official product website/links:
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https://ionictheme.com/foodionic2-ionic5-restaurant-food-order-theme/
See our other themes in Ionic Market:
| 121,738 |
combat the virus.
“Trump keeps saying he’s a wartime president,” Biden said in an online address. “Well, start acting like one.”
Worldwide, more than 350,000 people have been infected and 15,000 have died from the virus. As cases in China ebbed, the dangers to Europe and the U.S. have grown exponentially, although Germany on Monday cautiously reported some flattening of its infection curve. More than 1.5 billion around the world have been told to stay in their homes.
After just a few weeks, the U.S. has more than 35,000 cases and more than 400 deaths. Indiana, Michigan and West Virginia joined states including California, Illinois and New York in asking or ordering their residents to stay home and keep businesses closed — directives that now cover more than one-third of the U.S. population.
Industries big and small continued to shut down. Boeing announced it is suspending production in the Seattle area, where it has two mammoth aircraft plants employing about 42,000 people.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate cease-fire in conflicts around the world to tackle the pandemic.
“It is time to put armed conflict on lock down and focus together on the true fight of our lives,” he said.
Former Hollywood studio boss Harvey Weinstein tested positive at the prison in New York where he is serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault, the head of the guards union said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel tested negative after putting herself in quarantine, according to a spokesman. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the former presidential candidate, disclosed that her husband has been hospitalized with the virus.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever or coughing. But for some older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Over 100,000 people have recovered, mostly in China.
Authorities kept up their push to get people to stay home, but some were clearly not listening.
Social media sites showed snapshots of packed London Underground trains. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock described those ignoring the government’s social distancing recommendations as “very selfish” and warned that stricter rules might be coming soon.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo likewise fumed over gatherings of young people in violation of his order that everyone stay 6 feet apart, saying: “It’s reckless and it’s violative of your civic spirit and duty as a citizen, as far as I’m concerned.”
In a city where many people live in buildings with small elevators, a 21-story high-rise in the Chelsea neighborhood posted a notice in the lobby warning that there should be just one person per elevator, and those going to the laundry room shouldn’t use a washing machine next to another one in use.
“People are really only going to get food and going back. That’s what we need,” said Matt Comet, making a brief dash into the nearly empty streets of his Manhattan neighborhood to pick up a carryout meal.
“I’m OK to have a book and watch TV for a bit, but if it continues for another month, another two months, it’ll be pretty crazy.”
India took the extraordinary step of shutting down the nation’s rail system, which has long been the lifeblood of the country of 1.3 billion people.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged that postponing this year’s Summer Olympics could be unavoidable. The International Olympic Committee said it will examine the situation over the next few weeks.
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Photo: Getty Images
Chemotherapy can affect patients' ability to smell and taste food, in addition to making them feel sick. Many patients don’t want to eat when they feel like this, and if they can’t taste the food, the incentive isn’t there. This can lead to weight loss, decreased quality of life and decreased chance of survival. Because of this, doctors are looking at ways that patients can maintain a good diet during and after chemotherapy treatment.
Researchers in Canada studied a small group of 21 patients with advanced cancer (except brain cancer) between May 2006-December 2008. The patients had all been eating less for at least two weeks and all were having chemotherapy or had it in the past.
The patients were separated into two groups, and one group was given a placebo capsule, or ‘sham’ medication and the other group was given capsules containing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the main active ingredient in cannabis. They took the capsules once a day for three days and twice a day after that for 18 days.
Patients were given questionnaires to fill out before, during and after the treatment. From the results of the questionnaires, the researchers found that the majority of patients taking THC reported increased appreciation of food (73%) compared with placebo patients, and that more said the medication "made the food taste better" (55%), compared with only 10% of the placebo group.
64% of the THC patients had increased appetite, whereas half of the placebo patients had decreased appetite or no change. The THC patients also had improved taste and they reported better quality of sleep and relaxation than the placebo group.
Dr. Wendy Wismer, Ph.D., leader of the study and associate professor at the University of Alberta, said that this was the first randomized controlled trial to show that THC makes food taste better and improves appetites for patients with advanced cancer, as well as helping them to sleep and to relax better. Wismer feels that the findings are important, as there is no accepted treatment for chemosensory alterations experienced by cancer patients, and she is excited about the possibilities that THC could be used to improve patients’ enjoyment of food.
“Decreased appetite and chemosensory alterations can be caused by both cancer and its treatment; untreated tumors cause loss of appetite, and by itself, chemotherapy also causes loss of appetite. In any individual patient, some part of both of these effects is usually present," Wismer said.
“It’s very important to address these problems as both appetite loss and alterations to taste and smell lead to involuntary weight loss and reduce an individual’s ability to tolerate treatment and to stay healthy in general. Additionally, the social enjoyment of eating is greatly reduced and quality of life is affected. For a long time everyone has thought that nothing could be done about this. Indeed, cancer patients are often told to ‘cope’ with chemosensory problems by eating bland, cold and odorless food. This may well have the result of reducing food intake and food enjoyment.”
Further, larger studies are planned to confirm their findings. Wismer believes that doctors should contemplate using THC treatment for their cancer patients, whatever their stage of cancer is.
Sources:
Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol may palliate altered chemosensory perception in cancer patients: "results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial”. Annals of Oncology. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdq727
http://www.sciencenewsline.com/medicine/2011022212000022.html
Joanna is a freelance health writer for The Mother magazine and Suite 101 with a column on infertility, http://infertility.suite101.com/. She is author of the book, 'Breast Milk: A Natural Immunisation,' and co-author of an educational resource on disabled parenting, in addition to running a charity for people damaged by vaccines or medical mistakes.
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is 123. One method of summing these would be to simply sum them, giving us a value of 6. If someone was to enter a number incorrectly, say as 223, the new summed value would be 7, which would show that there had been an error. This basic approach works for the case where a single number is entered incorrectly.
Now, let’s do the same to a “mistake” combination of 213. In this case, we find that we still get a value of 6 – obviously this method will not work, as we have not detected an error in the case of transposition. What the Luhn algorithm does instead while summing the numbers is to double the value of every second digit – this gives us a sum of for the correct number, and a value of for the incorrect number.
If the correct number was padded with this digit, giving us a value of 1238, and the user entered 2138, we could confirm that the number entered was incorrect as the checksum digit on the end would not correspond with the calculated digit.
Calculating the Digit
Now that we have a number that represents our checked number, we need to find a way to append it. The value was less than 10 in our examples above, but this will not necessarily always be the case. In addition, if you recall from earlier, our final number can be checked by resumming all of the digits and checking that we have a value that is a multiple of 10 – we need to alter our checksum digit slightly to ensure that this is the case.
Basically, we need the checksum digit to add the missing numbers to bring our sum up to a multiple of 10. So if our current value was 27 we would need our checksum digit to be 3, giving us a total value of 30.
This can be calculated in one of two ways. In the first, we can take the units portion of our number and subtract it from 10. In our previous example this would mean taking 7 and subtracting it from 10., so our checksum digit is 3.
The other way of calculating the digit involves multiplying our sum by 9, and then taking the unit digit. In our previous example, our current value was 27. Multiplying by 9 gives us 243 – if we take the unit digit we arrive at our previous answer of 3 again. But why does this work?
Let’s call our original number. This means that.
Now, if we multiply by 9, we produce.
If we then add our original back onto this value, we get
This resulting value is obviously a multiple of 10, so we’ve satisfied our original requirement by using a value of. In this case we would produce 243 though – we obviously cannot use that as the check digit, as we would end up appending several new digits.
Instead, we use the number modulus 10 – that is,. The reason why we can use just this value is fairly simple – we are trying to get a number that is a multiple of 10. To do this, we obviously need to add on a value that is less than 10 as we need to increase the unit column. This means that the unit column is the only column that is important in this equation, so we can drop the other columns. This is equivalent to taking the number modulus 10, and gives us our final formula of
Comprehension
Now that we understand how the Luhn algorithm works, we can use it to validate our ID number as well as to produce a valid checksum digit for new ID numbers.
To be thorough, you can perform some basic date checks as well – see the Java code for an example of this. We can check that the month falls in a valid range (1-12) and that the day given for that month is not more than the number of days in the month.
Let’s take a look at some JavaScript to extract information from an ID number.
Extracting Information
Now that we know how the ID number is formed, we can extract various pieces of information from it. To recap, we can obtain
whether the ID number itself is valid (that is, has no typing errors),
the person’s birthdate,
the person’s gender,
and whether they are a South Africa citizen or permanent resident.
Let’s put together some code to extract this info – first off, validating the ID number using the Luhn algorithm above. By the end of this, we will have a function that will return an object containing information on the ID number.
Is the ID valid – the Luhn Algorithm in Code
The Luhn Algorithm var generateLuhnDigit = function(inputString) { var total = 0; var count = 0; for (
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RPS’ D.I.C.E. Red Carpet Mean Pants Hard Question Corner returns! Honestly, I’ve been pushing for an interview with Microsoft about PC gaming for ages, but the titanic purveyor of Xs and bones has been less than receptive. Fortunately, the red carpet is nice in that there is, for roughly five minutes, NO ESCAPING. So Microsoft partner creative director Ken Lobb approached, and I lobbed every question about Microsoft’s latest (and five millionth) re-dedication to PC gaming I could think of. His responses were vaguely promising, but I’m obviously still skeptical. Here’s what happened.
RPS: Your messaging on PC gaming as of late has been mixed. Some of your people have put it on level with mobile and tablet games while others have professed a new commitment to it. You also recently hired Steam’s former director of business development. Where is Microsoft at with PC gaming?
Lobb: So we love PC. It’s obviously a source of huge revenue for Microsoft. The reality is that in years past we were the Xbox division. Although many of us love playing on PC, we can only make so many games. We can only do so much.
Now we’re one [unified] Microsoft. I don’t see this as pressure. I see it as an opportunity. We have more support internally to support PC more. That’s great! My only expectation would be, please let us continue to do that over a five-year period so we can have real impact. That’s how it feels right now. We’re getting very strong support internally. So we’re really going after PC.
RPS: Will launches of games Microsoft has locked down as exclusives be concurrent on both Xbox and PC from now on?
Lobb: It’s my belief that the goal of a development team should be to make the best thing for each particular platform. So I think it makes sense to take Game A, maybe it’s exclusive on one of the platforms, but maybe you do some support games on the side platforms. Like, “Hey, I’ll do a big game here, and then I’ll do a tablet game or a smaller web thing, etc.”
Ubisoft did a great job last year. I played Kenway’s fleet on an iPad and I played Assassin’s Creed IV on an Xbox.
RPS: Yikes. Are you saying you consider PC to be a “side platform,” a la tablet or mobile? Other Microsoft developers have certainly suggested as much.
Lobb: Oh, not at all! What I’m saying is, that could very much potentially go the other way. Maybe there’s a big exclusive on PC and there’s an Xbox Live Arcade game to support it. Or a mobile game. It makes perfect sense to develop that way. Same ship, same parts. Maybe you buy one and get another free.
I think it really comes down to what the developer wants to do. It’s not that we think all games should – in some way or another – be on all platforms. Being in publishing, it’s sort of my role to help developers answer the question [of where they’d like their game to end up]. So a lot of that question is answered by, “OK developer, what do you want to do? We want to be here to help you.”
RPS: Do you have any major PC games or exclusives on the horizon?
Lobb: I can’t make any announcements. But we are very dedicated to that space.
RPS: Are you looking into traditional pay upfront triple-A products, or is Microsoft largely looking into free-to-play and/or browser stuff?
Lobb: Free-to-play, to me, is not a decision to be made as a business model at the end [of development]. It really comes down to what type of game are you building, developer, and how do you want to monetize it? Do you pay upfront, do you want to have DLC, do you want to have a sustainable ongoing experience, do you want to go after free-to-play?
It’s more about the game design than support for a particular monetization style. We don’t believe that to be on PC you must be free-to-play or microtransaction-based.
RPS: In the wake of years and years of disappointment – countless ons, offs, flip-flops, Games For Windows, etc – why should people think that this time is going to be any different?
Lobb: The
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Incoming freshmen across the country are being introduced to social justice concepts before even setting foot on campus, through increasingly prevalent summer reading assignments.
Although common reading programs can be optional, many administrators are choosing books that encourage students to critically assess social struggles in the season of Donald Trump and Black Lives Matter, Inside Higher Ed reports.
“The book should make them uncomfortable...[and] get them to think about privilege.”
Students at Wesleyan University, for instance, will read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, which argues that strict sentencing laws for drug crimes intentionally targeted black men.
“It builds a lot on the issues of Black Lives Matter that we and many universities dealt with last year,” Wesleyan Provost Joyce Jacobsen told Inside Higher Ed. “It’s about the systematic aspect of racism, in the sense that the incarceration rate is so much higher for minorities. It’s the kind of book that students would start grappling with in college and keep reading after college.”
Students at the University of Oregon will read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Written as a letter from an African-American man to his son, Coates’ book contends that racial injustice is ingrained in American culture.
“Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage,” The New York Times quotes from a passage in the book.
Oregon has developed a reading guide and discussion program around the book, comparing it to The New Jim Crow and introducing a broader conversation about being black in America.
Student in the University of Arizona’s honors program, meanwhile, have been assigned Citizen: An American Lyric. This artistic book by poet Claudia Rankine features multiple sections on her personal experiences with microaggressions as well as a list of African-American men shot by police—a chapter that ends with the phrase “because white men can’t police their imagination black men are dying.”
Patricia Maccorquodale, Dean of the Honors College at UA, said the book will indeed be controversial, and even challenging for the faculty who teach it, but argued that challenging the reader is an important quality of a good summer read.
“Students are interested in diversity and understanding other perspectives, and it’s something they may or may not have gotten in their own backgrounds and their own high schools,” she said. “The book should make them uncomfortable. It should get them to think outside their comfort zones and their own experiences. It should get them to think about privilege and how it’s produced structurally in society.”
In contrast to the trend at other schools, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) has selected Being Mortal by Dr. Atul Gawande, a No. 1 New York Times Bestseller, for its first-year student summer reading program.
Gawande, a surgeon, discusses the ethics of prolonging the lives of the elderly and terminally ill, while touching on the sensitive topic of assisted suicide.
“He helps us confront death by encouraging open discussion about important matters faced by every family for which medicine can ultimately provide no answer,” said Tim Marr, distinguished associate professor of American studies and chair of the committee that made the selection. “The book is an eloquent and informative celebration of life that contrasts three generations of a South Asian family and emboldens our appreciation of everyone’s need to exist with integrity until the end.”
First-year and transfer students at UNC are invited to read the book before arriving on campus, where they can join small discussion groups led by faculty and undergraduate residence hall advisers.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @RiersonNC
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Dave Roberts learned he had drawn the ire of the president of the United States in the most public of settings, sitting at a postgame news conference, broadcast to millions, as he sifted through the wreckage of Game 4 of the 2018 World Series.
The loss effectively ended the Dodgers’ season. Responsibility for the defeat rested on Roberts’ shoulders. The manager had already weathered jeers from the home crowd at Dodger Stadium when he heard President Trump had tweeted that Roberts made a “big mistake!”
Roberts crossed his arms and leaned forward as a reporter read him Trump’s tweet. A smirk creased his face, and then a scowl. “The president said that?” Roberts said. He inhaled and collected himself. “That’s one man’s opinion,” he said.
Then Roberts moved on. There was no drawn-out controversy, no volleys lobbed toward Trump. Roberts absorbed the criticism and effectively shrugged.
“There’s no benefit to responding to an irresponsible tweet irresponsibly, or ignorantly,” Roberts said over breakfast one morning last week. “So, I guess it’s one of those ‘consider the source’-type things. Which is sad, because that’s the leader of our country. That I have to say, ‘Consider the source.’ It’s sad.”
The paths of a baseball manager and the leader of the free world rarely cross. Unless, of course, the baseball manager’s team wins the World Series. Roberts intends for the Dodgers to achieve that goal this autumn. He indicated it was unlikely he would visit the White House afterward.
“We have to win it first,” Roberts said. “But one trip to D.C., playing the Nationals, is plenty for me.”
The blend of confidence and candor befits his status as he prepares to manage the National League at the All-Star Game in Cleveland on Tuesday night. Roberts has never felt more secure as manager of the Dodgers. Any howls for his dismissal have quieted. He hammered out a four-year contract extension over the winter. He presides over the presumptive favorite to win the National League pennant, a colossus on pace for 106 wins, a group he believes is the best he has managed in his four years at the helm.
The talent at Roberts’ disposal make him the envy of other managers. His lineup flaunts 23-year-old star Cody Bellinger, the first-half front-runner for National League MVP. His pitching rotation includes Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler and Hyun-Jin Ryu; all three made the All-Star team, and Ryu will start the game. His front office has pledged to be proactive about improving the team’s less reliable bullpen.
Roberts benefits from this largess. His affection for the group extends beyond the talent. He described them as “a very blue-collar team,” a collection of players uninterested in the histrionics of last season, when the team needed an extra tie-breaking game against the Colorado Rockies to win the National League West. He suggested they had grown steely and resolute in the wake of losing the World Series the last two seasons.
“We feel it every day, but it’s something that’s not talked about,” Roberts said. “It’s like the best of all worlds. Because it’s forefront of mind, but it’s not talked about. But the work reflects it.”
The team does not rattle. On Friday evening, as an earthquake rocked Dodger Stadium, Roberts pondered his safety in the dugout. Then he looked out at the diamond. Utility infielder Enrique Hernandez ignored the rumbling and stepped back into the batter’s box.
Roberts could laugh about the moment during a phone conversation with Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch after the game. Roberts considers Hinch one of his closest friends in baseball. Hinch can relate to Roberts’ burden. Hinch must juggle the egos and attitudes of his own club, which defeated the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series, while interpreting the innovations requested by his front office. The balancing act demands equilibrium.
“With so many things pulling at players, or people advising players, they look for a steady mindset as a leader,” Hinch said. “And he has it.” Added Hinch: “They need to know what the expectations are. And I think Dave’s one of the best at setting the bar, and being consistent.”
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Roberts preaches to his players the importance of being steadfast inside the m
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Female Pro Bodybuilder Joanna Thomas passes away at 43.
The bodybuilding world is mourning the death of female professional bodybuilder Joanna Thomas.
Joanna’s brother confirmed the news on social media.
Joanna passed away at her house in the UK on Sunday 26 April, 2020.
Just last year, a Gofundme account was created to help Joanna. The donations went towards medical costs for her condition of osteoarthritis that seriously affected her knees. Joanna had great difficulty to walk, leaving her trapped in her home.
We at Evolutionofbodybuilding.net send our deepest condolences to Joanna’s family and friends.
About Joanna Thomas
Joanna Clare Thomas (born 12 December 1976) is a British professional female bodybuilder, now living in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She is the younger sister of British professional female bodybuilder Nicola Shaw. She is the youngest female bodybuilder to win her IFBB pro card, at the age of 21.
Early Life
Joanna was born on 12 December 1976, in Truro, Cornwall, England, U.K., the second of three children. Her father is painter and decorator and her mother is a farm worker. She grew up in Camborne, Cornwall. In 1993, she graduated from the Camborne Science and International Academy. Soon afterwords she began training as a nurse.
Bodybuilding Career
Amateur
She became interested in bodybuilding at age 14 when she saw a bodybuilding magazine that belonged to a college student who was staying with her family. While Thomas was a chronic asthmatic since childhood and was unable to do any sort of strenuous physical activities at a young age, she became inspired by the way women looked and knew she wanted to someday be like them. Thomas was very shy at a young age and did not pursue her desire to become a bodybuilder until she felt comfortable enough to do it. Three months later (at age 14), the 107 lb (49 kg) Thomas went to a nearby gym. The gym owner’s wife replied to her goal of building muscle by saying it should be left to the men, however, her husband began to train her. He gave her a training plan of a 3 split routine a week, while eating only 3 meals a day and no supplements. She soon discovered she had great genetics for bodybuilding and quickly grew out of her asthma. She followed the training plan for two years and gained 91 lb (41 kg), including putting on 9 lb (4.1 kg) of muscle with that program. Joanna remarked that, “Within six months of training I was the only girl in my gym class that could do proper push-ups”. She began to seriously get into bodybuilding at the age of 15.
By the time Joanna Thomas turned 17 years old, bodybuilding had become a life style for her as well as for her sister, Nicola Thomas, who like her also became inspired to become a bodybuilder. By this time Joanna had decided that she was going to become a competitive bodybuilder and set her sights on become a professional in the field of bodybuilding. From the age of 17 to age 20 she began competing in order to become a professional with the goal of winning the British Championships. In 1997, at age 20, she finished third in the championship finals. In that contest, her sister Nicola became the first lightweight to win the overall title and pro card (Nicola retired without competing as a professional). In 1998, Joanna moved to Manchester, England in order to train at the gym, Betta Bodies. She got help training from the gym owner, Kerry Kayes, along with Diane Royle. She was also sponsored by a supplement company, Chemical Nutrition. Joanna won the British Championships in 1998, becoming the youngest woman in the world ever to win an IFBB pro card.
Professional
1998-2003
At that point, Joanna felt that her physique needed substantial improvement before she could compete successfully as a professional, so she did not compete again until 2001. During this time Thomas finished two years of nurse training, but later left her schooling in order to focus on her bodybuilding career. During this time Joanna moved to the United States in order to compete in the IFBB shows. She entered the 2001 Jan Tana Classic and won the lightweight class; there was no overall champion for Jan Tana that year which made Joanna a co-champion with the other female bodybuilders who won their classes. This became Joanna’s first victory as a professional. This also qualified her for her first Ms. Olympia in 2001. Prior to attending the Olympia, Steve Wennerstrom, a friend of Joanna, invited her to stay in his place in San Diego, California, in order to prepare for the Ms. Olympia competition. At the 2001 Ms. Olympia she would place 10th in the light weight class.
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Welcome to episode 10 of the Aunt Flo Show, where we talk with Meagan from GladRags about their new menstrual cups, the XO Flo and the XO Flo Mini. Check out the show right here:
Or, you can also find the show on YouTube:
COMING SOON
Episode 9 (The Development of the XO Flo Menstrual Cup) Show Notes
Jackie and Meagan talk about the following things:
GladRags and their history with menstrual cups, including the Keeper Cup and MoonCup.
Their new menstrual cup, the XO Flo, including the development of it.
What sets apart the XO Flo Cup from other menstrual cups
The future of menstrual cups and eco-friendly period products.
More details about this topic right here: XO Flo Review.
And, you can contact the Aunt Flo Show, submit your TMI moment, or check out all the episodes here:
The Aunt Flo Show
Email us: [email protected]
If you liked this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you listen to this podcast. Until next time and thanks for tuning in!
Where to Find the Aunt Flo Show?
You can find the podcast in all the usual places you normally go to for audio content, including iTunes.
Stitcher
iTunes
Google Play Music
Buzzsprout
Aunt Flo Show Episode 10 Transcript
COMING SOON
Where Can I Find the Other Aunt Flo Show Episodes?
If you want to listen to some more of this podcast, check it out here:
#1: An Introduction to Jackie + Tracy
#2: How to Choose a Menstrual Cup
#3: Benefits of Menstrual Cups
#4: Care + Cleaning of Menstrual Cups
#5: How to Insert a Menstrual Cup
#6: How to Remove a Menstrual Cup
#7: Interview with Amanda Wilson, Founder of Voxapod
#8: Jackie and Kathleen Talk Early Days of Using Menstrual Cups
#9: Jackie and Kathleen Talk Menstrual Cup Leaking
Questions or Comments about the XO Flo from Glad Rags?
Do you have any questions, comments or thoughts about the XO Flo Cup that you’d like to share? Please leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you.
Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other menstrual cup enthusiasts, like yourself find this useful resource.
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America also changed their approach to Islam. They began to practice their religion in a more Western context. “We call it progressive Islam,” Ibrahim told me, during the only interview she has given about her experiences.
After Ibrahim got her master’s degree, the family returned to Malaysia and she launched her career as an architect. At the age of 32, and pregnant with her fourth child, Ibrahim became the first female lecturer at University Putra Malaysia, a 7,500-acre campus 12 miles south of downtown Kuala Lumpur. She was soon intellectually restless and applied to Stanford, surprised when she was accepted.
In 2000, Ibrahim returned to the U.S. with an F-1 student visa. Kamal remained in Malaysia. He was the managing director of an environmental consultancy business and had become deeply committed to international relief work. Kamal traveled to Palo Alto every three months to visit his wife.
***
On March 10, 2005, 10 weeks after her encounter at the San Francisco airport, Ibrahim was set to fly from Malaysia to Stanford with plans to put the final touches on her doctoral thesis. At Kuala Lumpur’s gleaming, modern airport, when she reached the Cathay Pacific counter, she put her bag on the scale—it was filled with presents for patients at the Stanford hospital where she had worked as a volunteer. A supervisory agent asked her to step out of line, and she watched as he made and received calls on his mobile phone. She was puzzled. Korman had told her she had been taken off the no-fly list; she gave Korman’s card to the supervisor. At 9:25, five minutes before the gate was to close, the agent told Ibrahim that he had spoken with the American embassy. Her visa had been revoked.
She was angry and perplexed. Why would the State Department do such a thing?
And so Ibrahim began the laborious process of trying to clear her name of an accusation about which she knew nothing.
She filled out the form for people who feel they are wrongly on the no-fly list. Called the Travel Redress Inquiry Program report (TRIP), it provides little in the way of relief. People get to lodge their complaints. When foreign nationals like Ibrahim are involved, the government declines to confirm or deny their presence on any lists but sends a form letter that says “applicable records” have been reviewed. The letter assures travelers that corrections to the records have been made if “warranted.”
***
In January 2006, a year after Ibrahim was shackled in San Francisco, she filed a lawsuit in federal district court in San Francisco against a litany of federal agencies. She was not asking for monetary damages, or compensation of any sort. She only wanted her name removed from the no-fly list and any other terrorism databases.
Ibrahim was represented pro bono by a small law firm in San Jose, California, McManis Faulkner. “I wanted this case in a heartbeat,” said James McManis, whose legal hero is Clarence Darrow. “What they did to this woman was just outrageous.”
The odds against Ibrahim were beyond astronomical. No one had ever prevailed in a legal challenge of the watch lists. The case was assigned to Judge William Alsup, a demanding, hard-working jurist who began his trials at 7:30, about two hours before his colleagues on the federal bench.
The government moved to dismiss, arguing that by law, challenges to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) rulings must be filed before the U.S. Court of Appeals, not the district court. Alsup agreed. Case dismissed.
Ibrahim’s lawyers appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The lead lawyer at the time, Marwa Elzankaly, was only three minutes into her argument when Judge Alex Kozinsky interrupted, and he didn’t let up, peppering her with questions. Kozinsky was the court’s chief judge, a gregarious, outspoken libertarian-leaning intellectual. Elzankaly stood at the lectern, pen in her right hand, scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad, answering the questions with impressive poise.
It wasn’t as easy for the Justice Department lawyer. If the court had no jurisdiction, how was the plaintiff to get off the no-fly list?, Kozinsky wanted to know. “If not here, where? If not now, when?” said Kozinsky, whose parents were Holocaust survivors. “It’s from the Talmud, you know.” The government lawyer was unaware of the saying.
The appellate court ruled in Ibrahim’s favor, 2-1. The Terrorist Screening Center actually determined who was on the no-fly list, not the TSA, Kozinsky wrote for the majority.
The
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work, they also critique dominant power narratives. Again, I do not know what an anti-racist Reddit would look like, but I want those with the ideas to have a chance at implementing them.
Option 2 is already seen to some extent in the formation of /r/shitredditsays (SRS). SRS contributors quote and gather the terrible things fellow redditors say into a single subreddit. SRS gives users a means catalogue and comment on examples of unacceptable behavior on a site that, above all, values what white dudes think free speech means. While the subreddit expressly forbids users from forming “downvote brigades” and going to the original problematic posts to publicly shame users, it does happen and the existence of SRS is felt well beyond the confines of the domain name. It is also worth noting that while these racist images usually rank the highest on Reddit, there are also links to this thoughtful NPR article that asks the important question: “Are We Laughing With Charles Ramsey?” The most upvoted comments are decent, but are emphatic that everyone is laughing “with,” not “at.” I would respect someone more for at least acknowledging the possibility of “at” or even consider that it isn’t perceived that way for any number of good reasons.
Perhaps the design solutions necessary to sufficiently discourage racism on Reddit would make it unrecognizable. A web platform that relies so heavily on quantifiable upvotes, comments, and karma might very well encourage undesirable behavior. Things that are shocking or provocative garner a lot of attention, which almost always translates into karmic rewards. It might be worth comparing the quantification-heavy design of Reddit with the virtually number-less Tumblr interface. Tumblr always asks that you either put your identity on the object (leaving a note) or put the object on your Tumblr identity (reblogging). In either case, activity on Tumblr does not lend itself to the cumulative nature of microaggressions or the base desire for quantifiable attention. While I don’t have hard numbers to back this up, Reddit seems to get in the news for bigotry, hate, and violence a lot more than Tumblr. The relationship between quantification and problematic behavior might be a total coincidence, but I doubt it.
At the heart of the augmented reality thesis (and the digital dualist critique) is the acknowledgement that no technology is an oasis from the social, cultural, and political forces that surround it. The Internet is not an insignificant cultural artifact (like so much fungus on a log) nor is it an undefined Wild West. And, as the comparison between Reddit and Tumblr suggests, one network might encourage behavior that another discourages, making it extremely difficult to say whether “The Internet” as a whole encourages us to do anything. The racist jokes made at Ramsey’s expense are encouraged through the implicit promise of a receptive (read: racist) audience, and the history of pre-existing memed interviews that went viral. Perhaps the best way to end this trend is the tried and true method of calling it out for what it is: racist.
Follow David on Twitter: @Da_Banks
Thanks to @beersandbooks for helping think through Reddit design possibilities.
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Ari Paul, the co-founder of crypto investment firm BlockTower Capital, says bitcoin adoption is at a standstill because Wall Street is taking a “wait-and-see” approach amid the bear market.
In a lengthy tweetstorm, Paul says institutional viewpoints about cryptocurrencies fall into three categories:
Venture capital mindset: Is there value creation we can capture with early-stage investment? Passive bitcoin or index exposure: Is this going to be digital gold or a portfolio hedge? Is this a market where we can generate profits as service providers or through active trading?
Institutions Are In ‘Wait-and-See’ Mode
Paul says the three viewpoints are not mutually exclusive, and that each has its respective obstacles and catalysts to drive adoption. However, many investors are in a holding pattern due to regulatory uncertainty amid the protracted market slump.
This mirrors the sentiment expressed by Dan Morehead, the CEO of bitcoin investment firm Pantera Capital. Morehead believes that institutional investors will eventually start wading in crypto en masse once the bitcoin price recovers. But it won’t happen before then, he says.
For his part, Ari Paul says the lack of regulatory clarity — combined with a dearth of success cases about real-user bitcoin adoption — have had a chilling effect on the industry.
2/ there’s kind of three basic views of crypto by institutions: a. VC mindset – is there value creation we can capture with early stage investment? b. Passive Bitcoin or index exposure – is this going to be digital gold or a portfolio hedge? — Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) February 1, 2019
4/ the 3 views each have different obstacles and potential catalysts to drive adoption. Many investors in “wait and see” more for all 3 views. — Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) February 1, 2019
For those who view crypto as a hedge, Paul says investors want “statistical evidence” of its ability to hedge fiat money along with a “pretty-looking chart” to support this claim.
6/ for b. Crypto as money or hedge, they want to see a pretty looking chart or at least consolidation, and stronger network effects (waiting on other institutions.). Also want statistical evidence of it hedging fiat. — Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) February 1, 2019
Lack of Regulatory Clarity Is a Problem
Paul says the lack of regulatory clarity surrounding bitcoin custodianship, anti-money-laundering (AML), and know-your-customer (KYC) practices have caused confusion.
8/ as an example on regulatory clarity side, we all know BTC is totally legal, but the rules around being a custodian of Bitcoin and how to handle things like hard forks still unclear. AML/KYC requirements still murky for service providers. — Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) February 1, 2019
Paul concedes that there’s escalating mainstream interest in cryptocurrencies, but the herd mentality of institutions has caused a “follow-the-leader” bottleneck. In other words, everyone’s waiting for someone else to take the plunge before they act.
10/ these things almost always follow a hockey stick kind of chart. Lots of slow building of a base of understanding and institutional buy-in, then a sharp “follow the leader” effect. — Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) February 1, 2019
Institutional Investments Won’t Happen Until Q3?
Accordingly, Paul says he may have overstated the timeline for institutional investments into crypto. Now he says it may not happen until the third quarter of 2019 at the earliest.
“I’ve been too optimistic about the pace of institutional adoption in the past,” Paul writes. “It’s coming, but I can’t estimate which quarter (Whether that’s this year or 2022) that we’ll see a big spike. As a humble guess, something like Q3 2019.”
11/ I’ve been too optimistic about the pace of institutional adoption in the past. It’s coming, but I can’t estimate which quarter (Whether that’s this year or 2022) that we’ll see a big spike. As a humble guess, something like q3 2019. — Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) February 1, 2019
Crypto Market Banks On Institutional Investors
As CCN.com reported, the crypto market is banking on a wave of institutional investments to take the industry to the next level.
Many observers had expected the influx in late-2018. However, that got derailed by the unexpectedly long crypto bear market. Institutions got scared off
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us on facts and events of every-day life. But this force can only act on society under one condition, that of not being crossed by a mass of contradictory immoral teachings resulting from the practice of insitutions.
In that case its influence is nil or baneful. Take Christian morality: what other teaching could have had more hold on minds than that spoken in the name of a crucified God, and could have acted with all its mystical force, all its poetry of martyrdom, its grandeur in forgiving executioners? And yet the institution was more powerful than the religion: soon Christianity-a revolt against imperial Rome-was conquered by that same Rome; it accepted its maxims, customs, and language. The Chriatian church accepted the Roman law as its own, and as such-allied to the State-it became in history the most furious enemy of all semi-communist institutions, to which Christianity appealed at Its origin.
Can we for a moment believe that moral teaching, patronized by circulars from ministers of public instruction, would have the creative force that Christianity has not had? And what could the verbal teaching of truly social men do, if it were counteracted by the whole teaching derived from institutions based, as our present institutions of property and State are, upon unsocial principles?
The third element alone remains-the institution itself, acting in such a way as to make social acts a state of habit and instinct. This element-history proves it-has never missed its aim, never has it acted as a double-bladed sword; and its influence has only been weakened when custom strove to become immovable, crystallized, to become in its turn a religion not to be questioned when it endeavored to absorb the individual, taking all freedom of action from him and compelling him to revolt against that which had become, through its crystallization, an enemy to progress.
In fact, all that was an element of progress in the past or an instrument of moral and intellectual improvement of the human race is due to the practice of mutual aid, to the customs that recognized the equality of men and brought them to ally, to unite, to associate for the purpose of producing and consuming, to unite for purpose of defence to federate and to recognize no other judges in fighting out their differences than the arbitrators they took from their own midst.
Each time these institutions, issued from popular genius, when it had reconquered its liberty for a moment,-each time these institutions developed in a new direction, the moral level of society, its material well-being, its liberty, its intellectual progress, and the affirmation of individual originality made a step in advance. And, on the contrary, each time that in the course of history, whether following upon a foreign conquest, or whether by developing authoritarian prejudices men become more and more divided into governors and governed, exploiters and exploited, the moral level fell, the well-being of the masses decreased in order to insure riches to a few, and the spirit of the age declined.
History teaches us this, and from this lesson we have learned to have confidence in free Communist institutions to raise the moral level of societies, debased by the practice of authority.
Today we live side by side without knowing one another. We come together at meetings on an election day: we listen to the lying or fanciful professions of faith of a candidate, and we return home. The State has the care of all questions of public interest; the State alone has the function of seeing that we do not harm the interests of our neighbor, and, if it fails in this, of punishing us in order to repair the evil.
Our neighbor may die of hunger or murder his children,-it is no business of ours; it is the business of the policeman. You hardly know one another, nothing unites you, everything tends to alienate you from one another, and finding no better way, you ask the Almighty (formerly it was a God, now it is the State) to do all that lies within his power to stop anti-social passions from reaching their highest climax.
In a Communist society such estrangement, such confidence in an outside force could not exist. Communist organization cannot be left to be constructed by legislative bodies called parliaments, municipal or communal council. It must be the work of all, a natural growth, a product of the constructive genius of the great mass. Communism cannot be imposed from above; it could not live even for a few months if the constant and daily co-operation of all did not uphold it. It must be free.
It cannot exist without creating a continual contact between all for the thousands and thousands of common transactions; it cannot exist without creating local life, independent in the smallest unities-the block of houses, the street, the district, the commune. It would not answer its purpose if it did not cover society with a network of thousands of associations to satisfy its thousand needs: the
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短いムービーを投稿して共有する中国発のアプリ「 TikTok(ティックトック) 」は、若者を中心に大人気となりましたが、13歳未満の子どもへの保護が足りないことを理由に、アメリカで570万ドル(約6億3000万円)の罰金処分を課されることになりました。 Video Social Networking App Musical.ly Agrees to Settle FTC Allegations That it Violated Children’s Privacy Law | Federal Trade Commission https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/02/video-social-networking-app-musically-agrees-settle-ftc 子どものオンライン上のプライバシーを保護するアメリカの法律 COPPA は、13歳未満のユーザーから名前、メールアドレス、その他の個人情報を収集する前に保護者の同意を要求しています。今回、Children's Advertising Review Unit（CARU）の申し立てに基づいて調査が行われ、アメリカのFTC(連邦取引委員会)はTikTokの法令違反を認定し、TikTokを運営する中国のmusical.lyに対して570万ドル(約6億3000万円)の罰金処分を課し、musical.lyが罰金支払いに合意したことが明らかにされました。なお、COPPA違反では過去最大の罰金額となる見込みです。 アメリカでは6500万人のユーザーを抱えるTikTokは、2017年11月に動画共有サービスmusical.lyと合併しましたが、今回のCOPPA違反となったのはmusical.lyアプリに含まれていた機能で、現在はTikTokアプリに引き継がれています。FTCによるとアメリカでのかなり多くのTikTokユーザーが13歳未満であり、運営者はそのことを認識していたとのこと。COPPA違反と認定されたTikTokでは、今後、13歳未満のユーザーのアカウント作成時には保護者の同意を必要とする年齢ゲートの運用を厳格化し、13歳未満の子どもがTikTokにムービーをアップロードできない措置を採り、最終的には13歳未満のユーザーによって投稿された全ムービーを引き上げることを検討しています。しかし、「子どもが年齢を偽ることで簡単に回避できてしまうのではないか？」という指摘もあ
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March is Women’s History Month and I am beyond stoked. Over at Eggshells Kitchen Co., where I kitchen wench on the daily, I’ve got a ton of awesome things planned to spotlight women in the food world.
For me, both in my life as a singer and in my secondary role in the food community, celebrating the achievements and acknowledging women’s contributions is an everyday thing. It should not be limited to the mere 30 days in March, obviously, but it’s great to see social media managers and marketing directors acknowledge Women’s History Month, even if only as a marketing ploy (don’t think I don’t see y’all). ANYWAY. Moving on.
One of my favorite things about being an opera singer is telling the stories of women, both mythical and real, through my singing and character work on-stage. Opera is a place where history comes to life.
Where this gets really interesting is when composers take real-life histories, like that of Mary, Queen of Scots and her relationship with Elizabeth I — and embellish them. Mary and Elizabeth never met, but the confrontation scene in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda gives us a peek at what it might have looked like if they had. Neat stuff for those of y’all with active imaginations.
The operatic canon is pretty vast, but even so, there’s a few women that have found themselves without an opera bearing their name. Here are four women from history that I’d love to see featured in operas:
1. [Saint] Hildegard von Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen was a 12th-century German nun and mystic who was also a philosopher, composer, and author. She wrote on numerous subjects, ranging from theology to letters to botanical and medicinal texts. Hildegard created an alternative alphabet, Lingua Ignota. As a composer in her own right, 69 of her compositions survive to this day.
Born into a family of lower nobility, Hildegard entered monastic life very early in her childhood, perhaps as a result of her mystical visions or as a way for her parents to solidify their political position.
Hildegard expressed that she began seeing visions as early as age three but was hesitant to discuss them with anyone until she began her relationship with Jutta, the nun with whom she was enclosed in 1112. Jutta would teach Hildegard to read and write and some believe this is how Hildegard learned to play the psaltery. Volmar, a monk and frequent visitor to Jutta and Hildegard, mentored Hildegard and encouraged her to follow God’s commands to record her visions.
Hildegard’s body of work spans three volumes of visionary theology, at least 69 extant and 4 lost musical compositions, and medicinal and scientific writings. Her writings on medicine, despite her visions, do not claim any sort of divine inspiration or authority but rather focus on holistic treatment of physical diseases through the proclamation in Genesis that all things were created for man’s use–she became known for “spiritual healing” and the use of precious stones, herbs, and tinctures.
2. Elizabeth Keckley
Elizabeth Keckley was an author, civil activist, and seamstress who found herself the trusted confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln.
Born in 1818, Elizabeth was born into slavery as the daughter of Agnes, a ‘privileged house slave’ owned by Armistead Burwell, a white planter and colonel. Late in life, Elizabeth would discover that Burwell was her father.
Elizabeth had a tumultuous early life–she began serving families as early as age 4. At age 14, she was “loaned” to the oldest Burwell son and his wife, who detested her and made her life miserable for the next four years. Burwell’s wife asked a neighbor to effectively put Elizabeth in her place–this neighbor beat her severely on multiple occasions. Even after this horror, another white man forced a sexual relationship on Elizabeth and she bore his child.
She earned her freedom and by 1860, moved to Washington, D.C. with her son. There, she worked as a seamstress and steadily gained a large clientele clamoring for dress commissions. One client would be her connection and stepping stone to Mary Todd Lincoln, who chose her as her personal dressmaker. The two became close friends.
Elizabeth wrote an autobiography entitled Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, where she detailed her life and also gave intimate details of her relationship with the First Family and Mrs. Lincoln. The publication of the book
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A Timeline of the NRA’s Scare Tactics During National Emergencies The group has frequently used crises to push fears about social disorder and gun restrictions.
Over the weekend, the National Rifle Association released a new video using the coronavirus pandemic to argue that guns are essential to protecting Americans from the threat of public disorder.
In the four-minute-long clip, Carletta Whiting, a disabled woman of color, wields an assault-style weapon and tells viewers, “You might be stockpiling up on food… to get through this current crisis, but if you aren’t preparing to defend yourself when everything goes wrong, you’re really just stockpiling for somebody else.” The video is interspersed with old clips of looting and social unrest. It goes on to warn that localities are using emergency decrees as a cover to seize guns during the current pandemic, citing recent moves by government officials in Champaign, Illinois, and New Orleans. (Both cities say they have no plans to use emergency powers to curtail sales or collect weapons.)
While today’s circumstances are unique, fear-driven messaging has been a central part of the NRA’s strategy for a long time:
2001: The NRA says 9/11 means civilians should arm themselves against terrorists
The coordinated airplane attacks made Americans acutely anxious about domestic terrorism — and in its aftermath, the NRA stoked fears of being vulnerable in the face of unseen danger. “People are unsettled in this country,” Wayne LaPierre, the group’s CEO, said two months later. “They hear warnings of other threats that could come at anytime from anywhere. And they don’t know if they might be on their own for a while if there is another attack.” NRA spokesperson Andrew Arulanandam later told ABC News: “It’s a natural feeling that after 9/11, people want to be proactive and take necessary actions to protect themselves and their loved ones in these uncertain times.”
2005: The NRA uses Hurricane Katrina to inflame fears of gun confiscation
During the days after the 2005 storm, New Orleans’s police superintendent decreed that “only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons” on the city’s ravaged, anarchic streets and officers were seen disarming some residents before they were evacuated. But a later review found that the New Orleans Police had taken only 552 guns into custody — a number that contrasts with the widespread, “door-to-door” confiscation that the NRA has claimed. Speaking to NPR at the time, LaPierre said: “I mean, the truth is never again can some politician look you in the eye and say with a straight face, ‘You don’t need a firearm because the government is going to be there to protect you.’ All you have to say is, ‘Remember New Orleans.'”
2012: The NRA seizes on another devastating storm to push guns to defend personal property
When Superstorm Sandy wreaked destruction on New York City, where gun laws are restrictive, LaPierre mischaracterized the aftermath in an op-ed by exaggerating incidents of theft. “We saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia,” he said. “Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn… It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival.”
2017: The NRA turns political divisions into a call to arms
Following Trump’s inauguration, the NRA used speeches and its now defunct streaming channel to disseminate chaotic video clips that portrayed liberal activists as a violent force that posed a threat to gun-owning Americans. The NRA’s campaign included then-spokeswoman Dana Loesch’s infamous “Clenched Fist of Truth” ad, which demonized the Women’s March, among other targets.
2017: Another hurricane, and more ominous warnings of social chaos from the NRA
After Hurricane Harvey hit the Texan Gulf Coast in 2017, NRATV host Grant Stinchfield conjured the nightmarish consequences that would result from the next disaster: “When emergency personnel are pulled in every direction, do you have access to protection? … The thugs and thieves know that your vulnerability can be exploited.”
Later, the NRA backed a Texas law, enacted in 2019, that allows residents to carry handguns — openly or concealed — without a permit for a full week after a natural disaster is declared.
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I have met a lot of guys over the years that experience “club burnout”. They no longer have a desire to go to the high end dance clubs because they feel it is expensive, too loud, they don’t score the girls they would like to, and they don’t have very much fun. Add on top of that the anxiety of possibly not getting in at the door and you have a recipe for a lot of frustration. Even in the manosphere and self-development community you will find leaders coming up with elaborate excuses, one author in particular even concluded that “Clubs are the worst places to get laid”.
I believe these are the symptoms of a lack of proper club game and a lack of the structure and process that should guide you in any pursuit. With this article I will show you how to optimize your club experience and have more fun, meet promoters, expand your social circles, and pull more quality girls. But let me start with my red pill story…
My Story
When I was around 24 I had one event that put me on the path to learning game and swallowing the red pill. I was a single guy in Miami attacking the nightlife on weekends, making friends, and approaching women. I was excited by the atmosphere and short skirts. I had prepared myself by getting into sick shape and dressing well. One night I met two sisters from the Midwest vacationing for the week. One of them was a solid 9 with a tight one-piece and the trashy ankle tattoo to boot. I thought if I played my cards right, she would be on my dick just like she was on my cousin’s the night before. She was a slut and everyone knew it, but I had no game plan because all my programming up to that point was to put women on a pedestal.
I thought if I took her to and her sister to some great spots that I would win her approval. I already had it, but I was too hesitant to act. So I invited them and a few friends for a night on the town. I drove my group to the best clubs in Miami. At the Fontaine Blu bar I isolated her for a few minutes and she told me how good looking and in shape I was, even hinting that we should hangout by her hotel that night. I didn’t act. Instead I took everyone to the club.
It was a loud crowded place in South Beach called Mansion. We hung out, the girls loved it. “What do I do now?” I thought. I guess I’ll walk around with my buds. Minutes later a bald-shaven guy dressed in an opened collared-shirt with wing decals grabs her on the dance-floor. She is reluctant to dance but she submits. He is with his buddies at a table getting bottle service. They are friendly and motion our group over for a few drinks. Meanwhile, the bald guy is getting more aggressive, she pushes back with a smile, but he gets even more aggressive. Within a few minutes he is lifting her up and pinning her against the wall. She starts to love it. They are now in full embrace with her legs around him making out. He takes her over to the table and she straddles him and begins gyrating and unzipping his pants.
I was disgusted by the sight, I couldn’t believe a girl despite being an established slut would respond to this. Wasn’t I the taller, better-looking, and better-dressed guy that she had already built rapport with? Shouldn’t I get the girl? I drove home at the end of the night fighting back tears knowing that someone who I thought was lesser than me was banging my 9 and not me. I knew something had to change, that’s when I Googled “dating and women” and discovered Game with a capital “G”.
I am now 30
As I write this I am reminiscing on a Sunday afternoon about last night. I pulled up to my favorite club in the MPD (a trendy area of NYC) and met my promoter friend outside. I typically hit the same spot every weekend because I have scored 6 for 6 at this spot the past 6 weekends with minimal effort (but tight game). This is a huge change from years past when I would simply go to a new club every week on nothing more than a whim, and get blown out in numerous “sets”. Your friends will tell you “lets try X spot tonight” or “lets go somewhere new, explore”. To hell with that jazz. If you want consistent results you must be consistent in your venues, your social circles, and your game.
Wait… wtf is a “Promoter”?
If the word “promoter” draws a blank in your
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As the two party leaders intent on knocking Kathleen Wynne out of the premier’s office this year talked about their plans for Hydro One, regulators in Washington were watching and listening. And they were becoming increasingly concerned that a merger between Hydro One and Spokane-based Avista Corp. would always be at risk of political interference. This risk ultimately was at the heart of their decision Wednesday to deny Hydro One’s bid to buy Avista, putting an end to a deal that was more than a year in the making. As members of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission saw it, according to an order issued Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives would fire and replace Hydro One’s board of directors. (It did.) And Andrea Horwath’s NDP promised to reduce electricity prices by returning Hydro One to full public ownership. At the end of April, NDP MPP Peter Tabuns told The Toronto Star that Hydro One’s profits could be used to foot the bill.
Mayo Schmidt, Hydro One's CEO at the time, told commissioners on April 10, 2018 that concerns about the provincial government's role were not "valid". “The province’s role is limited to being Hydro One’s largest shareholder,” he said, adding, “Hydro One is not any more vulnerable to political change than any other investor-owned utility in Canada, or the United States for that matter.” But the commissioners, who regulate private energy companies in Washington state, appeared to have their doubts, announcing instead that they would torpedo the deal. “The reassurances Mr. Schmidt offered in his testimony may have been given sincerely at the time it was filed but they turned out to be materially incorrect,” the commissioners wrote in their order this week.
'Hydro One lacks sufficient independence,' says Washington utilities commission The Ontario government has a 47-per-cent stake in Hydro One. Reviewing the series of events that followed Ford’s win, the Washington commission concluded, “Hydro One lacks sufficient independence from its former owner and now largest shareholder, the Province of Ontario, to be a reasonable and appropriate merger partner for Avista.” One of Ford’s first moves as premier was to force out Schmidt and the 14-member Hydro One board. His government hailed the leadership changes at Hydro One as a "great day" for the province. At the time, Ford said under Hydro One's previous leadership, Ontario residents were forced to choose between "heating and eating" while "connected energy insiders" were getting rich. He also warned it was threatening businesses' competitiveness in the province. "Those days are done," Ford said. The now defunct deal with Avista was the first time the Ontario utility had embarked upon the acquisition of a U.S. utility. Avista serves residents of eastern Washington, northern Idaho, Oregon and Alaska, including 383,000 electricity customers and 348,000 natural gas customers. According to a Hydro One website explaining the merger, the deal would have made Hydro One one of the biggest energy companies in North America, translating to potential cost savings for consumers. But for Washington decisionmakers, the risk was too high. They also noted one of the key negotiators – Schmidt – was now out of the picture. “The events following the provincial election in June 2018 demonstrate the material and significant risk of the proposed transaction to Avista’s customers that results from the Province of Ontario’s dominant ownership interest in Hydro One and the willingness of the provincial government to exert its dominance in ways that are contrary to the best interests of Hydro One and, by extension, Avista, were it to be owned by Hydro One,” the order says.
Hydro One issued a short statement late Wednesday, saying it and Avista were “extremely disappointed in the UTC's decision, are reviewing the order in detail and will determine the appropriate next steps.” In an emailed statement Wednesday, Energy Minister Greg Rickford said “Our government will always stand up for the largest shareholder of Hydro One, the people of Ontario. We are confident that the renewed leadership and direction at Hydro One will make responsible business decisions that are in the best interest of their shareholders.” Over the summer, Rickford introduced Bill 2, the Urgent Priorities Act, which included overhauling Hydro One’s management and killing the White Pines Wind Project.
This legislation, specifically, appears to have worried Washington state commissioners who had been mulling the Hydro One-Avista merger since September 2017. “This new law gave the province a direct and active role in setting, and continuing oversight of, executive compensation at Hydro One,” the commissioners wrote. “There appears to be nothing that would prevent this level of interference from occurring again if the government leadership becomes dissatisfied in some regard with decisions by the new board of directors or with the new CEO, or simply due to political considerations without regard to sound business practices. “
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� where the Baudelaires reside is also cramped, grubby, and crab-infested. It’s like the worst aspects of all of your college dorm room experiences jam-packed into a single block of foul-smelling garbage, which is then adorned with obnoxious pink hearts.
Book the Sixth: The Ersatz Elevator
Unfortunate Event: The Baudelaires are pushed down an elevator shaft by their newest guardian.
When the Baudelaires make new friends in the form of Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, it is inevitable that these friends will soon be caged and secretly sold in an auction. And after the Baudelaires confide in their supercilious new guardian, Esmé, they are unceremoniously tossed down an elevator shaft and trapped in a net at the bottom of the shaft. You know what they say: No good deed goes unpunished.
Book the Seventh: The Vile Village
Unfortunate Event: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are accused of murder.
The Baudelaires believe they’ve finally found an ally in Jacques Snicket, but he dies before they can bust him out of jail — and they are accused of his murder. Nothing stings quite like a false accusation, and the stakes in this case are certainly higher than usual.
Book the Eighth: The Hostile Hospital
Unfortunate Event: The orphans are once again falsely accused, this time of arson.
Violet is about to undergo a forced “crainiotomy” when Esmé barges in and accuses Klaus and Sunny of a) setting fire to the hospital (which they didn’t do) and b) posing as Count Olaf’s assistants (which they had been doing, up until the point when Esmé exposed them). Incredibly, two wrongs do make a right here, as Sunny and Klaus manage to help Violet escape the unwanted operation amidst all the chaos of accusations true and false alike.
Book the Ninth: The Carnivorous Carnival
Unfortunate Event: Another new friend is devoured by lions.
By this point, the Baudelaires should have learned to bubble-wrap every person who displays even a remote interest in helping them. The latest casualty is "Madame Lulu," who was about to reveal information about a secret organization pertaining to the Baudelaire family when she fell into a lion pit. So it goes.
Book the Tenth: The Slippery Slope
Unfortunate Event: Sunny cooks a delectable meal that Count Olaf promptly rejects.
It’s like that time you stayed up all night to polish off an essay to utter perfection, only to receive a C- from your heartless professor. Oh, the tragedy of unappreciated genius!
Book the Eleventh: The Grim Grotto
Unfortunate Event: Sunny is infected by a rare poisonous mushroom.
Fortunately, the mushroom contamination is quarantined inside Sunny's diving helmet, but this is little consolation to Sunny, who is now contaminated and feeling claustrophobic.
Book the Twelfth: The Penultimate Peril
Unfortunate Event: The Baudelaires accidentally kill yet another friend.
Count Olaf gets hold of a harpoon gun and threatens Dewey, the sub-sub-librarian at the Hotel Denouement. The Baudelaire orphans move to shield Dewey from harm, but when Mr. Poe arrives (inconveniently, as always), Olaf places the harpoon gun in the hands of the Baudelaires, whereupon it spontaneously discharges and hits dear old Dewey.
Book the Thirteenth: The End
Unfortunate Event: The Baudelaires are abandoned on a treacherous coastal shelf with an unconscious pregnant woman.
Misfortune really does seem to follow this lot around, doesn’t it?
Images: Header, giphy.
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Propagating potentilla from cuttings is really easy to do and when done as softwood cuttings during the late spring early summer they root quite quickly, usually in two to three weeks.
What I am going to show you in this post is propagating potentilla late in the season when the wood is much harder. I am also going to show you hard I am cutting these plants back and why.
But first let me explain the difference between a hardwood cutting and a softwood cutting and knowing when to take cuttings for propagation. Plants leaf out in the spring and immediately start growing, here in northern Ohio that usually happens around the third week of April. Once the plants start to make leaves you should wait about six weeks before you take any cuttings. Why? Because when that new growth first appears it is really soft and too tender to support itself as a cutting.
After about 6 weeks the new growth, often called “wood” when talking about plant propagation, begins to harden off. About 6 weeks into the growing season the wood has usually hardened off just enough that when you take a 4-5″ cutting and stick it in a propagation medium the cutting is just rigid enough to support itself and not wilt and collapse. Cuttings taken from this soft new growth are considered “Softwood Cuttings” because even though the new growth has hardened off a little bit, it is still very soft and pliable. Softwood cuttings usually root much faster than a hardwood cutting, but they are also very fragile and fail easily.
In the nursery business we like softwood cuttings because they are so easy to root and they root very quickly. We also have some special techniques that we use to make this work really well. In my “Plant Propagation Madness” DVD that is part of my “Small Plants, Big Profits from Home” Backyard Growing System I walk you through the step by step process and share all of my secret strategies that allow me to root thousands of softwood cuttings very quickly and easily.
As the growing season goes on the new growth gets harder and harder which is how the plant prepares itself for the comming winter. By fall this new growth is no longer soft and pliable but hard and rigid. It can still be rooted, but because the wood is harder it is much slower to make roots. However, because the wood is hard and rigid it is much more durable and much less likely to fail as a cutting with no roots.
With plant propagation timing is everything. Much more important than technique. In this article I am explain the process for rooting Potentilla, but this same process will work for many, many flowering shrubs as well as evergreens. So let’s talking the timing since that is so important and will start at the beginning of the year so you can understand the process that the plants are going through.
Note to folks in southern states or warmer climates. I am going to describe the process and the seasons for cold climates, but it all still applies to you. It’s just that you folks have a much wider window of opportunity. Your plants are as close to dormant as they’ll get during the winter. But you can do much of this year round. Lucky you!
Propagation from Cuttings in January and February
In January and February plants are dormant. Not much going on and all of the wood on the plants is hard. In January and February you can still do hardwood cuttings and stick them outside in a propagation box like this. I’d prefer to do them early, but you can do them in January and February.
This box is 10″ deep and the bottom is open. 12″ deep is actually better. No bottom, no screen, no burlap in the bottom of the box. The frame just sits on the ground. The box is filled with coarse sand. What sand you buy isn’t all that important but it should be coarse which means larger particles even small pebbles. The sand needs to be coarse so water drains through it easily so the stems of your cuttings don’t rot. The cover is just a wooden frame covered with 4 mill plastic. I then paint the plastic white with latex paint so it reflects the rays of the sun. The box should be in a shady location because you can use this box during the summer months for softwood cuttings, but if direct sun hits the plastic it will get way too hot inside.
Propagation from Cuttings in March, April and May
March, April and May are typically not good months to do propagation from cuttings because the plants are just starting to wake up, they are starting to grow like crazy and the new growth is way too soft to hold up as a cutting without roots. That’s
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to assure his control, including a clause that founders would have veto rights over the appointment of any new CEO. Talks stalled as SoftBank resisted.
In the meantime, SoftBank made progress with Uber. In January 2018, the Japanese conglomerate completed its deal to spend about $9 billion to become the largest shareholder in the U.S. ride-hailing giant. Shortly thereafter, SoftBank’s executives floated the idea of a merger between the rivals in India, according to people familiar with the matter. When Aggarwal balked, SoftBank attempted to buy out the stake of another Ola investor, Tiger Global.
Aggarwal found himself fighting for control of his company. Ola had modified its corporate bylaws so any sale between investors would need approval of the board -- effectively blocking the Tiger-SoftBank transaction. Aggarwal also knew that he couldn’t take more money from SoftBank; the preliminary $1.1 billion deal died after six months when the two sides couldn’t reach a compromise.
Ola did raise more money from Tencent Holdings Ltd., the Chinese internet giant. In its home country, the India company began raising tiny rounds, collecting as little as $50 million from investors. “In the Indian e-commerce universe, there are very few investors who will write big checks of half-a-billion dollars or more," said Gautam Chhaochharia, managing director and head of India research at UBS.
SoftBank has a lot more at stake with Uber and needs it to succeed to demonstrate the potential of its massive Vision Fund. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing giant is said to be preparing for an initial public offering at a valuation of as much as $120 billion.
Merger talks with Ola are off now as Uber prepares for the IPO. The U.S. company sold its operations in Southeast Asia to Grab last year, a move that trimmed its losses but also cut off growth potential in an important region. India is sure to be highlighted as a key example of overseas opportunity when Uber files its IPO paperwork.
Meanwhile, Aggarwal appears to be girding for a future onslaught. He’s collecting cash and hoarding what he can. Ola has become more prudent with its spending, cutting incentives for drivers and trimming subsidies for both ride-hailing and food-delivery businesses. If he expects Uber -- and SoftBank -- to come after him again, he’ll need all the money he can to protect his business.
“It’s a good strategy," said Pai, the venture capitalist.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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Her start was very different from what she had imagined for herself. She ended up in fourth place! This was in 2013 when Tushna Patel made her rally racing debut, becoming the first woman in Pakistan to take up the sport which till then was restricted to only male drivers here.
Driving her Vigo 3,000cc in the Jhal Magsi Desert Challenge, and racing against male competitors, she ended up fourth in Category B. But Tushna’s achievement heralded a change.
Soon after, a local motor sports club introduced the women’s category in rally racing for the first time.
“When I participated in the race for the first time I fought well, but obviously the men were more experienced than me,” says Tushna.
Article by Ali Salman Wadhani |Dawn
Tushna’s debut was the coming to fruition of years of hard work and passion. Being the wife of prominent rally driver Ronnie Patel helped, too, but her stereotype-smashing appearance on the sand dunes of Balochistan three years ago came after being involved in the sport for 11 years.
Her presence in the pit stops only fuelled her desire to be in the driving seat.
Unlike Formula One or MotoGP where teams have their own pit stops with their own mechanics and engineers working on the specifics, rallying sees cars end up in one single pit stop during stage breaks.
“I used to go to the mid break, which is 100-200km inside the desert. I would setup everything for the stage break where drivers used to come and take rest on race day. I was the only female in my team, we used to go one night before the race for setting stage break and I used to drive my car because I never trusted anyone,” she adds.
Apart from rally racing Tushna is a responsible mother of two children Meherwan and Dina Patel. She is also running three branches of the Wendy School system.
So what is better? Rally racing or principal?
“The principal’s role is my profession and rally racing is my passion.”
Before getting married Tushna and Ronnie were also good friends. “My husband plays a very major part in supporting me and he was the one who motivated me to take part in racing,” Tushna says.
Similarly she always supports her husband in good and bad times. “Win or lose, I am always on Ronnie’s side and I will support him in future also,” she says.
Sharing a memorable incident, Tushna narrates: “In 2006, I witnessed my husband’s car overturned.”
After the accident Ronnie was demotivated, she says. “It was very difficult for Ronnie to bounce back after that incident. I was with him all along to help him through it.”
Tushna and Ronnie’s 14-year-old son Meherwan is also interested in rally racing. He also participated in a Hub race.
“He beat me in the second round of the race by 13 seconds. That was his moment, getting ahead of his mother,”
Tushna beams. Meherwan is also a two-time Sindh Open Swimming champion and a national gold medalist in swimming.
Tushna is concerned about women’s participation in this male-dominated sport. She wants women to step out of the house.
“The first time I participated in a rally race, it was not to win but to show that women, too, can do it. I wanted to encourage other women,” she says.
“My victory is that women are coming out of the house to participate in the race and that their families are supporting them,” she adds.
There have been other women participating in the Hub Rally and Cholistan Rally in the past two years.
This year in Cholistan Rally, Tushna lost to her opponent Jamila Asif.
Still she is happy because every time she is competing with a new female opponent it means that she is achieving her goals and more women are coming forward and participating in rally racing.
“I may have lost to Jamila but for me it is still a win-win situation. Every time a woman participates in a race it means that people’s mindsets are changing,” she said.
Tushna says that she is always available for advice or any other help for women thinking of joining the sport but may be hesitating due to any reason.
She says: “If a girl is talented, she has potential and is daring, her family should encourage her. If anyone has financial issues I will do whatever is in my power to
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By Kate Raworth
No one can deny it: economics matters. Its theories are the mother tongue of public policy, the rationale for multi-billion-dollar investments, and the tools used to tackle global poverty and manage our planetary home. Pity then that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet still dominate decision-making for the future.
Today’s economics students will be among the influential citizens and policymakers shaping human societies in 2050. But the economic mindset that they are being taught is rooted in the textbooks of 1950 which, in turn, are grounded in the theories of 1850. Given the challenges of the 21st century—from climate change and extreme inequalities to recurring financial crises—this is shaping up to be a disaster. We stand little chance of writing a new economic story that is fit for our times if we keep falling back on last-century’s economic storybooks.
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When I studied economics at university 25 years ago I believed it would empower me to help tackle humanity’s social and environmental challenges. But like many of today’s disillusioned students its disconnect from relevance and reality left me deeply frustrated. So I walked away from its theories and immersed myself in real-world economic challenges, from the villages of Zanzibar to the headquarters of the United Nations, and on to the campaign frontlines of Oxfam.
In the process I realized the obvious: that you can’t walk away from economics because it frames the world we inhabit, so I decided to walk back towards it and flip it on its head. What if we started economics with humanity’s goals for the 21st century, and then asked what economic mindset would give us half a chance of achieving them?
Spurred on by this question, I pushed aside my old economics textbooks and sought out the best emerging ideas that I could find, drawing on diverse schools of thought including complexity, ecological, feminist, behavioural and institutional economics, and set out to discover what happens when they all dance on the same page. The insights that I drew out imply that the economic future will be fascinating, but wildly unlike the past, so long as we equip ourselves with the mindset needed to take it on. So here are seven ways in which I believe we can all start to think like 21st century economists:
1. Change the goal: from GDP growth to the Doughnut.
For over half a century, economists have fixated on GDP as the first measure of economic progress, but GDP is a false goal waiting to be ousted. The 21st century calls for a far more ambitious and global economic goal: meeting the needs of all within the means of the planet. Draw that goal on the page and – odd though it sounds – it comes out looking like a doughnut. The challenge now is to create local to global economies that ensure that no one falls short on life’s essentials – from food and housing to healthcare and political voice – while safeguarding Earth’s life-giving systems, from a stable climate and fertile soils to healthy oceans and a protective ozone layer. This single switch of purpose transforms the meaning and shape of economic progress: from endless growth to thriving in balance.
2. See the big picture: from self-contained market to embedded economy.
Exactly 70 years ago in April 1947, an ambitious band of economists crafted a neoliberal story of the economy and, since Thatcher and Reagan came to power in the 1980s, it has dominated the international stage. Its narrative about the efficiency of the market, the incompetence of the state, the domesticity of the household and the tragedy of the commons, has helped to push many societies towards social and ecological collapse. It’s time to write a new economic story fit for this century – one that sees the economy’s dependence upon society and the living world. This story must recognize the power of the market—so let’s embed it wisely; the partnership of the state—so let’s hold it to account; the core role of the household—so let’s value its contribution; and the creativity of the commons—so let’s unleash their potential.
3. Nurture human nature: from rational economic man to social adaptable humans.
The character at the heart of 20th century economics—‘rational economic man’—presents a pitiful portrait of humanity: he stands alone, with money in his hand, a calculator in his head, ego in his heart, and nature at his feet. Worse, when we are told that he is like us, we actually start to become more like him, to the detriment of our communities and the planet. But human nature is far richer than this, as emerging sketches of our new self-portrait reveal: we are reciprocating, interdependent, approximating people deeply embedded within the living world. It’s time to put this new portrait of humanity
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Donald Trump believes “law and order” are the key to fixing race relations in America—and he says his preferred method of imposing law and order on society is a tactic called ”stop and frisk.”
In the Sep. 26 debate, Trump responded to a question about healing the country’s racial divide—illustrated by police shootings of black men—by focusing on inner-city crime that is making the lives of African-Americans and Latinos, in his words, “hell.” Stop and frisk, he says, will let police “take the gun away from criminals that shouldn’t be having it.”
The thing is, police already do that: they take guns away from criminals who shouldn’t have them every day, all over the US. The police are constitutionally allowed to stop people they suspect of criminal activity and, if they strongly suspect that they are carrying a weapon, to frisk them.
What Trump was really proposing was an intensive, targeted version of the stop and frisk search method, which was deployed in New York City throughout the last decade.
“[Y]ou do stop and frisk, which worked very well, Mayor Giuliani is here, worked very well in New York,” said Trump during the debate. “It brought the crime rate way down.”
Launched in 1994 by the New York City Police Department, the plan encouraged police officers to aggressively stop and search anyone with “suspicious” behavior. They could then interrogate them, and frisk them. The policy was controversial, and in 2012, under Bloomberg, the NYPD began winding it down. (However, it continues in some pockets of the city still today.)
What was distinctive about New York City’s stop and frisk program—and, we assume, why Trump brought it up—is who the police stopped.
Even though they made up only a quarter of the population, more than half of those stopped were black. In other words, the NYPD indirectly but systematically equated being black with being suspicious.
It was this—that the NYPD discriminated against men of color in carrying out its program—that prompted a US district court judge to rule the NYPD’s application of “stop and frisk” unconstitutional in 2013. The judge found it violated the Fourth Amendment, which bans unreasonable search and seizure, and the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law. (Though the judge was later removed from the case, her decision stands. Mayor Michael Bloomberg appealed the decision; however, his successor, Bill de Blasio, dropped the appeal.) Yet, stop and frisk was already its way out before the decision was issued:
Trump refuses to accept the ruling, blaming the twilight of NYPD’s racial profiling program on “a very against-police judge,” and denying that the program was found to be “unconstitutional.” And when Hillary Clinton pointed out that crime—including murder—has continued to decline since New York City (mostly) scrapped “stop and frisk,” Trump snapped, “No, you’re wrong. You’re wrong.”
Clinton: No, I’m not. Trump: Murders are up. All right. You check it. You check it.
We checked it. Trump is wrong on both counts. The Bloomberg administration began winding down the program in 2012, before the court decision. And New York City’s murder rate is now at historic lows. (Note that when pressed, Trump often cites Chicago, which is indeed having a freak crime spate—and is therefore an outlier among American cities.)
It’s no wonder that crime has declined along with the stop and frisk rate. Between 2003 and 2013, the NYPD recorded nearly 5 million stops. However, only one out of every 500 suspicious-looking people actually had guns (and even then, it isn’t clear what share of these gun possessions were illegal.) Only around 6% of stops resulted in arrests, and another 6% in summons.
The NYPD’s abysmal “stop and frisk” hit rate implies that the community could have been made safer had the city invested its police resources into something more productive. (For instance, better training, as Hillary Clinton proposed during the same segment of the debate.) It’s likely the program actually made communities less safe; the unconscionable invasion of young men’s privacy stoked distrust of police in communities of color.
A couple of deeply disturbing things about Trump’s worldview emerge when his “stop and frisk” logic is unraveled:
It’s important to be clear about what Trump is proposing. By championing the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” he implied that police
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tobaco and 'Divine Moments of Truth' :-). I put the pipe in my mouth and inhaled one large dose. It felt hot but just as I had inhaled it, BAM! Suddenly I found my self sitting on the floor, the whole world around me changed into mosaic almost directly. I looked at the pipe and there were just a large black hole left of it. I closed my eyes and saw large chopping tools like knives and axes chopping up molecules then I understood that the molecules must be the earth. I saw thousands of them and suddenly they had formed a new dimension. This dimension was all made out of colors and you could hear different sound from everywhere in different frequencies. Large choppers now chopped up seven earths at the same time till it reached one billion and then sent out the pieces into outer space to start it all over again.
Suddenly I heard a BAM and opened my eyes, and there stood a large monster in front of me with white huge teeth and saliva dripping from his jaws. This monster started to dissolve into the black hole and I was also sucked into it. The rest of the trip is quite hard to explain but I can say that a lot of love and peace were involved. Thousands of Light beams were piercing my eyes as I was travelling 1000km/hr through the hole after the now almost transparent dragon figure. I could now feel the 'chi' inside my unimportant so-called body, streaming through my veins. ('Chi' is Japanese for nirvana/power).
Report #30 — entities
Gracie saw none of the visions described below. In fact, she saw no visions during the trip. She was high and the trip room took on a beautiful jewelled quality. She had no tendency to drift into a trance even though she had taken the same dosage of DMT and mushrooms as Zarkov.
Zarkov could not resist the trance. Strangely, he could talk with ease but could not maintain any other semblance of contact with reality. Any attempt to do so resulted in overwhelming stomach cramps, full body shivers, vertigo and throbbing headache. All of these body symptoms went away if he paid attention to the trance state.
Zarkov's first vision was a stadium full of hostile giant insect creatures that he was familiar with from previous mushroom trips. However, immediately the DMT 'banshee' creatures floated in and sang this message, 'Aren't they a dull and pompous bunch! But don't worry, they can't get at you because we are here.' These 'banshee' creatures were a common occurence in Zarkov's DMT trips.
The next series of visions were of various aliens that seemed to be trying to sell Zarkov various visions. The banshees continued to accompany the visions and offer comment.
At about the chemical peak of the trip (one hour), the house had a rash of poltergeist phenomena that were jointly observed by both of us. Furthermore, the cats noticed them and followed them as they made their way through the house. The banshees advised Zarkov not to worry about them because 'things like this happen.' This was the last point in the trip where Zarkov could maintain contact with ordinary reality.
The banshees formed a gate next to an alien selling visions indicating that Zarkov should 'buy into' this vision.
By 'going' through the gate, Zarkov found himself someplace else.
This some place else was another world. It no longer seemed like a psychedelic vision, but rather it seemed like a real world. The sun felt warm; when it went down Zarkov felt cool. To move around it was necessary to walk. Wherever he looked, there was a realistic amount of detail. No insubstantial visions, just a real world wherever Zarkov looked. He could eat, walk, swim, fuck and talk to the other characters.
The world was Gracie's fantasy world. Even though she couldn't see it, Zarkov's verbal description matched her world. She could give instructions to Zarkov that he could follow to get around.
The world was a bronze-age city. In the background were green and fertile mountains. The architecture was of massive granite blocks with a poured concrete look about them. The style was neoclassical crossed with Minoan with a touch of Jack Vance. The mise-en-scene made sense and did not appear contrived. The aesthetic sensibility, while of the wretched excess school, was coherent. It was the most beautiful place Zarkov had ever seen, in shades of pink, mauve, purple and gold.
The story line was that of the wierdest heavy metal video ever designed. There were barbaric artifacts and luxury items all over. The world was inhabited by buxom, bottom-heavy, voluptuous nymphos.
| 1,936,503 |
a landing farther downrange in the South Atlantic near Ascension Island.
Between performing maneuvers to be used in later Gemini flights for rendezvous and docking missions, Grissom and Young took pictures and performed other experiments. While there was no official meal break during this short mission, Young was tasked with making an evaluation of the food and the waste collection system for an hour during the second orbit. To Grissom’s surprise, John Young pulled out a corned beef sandwich he had stowed away in one of his pockets in probably the most famous episode of the Gemini 3 mission. Wally Schirra had picked up the sandwich at a favorite eatery in Cocoa Beach called “Wolfie’s” and had slipped it to Young while they were in the white room during the countdown. Grissom only took a couple of bites of the contraband sandwich before realizing that the crumbs might present a problem for the on board systems. Because of the fallout after the mission over this incident, members the astronaut corps were banned from repeating this stunt on any future missions. After stowing the sandwich, Young then proceeded his “official” evaluation by reconstituting some apple sauce and grapefruit juice and opened a package of chicken bites. Young did not have sufficient time to fully evaluate the food or waste disposal system but did have some recommendations based on his experiences including allotting extra time for meal preparation, eating and clean up on future missions.
Coming Home
Near the end of the third revolution as Gemini 3 was dropping towards its 72-kilometer perigee, Gus Grissom and John Young were preparing to come home. After Grissom used the OAMS thrusters to orient the spacecraft, the equipment section was jettisoned and the four solid retrorocket motors were fired one at a time in quick succession. Shortly after the retrograde section was jettisoned, Gemini began its reentry. At an altitude of 90 kilometers, Young activated the T-1 experiment that injected water into the hot plasma surrounding the reentering spacecraft. Ground stations monitoring the descending capsule noted that there was a definite increase in C-band and UHF telemetry signal strength as a result.
But as the Gemini 3 reentry module descended towards its primary landing zone off Grand Turk Island in the Atlantic Ocean, it was noted that the capsule was off course despite Grissom’s attempts to steer the craft towards the recovery zone. Apparently the capsule was not producing as much lift as had been predicted by the wind tunnel tests. Unfortunately, since Gemini 2 flew a “zero-lift” ballistic descent during the only Gemini reentry test two months earlier, this shortfall was left to be discovered by Gemini 3.
Despite coming down short of the target area, the reentry of Gemini 3 proceeded as expected. The drogue chute was deployed at an altitude of 15,000 meters followed by the main parachute canopy at 3,230 meters. All was going well until the descending capsule transitioned from the vertical under single point suspension to a two-point suspension with the nose only 35° above the horizontal. This attitude was designed to lessen the impact at splashdown but the sudden transition made the astronauts heads snap violently forward. Grissom hit the windshield mounting bracket so hard that he cracked the faceplate of his helmet. Except for this unexpected jolt, Gemini 3 successfully splashed down without incident at 2:16:31 PM EST about 86 kilometers short of its planned landing point after a flight of 4 hours, 52 minutes and 31 seconds.
With the aircraft carrier the USS Intrepid 110 kilometers away, Grissom opted for a pickup from a helicopter dispatched from the US Coast Guard cutter Diligence only a few kilometers away instead waiting hours until the Navy carrier arrived to pluck the capsule out of the water as had been originally planned. Still thinking of the incident with the sinking of Liberty Bell 7, Grissom kept the hatches closed until Navy swimmers had arrived and attached a flotation collar about a half hour after splashdown. Experiencing sea sickness, Grissom and Young wasted no time getting out of the increasingly uncomfortable capsule and were hoisted aboard the waiting helicopter.
After arriving on the USS Intrepid about an hour and a quarter after splashdown, Grissom and Young began days of medical exams and debriefings. There was even a congratulatory phone call from President Lyndon Johnson. After being recovered from the Atlantic by the USS Intrepid 90 minutes after the astronauts arrived, the Gemini 3 reentry module began its own “exams and debriefings” having survived the flight in excellent shape. While there was some disappointment about the results of the science experiments flown at the last minute, overall the mission of Gemini 3 was a great success. The way was now clear for future flights to attempt increasingly longer and more complex missions. The next mission of Gemini 4, whose crew had already been selected and been training for eight months, was
| 762,226 |
After a contentious two days of debate over whether it's constitutional to require repayment of all fees and fines before ex-offenders can vote again, a divided Florida House voted Wednesday to make them pay.
The biggest sticking point was whether the financial requirement undermined the amendment's intent to end the disenfranchisement of more than 1 million felons who have completed their sentence and returned to society.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. James Grant, R-Tampa, said the measure clarifies the meaning of the language of the ballot proposal approved in November and is consistent with the media campaign that promoted its passage.
"For the purpose of this bill, my commitment is to the Constitution," he said while making several impassioned closing comments before the vote.
He insisted that requiring payment of all debts owed is not unconstitutional or discriminatory, and wondered aloud why the measure's opponents were focused solely on voting rights and not a restoration of other civil rights lost by a felony conviction.
Since the start of committee meetings after the election, Grant has cited the testimony of Amendment 4's advocates before the Supreme Court that fees and fines are a part of a sentence. Both the House and Senate include payment of the charges in their bills.
The Amendment stated except for murder and felony sex offenses, felons voting rights are restored "upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation."
Grant argued if a court imposes a fee, then its payment completes a sentence.
“It absolutely includes fines, fees and court costs,” said Grant about the ballot language approved by more than 5 million voters. "This bill does not disenfranchise anyone."
Grant added felons disenfranchised themselves when they committed a crime.
Democrats pushed back on the issue with fiery rhetoric of their own. Rep. Ramon Alexander, D-Tallahassee, said the House wanted to impose "taxation without representation" on felons.
"If we're going to silence them from voting then why do we expect them to pay ad valorem taxes," said Alexander. "If we think they are not fit to participate in society then why do we let them out of prison."
Alexander and others hammered away at Grant's proposal during a lengthy debate Tuesday and for another three hours on Wednesday afternoon.
The Tampa Republican softened his position, amending the measure to move closer to the Senate. The Senate version waives fines and fees converted to a civil lien to allow felons to register. The House proposes a waiver of interest and administrative fees charged during incarceration.
A financial barrier to vote calls to mind a Jim Crow-era poll tax, opponents argued. Amendment 4 was the most popular item on the Florida ballot in November. It received more votes than either Gov. Ron DeSantis, or Sen. Rick Scott or any member of the Florida Cabinet.
"This is why society does not trust elected officials. They send us here to do one thing and we do a totally opposite thing. And we do it under the guise of clarity," said Rep. Kionne McGhee, D- Miami. "Don’t supplant your belief and your understanding of those who sent us here."
House Democrats dubbed Grant's bill a version of "cash-register justice." They argued nothing in Amendment 4 made lack of payment a disqualifying event.
But House Republicans countered they would not be doing their job if they failed to follow the amendment's language and supporters' explanation of what it meant, during the campaign and in debates.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, said voters were consistently told the amendment did not invalidate fines and fees for voting rights restoration.
"To say now, what was said before the November election is not what is going on now is inconsistent," said Donalds. "That is playing politics. What we have to do is look at the letter of the amendment."
Anything less would be pulling a "bait and switch" on the voters who supported the ballot initiative, said Indialantic Republican Rep. Thad Altman.
An estimated 1.4 million former felons could regain their voting rights under the amendment. There have been no estimates of how many have registered to vote since it went into effect in January but new voter numbers are double what they were four years ago.
Before voters acted in November, felons had to wait five years after being released to petition the governor and Cabinet, sitting as the Board of Executive Clemency, to restore their civil rights. Florida was one of four states that did not automatically restore voting rights.
The NAACP, ACLU, and the Southern Poverty Law Center have all called on the Legislature to drop the financial obligations requirements altogether, as an unfair and unnecessary mandate.
More:Voter registration numbers increase two-fold after Amendment 4
More:Hundreds call on legislators to fully implement Amendment 4
In addition to the payment question
| 210,909 |
tell if the wind was making it hard to locate, or if the source of the whistling was moving around. I walked back down the long driveway and turned left, where it branched off toward the studio. The studio was a small, narrow building on the back of the property used by previous tenants as an art workshop and, before that, to repair motorcycles. When I flashed my penlight at the building, the red paint on the door blazed back at me. We never locked the studio because there was nothing of value inside.
Which meant someone could be in there right now.
I unsheathed my hunting knife with my right hand and with my left I reached for the doorknob. Gripping the penlight between my teeth, I shoved open the door and swiveled my head back and forth quickly, searching for movement. I saw flashes of spider webs, gray chains suspended from the ceiling, oil stains and paint splashes on the cement floor. Tentatively, I reached inside and switched on the light. A skinny fluorescent bulb flickered and buzzed above me, sending shadows into the empty corners.
Dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, dun.
I spun around. The whistling was the loudest I’d heard it. Now it was coming from behind me, and no more than a hundred feet away.
I flipped off the light and backed out of the studio, shutting the door and then turning off the penlight, not wanting to give away my position. In the moonless dark, I tiptoed toward the edge of the long winding driveway, where a wall of tall, forbidding cactus plants served as a border to the hill that led down to the creek. When I’d kick the soccer ball around with my son on the driveway, it would sometimes fly over the cactuses, and I’d have to step gingerly past the northernmost cactus and clamber down the steep hill where, along the dry creek bed, I’d find deflated balls, Frisbees, and other toys that had been abandoned by their owners, either because retrieval had seemed too wearying or else, perhaps, too dangerous.
Dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, dun.
I switched the knife to my left hand and rubbed my right palm against my pant leg to dry the sweat, then gripped it again. It was a nine-inch hunting knife with a four and a half inch blade that might go right through a ghost but would handily gut a person. Because whatever was down there in the creek waiting for me, I was now sure, was no ghost. It was a person.
I stepped silently to the edge of the hill and crouched, preparing to descend to the creek.
Suddenly, an image of one of our dogs, freshly slaughtered by coyotes, lying on its side with its bloody ribs exposed, flashed into my mind. It occurred to me, with a dizzy sense of recognition, that I was being steadily lured away from the house just as our dogs had been. If I were writing this as a story, I thought to myself, this would be the hapless realization the protagonist makes at the instant of his death, as he’s bleeding out in the dry creek bed.
What the hell am I doing? I asked myself in alarm, jarred back to my senses. Was I really about to climb down a hill to confront some unidentified maniac? He probably had a gun; he’d shoot me on sight. What if he had friends with him? What if they all had guns? Even if I did survive this battle royale scenario somehow, what would I tell the police? I heard some whistling so I went down to the creek... for what? To chat?
I backed away from the edge of the hill. Hurrying along the dark driveway, I could hear the whistling grow fainter. I locked the kitchen door behind me, checked to make sure all of the other doors and windows in the house were locked, then told my wife to go to bed. I would sleep on the downstairs couch that night in case anyone tried to break in.
Nothing else happened that night, or the following night, or the night after that. The whistling went away, and I was left with what we’re all left with, the events themselves, and the story we build from them.
My story, though, was not a good story. It lacked a climax. It was all set up and no pay off. It bugged me. I made a terrible protagonist. Sure, I’d had a burst of recklessness and stupidity, but at exactly the moment when a story needed recklessness the most, I resorted to reason. If this were a story I was
| 1,091,174 |
Freeman's Cross-Vytal Shipping was a small shipping company which based itself in a large building on the edge of Vale's industrial district. It was privately owned, and nothing out of the ordinary was immediately visible on their shipping records. It took a keen eye to notice the profit margins didn't quite add up as they should, and a keener one to count more trucks of merchandise travelling into the building then reported on the records. After more than a week, attacking Vale's underworld in a blind search for clues had turned up nothing. But with the cunning to use more subtle methods of hunting the Guardians, Team CVFY had lead the Hunters of Beacon to what they believed was indeed a front for the Guardians' drug business. Blake had insisted that herself, Ruby, and Weiss be the ones to assault the place, and none had argued.
The three of them now stood on the sidewalk, studying their target. It was a large, grey, uninteresting building. There seemed to be more guards patrolling the perimeter than would be necessary. There were a few trucks parked outside, and one sitting outside the loading dock, with employees moving back and forth from it, unloading crates. The driver of the truck was leaning against the brick wall, having a smoke. There were two floors, few windows, and little lighting, outside at least. The three Huntresses took in each detail, deciding on the best way to attack.
"Alright, team," Ruby said, confidently, "We slip in through that side-door there, where its poorly lit. Take out guards quietly as possible, eliminating as many as we can before they realize we're there. If we're caught, we can probably take them, but stick together, and fight as a team."
"Good plan," Weiss said, "Blake? What do you think?"
"We don't know if this is the right place," Blake said, staring ahead, "We need to confirm these scumbags are Guardians as soon as possible."
"Right, I thought of that," Ruby said, nodding, "We take 'em down non-lethally until we're sure they're who we think they are. We can keep fighting non-lethally afterwards, too, of course..."
"I'll pass," Blake said, "Its about time somebody paid for Yang's death."
"Blake," Weiss said, "We're still Huntresses. We kill if we need to, but we shouldn't do it brazenly."
Blake turned and stared at Weiss, raising an eyebrow.
"What?" Weiss asked, after an uncomfortable moment passed.
"Is there something you aren't telling me, Weiss?" Blake asked.
"I... honestly don't know what you mean." Weiss answered.
"You've been acting weird around me all day," Blake said, "Almost like you're scared. Is there something I should know?"
"No," Weiss told her, "I'm just... worried about you."
Blake considered this, then shook her head and turned back to the warehouse.
"Be worried about them. Let's do this."
They waited until the only guard who had a sight line on them went around a corner, then dashed across the street. There was a chain-link fence around the property. Ruby and Blake both leapt over it without effort, Weiss used a glyph to assist her own jump. They dashed across the pavement, around the side of the building, and stopped at the metal door they'd agreed upon. They gave a quick look around to make sure they hadn't been seen, then turned their attention to the door. It had a rather large lock next to the handle.
"Does anybody have any lockpicks?" Weiss jested.
"Yeah, I do," Ruby answered.
She deployed Crescent Rose, spun it, and stabbed the tip of the blade between the lock and the door frame. She hooked onto something and pulled, ripping the door open. She collapsed Crescent Rose and returned it to her belt in a fluid motion. She gave a small grin of satisfaction. Blake smiled and gave her a nod of approval, then she crept through the door. Ruby and Weiss followed. They got a few steps in when Blake waved a hand to stop them. She heard the sound of somebody approaching from around the corner at the end of the short hallway.
"What was that?" A voice called out, "Jerry, did you break something again, or-"
The guard stepped around the corner and his eyes fell on the three of them. Blake had already took off running. She ran up the wall on the opposite side of the hallway from the corner the guard had appeared from. She pushed off the wall, spun through the air, and met the guard's face with her foot. He flew backwards, slammed his head against the wall behind him, and went down.
"Nice
| 1,590,076 |
President Trump Offers Drowning Restaurant Industry One Solution: Tax Deductions
Enlarge this image toggle caption Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
This new world of social distancing has hit the restaurant industry particularly hard — and some of the biggest names in that world are scrambling for solutions.
Celebrity chef Guy Fieri started a relief fund for industry workers impacted by coronavirus. The National Restaurant Association teamed up with other hospitality organizations to call for a national moratorium on rent and evictions. Other celebrity chefs like Wolfgang Puck, Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud even hopped on a call with President Trump to urge insurers to accept business interruption claims.
But Trump had a different takeaway from that conversation. At a briefing on Sunday he offered this solution:
So what I'm doing is I'm going to tell Secretary [Steven] Mnuchin and also our great secretary of labor... to immediately start looking into the restoring of the deductibility of meals and entertainment costs for corporations that set the restaurant business back a lot when it was done originally, and then done not so long ago. And we're going to go to deductibility so that companies can send people to restaurants. I think it'll have a tremendous impact and maybe keep them open.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Trump reiterated the call for deductibility by businesses on restaurants and entertainment, saying "they will all be saved!"
The massive 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — which cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% — did change some things about how businesses can deduct certain expenses, but dining actually remained deductible. According to the IRS:
Taxpayers may continue to deduct 50 percent of the cost of business meals if the taxpayer (or an employee of the taxpayer) is present and the food or beverages are not considered lavish or extravagant. The meals may be provided to a current or potential business customer, client, consultant or similar business contact.
What changed was that deductibles related to entertainment were nixed. Prior to the TCJA, a business could deduct up to 50% of expenses for things like sports tickets, golf outings, theater trips and casinos.
In an interview with Fox Business, Wolfgang Puck said going back to these deductibles would help the restaurant economy, but pivoted quickly back to the need for insurers to pay business interruption claims, saying "hopefully we get the insurance to pay up, and hopefully the administration will help us to get some money sooner than later."
| 1,373,016 |
ddbuffer, CD_WHITE)
cdCanvasSetForeground(cddbuffer, CD_RED)
return IUP_DEFAULT
end function
procedure main()
IupOpen()
canvas = IupCanvas(NULL)
IupSetAttribute(canvas, "RASTERSIZE", "640x640")
IupSetCallback(canvas, "MAP_CB", Icallback("map_cb"))
IupSetCallback(canvas, "ACTION", Icallback("redraw_cb"))
dlg = IupDialog(canvas,"RESIZE=NO")
IupSetAttribute(dlg, "TITLE", "Pythagoras Tree")
IupCloseOnEscape(dlg)
IupShow(dlg)
IupMainLoop()
IupClose()
end procedure
main()
Translation of: Sidef
void tree ( float x1, float y1, float x2, float y2, int depth ) {
if ( depth <= 0 ) {
return ;
}
float dx = ( x2 - x1 ) ;
float dy = ( y1 - y2 ) ;
float x3 = ( x2 - dy ) ;
float y3 = ( y2 - dx ) ;
float x4 = ( x1 - dy ) ;
float y4 = ( y1 - dx ) ;
float x5 = ( x4 + 0.5 * ( dx - dy ) ) ;
float y5 = ( y4 - 0.5 * ( dx + dy ) ) ;
// square
beginShape ( ) ;
fill ( 0.0, 255.0 / depth, 0.0 ) ;
vertex ( x1, y1 ) ;
vertex ( x2, y2 ) ;
vertex ( x3, y3 ) ;
vertex ( x4, y4 ) ;
vertex ( x1, y1 ) ;
endShape ( ) ;
// triangle
beginShape ( ) ;
fill ( 0.0, 255.0 / depth, 0.0 ) ;
vertex ( x3, y3 ) ;
vertex ( x4, y4 ) ;
vertex ( x5, y5 ) ;
vertex ( x3, y3 ) ;
endShape ( ) ;
tree ( x4, y4, x5, y5, depth - 1 ) ;
tree ( x5, y5, x3, y3, depth - 1 ) ;
}
void setup ( ) {
size ( 1920, 1080 ) ;
background ( 255 ) ;
stroke ( 0, 255, 0 ) ;
tree ( width / 2.3, height, width / 1.8, height, 10 ) ;
}
def setup ( ) :
size ( 800, 400 )
background ( 255 )
stroke ( 0, 255, 0 )
tree ( width / 2.3, height, width / 1.8, height, 10 )
def tree ( x1, y1, x2, y2, depth ) :
if depth <= 0 : return
dx = ( x2 - x1 )
dy = ( y1 - y2 )
x3 = ( x2 - dy )
y3 = ( y2 - dx )
x4 = ( x1 - dy )
y4 = ( y1 - dx )
x5 = ( x4 + 0.5 * ( dx - dy ) )
y5 = ( y4 - 0.5 * ( dx + dy ) )
# square
beginShape ( )
fill ( 0.0, 255.0 / depth, 0.0 )
vertex ( x1, y1 )
vertex ( x2, y2 )
vertex ( x3, y3 )
vertex ( x4, y4 )
vertex ( x1, y1 )
endShape ( )
# triangle
beginShape ( )
fill ( 0.0, 255.0 / depth, 0.0 )
vertex ( x3, y3 )
vertex ( x4, y4 )
vertex ( x5, y5 )
vertex ( x3, y3 )
| 887,767 |
After watching eight of their fellow FBS teams fall to FCS opponents last weekend, the Arizona State Sun Devils vowed that would not happen against the Sacramento State Hornets on Thursday.
When the Sun Devils finally took the field, they wasted little time in making their point heard.
The Hornets started the game with the football and picked up four first downs on the opening drive, but those would be the only occasions on which they moved the chains in the first half. Arizona State's effort proved so dominating that the Sun Devils held a comfortable 42-0 lead by halftime and could use the rest of the game to showcase the depth of its roster.
Todd Graham mentioned this offseason that last year he had players who believed they could win. This year, Graham says his players expect to win. On Thursday, the Sun Devils looked like they expected to seek and destroy anything that crossed their path on the road to victory.
But just how improved did Arizona State appear against the Hornets? Let's dive in with deeper analysis on the 55-0 demolition.
Arizona State On Offense
Stats to Know
Taylor Kelly completed 23 of 31 passes for 300 yards and five touchdowns.
Five different receivers caught Kelly's touchdown passes (D. Nelson, Strong, Grice, Coyle, Ozier)
Jaelen Strong caught six passes for 58 yards.
Arizona State accumulated 523 yards of total offense and outgained Sacramento State by 356 yards.
The Sun Devils have now scored first in 12 of their 14 games under Todd Graham.
The Sun Devils scored on their first five drives of the game.
In the Air
Taylor Kelly's progression as the Sun Devils' starting quarterback is a testament to the time he and his coaches have invested in the offense. Kelly is the model of efficiency and his ability to make plays with his feel separates him from the pack. Offensive coordinator Mike Norvell has tailored this offense to Kelly's skill set and this offseason, the coaching staff rewarded Kelly's progress by recruiting reliable receiving targets.
"Taylor is a heck of a quarterback and a heck of a leader," Graham said. "You can see how comfortable he feels in the pocket and operating our system."
The chemistry Kelly has developed with his new receivers was evident from the first series, as he found De'Marieya Nelson for a touchdown. But Kelly didn't just limit himself to throwing Nelson's way. He explored every option in the playbook and hit five different receivers for first half touchdowns passes.
"Chris (Coyle) and Rick (Richard) Smith, and Jaelen (Strong) and DJ (Foster), they're great playmakers and I trust what they see," Kelly said.
Without Kelly at the helm, the offense would look dramatically different, and likely dramatically less effective. Though he was rarely pressured, Kelly excelled in finding the open man and by looking off defensive backs on the sideline to leave open receivers in the middle of the field.
"I felt a lot more comfortable with the offense and the players," Kelly said. "The offensive line did a great job tonight, giving me the ability to get some time back there and get it to my playmakers."
On the Ground
The most surprising aspect of the offensive fireworks was the rather pedestrian performance from the Sun Devil running backs. The Sun Devils maintained their commitment to the running game by rushing 44 times for 176 yards, but it lacked the usual flair we grew accustomed to seeing last season.
Marion Grice carried 14 times for 59 yards, but D.J. Foster rushed just one time. The numbers are surely an aberration because its just the first game of the season and they come against an FCS team, but the running game was expected to be the most dynamic element in this offense.
The biggest bright spot on the ground was the play of Deantre Lewis who announced he'll be back with a vengeance this season in a solid performance. Lewis racked up 53 rushing yards and 52 receiving yards and looks like he has completely recovered since being hit with a stray bullet following his freshman season.
All in all, the run game is the one area that the Sun Devils look like they need the most improvement and Taylor Kelly didn't shy away from acknowledging that after the game.
"We just got to be able to improve on the running game, I think, and just get that going for next week," Kelly said.
Coaching
A single stat tells the story: Arizona State committed one penalty. The Sun Devils tried to get fancy and use Michael Eubank in a goal line situation after Grandville Taylor's sensational interception return and the offense simply wasn't ready.
Arizona State prepared a special package for the situation, but with a 45-0 lead, players' minds
| 1,907,147 |
On The CW series Supergirl, Lena Luthor’s (Katie McGrath) ex-boyfriend, Jack Spheer (iZombie’s Rahul Kohli), is in National City to unveil his breakthrough nano-technology, Biomax, with which he hopes to eradicate all injuries and diseases. And while Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) goes to Jack’s big reveal with Lena for support, she’s inspired to use her reporter skills to dig into his discovery and its true intentions.
During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actor Rahul Kohli talked about getting this Supergirl role independently from his own CW series, iZombie, what appealed to him about this character, what brings Jack Spheer to National City, his relationship with Lena Luthor, what he thinks of Kara Danvers, whether Jack and his iZombie character would get along, which Supergirl cast member he’d love to see appear on his show, what’s still to come this season for Ravi and Liv (Rose McIver), and which CW series he’d like to appear on next.
Collider: Congratulations on the first of hopefully many Rahul Kohli cross-overs on The CW!
RAHUL KOHLI: Thank you!
Now that you’ve started with Supergirl, you can make your way around all of the other CW shows on the programming schedule. So, taking that into consideration, which CW show would you like to do next?
KOHLI: That’s a fantastic question! You know what? Elyse, who’s a friend of mine, is a massive Riverdale fan and keeps telling me that I need to watch it, but I haven’t gotten around to doing it. Rather than watch it, I’d rather just appear in it, so that I can show off. So, I’m going to pick Riverdale for her.
Now that you’ve guested on Supergirl and worked with that cast, who from that show would you like to see guest on iZombie and what sort of relationship would you like them to have with Ravi?
KOHLI: Oh, that’s so easy! It would be Katie McGrath. I’d love to steal her from Supergirl. That might be difficult now because she’s become a series regular, but I’d love for her to come onto iZombie. I’ve told her this, by the way. I’d love her to keep her Irish accent because why not? I get to keep my English accent. And I’d like her to play some sort of romantic interest with Ravi because we had such a wonderful time on Supergirl. Our chemistry was pretty damn good, and that’s something I’d love to exploit for the benefit of my show.
How did your appearance on Supergirl come about? Had you expressed your desire to be in that show, in particular, should a character arise, or did this come as a surprise to you?
KOHLI: This was a complete surprise. It wasn’t even based on the back of iZombie. I went up for this role, along with other actors in Los Angeles. What had happened was that we had wrapped our show at the end of January, and I had made my way to Los Angeles to shoot a movie, which I was doing, and then during filming of the movie, I was sent an audition to go down to Warner Bros. to audition for this guy, Jack Spheer, on Supergirl. So, I learned my scene and went in and read, like everyone else, and then it happened. I don’t think there was any cross-over or planning of that. It just all happened. It was more, “The guy we want happens to be on the same network, and he’s free.” That’s how it happened.
Had you had any secret dreams of being a part of a superhero story, before this?
KOHLI: I’ve already fulfilled a lot of those aspirations, being on a comic book show. But with Supergirl, being a part of the juggernaut that is the Berlanti universe was an aspiration. And Ravi is a completely new character. He doesn’t exist in any form, other than on the TV show. So, it was interesting to play someone who is on the pages of a comic book. He does differ, quite substantially, from his comic book origin, but it was still awesome to be able to type your character’s name in and see comic book art pop up.
Who is this incarnation of Jack Spheer and what brings him to National City, at this point in time
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Only two weeks left to Double your gift
Billionaire oil moguls Charles and David Koch have had a pernicious effect on climate and energy policy, a host of other progressive issues, and American democracy itself, as we’ve reported many times before. But a new report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University reveals even more about how the Koch brothers have undermined climate action.
Since 2008, the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity has been urging candidates and politicians to sign its “No Climate Tax Pledge.” In 2010, we noted that many Republican House and Senate candidates had signed it, and in 2011, that at least one GOP presidential candidate had.
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But it turns out the pledge has been far more widespread and influential than most people realized. From the Investigative Reporting Workshop:
A quarter of senators and more than one-third of representatives have signed a little-known pledge — backed by the Kochs — not to spend any money to fight climate change without an equivalent amount of tax cuts. They are among 411 current office-holders and politicians, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Virginia Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli II, Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, three members of the Railroad Commission of Texas, the Oklahoma schools superintendent, the Idaho state treasurer and three justices of the peace in Arkansas who have signed the “No Climate Tax Pledge.” … While the pledge began with a marginal following, an energized turnout of conservative voters in the 2010 election swept 85 freshman Republicans into the House. Of those 85 Republicans, 76 signed the Koch pledge as candidates. And 57 of those 76 received campaign contributions from Koch Industries’ political action committee. With the support of these newly elected Republicans, from 2011 to 2013, Congress passed increasingly smaller budgets for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), attempted to strip the agency of varying regulatory powers and discouraged policies to address climate change across multiple federal agencies, according to the Workshop’s analysis.
The New Yorker has more on the workshop’s investigation:
The investigative study tracks the political influence wielded by the billionaire Koch brothers, who have harnessed part of the fortune generated by their company, Koch Industries, the second largest private corporation in the country, to further their conservative libertarian activism. Charles Lewis, the Executive Editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop explained that the I.R.W., a non-profit news organization attached to American University, spent two years focussing on Koch Industries because, “There is no other corporation in the U.S. today, in my view, that is as unabashedly, bare-knuckle aggressive across the board about its own self-interest, in the political process, in the nonprofit-policy-advocacy realm, even increasingly in academia and the broader public marketplace of ideas.” Formerly head of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, Lewis has focussed for years on the way money affects American politics. “The Kochs’ influence, without a doubt, is growing,” he believes. A spokeswoman for the Kochs declined to comment. In its multi-part report, “The Koch Club,” written by Lewis, Eric Holmberg, Alexia Campbell, and Lydia Beyoud, the Workshop found that between 2007 and 2011 the Kochs donated $41.2 million to ninety tax-exempt organizations promoting the ultra-libertarian policies that the brothers favor—policies that are often highly advantageous to their corporate interests. In addition, during this same period they gave $30.5 million to two hundred and twenty-one colleges and universities, often to fund academic programs advocating their worldview. Among the positions embraced by the Kochs are fewer government regulations on business, lower taxes, and skepticism about the causes and impact of climate change. The study recounts that the Kochs have influenced the congressional climate-change debate in other ways, too, which include funding an array of nonprofit groups whose experts have testified in Congress questioning the cause, the severity, and the necessity of, acting on climate change.
The investigation makes it clear that, in today’s America, money talks — and the climate bakes.
Here’s the pledge in its entirety, short but deadly:
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Last night, former Bergen Record beat writer for the New Jersey Devils and current NHL.com writer Tom Guilitti dropped a Devils-related bomb of news on Twitter, citing Elliotte Friedman.
@FriedgeHNIC said Ilya Kovalchuk wants to return to NHL and he can either play for Devils or needs approval of all teams to play elsewhere. — Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) April 23, 2017
While this is not set in stone yet, Elliotte Friedman is one of the most reputable reporters in the game today. If he’s hearing something, then there’s a good chance it’s legitimate. And Gulitti is not one to be a rumormonger either. What Friedman heard certainly was enough for Sportsnet to post the following article, which includes a video where Friedman quickly broke down what could happen. Apparently, Kovalchuk wants to come back to the NHL. And the process will have to involve the New Jersey Devils in some way or form.
Background: Who is Kovalchuk?
Here is a quick background on who he is and why this is a big deal for the unaware. Ilya Kovalchuk was the first overall pick in the 2001 NHL Draft and spent most of his career with Atlanta as their ace scorer. However, Kovalchuk was unhappy with the franchise’s direction. As a pending free agent, he demanded a trade in 2010. Out of seemingly nowhere, Lou Lamoriello emerged as the winner of the Kovalchuk Sweepstakes. Seemingly minutes after reporters learned that the Devils were in on a deal with Kovalchuk, the trade was made. They sent forward Niclas Bergfors, defenseman Johnny Oduya, center Patrice Cormier, and their first and second round picks in 2010. In exchange, they received Kovalchuk, defenseman Anssi Salmela, and Atlanta’s second rounder in 2010. While the Devils crashed out of the postseason in 2010, Kovalchuk did average a point per game in his 27 games with the Devils and put up six points in five playoff games. The man is a producer and he produced.
Kovalchuk was a free agent in the summer in 2010 and it was a big story in the summer. After waiting a couple of weeks to hear out and turn down an offer from Los Angeles, the Devils announced a 17-year contract for Kovalchuk. The NHL rejected this contract and the whole thing had to be sorted out in arbitration. The “Spirit of the CBA” was apparently violated and an arbitrator agreed. As a result, that contract was voided, the Devils had to re-sign Kovalchuk to a new deal. Despite initial reports, the Devils were assessed a penalty: a $3 million fine, lose their third round pick in 2011, and to give up a first round pick in a draft of their choosing between 2011 and 2014 (this pick was restored in 2014, but only at 30th overall - it was used to get John Quenneville). Kovalchuk was re-signed to a second contract approved in August 2010: a 15 year, $100 million contract. The CBA was eventually updated to limit how much a salary could change from year to year as a result of this whole issue.
Kovalchuk proceeded to play three seasons for the Devils. His apex was the 2011-12 season where he posted 37 goals, 46 assists, and 310 shots. His 83 points made him a top-ten scorer in the NHL and it remains as the most productive season by any Devil since 2009-10. On the ice, the man had a second gear and skill on the puck that hasn’t really been seen until Taylor Hall came along. This was a winger who wanted to do what it took to succeed and managed to do so, from killing penalties to carrying the puck into the zone (even to just dump it in) to taking on big minutes in tough situations. He did some folk-hero things, like be a part of a three-goal comeback over Toronto in the third period in one of his early games a Devil. Or crushing Michael Del Zotto on a forecheck prior to a big CGBG goal at the World’s Most Overrated Arena. Or crashing the net prior to Henrique telling Our Hated Rivals It’s Over. Or destroying Brayden Schenn in a fight. All amid many goals, dangles, and sweet highlights (video example). He was becoming the face of the franchise - until he wasn’t.
On July 11, 2013, Kovalchuk announced his retirement from the Devils. It was absolutely stunning news then. It was best encapsulated by Mike’s headline about the news: What? Kovalchuk then finished a season where he was paid $11.3 million. According to Cap Friendly, he was entering the peak years
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With the spread of the coronavirus changing the lifestyles of people across Japan, some couples are being forced to address underlying issues in their relationships that have largely gone ignored until now, pushing them to the brink of divorce.
But one service is stepping in to help them save their marriages before it is too late, offering couples a breather from each other as they try to obey stay-at-home requests.
After the phrase “corona divorce” surfaced on social media earlier this month, Kasoku, a Tokyo-based firm providing short-term rental units, launched an initiative to give couples the time and space they desperately needed.
“The goal is to avoid divorce,” said Kosuke Amano, the company’s spokesman. “We hope couples first distance themselves and think about (their marriage). For our part, we will provide rooms that they can live in and an environment for teleworking.”
The stay-at-home request due to the virus is unlikely to be lifted anytime soon. Japan declared a state of emergency nationwide on April 16, further expanding the coverage of the prior declaration covering Tokyo and six other prefectures.
Before the state of emergency was in place, posts expressing frustration toward spouses due to increased teleworking and longer hours spent together had been circulating on social media.
Carrying the hashtag #coronarikon (meaning “corona divorce” in Japanese), one user tweeted, “My husband goes to central Tokyo by train and doesn’t take things such as hand-washing and wearing his mask seriously, making it meaningless for the children to do so.”
Another person tweeted, “My husband lacks a sense of urgency, and I am dismayed. I don’t want to be with someone with that kind of mindset. It’s corona divorce.”
Kasoku, which operates 500 vacation rental units nationwide, has launched a website (https://corona-rikon.com/) to offer what it calls a “temporary refuge” for frustrated couples.
The idea resulted from the company president’s firsthand experience of breaking up with his girlfriend whom he had been living with, Amano said. And it also allowed the firm to fill vacant units as the number of tourists dropped.
As the virus outbreak continues, many families have one or both spouses teleworking and children are staying at home during school closures.
Rika Kayama, a psychiatrist and professor at Rikkyo University, said, “What I often hear is the difference couples have in how they look and tackle the virus. While some wives take the issue as life-threatening, their husbands do not.”
Kasoku began its service on April 3 and has received around 100 consultations, booking more than 20 people booked for mostly monthlong stays, including a woman who left home after a quarrel with her husband, as well as those looking for a place to telework.
It provides fully furnished units with Wi-Fi. Most are located in Tokyo but it also has rooms available elsewhere, including Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka. A room costs ¥4,400 per night including tax, while the monthly fee starts at ¥90,000.
Consultations are generally in Japanese but the firm can also handle requests in English and Chinese by phone or email.
Amano said complaints, which come equally from men and women in their 30s to 50s, included frustrations over having to spend long hours in the same house and feeling suffocated.
Lawyer Eri Mizutani, whose firm handles many divorce cases, said the current talk about corona-related divorce should be put in proper perspective, calling the issue more “deep-seated.”
Mizutani said their divorce consultations in relation to the coronavirus have more to do with serious issues such as domestic violence, a growing problem with people spending more time at home.
“It’s not just a simple case of the virus causing the divorce. To start with, there were already underlying factors, with the spouse seeking the right timing (to separate or divorce). And the virus just fueled the timing,” she said.
That said, Mizutani sees the virus playing two key roles in creating conflicts between couples: the lack of a sense of crisis shared between spouses and economic hardship such as the loss of a job. Divorce consultations may also increase after the crisis is over, as couples assess how they dealt with the crisis, she added.
In Japan in particular, conflicts could also arise if workaholic husbands insist on reporting to work as their wives urge them to work from home, according to Kayama.
In the event a couple cannot sort out their issues, Kasoku’s partner in the project, venture firm G-Tech
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Pointing out that Mitt Romney has flip-flopped on something is like pointing out that water is wet, but this one is a real doozy, even for Mitt.
In a meeting with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register, he was asked whether health insurers should cover birth control. Here's his jaw-dropping answer:
It’s a question as to, should you get a car painted, you know, red or blue. I mean you can decide which you’d like. People who want to have contraceptive health insurance can choose that in their policy. Those that don’t have — that choose not to can buy a policy with or without. It depends on the kind of policy you buy of course.
Well, no. Whether health insurers should cover birth control is actually nothing like deciding whether to get a car painted red or blue. Nothing. In fact, that just might be the worst simile in the entire history of similes. Boy, do you suck at this, buddy.
Now get ready for the flip:
My own view, by the way, is that an employer should say to an employee, "We're going to provide to all of you, let's say, I'll make up a number, $12,000 worth of coverage, and you can use that to choose the policy of your choice. And you can choose a very expansive policy, comprehensive, or you can choose a narrower policy, and you keep the difference. And you can use that to cover your other expenses or health care as you feel appropriate." I do believe that we're far more effective having people make their own choice than having government tell them what they have to choose.
Of course I support the Blunt Amendment.
Well, gosh, that sounds like a nice idea, letting people decide what kind of health care and coverage they want, doesn't it? Of course, it is the exact opposite of what Romney said earlier this year:The Blunt Amendment, you may recall, would have given employers the right to decide what kind of health coverage and care their employees can receive; in other words, it would have done the exact opposite of what Romney now claims to support by denying people the right to make their own health care choices.
Of course, Romney was at the time a little confused about whether he supported the bill. First, he said, "I'm not for the bill." Then his campaign insisted that he did support it. Then he explained that, despite his Harvard education, he "didn't understand" and "simply misunderstood" the simple yes-or-no question of whether he supported it because he thought the interviewer "was talking about some state law." Then, just for added measure, Sen. Roy Blunt himself came to Mitt's rescue to defend his confusion, saying the yes-or-no question "was about as confusing and disjointed as you could be."
But once Blunt and the Republican Party and the Romney campaign explained to the candidate that of course he supports the bill to allow employers to choose what kind of health care and coverage their employees should have, Mitt was completely in support of taking that decision away from employees.
Except now his "own view" is that employees, not employers, should get to make their own health care decisions. Which is exactly what opponents of the Blunt Amendment argued at the time. Which is exactly the opposite of what Blunt and the Republicans were trying to legislate.
So what's Mitt Romney's position on birth control coverage? All of 'em.
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Yesterday’s news that the great pitcher Roy Halladay had died in a plane crash sent baseball’s fraternity of players and coaches into a state of deep mourning. Around the league, tributes to Halladay’s technical skill and work ethic poured in. As our former colleague Ben Lindbergh wrote at The Ringer, Halladay was the consummate pitcher’s pitcher — the guy other pitchers always wanted to be.
But on a personal level, the reports hit me especially hard — I grew up a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays, the team for whom Halladay first made his name as an ace. I was too young to experience the back-to-back World Series titles of 1992 and 1993, so my earliest memories came of the Blue Jays teams that stunk it up in the first decade of this millennium. Halladay was the one bright spot on an otherwise mediocre Toronto squad, so it was fitting that late Blue Jays game-caller Tom Cheek gave him the nickname “Doc” — a reference, of course, to Doc Holliday. But Halladay truly was a doctor on the mound — he healed so many of his team’s ills whenever he got the nod as that day’s starter.
In his 12 seasons with Toronto, Doc pitched more than 2,000 innings and won 148 games, plus received the AL Cy Young award in 2003. He pitched 10 innings in a single game not once, but twice. Alongside Dave Stieb, Halladay is widely considered the greatest pitcher in Blue Jays history. When he was traded to the Phillies in 2009, my fellow Blue Jays fans were understandably upset, but they also understood. In his four seasons in Philadelphia, Doc’s stature grew to a whole new level. In typical fashion, he wasted no time, throwing a no-hitter in his postseason debut (just months after he pitched just the second perfect game in Phillies history). On the way, Doc won an NL Cy Young award — he’s one of just six pitchers in MLB history to win the award in both leagues.
Because he spent years on a scuffling Toronto team, Doc’s greatness often gets overlooked. But it shouldn’t be. Based on total pitching wins above replacement since 2000, nobody this millennium has surpassed him yet, even though he hasn’t pitched in four years.
The Doc was the greatest pitcher of this millennium Pitcher wins above replacement since 2000 RANK PLAYER WAR COMPLETE GAMES CY YOUNG AWARDS 1 Roy Halladay 61.7 65 2 2 CC Sabathia 61.5 38 1 3 Zack Greinke 60.7 16 1 4 Clayton Kershaw 59.4 25 3 5 Mark Buehrle 58.5 33 0 6 Justin Verlander 56.6 23 1 7 Tim Hudson 54.8 25 0 8 Cole Hamels 54.0 16 0 9 Felix Hernandez 52.4 25 1 10 Johan Santana 51.4 15 2 Sources: The Baseball Gauge, Baseball-Reference.com
After this period of mourning for Halladay, writers and analysts will inevitably turn their attention to his Hall of Fame chances. And according to the yardsticks that we statheads typically look at, Halladay might seem like a borderline case. Because he had fewer dominant years than Hall of Fame voters like to see — he had injury problems early in his career and then retired relatively young — Halladay’s résumé is slightly below the HOF average for starting pitchers. And although he meets the Hall’s criteria on other measures such as Bill James’s Black Ink Test (which tracks how often a player leads the league in important statistical categories), he falls short on some of the big statistical benchmarks that typically mark a HOF career.
However, Halladay’s accomplishments are being sold short by these kinds of evaluations. His career stretched across two major eras of pitching, from a time when starters were often asked to finish games (no matter how many pitches it took) to the modern game, where bullpens are taking over for starters earlier and earlier. Halladay helped build a bridge between those two styles of starting pitching — as mentioned above, he could (and often did) go the distance and then some, recording complete-game totals that would have been commonplace in the 1980s and ’90s, but that stood out compared with his peers in the 2000s and even the 2010s, a decade in which he only pitched three full seasons.
Halladay was a bridge between pitching eras Most complete games by decade in MLB, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s 1990s 2000s 2010s RK PITCHER CG PITCHER CG PITCHER CG 1 Greg Maddux 75 Roy Halladay 47 Clayton Kershaw 25 2 Randy Johnson 65 Livan Hernandez 36 Adam Wainwright 19 3 Jack McDowell 61 Randy Johnson 32 Felix Hernandez 18 4 Kevin Brown 58 CC Sabath
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Sarah Palin is wrong about John F. Kennedy, religion and politics
By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Friday, December 3, 2010; 6:00 PM
Sarah Palin has found a new opponent to debate: John F. Kennedy.
In her new book, "America by Heart," Palin objects to my uncle's famous 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, in which he challenged the ministers - and the country - to judge him, a Catholic presidential candidate, by his views rather than his faith. "Contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for president," Kennedy said. "I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic."
Palin writes that when she was growing up, she was taught that Kennedy's speech had "succeeded in the best possible way: It reconciled public service and religion without compromising either." Now, however, she says she has revisited the speech and changed her mind. She finds it "defensive... in tone and content" and is upset that Kennedy, rather than presenting a reconciliation of his private faith and his public role, had instead offered an "unequivocal divorce of the two."
Palin's argument seems to challenge a great American tradition, enshrined in the Constitution, stipulating that there be no religious test for public office. A careful reading of her book leads me to conclude that Palin wishes for precisely such a test. And she seems to think that she, and those who think like her, are qualified to judge who would pass and who would not.
If there is no religious test, then there is no need for a candidate's religious affiliation to be "reconciled." My uncle urged that religion be private, removed from politics, because he feared that making faith an arena for public contention would lead American politics into ill-disguised religious warfare, with candidates tempted to use faith to manipulate voters and demean their opponents.
Kennedy cited Thomas Jefferson to argue that, as part of the American tradition, it was essential to keep any semblance of a religious test out of the political realm. Best to judge candidates on their public records, their positions on war and peace, jobs, poverty, and health care. No one, Kennedy pointed out, asked those who died at the Alamo which church they belonged to.
But Palin insists on evaluating and acting as an authority on candidates' faith. She faults Kennedy for not "telling the country how his faith had enriched him." With that line, she proceeds down a path fraught with danger - precisely the path my uncle warned against when he said that a president's religious views should be "neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office."
After all, a candidate's faith will matter most to those who believe that they have the right to serve as arbiters of that faith. Is it worthy? Is it deep? Is it reflected in a certain ideology?
Palin further criticizes Kennedy because, "rather than spelling out how faith groups had provided life-changing services and education to millions of Americans, he repeatedly objected to any government assistance to religious schools." She does not seem to appreciate that Kennedy was courageous in arguing that government funds should not be used in parochial schools, despite the temptation to please his constituents. Many Catholics would have liked the money. But he wisely thought that the use of public dollars in places where nuns explicitly proselytized would be unconstitutional. Tax money should not be used to persuade someone to join a religion.
As a contrast to Kennedy's speech, Palin cites former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's remarks during the 2008 Republican primary campaign, in which he spoke publicly of "how my own faith would inform my presidency, if I were elected." After paying lip service to the separation of church and state, Romney condemned unnamed enemies "intent on establishing a new religion in America - the religion of secularism."
"There is one fundamental question about which I am often asked," Romney said. "What do I believe about Jesus Christ?" Romney, of course, is a Mormon. He answered the question, proclaiming that "Jesus Christ is the son of God."
Palin praises Romney for delivering a "thoughtful speech that eloquently and correctly described the role of faith in American public life." But if there should be no religious test in politics, then why should a candidate feel compelled to respond to misplaced questions about his belief in Jesus?
When George Romney, Mitt Romney's father, was a presidential candidate in 1968, he felt no such compulsion. Respect for the Constitution and the founders' belief in the separation of church and state suggests that those kinds of questions should not play a role in political campaigns.
Palin contends that Kennedy sought to "run away from religion." The truth is that my uncle knew quite well that what made America so special was its revolutionary assertion of freedom of religion
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detail /dev/md0 /dev/md0: Version : 1.2 Creation Time : Fri Jun 9 19:01:26 2017 Raid Level : raid1 Array Size : 2102400 (2.01 GiB 2.15 GB) Used Dev Size : 2102400 (2.01 GiB 2.15 GB) Raid Devices : 2 Total Devices : 1 Persistence : Superblock is persistent Update Time : Fri Jun 9 19:23:40 2017 State : clean, degraded Active Devices : 1 Working Devices : 1 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Name : localhost.localdomain:0 (local to host localhost.localdomain) UUID : aa213e39:8bed3818:9ce1061f:e9cccdf8 Events : 28 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State 0 0 0 0 removed 1 8 33 1 active sync /dev/sdc1
So out of two Harddisks one harddisk got faulty and we removed that hard disk from Software RAID 1 Partition.
Now let’s check two thing’s i.e. Mount Point and Data.
Confirming the Mountpoint :
[root@localhost Desktop]# df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 18G 2.5G 15G 15% / tmpfs 935M 76K 935M 1% /dev/shm /dev/sda1 291M 39M 238M 14% /boot /dev/md0 2.0G 68M 1.9G 4% /raid
Confirming the Data :
[root@localhost ~]# ls /raid/database/ file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt file4.txt file5.txt
As you can see above both Mount point and data is safe. You can use the below command to add new hard disk in place faulty one.
[root@localhost ~]# mdadm /dev/md0 -a /dev/sdd # Add new Harddisk to RAID 1
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a faster pace than other countries in the world like Germany and Japan," Stanford said. "But Germany and Japan don't have that problem because their population is stable... they could create zero net new jobs and still have a stronger labour market because they don't have to keep up with the population."
Stanford said Canada has been relying too much on the housing market and debt for Canada's economic prosperity. Too many Canadians are propping up the economy through purchases and relying on credit to get the money.
Diana Petramala, an economist specializing in real estate at Toronto-Dominion Bank, said housing and its spin offs do contribute to about half of the Canadian economy, but that is expected to slow over the next five years.
Lower dollar helps manufacturers
"We're going to see a slowdown in the pace of construction, the pace of home buying, so housing is going to contribute less to economic growth going forward," Petramala said. "We can't count on housing forever but the good news is on the other side of the coin we do expect other areas of the economy to start picking up now."
She said the hope is the lower Canadian dollar will bring some manufacturing back to Ontario, which has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the sector in recent years.
While unemployment in former manufacturing hubs in southwestern Ontario, such as Windsor, has hit more than nine per cent, other areas have had luck diversifying their economies.
London, for example, has managed to "significantly" improve its employment situation, bringing the unemployment rate from more than nine per cent in 2009 to 7.5 per cent at the end of last year.
Kapil Lakhotia, president and CEO of the London Economic Development Corp., said that was done by diversifying to higher tech manufacturing as well as the food and beverage industry.
"London was fortunate to be able to attract (food producer) Dr. Oetker from Germany, to build frozen pizzas in London," Lakhotia said, giving one example. "This is their first North American frozen pizza plant, so a very sizable investment in London."
Petramala said if a resurgence in southwestern Ontario does happen it could also lead to a slowdown in the Toronto housing market as more people leave to seek work in places like London and Kitchener.
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Cara Kelly
USA TODAY
Baywatch is set to introduce a new generation to lifeguards CJ, Stephanie and Summer this weekend, and with them, one of the most iconic swimsuits in pop culture: the one-piece.
The timing of the Seth Gordon directed reboot couldn’t have been better, sartorially speaking.
“The one-piece has really been a big trend,” says costume designer Dayna Pink. “I peeked again at the original show, did research on bathing suit trends and what was happening, and said ‘Ok so where is it going?’”
The direction Pink led the Baywatch crew parallels that of the swimwear industry over the last few seasons. One-piece suits with modern details like visible zippers, cut-outs, bold prints and colors, as seen on stars Alexandra Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach, are on the rise. Polyvore, a community-driven fashion app, has seen a 282% increase year-over-year in searches for ‘one piece swimsuits.’
Similarly, fashion retailer Swimsuits For All has seen a 26% year-over-year increase in searches for one-pieces. Though the classic silhouette has been a staple for the brand -- which has gained notoriety with ads featuring curvy model Ashley Graham and for catering to customers seeking a wide range of sizes -- vice president of creative and branding Sara Mitzner says they’ve expanded into a new market they’re calling “sexy and bold,” which includes one-pieces.
Product inventory and sales in that category have more than doubled in the last year, Mitzner says.
What constitutes a sexy and bold one-piece? The suits in the brand’s new Baywatch-inspired campaign featuring Graham, Teyana Taylor and Niki Taylor certainly fit the bill.
“A one-piece is flattering on all body types and ages,” Mitzner says. “I think that’s what makes it so sexy. The suit itself has a high-cut leg, no one doesn’t want longer sexier looking legs.”
The Baywatch-style suits are only part of the overall uptick in swimwear that's more maillot than bikini. Though the skimpy two-piece has dominated American beaches since it hit North American shores in the early 60s, one-pieces have returned in periodic bursts over the years.
Farrah Fawcett’s rust-colored suit, seen in posters on many a teenage boy’s bedroom wall, and Bo Derek’s nude look in 10 helped make the leotard-looking style a must-have in the late 70s and early 80s.
Pamela Anderson made the original Baywatch suit legendary in the early 90s. And stars like Taylor Swift helped bring back retro, Marilyn Monroe style pieces 15 years later.
Earlier this month, Miss District of Columbia Kara McCullough became the first Miss USA in 21 years to win the pageant's crown wearing a one-piece in the bathing suit competition.
McCullough's suit has become a top-selling suit for Yandy, second only to another one-piece with a deep, plunging V-neck in black and white.
"We believe that real women feel sexy and confident in what they're wearing, and it isn’t and shouldn’t be based on the least amount of coverage," Yandy CEO Thom Brodeur said. "It gave us an opportunity to put that point of view out loud on a national telecast, to say that we think it’s cool, not just about being on trend."
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Long before Puerto Rico's debt crisis – and probably before the living memory of any Bond Buyer reader –Arkansas ran into a similar emergency in the 1930s. Like Puerto Rico, Arkansas faced bond debt disproportionate to its size, a worldwide economic downturn that crimped revenues, and resistance in the courts to its debt restructuring efforts.
Arkansas defaulted on its bonds from 1932 to 1935 and took more than a decade to definitively resolve its problems.
This three-part series examines Arkansas' road to default, details the state's efforts to resolve the crisis, and explores the similarities and differences with Puerto Rico today. Part two: "How Arkansas Solved Its 1930s Debt Crisis." Part three: "Is Puerto Rico on a Similar Path to 1930s Arkansas?"
Part I: Arkansas' Road to Default
Arkansas' 1874 constitution specified that county governments rather than the state government would have primary responsibility for road construction and maintenance. However, the constitution also barred counties from borrowing for this work.
With the growing popularity of bicycles and automobiles in the early 20th century, Arkansas residents became increasingly concerned about the state's roads' poor conditions. In 1907 Arkansas government passed a law allowing the formation of local road improvement districts that could borrow to pay for road construction and maintenance. The districts sold significant-sized bonds but didn't always efficiently use the funds. "If roads in the different districts connected, it was largely accidental," B.U. Ratchford wrote in his book "American State Debts," published in 1941.
A state highway commission created in 1913 by the legislature had little authority and funding. But in 1923 the state passed the Harrelson road law authorizing increased taxes for roads and a state highway system.
The state government's road debt leaped higher in 1927 when, in act 11, it committed to paying off the local improvement districts' debts, though without formally assuming the bonds. The act also authorized a new bond for more road construction. Lieutenant Gov. Harvey Parnell had an important role in the passage of this act. "Crisscrossing the state with a modern highway system fit squarely into Parnell's avowed mission to change the image of a benighted Arkansas," according to "The Governors of Arkansas," a 1981 book edited by Timothy Donovan, Willard Gatewood Jr., and Jeannie Wayne.
In 1927 the legislature also approved a substantial bond to fund Confederate pensions and benefits for their dependents.
Adding to the financial burden, the flood of 1927 washed out 511 bridges and damaged many highways, according to Lee Reaves, "Highway Bond Refunding in Arkansas," Arkansas Historical Quarterly, December 1943. Replacing and repairing the damage increased the state's debt.
In March 1928 Gov. John Martineau resigned to become a federal judge, leading Parnell to become the governor. That year Gov. Parnell authorized a substantial amount of new bonds for road and bridge construction.
That year the legislature authorized further highway and bridge bonds, envisioning the state's debt would reach about $177 million, according to Ratchford. As things turned out, state debt in the 1930s would peak around $168 million. By 1929 Arkansas ranked 46th out of 48 states in per capita wealth but was first in per capita indebtedness, according to Reaves.
Then the Depression hit. By 1932 only 62.7% of the state's labor force was employed, according to "The Governors of Arkansas".
However, the seriousness of Arkansas' debt problem wasn't immediately apparent or important to voters. In August 1930 they voted for Parnell for the governorship in the Democratic primary over a challenger who had said further highway bonds would bankrupt the state. "Arkansans did not seem concerned about bonded indebtedness; they were interested in roads and gave Parnell a decided majority over [his opponent] in the primary," according to "The Governors of Arkansas."
In 1931 state government authorized an additional $14 million in indebtedness, according to Ratchford. Instead of $14 million, it ended up incurring $10 million more before its credit collapsed. While these sums may seem small to the modern reader, the state's total debt was $120.5 million in June 30, 1930. Also, its domestic product was much smaller than it is today, both on an absolute basis and because each dollar had much more purchasing power.
As the Depression started to hit Arkansas, state government revenues sank. They fell from $22.5 million in 1929-1930 to $20.4 million in 1930-1931 to $17.5 million in 1931-1932, according to Ratchford.
Most of the state's debt depended on highway fund revenues, which declined from a peak of $10.9 million in 1930 to just $7.4 million in 1932, as the gasoline tax and auto license tax revenues feeding the fund shrank.
Debt service
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Bush administration delays release of prisoner abuse photos Nick Juliano
Published: Friday November 7, 2008
Print This Email This The Bush administration is doing everything it can to delay compliance with a court's order that the Pentagon turn over pictures of prisoners abused in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new court filing.
A three-judge appeals court panel in September ordered the administration to turn over 87 photographs depicting abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and other sites. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the photos in 2005.
On Thursday, the administration requested a review of that decision by all 12 appeals court judges. The ACLU expected the move, a lawyer for the group said previously, but it was nonetheless a frustration for those attempting to uncover the full extent of abuse that accompanied the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This petition is a transparent attempt to delay accountability for the widespread abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad by keeping the public in the dark," Amrit Singh, and ACLU staff attorney, said in a news release Friday. "These photographs demonstrate that the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad was not aberrational and not confined to Abu Ghraib, but the result of policies adopted by the highest-ranking officials in the administration. The immediate release of these photos is critical to bringing an end to the Bush administration's torture policies and for preventing prisoner abuse in the future."
The ACLU's ongoing FOIA lawsuits have compelled the release of more than 100,000 pages of documents, including memos authorizing CIA torture.
At issue are 87 photographs the ACLU believed were taken by members of the military at facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the Abu Ghraib prison that became synonymous with US abuses after humiliating photos from there first appeared in the New Yorker in early 2004.
Although the government stopped trying to fight the full release of Abu Ghraib photos after they all were independently published in 2006, the ACLU says the Pentagon continues to keep hidden 29 additional images from at least seven different locations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The appeals panel went on to overturn the government's attempt to use FOIA as "an all-purpose damper on global controversy" in finding that the exemptions to the public records law the administration had claimed were not valid.
Some photos of abuses at Abu Ghraib can be seen here. (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES, INCLUDES NUDITY AND DEATH)
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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Cathy Owens says a male politician once tried to get into bed with her
The harassment of women in Welsh politics has gone on for some years, a former government advisor has said.
Cathy Owens, who runs political consultancy agency Deryn, spoke out about the issue and said a politician once tried to get into bed with her while staying overnight at her house.
She was speaking to Sunday Politics Wales about the sexual misconduct scandal engulfing Westminster.
Welsh party leaders will discuss the issue at the Senedd on Tuesday.
Ms Owens said party leaders had been told about inappropriate behaviour but no action had been taken, adding some male politicians were "sexual predators".
She said: "I was very early on in my career, this was an elected representative, I made clear that nothing was going to happen, he was staying in the spare room, and sometime later [I remember him] coming into my bedroom and trying to get into my bed.
"In another situation someone has come into the taxi that I'm going home in."
Ms Owens said action needed to be taken to tackle the harassment faced by women in Welsh politics, saying the parties did not have the right procedures in place.
"These aren't random men flirting with women," she said.
"Thankfully we are talking about a small number of men who have used their positions and are sexual predators, they have used their position in politics knowing that the parties will protect them."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mark Drakeford said sexual harassment at the assembly "must not be tolerated"
It comes as former AMs have also said the sexual harassment of women "goes on all the time" at the Welsh assembly.
Ex-politicians raised concerns about "a lack of procedures" and of colleagues "turning a blind eye to appalling behaviour".
The assembly said no formal sexual harassment allegations had been made against an AM.
One former AM spoke of a researcher who claimed she had woken up to find a male former assembly member undressing her.
The ex-AM also said they had to step in to physically stop a colleague from harassing another woman researcher.
Another former AM said it was difficult to report inappropriate behaviour in the assembly because it is such a small organisation.
"When you see someone behaving inappropriately, you're likely to know that person," they said.
"We tolerated things we shouldn't and turned a blind eye... but there wasn't a clear procedure for dealing with problems."
Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said any allegations of sexual harassment at the assembly should be taken seriously and systems must be put in place to make sure such behaviour is not tolerated.
Image copyright PA
Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said Ms Owens' experience made him "sick to the pit of his stomach" and such actions must "not be tolerated" in the future.
Labour said it had written to constituency secretaries and women's officers with specific guidance about reporting complaints of sexual harassment.
Plaid Cymru said it had put new infrastructure in place to deal with complaints more quickly and was reviewing its internal protocols and considering how it could strengthen them.
The Conservatives said they were "actively working with colleagues across the party to ensure that all the appropriate safeguards are in place to protect staff from harassment in all its forms".
A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: "There are clear guidelines on how to make a complaint and in cases where the complainant doesn't wish to disclose their identity the pastoral care officer can act as the de facto complainant".
UKIP said it was reviewing its safeguarding procedures to ensure the protection of all who work with the party.
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Antiandrogens:
Star rating: ***** Antiandrogens are not covered in depth here. There's a lot more to know than I'm going to cover. Antiandrogens have been shown to substantially improve virtually every symptom of PCOS. No other treatment is more effective for hirsutism or hair loss. In fact, most other treatments are really not very effective for hair. Nonetheless, they have their drawbacks and side effects. Your doctor would probably have you take an OCP with an antiandrogen because of the birth defects they can cause, especially in males (males need those androgens). So, they are not an option if you are TTC. When using antiandrogens for androgenic hairloss, it's important to understand that the hair cycle is long, and it is practically impossible to see new hair growth before 3 to 6 months. Also, the hair cycle progresses through its stages in order. Hair enters the resting (telogen) phase, then the hair is a shed before a new hair starts growing (anagen). Any hair in telogen must fall out before it will start growing again. This means that any hair loss treatment that works will probably be associated with initial shedding as new hairs come out of telogen. This is naturally alarming to see. If you indeed have androgenic hair loss, and you are using something that is proven to treat androgenic hair loss, like any strong antiandrogen, and you are worried it is making things worse after a few weeks, it's probably only temporary (of course, you should ask your doctor in case it's something else). Also, if you started using a new treatment yesterday or last week and it looks like you have more hair, you're kidding yourself - it's the humidity or your shampoo or you're just in a good mood. The lesson here is, use something that is proven to work and then try not to think about it for a few months. Don't think you're going to try something for a couple weeks just to see if it works. A lot of studies on hair loss and hirsutism sound impressive, but really they aren't. In medical studies, the words "effective" and "significant" may only mean there was a tiny effect that was statistically significant. The word "significant" does not mean "a lot," it only means the effect, however small, was not due to chance. So, you can read a study that claims "this was an effective treatment for hair loss", and "there was significant new hair growth", and what really happened was a tiny, "non-cosmetic" improvement that you can't even see. The improvement could be a lot, but you have to read the details to know. It's my speculation, and from reading forums, that one could use an antiandrogen temporarily for, say, a year or two, and then taper off and stop taking it. After some time on an antiandrogen, you would reverse a lot of the hyperandrogenic symptoms. Then you could stop and hopefully the symptoms would not come back as long as you continued with your other treatments to keep your weight, insulin and androgens low, like with diet, exercise and insulin sensitizers. Because, if you're androgens are low enough and being kept in check with other treatments, your symptoms shouldn't come back to any large degree. At least, I hope. I could be wrong and I don't have proof. Flutamide (Eulexin) has many articles demonstrating liver damage and death. It's too bad because Flutamide is a very potent antiandrogen. However, in almost every case they are at doses above 350mg/day. Several studies show efficacy in PCOS at low to very low doses of flutamide (62mg to 250mg per day), and suggest that these doses are safe. If you take it, your doctor will probably watch your liver closely with blood tests. There is no doubt that it can greatly improve PCOS symptoms. Flutamide is the strongest antiandrogen and the most effective treatment for hirsutism and hair loss that I know of (except maybe for Dutasteride). Quote: "After only 6 months of therapy, flutamide caused a maximal reduction in the hirsutism score to a value within almost normal range; during the same period, spironolactone caused only a 30% reduction of the hirsutism score. Whereas flutamide caused a dramatic (80%) decrease in total acne, seborrhea, and hair loss score after only 3 months of therapy, spironolactone caused only a 50% reduction in acne and seborrhea, with no significant effect on the hair loss score." Reference: Cusan L. et al. Comparison of flutamide and spironolactone in the treatment of hirsutism: a randomized controlled trial. Fertil Steril. 1994 Feb;61(2):281
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Everton are set to rival Newcastle United for the signing of Georginio Wijnaldum.
The PSV Eindhoven midfielder looks ready to leave the Dutch club this summer and the Blues have now registered their interest in the 24-year-old.
Newcastle are said to be favourites to sign the Holland international, who played at the World Cup last year, but the ECHO understands that Everton have also entered the race for his signature.
The Rotterdam-born playmaker started out at hometown club Feyenoord before moving to PSV where he won the Eredivisie this season as captain of the Dutch outfit.
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Wijnaldum is being priced at £15m with reports saying that Newcastle are ready to make the midfielder their highest paid player.
The international scored for Holland in their third-place play-off at last summer’s World Cup in Brazil.
amine County, Kentucky received up at 8 inches of rain, leaving some roads submerged in water. “Yeah we’ve turned around a couple places, I’ve seen some trucks go through but in our little car I wouldn’t even chance it so we stop and turn around,” Jessamine County resident AJ Halcomb told LEX 18.
LEX 18 reporter Katherine Collins shared a photo of a Nicholasville playground completely flooded.
“The Park is a lake.” That’s how neighbors here in Nicholasville are describing this scene. @LEX18News pic.twitter.com/EKBV2LHLw4 — Katherine Collins (@KCollinsWLEX) September 9, 2018
National Hurricane Center says Isaac is a very small hurricane and its intensity could fluctuate as it approaches the Caribbean. However, it is still expected to be at or near hurricane strength by the time it reaches the Lesser Antilles. Forecasters said Hurricane Helene was strengthening far from land over the open Atlantic, centered about 375 miles (600 kilometers) west of the southernmost Cabo Verde Islands.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Following up on my piece from last night about Putin’s epic goof, here’s an amazing little nugget from David Remnick’s post about the Malaysian Air shoot down.
The reference is to the puffed up separatist ‘warlord’ who leads the group that apparently shot down the Malaysian jet and who, apparently, at first took public responsibility for the shoot down, thinking it was a Ukrainian military cargo jet.
“Strelkov is well known for leading historical reënactments of Russian military battles, like you have in the States with the Civil War reënactors,” Pavlovsky said. “It used to be a fantasy world for people like him, but now they have a realm for their imaginations.”
So that’s who you’re dealing with: some mix of civil war reenactor or Tea Partier decked out in revolutionary garb, with a mix of reckless aggression and comical incompetence. Here we have them break into nursing homes to photographs senator’s comatose wives; there Putin gives them heavy armaments designed for full scale land war in Europe.
Japan plans to set up a system to centrally manage information on foreign residents to prevent overstayers from growing as the national labor crunch worsens, officials said.
The Justice Ministry will play a key role in handling the information, which will include records on employment, tax payments and marriage that is currently being separately managed by central and local government agencies.
The system is intended to strengthen government surveillance of overstayers as the nation imports more foreign labor to ease a severe nationwide labor shortage.
As part of the effort, a new organization might be set up within the ministry to collect and analyze information on foreign residents.
Japan had about 1.28 million foreign workers as of October last year, but the construction industry alone is expected to need as many as 900,000 extra workers by fiscal 2025.
On Friday, the government unveiled plans to create a new resident status to let foreign people with certain levels of expertise and Japanese ability work in Japan. The new status is expected to cover the nursing care, lodging, agriculture, construction and shipbuilding sectors.
The government also plans to cooperate with companies to give livelihood support to foreign workers, including multilingual guidance, Japanese-language education and housing.
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a theological title to sovereignty in Islam.
Advocates have suggested that non-Muslims cannot provide absolute loyalty to the Islamic state in which they happen to live, and I have argued not that they can but that the very idea of such loyalty derives from the fact that it is modern and not from its ideology.
But what else can non-Muslims not do in an Islamic state? My father insisted that all citizens of an Islamic state, including non-Muslims, have the right to public dissent, the right to criticize the government publicly. But to what extent can non-Muslim citizens in an Islamic state criticize a government that is strictly speaking not their government? I do not have in mind simply a minority’s fear of provoking a majority but also, and more importantly, to the right to be fully involved in the state to be criticized. Because the force of legitimate political dissent depends on the complete involvement of the dissenter in the political life of the state in which he/she lives. More important is the question I raised earlier: If the moral authority of the state is truly essential for individual morality, non-Muslims cannot be regarded as living ethically in a state that is not theirs – and one might argue, therefore, that the modern Islamic state prevents them from doing so.
The Islamic state may have an obligation to protect non-Muslims and allow them total freedom in matters of speech and belief, as well as a considerable degree of autonomy. But the state’s obligation to protect all non-Muslims does not entail any right on the part of the latter; they have no right to participate fully in the life of the state. A consequence of that obvious fact is the political institutionalization of the distinction between the Muslim majority and the non-Muslim minority with the state seen as belonging by aspiration and identity to the former. My simple point is that if the state is not fully “theirs,” non-Muslim citizens cannot really be represented by the modern Islamic state in which they live – just as the non-Jewish citizens of Israel (whether Muslim or Christian) cannot be represented by the Jewish state – and therefore cannot enter critically or morally into its life.
Nevertheless, the question of how ethics can be brought explicitly into public life was central to my father’s concerns. His preoccupation with ethics is at the bottom of his thinking about the Islamic state. But I think on this matter he moved in the wrong direction. In my view what he omitted to address was the difference between the medieval ruler and the modern state, as well as between politics and the state. Had he done so he might have been less committed to promoting the idea of an Islamic state – and therefore less disappointed in the adventure of the one so-called Islamic state with which he was personally involved (Pakistan). He would have seen that the modern state (whether secular or Islamic) may be necessary for many benefits citizens obtain today but that it is also the source of enormous cruelty and oppression.
It therefore seems to me that for Muslims the possibilities of “political Islam” may lie not in the aspiration to acquire state power and to apply divinely authorized law through it but in the practice of public argument – in a struggle guided by deep religious commitments that are both narrower and wider than the nation state. Politics in this sense is not party politics, it is not a duel between pre-established partial interests: it is about values in the process of being discovered (or rediscovered) and formed (or reformed) within complex traditions. It presupposes openness and readiness to take risks in confronting the modern state that the state (and party politics) cannot tolerate. This politics may confront the liberal state by opposing particular policies through civil disobedience, or even by rising up against an entire political order.
I end with a substantive point about my father’s moral vision and its connections to state and politics that seems to me especially important.
More than once he recited Surat at-takāthur [102] to me with great feeling: “You are consumed with unending desire for more even until you die” (alhākumu-t-takāthur hatta zurtum al-maqābir). These verses, he would say, condemn the unending consumerism and greed in which humans, especially in our time, are entrapped: The verses that refer to “the knowledge of certainty” (‘ilm al-yaqīn) and that seek to persuade the listener/reader that “Indeed you would see hell” (latarawunna al-jahīm), that hell was actually the way he or she lived in this world, not merely the punishment in the life to come. My father read these verses as arguing that if we could see this truth with clarity we would realize the hellish aspect of our collective life, the damage we do to ourselves and to others. This was a central moral concern for
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「死について話をしておいて」 新型コロナウイルスで英医師たち
画像提供, Getty Images
もし自分が新型コロナウイルスで重篤になったらどうしたいか……。新型ウイルスのパンデミック（世界的大流行）が続くなか、万が一の場合に自分はどうしたいのか、大切な人たちと話し合っておく方がいい。イギリスの緩和医療の専門家がこう呼びかけている。
終末期医療の専門家は、「つらい会話、しにくい会話」を誰もが大切な人としておくよう求めている。自分がもし重篤になったらどういう治療を受けたいのか、そして死後にはどういう扱いを希望するのか。
英ウェールズ・カーディフ大学の医師、イローラ・フィンリー女男爵は、患者は今の内に「自分がどうして欲しいのか周囲に伝えておく」必要があると話す。
イギリスでは新型コロナウイルスによる感染者と死者が増え続けるなか、緩和医療の新ガイドラインが発表された。
画像説明, フィンリー女男爵は緩和医療の第一人者
カーディフ大学の緩和医療教授でもあるフィンリー女男爵は、もし自分が発症したらどういう治療を受けたいのか、そしてもし自分が死んだらどう扱って欲しいのか、誰もが考えて、近親者に伝えるべきだと言う。
「そこで今や考えなくてはならないわけです。『本当に大事なことは何なのか』と。大切な人たちとどういう話をしておくべきなのか。それも今。明日とかあさってではなく。そして何と言っておくべきなのか」
「自分には何か強い考えがあるのかもしれない。あるいはすでに体が弱っている人はこのウイルスにかかっても、もう入院して人工呼吸器につながれたいとは思わないかもしれない」
「自分はどうしたいのか、今のうちに周りの人に知らせておかなくてはなりません。あなたの意思に沿ってその人たちが対
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Working for Sears Goods
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I wish I had more time – or that my time weren’t so valuable. I would spend more time perusing my 1975 Fall/Winter Sears catalog.
I checked out a few items from that catalog that are reasonably – though hardly fully – comparable to similar items in 2006. Then, I divided the average hourly nominal earning of production workers in 1975 ($4.87 in December of that year) into the price of each of these (more or less) randomly selected items. I did the same for 2006 items found (with exceptions noted below) at Sears.com, dividing these prices by the average hourly nominal earning of production workers in December 2005 ($16.34). My data are found in at this BLS site.
My aim – copying the method used by Michael Cox and Richard Alm in part of their 1999 book Myths of Rich & Poor – is to see how many hours this average American production worker must work to purchase each of these items.
Here’s what I found:
Sears’ lowest-priced 10-inch table saw: 52.35 hours of work required in 1975; 7.34 hours of work required in 2006.
Sears’ lowest-priced gasoline-powered lawn mower: 13.14 hours of work required in 1975 (to buy a lawn-mower that cuts a 20-inch swathe); 8.56 hours of work required in 2006 (to buy a lawn-mower that cuts a 22-inch swathe. Sears no longer sells a power mower that cuts a swathe smaller than 22 inches.)
Sears Best freezer: 79 hours of work required in 1975 (to buy a freezer with 22.3 cubic feet of storage capacity); 39.77 hours of work required in 2006 (to buy a freezer with 24.9 cubic feet of storage capacity; this size freezer is the closest size available today to that of Sears Best in 1975.)
Sears Best side-by-side fridge-freezer: 139.62 hours of work required in 1975 (to buy a fridge with 22.1 cubic feet of storage capacity); 79.56 hours of work required in 2006 (to buy a comparable fridge with 22.0 cubic feet of storage capacity.)
Sears’ lowest-priced answering machine: 20.43 hours of work required in 1975; 1.1 hours of work required in 2006.
A ½-horsepower garbage disposer: 20.52 hours of work required in 1975; 4.59 hours of work required in 2006.
Sears lowest-priced garage-door opener: 20.1 hours of work required in 1975 (to buy a ¼-horsepower opener); 8.57 hours of work required in 2006 (to buy a ½-horsepower opener; Sears no longer sells garage-door openers with less than ½-horsepower.)
Sears highest-priced work boots: 11.49 hours of work required in 1975; 8.26 hours of work required in 2006.
One gallon of Sears Best interior latex paint: 2.4 hours of work required in 1975; 1.84 hours of work required in 2006. (Actually, Sears sells no paint on-line, so the price I got for a premium gallon of interior latex paint is from Restoration Hardware.)
Sears Best automobile tire (with specs 165/13, and a treadlife warranty of 40,000 miles: 8.37 hours of work required in 1975; 2.92 hours of work required in 2006 – although, the price here is of a Bridgestone tire that I found at another on-line merchant. Judging from its website, Sears no longer sells tires with specs 165/13 and a 40,000 mile warranty.
I realize that you can accuse me of bias – perusing the 1975 catalog and choosing those goods whose real prices have fallen most dramatically over the past 30 years. Certainly, a catalog of 1,491 pages has too many goods (and services, such as appliance installation) to count.
I avoided clothing (which is the first half of the catalog) because most of the clothing Sears sold in 1975 was made of polyester, or polyester/cotton blends – stuff that few of us wear these days.
And some other goods are simply incomparable across this time span. Take mattresses: Sears does sell today some mattress and box-spring sets that today are comparable to the very best set that it sold in 1975, but Sears top-of-the-line mattresses today are not comparable to its top-of-the-line mattress in 1975. Likewise with photography equipment and audio-visual equipment: how do you compare a 2006 CD player to a 1975 turntable?
A more fundamental objection to such a practice would go like this: “Sure, prices of things sold in department stores are today much more affordable than they were in 1975, but
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Six employees with the Toronto Transit Commission have tested positive for COVID-19 and nearly 700 are in self-isolation.
The members include three operators, a mechanic apprentice, a maintenance employee and a subway fare collector. One of the employees is being treated in hospital while the other five employees are at home.
“While serving Toronto during this coronavirus pandemic, TTC workers are understandably concerned about their health,” Carlos Santos, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, said in an e-mail.
READ MORE: TTC identifies 9 busy bus routes, urges riders to travel later for physical distancing
Right now most TTC workers are not required to wear masks. However, Santos said the union is calling on the TTC to give workers access to personal protective equipment, including face masks.
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“The TTC also needs to do more to ensure social distancing on crowded vehicles,” he said.
There have been multiple reports of packed buses on some TTC routes.
“We are aware that a small number of routes on major arterial roads are experiencing busy bus runs. While the buses are not full, we can certainly understand how people would be uncomfortable on them,” TTC spokesperson Stuart Green told Global News on Tuesday.
The statement from the TTC came after videos of transit users unable to social distance on TTC vehicles surfaced online.
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“We are working with our service planning team and through operator feedback to identify these routes and provide additional service when and where it is needed,” Green said.
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Green also confirmed in addition to approximately 700 employees that are currently in self-isolation, an additional 2,300 employees are on sick leave. The amount of staff off accounts for approximately 20 per cent of their operational workforce.
He said the reduction in staff is having a major impact on service delivery right now, noting service levels have dropped nearly 30 per cent.
READ MORE: TTC allowing workers to wear face masks, riders can board at all vehicle doors
Meanwhile, Santos said the union and the TTC have implemented some changes as the outbreak grows.
“While we wish the TTC had moved sooner on changes, ATU Local 113 secured the following health protections for workers: rear-door boarding, social distancing at the front of TTC buses as operators are permitted to block the two seats behind the driver’s seat with tape, the temporary elimination of payment by cash, tickets or tokens on TTC buses, flexibility for fare collectors and customer service agents to work in TTC subway booths, increased cleaning and disinfection across the system, and the choice for TTC workers to protect themselves by wearing face masks on the job.”
@TTChelps: “We are aware that a small number of routes on major arterial roads are experiencing busy bus runs. While the buses are not full, we can certainly understand how people would be uncomfortable on them.” Full statement attached #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/rPGEy8K13p — Travis Dhanraj (@Travisdhanraj) March 25, 2020
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#NEW: Video I was sent of a bus on Steeles yesterday. @TTChelps says they are trying to resolve issues, statement to follow #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/xJLIoyVppW — Travis Dhanraj (@Travisdhanraj) March 25, 2020
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But like the head-coach said himself, the tournament is about results, and winning games. That’s something Lafrenière could have probably helped the team do.
Chemistry between forwards
It might have been a curse that Canada started the tournament versus Danmark, and not in the way that Don Cherry suggested. Maybe hockey gods are a thing, and they punish you for running up the score on a weaker team, but a much more tangible factor is that it doesn’t give you much information on the chemistry of your lines, to know what your lineup should look like.
The line of Maxime Comtois, Cody Glass, and Owen Tippett combined for 10 points against Denmark. Was it because they knew how to find each other on the ice, or just because they were so much more talented than their counterpart that it didn’t matter? It’s hard to answer such a question.
But in the last three games of the tournament, when the trio failed to get going at key moments, gives us an indication that trying other setups could have been beneficial.
The news of Comtois’s injury — he played the tournament with a separated shoulder — gives more weight to that argument. He was a diminished player. Yes, the captain of the team should have a big role, but the number-one objective is running effective lines with players who can play at their full potential together.
Suzuki spent much of the tournament with Jaret-Anderson Dolan and a few different wingers. The combination didn’t manufacture many goals for Canada, despite the chances they were getting. His chemistry was better with Morgan Frost, but a struggling Barrett Hayton, didn’t complement the line as well.
Frost and Suzuki, or even Brett Leason, whose effort helped Canada turn defence into offence many times over, could have been good candidates to bring some fresh talent up to the first line with Glass. Then impact players Tipett and Comtois could have also benefited from playing against lesser competition, at times, to use their skills.
Rewarding performance
Evan Bouchard might have been a high-first-round pick last June, but he didn’t have a great tournament. His pairing with Ian Mitchell, a defensively-oriented player, wasn’t solid enough in its own zone for the limited offence they generated for the team. Once again, it might have been a case of chemistry, or the World Juniors setting not fitting the style of Bouchard, a player who is used to having the play run through him. Still, there is questions as to why he was used so much.
The duo of Josh Brook and Mitchell, despite the oddity of both being right-handed defencemen, had more dynamic qualities, with Mitchell especially providing some great offensive looks, and the two were more solid in the shifts they got together. They probably deserved to be leaned on for more minutes.
The power play
The first power-play unit for Team Canada was the less effective of the two deployed. The five-man formation of Bouchard, Tippett, Glass, Hayton, and Jack Studnicka struggled for a good part of the tournament. They didn’t move around, and seemed to create few scoring chances that didn’t come off the rush after getting into the zone.
In the clip below, Bouchard, who seemed lost as to how to quarterback the unit with everyone almost standing still at their position, simply fired two shots on net from the blue line that posed little threat to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. It caused two successive stoppages in play, leading the coaching staff to yank them 25 seconds in to be replaced by the much more dynamic second unit.
This alternative fivesome created a great scoring chance a handful of seconds after being placed on the ice, thanks to a deceptive play from Suzuki.
After this sequence, it was too late at this point to make adjustments to the first unit despite their obvious problems. It was the last opportunity Team Canada would get to have a man advantage.
A dominant power play is a key factor in winning games at the World Junior Hockey Championship. It’s not essential, as Finland proved, but it can definitely help a team pull ahead of the competition, or score the insurance goal needed to escape out of tough matchups.
The tournament is a short event. Sometimes leaving units together to form chemistry works. They can figure it out and start producing. But there is an equally strong argument for trying to find immediately successful combinations and run with them. There is a chance that the magic doesn’t leave until the final night.
All in all, the recipe that Team Canada concocted was probably good enough to win as it was. The talent was there, and with a little more luck, we could
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Research on major depression has confirmed that it is caused by an array of biopsychosocial and lifestyle factors. Diet, exercise and sleep are three such influences that play a significant mediating role in the development, progression and treatment of this condition. This review summarises animal- and human-based studies on the relationship between these three lifestyle factors and major depressive disorder, and their influence on dysregulated pathways associated with depression: namely neurotransmitter processes, immuno-inflammatory pathways, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis disturbances, oxidative stress and antioxidant defence systems, neuroprogression, and mitochondrial disturbances. Increased attention in future clinical studies on the influence of diet, sleep and exercise on major depressive disorder and investigations of their effect on physiological processes will help to expand our understanding and treatment of major depressive disorder. Mental health interventions, taking into account the bidirectional relationship between these lifestyle factors and major depression are also likely to enhance the efficacy of interventions associated with this disorder.
Sen. Lindsey Graham didn’t mince his words defending Brett Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court nomination was debated, slamming his political opponents and smugly dismissing protesters. So ‘thug life’ memes were called for.
The videos of him interacting with protesters, or rather shrugging off protesters, have gone viral as supporters professed their love to the controversial senator from South Carolina. Some of them revived the ‘thug life’ meme of circa 2015 that glorified a cool self-image and was usually combined with depictions of White suburban stereotypes. Might be appropriate, as Republicans are gloating over the successful end to the roller coaster nomination process.
A @LindseyGrahamSC thug life coming right up. L!O!L — HillaryClinton.net [CB] 🕵🏻🇺🇸 (@HCDotNet) October 5, 2018
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Description:
This 1 oz Silver Round commemorates the 0x Protocol, a building block for the decentralized exchange of assets in the Web 3.0 stack. This silver round contains 1 oz of.999 fine silver. Orders in increments of 20 will come shipped in their original mint tubes.
0x is an open protocol that facilitates the decentralized exchange of Ethereum-based tokens and assets. Developers can use 0x to build their own custom exchange apps with a wide variety of user-facing applications i.e. 0x OTC, a decentralized application that facilitates trustless over-the-counter trading of Ethereum-based tokens.
The 0x token (ZRX) is used by Makers and Takers to pay transaction fees to Relayers (entities that host and maintain public order books). ZRX tokens are also used for decentralized governance over 0x protocol’s update mechanism which allows its underlying smart contracts to be replaced and improved over time.
science are from the developed world, which has enjoyed relatively effective management and assiduous record keeping. The picture is different in the developing world, where Pauly's attention has long been focused. Getting a handle on fishing in these regions requires going beyond the official data, he says.
Yet even as it focuses on developing nations, the Sea Around Us Project has tried to take a broad perspective. Fisheries science is often, by necessity, highly localized. Researchers can spend years unpicking the factors that control the numbers of Maine lobster, or sprat in the Baltic Sea. Many researchers still insist that this is how fisheries science has to work. But Pauly's research has forced people to take a global view — to paint a full picture of the health of the oceans.
“You need to take yourself out of that local perspective,” says Belhabib. “It requires a lot of guts to do that. It took Daniel Pauly to do that.”
Scholarship
:
to the scholarly arguments surrounding this poem.
2002 Jónas Kristjánsson. ''Hrafnagaldur Óðins - Forspjallsljóð'',
.
2006, Annette Lassen, Hrafnagaldur Óðinn/Forspjallsljóð: An Antiquarian Poem? "Hrafnagaldur Óðins / Forspjallsljóð : et antikvarisk digt?"
from the 13th International Saga Conference in The Fantastic in Old Norse/Icelandic Literature, pp. 551-560.
2007 Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, The Werewolf in Medieval Icelandic Literature, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 106:3.
Edited with introduction, notes and translation by Annette Lassen,
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(CNN) Rapper Eminem unleashed a blistering four-and-a-half minute attack on President Donald Trump in a freestyle that aired Tuesday during the BET Hip Hop Awards. In it, he questioned the President's patriotism, criticized his policies and ridiculed his campaign promises. It ended with a challenge to his own fans, saying 'You're either for or against.'
Here's the freestyle in full.
(Warning: The verses contain language that some may find offensive.)
The FULL verse that EVERYBODY is talking about! @eminem BODIED THIS! #HipHopAwards pic.twitter.com/zoS0wEwjQF
"It's the calm before the storm right here
Wait, how was I gonna start this off?
I forgot... oh, yeah
That's an awfully hot coffee pot
Should I drop it on Donald Trump? Probably not
But that's all I got 'til I come up with a solid plot
Got a plan and now I gotta hatch it
Like a damn Apache with a tomahawk
Imma walk inside a mosque on Ramadan
And say a prayer that every time Melania talks
She gets a mou... Ahh, Imma stop
But we better give Obama props
'Cause what we got in office now's a kamikaze
That'll probably cause a nuclear holocaust
And while the drama pops
And he waits for s**t to quiet down, he'll just gas his plane up and fly around 'til the bombing stops
Intensities heightened, tensions are risin'
Trump, when it comes to giving a s**t, you're stingy as I am
Except when it comes to having the b***s to go against me, you hide 'em
'Cause you don't got the f**king n**s like an empty asylum
Racism's the only thing he's fantastic for
'Cause that's how he gets his f**king rocks off and he's orange
Yeah, sick tan
That's why he wants us to disband
'Cause he cannot withstand
The fact we're not afraid of Trump
F**k walkin' on egg shells, I came to stomp
That's why he keeps screamin' 'Drain the swamp'
'Cause he's in quicksand
It's like we take a step forwards, then backwards
But this is his form of distraction
Plus, he gets an enormous reaction
When he attacks the NFL so we focus on that
Instead of talking Puerto Rico or gun reform for Nevada
All these horrible tragedies and he's bored and would rather
Cause a Twitter storm with the Packers
Then says he wants to lower our taxes
Then who's gonna pay for his extravagant trips
Back and forth with his fam to his golf resorts and his mansions?
Same s**t that he tormented Hillary for and he slandered
Then does it more
From his endorsement of Bannon
Support for the Klansmen
Tiki torches in hand for the soldier that's black
And comes home from Iraq
And is still told to go back to Africa
Fork and a dagger in this racist 94-year-old grandpa
Who keeps ignoring our past historical, deplorable factors
Now if you're a black athlete, you're a spoiled little brat for
Tryina use your platform or your stature
To try to give those a voice who don't have one
He says, 'You're spittin' in the face of vets who fought for us, you bastards!'
Unless you're a POW who's tortured and battered
'Cause to him you're zeros
'Cause he don't like his war heroes captured
That's not disrespecting the military
F**k that! This is for Colin, ball up a fist!
And keep that s**t balled like Donald the b**ch!
'He's gonna get rid of all immigrants!'
'He's gonna build that thang up taller than this!'
Well, if he does build it, I hope it's rock solid with bricks
'Cause like him in politics, I'm using all of his tricks
'Cause I'm throwin' that piece of s**t against the wall 'til it sticks
And any fan of mine who's a supporter of his
I'm drawing in the sand a line: you're either for or against
And if you can't decide who you like more and you're split
On who you should stand beside, I'll do it for you with this:
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Students walk at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C., September 20, 2018. (Jonathan Drake/Reuters)
Long considered a signature achievement of the civil-rights movement, the integration of schools is coming under scrutiny in odd places.
Like most segregated black schools at the time, conditions at Robert Russa Moton High School were deplorable — the small brick school building, erected not two decades earlier to house 180 students, was serving upward of 450 all-black pupils by 1951. And if the physical conditions were bleak — students were reported to have used umbrellas indoors to avoid the deluge of rainwater that routinely fell from the porous roof — the educational resources were no better, with Moton’s science classes lacking even a single microscope for student use.
The NAACP had decided it would no longer devote legal resources toward ensuring compliance with Plessy’s infamous “separate but equal” standard, instead resolving to challenge de jure segregation in public education as such. The group thought the conditions at Moton would force systemic reform if taken to court, but would only take them to court with the consent of the student body. The all-black student body that year voted on the question: Would they fight for racial integration in a protracted court battle, or eschew the aid of the NAACP altogether and pursue equitable funding while remaining segregated? The proposal to pursue integration won — but only by a single vote.
More than fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, the Left has yet to make up its mind on the question of integration. Voices ranging from New York mayor Bill de Blasio to The Atlantic writer Jemele Hill have proposed radical changes to the way we approach the integration of our educational institutions, long considered to be a signature achievement of the civil-rights movement.
Bill de Blasio is weighing a proposal to halt most admissions to the city’s various “gifted and talented” programs, from specialized high schools such as Stuyvesant to special educational opportunities in ordinary public schools. A disproportionate number of Asian and white students are enrolled in gifted programs — the two groups accounted for 75 percent of enrollees last year — which, some say, creates a regime of de facto segregation in public schools. Maintaining strict racial quotas in public education is of such importance to the de Blasio administration that the mayor is earnestly considering removing race-blind programs that, at their best, are avenues to upward mobility for some of the poorest students in the state.
This is in stark contrast to Jemele Hill, who — though focusing on collegiate rather than elementary or secondary education — encourages black student-athletes to voluntarily segregate themselves at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Her latest piece in The Atlantic, “It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges,” decries “the flight of black athletes to majority-white colleges,” a process that she insists “has been devastating to HBCUs.” That much is obvious, or at least should be so — as integration continues, racially homogeneous schools will inevitably decline. Hill’s critique is redolent of ones levied by W. E.B. DuBois around the time of Brown v. Board of Education; DuBois questioned the Warren court’s insistence that racial separatism in education necessarily fostered feelings of inferiority, highlighting the important role played by black-only public schools in black communities.
Hill relates how, in some cases, “black students feel safer, both physically and emotionally, on an HBCU campus,” and insists that, as currently constructed, “Black athletes have attracted money and attention to the predominantly white universities that showcase them.” What if a movement began to, in effect, embrace de facto re-segregation?
“What if a group of elite athletes collectively made the choice to attend HBCUs?”
Intentionally sequestering many of the best black athletes and creating racialized sporting events would sow division — division that Hill and others doubtless feel already exists, on some more clandestine and metaphysical level. And perhaps the division is itself the point: If a mostly white Alabama football team were to play an all-black Grambling State team in the national championship, one can imagine the inevitable Ta-Nehisi Coates column remarking upon the latent symbolism in a crowd of mostly white Alabamians cheering for their mostly white college-football team against the “black bodies” playing for Grambling.
Racial integration was what the NAACP sought when it took the case of Moton High School. Many students within the school voted against integration, highlighting how polarizing the issue was at the time. So it remains: Bill de Blasio and Jemele Hill are both deeply involved and invested in racial questions, ones that can often veer into the realm of the abstract and incorporeal
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anything about it will see catastrophic effects."
All About U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations • Barack Obama • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency • Al Gore
All About Global Climate Change • Energy Policy • Barack Obama
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that'd be awesome! (I would have stayed longer yesterday but a friend decided I needed to be at his house by 5 for a movie night in which we watched The Lion King, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, and The Grudge)
Overpaid Hypocrites Still Lecturing Us
Unsurprising to most, and to the chagrin of many, the NFL kicked off their season this past weekend by disrespecting our flag, anthem, nation, and soldiers.
Halsey quickly leapt into the comments herself, pointing out that this wasn’t the first time she had incorporated a rainbow flag into her performances. Oh, and she also called them a “whiny little baby”.
That’s right, you can now get Robot Awarness on Kobo!
I know at least one of my good friends was waiting for it to appear here.
Find the Kobo version here: Robot Awareness
Hi Folks!
And as usual my 128pixel Resourcepack
Wolion 3D 128px
DOWNLOADS:
Please set Graphics: Fancy in Video Settings, otherwise the leaves would look very bad.
I had a talk with Tara about the recent furor.
(I did not choose the title: I would have chosen something less clickbaity!)
Note to self: maybe move around less when doing interviews, lol.
The fetishism of Japanese schoolgirls comes from within Japan itself.
So it’s not your responsibility for jerking off to them. Got it. It’s so convenient how that works!
-Solace
Germany and Brexit Berlin Has Everything To Lose if Britain Leaves
Will the British really leave the EU? For Germany it would be a catastrophe. And yet Chancellor Merkel is still avoiding strident anti-Brexit warnings lest she boost its supporters.
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Cis female with she/her pronouns. Bisexual pride. Not entirely able-bodied. 27. On this blog, you'll find: Feminism. Fandoms. Music. Wanderlust. Photography and Pictures. Quotes.
When politicians talk about race and diversity in America, Asian-Americans are noticeably absent from the conversation. Their portrait is one-dimensional: wealthy, educated, successful. But looking more closely at the numbers, you see a different picture altogether.
t involve denying your present circumstance, particularly regarding something as important as systemic racial disparities. Madison has a ton of room for improvement regarding racial disparities, and the road to drastic change doesn’t start with our mayor denying this.”
Now this is amazing!! Such a warm picture with the colors used so that I can almost feel the heat in this image. The shading is absolutely beautiful in this as well as the glare!! This is now one of my favorite pictures now!!
She said: "Show her a story where there has been bullying and ask her for the characteristics of that behaviour. This is like a mirror but it's not asking her to look at herself directly because that can be scary for many people."
to like-new.
However, who knows, he might just leave the Vette dusty and dirty for a long time. "To the best of my knowledge, I'm going to say the body has 95 percent original paint."
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Simmons "Kadri has basically gone from an 80 point guy to a 50 point guy" Still better than Bozak and not on the top PP or on the top line
— Hope_Smoke (@Hope_Smoke) December 3, 2013
With the Leafs in the midst of a tailspin, the vultures are looking for easy scapegoats, and as always, some in the mainstream media are pointing fingers at the wrong guys. @Hope_Smoke does yeoman's work transcribing radio interviews with hockey analysts. Now, I would rather just ignore Simmons' thoughts entirely (they came in a segment where he was waiting to rip Kadri, apparently), because his position on things changes dramatically by the day while the facts stay the same. However, there is plenty of blame to go around Toronto, it's just that Kadri is one of the last players who should shoulder that blame, and as I often do, I feel the need to defend Kadri Last year Kadri was Toronto's most productive centre, scoring 44 points in 48 games—a 75-point pace—which placed him 22nd in the league (13th among centres). So far this season Kadri has scored 17 points in 24 games—a 58-point pace—which places him 92nd in the league (45th among centres). Last year Kadri was scoring like an average first-line centre, and now he's scoring like an average second-line centre. That is a drop off, but not quite as drastic a one as Simmons suggests.What's more important is that last year's point total wasn't truly reflective of Kadri's talent level (at least not at this point in his career). That isn't to say Kadri wasn't good last season (he was), it just means thatof bounces went his way which contributed to his prolific pace, giving unrealistic expectations for what he would produce over a full season. Last season's pace probably wasn't going to hold up over 82 games. In fact, Kadri's point scoring was beginning to dry up near the end of last season, as he had only five points over his final 12 regular season games.The first red flag that suggested he wouldn't replicate last year's 0.92 points per game is that the Leafs' shooting percentage with Kadri on the ice was astronomical at even strength. At 14.3%, the Leafs were basically as good at converting shots to goals with Kadri dishing out passes as the Penguins were with Crosby. Kadri is a good player, but he's no Crosby. Unsurprisingly, that number has fallen this season to 9.3%, which is still above the league average mark of 7.6%, and Kadri's numbers have declined along with it.Still, with the amount of ice time he has been receiving (around 17 minutes a night, up a minute from last season), the Leafs are receiving pretty solid production from Kadri. Among centres, Kadri's ice time ranks 66th in the league, and his power play time (which has remained steady from last year) is 68th. So Kadri is being played third-line centre minutes, yet his production is more in line with that of a good second-line centre and perhaps even a poor first-line centre By upping Kadri's ice time, you would see much greater production, more in line with people's expectations heading into the season. Based on his points per 60 minutes, Kadri would have produced 15 or 16 points at even strength alone (instead of 10), to go along with around 9 power play points (instead of 7) if he was being played as much as Tyler Bozak. That's about a point per game. In limited minutes Kadri has been pretty productive.When you consider the rotating cast of wingers Kadri has seen, and his relative lack of ice time (especially on the power play), it isn't surprising that Kadri's production has dipped, even without considering his fortunate puck luck last season.There are some legitimate criticisms, however. Kadri himself was shooting the lights out last season, converting on 16.8% of his chances, indicating his goal scoring last season probably wouldn't hold up. In 2011-12, only 20 full-time players shot better than 16.5%. Only four of those players—Steven Stamkos, Brad Marchand, Jiri Hudler, and Tyler Bozak—did so again in 2012-13. So it isn't impossible for Kadri to replicate his 2013 shooting prowess, and so far he is converting on 17.9% of his chances, but in all likelihood that number will probably fall closer to the league average mark. And because Kadri's is creating fewer chances for himself this season compared to last (1.6 shots per game down from 2.2), his already slower goal-scoring pace will probably dry up even further unless he can manage to get the puck on net with greater frequency.Additionally, as Michael Traikos referenced in a
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It’s widely believed that Russian hackers were behind the recent attack on the Democratic National Committee’s e-mail servers. While the consequences of the attack for this year’s presidential election remain to be seen, it’s not hard to imagine how hackers could influence or disrupt our elections—and that could undermine our national stability and security.
That’s why the government should take the advice of security experts who say it must intervene to protect the voting system from cyberthreats.
As Bruce Schneier, a technologist and lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, argued recently in the Washington Post, the government should act quickly in the wake of the DNC hack. “If foreign governments learn they can influence our elections with impunity,” he wrote, “this opens the door to future manipulations, both document thefts and dumps like this one that we see and more subtle manipulations that we don’t see.”
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, seems to be listening. On Tuesday he told reporters that he’s considering designating the election system “critical infrastructure,” a move that would require cybersecurity protections for voting machines to be beefed up. Homeland Security coordinates the government’s effort to make sure that our critical infrastructure is resilient and secure from dangers including cyberthreats. There are 16 critical sectors, including finance, energy, and health care.
Adding the voting system to the list would not be straightforward. There is not one system but 9,000 jurisdictions that collect votes, tally them, and report the results. They do this in a wide variety of ways, some using electronic voting machines and others using paper ballots. The good news is that none use Internet-based voting.
Some states that electronically deliver blank absentee ballots have, however, been using the Internet “for the return of voted ballots via e-mail attachments, by digital fax, or through a Web portal,” according to Verified Voting, a group dedicated to safeguarding elections against digital threats.
Schneier notes that in recent years more and more states have adopted electronic voting machines and some “have been flirting” with Internet-based voting, despite repeated warnings against it from him and other security experts. Voting machine manufacturers have “thrown up enough obfuscating babble that election officials are largely mollified,” he writes. Internet voting must not be allowed, he argues, and we must go back to more secure methods, including electronic machines that produce a voter-verified paper trail (not all of them currently do).
As the DNC hack illustrates, it’s not just about voting machines. Hackers could mess things up by taking a variety of different avenues. Some have argued that the Secret Service should also get involved, to protect the cybersecurity of presidential candidates in addition to their physical security.
The DHS did not give specifics about what it would mean if the voting system becomes part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Hopefully it gets more specific soon: November is just around the corner.
(Read more: Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, “The States With the Riskiest Voting Technology”)
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is more elevated or connected to authentic divine truths than those who we engage forthrightly and travel among us.
I admit to having deep sympathies for this view, but I also place the burden on liberal Orthodoxy not only to supply an alternative theoretical model to the paradigm of gadolhood, but to demonstrate that its vision is attainable within the current social reality. There is little doubt that among a self-selecting group of highly educated and engaged members, it is possible to create a sense of commitment to halakha without recourse to gadolhood. Indeed, as I explore in my forthcoming book, Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law (forthcoming, Princeton University Press), one of the most sublime experiences known to those who frequent the beit midrash is how direct encounter with the texts and ideas of the Talmudic corpus creates a compelling mixture of submission to the authority of halakha which emerges from intellectual exploration and significant autonomy. Here, there is little need for the input of gedolim or any other rabbinic hierarchy or establishment. But as one moves to broader populations, and to communities who are less engaged and Jewishly educated, the model becomes harder to sustain. In a radically autonomous culture, it is very difficult to promote voluntary obedience to a demanding system of law whose norms are out of sync with contemporary mores. Particularly in (post) modernity, the sense of commitment to and commandedness by halakha must emerge from somewhere. And if I am correct in sensing that the liberal Orthodox demand curve for gedolim is almost non-existent, then no matter how long we wait, nor how erudite the rabbi, a liberal Orthodox gadol is extremely unlikely to emerge.
This, to my mind, is the critical question in the ongoing Orthodoxy wars. To the extent that liberal Orthodoxy has moved away from the gadol-based paradigm, its critics are right to ask: how will it generate a sense of halakhic authority?
If liberal Orthodox communities can create a structure of commandedness that feels consonant, even if not identical, with classical forms, then eventually other Orthodox subgroups will come to recognize it—much as centrist Orthodoxy eventually gained the begrudging acknowledgment of haredim. But if it fails to do so, then claims that liberal Orthodoxy is engaged in a qualitatively different project than Orthodoxy will ring true, and comparisons to the trajectory of Conservative and Reform Judaism may yet prove accurate. So while I am rooting for liberal Orthodoxy’s success, it bears the burden of proving its vitality. From where I sit, the jury is still out.
***
An earlier version of this article was delivered at the “Orthodoxy, Halakhah, and Boundary Anxiety” conference hosted by the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America in March of 2016.
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Payal Abdullah, a once all-powerful wife of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, found herself on the streets on Monday. Her belongings, carefully pieced over the years, were strewn on the front yard of the government allotted bungalow –7, Akbar Road in the national capital.
Her dream house that she had nurtured over the years with her keen sense of style lay in a complete shambles.
On Monday when her husband Omar was interacting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the head of a delegation of Opposition parties to try and find a solution to the Kashmir unrest, Payal lost her battle in the High Court that rejected her plea and slapped an eviction notice on her.
Without giving a window to Payal for making any further appeal, which could delay her eviction, the estate officers along with the members from the Jammu and Kashmir Resident Commissioner’s office and a posse of Delhi Police and CRPF men gate crashed removing Payal’s belongings from the plush eight-bedroom house. Even the standing counsel of the Jammu and Kashmir government was present on the spot ensuring Payal had no window to escape the eviction.
More than ten people got engaged in throwing out her belongings as Payal and her sons remained helpless spectators. The same furniture and home décor that Payal had flaunted to a news magazine, a few years ago, was thrown all over the place. Her sofa, tables, book racks, flower vases, lamps, rugs, carpets, beds and curtains,which till Monday morning decorated her palatial house, were lying unattended in the lawn.
When the eviction team reached the spot, Payal was not in the house. As her guards refused to open the gates, the gates were brought down and name plate of Omar Abdullah removed. Her two sons were at home when these men gate crashed and started removing her belongings. Soon after Payal reached the house, she was followed by a team of lawyers who were still trying to find a way out to stop eviction. But with the day coming to an end for the court, they had no choice, but to pacify Payal.
While Payal soon gathered her composure, her two sons were visibly in a state of panic seeing a fleet of men moving in and out of their house and throwing their furniture in the lawns where they would cheerfully play till a day ago. The Abdullahs had been living in the house since 1999.
Calling it an act of vendetta against Payal, her lawyer Amit Khemka said, “The government cannot carry on eviction after sunset. An inventory of the belongings of the occupant should also have been made before carrying out the eviction. But here everything is being done in such a hurry.” The lawyer also said that his client was ready to vacate the house in a weeks time.
The type 8 house built over two acres of land,belongs to Jammu and Kashmir government. Omar and Payal were occupying the house since 1999. After Omar was out of office, the resident commissioner asked Payal to vacate the house. Payal challenged the vacation in the court. She cited security concerns of herself and her two children. But the court said, if her husband Omar Abdullah and father-in-law Farooq Abdullah, also a former chief minister and Union minister, both Z plus protectees, can be secured while living in private accommodation, “there is no reason “why Payal and her sons cannot be secured.” The detailed verdict pronounced by Justice Indermeet Kaur was made available on Monday, though the judgment had been pronounced on August 19.
In the past, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi had faced a similar fate, when her mother-in-law and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had forced her to vacate the government house, rendering her daughter-in-law homeless. In 2014, RLD chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh was forcefully evicted from his Tughlaq Road house.
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and environmentally sustainable energy use are mutually exclusive:
“No, it’s nowhere near sustainable. The energy mix is highly coal-dependent although that has improved somewhat over the last couple of years and is predicted to further decline from its peak in 2007 (80% of electricity was from coal) to currently about 2/3 being coal to predicted 40% in 2040 (which is still pretty high — e.g. comparable to the energy mix of Germany today; which is also pretty bad as some countries are entirely or close to renewable electricity.)”
The cost of mining Bitcoin
In Adam Hayes’ 2015 paper, “A Cost of Production Model for Bitcoin,” the author equates Bitcoin production to a competitive market, noting that miners will (in theory) “produce until their marginal costs equal their marginal product.” Electricity costs make up almost all of these marginal costs once the initial infrastructure and equipment have been paid off. Any change to the cost of electricity necessitates a reassessment of profitability.
Considering that Bitcoin’s hash rate has increased almost every year since its creation and electricity costs have remained largely unchanged, one can surmise that mining equipment is becoming increasingly more powerful and efficient.
However, this growth correlates with a stable cost of energy, and there is little evidence to suggest it can maintain profitability if energy costs increase significantly. In the event that energy becomes unavoidably more expensive, several factors can be changed to improve profitability.
Changing the Bitcoin algorithm
Various ways to improve efficiency by changing the core Bitcoin algorithm have been suggested in different forms over the years. If the number of transactions per second could be increased to a level closer to that of the Visa network’s 1700 TPS, then the required energy would drop considerably. On paper, if the time taken to generate a block can be reduced or the block size can be increased, then the network becomes more energy efficient.
However, despite much discussion regarding these changes and several attempts to implement an altered version of Bitcoin, nobody has managed to find an effective solution. This is mostly due to the nature of a decentralized peer-to-peer network, which takes a long time to relay new information to Bitcoin’s 10,000+ nodes around the world.
Improvements in solar and wind power
The costs associated with using renewable energy like solar and wind power have been decreasing steadily over the past decade. In early November this year, the Financial Times reported that these forms of renewable energy had “reached parity with average wholesale prices in California, China, and parts of Europe.” Furthermore, by the end of next year, renewable energy costs across most of western Europe are expected to fall below wholesale market prices.
China is the world’s largest market for solar farms, known as photovoltaic (PV) power plants, but experienced an 11% reduction in capital expenditure over the past six months due to last year’s cutback on public solar subsidies.
At the beginning of 2019, in a bid to improve its solar energy parity, the NDRC, in collaboration with the National Energy Agency, unveiled plans to drive investment into subsidy-free PV projects. In many cases, land use fees have been waived to incentivize development and grid operators have been ordered to prioritize dispatch for PV projects.
Despite its efforts, China still remains the world’s largest coal user and its imports increased by almost 10% this year, partially prompted by the ongoing China–U.S. trade war, which has forced China to investigate cheaper fuel prices abroad.
However, a report from the International Energy Agency predicts that solar and wind will be almost entirely responsible for a 50% increase in global renewable energy capacity by 2024. Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director at the IEA, said:
“Renewables are already the world's second-largest source of electricity, but their deployment still needs to accelerate if we are to achieve long-term climate, air quality, and energy access goals.”
While significant steps are being made to reduce costs associated with solar and wind power, these cost reductions are slowing down while the cost of mining Bitcoin continues to increase. Professor Hubacek believes that, “further investment and policy support for decarbonization of the electricity sector and the overall economy” is required, including “an increase in energy efficiency and reduction of consumption (e.g. lifestyle changes).”
Bitcoin halvening
Mining Bitcoin could become less profitable after next year’s “halvening,” a predetermined event that occurs roughly every four years in order to manage inflation. Sometime around mid-May 2020, the block reward for mining Bitcoin will be automatically reduced from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, decreasing the profits associated with mining.
Related: BTC Miners: No More Basement Rigs,
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owing out and narrowing".
Moustaches were clipped
and trimmed until they curved
like sabres and bristled like
bayonets. Their ends were
waxed and given a soldierly
erection.
They became the talisman of militant
imperialists such as Alfred Milner, who
served in Egypt and South Africa in the
late-19th century; Frederick Lugard, a
governor of Hong Kong and Nigeria;
Lieutenant-Colonel D.M.C.T.
Lumsden
who served in India at the turn of the
20th century; and the great explorer of
Africa Sir Richard Burton (who challenged
a fellow Oxford undergraduate
to a duel for laughing at his moustache,
which matured into the most prodigious
walrus of the age).
Scroll down for more...
As a martinet in the Pacific, George
McGhee Murdoch paraded his determination
to dominate by "the deliberate,
waxed bristle of his sergeant-major's
moustache".
In Kenya, the famous lion
hunter Colonel J. H. Patterson groomed
his moustache into "two imperious
curls" to symbolise his courage.
Imitating warriors, civilians too stiffened
their upper lips: Karl Marx's collaborator,
Friedrich Engels, mocked
Anglo-Irish aristocrats with "enormous
moustaches under colossal Roman
noses".
By the 1890s, the moustache was
the mark of every successful dandy.
As far away as Hong Kong, it was said
to be social death for a man to forget to
curl the ends of his moustache.
At home, Edwardian gentlemen rebuked
servants who aped the "fancy hairdressing"
of their betters.
Nothing could be permitted to
devalue these military insignia, which
reached their peak in the fulsome display
of Lord Kitchener and gained
iconic status in the famous Great War
recruiting poster in which a steely-eyed
Kitchener proclaimed: 'Your country
needs you.'
So the moustache became the
emblem of Empire. But as the British
Empire faltered under the hammer
blows of war, depression and nationalist
resistance, the moustache too beat
a retreat.
The British commanding officer who
surrendered to the Japanese at Singapore,
General Percival, had a miserable
apology of a moustache.
General Sir
Gerald Templer, the Chief of the Imperial
Staff at the time of Suez in 1956, had
a late-imperial moustache that was "so
thin as to be barely perceptible".
Sir Anthony Eden's was somewhat
similar but, to make matters
worse, it was said to have
"curled inside out" in an embarrassingly
effete manner.
One young Tory MP said that "Eden
had to prove he had a real moustache"
- a metaphor for proving his courage.
The Prime Minister's wife, Clarissa, did
her best to help.
Moments before her
husband's broadcast on November 3,
1956, the eve of the invasion of Suez, she
saw on a television monitor that his
moustache was almost invisible and
quickly blackened it with her mascara.
By then, the moustache was vanishing
as fast as the Empire.
True, it had
ceased to be compulsory in the Army as
early as 1916, when King's Regulations
had permitted shaving the upper lip.
Allegedly that change took place to
accommodate the Prince of Wales,
whose growth was less than manly.
But it seems that Lieutenant-General Sir
Nevil Macready made the order because
he intensely disliked his own moustache,
"a bristly affair resembling the
small brushes with which kitchen maids
and others clean saucepans".
Be this as it may, the moustache was
outmoded by the 1950s.
It had become a
joke thanks to Charlie Chaplin and
Groucho Marx and an international
symbol of villainy thanks to Hitler's
toothbrush and
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fairly hard and has good bulk for an offensive Pokémon; at worst, Kangaskhan may be 2HKOed by strong attacks such as Thunderbolt from Jolteon and Psyshock from Alakazam, but it is fully capable of KOing back with ease. What can I expect to see? Just as in the Safari Zone, Kangaskhan only appears once in a blue moon. When Kangaskhan does appear, however, expect to be greeted immediately by a quick Fake Out. The move hits decently hard due to the STAB boost, netting free chip damage while breaking Sturdy on Pokémon like Magneton and Golem. If Kangaskhan runs Scrappy, even Gengar isn't safe to switch in on Kangaskhan without losing a nice portion of its health to Fake Out, let alone any of its stronger Normal-type STAB moves. Sucker Punch is Kangaskhan's go-to answer for most faster Pokémon, especially key threats such as Gengar, Alakazam, and Starmie, so be sure to have a way to play around the move with these Pokémon if Kangaskhan is up against them. Of Kangaskhan's Normal-type STAB moves, Return is the strongest and most reliable, though Body Slam and Chip Away both have their perks. Body Slam's paralysis chance is appealing, but its biggest use is dealing double damage to Clefable after it has used Minimize, allowing Kangaskhan to still have a chance to beat it. The only drawback to this is that a legal Body Slam Kangaskhan is a massive pain to obtain, needing to be transferred from Gen 3. However, Chip Away is a viable, much easier-to-obtain alternative to Body Slam; at the cost of a little Base Power, Kangaskhan can still bypass Minimize, as well as Curse from Snorlax. Lastly, Power-Up Punch lets Kangaskhan work as a sweeper and a wallbreaker in one, boosting its Attack while still dealing some damage, while Earthquake lets Kangaskhan beat down Sturdy Pokémon, namely Golem and Magneton. What are its flaws? Kangaskhan's biggest flaw may actually be within one of its strengths— it is a well-rounded Pokémon offensively and defensively, yet it doesn't excel noticeably in either department. Kangaskhan lacks significant raw power, making it very reliant on using Power-Up Punch to break through bulkier threats such as Slowbro and Clefable, especially if Kangaskhan runs Body Slam or Chip Away over Return. Similarly, while Kangaskhan also has good bulk, its bulk is not exceptional to the point that it can switch in on a number of offensive threats easily, and thus it needs to be played with a bit of care. Kangaskhan is also heavily reliant on Sucker Punch to take out fast sweepers such as Gengar and Alakazam, and this can be exploited by the opponent by use of status moves such as Substitute. Lastly, Aerodactyl can easily switch in on any of Kangaskhan's attacks and threaten it, not even fearing Sucker Punch due to its bulk.
»»»» »»»» Nidoqueen Nidoqueen must have paid a lot of money for the plastic surgery and fitness trainer! Stealth Rocker Nidoqueen Ability: Sheer Force EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe Modest Nature -Stealth Rock -Sludge Wave -Ice Beam / Thunderbolt -Earth Power / Thunderbolt What's the big deal? Nidoking tends to outshine Nidoqueen in most areas, but Nidoqueen has one trick up its horn: better bulk, which makes it a better user of Stealth Rock! What can I expect to see? To take advantage of Nidoqueen's better bulk, you can expect players to always run maximum HP investment and Stealth Rock. Sludge Wave allows Nidoqueen to be a respectable Clefable check while also giving it a 90% chance to 2HKO Slowbro. Ice Beam ensures that Dragonite won't easily set up on Nidoqueen. Earth Power does plenty of damage to foes such as Arcanine and Jolteon, while Thunderbolt can destroy Gyarados switch-ins. What are its flaws? Nidoqueen might be bulkier than Nidoking, but it still faces must of the same issues: Psychic-types give it serious trouble, making it fairly easy to revenge kill for the likes of Alakazam and Starmie. Additionally, Nidoking outclasses Nidoqueen offensively, meaning that there's no reason to use Nidoqueen outside of the bulky set, reducing its versatility. Finally, Nidoqueen's bulk isn't bad, but its lack of recovery means it can get worn down very easily considering how average its defensive capability is compared to behemoths like Snorlax.
»»»» »»»» Seaking You
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ownership in the world?
Read HOW THE GOVERNMENT TAKES YOUR LAND
How is the USA affected by Agenda 21?
Never heard of Agenda 21 or the proposed Agenda 2030? Not surprised, but many of our lawmakers and representatives have not only heard of it, they are fighting against it!
In 2013, IOWA State Representative Dawn Pettengill voiced fear that Agenda 21 “would force residents out of rural areas to be crowded into densely populated areas”. Her concerns were validated by a (NAR) 2016 National Association of Realtors Report suggesting that millennials have swapped the sub-rubs for urban living. Sid Miller, former Texas State Representative and Republican candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, has since made the matter a campaign issue to Breitbart Texas.
“In Texas,” Miller says, “the BLM is attempting a repeat of an action taken over 30 years ago along the Red River when Tommy Henderson lost a federal lawsuit. The Bureau of Land Management took 140 acres of his property and didn’t pay him one cent.” – Breitbart News
In 2014 the State of Oklahoma legislature passed HB 1412 through the Oklahoma State’s Rights Committee to ban Agenda 21 within state limits. In March of 2013, legislature passed the bill (67 to 17) which that prohibits any political subdivision of the state from complying with policy recommendations of the United Nations Agenda 21/Sustainable Development, which became effective November 1, 2013.
In March of 2012 Mayor Beth Van Duyne and city manager Tommy Gonzalez of Irving, Texas have inspired Tennessee to pass a Joint Resolution 587 to condemn Agenda 21 as “destructive and insidious.”
Other states like Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri, and Maine have moved to ban agenda 21 altogether. New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to ban UN Agenda 21 polices and won, Kansas, and Alabama were right behind them.
The following is a portion of Joint Resolution 587 in which Tennessee’s Governor Bill Haslam refused to sign the bill. The following is a portion of Joint Resolution 587 in which Tennessee’s Governor Bill Haslam refused to sign the bill.
In the past, critics have accused the BLM of grossly mismanaging land and the public opinion that it is better left in the hands of private owners with a vested interest in the property. Others claim that government should not be involved in private real-estate matters, as it is a violation of the constitution. Fact is that the government spends billions of dollars on “managing land” which is fundamentally flawed. In many ways, it’s illegal. For instance, in Florida, the federal government wasted billions of dollars in an attempt to “drain” the everglades, then racked up billions in additional expenses to attempt restoration. Since 1980, EPA’s Superfund program promised to protect human health and the environment by managing the cleanup of the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites. How well is this working and is the program just another form of seizing land under measures that are contrary to private land owner’s rights? In the case of the Hammond’s and the Bundy’s, it’s the bone of contention in the argument; government needs to stay out of the business of private land.
Please, let’s call a spade a spade shall we?
Politicians play shuffle board all day long, as in the following example of Florida’s obvious takeover of private land, by creating one astringent law to replace another, inserting new language into larger bills.
“Florida Forever replaces Preservation 2000 (P2000), the largest public land acquisition program of its kind in the United States. With approximately 10 million acres managed for conservation in Florida, more than 2.5 million acres were purchased under the Florida Forever and P2000 programs.” – Florida EPA
Florida’s Land Management Chart: Florida EPA
In regards to the Oregon land grab, only more questions arise. Why did Cliven Bundy’s son, Ammon Bundy, feel it necessary to create an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge building? Why did the Hammonds make a deal, such a raw deal with the BLM to give them ‘first right of refusal’?* I would say that is most likely one main reason why, because mainstream news has not given the ‘Oregon occupation’ attention. Bundy has made it perfectly clear that neither he nor the coalition will stand down until all issues with the Hammond’s are resolved. Note: Ammon Bundy and fellow activists occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in support the Hammond ranchers who are allegedly scheduled to report to federal prison to serve a sentence for arson which was not arson, but rather necessary “controlled burning” on the their property. If the Hammond’s and the Bundy’
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A new report from network testing firm Tutela found that the average download speeds provided by the nation’s MVNOs—providers like Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile or Consumer Cellular—are 23% slower than what’s available from that MVNO’s “host” network, like Verizon or AT&T.
While not necessarily surprising—network operators like AT&T and Verizon often reserve their most advanced services and functions for their own branded network offerings—the results nonetheless underscore the difference between MVNOs and the network providers that actually own and operate wireless networks.
“Our tests show that Comcast’s Xfinity, which operates on Verizon’s network, provides roughly half the average data speeds in urban areas where Tutela conducted tests—12.6 Mbps in comparison to 24 Mbps,” the network management firm wrote in its newest report, which is available in full at the bottom of this article. “The consistent quality score showed a 33.8 point disparity in Verizon’s favor.”
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MVNOs like Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile essentially piggyback on “host” wireless network operators—in Comcast’s case, Verizon owns and operates the network that Xfinity Mobile uses. Like most MVNOs, Xfinity Mobile handles phone sales, customer care and billing, and notes only that its offering runs on “America’s largest and most reliable 4G LTE network.”
Indeed, most wireless network operators don’t publicly discuss their MVNO partners, and most MVNOs don’t disclose the identity of their host network. But Tutela’s new report shows that MVNOs may not offer exactly the same services as their hosts. Further, the firm noted that wireless network operators differ significantly in their approach to MVNO partners.
For example, AT&T’s MVNOs offer speeds roughly half of what AT&T itself provides. “Consumer Cellular, Cricket and H2O all have download speeds that are around half what AT&T offers in the urban locations where Tutela tested both,” the firm noted. “However, H2O and Consumer Cellular both managed to achieve significantly higher consistent quality scores than AT&T. 72.8% and 71.5% respectively, compared to around 67% from AT&T. While we can’t draw any absolute conclusions, one possible reason for this is superior core network elements (e.g. gateways and routers) on the part of those two MVNOs. Cricket, meanwhile, came in far lower with 40.8% compared to AT&T’s 65.7%.”
Other operators, though, offered speeds roughly similar to their MVNOs.
“In our tests, Tutela found that the MVNO download performances of Consumer Cellular, LycaMobile, MetroPCS and Ultra Mobile were remarkably similar to T-Mobile,” the firm noted. “However, MetroPCS’ website states that its customers’ data is 'prioritized below data of some T-Mobile-branded customers at times and locations where competing network demands occur.' Tutela’s data reveals that at busier times MetroPCS customer experience lags further behind T-Mobile than at quiet times.”
To be clear, MetroPCS is now called Metro by T-Mobile and isn’t a traditional MVNO because T-Mobile owns the company. The same is true for AT&T’s Cricket and Sprint’s Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. Consumer Cellular, Xfinity Mobile and Ultra Mobile are all considered “standard” MVNOs because they are separate companies that offer services through an agreement with a host network operator.
As part of its network testing, Tutela also provided network rankings for the nation’s wireless network operators: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. The firm found that Verizon nabbed top honors for consistent service quality. “In 78.1% of tests in urban areas, the operator met or exceeded our network performance standards,” the firm wrote in its report.
Tutela said it obtained its measurement results via software installed on more than 3,000 partner apps across 250 million Android and iPhone devices globally, collecting over 10 billion mobile data measurements every day. The firm’s data spans Jan. 1 to
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amount is zero (it shouldn't be), then it's time to look at where you can cut some costs.
Since you've had the discipline to pay off debt, you'll likely have a reasonable sum of money for investment.
3. Finding the Right Type of Account
Most people thinking about how to invest their money should look at retirement accounts first. Remember, this is after you've set your budget, created your emergency fund, and determined how much you can invest each month.
If you have a career, it's highly likely that your company offers its employees a retirement plan. These go under different names – 401(k), 403(b), etc. The programs provide a way for employees to contribute money every paycheck to an investment account where the money invested grows tax-free as long as it remains in the plan.
Free Money
In most cases, the employer contributes money to your account as well in the form of a matching contribution. They agree to match what you put into your account with their own money up to a certain percentage.
Here's a typical example. They offer to match your contribution up to 50% of the first 6%. For every six dollars you invest, you're getting three dollars more from the company. That's a 50% return on the first 6% you put into the plan. There is no other investment out there that offers a 50% guaranteed return.
Plus, the money you contribute is tax-deductible, meaning it reduces your taxable income by that amount. You pay tax on the money at the time you withdraw it at retirement. It's free money and a tax deduction. It's truly the best investment you can make.
The IRS allows you to contribute up to $19,000 of your own money into employer-sponsored plans. That means you can put a chunk money toward saving for your retirement.
Roth IRA
You should also consider contributing to a Roth IRA.
Unlike employer plans, contributions are not tax-deductible. The money you contribute to a Roth IRA has already been taxed. You can contribute $6,000 to a Roth in 2019. Earnings on the money while it remains in the account grow tax-free.
You can withdraw contributions at any time without penalties or taxation. Earnings are a little different. If the Roth account is five years old, profits can be taken out without paying any taxes. However, if you are under age 59 ½ at the time you withdraw, you will pay the IRS a 10% penalty.
The great thing about a Roth IRA, especially if you start one when you're younger, is that money withdrawn after five years and when you're over age 59 ½ is tax-free income. That's a huge benefit when you're calculating retirement income.
Having tax-efficient or, in this case, tax-free income in retirement is a significant advantage of the Roth IRA.
4. Find the Best Investment Options
If you're investing in your employer's retirement plan, the options you have are the ones available in the plan.
In the vast majority of plans, these are mutual funds.
Mutual Funds
In their basic form, mutual funds are managed portfolios of stocks and bonds. They are professionally managed, offer some diversification, and a variety of choices in the types of stocks and bonds available. Most plans have a lot of choices (sometimes too many) of funds. Your benefits department can provide information to help you decide which funds to select.
For any money you're investing outside of the employer plan, mutual funds are also an excellent option. You aren't limited to a set of funds chosen by your employer. In many cases,m you can find lower-cost funds offering better performance.
There are other options to consider, as well.
Individual Stocks and Bonds
In mutual funds, the fund managers decide which stocks and bonds to invest in, and often invest in hundreds of stocks. You can also purchase individual stocks and bonds on your own. When you're just starting out investing and have smaller amounts of money, it's hard to diversify a portfolio of individual stocks. It takes a significant dollar amount to buy enough stocks to diversify your portfolio.
Picking stocks and bonds on your own is also riskier. There are a variety of stock picking newsletters and services to help you make a choice. Many of these services tout their ability to beat the market and provide higher returns. If you're just learning how to invest or just starting, I would not recommend individual stocks and bonds.
If you're up for taking on more investment risk, it may make sense for you. Individual stocks are a high-risk, high reward proposition.
Index Funds
Index funds are a specific type of mutual fund. As we described earlier, funds have professional managers who decide which stocks to buy and sell based on their research. Index
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All that is left to make medical marijuana legal in Delaware is the signature of the governor, who has said he will make it law. The bill would allow people 18 and older with certain serious or debilitating conditions that could be alleviated by marijuana to possess up to six ounces of the drug. On Wednesday by a 17-4 vote the State Senate gave its approval to the bill that cleared the House last week. It heads to the desk of Gov. Jack Markell. Under the bill, qualifying patients would be referred to state-licensed and regulated “compassion centers,” which would be responsible for growing, cultivating and dispensing the marijuana. Delaware would join 15 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing medical marijuana.
Maryland Severance Agreements
In order to avoid lawsuits or discrimination charges filed by workers who have been terminated, most employers utilize “Severance and Release Agreements” to protect themselves. The Singleton Law Group has represented both employers and employees in either drafting or reviewing these agreements.
For employers, it is critical to have a carefully crafted agreement and for the worker, it is essential to know what rights you are waiving and is it worth it. to ensure a fair agreement on either side. Most employees do not know that they cannot collect unemployment benefits while getting severance. Having a lawyer review severance agreements on either side can help to cover both sides of the agreements and help to eliminate loopholes.
to us. We have to go to them.”
But young climbers don’t want to watch Ondra speed climbing on plastic holds. They want to see him pulling hard on La Dura Dura, one of the hardest sport routes in the world. And young surfers don’t want to listen to Bob Costas narrate John John Florence’s top turns. They want to watch a webisode, scroll through heats on demand (if the waves are firing), and then go surfing.
The Olympics are best when a sport’s greatest athletes are competing against their peers in optimal conditions. Unfortunately, that’s not what climbing and surfing fans will get in 2020.
past for two mission trips with my church for us to go to Kenya and serve at an orphanage and bless them financially. I know the power in people coming together for a great cause, and I pray that this could bear the same outcome.
I didn’t really know how much to set the fundraising limit for. I am not trying to be greedy by "setting the bar high". I was just trying to consider all the needs, from the mortgage, to help with college education, and everything in between that continues to come up in their lives. Please prayerfully give as much as you can without any pressure! I am believing God for what he does best, new life and miracles.
Read more
:
Home schooling, in our country, is that form of teaching and training of children at home in order to preserve the Catholic faith in the family, and to preserve the Catholic faith in our country. Home schooling in the United States is the necessary concomitant of a culture in which the Church is being opposed on every level of her existence and, as a consequence, given the widespread secularization in our country, home schooling is not only valuable or useful but it is absolutely necessary for the survival of the Catholic church in our country.
Homeschooling is a divine call from the Hound of Heaven, who longs to embrace families with His clemency, wisdom and benevolence. Is it yours?
President Donald Trump, ever hyper-aware of how his administration plays out in the media, boiled over recently as he turned to his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney: “We are getting crushed! Why can’t we get a deal?”
According to a Wednesday New York Times report, Trump is shocked that Democrats haven’t come around on the wall and has taken to finger pointing at various aides whenever he sees news or polling indicating that Americans are blaming him for the prolonged shutdown.
Mulvaney, the recipient of Trump’s latest outburst, is meanwhile trying to find his sea legs in his new position, reportedly taking a more hands-off approach than his predecessor.
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In 2015, one DJIA company outpaced all other Dow stocks with a 30% gain: Nike.
The Oregon-based $100 billion company now generates over $30B in yearly revenues, year-over-year growth of 5%, and sales to China growing more than 30% annually. Nike is considered
- and one of the most
, ranking ahead of Intel and Mercedes-Benz.
But the company's brand name almost ended up being completely different.
Nike founded as Blue Ribbon Sports
Founded in 1964 by CEO Phil Knight and Oregon head track coach Bill Bowerman as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), the company initially served as a U.S. distributor of running shoes made by Japanese company Onitsuka Tiger (now known as Asics).
In 1971, Knight and BRS launched an effort to manufacture and distribute their own shoes - under their own brand. It was June of 1971. The first shipment of their own shoes would go out the next day, and they needed a new name.
Fortunately, they already had a logo. Knight had enlisted the help of Portland State University graphic design student Carolyn Davidson to come up with some design options. One of the choices she presented to Knight was the now-iconic Swoosh.
"Well, I don't love it,"
Almost named "Dimension Six"
Next, they needed a name. Knight wanted to name the brand "Dimension Six."
The late Geoff Hollister, the company's third employee who was managing the BRS store in Eugene, Oregon, writes, "Knight went for Dimension Six; we thought perhaps for his love of the pop group The 5th Dimension."
Jeff Johnson, BRS's first employee, was in Massachusetts when he got a call from Bob Woodell, the company's first President,
.
"Knight just came in and told me we needed a name by 9 a.m. because they're making up the shoe boxes," Woodell explained to Johnson.
Hollister offered an idea: "I stayed in the zone of Puma," referring to the successful German shoe company named after a cougar, suggesting the name "Peregrine," a type of falcon.
Perhaps also inspired by Puma, another early BRS employee suggested "Bengal."
None of these options were popular with the other employees.
Johnson, who ran the company's East Coast factory in Exeter, NH, would come up with another idea. Runners World contributor Matt McCue documented how Johnson read an in-flight magazine about great brand names, such as Kleenex and Xerox.
"They had no more than two syllables and at least one exotic letter or sound in them with a Z, X or K," writes McCue, paraphrasing Johnson.
At 7 a.m. the next morning, Johnson awoke with the name "Nike." But it was only 4 a.m. in Portland, so Johnson waited 3 hours before calling Woodell.
"I've got it!" Johnson said to Woodell, according to Strasser and Becklund.
"What?"
"Nike!"
"What?" Woodell asked. "What's a Nike?"
"It's the Greek winged goddess of victory," Johnson said.
"[Johnson] calmly emphasized 2 syllables and the importance of a "K" or "Z" sound," writes Hollister. Then silence.
"What else you got?" Woodell finally asked.
Woodell didn't like "Nike." He also didn't like "Peregrine or "Bengal." But he discussed all the options with Knight.
Knight did not like "Nike" either.
Writer and Olympian
.
"Nike? Sounds like a Jeff deal to me," Knight said. "What happened to Dimension Six?"
"Nobody seems to like that one but you," Woodell said. "This Nike thing would fit the shoes."
Knight started typing. They had a 9 a.m. deadline with the factory.
"Which did you pick?" asked Woodell.
"I guess we'll go with the Nike thing for a while," Knight said. "I don't like any of them, but I guess that's the best of the bunch."
On June 18, 1971, the first Nike shoe went on sale.
PRE: The first noted athlete to wear Nike in Public
Years before Michael Jordan and LeBron James forged mega-million-dollar Nike identities, including LeBron's recent lifetime deal, there was one Nike athlete who was first. The first top athlete to publicly display the new Nike name with the new "Swoosh" logo at a major sporting event was local and national running hero Steve Prefontaine.
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akers Association (ORCA) Palm Beach Marine Aquarium Society (PBMAS) Reef Keepers of Myrtle Beach South Florida Reef/Saltwater Aquaria (SFRA) Southwest florida marine aquarium society (SWFMAS) Southwest Virginia Reef Club SPRING HILL AREA REEF KEEPERS (SHARK) Tampa Bay Reef Club TC.ARK = Treasure Coast Area Reef Keepers Tennessee Reefers Treasure Coast- Florida Reef Aquarium Group (TC-FRAG) Upstate Reefers (Greenville/Spartanburg/ Anderson) West Tennessee Marine & Reef Aquarium Club SouthWest Region-Reef Club Forums AMRC (Alamogordo Marine and Reef Club) Arizona - Fish & Reef Aquarium Group (FRAG) Arizona - Northern Arizona Marine Aquarium Society (NAMAS) Arizona-Sierra Vista/Tucson Reef Keepers Central Oklahoma Marine Aquarium Society Cpod - The Maricopa pod of reefers Dallas/Fort Worth Marine Aquarium Society (DFWMAS) New Mexico Aquarium & Coral Society (NewMACS) Oklahoma Marine Aquarium Society (OMAS) Southwest Tank And Reef Society (STARS) The Saltwater Club of Central Texas West Region-Reef Club Forums Chico Reef Club D.A.R.C. - Denver Area Reef Club Big Country Reef Society (BCRS) Greater San Francisco Bay Area Reef Forum Las Vegas Valley Reefers Marine Aquarists Roundtable of Sacramento (MARS) Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County Monterey County Area Reefers Society Northern Valley Reefers (NVR) Puget Sound Aquarium Society (PSAS) Redding Area Reef Enthusiasts (R.A.R.E) Ridge Reefers Saltwater Enthusiasts Association of the Bay Area San Diego Marine Aquarium Society (SDMAS) Southern California Reefers Southern Colorado Marine Aquarist Society (SCMAS) Spokane Reef Society Wine Country Reefers Reefkeeping Online Magazine "Frag" of the Month Aaron Sewell Jake Adams Terry D. Bartelme Eric Borneman Chris Braithwaite Joe Burger Anthony Calfo William Capman, Ph. D. Mitch Carl Erik Carrillo Bill Chamberlain Allen E Chantelois Horge Cortes-Jorge Jr. David A. Crandall, M.D. Jose Dieck Randy Holmes-Farley James W. Fatherree, M. Sc. Ken Feldman Jon E. Garner Mike Greenemeier Kimberly Hall Greg Hiller Simon Huntington Sanjay Joshi, Ph.D. Chris Jury Mike Kirda Sarah Lardizabal Marc Levenson Agu Lukk Frank Marini, Ph.D. Rex Niedermeyer Notes from the Trenches Brian Plankis Steven Pro Dana Riddle Greg Rothschild Dwayne Sapp Henry C Schultz III Ronald L. Shimek, Ph. D. Steve Shindell Hiroyuki Tanaka, MD Gregory S. Taylor Andrew Trevor-Jones Roger Vitko Mark van der Wal Paul Whitby Doug Wojtczak Tank of the Month Feedback & Questions ReefSlide Topic Suggestions Top Ten Ideas & Tank of the Month Nominations RC Archives Coral of the Week Series Fish of the Week Series Mollusk of the Week Reef FAQ's DIY Archive So you want to.... Series Disease Treatment Archive Nuisance Algae & Other Pests Creature ID Lighting Protein Skimming & Filtration Coral Care Fish Care Archive Other Invertebrate Care Sand Beds & Refugiums Water Chemistry Plumbing Equipment Breeding
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an interview with Mary Helen Washington
THREE DECADES AGO The New York Times Book Review observed, “Mary Helen Washington has had a greater impact on the canon of Afro-American Literature than has any other scholar.” The occasion was the arrival of yet another in her acclaimed quartet of editions of creative writing by African-American women.
Since then, Dr. Washington has only intensified her dedication to rebalance historical perspective and restore visibility through a miraculous retrieval of the radical Black past in pioneering research culminating in the 2014 publication of The Other Blacklist: The African American Literary and Cultural Left of the 1950s (reviewed by Bill Mullen in ATC 173).
Born and raised in Cleveland, Washington received her doctorate from the University of Detroit in 1976 where she directed the Center for Black Studies before moving to the Boston Harbor College of the University of Massachusetts in 1980 and finally the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1989.
A left-wing political activist all her adult life, she was a central figure in the transformation of the American Studies Association (ASA) into a voice for students and faculty of color on U.S. campuses. This was signaled by a celebrated talk she gave upon ascending to the ASA presidency in October 1997: “Disturbing the Peace: What Happens to American Studies If You Put African American Studies at the Center?”
With observant precision, Dr. Washington has the ability to craft narratives out of that which had hitherto seemed silent, qualitatively expanding the archive of African American creativity and political commitment at the highest level of professional competence. On October 15, 2015, the ASA awarded Dr. Washington one of its most prestigious awards, the Carl Bode-Norman Holmes Pearson Prize, for a lifetime of achievement and service. Against the Current is delighted to publish the following interview with her — because this is what a radical scholar looks like.
Mary Helen Washington was interviewed for Against the Current by ATC editorial board member Dianne Feeley.
Against the Current: You grew up in Cleveland and taught in Detroit. Like you, I attended Catholic schools in the post-World War II era. (For me it was San Francisco in the late 1940s through 1957.) Although it was a very anti-communist ghetto, through reading the New Testament I gained a sense of social justice. What about those industrial cities and experiences helped you develop your perspective as a radical, anti-racist and feminist activist and scholar?
Mary Helen Washington: At first glance, there seems to be nothing about my growing up in Cleveland that could remotely be called “radical.” My family was racially conservative, socially respectable, and seriously religious, especially my fiercely Catholic mother.
We were deeply entrenched in Catholicism — cradle Catholics — as Black people liked to boast, baptized as far back as slavery, and practicing Catholics even unto my generation. My mother and her five sisters and two brothers were devoted to the Sacred Heart, the Blessed Mother, Saint Anthony (he could find things); they made the nine First Fridays to guarantee heaven; they wore scapulars, prayed the Rosary, and wanted the eight of us (my four sisters and three brothers) to follow in the footsteps of the saints.
But saints were extremists — often for justice and mercy — and since the most desirable and satisfying goal we could choose was to imitate their lives, religion sowed the seeds of a kind of radicalism: if you have two coats, give one away; the last shall be first; Blessed are the merciful.
Later, during the 1960s, the Second Council of the Vatican, known as Vatican II, led by Pope John XXIII, initiated some reforms that pushed many of us in the direction of social justice and away from petty concerns like not eating meat on Friday or missing Mass on Sunday.
In our new world view, the saints were people like Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, and the new Gospel was Liberation Theology, with its ideal of “a preferential option for the poor.” Liberation Theology would soon intersect in my life with the other radicalisms of the 1960s and 1970s.
When I left for Detroit in the early 1960s for graduate studies at the Jesuit-run University of Detroit (U of D), I thought I was preparing for a conventional academic career. I didn’t know then that I was stepping into history.
My best friend Ponchita and I found a one-bedroom apartment at the corner of John R and Brush, near Wayne State and close to downtown Detroit. We lived six miles from the University because the white homeowners in the U of D area at Six Mile and Livernois did not rent to Blacks — that is, until after the 1967 riots.
My divided self is well represented in this geographical distance: I was the first Black graduate student in the English Department’s history at U of D, where they once
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You knew it was coming, and now the day has finally arrived that the esteemed professor of MIT, and one of the original architects of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber, is touring the media circuit blaming the epic collapse of Obamacare on President Trump. Here is an exchange from last night with Chris Wallace on Fox News:
Gruber: "Look, and whose fault is this? Before President Trump was elected there were no counties in America that did not have an insurer. Since President Trump's been elected, a massive degree of uncertainty..." Wallace: "Wait, you're going to blame the problems with Obamacare on President Trump?" Gruber: "We had a situation under Obamacare where there was a one-time premium increase last year that made up for the fact that insurers massively under-priced in the first two years. The problem was fixed. Insurer profits were trending positively. Insurers were saying positive things about their ability to stay in the exchanges and succeed. Then you have a President who comes in, undercuts open enrollment, doesn't honor the obligations this law makes to insurers, and, as a result, premiums are going up and insurers are exiting."
Forward to the 7:50 mark for the relevant exchange:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
And, since Gruber insists that 'all' the "insurers were saying positive things" about Obamacare in 2016, we thought we'd take a look back for ourselves. Ironically, this quote from Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini in August 2016, in which he announced that "structural challenges facing public exchanges" had forced him to the decision to withdraw from Obamacare completely in 2017 seemed slightly less than "positive" to us.
“While we are pleased with our overall results, in light of updated 2016 projections for our individual products and the significant structural challenges facing the public exchanges, we intend to withdraw all of our 2017 public exchange expansion plans, and are undertaking a complete evaluation of future participation in our current 15-state footprint,” said Aetna Chief Executive Mark T. Bertolini. Aetna had previously made regulatory filings indicating it was considering growing into five new state marketplaces in 2017.
“Nobody is getting adequately reimbursed.”
But, perhaps we just don't understand the quote correctly.
Of course, Gruber is the same academic who was caught on film repeatedly telling students and other professors that Obamacare only passed courtesy of the "stupidity of American voters."
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The role of the police in the community is to enforce the laws that keep the community safe, yet in some incidences the police themselves break the law. Sunshine Coast police crime prevention officer Senior Constable Mark Reedman says it comes down to the situation.”Legally, we are exempt from most traffic offences if we’re in the execution of our duties.”Two of the things we can’t do is dangerous or drink driving.”He says each incident depends on the current circumstance.”We have a policy within the service dictated by our Commissioner and there’s policy there that covers exemption circumstances.”For example if we’re on mobile phones or talking on our hand held radios while driving, we could do that if we were doing it for operational reasons.”We could be about to execute a search warrant for a property and we know that our radio communication can be listened into, so we may use our mobile phone as we don’t want to advertise what we are doing.” Due to cases in the past, the laws for police have changed in the last few years.
The headlines lately have brought attention to an age old problem of what to do when police officers behave poorly or local police breaking the law when they are investigating a case. In West Valley City, Utah, many drug related criminal prosecutions were dismissed because the police misconduct in investigating the crimes resulted in the prosecutors stating “we no longer believe we have sufficient credible evidence with which to obtain a conviction.”When an investigating police officer knowingly or inadvertently violates the law, it compromises the investigation and the case. When evidence is gathered illegally, even if it proves that a person is guilty of committing a crime, it cannot be used in court. This is called the exclusionary rule, and its intent is to motivate police officers to play by the rules, or have their efforts be wasted. If you are charged with a crime, and believe that the police officers may have broken the rules relating to properly gather evidence, give me a call. For example, if police search your house or car without a warrant or permission, any evidence gathered is illegal. Likewise, if you have been arrested and are interviewed without having your Miranda rights read to you, any statement you made was gathered illegally. When I review a client’s case, the first thing I look for is whether the evidence was gathered legally. If I believe the officers didn’t follow the law, I file a Motion to suppress the illegal evidence. I have been successful in State and Federal Courts in litigating Suppression Motions, getting evidence thrown out, and having my client’s cases dismissed. Everyone should play by the rules, especially police officers, and when they don’t, there are consequences.
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Engulf the battlefield in flames, as the most explosive battle will commence at the Vortex Arena! Bring your best Fire-element units in the Vortex Arena Season 3: Infernal Showdown and burn your adversaries to the ground! The strongest fire will prevail!
Event Duration: (5 Days)
Sept. 16, 00:00 PST - Sept. 20, 23:59 PST
[Sept. 16, 01:00 PDT - Sept. 21, 00:59 PDT]
Results Consolidation: (5 Days)
Sept. 21, 00:00 PST - Sept. 25, 23:59 PST
[Sept. 21, 01:00 PDT - Sept. 26, 00:59 PDT]
Reward Period: (7 Days)
Sept 26, Post Maintenance - Oct. 2, 22:59 PST
[Sept 26, Post Maintenance - Oct. 2, 23:59 PDT]
Note:
Rewards from Infernal Showdown will need to be manually claimed by players during the claiming period.
Rewards that are not claimed during the 7 days of Reward Period will be forfeited.
Balancing Updates for this season:
Passive Mitigation will be capped to 20%
Passive additional damage (DoT) Mitigation will be capped to 50%
Healing capped at 20,000 HP
Reduced effectiveness of BC by 50%
Reduced effectiveness of BB gauge boost, BB gauge fill rate effects, BB gauge reduction and BB gauge fill rate reduction effects by 30%
Passive, non-conditional “resistance against 1 KO attack” effects (eg. Sae’s LS, Yggdrasil Edict) will be limited to a max of 2 times
Passive, conditional “resistance against 1 KO attack” effects (eg. Blaze’s ES, Yggdrasil Edict) will also be limited to a max of 2 times
Example: Using Blaze (ES and SP option) equipped with Yggdrasil Edict will trigger a maximum of 4 “resistance against 1 KO attack” effects
To know more about the general Vortex Arena Rules, please click HERE.
Righteous Sun Cayena will be a powerful unit during Infernal Showdown. Secure more wins and reach the top of the rankings with her! For more info about the unit, click HERE.
Infernal Showdown Battle Rewards:
Players can stand to win rewards from Rank Title, Daily, and Overall Rewards. Here is the list of rewards available for this season:
Rank Title Rewards:
Rank Title Points (TP) Rewards Idolized 15,000 Omni Frog x3 Venerated 12,000 Brave Combustion x1 Sanctified 10,000 Elementum Tome x10 Consecrated 8,000 Summon Ticket x1 Revered 7,000 Duel Tokens x2000 Worshipped 6,000 Elementume Tome x5 Famed 5,000 Ruby Soul Ticket x1 Exalted 4,000 Gem x2 Celebrated 3,000 Elementum Tome x5 Glorified 2,000 Gem x1 Honoured 1,500 Ignis Shard 200 Esteemed 1,000 Sphere Frog x5 Praised 500 Ignis Shard x100 Neutral 0 -
Note:
Players who reached the "Famed" Rank Title (5,000 Points) will receive Ruby Soul Ticket x1.
Use Ruby Soul Ticket in the Ruby Soul Summon Gate for a chance to get Cayena (guaranteed unit at step 5). More details about this gate will be released soon.
Daily Ranking Rewards:
Ranking Rewards 1 - 10 Algor Shard x50
Ignis Shard x50
Duel Token x3000 11 - 500 Algor Shard x40
Ignis Shard x40
Duel Token x2000 501 - 1500 Algor Shard x30
Ignis Shard x30
Duel Token x1000 1501 - 6000 Algor Shard x20
Ignis Shard x20
Duel Token x800 6001 - 12000 Algor Shard x10
Ignis Shard x10
Duel Token x600 12001 - 30000 Algor Shard x10
Ignis Shard x10
Duel Token x400 30001 - 100000 Algor Shard x10
Ignis Shard x10
Duel Token x300
Overall Ranking Rewards:
Ranking Rewards 1 - 10 Oath of Justice x1
Geminus Tome x25
Elementum Tome x50
Duel Token x20000 11 - 500 Oath of Justice x1
Geminus Tome x20
Elementum Tome x40
Duel Token x15000 501 - 1500 Oath of Justice x1
Geminus Tome x15
Element
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on some great conversation for that choice.
Things would turn out fairly humorous, because Poirier refused to let me Uber it back down to Samman's, and we ended up having one of those all-time great conversations as Dustin battled with his GPS over proper exits. He knew I was going to Samman's and made mention that he didn't really know him, but heard he was a good dude, and I assured him that was the proper read.
It's funny how the universe works. Because I didn't take that ride from Josh, it led to having a great experience with Poirier, and I'm discovering it's entirely possible to have gratitude and regret share the same space.
Poirier dropped me off at the door, and as he rolled away, I realized there was a good chance the door would be locked. Two steps later and sure enough, it was. Nevertheless, I had my computer with me and sat down on the tiles of Josh's porch to do some work, strapping on a defiant mug to the pounding Florida sun.
"I got this, no problem," I said to myself. Humidity said otherwise.
Samman would pull up just short of an hour later to find me a blustry mess on his front porch. The legs of my jeans pulled up to my knees, the sleeves of my tee shirt rolled up as well and a face stop-sign red. I could hear him laughing from his Jeep before the door ever opened, and the first thing he said was, "Dude, how long have you been sitting out here? There is a key right there!"
Somewhere in my mind I had imagined there would be a key underneath the doormat, but then I canceled that thought when I took Josh's complexities into account. I twisted my brain into thinking he had some other contraption for when things ran afoul, when in reality, all he did was keep it simple. It was right there, under the doormat as originally expected.
An hour or so later, he gave me a ride to the airport, and we made plans about getting together after his next fight was over. He made me promise to bring Renee down on my next trip and in return promised me he'd get up to see the kids in the fall. They were all wonderful plans, and I couldn't wait to see him again and to have long talks and share stories and enjoy all the things that come with having an incredible friendship.
As I grabbed my luggage out of the Jeep, I gave him a hug and told him I loved him. He returned the sentiment and said, "Like some long lost brothers or some shit." We both laughed, and I made my way into the airport.
I didn't know that would be the last time I saw him, because we never do, but I can't help but wonder if things would have been any different.
When I heard the news of what happened with Josh, it hurt like it was supposed to. I got angry like I was supposed to, then I was overcome by emotions I couldn't stop.
In my job, getting close to the people you write about is discouraged, but I've always said to Hell with all that. I'm not a journalist. I'm a storyteller, and for me to love what I do or to be good at what I do, I have to care. I have to experience who someone is in order to let you know who they are, and when something like this happens, all I can really share with you is how I knew him.
There is no way to stop the talk and negativity surrounding the way in which Josh Samman died, and rightfully so. There is an epidemic currently hitting our nation, and if others can learn from what happened to Josh and it saves a life, then there is one step toward turning a tragedy into a positive.
I'm not in a place to know anything about all that, because all I can think about is who he was and who he will always be in my eyes. Josh was a searcher, an artist, a fighter and a kind human being who brought joy to those he encountered. He was a brilliantly vibrant soul who created smiles just as big as the one he projected.
Josh was something special, and that's the way I'll always see him.
I'll miss him so much.
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't get enough work and two, they're losing the income they've got."
"And if you're working on minimum wage, 16 hours a week and you're getting tax credits, you haven't got any spare income. So it means cutting back on food, or cutting back on paying debt, or cutting back on putting money in the meter for your gas and electricity."
Student Katy Carter's partner works 20 hours a week and is unable to get an additional four hours' work. Despite looking for work since Christmas, Carter says she has been unable to find a job which fits around her childcare commitments for her five-year-old daughter. "We lose just over £71 a week which for us is a substantial amount of money. We were just breaking even on bills and expenses such as food and transport and after looking through my budget, we now have a deficit every week. I understand the government has to save money somewhere but it seems ridiculous to take it from the people who need it the most."
The Treasury said changes to tax credits were necessary to reduce the deficit, and said more people gained than lost from the changes.
Economic secretary to the Treasury, Chloe Smith, said: "The government's actions mean that from the beginning of the new tax year on Friday, 24 million households will be £6.50 a week better off.
"We're taking millions out of tax altogether by raising the personal allowance, which will put up to £126 cash back in people's pockets. The basic state pension is also going up by its largest ever cash sum and there are increases in most other benefits."
Additional reporting: Gwyn Topham
Premium Content is full size 8000x5100 PNG.
Patrons get all my pictures early at full size for free. see link below.
This is a special one. I wanted to practice with thinner, more elegant lineart and wanted to make something with deep shadows and highlights. I feel pleasantly happy with the results of this one.I drew this over a live stream and the first half was really good and I had a bunch of viewers and had a lot of fun, the continuation was a train wreck with everything breaking XDbut it went well anyway. Also this canvas is twice as big as I normally make it so, yeah. I was overcautious the whole time of Manga Studio crashing on me so I was like, exporting to a different file every time I saved incase it crashed on me and killed the file.it actually did crash on me once, and I had to do the highlights all over again. oh well.Honestly I really like Celestia. She's a good character and I love the sunny and friendly personality she has all the time. like, for a ruler of a whole kingdom over thousands of years it's pretty cool she's so benevolent.and have you seen her in the comics? Dang, I LOVE the way they write her in the comics. and she's all over them. but they make her such a deep and lovable character, with more flaws and pony emotion than she has in the show and much more determination and noble badassery. actually the end of nightmare moon's story in the fiendship is magic comic inspired this picture lolThis was my first time drawing her so I wanted to capture her regality and majesticness.
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�the perpetrator at hand” by focusing the media’s attention on attacking the Trump Administration.
President Donald Trump, for his part, said Acosta has done an “excellent” job during his time working in the Trump Administration.
NEW: Pres. Trump defends Alex Acosta as an "excellent" Labor secretary amid scrutiny over his role in Jeffrey Epstein plea deal, saying "a lot of people" were involved in the deal. "We're going to look at it very carefully," Trump adds. https://t.co/GNhIGBdUOM pic.twitter.com/OwN4ackdXn — ABC News (@ABC) July 9, 2019
[image via YouTube screengrab]
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
move every time she tracked them down.
'I want the death penalty on all of them,' she said then.
Child welfare authorities in Arizona said they didn't receive any reports of abuse before her death. But child welfare reports from Utah, where the family lived before moving to Phoenix, listed Ame as an abused child, police said.
The other children in the house were placed with state Child Protective Services after Ame's death.
The verdict comes after executions in Arizona were put on hold following the 2014 death of a prisoner who was given 15 doses of a two-drug combination before he died in what his attorney called a botched execution.
But the state is now able to resume executions after a lawsuit that challenged the way Arizona carries out the death penalty was settled earlier this summer. No executions are scheduled.
represented fair market value.
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Filion, concerned the sign value had been exaggerated and still without supporting documentation for the deal, told Casista: “I’m calling the cops,” according to the Torys report. He later went to the auditor general, who after a 10-month investigation, referred the matter to police.
On April 4, both Persiko and Casista were fired by the city after the Torys report was provided to an interim parking authority board overseen by senior city staff, according to a confidential decision attached to the Torys report. Neither Persiko nor Casista could be reached for comment by the Star.
Earlier this week, Mammoliti signed up to run for re-election in his ward.
Beyond the Emergency is a ground-breaking study of male mental health presentations to ambulance services.
This wide-ranging research project – facilitated by Beyond Blue, funded by Movember Foundation, and led by Turning Point and Monash University, in partnership with ambulance services across Australia – includes new data about:
Male self-harm and suicide
The scale and complexity of mental health issues among men in Australia
The need for more mental health training for paramedics
The relationship between alcohol/substance abuse and mental health issues
Perspectives of men affected by these issues
Beyond the Emergency also has recommendations for improving our systems, including the continued use of coded ambulance data to inform public policy and improve service responses.
The full report is available here, but below is a breakdown of the key findings.
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher overlooking Baretle village, which was controlled by ISIS, on the edge of Mosul, September 8, 2014. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi government forces and Iranian-trained Iraqi paramilitaries are "preparing a major attack" on Kurdish forces in the area of Kirkuk, said the Kurdistan Regional Government on Wednesday.
"We're receiving dangerous messages that Iraqi forces, including Popular Mobilisation and Federal Police are preparing a major attack.. on Kurdistan," said the KRG's Security Council in tweet confirmed by a Kurdish official.
Offensives are being prepared in the areas of Kirkuk and Mosul, it said.
(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; editing by Toby Chopra)
with regular inaccurate or partial stories about cases brought under the Act.
The Act is also wrongly associated with the European Union by some of its critics, largely because of poor reporting on the issue.
What does Michael Gove think of human rights?
Michael Gove has now become Justice Secretary (Getty Images)
We don't exactly know yet. In 1998, whilst working at The Times, Michael Gove called for the return of hanging - which is against the ECHR. It's not clear whether he still holds this view privately.
Prominent legal blogger Jack of Kent has said Mr Gove is "highly intelligent" and expressed some optimism about his coming tenure. On the other hand, other prominent lawyers have raised concerns about Mr Gove's record. Teachers are largely glad to be rid of him.
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When most people think of Mario they think of the Italian plumber tasked to save princess Peach from Bowser with his trusted brother Luigi. However in 1990 Mario had a small stint where he actually put down plunger and picked up a stethoscope. This was the birth of Dr. Mario.
Dr. Mario
Opening Screen Dr. Mario (Nintendo Entertainment System)
Dr. Mario is a puzzle game that is quite simple but addicting and fun at the same time. The point of the game is to kill the viruses present in the playing field which resembles a clear medicine bottle. Dr. Mario throws pills through the top of the bottle that fall down the bottle. The pills are split into two and usually each side has a different color however sometimes both halves are the same color. Pushing the A or B button will rotate the pill and allows the player to match the colors to the virus. The player tries to match the pill color with the virus color. Once three of the same color pills are put on the virus it will disappear with the medicine. This will raise your score and put you closer to defeating the level. Sometimes there will be colors that don't match the viruses. These colors can be piled away and will disappear once you put four of the same color pills together. Once all the viruses have been defeated you will advance to a new level. The game is really simple to play but can become really addicting as the viruses expand and the speed increases at higher levels. This is the whole game in a nut shell match the pills with the viruses and keep going until you can't go anymore.
Dr. Mario also has a two player mode which is nothing but pure fun. In two player mode you challenge each other to see who can defeat all the viruses first. The game play is the same as the single player version with some slight tweaks. You can cause havoc to the other player by adding extra pill pieces to their playing field by strategically playing. Destroying multiple viruses at once or eliminating numerous pills simultaneously will cause a reaction that places random single pill pieces on your opponents playing field. The higher the combination the more pieces that will appear on your opponents field. The game is over when one person wins three games (best of five).
Dr. Mario Game play (Nintendo Entertainment System)
Who's it for?
Dr. Mario is a game that is definitely not for everyone. It is a simple puzzle game that is often compared to Tetris which is a completely different game but has some similarities. The game is relentless and stops for no one except the pause button. The pills drop down the screen and you rearrange them to match the colored virus that is it. This might be boring to some people. The two player mode is fun because you essentially have the same playing field but have to use strategy to defeat your opponent.
I recommend this game for people who like puzzle games. Also I recommend this to people who like head to head competitive two player games. Dr. Mario is one of the best head to head two player games on the Nintendo Entertainment System console.
I don't recommend it for anyone who dislikes puzzle games. The game is a puzzle game and doesn't offer any platforming or action out side of the main puzzle game.
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American tech giants have ramped up the amount of cash they spend on lobbying US lawmakers to get their own way, yet again. As congressmen consider regulating organizations from Facebook to Google, and mull antitrust crackdowns against Amazon, said corporations have responded by flinging more dosh at the problem.
The money is spent on, ahem, holding meetings between company execs and politicians so that businesses can push their agenda and swing decisions in their favor, which may not be in the interests of the people who elected said politicians.
Facebook's $2.85m for the third quarter of the year – disclosed this week as required by law – is beaten only by the amount it spent in the first quarter: $3.21m. In its second quarter, it blew $2.38m. Overall, Facebook's lobbying bills for 2017 looks set to smash the $9.85m it spent in 2015 and the $8.7m in 2016.
The social network is being investigated by both halves of Congress for its role in the Russian propaganda campaign during the US presidential election, and this month has been on a huge PR campaign in the capital.
Likewise Amazon spent its highest ever amount on professional lobbyists – both individuals and companies that book face time with lawmakers and their staff where they press the company's viewpoints. Amazon spent $3.41m in the third quarter, up from $3.21m for the second quarter – which was also a record spend for the company.
As with Facebook, 2017 will almost certainly be the most expensive in terms of lobbying for Amazon. The web souk has strayed into the physical world with its purchase of Whole Foods and its increasing stranglehold over a large number of markets has led to calls for greater scrutiny of the biz.
Apple has already blown past the $4.67m in spent in 2016 – which was then its highest-ever spending. So far in 2017, the iPhone maker has spent $5.46m bending lawmakers' ears.
Wallet busting
Google spent less in the third quarter of the year to the wallet-busting Q2 spend of $5.93m, but it still spent $4.17m – higher than its average spend of $4.0m per quarter over the past five years. It, too, is on course to spend the highest ever amount on lobbying this year.
Google is facing a severe spanking and fines in Europe that have sparked some in the US to call for investigations into its market power.
But perhaps the most notable increase in spending has come from Oracle, which spent a whopping $3.82m on lobbying in the third quarter: double what it normally spends. So far this year, Oracle has spent $8.82m on lobbying compared to $7.65m for the whole of last year ($7.52m in 2015; $5.89m in 2014).
Oracle is desperately trying to steer the federal government away from adopting open-source software as a default in an effort to cut costs. Oracle makes a significant percentage of its income from government contracts that use its database and other products.
Full figures, compiled by us from official filings... Click to enlarge
As well as renewed focus on tech giants because of their enormous influence and market power, the Trump Administration is proving to be costly for Big Internet, particularly on issues such as immigration, which many tech companies rely on to get skilled workers into the country but which has been the focus of ideological clampdowns by the White House. The other main issues concerning Big Tech revolve around upcoming rules on new technology such as drones and autonomous vehicles, as well as a push to force greater transparency. ®
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The cause of death for Bruno Sammartino was revealed in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The 82-year-old passed away due to multiple organ failure due to heart issues. The heart issues dated back to when he was 12 when it was damaged when he got rheumatic fever.
People with his heart issues are not expected to live past 60 years old but his dedication to training got his heart healthy enough to compensate for the damaged part and he may have added years to his life.
Sammartino found out a few years ago that one of his valves weren’t functioning well and he started to get a gut because of the fluid buildup in his abdomen. In recent years, he was having issues with his legs because of the damage he did to his body during his wrestling days in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.
Very few people were aware of his condition because he was never the kind of person to complain. That’s why it was such a shock to hear that he had been hospitalized for a couple of months before he passed away last week.
There is an incredible biography of Sammartino in the Wrestling Observer newsletter. Part 1 is in last week’s issue and part 2 is up now.
Long term vegetarianism can lead to genetic mutations which raise the risk of heart disease and cancer, scientists have found.
Populations who have had a primarily vegetarian diet for generations were found to be far more likely to carry DNA which makes them susceptible to inflammation.
Scientists in the US believe that the mutation occured to make it easier for vegetarians to absorb essential fatty acids from plants.
But it has the knock-on effect of boosting the production of arachidonic acid, which is linked to inflammatory disease and cancer. When coupled with a diet high in vegetable oils - such as sunflower oil - the mutated gene quickly turns fatty acids into dangerous arachidonic acid.
The finding may help explain previous research which found vegetarian populations are nearly 40 per cent more likely to suffer colorectal cancer than meat eaters, a finding that has puzzled doctors because eating red meat is known to raise the risk.
Researchers from Cornell University in the US compared hundreds of genomes from a primarily vegetarian population in Pune, India to traditional meat-eating people in Kansas and found there was a significant genetic difference.
“Those whose ancestry derives from vegetarians are more likely to carry genetics that more rapidly metabolise plant fatty acids,” said Tom Brenna, Professor of Human Nutrition at Cornell.
This is not about punishment. It's about common sense. It's about making sure that money spent on politicians and parliament is used effectively and that our government is run by sober, law-abiding citizens.
Accordingly we would like to see mandatory drug testing implemented for all federal politicians. Furthermore, breathalyzer devices should be installed at entrances to the House and Senate chambers. All MPs should be required to prove that they are sober before being allowed to vote on issues that impact the fate of our country and its people.
Anyone testing positive will have his/her expense accounts placed on income management for 24 months. A second drug test will be scheduled within 25 working days of the positive result.
After a second positive test, the pollie will be referred to a doctor who will assess their circumstances and identify treatment options. The pollie may be required to undergo drug treatment as a condition of their continued employment as a MP.
“Politicians who take drugs or drink on the job are denying the public the best policies and representation,” Social Services Minister Anne Ruston never said.
“That’s why the Morrison government will no doubt support this measure to ensure that we can identify and encourage people with substance abuse issues to get treatment, rehabilitate and make them job ready.”
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My cat Kyle is a rescue with three teeth, no claws, severe dandruff, hip dysplasia, and a wonky ear. Also, he witnessed a murder. Kyle has a philanthropic mission to use his glorious'stache and unbelievable backstory to raise awareness for causes he cares about.
Here are eight reasons you should endorse my cat Kyle's mustache:
1. Because it is glorious.
(Instagram/MyCatKyle)
Frog, a combination of Frosted Frog Christmas Ale and butter pecan ice cream. This being my first beer shake experience, I’m still not entirely sure how to describe the majesty. My recommendation? Just get to Hoppin’ Frog and have one yourself.
Holly Brown is trying to stay warm in Highland Square by snuggling with her toothless, meow-less cat, Hedwig, after he lays next to the heater.
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had a few drinks status: omgggpld imsooijoo druankknk
Yet Facebook once again left many lawmakers' questions unanswered. It didn't say repeatedly why Facebook didn't audit apps like the one at the heart of the Cambridge Analytica controversy years before it became the subject of international scrutiny, for example, or provide the names of company employees who were responsible for the lack of oversight. Facebook couldn't specify how many users actually read or accessed its terms of use policies in response to a question from Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.
Welcome Welcome to the 39th Portland International Film Festival, the Northwest Film Center’s annual showcase of new world cinema. Like the Film Center’s Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, which surveys outstanding new work by our region’s media makers, through 97 features and 62 short films from three-dozen countries, the Portland International Film Festival explores not only the art of film but also the world around us, no matter the place or the language spoken.
Microsoft says:
Omnitech Support, a division of Customer Focus Services, is charged with misusing Microsoft's name, registered trademarks and service marks in connection with the provision of phony tech support services. Omnitech utilized the Microsoft trademarks and service marks to enhance their credentials and confuse customers about their affiliation with Microsoft. Omnitech then used their enhanced credibility to convince consumers that their personal computers are infected with malware in order to sell them unnecessary security services to clean their computers.
up nationwide,' he said as cheers rang through a rodeo arena in Jacksonville.
'We're leading in Florida, we're leading in Ohio, we're leading in Iowa, I think we're leading in North Carolina, which is big. Doing well in Pennsylvania right there, but we are leading all over.'
I tell you what, we're going to have something that's going to be very special. Get out there on Tuesday. Don't fail.
RIO DE JANEIRO—The single most difficult and dangerous maneuver in women’s gymnastics—and maybe the most daring of the entire Olympic Games—won’t be attempted by anyone on Team USA.
Star U.S. gymnast Simone Biles says someone could get killed trying to pull it off. Even its name sounds vaguely terrifying: “The Produnova.”
The women’s gymnastics...
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What's that coming over the hill! amon-ster is it amon-ster?
not have much to do with reality,” Bartos says.
“Last year, 13 million people went to the Cinema in the Czech Republic, it is the highest number in the last five years. If this is the result of piracy – and I believe it is – the filmmakers should thank us instead of suing us.”
The decision of the Prague court (pdf) is not yet final and the public prosecutor could still file an appeal.
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flooding through time.
A much bigger impact on flooding, though, is land use change. Without proper mitigation, urbanization of watersheds increases flooding. Moreover, encroachment into the floodplain by homes and businesses leads to greater economic losses and potential loss of life, with more encroachment leading to greater losses.
Why do the values for the 100-year flood seem to change with every flood?
The amount of water corresponding to a 100-year flood, a 500-year flood, or a 1000-year flood is known as a “flood quantile”. For instance, on a given river, the flood quantile corresponding to the 50-year flood might be 10,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) or the flood quantile corresponding to the 100-year flood might be 15,000 cfs. The estimates of the flood quantiles (corresponding to various probabilities) are made from using actual data collected at a site in a statistical analysis.
So, for a particular river, USGS would collect data over time; determine the largest flood in each year and then run statistical analysis on that data. Now, the more years of data available, the more accurate the estimates for the various flood quantiles (the floods corresponding to the 50-, 100-, 500-year, etc). For example, if there are 40 years of data, that would yield a better estimate of the 50-year flood than if only 25 years of data were available. Moreover, if only 50 years of data exists, statistical models will do better estimating the 10-year flood quantile than the 100-year flood quantile.
As more years of data become available, the estimates become more refined, which can result in the quantiles changing. An example in the Southeast United States is the Broad River at Carlton, GA. That watershed had a wet period, with larger annual peak floods, from the late 1800’s to 1920, followed by a drier period since that time (at least in terms of flood peaks). The statistical analysis for the entire period (late 1800s to 2014), which includes the wet years prior to 1920, results in an estimate of a 100-year quantile that is 40 % higher than the one using the data from just 1920-2014.
But it seems like the 100-year flood is getting larger through time at a site near me, so you are saying that this is not necessarily from climate or land-use change?
Climate variability (dry cycles to wet cycles) plays a large role. There is a large amount of uncertainty around the flood quantile estimates (the value of discharge corresponding to the 100-year flood), particularly if there isn’t a long record of observed data at a stream location. For example, if there is only 25 years of data and a statistical analysis was done on that data to estimate the 100-year flood, uncertainty around the estimate would be quite large. It can look like flooding at that particular location is getting worse if there are 2 or 3 floods in a short period that exceed that estimate of the 100-year flood. However, if there were 700 years of data, it might show that what had been called a 100-year flood when there was only 25 years of data was really only a 10-year flood.
I would like to dig a little deeper into the meaning of 100-year flood, can you tell me more?
Instead of me doing that here, let me point you to something on the web that I prepared several years ago on this very subject. I titled it “100-Year Flood—It’s All About Chance”. You can see what I have said by going to http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/106/.
Source: http://water.usgs.gov/floods/events/2015/Joaquin/HolmesQA.html
h/t to Marc Morano of Climate Depot
Note: about an hour after publication, the first paragraph was corrected for a typo and to read more clearly on the intended meaning.
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