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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) stunned most people in his state when he announced his plan to slash more than $1 billion from education funding. If enacted, the radical proposal “would amount to the largest single-year cut ever in American public higher education,” in addition to gutting funds for K-12 education. Corbett is also calling for a public school employee wage freeze and more “freedom” to furlough teachers. Pennsylvania State University called the cuts “catastrophic.” Today, one Philadelphia teacher is taking a stand and protesting the cuts by embarking on a 100-mile run to Harrisburg, the state capitol: Decked neck to sneaks in bright orange and blue, Masterman teacher Louis “Luigi” Borda took off this morning on a 100-mile run to Harrisburg. The aim was to publicize the need to better fund public education, as lawmakers finalize a state budget that drastically cut financial aid to schools. […] In Harrisburg, he said, “we’ll be running around the capital building until they’re done voting,” he said. “Hopefully the governor will give us a little audience…and tell us how we can fix this problem.” Borda teaches geography and social studies at the Masterman school. According to the AP, athletes from at least two state universities also ran to Harrisburg in March to protest proposed cuts to their institutions. Advertisement The deep cuts Corbett is proposing go well beyond “shared sacrifice” and will profoundly impact low-income students and school districts that rely on state aid. Pennsylvania’s public university prices are already the fourth highest in the country and the base price of tuition could rise as much as $10,000 more as result of the cuts. “You’re breaking people’s dreams,” Kaitlyn Grzywinski, 19, a freshman at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said of Corbett’s cuts. “This decision will ruin some people’s chances of going to college. Cost is a huge factor.”

ended her 16-year-long hunger strike + AFSPA + Desmond Coutinho + IMPHAL: Renowned civil rights activist Irom Sharmila, whoagainston Tuesday, said she would only get married if people reject her fresh innings as a politician.Sharmila had recently announced her desire to end the strike in order to contest next year's Manipur assembly elections and get married."I've imposed one condition on entering my personal life. If the masses ignore my new strategy and abandon or insult me, I'll begin a new chapter of my life," a teary-eyed Sharmila said on Wednesday. Sharmila, who is living at JNIMS Hospital here, had Horlicks and chabon, a soup extracted from cooked rice on Wednesday. She, however, didn't reveal where she planned to go from the hospital.Her boyfriendwas not seen on the court premises when Sharmila was granted bail on Tuesday. Sharmila reiterated she would contest the 2017 polls from Thoubal, the constituency of CM Okram Ibobi Singh of Congress, and said she was looking for "20 like-minded Independent candidates" to join her.Meanwhile, functionaries of Sharmila Kanba Lup (Save Sharmila Campaign), which had been supporting her since 2008, has accused the government of brainwashing her to enter politics to stall the movement against AFSPA.

Maps Starbucks closures View maps See which Starbucks are slated to close near you. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Starbucks Corp. released a list Thursday of the 616 company-owned stores it will shutter by the first half of 2009. The closures accompany planned layoffs of 12,000 workers. Starbucks currently operates 7,087 stores in the U.S. Store closures, will affect about 8.7% of Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) stores, in 44 states, with California losing the most outposts. The chain will close 88 stores in that state. The Seattle-based coffee company has said the cutbacks reflect a difficult economic environment in which rising gas prices and unemployment, as well as falling home values, have consumers cutting back on nonessential purchases like premium coffee. Inflation is also driving up Starbucks' costs, as rising prices for dairy products and more expensive storefront space have weighed on earnings. Starbucks has said the stores it is closing were unprofitable, and many were located near another Starbucks store. Most of them were opened in the last two years. The company has also scaled back plans for opening new stores in 2009 by more than half. The chain plans to open fewer than 200 stores next year.

No doubt the results of the midterm election are being interpreted as a referendum on Obama. But who exactly is this curious individual, and why did we make him president? … After eight years of trying to make sense of Obama’s life story, I’ve stumbled upon a way to put his famous origin story in historical context, to make it not quite so random. … Last week I wrote about Obama’s many odd Indonesian connections. But even more central to Obama’s life is Hawaii. In almost all discussions of Obama, whether birther or mainstream, Hawaii is treated as essentially irrelevant to Obama’s parentage, a run-of-the-mill location. For example, because Obama’s autobiography, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, was written for mainlanders interested only in black and white, it barely touches on Hawaiian society. And that’s convenient for Obama, because 1950s Hawaii’s extreme racial liberalism (some 30 percent of marriages were interracial) doesn’t fit in well with contemporary prejudices about America’s racist past. Yet when Obama’s 17-year-old mother arrived in Hawaii in 1960 and quickly became pregnant by an exotic black man, Hawaii was of obsessive interest to the liberal mainstream imagination as the leading symbol of America’s new post-colonial multiracial world dominion. It turns out that the strange life the President’s mother forged for herself by marrying men of other races brought to Hawaii by Cold War initiatives wasn’t just driven by this adventuress’s own idiosyncratic desires, as an embarrassed and annoyed Obama discussed in Dreams from My Father. She was also following (in an extreme fashion) the messages being transmitted in the 1950s by the most respected voices of mainstream culture about what progressive, patriotic Americans should believe—and even practice—in order to ensure the triumph of the free world: marriage across racial lines.

Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for her confirmation hearing Jan. 17. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) Update: Democrats request another hearing for Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education pick, before confirmation vote The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has postponed the vote on Trump’s education pick Betsy DeVos, hours after receiving the completed ethics review for the Michigan billionaire. The committee vote, originally scheduled to take place Tuesday has been rescheduled for Jan. 31 at 10 a.m., according to a statement from the HELP committee chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). The announcement arrived after the Office of Government Ethics, an agency that examines nominees’ financial disclosures and resolves potential conflicts of interest, released its long-awaited report Friday. Alexander said he wants to give each Senator on the committee time to review the documents. Ethics Director Walter M. Shaub Jr. had said a full vetting of extremely wealthy individuals, such as DeVos, could take weeks, if not months, much to the chagrin of Senate Democrats who wanted to review it before DeVos’s confirmation hearing, which took place Tuesday evening. (See the full ethics report below). [Ethics office director says proper vetting of ultrawealthy Cabinet nominees can take weeks, months] Though Democrats bristled at having just five minutes each to question DeVos — during which they used some of their time complaining about it and asking for another round of questioning — Alexander limited them to the single round. Her opponents say Alexander is rushing what should be a careful examination of someone they say is unqualified to lead the nation’s education department. Eli Zupnick, a spokesman for Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the committee, said the senator is concerned that members will not have a chance to have their ethics concerns and questions answered before the vote. “Ms. DeVos and her family have incredibly complicated and opaque financial entanglements and staff is now reviewing all of her and her family’s holdings that have conflicts with her role as Secretary of Education,” he said. “Senator Murray has also not yet received answers to her questions about missing information in Ms. DeVos’ Committee financial disclosure. And Committee Democrats have sent Ms. DeVos a number of reasonable questions for the record that she committed to answer and that they expect clear and complete responses to.”​​​ [What we learned about Betsy DeVos’s higher education positions … not much] Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, appeared before senators at her confirmation hearing on Jan. 17, but some of her responses created more questions than they answered. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) Alexander has emphasized that DeVos has taken steps to prove herself, including answering questions for nearly four hours and meeting individually with committee members. Still, he agreed to postpone the vote. “We know that Betsy DeVos is a passionate defender of improving opportunities for low-income children who has committed to implement the law fixing No Child Left Behind as Congress wrote it, support public schools, and work to protect all children and students from discrimination and ensure they are educated in a safe environment,” said Margaret Atkinson, a spokeswoman for Alexander. DeVos has no professional experience in public schools, but she has lobbied for decades to expand charter schools and taxpayer-funded vouchers for private and religious schools. Her inexperience proved to be a liability at Tuesday’s hearing, as Senate Democrats grilled her on education policy questions that she had trouble answering. [Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education pick, lauded as bold reformer, called unfit for job] At the hearing, DeVos pledged to resolve any conflicts of interest the office identified, a commitment she reiterated in a letter she sent Thursday to the ethics office of the Education Department. DeVos said she has resigned from a dozen foundations with education goals, including All Children Matter and Great Lakes Education Foundation. She is, however, retaining her position as co-trustee of three family trusts, at least one of which has an indirect financial stake in Sextant Education, which operates a chain of for-profit colleges, through its parent company AEA Investors. Though DeVos lists AEA as one of the assets she intends to divest, it’s unclear whether she would retain a partial stake through the trust. And the other two trusts have no assets listed, so there is no sense of whether they have investments in other education companies. The nominee’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “It is not clear whether the family trust would divest from these assets, but if it does not, she will be in conflict,” said Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “She turned her forms in at 10 o’clock last night. There are significant issues that still need to be worked out and should have been dealt with before hearings started.” DeVos listed 102 companies she plans to divest from within 90 days, if she is confirmed as secretary. Among them is LMF WF Portfolio, a limited liability corporation listed in regulatory filings as one of several firms involved in a $147 million loan to Performant Financial Corp., a debt collection agency in business with the Education Department. Performant lost out on a recent contract bid with the department and is now protesting the decision with the Government Accountability Office, which can dismiss the dispute if the department reverses course. The influence of the secretary in that decision left Democrats uneasy about DeVos’s indirect investment. [Dems raise concern about possible links between DeVos and student debt collection agency] In the letter to the department, DeVos wrote that she “will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter that to my knowledge has a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of” any of the 102 companies “until I have divested.” She also said she would ensure that “all proceeds are invested in nonconflicting assets.” Libowitz said DeVos would not have to recuse herself from any Education Department business involving companies such as Performant once she and her husband are fully divested. But he said there are still questions about her involvement with other assets, such as when she was the sole investor, that could result in her needing more than a one year recusal. U.S. Office of Government Ethics Report for Betsy DeVos Want to read more about Betsy DeVos? Check out: In Senate hearing, DeVos stoked activists’ fears that she will ignore education civil rights Six astonishing things Betsy DeVos said — and refused to say — at her confirmation hearing Betsy DeVos’s 13-year ‘clerical error’ Betsy DeVos apparently ‘confused’ about federal special education law

High Court wants controls on stray canines as number of dog bites in the Capital jumps by NEARLY A THIRD 8,783 dog bites this year spread rabies fears Survey says 70 per cent of four lakh dogs need to be sterilised High Court wants dog numbers controlled Vineeta Aron, a resident of Andrews Ganj near South Extension market, is still recovering from a leg fracture she sustained in a recent scooter accident. Aron's was no ordinary accident. It was around 8 am, and the traffic was still light when the 32-year-old was chased and attacked by a pack of stray dogs. Prince and the stray dog: Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Founder and Executive Director of Katha, Geeta Dharmarajan looking at a stray dog as they leave after a visit to the Katha Lab school in New Delhi Almost 25 residents get bitten by the canines in Delhi every day As the snarling dogs closed in, Aron panicked and crashed her two-wheeler into a tree. She was fortunate that the pack dispersed, or dog-bite treatment would have been added to a broken leg. Across the Yamuna, 59-year-old businessman Babu Menon has stopped going for a morning walk in Patparganj's neat grid of apartment complexes. He fears the stray dogs that seem to skulk in every shadow. "Many joggers have already got bitten and I am scared," he says. Aron and Menon are but two of thousands of Delhi residents living in mortal fear of man's best friends of the stray kind. The city has already reported 8,783 cases of dog bites this year, an increase of nearly 30 per cent over last year. That's almost 25 Delhi residents being bitten by a dog-or dogs-every day of the year, or one every hour. The North Corporation area was the worst-bitten with 4,388 cases while South and East Corporation reported 2,695 and 1,700 cases. A survey conducted just before the trifurcation of the civic body reported 3.6 lakh stray dogs in Delhi. The number has gone up to over 4 lakh since then. Their sex ratio is 51:49 (1,84,000 male and 1,28,000 female dogs). Steps at birth control have been a spectacular failure as only less than half of the animals could be sterilised. A recent survey commissioned by civic corporations says at least 70 per cent of the canines must be sterilised for any significant effect on the Capital's canine population. The Delhi High Court last week asked the Animal Welfare Board to oversee the effort for controlling the stray dog population, and ensure ready availability of antirabies vaccination in hospitals. The court was acting on a PIL filed by lawyer SK Singh that sought the court's intervention into the city's dog bite problem. The trigger for the PIL was 25 people falling victim to dog bites within a span of a month recently inside the AIIMS campus. Two resident doctors and a senior doctor's wife were among the victims. A survey report filed by East Delhi Municipal Corporation in the Delhi High Court touches on the key reason for anti-stray dog drive ending in a whimper. The three corporations, NDMC and Delhi Cantonment Board are mainly banking on several animal rights NGOs to carry out sterilisation drive as they do not have the necessary resources. "While all the NGOs are willing to intensify the work to achieve the 70 per cent target, there are many shortcomings. NGOs lack infrastructure, payments to them are delayed and they are entrusted too many areas," the report says. "MCD has created the entire problem. They have entrusted 78 veterinary units to the animal husbandry department that has no experience of animal birth control measures," says Sonya Ghosh, noted animal rights activist and founder of NGO Citizens for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. There is no law in India to tackle the menace of stray dogs Parliament pooches: Some dogs take a nap on the stairs at the seat of the government

Configurable FOV requests We're going to look into it and see if we can come up with something. Please note this isn't a trivial thing to fix given the game's design / implementation. *Note: The current FOV values are the exact same ones that were used in ZC1 ------------------ The reason why the game released with no FOV options is because of the way the game is designed. ZC1 never had a FOV option either. The current FOV in combat is narrow to bring up characters close (65 I think). Out of combat the FOV is 90 The problem of a configurable FOV is that it would break all the cameras that are custom-adjusted for grabs and other special attacks. So in order to have a configurable FOV we'll need to come up with a custom solution. A simple slider will not work.

5.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard The Republicans seem to be aware that their obsession with killing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is unpopular and damaging to their party. Certainly, most everyone else is. Forty votes to repeal a healthcare overhaul based on a Republican healthcare overhaul and not a single jobs bill since 2008. Former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), whom you might remember dropping out of politics in April to go into…a more lucrative, seven figure form of politics with the Heritage Foundation, told Newsmax TV yesterday that the GOP should be willing to destroy America if that is what it takes to get rid of medical care for the American people. Interestingly, DeMint says Obamacare is more damaging to America “than anything I’ve seen pass in my lifetime.” Obamacare apparently being more damaging than a Republican destruction of America itself. So what he is saying is that the GOP must be willing to do more damage to America than the most damaging thing they’ve seen so far, in order to stop the second-most damaging thing done to America. That’s like burning down your house to stop a leaky pipe from flooding your bathroom. Yes, Jim DeMint is a lackwit and he thinks Americans are lackwits too. And he’s right about some of them. Those we call the Tea Party. Listen to what he had to say to Newsmax: The key to saving our country, to turning things around and really putting the government on the right track, is getting people informed, engaged all over the country. If Americans decide that they want to stop this unfair and unaffordable bill called Obamacare, they can do it, but the congressmen and senators themselves will not do it. They’ll not take that kind of risk unless the American people rise up and effectively tell them that’s what they want to do. I’ve been to about 45 cities, meeting with a lot of advocates, a lot of tea party folks, independent groups, just talking about what we need to do as a people to turn our country around, but we’re going to focus on this Obamacare bill, which increasingly people know is unfair. Congress is getting special favors — big unions, big corporations are getting waivers, and it looks like it’s the little guy that’s going to get stuck with the bill. People are getting notices that they’ll either lose their insurance or it’s going to cost more. We tell people that if the House passes a government funding bill that doesn’t include Obamacare, we can stop this bill in its tracks. Oh, well, Tea Party folks…yeah, there’s a meaningful constituency. These are the people who hurled racist slurs against Obama recently in Arizona. These are the people who wave Confederate flags and send postcards of the White House surrounded by a watermelon patch. They hate Obamacare, DeMint says. The problem is that they hate black people, even black people they themselves say are only “47 percent Negro.” That’s Jim DeMint’s constituency at the Heritage Foundation. The problem isn’t Obamacare and it was never Obamacare. The problem for these crackers is that Obama is a black man in a big white house. But DeMint, like his fellow bigots, tries to make it all about Obamacare and he has a problem with any Republican who thinks the cost of stopping Obamacare is too high, not only for the GOP but for America: Since when do Americans not fight for what is right because they’re afraid they might lose? We all know this is a terrible bill, and the more we learn about it the more we understand it’s going to hurt people, it’s going to hurt our country. This may be our last chance to stop it, and the only way to stop it when Republicans control only the House is to fund the government but not to include any funding for Obamacare. Now if the president decides he’s not going to accept government funding and allows the government to shut down, then it’s going to become apparent that he’s letting the government shut down because he wants to save this failed bill. So this is an argument that we can win with the American people. If we tell people the truth about the bill, more people are going to blame the president when all is said and done. If Americans don’t see Republicans fighting for something they promised to fight for, that’s going to do much more damage than the risk of possibly taking on the president and not getting everything we want. That’s actually kinda funny. The Republicans said they were going to fight for jobs too, but they’re too busy trying to repeal and defund Obamacare to create one single job for Americans. Too busy robbing women of the rights to their own bodies to create one single job for Americans. Too busy disenfranchising minority voters to create one single job for Americans. These fiscally responsible clowns didn’t even keep their budget promises! Yeah, we can see promises mean quite a bit to the Republican Party. One of the primary things they were tasked to do is to stop Obamacare. That’s the issue we hope that Speaker [John] Boehner and Mitch McConnell will focus on right now — recognizing we made a promise to the American people to stop this very destructive bill. That’s what we need to do before it’s implemented in October. If Obamacare is not worth fighting for and risking losing a battle for, I don’t think there is anything worth fighting for anymore. This bill will do more damage to America, hurt more people personally, than anything that I’ve seen pass in my lifetime. Of course, none of this is true. Obamacare is helping Americans. But having invested so much in fear-mongering, the GOP can hardly take a step back now and say, “Ooops, we were wrong.” No, they have doubled down on the rhetoric, getting louder as the evidence against their case grows, and they are willing – almost eager – to take America down with their party, as though to say, if we can’t have America, you won’t have it either. If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:

The Green P Mobile app launched full support for street parking in Toronto ten months ago, and since then, parking tickets issued have plummeted by nearly one-third, according to the Toronto Police Service, reports The Globe and Mail: Slightly more than 200,000 tickets were issued in the 10 months after street parking was added to the app in October of 2016, according to Toronto Police Service. That represents a 29-per-cent decline from 261,000 tickets in the 10 months prior. The app had been deployed in limited manner with Green P parking lots in March of 2015. Brian Moniz, parking enforcement supervisor for Toronto Police, said the drop was “most likely due to convenience, no need for change or credit card, the expense reports available for reimbursement on application and e-mail notification when time is due to expire,” adding “There’s much more compliance.” Tickets have also dropped at lot spaces as well, but the highlight of the app is the increased rate of acceptance, with about 33% of Green P transactions made through the mobile app, which is being applauded as intuitive and easy to use. Ian Maher, vice-president of strategic planning and IT for Toronto Parking Authority, said the high rate of acceptance is because “We have a lot of people who are app crazy.” The decrease in tickets has affected the city’s coffers by 1 per cent, or about $1.5 million, while the increase in payments have not offset lost fine income. But the city is okay with that, as Anthony Fabrizi, manager of revenue services at City of Toronto, says it’s “an excellent trade-off for more compliance.” In 2018, the Green P app will debut a new feature in Toronto, which will let drivers know parking spot availability estimates in various locations, based on historical data. The Green P app is developed by North Carolina-based Passport, which also has similar parking apps for Victoria and Vancouver, with Montreal coming next. Click here to download GreenP for iOS in the App Store. Have you been using the app to pay for your parking in Toronto?

Most recognized brand among NFL fans looks to maintain its dominance LOUISVILLE, Ky. --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Papa John's International, Inc. ( NASDAQ : PZZA), has renewed its multiyear partnership deal as the Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL and Super Bowl . Papa John's has been the Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL since 2010. As the Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL and Super Bowl , Papa John's will continue to use NFL logos and trademarks in its advertising and integrated marketing campaigns across marquee league events, such as the Super Bowl , Pro Bowl and NFL Kickoff. For the past four years, Papa John's has been the most recognized brand among avid NFL fans, according to the NFL sponsor awareness survey conducted by Turnkey Intelligence for SportsBusiness Journal /Daily. "For over 30 years, Papa John's has strived to deliver better ingredients and better pizza. Quality is our legacy and it extends from the test kitchen to the gridiron," said John Schnatter , founder, chairman and CEO of Papa John's. "The NFL has been a great partner for many years and Papa John's continues to be the pizza of choice among avid NFL fans." "We are proud to extend our partnership with Papa John's to reach NFL fans year-round," said Renie Anderson , Senior Vice President of Sponsorship for the NFL . "As a League sponsor and with 23 club relationships, the Papa John's brand is synonymous with the NFL and we're excited to have them by our side as we head into the 2016 season and beyond." Papa John's will continue to leverage its MVP lineup of NFL stars including JJ Watt and Peyton Manning in conjunction with its NFL sponsorship across its TV, digital and social marketing channels. The brand is also the Preferred Pizza of 23 NFL clubs including the Atlanta Falcons , Baltimore Ravens , Carolina Panthers , Chicago Bears , Cincinnati Bengals , Cleveland Browns , Arizona Cardinals , Dallas Cowboys , Denver Broncos , Detroit Lions , Houston Texans , Indianapolis Colts , Jacksonville Jaguars , Kansas City Chiefs , Miami Dolphins , Minnesota Vikings , New England Patriots , Pittsburgh Steelers , San Francisco 49ers , Seattle Seahawks , St. Louis Rams , Tennessee Titans , and the Washington Redskins . About Papa John's Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Papa John's International, Inc. ( NASDAQ : PZZA) is the world's third-largest pizza delivery company. For 15 of the past 17 years, consumers have rated Papa John's No. 1 in customer satisfaction among all national pizza chains in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Papa John's is the Official Pizza Sponsor of the National Football League and Super Bowl LI. For more information about the company or to order pizza online, visit Papa John's at www.papajohns.com. Also visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/papajohns, Twitter at twitter.com/papajohns, YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/papajohns, Instagram at instagram.com/papajohns, Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/papajohnspizza, and Vine at vine.co/papajohns. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160804005206/en/ Papa John's International, Inc. Peter Collins , 502-261-4233 Senior Director, Public Relations peter_collins@papajohns.com Source: Papa John's International, Inc. News Provided by Acquire Media

Josh Lewenberg TSN Raptors Reporter Follow|Archive TORONTO - Masai Ujiri had a busy summer, remodelling the Raptors' roster with the likes of DeMarre Carroll, Cory Joseph, Bismack Biyombo and Luis Scola. But his most overlooked addition should have the longest-lasting impact. Raptors 905, Toronto's Mississauga-based D-League affiliate, concluded its inaugural season last week. With a record of 23-27 they failed to make the playoffs, but - as those involved in the expedited process of purchasing this team knew from the get go - their success was never going to be defined by wins and losses. "It's just not that way here, that's not the goal," said Jesse Mermuys, head coach of the 905 and former Raptors assistant, ahead of the team's first home game at the Hershey Centre back in November. "Really, if we start getting guys called up, then we're having success. If [our young players] are able to enter an NBA game this season, for whatever reason, and perform at a decent level, then it's a success." "We're just going to really focus on the players," he continued," put the players' development in the forefront and that's a hard thing for a coach to do but I'm fully aware of it, I'm committed to it." The job that Mermuys and his staff signed up for is truly one of the toughest and most unique in professional sports: teach on the fly, compete while prioritizing growth, build and maintain a foundation with a revolving door of players. It can be a thankless gig, but the fruits of their labour are evident in the guys they've helped groom and now, more than ever before, the parent club is reaping the benefits. "That was a godsend for us as far as development of our young guys," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said following a Monday afternoon practice session. "You see the example of [Norman Powell] and what the 905 did for him. If he had been here just playing on the practice floor, you would not get the production you got from him. There’s the improvement of Delon [Wright], the way he came in and played against San Antonio. All those are by-products of the coaching and teaching they got playing with the 905." With their all-star duo of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan getting a night of rest, Powell and Wright played key roles in the Raptors' narrow defeat to the Spurs over the weekend. To this point, Toronto's two rookies have had very different years. Powell, who inexplicably fell to the 46th pick in last summer's draft, played eight early-season games in the D-League, where he immediately looked like a man among boys. Still, his NBA opportunity came earlier than expected, mostly out of necessity due to Carroll's injury and the inconsistency of James Johnson. The 22-year-old has been a revelation. Making his 18th start of the campaign, Powell showcased his defensive acumen, knack for finishing in transition and improved jumper, scoring 17 points against San Antonio, his sixth straight game in double figures. Wright, the Raptors' first-round selection, is stuck behind Lowry and Cory Joseph at the point guard position and, as a result, has spent twice as much time with the 905, which shouldn't be construed as an indictment of his progress. Spelling Joseph in Lowry's absence, the 23 year old looked the part of a back-up, recording 12 points, four rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes Saturday. Like Powell - and even Lucas Nogueira, who stepped up with Jonas Valanciunas out earlier in the campaign - Wright was ready when called upon, a credit to the work they've been able to get in with the conveniently located 905. "It's helped a lot because I would just be a guy having to play 2-on-2 or something in practice instead of having a team to go play with and stay sharp," Wright said. "So it really helped me stay ready and work on some things." "I think it's really good," Powell added. "Not only for the organization, but for the players, to be so close to home, not having travel or be away from the team and get to go down there and work on your skills. So I think it's really good for us and our development." Prior to purchasing their exclusive affiliate, the Raptors shared the Fort Wayne Mad Ants with almost half the NBA. They were reluctant to send players down, knowing they'd have no control over what those guys were learning or how much they would be playing. With no North American basketball experience under his belt, Bruno Caboclo - Toronto's intriguing, albeit very raw long-term prospect - spent most of his rookie season in a suit, watching from the bench. He was assigned to the Mad Ants twice, logging an average of nine minutes in seven games, much to the dismay of Ujiri, who made the pursuit of a single affiliate his top priority. The whole process came together in a hurry. The Raptors unveiled their new D-League team at the end of June and vowed to be innovators in the way they operated it. Nobody has used their affiliate more this season, making 46 assignments, 11 more than any other NBA team. Caboclo made 17 trips up and down from the D-League, more than any other NBA player. He averaged 34 minutes in 37 games and, as you might expect, the results were mixed. He still has a ways to go - a few months away from being two years away, as some might say - but he's starting to show flashes, like his career-high 31-point performance last week, for instance. What Caboclo has taken from the D-League experience is different than what the more NBA-ready Powell, Nogueira or Wright got out of it, but Mermuys and company have helped them each take the next step in their individual development process. "I think it instilled confidence in my game," Powell said. "When I first went down to the 905, I was just focused on scoring, but Jesse told me that coming up here my role was going to be to make plays for other guys and hit open shots, so that's what I really worked on and I think that's what helped me when I came back up and started getting minutes." "It’s going to be a huge part of the program here for a long time - the developmental part," said Casey. "You can’t put a price tag on that. If you were a big corporation, that’s your research and development department and it’s going to pay huge, huge dividends for a long time."

Steam rises from EnergyAustralia's Mount Piper power station, near Lithgow. Credit:Nick Moir By deciding to introduce new laws to protect Springvale's operations - and those of EnergyAustralia's Mount Piper power station that receives all its coal from the mine - the government is aiming to pre-empt the result of the parties' discussions. Energy Minister Don Harwin said in a statement the new laws would ensure the Springvale mine could continue to supply Mount Piper, which now generates about 11 per cent of the state's electricity. The laws would also include "significant protections for the environment". "Springvale Mine is the sole current source of fuel for Mount Piper power station, and we are keen to avoid any disruption to its functions," Mr Harwin said. "My top priority as energy minister is to ensure NSW households and business have an affordable, secure and reliable energy supply - this decision supports that." Springvale mine workers prepare to go underground at the start of a shift. Credit:Wolter Peeters Planning Minister Anthony Roberts said the laws would continue to ensure any projects within the Sydney water catchment maintained or improved water quality, the key issue that triggered the Court of Appeal's decision. "We are committed to maintaining the highest water quality standards," he said. "That's why the legislation will support the construction of a water treatment plant to eliminate saline discharges from the mine." Mr Harwin told a media briefing that the mine will have a water treatment plant running by mid-2019, so "you'll have no more discharge from the power station or the mine into the upper Coxs valley". "To do anything other than pass the legislation that we're introducing tomorrow, runs the risk of blackouts during this summer, and an immediate spike in prices," he said. The new legislation will aim to change the Environmental Planning and Assessment (EP&A) Act to clarify that projects in the Sydney water catchment seeking to expand must maintain or improve water quality compared with their existing consent, and will specifically validate Springvale mine's State Significant Development consent, the statement said. 'Offence to the rule of law' Sue Higginson, chief executive of the NSW Environmental Defender's Office, said the government's action was "not rational". "No government should pass special laws unless there is an absolute case to do so and even then only as an absolute last resort," Ms Higginson said. "Special laws to validate unlawful acts by the executive is an offence to the rule of law. "The proper thing to do in this situation, as inconvenient as it may be for Centennial Coal [owner of the Springvale Mine] and all involved is to wait until all of the expert evidence has been presented and the [Land and Environment] Court has made its finding based on all of the evidence," she said. There was no need for a hasty move since the nearby power station had stockpiled enough coal to operate through the coming summer, Ms Higginson said. Georgina Woods, a spokeswoman for Lock The Gate, said the government should have let the Land and Environment Court do its job. The mine had not been ordered to close by the court, and had been operating continually since the victory by environmental group 4Nature in the Court of Appeal. "The Land and Environment Court has a job to do to honour the law that protects the pristine quality of our drinking water from coal mining and other development," Ms Woods said. Loading "Weakening the law for the convenience of a coal mining company that is polluting drinking water is a reckless and unnecessary reaction," she said. "Protecting drinking water should be our highest priority."

[x] Interlude: Red Like Roses Victoria Dallon, also known as the hero Summer Rose flicked through her note book. The assignment wasn't too difficult but the professor was a stickler for clearly marked references. Beside her, her sister Amy was complaining about some of the cities vigilante capes. "I mean, does she even know just how much damage those arrows can cause? He nearly lost his life, never mind his arm." "Uh-huh" She underlined a comment she had missed "Vicky, are you listening?" "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure," Amy gave her a look and vicky rolled her eyes, "Shadow Stalker nailed another guy to a wall and the hospital had you up at the crack of dawn to save his life." Satisfied her sister was listen, Amy huffed, "When is the PRT going to do something about her? This is third time and I could swear she's getting worse." "It happens. Professor Wallis called the indie-cape life cycle. It goes something like; they get powers and start playing hero. As time goes on, they get more aggressive and violent until they either end up dead, forced into a gang or the PRT." "Huh, makes sense I suppose." "Yeah, not everyone can be as awesome as us after all. Oh, I'm going on a quick patrol after school, want to come Ames?" Her sister winced, "Sorry, I've made plans to meet up with Lori." "Ooh really~? Maybe I should tag along and keep an eye on you." "Vicky… Please…" "No, no. I think it's great, really," watching the pair of them dance shyly around each other was just adorable, "I just wish I'd found out sooner, I wouldn't have kept setting you up with all those boys." Finding out her sisters preference had been a bit of a shock but she'd gotten over it. Now it was her duty to tease her sister at every opportunity. Although, she kinda wished she'd found out in a different way. No one wants to see their sister doing that. "It's not like that. I don't even think Lori is into girls…" "That'd be why her eyes are glued to your ass whenever you turn around?" Vicky quipped, "Maybe you should ask if she wants to play nurse?" "Oh like you're one to talk! Have you seen the latest PHO rumors? Someone caught your last fight with Rune on camera." Amy shot back. Vicky grimaced and put her face in her hands, "What are those freaks saying now? I swear, as soon as I find the idiot who started that rumor I'm going to kill Clockblocker!" "Why would you kill Clockblocker?" "Because we both know it was probably him who started it." "That picture didn't help." "It was a headbutt! I couldn't get my hands free!" Amy was openly laughing while Vicky's protests got more heated, "Oh come on! you know it was, you patched her up after all!" ## Vicky was still irritated at her sister when she ducked into the school changing room and slipped her costume on. One badly, or well, depending on your point of view, timed photo made it onto PHO and now she couldn't get near the little racist without someone making a comment. Still, she took some solace from the fact that the jokes and rumors had to be pissing the Nazi off more than her. Putting her bag down she started to get dress. A black body sock went on first, and over that she wore a white and gold top that also doubled as a short skirt. A pair of combat boots and a short, black leather jacket with gold trim finished everything off. Her Mom had been against the design at first, she felt Vicky should have gone with something more traditional but Victoria had been adamant. Yes, she was a member of New Wave but she was still her own person and she spent more time running solo than working with her family and her costume should represent that. The last thing she pulled from her bag was her weapon, the force staff. at the moment, it looked like a short metal pipe with a large ornamental weight on both ends. the whole thing was tinker-tech and it could extend into a pole-arm. The weighted ends were what gave it the name. Each one contained a Kinetic regulator, so it could still break brute's bones without splattering softer targets. Clipping the weapon to her belt she made her way up to the roof. The force lance came from toybox and had been and bit of a necessity caused by her powers. She was a brute, increased strength and durability combined. The problem came in with her mover power. She could run really fast over short distances, combine that with super strength and things could get… messy. (Nobody needed that wall anyway.) Standing at one end of the school roof, she sprinted forwards, building up as much momentum as she could and lept. It wasn't really flight but she could cover most of the city in minutes this way. ## Hitting the ground, she rolled to a stop and ignored the 'petals' that always accompanied her mover power. They weren't really petals, they had no substance and faded before they hit the ground. It had taken a few jumps and a couple of well timed ricochets but she was close to Empire territory. Some new indie had put Stormtiger down last week and she was hoping to run into them. Despite her reputation, she could be discrete when she wanted to be. Running across the rooftops the few Empire thugs she did spot never knew she was there. Just as she was getting bored, she paused on a rooftop and considered picking a fight with the next banger she saw when she heard the sounds of a fight. Smirking to herself, she quickly made her way towards the commotion. ## On a roof overlooking an empty lot between some run down buildings, she watched as a girl ran rings around a group of Empire thugs. She was wearing black pants and a loose white shirt. Her forearms were wrapped in black cloth and despite her boots having more heel than Vicky thought sensible they didn't appear to be slowing her down. Her dark hair was flying loose, held in place by a large bow. Extending her staff, she jumped from the roof. The weighted tip glowed as it drew in energy from the movement. Landing hard enough to kick up a cloud of dust, she charged forwards. She caught the first thug in the stomach, folding him over and sending him sprawling. The other girl glanced back at her, recognising Vicky as a hero she turned her attention back to the Empire. Fighting held a thrill that most people couldn't understand. When your blood was pumping and the world went white it was… well, it was intense. Some capes lost themselves to it, looking for bigger and better fights until someone or something put them down. While Vicky was a self admitted thrill seeker, she knew enough to keep herself safe. Crossing the lot in a shower of petals, she put another ganger down. Watching the other cape, she was experienced enough to spot someone who'd had training. Her movements were fast and confident and Vicky suspected she was either a precog or had some form of enhanced senses as none of the gangers could land a solid hit. Before Vicky could shout a warning, one of the thugs managed to get a lucky shot in with a metal bat. It hit the other girl's head with a resounding clang. The bat passed through her head, carrying with it a copy of the girl that fell to the ground while the other spun and lashed out with a well placed kick. As he fell, the copy vanished. Spotting movement in the corner of her eye, Vicky quickly brought her staff round on the idiot trying to sneak up on her. There was a crack of breaking bones and he went down clutching his arm. Getting the hint, the remaining gangers finally lost their nerve and ran. Letting them go, Vicky walked over to the other girl, "Well, that was fun. I'm Vicky, and you are?" The other girl was shorter than her Vicky noticed, even with the heels. She was also wearing a large domino mask that covered quite a bit of her face. "Belladonna. It's nice to meet you?" The girl sounded a bit confused, most were when Victoria happily introduced herself by her real name. Vicky snorted in amusement, "Great, Summer Rose, Belladonna. Think we can find a couple more for a full bouquet?" Belladonna still looked confused, but her mouth twitched upward slightly. She opened her mouth like she was about to say something when her phone rang and she cursed quietly to herself. "I'm sorry, I've got to..." she indicated her phone and Vicky nodded. "Sure, don't worry about it. I'll call this lot in. Oh! Next time you wanna beat up some nazis give me a shout, I use the same name on PHO." Nodding, Belladonna took off towards the nearest building. She jumped off the wall to grab the fire escape and flipped herself upwards. It took three jumps to clear the building but the agility she displayed had to be from her power. Vicky doubted Belladonna was the one to bring Storm Tiger down. From what Dean had said, he'd been beaten down with brute force. Bella seemed to favour evasion and counter attacks. Still, a dozen Empire thugs were off the streets and a possible plus one friend. Today was definitely a win.

How BoJack Horseman helped me better understand depression This week is Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW). Some 1 in 4 people in the UK will be affected by a mental health issue each year, with anxiety and depression being the most common problems. The theme of this year's MHAW is relationships, because your relationships - with family, friends, partners, co-workers - are the cornerstone of good mental health. Here, one JOE writer talks about how a cartoon about a horse has done more for his mental health than you could possibly expect. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Like many people my age, I've been prone to using pop-culture references as a substitute for original independent thought. I would say I'm a little like Abed from 'Community' in that respect, but that makes it seem worse, if anything. From watching a lot of television (and I mean a lot), I've found myself subconsciously absorbing some tropes which produce unhelpful habits. When it comes to entertainment there's a tendency to buy into others' ideas of what's 'good' or 'bad' without thinking, and you're rarely in a more unthinking state than when using films or TV as escapism. Mental health is one area (but by no means the only one) which mainstream shows, especially mainstream comedy, have a tendency to get wrong - even if it comes primarily from a place of ignorance rather than malice. If you repeatedly come into contact with a two-dimensional 'crazy person' character or witness depression presented as something with a single root cause that it's possible to snap out of, it's all too easy to just accept it, especially if you're essentially using the TV as background noise while eating dinner or dicking about on your phone. Touchstone Television/Imgur Without delving too far into a conversation about whether you can ignore a show's flaws altogether and just enjoy the bits you like, it's tough to unlearn stigmatising language, especially when it's used in such a conversational manner. Advertisement It's tough to gauge whether the problems arise from writers putting together something for people like themselves, or whether the issue is writers attempting to second-guess what those unlike themselves want to see. But while overfamiliarity can make people think something is aimed at a demographic to which they will never belong, it can also - on occasion - help people feel they're not alone. When it comes to the subject of mental health there are some obvious examples, and the show that has helped me in this regard is BoJack Horseman. Tornante/Imgur On the surface, BoJack doesn't seem like a natural vehicle to help viewers understand depression. It's a comedy about a fucking cartoon horse. But its circumstances give it a rare freedom, allowing the excellent cast and writers to express themselves. There's no precedent for a washed-up former TV star horse who has just broken up with his girlfriend, a pink cat who is also his agent, who lives in a version of California where anthropomorphic roosters shout 'wake up' in the morning and the country's biggest television personality is a hippo. 'This scenario doesn't make sense' won't wash as a criticism. Of course, that's by no means a magic bullet, and other programmes with similar freedoms have slipped into the same routines as the mainstream. It's not even necessarily lazy, it's just a reflex. Still, the way BoJack unapologetically confronts mental health matters is something to be admired, and something that, for many, will be the first available avenue for stepping back and thinking about serious themes: just because you're only half-watching while absent-mindedly playing Candy Crush doesn't mean a show can't be powerful enough to get you to pause the game and rewind 30 seconds. The good can stick with you as well as the bad. Advertisement Tornante/Giphy My understanding of my own mental health has been improved by hearing from others about their struggles - it makes a huge amount of sense when one considers the sense of loneliness often associated with depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders. It can take the form of not wanting to be around people or not feeling as though the people around you can appreciate your situation. Familiarity can lift a weight off your shoulders for however short an amount of time, at least on a personal level. I've read friends' accounts and been able to think 'Oh, that's a symptom of depression, not just some weird f**ked up trait that only I have'. Increased mainstream coverage of mental health ought to help this even further, especially if it helps remove stigma and normalise discussions (guys, speak to your friends and ask them if they're doing ok, even just once in a while). The benefit comes from addressing the mundanity of depression and not just its extremes. Like BoJack, I've often tricked myself into thinking the easiest way to do guarantee I do nothing wrong is to do nothing. There have undoubtedly been situations where I've stayed in bed to avoid the prospect of coming into contact with people, or p*ssed off friends without knowing why (come to think of it, one of those two could be the consequence of the other), and sabotaged relationships out of a vague feeling of imposter syndrome. Tornante I don't want this to come across as entirely miserable, however. For all the self-reflection and - let's be honest - misery it can inspire, there are positives. And not just in terms of appealing to narcissism. Unlike other shows which have been prone to acknowledging depression in an episode and just leaving it there, Bojack not only introduces the themes, but recognises its reality as a condition and not just a plot progression. Without that, its more inspirational moments wouldn't have the same impact, and any positive reinforcement would appear hollow. It needs the bleak reality to make its hope convincing, and for me that's what makes it so compelling. I'm not saying it will have the same impact on you, but take out a free Netflix trial and give it a go. It might help. It might not. But it's not doing nothing. Tornante/Imgur

The neural network and machine learning framework has become one of the key features of the latest releases of the Wolfram Language. Training neural networks can be very time consuming on a standard CPU. Luckily the Wolfram Language offers an incredible easy way to use a GPU to train networks - and do lots of other cool stuff. The problem with this was/is that most current Macs do not have an NVIDIA graphics card, which is necessary to access this framework within the Wolfram Language. Therefore, Wolfram Inc. had decided to drop support for GPUs on Macs. There is however a way to use GPUs on Macs. For example you can use an external GPU like the one offered by Bizon. Apart from the BizonBox there a couple of cables and a power supply. You can buy/configure different versions of the BizonBox: there is a range of different graphics cards available and you can buy a the BizonBox 2s which basically connects via Thunderbolt and the BizonBox 3 which connects to USB-C. Luckily, Wolfram have decided to reintroduce support for GPUs in Mathematica 11.1.1 - see the discussion here. I have a variety of these BizonBoxes (both 2s and 3) and a range of Macs. I thought it would be a good idea to post a how-to. The essence of what I will be describing in this post should work for most Macs. I ran Sierra on all of them. Here is the recipe to get the thing to work: Installation of the BizonBox, the required drivers, and compilers I will assume that you have Sierra installed and that Xcode is running. One of the really important steps if you want to use compilers is to downgrade the command line tools to version 7.3 You will have to log into your Apple Developer account and download the Command Line Tools version 7.3. Install the tools and run the terminal command (not in Mathematica!): sudo xcode-select --switch /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools Reboot your Mac into safe mode, i.e. hold CMD+R while rebooting. Open a terminal (under item Utilities at the top of the screen). Enter csrutil disable Shut the computer down. Connect your BizonBox to the mains and to either the thunderbolt or USB-C port of your Mac. Restart your Mac. Click on the Apple symbol in the top left. Then "About this Mac" and "System Report". In the Thunderbolt section you should see something like this: In the documentation of the BizonBox you will find a link to a program called bizonboxmac.zip. Download that file and unzip it. Open the folder and click on "bizonbox.prefPane" to install. (If prompted to, do update!) You should see this window: Click on Activate. Type in password if required to do so. It should give something like this: Then restart. Install the CUDA Toolkit: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads. You'll have to click through some questions for the download. what you download should be something like cuda8.0.61mac.dmg and it should be more or less 1.44 GB worth. Install the toolkit with all its elements. Restart your computer. First tests Now you should be good to go. Open Mathematica 11.1.1. Execute Needs["CUDALink`"] Needs["CCompilerDriver`"] CUDAResourcesInstall[] Then try: CUDAResourcesInformation[] which should look somewhat like this: Then you should check SystemInformation[] Head to Links and then CUDA.This should look similar to this: So far so good. Next is the really crucial thing: CUDAQ[] should give TRUE. If that's what you see you are good to go. Be more daring and try CUDAImageConvolve[ExampleData[{"TestImage","Lena"}], N[BoxMatrix[1]/9]] // AbsoluteTiming You might notice that the non-GPU version of this command runs faster: ImageConvolve[ExampleData[{"TestImage","Lena"}], N[BoxMatrix[1]/9]] // AbsoluteTiming runs in something like 0.0824 seconds, but that's ok. Benchmarking (training neural networks) Let's do some Benchmarking. Download some example data: obj = ResourceObject["CIFAR-10"]; trainingData = ResourceData[obj, "TrainingData"]; RandomSample[trainingData, 5] You can check whether it worked: RandomSample[trainingData, 5] should give something like this: These are the classes of the 50000 images: classes = Union@Values[trainingData] Let's build a network module = NetChain[{ConvolutionLayer[100, {3, 3}], BatchNormalizationLayer[], ElementwiseLayer[Ramp], PoolingLayer[{3, 3}, "PaddingSize" -> 1]}] net = NetChain[{module, module, module, module, FlattenLayer[], 500, Ramp, 10, SoftmaxLayer[]}, "Input" -> NetEncoder[{"Image", {32, 32}}], "Output" -> NetDecoder[{"Class", classes}]] When you train the network: {time, trained} = AbsoluteTiming@NetTrain[net, trainingData, Automatic, "TargetDevice" -> "GPU"]; you should see something like this: So the thing started 45 secs ago and it supposed to finish in 2m54s. In fact, it finished after 3m30s. If we run the same on the CPU we get: The estimate kept changing a bit, but it settled down at about 18h20m.That is slower by a factor of about 315, which is quite substantial. Use of compiler Up to now we have not needed the actual compiler. Let's try this, too. Let's grow a Mandelbulb: width = 4*640; height = 4*480; iconfig = {width, height, 1, 0, 1, 6}; config = {0.001, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 8.0, 15.0, 10.0, 5.0}; camera = {{2.0, 2.0, 2.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}}; AppendTo[camera, Normalize[camera[[2]] - camera[[1]]]]; AppendTo[camera, 0.75*Normalize[Cross[camera[[3]], {0.0, 1.0, 0.0}]]]; AppendTo[camera, 0.75*Normalize[Cross[camera[[4]], camera[[3]]]]]; config = Join[{config, Flatten[camera]}]; pixelsMem = CUDAMemoryAllocate["Float", {height, width, 3}] srcf = FileNameJoin[{$CUDALinkPath, "SupportFiles", "mandelbulb.cu"}] Now this should work: mandelbulb = CUDAFunctionLoad[File[srcf], "MandelbulbGPU", {{"Float", _, "Output"}, {"Float", _, "Input"}, {"Integer32", _, "Input"}, "Integer32", "Float", "Float"}, {16}, "UnmangleCode" -> False, "CompileOptions" -> "--Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets ", "ShellOutputFunction" -> Print] Under certain circumstances you might want to specify the location of the compiler like so: mandelbulb = CUDAFunctionLoad[File[srcf], "MandelbulbGPU", {{"Float", _, "Output"}, {"Float", _, "Input"}, {"Integer32", _, "Input"}, "Integer32", "Float", "Float"}, {16}, "UnmangleCode" -> False, "CompileOptions" -> "--Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets ", "ShellOutputFunction" -> Print, "CompilerInstallation" -> "/Developer/NVIDIA/CUDA-8.0/bin/"] This should give: Now mandelbulb[pixelsMem, Flatten[config], iconfig, 0, 0.0, 0.0, {width*height*3}]; pixels = CUDAMemoryGet[pixelsMem]; Image[pixels] gives So it appears that all is working fine. Problems I did come up with some problems though. There is quite a number of CUDA functions: Names["CUDALink`*"] Many work just fine. res = RandomReal[1, 5000]; ListLinePlot[res] ListLinePlot[First@CUDAImageConvolve[{res}, {GaussianMatrix[{{10}, 10}]}]] The thing is that some don't and I am not sure why (I have a hypothesis though). Here are some functions that do not appear to work: CUDAColorNegate CUDAClamp CUDAFold CUDAVolumetricRender CUDAFluidDynamics and some more. I would be very grateful if someone could check these on OSX (and perhaps Windows?). I am not sure if the this is due to some particularity of my systems or something that could be flagged up to Wolfram Inc for checking. When I wanted to try that systematically I wanted to use the function WolframLanguageData to look for the first example in the documentation of the CUDA functions, but it appears that no CUDA function is in the WolframLanguageData. I think tit would be great to have them there, too, and am not sure why they wouldn't be there. In spite of these problems I hope that this post will help some Mac users to get CUDA going. It is a great framework and simple to use in the Wolfram Language. With the BizonBox and Mathematica 11.1.1 Mac users are no longer excluded from accessing this feature. Cheers, Marco PS: Note, that there is anecdotal evidence that one can even use the BizonBox under Windows running in a virtual box under OSX. I don't have Windows, but I'd like to hear if anyone get this running.

Orlando Pirates go into Saturday’s Carling Black Label Champion Cup against Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium leading the head-to-head 4-2 in past competitions‚ but are yet to defeat their great Soweto rivals out-right. All four of Pirates’ previous successes in the pre-season showpiece event have come via penalty shoot-outs‚ while somewhat remarkably they have only managed two goals in the six games. Buccaneers fans are desperately in need of a lift after a disastrous 2016/17 Premier Soccer League season and are hoping for a good performance against their rivals which will give them hope ahead of the new campaign. The once-off match‚ that sees the supporters of the two sides select the starting line-up via public voting‚ was first played in 2011 with the inaugural game ending in a 0-0 draw.

John Chayka of the Arizona Coyotes speaks at the podium during round one of the 2016 NHL Draft at First Niagara Center on June 24, 2016 in Buffalo, New York. (Getty Images) John Chayka views the Arizona Coyotes no differently than a brand new company. Turning the team around requires the same amount of work and overall dusk-til-dawn approach as a corporation in the earliest part of its existence. Scroll to continue with content Ad The 27-year-old Chayka said he rises at 5:30 a.m. in his Scottsdale home to head to the team offices in order to beat local traffic. His day is then mostly full of phone calls and working with his team before he finally goes to bed late at night. “I get a quick workout in and get down to business because a lot of these guys are on the East Coast so I deal with them early on and then we’ve got practice and dealing with the coaching staff and all of our staffs, so it’s a more than full-time job,” Chayka said in a sit-down interview with Puck Daddy at the recent NHL general managers meetings in Boca Raton, Fla. “I’ve got a wife who is very accepting and understanding and right now, it’s an investment. It’s no different than when I started any business. It’s a startup, it takes a lot of work up front to put in place a processes and hire the right people and that’s how I view this is basically as a startup and we’re kind of inching our way towards profitability but that’s the toughest part. Once this thing turns the corner, that’s when things get easier in terms of riding some momentum.” While most people Chayka’s age are trying to enjoy their youthful years, the Coyotes general manager is being tasked with a very adult job of turning around an NHL organization that has fallen on tougher times the last several season. The Coyotes have missed the playoffs the last four seasons and will likely not make the postseason this year. Last offseason the Coyotes named Chayka their general manager after a year as the team’s assistant general manager/analytics. Story continues [Fill out your NCAA tournament bracket here | Printable version] Prior to joining the Coyotes, he had co-founded and served as director of hockey operations at Stathletes Inc. since 2009, a hockey analytics firm that tracks data through video analysis process and breaks down the game to provide objective insight into player and team performance tendencies. Chayka also never played at the professional level, reaching the BCHL before suffering a career ending injury. His promotion then at the age of 26 made him the youngest person to be named a general manager out of the four major North American pro sports. “I was sitting on the bench at the Hartford Whalers at his age, just playing hockey,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. “I wasn’t in management that’s for sure. I was just thinking about how to stay in the NHL is all I was doing. He’s certainly mature beyond the number of his age for sure and I think he has been that way his whole life. I think he’s very methodical and well-spoken. Just a mature guy.” There is precedence in other sports for people like Chayka to come in at a young age and try to change how an organization operates. Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels was one of the first of a group of younger general managers without pro playing experience that came into Major League Baseball last decade. In 2005 He became the youngest GM in the history of MLB at 28 years and 41 days and presided over the Rangers as they went from a middle-of-the-pack team to a group won back-to-back ALCS championships. According to Daniels the biggest issue with being a young general manager wasn’t so much putting the team together. It was managing the people around him. “The job doesn’t change whether you’re 27 or 67. The difference is experience, how you handle people, how people handle you, expectations, that whole deal. I think one of the things, one of the bigger challenges is just you’re managing folks with a lot more life experience than you have. So there are things that are affecting their lives that you haven’t walked yet. I’m talking about marriage and real life where no matter how good your ideas may be about the task at hand, you need everybody on the same page,” Daniels said. “You need the organization to run smoothly and to do that you have to manage people. I had not led a department directly when I got the job so it’s just a host of things that go along with that that I had a feel for but I hadn’t done, and so I think that’s the challenge.” On the personal side, Chayka has seemed to figure this out quickly with some of his more experienced staff and won them over. “John has done a great job managing his staff which includes all of our coaches, trainers, scouts and hockey operations personnel,” said Rich Nairn, the Coyotes executive vice president of communications and broadcasting who has been with the organization for 20 years. “He is a strong communicator and a good listener and he’s very respectful of everyone’s job and role with the team. He has a calm and confident demeanor and is very approachable and easy to talk to.” On the hockey side he seems to have streamlined a lot of the Coyotes’ operations to his liking and gone a little further into stockpiling young players than his predecessor Don Maloney. Chayka has gone all-in with using salary cap space to acquire assets, like he did in picking up Dave Bolland’s contract from the Florida Panthers to land Lawson Crouse and Pavel Datsyuk’s contract from the Detroit Red Wings to grab defenseman Jakob Chychrun in the 2016 NHL Draft. Both Crouse and Chychrun seem like long-term assets for the Coyotes, and wouldn’t have been picked up if Chayka didn’t aggressively use his cap space as a negotiating chip. The Coyotes dipped their toes into these waters a year earlier when they landed Chris Pronger’s contract from the Philadelphia Flyers – but not to this degree of peddling cap space across the league to teams that wanted to get rid of bad deals. “Like anything, I think most of it is out of necessity. We have a market situation that is what it is in terms of our revenue and my job is just to optimize and maximize what I can do with that revenue,” Chayka said. The addition of Chychrun was one of the more interesting moves by Chayka. It was his first major trade and was completed with longtime Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland – one of the faces of the league’s old guard. Overall Chayka showed no fear in making the deal because he wanted to land Chychrun so badly. “I think you have to be confident in your knowledge and confident in what you’re doing,” Tippett said. “He has that and he has that inner confidence.” BUFFALO, NY – MARCH 02: Jakob Chychrun #6 of the Arizona Coyotes skates against the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL game at the KeyBank Center on March 2, 2017 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images) It’s important to note that Maloney drafted the Coyotes’ young core that includes Christian Dvorak, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Max Domi, but Chayka has tried to perfect the organizational’s structure and use this foundation to build the team to his liking. “He’s an intelligent guy that has an individual view on things but understands that there are other views other than his view also and as you spend time with him you just become comfortable in his knowledge and his approach and that’s the way it has been all year,” Tippett said. Chayka’s methods with analytics have gotten the most fanfare in the past but he has also tried to lessen the overall burden on players as they deal with the rigors of an 82-game season. For example, he sometimes has the Coyotes stay overnight at a stop after a game in order to maximize their rest when in the past the team may have quickly tried to travel to the next location. Chayka also said that that he uses heart-rate variability to check a players’ wear and tear during the season. This better helps him better figure out how to manage rest days. “We make a lot of decisions based off of practice load, days off and things like that based off the information we received from that type of a test,” Chayka said. “We also measure their load in practices and monitor that with each player, so it’s important for our young players to understand their bodies and try to minimize and mitigate risk opportunities.” As for the analytics side of how he builds a team, Chayka believes it’s important to take the emotion out of the business in order to figure out how to value a player. “It’s instant analysis. I think just to have some objective information that didn’t draft the player or didn’t help develop the player and just say ‘here is where the player is at.’ I think that’s a helpful tool in kind of building the organization,” Chayka said. “We want to bring guys along in the right route and the right timeframe and try to get them to become the best players they possibly can while not minimizing their ceiling.” If these moves were done by an older more experienced general manager, they maybe wouldn’t receive the same type of notoriety. But because Chayka is the NHL’s sole millennial GM, they’re picked apart and parsed in a different fashion. According to Daniels, “the novelty of it wears off” after the first year in regards to being a younger manager and then really the publicity becomes about the bottom line of the business. [Follow Puck Daddy on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr] “Now you’re in Year 2, Year 3. It’s production, it’s performance based, what’s your track record? What have you done? It’s like anything else, at that point no one cares how old you are,” Daniels said. “Once you have a track record it’s ‘what have you been able to accomplish?’ ‘What type of people do you hire?’ ‘The kind of philosophies that the organization espouses.’ Those are the things that matter ultimately. The age story wears off pretty quickly.” In some respects, Chayka sees his age as a positive in how he can relate to players who often have to deal with people from an older generation in management who don’t speak the same ‘language’ per se. “For me, I want to be a supportive person, help them out as I can because we’re all in this together and that’s mainly my approach with our players,” Chayka said. “I think they understand they can come to me with things and talk to me. Certainly our younger group, I think it’s easier for me to relate with them in a lot of ways too. I think there are some challenges with being younger but also at the same time, there are benefits.” It’s also part of his story, and it’s impossible to deny that in a business known for its ‘old boys network’ he’s a younger and fresher face, which is certainly not a negative as the game looks to stay current and keep up with advances in technology. “I can only be who I am and approach things the way I do. I don’t think – there are now 30 other managers, it’s a perfect relationship with those guys either. I just approached things the best I can and hope it works out for everybody” Chayka said. “I‘ve been able to make as many transaction as anyone since I took over so I don’t think that’s a hindrance whatsoever and just continue to kind of build relationships and that’s every industry and every business. So I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in industries and businesses for a while now and relationship building is a big part of that.” – – – – – – – Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! MORE FROM YAHOO SPORTS

President Donald Trump’s interview last Thursday with NBC’s Lester Holt seems so long ago at this point. But the latest news has brought it back into the spotlight. That’s because what Trump told Holt just five nights ago is now being contradicted by the latest reporting in New York Times and the Washington Post. Here’s the Times’s lead with the explosive revelation: President Trump asked the FBI director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting. “I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. And the Washington Post confirms the story, claiming that Comey’s own notes reveal that Trump “pressured” Comey into ending the Flynn probe. That reporting completely contradicts what Trump explained to Holt last week. The key part is below: Trump told Holt that he wanted the investigation to go faster. Instead, it now appears that not only did he try to slow it down but he tried to end the portion that looked into his ol’ pal Flynn. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump reportedly said to Comey. “He is a good guy.” Good guy or not, it now seems Trump personally tried to influence the outcome of the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between an associate of the president and Russia. As Vox previously reported, Flynn and three other Trump associates feature prominently in that investigation. Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Flynn to get documents related to his communications with Russian officials. The committee also asked the Treasury Department to look into Flynn’s finances. While subpoenas are normal parts of investigations, for them to continue the investigation means there is something to look into. In other words, the investigators think there’s a there there. The White House has responded to the New York Times story, denying it completely: No one at the White House willing to put their name on this statement pic.twitter.com/cm6BTWC26w — Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) May 16, 2017 That denial is going to be hard to substantiate, especially if the paper trail of what Comey deemed to be the “president’s improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation” does in fact exist. If that’s the case, Trump may want to bust out those “tapes” he claims to have of his and Comey’s conversations. That’s probably the only way he’s going to refute a paper trail now. When Trump fired Comey (last week!), my colleague Matthew Yglesias wrote that “a whiff of obstruction of justice is in the air.” That whiff just became a much stronger scent.

About Wirex Ecoin first came in 2015 with its headquarters in London, which provided the only debit card for Bitcoins. Later the company re-branded itself to Wirex with some additional features. Dmitry Lazarichev, Panel Matveev, and Georgy Sokolov founded the E-coin. The Wirex platform is a great combination of traditional currency and digital currency on a single platform. Wirex has been covered on media on several platforms such as crypto currency magazine, The Coin Telegraph, Future of Payments Gateway, All coins News, BTC manager.com etc. Wirex provides a cloud-based service that allows personal banking. It offers Bitcoin debit cards, remittances and also mobile banking. Wirex is recognized internationally and serves in all geographical locations. A user can now link Bitcoin wallet to visa, master card, and debit cards. Traditional currencies such as Dollars, Pounds, and Euro can be switched with Bitcoins for carrying out a transaction. Features of Wirex Wirex operates through application apart from the web browser. The application provides much convenience to the user, as it is applicable 24*7. The money is easily manageable with one click. The account and currency transaction can be operated with a smartphone with Android and iOS. The application also guarantees security through two-factor authentication (2fa). The application forms a link to the Google authenticator. A user can scan the QR code of his account and sync the Wirex application. Every time a user tries to log in, a 6-digit code is sent to the users registered email ID or contact number. For additional security, multi-sig technology is also used to protect the application. More than two users signature is required to authenticate a transaction. The Wirex Card The card has some exceptional features that make it a preferred choice among users. Both plastic and virtual money can be operational on this platform. The card is valid worldwide and a user can easily upload in minutes. A user can add money by using one of the following platforms such as PayPal, bank transfers or other alternative payment methods. There are no transaction charges applicable. A user can register free of cost and a new card is issued instantly. Other Cryptocurrency exchanges to know: BitcointoYou, TradeSatoshi, RippleFox, Bitstamp, Cryptomate, Bittrex How to register on Wirex? In order to register for a free account on Wirex, log on to https://wirexapp.com. Click on “register” tab to enter the new window. Enter the various required details such as first name, last name, valid email ID and generate a new password. The password should be at least 6 characters long. Click on “create account” tab. A verification link goes to the registered email ID to validate the user. Dashboard at Wirex Wirex dashboard gives detail information on the account balance. Firstly a user needs to add Bitcoins to his BTC wallet. Then a user can order plastic and virtual card based on requirement and interest. EUR, USD, and GBP virtual cards are available for processing online transactions. Only the first virtual card is free. Plastic cards for same currencies are available for making offline payments and have application at ATM’s. Once a user places an order and receives the card, currency exchange would be possible. For account verification, the order of the first card is mandatory. Once the account becomes valid, a user can avail additional features such as higher card limits, which will eventually provide convenience to the user. More transactions would be possible from this platform. Another feature is funds, which a user can add using payment options such as bank transfers and other online payment modes. Thus, Wirex is a great platform where traditional currency and fiat currency work perfectly on a single platform.

Last week, the exorbitant expense of maintaining the Bush administration’s “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo was revealed in the Miami Herald, where Carol Rosenberg explained that Congress provided $139 million to operate the prison last year, which, with 171 prisoners still held, works out at $812,865 per prisoner, nearly 30 times as much as it costs to keep a prisoner in a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility, where the cost per prisoner is $28,284 a year. In a detailed explanation of the “expensive” and “inefficient” system at Guantánamo, retired Army Brig. Gen. Greg Zanetti, who was the prison’s deputy commander in 2008, said, “It’s a slow-motion Berlin Airlift — that’s been going on for 10 years.” While stationed at Guantánamo, the Herald noted, “he wrote a secret study that compared the operation to Alcatraz, noting that Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had closed it in 1963 because it was too expensive.” Zanetti, who is now a Seattle-based money manager, pointed out that everything “from paper clips to bulldozers” has to be flown in, or brought in by boat, and argued that the cost of running the prison “deserves a cost-benefit analysis.” He told Carol Rosenberg, “What complicates the overall command further is you have the lawyers, interrogators and guards all operating under separate budgets and command structures. It’s like combining the corporate cultures and budgets of Goldman, Apple and Coke. Business schools would have a field day dissecting the structure of Guantánamo.” Brig. Gen. Zanetti’s analysis certainly ought to provide an opportunity for critics of Guantánamo, in the administration and in Congress, to fight back against the prison’s cheerleaders, who have pushed hard to keep the prison open and to thwart President Obama’s poorly conceived — and failed — promise to close the prison within a year of taking office. However, what was not specifically mentioned in this analysis was how, when calculating whether it is acceptable to be spending over $800,000 a head to keep 171 prisoners at Guantánamo, the American people might be interested to know that, while the government intends to try (or has tried) 36 of these men, and has decided to hold 46 others without charge or trial, it does not wish to detain 89 others. Two years ago, the Guantánamo Review Task Force, comprising career officials and lawyers from government departments and the intelligence agencies, reviewed the files of all the prisoners to work out what to do with them, and concluded that 89 of the 171 remaining prisoners should be released. Last year, the cost of holding those 89 prisoners was $72,345,029. If anyone is looking to save money, therefore, they might wish to examine why it is that these 89 men are still held, although they will discover that the answers do not reflect well on either the administration or Congress. Although all of these men were “approved for transfer” out of Guantánamo by the Task Force, 31 of them are still held because it is not safe for them to be repatriated, as they face the risk of torture in their home countries, or because Congress has blocked their release, and the rest are Yemenis, whose release has also been blocked — by the President and by Congress. The details of the 31 men, who are from a variety of countries, are not entirely clear, because the administration has not publicly identified who has been “approved for transfer.” However, it is clear that this group includes the last five Uighurs (Muslims from China’s Xinjiang province), who won their habeas corpus petitions over three years ago, in October 2008. Since then 12 other Uighurs have been released — in Bermuda, Palau and Switzerland — but the five remain because they refused the new homes they were offered, fearing that they would not be safe from the long reach of the Chinese government. No other country has offered to take them, and President Obama, his Justice Department, Congress and the Supreme Court have all made it clear that they have no desire to offer them — or any other refugee in Guantánamo — a home in the United States, the country that wrongly imprisoned them in the first place. Others are from countries with dubious human rights records — Syria, for example — and others are almost certainly victims of a restriction included by Congress as part of the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, in which, as the Washington Post explained in an article last week, lawmakers “demanded that the defense secretary certify that he would ‘ensure’ that a freed ‘individual cannot engage or re-engage in any terrorist activity.'” As Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s general counsel, explained in a speech last month at the Heritage Foundation, “This provision is onerous and near impossible to satisfy.” Outside of these 31 individuals, the 58 Yemenis are also subjected to the problems highlighted by Jeh Johnson, and are saddled with other problems too. Although 28 of them could have been sent home with seven of their compatriots the week before Christmas in 2009, a failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day with a bomb in his underwear derailed plans for their release, apparently indefinitely. In respond to an uproar following a revelation that the man in question, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had been recruited in Yemen, President Obama bowed to pressure and issued a moratorium on releasing any more Yemenis from Guantánamo. This shows no sign of being dropped, even though some of the men “approved for transfer” by Obama’s Task Force were first approved for release from Guantánamo by a military review board under the Bush administration in 2004, and even though blanket bans of this sort are nothing less than “guilt by nationality.” For the remaining 30 Yemenis, a further obstacle to their release is that, although they too were “approved for transfer,” the Task Force created a special category for them, declaring that they should be held in “conditional detention” at Guantánamo until the security situation in Yemen improved. With such obstacles, it is uncertain when any of these 89 prisoners will be released, but in the meantime, as American justice groans under the burden of layers of dubious impositions designed to prevent the release of any of these men — whether innocent, cleared by a court, or cleared by Bush’s military review boards seven years ago — America’s coffers are also suffering. This is not just because of the $72 million that it cost to hold these men last year, but also because of the hundreds of millions of dollars that it has cost to hold them for nearly ten years, or the billions of dollars that — in total — have been spent on holding them and hundreds of other prisoners already released. On the other hand, if you prefer to look to the future rather than the past, as President Obama does, then you may wish to reflect on the billions of dollars that will be spent on holding these men in future — as the years turn into decades, and they begin to die of old age — until someone in authority finds a way to bring this dark and disgraceful farce to an end. Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” a 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011, and details about the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and available on DVD here — or here for the US). Also see my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation. As published exclusively on the website of the Future of Freedom Foundation.

The biggest media trial in Turkey's history has begun in what human rights groups say is an attempt by the government to intimidate the press and punish pro-Kurdish activists. A total of 44 Kurdish journalists appeared in court in Istanbul on various terrorism charges, including accusations that they have supported the KCK, an illegal pan-Kurdish movement that includes the PKK, the armed Kurdistan Workers' party. Of those, 36 have been in pre-trial detention since December. The hearing was delayed after the defendants made an attempt to defend themselves in Kurdish, their mother language, a request denied by the judge. Twelve of the defendants are said to have led a terrorist organisation and 32 are accused of being members of a terrorist organisation. Prosecutors have demanded prison sentences ranging from seven and a half to 22 and a half years. The contentious case comes amid an escalation of Turkey's 28-year-old Kurdish insurgency, with renewed clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces. Over the past 14 months, the country has seen its worst violence since the PKK's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was captured and jailed in 1999. Since June 2011, at least 708 people have been killed, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. The victims include 405 PKK fighters, 209 soldiers and police, and 84 civilians, it said. Meanwhile, a peaceful initiative by Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) to improve Kurdish rights has fizzled out. Instead, thousands of non-violent Kurdish politicians and sympathisers have been arrested and charged with terrorism offences. The journalists are the latest group to go on trial, activists say. "This is bad for Turkey's international image," said Hüseyin Bagci, of Ankara's Middle East Technical University's international relations department. Bagci described Erdoğan's Kurdish political initiative – unpopular with many Turks – as dead, but said the government remained divided over how to deal with the worsening insurgency, with no clear strategy. Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised the Turkish government for the prosecution of pro-Kurdish politicians, activists and journalists who exercise their right to freedom of expression. Andrew Gardner, Turkey researcher of Amnesty International, said: "[This] prosecution forms a pattern where critical writing, political speeches and participation at peaceful demonstrations are used as evidence of terrorism offences." More than 100 journalists are currently in jail in Turkey, more than in Iran or China. Many of them work for Kurdish media outlets. About 800 more face charges and many journalists have been fired or have quit their jobs because of direct or indirect pressure from the Turkish government. In a recent speech, the interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin, compared writers and journalists to PKK fighters, saying that there was "no difference between the bullets fired in [the Kurdish south-east] and the articles written in Ankara". The government maintains that none of the journalists on trial have been arrested for their work as members of the press. However, the 800-page indictment includes charges for "denigrating the state" against one journalist who wrote about sexual harassment at Turkish Airlines. Özlem Agus, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish Tigris News Agency (DIHA), was singled out for bringing to light sexual abuse of minors in the Pozanti prison in Adana. Other offending articles include interviews with the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy party (BDP) leader Sebahattin Demirtas, and reports on casualties in the fights between the PKK and Turkish armed forces. "All of the defendants are on trial for doing their jobs," the defence lawyer Meral Danis Bektas said. "A free press and freedom of expression are cornerstones of democracy. Without them, democratic political participation becomes impossible. Erdoğan now openly threatens journalists or dictates [what to write]. This attitude creates a terrible climate for press freedom." A report by the International Crisis Group to be published on Tuesday blames both sides for the worsening situation. It says the government needs to "reform oppressive laws that jail legitimate Kurdish politicians" and to "make amends" for the excessive behaviour of its security forces. But it adds: "The Kurdish movement, including PKK leaders, must abjure terrorist attacks and publicly commit to realistic political goals. Above all, politicians on all sides must legalise the rights most of Turkey's Kurds seek, including mother-language education, an end to discriminatory laws, fair political representation and more decentralisation." The report also claims Ankara has "zigzagged" on its commitments to Kurds' rights. At times it has given "positive signals" including scheduling optional Kurdish lesson in schools. "At others, they appear intent on crushing the PKK militarily, minimise the true extent of fighting, fail to sympathise with Kurdish civilian casualties, openly show their deep distrust of the Kurdish movement, do nothing to stop the arrest of thousands of non-violent activists and generally remain complacent as international partners mute their criticism at a time of Middle East turmoil." Since 2009, 8,000 pro-Kurdish politicians, lawyers, academics, writers and members of the media have been arrested on terrorism charges. The new media trial "is clearly political," said the investigative journalist Ertugrul Mavioglu, who faced terrorism charges, dropped last December, for interviewing the KCK's leader Murat Karayilan, who operates from a base in northern Iraq. Mavioglu said: "The government wants to set an example, it wants to intimidate. Journalists are being told: 'There are limits on what you are allowed to say.'" • This article was amended on 11 September to correct the English translation of the BDP's name, from the Freedom and Democracy party to the Peace and Democracy party

By James Dostoyevsky May 5 – The ban of CFU President Gordon Derrick, which prevents him from running for CONCACAF president, is possibly one of the most lawyered documents we have seen of late. But it is a tale of law and its manipulation that is not over as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is to be asked to rule on the case. FIFA, the world governing body of football, which labours away, at times questionably, by trying to rectify its past malfeasance (and not particulalrly succeeding in its recent attempts), has produced a remarkable judgement in its banning of Derrick de facto from running for CONCACAF President. Of course FIFA cannot ban him from running for that office directly. CONCACAF is one of the six confederations that are not members of FIFA but regional competition organizing bodies (with UEFA always having tried to be a governing body juxtaposed to FIFA, so far unsuccessfully – but hey, now their own former employee runs FIFA…). As such, FIFA has no jurisdiction over CONCACAF’s affairs – a fact serially pointed out by former FIFA president Blatter, who always decried how he and FIFA were unable, and prevented in law, from doing anything about CONCACAF and CONMEBOL corruption. And since FIFA has no legal grounds to order CONCACAF to do anything at all, Domenico Scala, who it is rumoured was anglig for the job of new FIFA General Secretary, has used all of his (lawyers’) skills to interfere without interfering. This resulted in some pretty interesting verbal gymnastics that led Derrick to throw in the towel, before even wiping his face with it. What FIFA (Scala et al) did, and that is something they could do (well, kind of…) is ban Derrick not from running for CONCACAF president but for a high FIFA office. Thing is, that running for Membership in the FIFA Council (the renamed ExCo), as a Vice President, would have implied Derrick winning the Presidency of CONCACAF: the CONCACAF President is automatically delegated into the FIFA Council as a FIFA Vice President. But to make certain that Derrick would not run for anything in FIFA’s fiefdom, Scala sent a second letter and decided that Derrick was not permitted to run for ANY position on the new Council. Funny, that he did not send either letter directly to the man concerned… Hence Scala (thinks he) pulled a master fast-one by ruling that poor Derrick was not qualified to “run for FIFA Vice President nor Member of the FIFA Council”, which basically eliminated him from running for CONCACAF President. Scala’s (FIFA’s lawyers’) reasoning will now be before CAS and should be quite interesting when tested in law: Derrick’s legal team filed their case before CAS a few days ago, we are told. So, let’s review what all this means – and the reasons for this astonishing ban. Scala banned Derrick from ever becoming a Member of FIFA’s new Council at a time when he, Derrick, was not even close to qualifying for such a post. Not only was Derrick not running for FIFA Council Membership, he ran for CONCACAF’s presidential job – which has nothing to do with FIFA: not in law, not in structure, not in anything. Hence, FIFA banned Derrick preventatively from a future Council Membership, before he would even have attempted to become a FIFA Member in its new Council Duh And the reasons given? For one, Scala referred to a slap-on-the-wrist-“reprimand” issued in 2011 after the Bin Hammam/Jack Warner fiasco, where Bin Hammam allegedly had Warner distribute cash funds to CFU Members (Bin Hammam challenged that allegation and won before CAS …just in case the collective memory had lost that fact). Derrick’s mortal sin at the time, always per FIFA explanations, was that he did not cooperate with the private cops FIFA had hired (the Freeh Group). For that he got his reprimand and paid a 300 CHF fine. But because the reprimand – in FIFA’s own verbiage – was so small, Derrick was prevented from appealing it. Yet now, five years later, FIFA use that old matter – which was not appealed because FIFA prevented Derrick from appealing since it was a very minor offence – as the first reason to prevent him from ever becoming a FIFA Council Member . But wait: a matter so small that he was prevented from appealing, is suddenly so big, so important that FIFA ban him from running for any FIFA Council Membership? Really? Yet now, five years later, FIFA use that old matter – which was not appealed because FIFA prevented Derrick from appealing since it was a very minor offence – . But wait: a matter so small that he was prevented from appealing, is suddenly so big, so important that FIFA ban him from running for any FIFA Council Membership? Really? Next reason was a pretty major broadside against Derrick, and Scala didn’t shy away from making reference to an “ongoing investigation for financial mismanagement”. This, for a man who sits on two bank boards, is devastating news. What it also does, is possibly prevent him from serving on those boards in the future. What it also does, is similar to the famous Bosman case where a footballer successfully pleaded that because of football rules and rulings, his ability to make a living and feed his family was substantially endangered, if not eliminated. But Scala went much further: elsewhere, he delivered this bombastic statement of late: “In order to protect any investigations we can however not indicate if we have or have not preliminary investigatory proceedings against an individual.” So, wait… if on the one hand, FIFA cannot state that they are actively pursuing a preliminary investigation against an individual, but in Derrick’s case, they do exactly that? Why would Scala go that far, so far really that he abuses FIFA’s own maxim, which FIFA quoted only a short while ago? Why is Derrick an exception to the rule that says: “In order to protect any investigations we can however not indicate if we have or have not preliminary investigatory proceedings against an individual.” There are many reasons, many motives and many suspicions surrounding this case. MAs speak of intimidation. Others speak of deals being cut by CONCACAF members who have very personal fights to fight – and are therefore easily swayed to do as the Masters say they should do. We shall watch carefully how this ridiculous saga ends. And we shall observe how rules are bent further only to create a scapegoat who may not be able to defend himself. Well, that part of the assumption may have been a serious error of judgment on the part of FIFA and others further afield. Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1551264887labto1551264887ofdlr1551264887owedi1551264887sni@o1551264887fni1551264887

(CNN) A 29-year-old activist who rose to prominence in the protests following the police killing of Michael Brown was found dead in a burning car in a St. Louis suburb, according to police. The victim was identified as Darren Seals, formerly of St. Louis, said St. Louis County Police Department spokesman Sgt. Shawn McGuire. Just before 2 a.m. Tuesday, county police received a call from Riverview, a northern suburb, to assist local authorities with a vehicle fire. Upon putting out the fire, police found Seals inside the vehicle. He had suffered a gunshot wound, police said. McGuire declined to release further details, citing an ongoing investigation. The area where the vehicle was found is a largely residential street hosting apartment complexes and single-family homes. It sits a short walk from Riverview's North Riverfront Park and the Mississippi River. Darren Seals was found shot in a burning car Tuesday. Though Seals' manner of death will conjure recollections of the November 2014 slaying of Deandre Joshua near the street where Brown was killed, police say the two crimes appear unrelated at this point. Joshua, too, was found dead in a car with a gunshot wound. Someone had poured accelerant on him and lit him afire, burning his arms, fingers and legs, police said at the time. McGuire told CNN on Wednesday that the Joshua case is active and remains unsolved, but investigators have found nothing linking that case to Seals' death. 'I felt her soul crying' Seals' Twitter bio said he was a "Businessman, Revolutionary, Activist, Unapologetically BLACK, Afrikan in AmeriKKKa, Fighter, Leader." Describing Seals as a factory line worker and hip-hop musician, The St. Louis American reported he was highly vocal during the Ferguson protests that followed Brown's death in August 2014. When a grand jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson in Brown's killing, it was Seals seen in video footage and photos embracing Brown's distraught mother, Lezley McSpadden, as Brown's stepfather angrily told the crowd, "Burn this bitch down." Of the moment the family learned Wilson would face no trial, Seals wrote on Instagram: "After they dropped it his mom broke down so bad it hurt my soul." In an account provided to MTV , Seals said, "It was like I felt her soul crying. It's a different type of crying. I've seen people crying, but she was really hurt. And it hurt me. It hurt all of us." After they dropped it his mom broke down so bad it hurt my soul #Ferguson #RIP #MikeBrown A photo posted by Bottom Boyz Management (@kingdseals) on Nov 25, 2014 at 9:20am PST He included footage from the moment in a music video for his group D.O.A.'s song, "Born Targets." On it, Seals raps in front of the QuikTrip that was heavily vandalized during the early days of the Ferguson protests, lashing out at the police response to the demonstrations. "We was marching hands up not concerning the cops/Next thing you know, them bitches started pointing their choppers/They wanted to trip quick and start turning it up/So that f***ing QuikTrip we got to burning it up," he rhymed 'Before it became a riot...' At the time of Brown's death, Seals lived just a few blocks from the Canfield Green apartment complex in Ferguson where the unarmed 18-year-old was shot. In a 2014 interview, he described to The Nation how the community quickly came together before the protests erupted, passing around a large plastic bag to collect donations for Brown's family. "It wasn't even a protest yet. ... It was a black boy being shot in the community. It was about 10 other women and men out there, and the family," he told the magazine. "Before it became a riot, before it became a protest, it was just the community coming together." Media outlets featured his commentary in the months to follow as he continued to be outspoken about racial issues after the Brown protests subsided. He regularly denounced police brutality and often spoke out against white privilege, while applauding those who sought to educate and empower black people. In his last tweet, he lashed out at the NFL for its treatment of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has become a lightning rod after protesting police brutality by sitting during the national anthem before games. The @NFL mad about #Kaepernick protest but I bet they don't turn down all the money from them jersey sales — King D Seals (@KingDSeals) September 6, 2016 It was reported this week that, despite the controversy embroiling the quarterback, Kaepernick's No. 7 jersey has become the NFL's top seller -- over the shirts worn by the Dallas Cowboys' Ezekiel Elliott and the New England Patriots' Tom Brady. "The @NFL mad about #Kaepernick protest but I bet they don't turn down all the money from them jersey sales," Seals tweeted Monday. Nuanced positions Though fiery in his defense of black America, Seals' commentary could not always be placed in a one-size-fits-all box. He was highly critical, for instance, of the Black Lives Matter movement, which he accused, along with white liberal groups, of "hijacking" the Ferguson protests. He was also critical of African-Americans who would blindly vote for Democrats. In October 2014, the Washington Post reported that Seals was "roaming black neighborhoods" with voter registration forms, urging Ferguson residents to cast their ballots for anyone but a Democrat. Darren Seals, second from right, appears with fellow activists, from left, the Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, Bree Newsome and Dr. Cornel West during a benefit hip-hop concert in St. Louis last year. "Just because they've got the D next to their name, that don't mean nothing," Seals told the newspaper . "The world is watching us right now. It's time to send a message of our power." He also aimed polemics at President Barack Obama, saying during the interview, "To this day, in seven or eight years, we haven't seen any significant difference in the black community." Still, upon news of his death several protesters and others active in the black community, including those who didn't always concur with Seals, took to social media to express their sorrow. "Him & I disagreed over much but he loved his community. Passionately. This is sad," tweeted rapper Talib Kweli. Added Black Lives Matter's DeRay McKesson: "Nobody deserves to die. We did not always agree, but he should be alive today." Waking up to news of the brother @KingDSeals murder. Him & I disagreed over much but he loved his community. Passionately. This is sad. RIP. — Talib Kweli Greene (@TalibKweli) September 7, 2016 No matter what, @KingDSeals stood for STL & Mike Brown and was a part of my Ferguson family. Rest in power. pic.twitter.com/eoH32InlBd — BrownBlaze (@brownblaze) September 6, 2016 We can live in a world where people don't die by violence. Nobody deserves to die. We did not always agree, but he should be alive today. — deray mckesson (@deray) September 6, 2016

Jason Eli Becker (born July 22, 1969) is an American musician, songwriter and composer. At the age of 16, he became part of the Shrapnel Records-produced duo Cacophony with his friend Marty Friedman. They released the albums Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 and Go Off! in 1988. Cacophony broke up in 1989 and Becker began doing solo work, having released his first album Perpetual Burn in 1988, also through Shrapnel. He later joined David Lee Roth's band and recorded one album with him, A Little Ain't Enough. Becker's performing career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In 1996, Becker lost the ability to speak, and he now communicates with his eyes via a system developed by his father. Despite his disability, he continues composing by using a computer and has since released with Shrapnel Collection, a "best of" album of his favorite songs and three new songs. Biography and career [ edit ] Hometown, birthplace, school and early years [ edit ] Becker was born and raised in Richmond, California, by his parents, Gary and Patricia (Heffley) Becker. He was born in Richmond Hospital on 23rd Street in 1969. His maternal grandfather was actor Wayne Heffley.[2] Becker graduated from Kennedy High School where he performed Yngwie Malmsteen's "Black Star" with his band at a talent show. [1] While still in high school, Becker was introduced to Marty Friedman. He was exposed to the guitar at an early age because both his father and his uncle were guitar players. He absorbed all kinds of music from around the world and melded different aspects of each style into his playing. He cited Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen as early influences.[3] Cacophony and solo career [ edit ] Becker started out playing alongside Marty Friedman in the Mike Varney-produced duo, Cacophony. Together, they put out an album, and toured Japan and the U.S. While they never went mainstream in the U.S., they proved popular enough in Europe to sell out almost every performance. [2] In 1989 Friedman left to join Megadeth and Becker began to pursue a solo career, having released his first solo album titled Perpetual Burn in 1988. He has since released the albums Perspective and Collection, as well as two albums of demos, entitled The Raspberry Jams and The Blackberry Jams. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [ edit ] At the age of 20, he joined David Lee Roth's band to work on Roth's album A Little Ain't Enough, replacing Steve Vai, who had joined Whitesnake. In 1990 Becker won the coveted Best New Guitarist award from Guitar Magazine. [3] While preparing for the album, Becker began to feel what he called a "lazy limp" in his left leg. He was soon diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig's Disease) and was given three to five years to live. He finished the recording using lighter (thinner) gauge guitar strings and other techniques, which made it easier for him to play with his weakening hands. Although he managed to finish the album, which was released in 1991, he did not join the supporting tour due to his inability to perform on stage; former Lizzy Borden guitarist Joe Holmes took Becker's place on tour. His ALS gradually robbed him of his ability to play guitar, to walk, and eventually his ability to speak. He now communicates with his eyes via a system developed by his father. Due to the nature of the disease, he remains mentally sharp and, with the aid of a computer, continues composing. In the back of the Perspective CD case, Becker states "I have Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It has crippled my body and speech, but not my mind." His medical condition has remained stable since 1997. In 2003, Becker posted on his website that he was feeling better and had gained some weight, while the folder for his 2008 album Collection also mentions an upcoming book. Perspective and the Berry Jams [ edit ] In 1996, Becker released an album entitled Perspective, an instrumental album composed by him (with the exception of Bob Dylan's song "Meet Me in the Morning"). The writing of the music had been started before ALS completely crippled his abilities. By using guitar, and, later, when he was unable to use both hands, a keyboard, he continued to compose while his disease worsened. However, when Becker could no longer physically play even a keyboard, his friend and music producer Mike Bemesderfer[4] helped him with a music-composing computer program that reads movements of his head and eyes, enabling Becker to continue to compose after he lost control of the rest of his body. Several years later, Becker released Raspberry Jams (1999) and Blackberry Jams (2003); the first contained various unreleased demo-tracks, and the latter contained demo-tracks and alternate versions of songs that were later reworked and published into other albums. Two tribute albums to Jason Becker have been issued. Respectively entitled Warmth in the Wilderness I and Warmth in the Wilderness II, they feature guitarists such as Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Joe Becker, Rusty Cooley, and Mattias Eklundh. The album profits were sent to Becker to help him with his medical finances. Collection [ edit ] On November 4, 2008, Shrapnel Records released a new Jason Becker album entitled Collection. The album includes three new songs in addition to some older recordings (some never before released) and features Marty Friedman, Greg Howe, Joe Satriani, Michael Lee Firkins, Steve Vai, and Steve Hunter. Boy Meets Guitar [ edit ] On August 20, 2010, Becker declared that he was considering releasing an album of music he recorded when he was in his teenage years. He has since released this album, titled Boy Meets Guitar, in 2012.[5] Triumphant Hearts [ edit ] In October 2016, Becker launched a campaign to fund an album, which was initially estimated for release in July 2017. The campaign raised more than $100,000. The album, Triumphant Hearts was released on December 7, 2018. Track listing [ edit ] Triumphant Hearts Hold On To Love Fantasy Waver Once Upon A Melody Magic Woman River Of The Longing Valley Of Fire River Of The Longing (2ª) Talking Me Back Tell Me No Lies Hold On To The Love (2ª) You Do It [6] [7] Musical style [ edit ] Considered a virtuoso guitarist and one of the top players of his time, Jason Becker studied the works of violinist Niccolò Paganini and was a playing partner with Marty Friedman. He later arranged Paganini's 5th Caprice, performing it during an instructional guitar video. Becker's compositions often include high speed scalar and arpeggio passages—trademarks of his shred style of guitar playing. Often incorporating advanced techniques such as sweep picking, alternate picking, artificial harmonic accenting, and tapping; he was among the leaders of the field during the technical shred guitar and neoclassical metal trend of the mid to late eighties and is still respected and honored by his musician peers today. The song Serrana appearing in the album Perspective, is an example of his sweep-picking skills. [4] He demonstrated the arpeggio sequence during a clinic at the Atlanta Institute of Music. A video of this performance first appeared on his Hot Licks guitar instructional video.[8] Equipment [ edit ] Becker's first guitar was a Franciscan acoustic. Prior to joining Cacophony in 1987, Becker worked his way through the Franciscan, a Takamine acoustic, a Fender Musicmaster, and finally, a black "Dan Smith" era Fender Stratocaster (likely a 1982 or 1983 model) with a DiMarzio Steve Morse humbucker in the bridge (seen in the "Black Star" video, circa 1986). On his message board, Becker said "I recorded SMS [Speed Metal Symphony] with my Strat." For his next guitar, Becker said on his message board "Mike Varney got Hurricane to endorse us after we recorded Speed Metal Symphony. I liked how they were like Strats, only beefier." On Perpetual Burn, Becker said on his message board: "I used my white and black Hurricane guitar for everything. For clean tone I went direct. For dirty tone I used a 100 Watt Marshall with a Boss Super Overdrive pedal." The Moridira Hurricane guitar he used is called a Limited Edition LTD.2 model, believed to be made in Japan. (It is not a Hurricane EX series, which appears to be lower quality.) His LTD.2 was a "strat copy", but with a HSS pickup setup, a 24-fret rosewood fingerboard, and unique Floyd Rose where you don't have to cut the strings. For pickups, Becker said on his message board: "I just used the stock pickups it came with." The pickups were Japanese-made pickups. While Becker is pictured with a blue Hurricane guitar on the cover of Perpetual Burn, he did not use this blue guitar on the album. Differences on this guitar from his first Hurricane include DiMarzio pickups, a maple fretboard, and 24 frets. (Marty Friedman recorded the whammy parts of his song "Dragon Mistress" using Becker's blue Hurricane, one of the rare times Marty has recorded whammy work.) For the second Cacophony album, Becker switched over to Carvin gear, utilizing 2 DC Series models, one in a trans blue finish with flamed maple top, and another one in a solid burgundy finish (This is the guitar seen in the famous "Yo Yo" video from the 1989 Japan tour with Cacophony). Both have double cutaway bodies, Kahler locking tremolo systems, 6 in line machine heads and 2 Carvin humbucker pickups. He used these up until he was diagnosed with ALS in 1989. During the sessions for A Little Ain't Enough, Becker used various Carvin, Ibanez, ESP and Valley Arts guitars, as well as a Les Paul on some tracks and a Gibson acoustic for select things. Becker has also been pictured with a few Hamer superstrats as well. From 1989–1991, Becker used various guitars, most notably a Peavey custom model with the numbered fretboard markers. Also used were an Ibanez Custom Shop guitar (probably based on an RG), a custom from Performance Guitars, a couple of various unknown Strat style guitars and a black Hurricane with 3 single coil pickups. As of very recently, Becker has allowed Paradise Guitars USA to release a Jason Becker signature guitar. It is similar in appearance to the numbered Peavey but with a different headstock shape. Becker used various types of amplifiers in his music. Before joining Cacophony, he used a small Peavey Studio Pro 40 with the older style Peavey vertical silver stripes on the grille cloth. During his early days Becker was also seen with a red Marshall JCM800 head and 4x12 cabinet. For the first Cacophony album, Becker used an ADAMP1 preamp. He recorded Perpetual Burn with a borrowed '70s Marshall half stack and a BOSS Super Overdrive and Cacophony's second album was recorded with a Carvin X100B stack. For the David Lee Roth album A Little Ain't Enough, Becker used "eight different Marshall amps." He also used the SX300H head at some point during that era. After Cacophony Becker used various amps, including a "Fender M80", an unknown Marshall amp, an ADA Preamp and possibly the aforementioned Peavey combo. Becker typically used Dean Markley and SIT strings [5] Paradise Guitar [ edit ] In 2008 Paradise Guitars worked with Becker to design a Jason Becker signature guitar. The design is based on the Peavey with colored number fret inlays. Features include an alder body, maple neck with steel 2-way truss rod, maple 16" radius fingerboard, 24 jumbo thin frets with colored number fret marker inlays, black Floyd Rose Pro Style floating Tremolo with Floyd Rose Tremolo stop, Sperzel red satin tuners, 14-degree tilt-back headstock with black Paradise logo and matching tremolo and electronics plates. The pickups are DiMarzio pickups; a PAF Pro-Custom in the neck colored yellow and red, a DP116 HS-2 in the middle colored green, and a Tone Zone-Custom in the bridge colored pink and blue. These colored pickups complement the colored inlays and seem to give the guitar a rainbow effect. There is also a red 5-way switch and purple 1–11 volume knob.[9] Kiesel/Carvin Tribute Guitars [ edit ] In 2012 Carvin worked with Becker to design the JB200C Jason Becker Tribute, a guitar that is modeled after the original DC200 guitar he used toward the latter part of his career. The guitar features an Alder body with flamed maple top, maple neck with a flamed maple fingerboard, a Floyd Rose tremolo, jumbo frets, 2 humbuckers, active electronics, and comes standard in a transparent blue finish. In 2015, Kiesel Guitars, which took over Carvin's guitar manufacturing, worked with Becker to release a second tribute model, called the JB24 "Numbers" guitar. It is the third incarnation of his "Numbers" guitar, previously released by Peavey and Paradise guitars, and is also one of the first Carvin guitars to feature a 24-fret bolt-on neck, alongside the GH24 Greg Howe signature model released in the same year. It features a tung-oiled ash body, maple neck and fingerboard, colored number inlays, stainless steel frets, and 3 custom-colored Seymour Duncan pickups (Perpetual Burn in the bridge, Vintage Hot Stack in the middle, and Jazz in the neck).[10] For the official launch of Becker's signature Seymour Duncan Perpetual Burn Humbucker and the Carvin JB24 numbers guitar, Danny Young was chosen as the guitarist for both performances due to stylistic resemblance to Jason Becker and Niccolo Paganini. The Perpetual Burn performance was played on the Carvin JB200C. These performances led to the widespread notability of Danny Young's virtuosity in the guitar community and an authority in the tone and playing style of Jason Becker.[11][12][13][14] Documentary film [ edit ] A feature-length documentary film about the life of Jason Becker entitled Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet, was released in 2012. The film includes interviews with Becker, his family and friends, and the various musicians he's worked with, including Marty Friedman, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Richie Kotzen, and Steve Hunter.[15] The film was generally well received by fans and critics and won many awards.[16] Clinics [ edit ] Atlanta Institute of Music Year: 1989 1989 Gear: Carvin DC200, Marshall Amp, Alesis quadraverb Japan Clinic Year: 1989 1989 Gear: Carvin DC200 Discography [ edit ] Cacophony Marty Friedman Solo David Lee Roth Joe Becker Other works Compilations Guitar Masters , 1989, Roadrunner Records , 1989, Roadrunner Records Metal Guitars – High Voltage Instrumentals ,1998, Disky Communications ,1998, Disky Communications Shrapnel's Super Shredders: Neoclassical ,2009, Shrapnel ,2009, Shrapnel This is Shredding , Vol. 1, 2009, Shrapnel , Vol. 1, 2009, Shrapnel This is Shredding, Vol. 2, 2009, Shrapnel Tribute Warmth in the Wilderness: A Tribute to Jason Becker, 2001, Lion Music Warmth in Wilderness 2: Tribute Jason Becker , 2002, Lion Music , 2002, Lion Music Jason Becker's Not Dead Yet! (Live in Haarlem), 2012, Primal Events Instructional Hot Licks – The Legendary Guitar of Jason Becker In The Style Of Jason Becker, feat. Max Dible. DC Music School[17] Films

Homemade vegan cilantro pesto made with fresh cilantro and sunflower seeds. This pesto comes together in under 15 minutes and is the perfect topping for potatoes or pasta (Version 2) Cilantro is one of the herbs that people either LOVE unconditionally or one that people HATE with a passion! So, are you in team LOVE cilantro or team HATE cilantro? When it comes to cilantro, there is no middle ground. No compromise, no “meet me half way” and no “I like it a little bit” There is a science as to why some can’t stand the taste of cilantro. It tastes like soap to some people and the reason is because they are genetically predisposed to hate cilantro. I am one of those in the LOVE cilantro camp. It is so common in Indian food and not just for garnish. If you have tasted green chutneys at Indian restaurants, they are made using cilantro If you are looking for a quick pesto recipe, this vegan cilantro pesto is going to be exactly what you need. I added toasted sunflower seeds for a little nutty flavor. To keep from adding too much oil to this pesto, I added a little chickpea water. The water is the liquid you find in cans of chick peas. There are so many wonderful uses for it because it is a terrific Egg substitute. This vegan cilantro pesto is also a great way to preserve cilantro. I can’t tell you how many times I have bought cilantro only to see it wilt away. Lately, I have been on a “preserve herbs” kick like my basil butter recipe. Next, I want to try preserving parsley. Now, I just make the pesto and store it in ice cube trays. When I am ready to use, I just pop about 2-3 ice cubes into a recipes like this roasted potato recipe. If you are a fan of different pesto varieties, then I think you will like my Arugula pesto spread, tomato pesto or Vegan Pesto with scallions In what recipe do you plan to use this cilantro pesto? Vegan Cilantro Pesto Cilantro Pesto Sauce Homemade vegan cilantro pesto made with fresh cilantro and sunflower seeds 5 from 2 votes Print Pin Total Time: 15 minutes Servings: 2 cups Calories: 377 kcal Author: Healing Tomato Ingredients 3 bunches Cilantro discard stems 1/4 cup sunflower seeds shelled 2 Tbsp chick peas Skin removed 2 tsp chick peas liquid 1.5 tsp salt 2 tsp whole peppercorns 2 tsp lemon juice (or to taste) 1 Jalapeno 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil Instructions In a medium pan, roast the sunflower seeds for about 1min until evenly brown Wash the cilantro thoroughly then put into a food processor Add the roasted sunflower seeds Fill the processor with the remaining ingredients Process on medium speed until everything is well blended. Remove and serve Store the vegan cilantro pesto in glass bottles and refrigerate. Serve with pasta or potatoes To freeze, fill up ice cube tray with the pesto sauce and refrigerate for 8hrs Remove the cubes and transfer to a Ziploc bag. Mark the date on the bag and refrigerate for up to 6 months. Notes Pesto will be good for about 2 weeks when refrigerated or for up to 6 months when stored in the freezer Nutrition Calories: 377 kcal | Carbohydrates: 11 g | Protein: 5 g | Fat: 36 g | Saturated Fat: 4 g | Sodium: 1755 mg | Potassium: 272 mg | Fiber: 4 g | Sugar: 1 g | Vitamin A: 17.7 % | Vitamin C: 16.3 % | Calcium: 4.8 % | Iron: 11.7 % Tried this recipe? Follow me @healingtomato1 and mention #healingtomato1 MORE FROM HEALINGTOMATO

RWD will be Standard, AWD upgrade (tweet) AWD upgrade will be less than 5k (tweet) AWD adjusts every ~.01 sec (tweet) Production AWD will be faster than AWD cars used for reveal test drives (tweet) There will be an optional Tow Hitch (tweet) Dashboard will make more sense after part 2 reveal (tweet) Steering controls on prototype shown are not the final iteration (tweet)(tweet 2) Some tweaks being made to front of car (tweet) Aerodynamic coefficient goal is 0.21 Figured it might be best to have a consolidated thread for all of the information and hints that Elon is dropping on Twitter right now around the Model 3, since every time he tweets another thread is made just for that one instance.Is there a way to make a wiki page that is editable by everyone? If not I can try and keep up with updating ad he posts:

President Donald Trump has also pledged to “deal with DACA with heart.” | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images Republicans crank up pressure on Trump to not scrap DACA The White House says an announcement on Trump's decision will be made on Tuesday. President Donald Trump is under mounting pressure from members of his own party not to end an Obama-era program that grants work permits to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children — a group often referred to as Dreamers. As an unofficial Tuesday deadline approaches, Trump and his staff have received a series of calls from GOP officials warning that any effort to undo the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program could be politically damaging. And there’s an effort to encourage Republican lawmakers to publicly raise concerns about how killing the program could affect the nearly 800,000 young people registered under the program, according to sources familiar with the internal debate. Story Continued Below Trump told reporters mid-day Friday that his decision on DACA would come soon. “Sometime today or over the weekend, we’ll have a decision,” Trump said. “We’ll issue it sometime over the weekend. Maybe this afternoon.” He then said his announcement at the "latest will be Monday." Asked whether Dreamers should be worried, Trump said, “We love the Dreamers. We love everybody.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders clarified Friday afternoon that Trump and his aides would be working throughout the weekend on the issue. She said that an announcement would be made on Tuesday, contradicting Trump's earlier statements. "The president's priorities on immigration are to create a system that encourages legal immigration and benefits our economy and American workers," Sanders said. "The president's been very clear, he loves people, and he wants to make sure that this decision is done correctly, and so that's what he's doing now is finalizing that part." She added, "I think the decision itself is weighing on him, certainly." Breaking News Alerts Get breaking news when it happens — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. The DACA program, which was put in place by former President Barack Obama in 2012, allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors to apply for two-year work permits and shields them from deportation. While Trump vowed to kill the program during the presidential campaign, he has publicly wavered in recent months, expressing sympathy for those who could be uprooted if DACA is eliminated. “The DACA situation is a very difficult thing for me, as I love these kids, I love kids,” Trump said in February. “I have kids and grandkids, and I find it very, very hard doing what the law says exactly to do and, you know, the law is rough.” He has also pledged to “deal with DACA with heart.” Top White House aides have been debating the future of DACA behind the scenes for months, and the fight reached a fever pitch this week. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and policy aide Stephen Miller are the most vocal advocates of killing the program, and they’ve both made the case that it will be difficult to defend in court. That legal argument has resonated with the Trump, sources familiar with the debate said, with the president positing it’s better to phase out the program now than to keep it and lose in court. But multiple people told POLITICO early Friday that Trump had not yet made a final decision, even though he is leaning toward phasing out the program and allowing existing Dreamers to finish out their existing work permits. Though Trump is largely convinced that he should end the program, he continues to raise concerns privately about the possible political blowback, according to a person familiar with the discussion. But he also sees the decision as a way to show his conservative critics that he isn’t beholden to the so-called “New York Democrats in the White House," the person said. Texas and nine other states have threatened to sue the Trump administration over DACA if the president doesn’t rescind the measure by Tuesday. While many in the Trump administration see Tuesday as an unofficial deadline to act — and while Trump himself has pledged to announce a decision by this weekend — the president could opt to further delay a decision. However, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery announced Friday that his state would not challenge DACA in court, lowering the total number of states preparing to sue over the program to nine. "At this time, our Office has decided not to challenge DACA in the litigation, because we believe there is a better approach," Slatery wrote in a letter to the state's senators, calling on them to take legislative action. Meanwhile, powerful lawmakers on Friday publicly called on Trump to maintain the program until Congress can address the program in a broader way. “I don’t think he should do that. I believe that this is something Congress has to fix,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Janesville, Wisconsin’s WCLO radio station. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the most senior Republican in the Senate who helped introduce the original DREAM Act in 2001, called Trump on Thursday to urge the president not to rescind DACA, following numerous leaks to the press that Trump was preparing to do so, a Hatch aide said. “Congress needs to take immediate action to protect #DACA kids,” Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake tweeted. Other lawmakers are also applying pressure on Trump. Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican, said Thursday he’ll try to force a vote on a bill that would extend protections for the Dreamers. Under the DREAM Act, young undocumented immigrants would have a path to citizenship if they attend college or serve in the military for at least two years. Ryan said Friday that Obama did not have the legislative authority to adopt the policy. “You can’t as an executive write law out of thin air, and so that’s very, very clear and we’ve made that very clear,” he said. “Having said all that, there are people who are in limbo. These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don’t know another home,” the speaker said. “And so, I really do believe there needs to be a legislative solution, that’s one that we’re working on.” Ryan added that Congress wants to give people “peace of mind” on the issue. “I’ve had plenty of conversations with the White House about this issue,” the House speaker said. “And I think the president as well has mentioned that he wants to have a humane solution to this problem. I think that’s something that we in Congress are working on and need to deliver on.” Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

Image caption Rubin was the second female astronomer to be elected to the US National Academy of Sciences Astronomer Vera Rubin, whose pioneering work contributed to the theory of dark matter, has died at the age of 88, her son says. Allan Rubin said she died on Sunday of natural causes, AP reported. She was living in Princeton, New Jersey. Her studies earned her numerous honours, including being the second female astronomer to be elected to the US National Academy of Sciences. But many questioned why she was never awarded a Nobel Prize. In 1974, Rubin helped provide further convincing evidence that the stars at the edges of galaxies moved faster than expected. Gravity calculations using only visible matter in galaxies showed that the outer stars should have been moving more slowly. To reconcile her observations with the law of gravity, scientists proposed there was matter we cannot see and called it dark matter. Dark matter is an unidentified type of matter comprising approximately 27% of the mass and energy in the observable universe. Image copyright Twitter - @DRFUNKYSPOON Image caption David Grinspoon, astrobiologist and writer Image copyright Twitter - @dudedarkmatter Image caption Stacy McGaugh, astrophysicist and cosmologist Vera Rubin's interest in astronomy began as a young girl and grew with the involvement of her father, who helped her build a telescope and took her to meetings of amateur astronomers, according to a profile of the American Museum of Natural History. She was the only astronomy major to graduate from the prestigious women's college Vassar in 1948. When she sought to enrol as a graduate student at Princeton, she was told that women were not allowed in the university's graduate astronomy programme, a policy that was not abandoned until 1975. So she applied to Cornell University, where she studied physics. She then went on to Georgetown University, where she earned her doctorate in 1954. Later she moved on to work at the Carnegie Institute of Washington. In 1993 she was awarded the US National Medal of Science.

85% want government to promote stronger manufacturing base, finds poll, with 62% believing it will give more economic security A overwhelming majority of voters want a resurgence of British industry to be at the centre of parties' election campaigns, according to a poll. Calls for a clearer strategy to get Britain making and exporting more come before official data this week that is expected to show the long squeeze on wages continues, despite the economic upswing. Economists say manufacturing has a key role in driving up productivity and pay. But despite the chancellor George Osborne's calls for a "march of the makers" early in the coalition's term, the sector has seen only slow growth and remains below its pre-crisis strength. More than four out of five voters – 85% – want the next government to promote a stronger UK manufacturing base, with 62% believing it will give the country more economic security, according to Monday's YouGov poll carried out for manufacturers' organisation EEF. The employer's group is seizing on the findings before the party conference season as further ammunition for its calls on politicians to put policies that will rebalance the economy high up their election manifestos. "The message to parties and political leaders is loud and clear: a strong, rebalanced economy has to be the long-term end goal and at the heart of your election offering," said EEF's chief executive, Terry Scuoler. "There is no room for complacency. While the UK is on the right path, we still have a long way to go … Net trade is still weak, investment is still below pre-recession levels and, while manufacturing has gained ground, more can be done to create the right conditions for manufacturers and wider industry to thrive and grow." Official figures, scheduled to be published on Wednesday, are expected to show that while the economic recovery has translated into more jobs, pay rises continue to fall well short of inflation. Economists expect unemployment will have edged down to 6.3% for May to July, which would be the lowest rate since the onset of the global financial crisis in the autumn of 2008. But average earnings are expected to be up just 0.5% on the year, less than a third of the inflation rate of 1.6% recorded for July. Last week, the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, said the recovery would finally filter through to above-inflation pay rises by next summer. Business surveys suggest skills shortages and higher productivity mean some sectors are already offering real wage rises, including manufacturers. A separate report on Monday suggests small businesses are increasingly upbeat on turnover and profits and their confidence is translating into new jobs. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said confidence was the highest on record for its survey, which began in early 2010. Three-fifths of the small businesses surveyed are expecting to grow in the next 12 months. Small firms' hiring intentions at were also at new record for the survey. John Allan, the national chairman of the FSB, said: "We're seeing record breaking confidence from our members which suggests small firms will continue to spearhead the UK's recovery." "As we head in to party conference season, we'll be looking to all the political parties to spell out what they will do to encourage job creation, investment and reward entrepreneurs in the next parliament."

Got this one done in double-quick time! Since building the first, I now know what lengths are needed without trial and error, plus I pre-cut some of the supports for the second bed when I was completing the first. Makes the work go by a whole lot faster 🙂 Now that the first two beds are completed, I can move on to getting them setup, lined, leveled and plumbed. I’ll then add additional beds in sets of two going forward till all 8 beds are completed. This should be interesting as now I’m having to pre-plan a bit with regards to how all the plumbing will work together (not just for the first two going forward, but all eight down the line). Starting off, I’ll have 48 sq ft of growing space. Upon completion of all the beds this will give me 192 sq ft of grow bed area to work with! Not too shabby! I have also considered the possibility for expansion and so if down the road I’m feeling spunky, I can expand the width of the greenhouse to accommodate another 50% increase in grow bed space. That will be phase two. I’d also have to incorporate a sump tank into the setup to help keep my fish tank levels from dropping. So this idea is a bit of a ways down the road. I’m getting quite excited now! I should be ready to start cycling the system come mid-August. A slight delay as I’ll be doing a bit of traveling in the coming weeks. Progress is good! I’m happy.. and more updates to come! 🙂 Advertisements

The Nov. 11 Dispatch article "Toxic algae: Bloom on Lake Erie worst ever seen" reveals the dire condition of Lake Erie. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is responding with an inept voluntary nutrient discharge plan. That's like asking your teenage child to voluntarily stay off the cellphone. The Nov. 11 Dispatch article �Toxic algae: Bloom on Lake Erie worst ever seen� reveals the dire condition of Lake Erie. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is responding with an inept voluntary nutrient discharge plan. That�s like asking your teenage child to voluntarily stay off the cellphone. Without a strong stand by the EPA, we, the people need to take charge. Most of the animal products families consume come from the millions of pigs, chicken and cows raised in overcrowded animal factories. It�s unlikely that the millions of pounds of manure can be disposed of in a sustainable manner. Reducing the consumption reduces the toxic output. The Ohio Sierra Club invites Ohioans to join our Meat-Free Monday Campaign. No, we aren�t dictating to people what to eat. Rather, we are inviting people to learn about the benefits of a diet consisting of nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables to improve personal and planetary health. That�s not all. We�d save money on our sewer bills, our medical bills and our food bills. For more info, please visit: www.neosierragroup.org/meat-free-mondays. LAUREL HOPWOOD Coordinator Ohio Sierra Club Meat-Free Monday Campaign Cleveland

Barcelona to play 2 friendlies in United States BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona said it will play two friendlies in the United States against Mexican clubs Chivas and Club America in August. Barcelona said the dates were announced by Major League Soccer on Monday, with Barcelona playing Chivas in Miami on Aug. 3 and Club America three days later at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas. "For Barcelona, these games are not just important for generating revenue, but also for getting closer to our fans and growing our brand," Barcelona president Sandro Rosell said on a conference call. The games will come after Barcelona plays Manchester United on Maryland on July 30— a replay of the Champions League final set for May 28 in London. Barcelona is on course to win its third straight Spanish league title this season. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to For more information about reprints & permissions , visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com

the world’s first non-rectangular football field has been constructed in the community of khlong toei, a densely populated area of bangkok, thailand. the project, which includes a series of play areas, seeks to demonstrate that otherwise vacant asymmetrical spaces can be utilized for outdoor recreation. the project demonstrates that asymmetrical spaces can be utilized for outdoor recreation the scheme has been developed by AP thailand, in collaboration with CJ worx, who hope that the project will help enhance relationships among the people in the community. the ‘unusual football field’ is an unorthodox setting that redefines the boundaries of the traditional 105 by 68 meter rectangular pitch. the venues transform small and irregularly-shaped plots into practical football fields, which question the limits of urban environments in order to illustrate the belief that ‘space can change one’s life’. read on to see before and after aerial images of the four uniquely shaped pitches. before after before after before after before after the project has been designed to enhance relationships among the people in the community the unorthodox setting redefines the boundaries of the traditional rectangular pitch designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. edited by: martin hislop | designboom Save Save Save Save Save Save

With Super Bowl 50 just weeks away, host city San Francisco is struggling to move its homeless into shelters and out of the eye of the media. Workers have been sent to the Embarcadero to help transients find shelter away from the future Super Bowl Fan Village. According to Bloomberg Politics, San Francisco officials are focused on cleaning up the scenic waterfront Embarcadero Center. The Embarcadero is a highly rated shopping and dining center with high-end stores like Godiva Chocolatier and L’Occitane En Provence. With views of the Golden Gate Bridge, it is easy to see why it is an ideal location for the one million visitors expected to be at the Super Bowl Fan Village. However, the city’s famed Market Street, which runs down to the Embarcadero, is also a makeshift home to some of San Francisco’s 6,775 homeless residents. Read more City officials have been scrambling to create alternative housing for the transient population, according to SF Gate. Officials say they’ve added an additional 500 temporary beds around the city on top of the regularly available 1,233 beds. Pier 80, located about four and a half miles away from the Embarcadero, has been transformed into a 150-bed shelter. Bloomberg Politics reports that the pop-up shelters have less to do with the Super Bowl and more to do with El Nino. A spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Lee told the outlet that the focus on relocating the homeless around Justin Herman Plaza in The Embarcadero comes from the association with “cold, wet weather.” She added that “it is dangerous and unhealthy to live on our streets.” Advocates for the homeless aren’t buying it, though. “They want to decrease the physical presence and reminder of poverty and create an illusion that poverty does not exist by removing poor people from the vicinity of the Super Bowl Party,” Jennifer Friedenbach of the San Francisco-based Coalition on Homelessness told Bloomberg. Back in August, Lee told KPIX 5 that “[The homeless] are going to have to leave” when it came time for Super Bowl festivities. He also said: “We’ll give you an alternative. We are always going to be supportive. But you are going to have to leave the streets.” Whether or not the homeless populations around the Embarcadero want to relocate to shelters is another question. Christopher James, a 33-year-old homeless man, told Bloomberg that “Shelters are nasty. Eleven years ago, I stayed in a shelter. It was a weird feeling.” NYC mayor launches vast anti-homelessness tracking effort https://t.co/g04ALPxqbbpic.twitter.com/EMJlRZcmGt — RT America (@RT_America) December 19, 2015 With San Francisco having the eighth-highest homeless population in the country, hygiene problems associated with homelessness have posed a problem for locals. According to a Bloomberg graph, the number of public requests to clean encampments, urine, and feces has more than doubled since 2012. The cost of the relocation project is estimated to be $5 million and the bill is being footed by taxpayers. “We should be making sure that we’re delivering services throughout the city not just because of a special event,” Jane Kim, a civil rights attorney and district supervisor, told the site. “We should be providing this type of compassionate, strategic approach all the time.”

The 1965 Voting Rights Act, which gave African-Americans in the deep South access to the ballot box, is a “racial entitlement,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Wednesday as the court heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to the landmark law from the state of Alabama. The outspoken, ultraconservative Scalia discounted the fact that Congress has repeatedly reenacted the law — most recently by a 99-0 Senate vote in 2006 — and argued that its renewal is “not the kind of question you can leave to Congress.” “I don’t think there is anything to be gained by any senator to vote against continuation of this act,” Scalia said. “They are going to lose votes if they do not re-enact the Voting Rights Act. Even the name of it is wonderful — the Voting Rights Act. Who is going to vote against that in the future? I am fairly confident it will be re-enacted in perpetuity. “Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through normal political processes.” The case of Shelby County vs. Holder is a challenge to the landmark Section 5 of the act. It requires nine states (eight in the South) as well as local governments in other states to “pre-clear” changes in voting procedures with the U.S. Department of Justice. The act has been invoked as recently as the 2012 election, in which several state legislatures made rules changes designed to impede early voting. The Voting Rights Act appears to have solid support from the Supreme Court’s four moderate-progressive justices. But it faced hostile questioning from Chief Justice John Roberts. He asked Solicitor General Donald Verrelli if “the citizens of the South are more racist than citizens of the North.” The plaintiffs have argued that restrictions that the Voting Rights Act sought to redress are no longer present in places like Shelby County, Alabama. The court’s deciding vote appears to rest with Justice Anthony Kennedy, who appeared none too friendly to the landmark civil rights law. “Times change,” Kennedy said during the oral argument. He also asked how much longer Alabama must live “under the trusteeship of the federal government.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared taken aback at Scalia’s observations. (Scalia has made news in recent months with off-the-bench remarks that appeared homophobic.) “Do you think Section 5 was voted for because it was a racial entitlement?” she asked the attorney for Shelby County. He dodged the question.

Things move pretty quickly in this world. I made a Facebook post, cutting and pasting from a list of recent gun tragedies in response to the Sandy Hook massacre and it got a lot of response. My post was in response to the Mike Huckabee comments about the Sandy Hook tragedy. He’s the former Arkansas Governor, Presidential candidate turned radio pundit and the story was: So I took a technique I used many times in my radio career, especially at KNUA in the late 80s in Seattle. Take a news story and tweak the ending a bit. Here’s what I posted: December 11, 2012. On Tuesday, 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts killed 2 people and himself with a stolen rifle in Clackamas Town Center, Oregon. His motive is unknown, but it appears to have been caused by God being removed from Malls. September 27, 2012. Five were shot to death by 36-year-old Andrew Engeldinger at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, MN. Three others were wounded. Engeldinger went on a rampage after losing his job, ultimately killing himself. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from sign shops. August 5, 2012. Six Sikh temple members were killed when 40-year-old US Army veteran Wade Michael Page opened fire in a gurdara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Four others were injured, and Page killed himself. It appears to have been caused because the Christian God has been removed from Sikh temples. July 20, 2012. During the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO, 24-year-old James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58. Holmes was arrested outside the theater. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from Hollywood films. May 29, 2012. Ian Stawicki opened fire on Cafe Racer Espresso in Seattle, WA, killing 5 and himself after a citywide manhunt. It appears to have happened because God has been removed from cafes. April 6, 2012. Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, shot 5 black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in racially motivated shooting spree. Three died. It appears to have happened because God has been removed from Tulsa. April 2, 2012. A former student, 43-year-old One L. Goh killed 7 people at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, CA. The shooting was the sixth-deadliest school massacre in the US and the deadliest attack on a school since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. It appears to have happened because God has been removed from Christian colleges. October 14, 2011. Eight people died in a shooting at Salon Meritage hair salon in Seal Beach, CA. The gunman, 41-year-old Scott Evans Dekraai, killed six women and two men dead, while just one woman survived. It was Orange County’s deadliest mass killing. It appears to have happened because God has been removed from salons. September 6, 2011. Eduardo Sencion, 32, entered an IHOP restaurant in Carson City, NV and shot 12 people. Five died, including three National Guard members. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from pancake houses. January 8, 2011. Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in the head when 22-year-old Jared Loughner opened fire on an event she was holding at a Safeway market in Tucson, AZ. Six people died, including Arizona District Court Chief Judge John Roll, one of Giffords’ staffers, and a 9-year-old girl. 19 total were shot. Loughner has been sentenced to seven life terms plus 140 years, without parole. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from grocery stores. August 3, 2010. Omar S. Thornton, 34, gunned down Hartford Beer Distributor in Manchester, CT after getting caught stealing beer. Nine were killed, including Thornton, and two were injured. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from liquor warehouses. November 5, 2009. Forty-three people were shot by Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan at the Fort Hood army base in Texas. Hasan reportedly yelled “Allahu Akbar!” before opening fire, killing 13 and wounding 29 others. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from army bases. April 3, 2009. Jiverly Wong, 41, opened fire at an immigration center in Binghamton, New York before committing suicide. He killed 13 people and wounded 4. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from immigration centers. March 29, 2009. Eight people died in a shooting at the Pinelake Health and Rehab nursing home in Carthage, NC. The gunman, 45-year-old Robert Stewart, was targeting his estranged wife who worked at the home and survived. Stewart was sentenced to life in prison. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from nursing homes. February 14, 2008. Steven Kazmierczak, 27, opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, killing 6 and wounding 21. The gunman shot and killed himself before police arrived. It was the fifth-deadliest university shooting in US history. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from universities. February 7, 2008. Six people died and two were injured in a shooting spree at the City Hall in Kirkwood, Missouri. The gunman, Charles Lee Thornton, opened fire during a public meeting after being denied construction contracts he believed he deserved. Thornton was killed by police. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from municipal government offices. December 5, 2007. A 19-year-old boy, Robert Hawkins, shot up a department store in the Westroads Mall in Omaha, NE. Hawkins killed 9 people and wounded 4 before killing himself. The semi-automatic rifle he used was stolen from his stepfather’s house. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from malls, as noted above. April 16, 2007. Virginia Tech became the site of the deadliest school shooting in US history when a student, Seung-Hui Choi, gunned down 56 people. Thirty-two people died in the massacre. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from universities. February 12, 2007. In Salt Lake City’s Trolley Square Mall, 5 people were shot to death and 4 others were wounded by 18-year-old gunman Sulejman Talović. One of the victims was a 16-year-old boy. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from malls, as noted above. October 2, 2006. An Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, PA was gunned down by 32-year-old Charles Carl Roberts, Roberts separated the boys from the girls, binding and shooting the girls. 5 young girls died, while 6 were injured. Roberts committed suicide afterward. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from all Amish institutions. March 25, 2006. Seven died and 2 were injured by 28-year-old Kyle Aaron Huff in a shooting spree through Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA. The massacre was the worst killing in Seattle since 1983. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from Capitol Hill. March 21, 2005. Teenager Jeffrey Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather’s girlfriend before opening fire on Red Lake Senior High School, killing 9 people on campus and injuring 5. Weise killed himself. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from high schools. March 12, 2005. A Living Church of God meeting was gunned down by 44-year-old church member Terry Michael Ratzmann at a Sheraton hotel in Brookfield, WI. Ratzmann was thought to have had religious motivations, and killed himself after executing the pastor, the pastor’s 16-year-old son, and 7 others. Four were wounded. It appears to have been caused because God has been removed from churches and because people with mental illnesses have easier access to guns than to mental health treatment….

Drive 20 minutes outside of Panama City, past the Maersk shipping containers stacked by the railroad tracks, and you arrive at the Panama Canal. “I’ve heard the canal is actually smaller in person than you would imagine,” my best friend texted me from back home in New York. This is true. On a weekday morning last month, the sun streamed down on the lumpy hills beyond a barbed-wire fence, and a red-and-white oil tanker sat snug in a narrow channel of water, waiting for the century-old algae-covered doors of the Miraflores Locks to swing open and allow passage to the Atlantic. Six locomotive engines pulling cables attached to the ship – three on each side – rolled forward. Tourists crowded along the visitor center’s fifth-floor terrace and snapped photos as a voice on a loudspeaker spouted factoids about one of the most remarkable engineering feats in history. Our team had come to Panama to interview Mossack Fonseca in person, and we were getting the lay of the land. I’d staked out an offshore investment conference taking place at our hotel, taken a spin through the historic district, and cruised along the bay on Avenida Balboa, where President Juan Carlos Varela lives in a high-rise apartment complex, next to the Intercontinental Hotel. The president selected Ramon Fonseca as one of his top advisers. If you’re trying to get a handle on the bigger picture – what “offshore” even means, and why it’s problematic – Panama is as good a place to start as any. Phrases like secrecy jurisdiction, tax haven and offshore have overlapping meanings, roughly translating as an “escape” from laws in one place to a locale whose allure is zero-to-low tax rates – along with tools to hide one’s identity, according to the Tax Justice Network. The network, an advocacy group that argues that tax havens have exacerbated global poverty and income inequality by giving the corrupt and the rich a place to stash assets, ranks Panama as No. 13 on its Financial Secrecy Index. In March, right before my trip, the State Department released its annual report on money laundering threats, describing Panama’s lax regulations, dollar-based economy, and geographic location as an “attractive target,” particularly for drug traffickers with proceeds to clean. This past winter, following an FBI undercover bust, two men had pled guilty in U.S. federal court to conspiring to launder $2.6 million from a fraud scheme, using a private jet (the perfect vehicle to transport Luis Vuitton duffel bags stuffed with cash) and Panama bank accounts. Of course, the U.S. had a big hand in shaping Panama’s destiny, stretching back to days when the canal was still a pipe dream, and even laid the groundwork for its financial system today. A circle of American financiers, chief among them J.P. Morgan, made $40 million off the canal deal, following a stealthy lobbying effort to get lawmakers to choose Panama over Nicaragua, according to author Ovidio Diaz-Espino’s critical history “How Wall Street Created a Nation.” At the time, the canal arrangement was the most expensive land deal of all time. Afterwards, Morgan and William Nelson Cromwell, the chief lobbyist for the financiers, managed Panama’s finances up until the 1930s. Cromwell, who co-founded the prominent law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, also became Panama’s de facto attorney General. “Panama was largely a creation of the U.S.,” says Barney Warf, a University of Kansas geography professor who studies offshore banking. Today, he says, “Panama is essentially an extension of the U.S. economy.” It harkens back to the early 20th century, when canal workers were paid in American dollars. In the roaring, free-market friendly 1920s, Panama adopted U.S.-style corporate laws. Some U.S. ships, seeking to avoid Prohibition restrictions against serving alcohol onboard, registered in Panama instead. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration was alarmed to find out that, as the U.S. worked to dig itself out of the Great Depression, wealthy Americans were using Panama as a tax haven. Jurgen Mossack’s family landed here in the 1960s. During World War II, his father had served in the Nazi Party’s Waffen-SS, according to U.S. Army intelligence files obtained by the ICIJ. Once in Panama, the elder Mossack offered to spy on communists in Cuba for the CIA. (Mossack Fonseca said the firm “will not answer any questions related to private information regarding our company founding partners.”) The move to Central America positioned Jurgen Mossack to ride the offshore banking wave that crested in Panama (and around the world) in the 1970s, when the country adopted bank-secrecy legislation designed to attract foreign money. Mossack earned a law degree at a private Catholic university, then completed an MBA in London. In 1977, back in Panama City, Mossack opened his own law firm, a two-person operation: just himself and an assistant. In 1986 he merged firms with Ramon Fonseca, who had studied at the London School of Economics and then spent six years working at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva. From the start, the firm’s business involved clients with dark secrets, the ICIJ investigation shows. In 1983, six armed robbers looted $40 million in gold bars from the Brinks-Mat warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport. Less than 18 months later, Mossack formed a Panamanian shell company for a man named Gordon Parry. Parry was convicted in 1992 of laundering money from the London heist, the second-biggest robbery in Britain’s history. But Mossack continued to do business with the company, despite realizing as early as 1986 that the company was “apparently involved in the management of money from the famous theft from Brink’s-Mat in London,” according to an internal memo. “The company itself has not been used illegally, but it could be that the company invested money through bank accounts and properties that was illegitimately sourced.” Afterwards, the ICIJ investigation shows, the firm took steps that prevented British authorities from gaining control of the company. It wasn’t until 1995 that Mossack Fonseca ended its business relationship with the company. A spokesman for Mossack Fonseca told the ICIJ that any allegations the firm helped shield the proceeds of the Brinks-Mat robbery are “entirely false.” Jurgen Mossack “never had any dealings” with Parry, and was never contacted by police about the case, the spokesman told ICIJ. Many times Mossack Fonseca has had no clue which nefarious characters were doing what with the companies the firm created – as when Jurgen discovered in 2005, according to internal emails, that he was the registered agent and listed as the director for a company controlled by the Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero. The co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel was convicted in Mexico in 1985 for the brutal murder of U.S. DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. (Today, Quintero is again considered a fugitive by the US after walking out of prison in 2013 on a technicality). Mossack Fonseca’s senior partners instructed an employee to carry out their resignation from the company upon the discovery. "Pablo Escobar was like a newborn compared to R. Caro Quintero!” Jurgen wrote in reaction to the news. “I wouldn't want to be among those he visits after he leaves prison!"

Norwalk Police Officer praised for good deed The Hour Online The Hour Online Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Norwalk Police Officer praised for good deed 1 / 1 Back to Gallery NORWALK -- An elderly city resident is expressing her gratitude for a Norwalk Police officer who purchased food for her after her Meals on Wheels dinners were stolen. Sylvia Solney, a resident of a Main Avenue assisted living home, said Officer John Sura went above and beyond the call of duty by purchasing a weekend's worth of food for her from Stew Leonard's. "I remember saying to him, 'Tell your mother she has a wonderful son,'" she said. "You don't find a lot of people like that, especially nowadays." Solney called police on Friday, Sept. 20 at 6:50 p.m. after noticing both of her weekend Meals on Wheels dishes were missing. "I was very upset," she said. "I didn't know what had happened." Sura responded to the scene shortly thereafter and spoke with Solney. He tried to call Meals on Wheels but could not reach a representative. He asked Solney if she had any food in her home, and she said she had a hot dog and some peanut butter and jelly. Solney told Sura that she is on a fixed income and rarely drives her vehicle, police said. Sura took notes and left the scene, driving to Stew Leonard's, where he purchased food from the hot and cold salad bars as well as milk and other items for Solney. Solney didn't think he was going to come back to the assisted living home. "I was very impressed with him," she said. "I didn't even mention it to him. He came back like 15 minutes later." Sura's good deed went basically unnoticed until earlier this week when a supervisor was reviewing reports that had been filed by his officers. The supervisor read Sura's report and forwarded it to Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik. Solney also called the police chief earlier this week and left a message on his answering machine, praising Solney as one of "Norwalk's finest." "He didn't have to do that with the meals," she said. "I wanted to thank him in a special way by calling the chief. He would make a great son-in-law." Kulhawik said he wasn't surprised by Sura's actions, as Sura is a "great officer" who has been a "credit to the department" since transfering from the Branford Police Department in 2011.

Republicans fended off a surprising Democratic challenge on Tuesday in the first special election of the year for a House seat vacated by a Republican lawmaker who became part of President Trump’s administration. Ron Estes, the GOP state treasurer, was buoyed by an 11th-hour intervention from national Republicans, Vice President Pence and Trump himself in his bid to retain the seat of former congressman Mike Pompeo, who is now the CIA director. In a victory speech, Estes told voters he’d “repeal and replace Obamacare” and fight for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. “Republicans emerged victorious in the first contested special election of the 2018 cycle,” said National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Steve Stivers, a congressman from Ohio. With 99 percent of ballots counted, Estes led Democrat James Thompson, a lawyer making his first bid for office, by 8 points. Last year, Pompeo won reelection by 31 points in a race Democrats did not seriously contest. “I probably shouldn’t say this, Mr. Estes did not beat us,” said Thompson at his election-night party. “It took a president of the United States, the vice president, the speaker of the House, a senator coming into our state, and a bunch of lies to try and drum up a vote.” Democrat James Thompson, a candidate for Kansas' 4th Congressional District, speaks during a debate in Wichita, Kan. (Bo Rader/AP) Kansas Republicans’ resilience dashed Democratic hopes — which surged over the weekend — of slicing into the majority of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). It also may dampen that party’s hopes of performing well in the three House seats vacated by Republicans who joined the Trump administration — most significantly in Georgia, where Democrat Jon Ossoff is leading in the April 18 contest to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price against a crowded field of GOP candidates. Yet holding the 4th Congressional District — which Trump captured by 27 points in November, and is the home to Koch Industries — took more work, and money, than Republicans had expected. Thompson easily won voters who cast their ballots early and was poised to carry Wichita’s Sedgwick County, which Trump won by 18 points. In the campaign’s final weekend, the NRCC spent close to $100,000 on the race, and the GOP-allied Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC paid for tens of thousands of get-out-the-vote phone calls. President Trump even recorded a call for the Republican and sent an Election Day tweet calling Estes a “wonderful guy” who would help him on “Healthcare & Tax Cuts (Reform).” The victory helped House Republicans retain a 23-seat advantage over Democrats, despite entering the two-week recess short on their major legislative goals. Estes did not focus on Trump in his race, and though he is expected to be a reliable vote for Republicans in the House — he said on Monday he would not join either right-wing or moderate caucuses — he had criticized the GOP health-care bill that was pulled before the congressional recess. Thompson, a 46-year-old U.S. Army veteran who had caucused for Bernie Sanders, fought a stronger-than-expected race that Democrats said would put more races on the map in 2018. But progressives were critical of the party for letting the race play out without a major investment. “We lose when we don’t fight, period,” said Neil Sroka, a spokesman for the progressive group Democracy for America, in a tweet. Without the boogeyman of the Obama administration, and without the threat of Hillary Clinton picking a judge to fill an open Supreme Court seat, Republicans resorted to arguing that Thompson would use constituents’ tax money to fund abortions. Until it finally spent some money on get-out-the-vote calls, the DCCC stayed away for fear that it would nationalize the race. The contest began with Pompeo’s Jan. 23 departure from Congress, which attracted little national attention until the start of April. The Cook Political Report marked the race as “safe” for Republicans, downgrading the party’s chances only after the final weekend’s scramble. Inside the district, however, both parties saw early potential for an upset. Estes, a businessman who entered politics in 2004, had only ever won landslides in the 4th District for state office. But in Topeka, the state capital, he became associated with a Republican governing team that has presided over a weak economic recovery and a series of budget deficits. Democrats — and increasingly, voters — came to blame Gov. Sam Brownback’s supply-side tax cuts, which ate into the state’s revenue. In 2016, as Republicans won across the country, the party lost ground in Kansas. Democrats gained 12 seats in the state House and one seat in the state Senate, after moderate anti-Brownback Republicans defeated conservatives in a series of primaries. On Election Day, Trump carried the 4th District easily — but Republicans lost three of their party’s state House seats. The Democratic Party, meanwhile, underwent an evolution of its own. Sanders crushed Hillary Clinton here in the 2016 caucuses, and many Sanders activists stayed inside the party to win leadership positions. When Pompeo’s seat opened, former state treasurer Dennis McKinney — who was defeated in 2010 by Estes — was initially seen as the Democratic front-runner. But the antiabortion McKinney lost a tight party contest to the pro-abortion rights, economically populist Thompson. While Estes was tied up in Topeka working on the controversial state budget, Thompson barnstormed the district. In the final 24 hours of the race, the Democrat attended a Seder with Jewish voters, recorded a “thank you” video for volunteers, shook hands at a breakfast for Learjet retirees, and (through a translator) sat for an interview with Wichita’s Spanish-language radio station. Estes rallied with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and the national political director of the Chamber of Commerce, then cast his vote. Read more at PowerPost

Time for more Canadian ramen! Thanks go to Mark K. and Erika L. for getting these to me! I notice on this one it doesn’t say ‘simulated flavour,’ so I guess it does actually taste like vegetables. Well, we’ll see! The back of the package (click image to enlarge). The noodle blocks always look so nice. The seasoning packet. Here’s the bowl of flavor. Finished (click image to enlarge). Added some veggies, a little processed cheese, one egg and some of that awesome Dua Belibis Indonesian hot sauce. The noodles aren’t bad – still kind of weird as the others have been with a kind of crumbly texture and not a ton of taste. The broth is pretty bland and tasted kind of funky. Pretty meh – 1.75 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 059491000204 . So my son’s name is Andreas Wolfgang Benjamin Walter and all but Benjamin are names from musicians. First, This is Andreas Kisser from Sepultura. Of course, Wlfgang is in homage to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I found a record at the local library when I was young and picked up the harmonica and eventually was able to play everything on the album. Big Walter Horton is in my opinion the epitome of blues harp – bar none. 47.810652 -122.377355

2014 US Open Venue: Pinehurst, North Carolina Dates: 12-15 June Coverage details: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra on Saturday, 14 June and Sunday, 15 June from 21:00 BST. Daily reports on the BBC Sport website and live text commentary for the last two days From the second that my putt dropped to win the US Open in 2010 my life became a blur, probably for the next 14 months. It didn't take days for it to sink in, it took weeks and months. I remember waking up that Monday morning, a bit hungover and slightly disbelieving of what had happened. I looked over to the corner of the room and saw the US Open trophy glinting back at me. It's a distinct memory that has stayed with me. It was an extraordinary moment of realisation that it had actually happened. Naturally, I've enjoyed everything that came with the win at Pebble Beach, but at the time it was a very surreal, almost out of body, experience. You are thrust into a life with which you are not familiar. You wake up the next day the same person but the way you are perceived by others has changed for eternity. That's what you have to come to terms with a person and as a golfer. Players fall into the trap of trying to live up to what other people think of them, rather than just believing that you are good enough to do it. It took me 14 or 15 months to feel comfortable in my own skin again. Graeme McDowell's 2010 US Open triumph made him the first European in 40 years to lift the trophy I know how Justin Rose must be feeling now, having had to pack up the trophy and send it back to the USGA. I just put it in the post to them because I didn't want to physically carry it back to the tournament. It's a slightly sad moment. All of a sudden you are just the defending champion, you're no longer the current US Open champion. Your reign is over. When I had the trophy it really racked up the air miles. I took it all over the world - to Asia and, of course, back home to Northern Ireland. It feels really cool to have the replica at my home club of Rathmore and it's become something of a tourist attraction. That feels pretty special. My hunger and desire to win my next major championship is now very much heightened and I know there's an opportunity coming up in this week's US Open. I've made two visits to Pinehurst already. Last week, before the Memphis tournament, I played six holes on the Monday evening and then the full 18 the next day. Last 10 US Open winners 2013: Justin Rose (Eng) 2012: Webb Simpson (US) 2011: Rory McIlroy (NI) 2010: Graeme McDowell (NI) 2009: Lucas Glover (US) 2008: Tiger Woods (US) 2007: Angel Cabrera (Arg) 2006: Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 2005: Michael Campbell (NZ) 2004: Retief Goosen (SA) A lot has been spoken about the changes and it's amazing because it has the feel of a challenge similar to the Open - especially approaching the greens. It feels like a mixture of being at St Andrews and Royal Melbourne in Australia. I think it's a good golf course for the Europeans because it is very un-American - fingers crossed for a European winner. When you go to scout the course you try to suss out the likely pin positions. Then, from the green, you look back down the fairway to plot your strategy of where you should be hitting. The hard part is mapping out the greens and working out the subtlety of the borrows. We spend about 75% of our time on and around the greens looking at slopes and trying to guess where the flags will be. To me, you are going to be playing quite defensively with a lot of medium and long iron approaches. It was interesting last week because they are clearly trying to protect the course with the Women's US Open there the following week. Various run off areas were netted off to prevent them getting churned up with guys chipping out of them. Only players and caddies were allowed on the greens. Coaches, psychologists, trainers, mums and dads and girlfriends have to stand at the side. Unusually for a US Open there is no rough. Instead it is just fairways, what they're calling "native areas" and then trees. The bits bordering the fairways consist of just sand, pine straw and hard pan ground with clumps of Marram grass. Justin Rose won his first major at the 2013 US Open, a third European success in four years The initial word was that they were worried that the native area wasn't going to be penal enough. Seven or eight times out of 10 you were going to get a lie. However, from what I've seen the weather has got better and the growth has come. The odds are now more of a 50-50 deal. Half the time you will get a playable lie, the other half you will be chopping out. Fairways are going to be a premium. When I talk with other players there's always great anticipation about how courses will be set up for events like the US Open and the Open. We know what to expect at the Masters and to a large extent, at the US PGA, but what will they do at the other two majors? What will be our examination paper? We know it's going to be hard, but is it going to be super-hard? Merion last year was brutal. I played with Jim Furyk and Zach Johnson and all three of us are players you'd expect to challenge, yet we were a combined 40 over par after our two rounds. Pinehurst is very narrow, it's long and a lot of the time the course will force you into laying up short of pinched-in areas. You have to take the trouble out of play. Patience is going to be absolutely key. It doesn't necessarily set up for the bombers. Length will be an advantage at times but there will be a real premium on accuracy and the nitty gritty will be iron play coming into these greens, which are shaped like upturned turtles. Media playback is not supported on this device McDowell ready for big summer of golf The winning score will be whatever the USGA want it to be and more than likely that will be around level par. They can be as nasty as they like with pin positions given the undulating putting surfaces. They won't have to make the greens super-fast. It's going to be another real grind of a US Open. There's not a ton of birdie opportunities out there. Although my biggest ambition is to land a Claret Jug at the Open, for me there's always a special place in my heart for this championship. I feel my game is built for the test and, like I say, I really crave the experience winning a second major. It would be wonderful to wake up with a sore head next to that trophy once again and I know I'd be ready for the resulting blur. Graeme McDowell was talking to BBC golf correspondent Iain Carter

July 31, 2017 CALGARY — On September 5, Glen Murray will become executive director of the Pembina Institute, a 30-year-old think-tank that undertakes research, education, consulting, and advocacy to advance pragmatic clean energy solutions. As a seasoned activist and veteran of provincial and municipal governments, Murray is ideally suited to lead the Pembina Institute into its next chapter. Murray is a former mayor of Winnipeg and most recently served as Ontario’s minister of environment and climate change. Throughout his distinguished career in the public and not-for-profit sectors, Murray has made important contributions on issues of international human rights, climate change, and sustainable development. Murray’s affinity for big tent, collaborative solutions and his long-standing commitment to community development are in keeping with the Pembina Institute’s DNA. The Institute was formed following the 1982 Lodgepole blowout at a sour gas well in Alberta. In response, a small group of rural Albertans came together to secure stronger regulations for Alberta’s oil and gas sector — some of which are still in place today. Since its founding, the Pembina Institute has grown into a national organization, but its goals remain the same: responsible development of Canada’s energy resources, healthy and prosperous communities, and bold climate leadership from governments and industry. Murray will succeed Ed Whittingham, who successfully led the Pembina Institute through a period of unprecedented policy change, in Alberta and across Canada, over the last six and a half years. Quotes “Glen is a renowned thought leader on social and environmental issues, with an impressive track record of policy leadership throughout his tenure in elected office. On behalf of the board of directors, I am thrilled that Glen is joining our talented team and know he will propel the Pembina Institute to new heights as we work to solve today’s greatest energy challenges.” — David Runnalls, president, Pembina Institute “More than ever, the world needs Canada to lead the fight against climate change. With its national team of experts and its proven ability to craft solutions with industry, government, and communities, the Pembina Institute is essential to finding the way forward. I’m excited to join the Institute at this critical juncture and look forward to working with its outstanding staff and supporters.” — Glen Murray, incoming executive director, Pembina Institute “From its humble roots in rural Alberta, the Pembina Institute has grown into Canada’s leading clean energy think-tank. I am delighted to pass the torch to a highly respected climate champion who knows how to build bridges with industry, government, and communities — across Canada and internationally. Under Glen’s leadership, I am confident that our remarkable staff will continue to play an essential role in building Canada’s clean growth future.” — Ed Whittingham, outgoing executive director, Pembina Institute Quick facts In 1984, the Pembina Institute was founded in Drayton Valley, Alberta. The non-profit think-tank’s headquarters is in Calgary. The Institute advances evidence-based solutions to support Canada’s clean energy transition. Its staff are technical and policy experts on a range of climate and energy issues, including responsible fossil fuel development, energy efficient buildings, clean transportation, and electricity sector decarbonization. The Institute has offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa. Glen Murray has also served as chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, and president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute. As an Ontario cabinet minister between 2010 and 2017, Murray oversaw several portfolios: Environment and Climate Change; Infrastructure; Transportation; Training, Colleges, and Universities; and Research and Innovation. Murray served as mayor of Winnipeg from 1998 to 2004. He was the first openly gay mayor of a large city in North America. -30- Download a photo for editorial use: goo.gl/JRS9VJ Join the conversation on Twitter: @Pembina Learn more about the Pembina Institute: www.pembina.org Contact Andrew Aziz Communications Director 647-217-7967 andrewa@pembina.org Stephen Hui Communications Lead stephenh@pembina.org Recent publications

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Atlanta Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson has been diagnosed with a mild concussion after wrecking on his way to spring training. Manager Fredi Gonzalez said Tuesday that Hanson will miss the first two days of spring training, then gradually work his way back into a normal routine. If there are no setbacks, he should be back at full strength within a week. Hanson blew out a tire Monday near the Braves' Disney World complex and may have bumped his head on either the windshield or the steering wheel. The right-hander was diagnosed with a Grade 1 concussion but apparently has no other injuries. Hanson is expected to be one of the team's top starters in 2012. He was 11-7 with a 3.60 ERA last season despite a shoulder injury.

Work to establish a Scottish National Investment Bank takes a step forward today with the launch by First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon of a public consultation on the details of the Bank’s operation. Addressing an international conference on inclusive growth in Glasgow, the First Minister set out a number of steps the Scottish Government is taking to reduce inequalities and ensure that all parts of society benefit from economic prosperity. As was set out in the revised Economic Strategy, the Scottish Government recognises that for long-term, sustainable growth, it is vital that everyone has a stake in our country’s success. The establishment of a national investment bank was a key measure announced in the Programme for Government in September. Benny Higgins, CEO of Tesco Bank, was appointed to lead the work to develop an implementation plan, and he has convened a small advisory group to support him in the development of this plan. Views are now being sought from the public on the detail of how best the Bank can meet its objective of supporting the Scottish economy and working for the benefit of the people of Scotland. The First Minister said: “The Council of Economic Advisers identified a national investment bank as an important means of delivering infrastructure development, finance for high growth businesses and strategic investments in innovation. Our Programme for Government committed to the establishment of such a Bank and I am delighted that Benny Higgins is leading the implementation work. “Today, we are launching a consultation on the details of how best the bank can achieve those aims and support Scotland’s economy. “However, we recognise that inclusive growth is another essential part of our focus on innovation and productivity. “So we’ve also announced a range of measures to ensure that as we transform our economy, we leave no one in our society behind. “We will establish a Just Transition Commission – a panel of experts from across society that will advise us on how to make the move to a low-carbon economy as equitable as possible. “We will look at ways in which we can support the growth of employee ownership, and continue to pursue our fair work agenda.” Background The speakers at Scotland’s Inclusive Growth Conference, held at the University of Glasgow, included: • Per Bolund, Swedish Minister for Financial Markets and Consumer Affairs / Deputy Minister for Finance • Gabriella Ramos, Special Counsellor to the Secretary General, the Chief of Staff and OECD Sherpa to the G20 • Dr Gerry Rice, Director of the Communications Department (COM) at the International Monetary Fund Membership of the Advisory Group on the Implementation Plan for a Scottish National Investment Bank comprises of: • Peter Reekie, (Deputy Chief Executive of Scottish Futures Trust) • Paul Brewer (Corporate Finance Partner, PwC) • Cahal Dowds (Vice Chairman of Deloitte UK) • Prof Mariana Mazzucato (Director of the Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose, University College London) • Paul Lewis (Managing Director, Scottish Development International and Scottish Enterprise International Operations) • Liz Ditchburn (Director General Economy, Scottish Government) • Alyson Stafford (Director General Scottish Exchequer, Scottish Government) • Gary Gillespie (Chief Economist, Scottish Government) The Scottish National Investment Bank Consultation can be completed online.

A Blount County (Tenn.) judge has dismissed the homicide case against Camion Patrick, who played football at Indiana and East Mississippi Community College — the center of the hit Netflix series "Last Chance U." Charges will proceed against his brother, Isaiah Wright, also of "Last Chance U" fame, and two others arrested in connection to a July stabbing death in Alcoa, Tenn. According to The Daily Times (Maryville, Tenn.), Blount County Judge William R. Brewer in a Tuesday preliminary hearing ruled prosecutors failed to show probable cause that Patrick, 23, was involved in the July 25 stabbing death of Caleb Radford, 18. The same charges against Wright, 20, will go to a grand jury to determine whether he should be indicted. MORE: Where are stars of "Last Chance U" now? Both Patrick and Wright were arrested in September in connection with Radford's death. Patrick was arraigned in Bloomington, Ind., where he was placed on medical hardship after suffering injuries while playing for Indiana football; Wright was arrested in Harriman, Tenn. According to the Times' report, Patrick, Wright and two others (Keshawn Lonnell Hopewell, 21 and Itiq Tivone Green, 28) planned to meet Radford to sell him a half-pound of marijuana. While Patrick and Wright waited behind the apartment complex, Hopewell, Green and Radford drove away in Radford's vehicle. Accounts from Hopewell and Green differ slightly from there, but both Hopewell and Green said the latter stabbed Radford before the two took between $800 and $1,000 from him. Hopewell and Green then returned to the complex, where Patrick and Wright got into the car and drove off to a residence in which the two brothers lived. Patrick redshirted in 2013 at East Mississippi Community College before helping the team to a JUCO national title in 2014. He enrolled at Indiana in 2015, though academic and medical issues ended his college career before the 2017 season. Wright also played at EMCC, where he was one of the featured players on Season 2 of "Last Chance U." He later enrolled at West Georgia, though he left the school before the start of the 2017 season.

Image caption David Gauke said the UK had an excellent record on clamping down on avoidance schemes The government is promising to force "cowboy" financial firms to disclose the names of people using "aggressive" tax avoidance schemes. Treasury minister David Gauke said such products were "repugnant" and unfairly penalised ordinary taxpayers. The proposal is part of a government consultation on curbing avoidance. Later, Mr Gauke said householders who paid tradesmen in cash were morally wrong as they were "facilitating the hidden economy". Tuesday's Daily Telegraph quotes Mr Gauke as saying: "Getting a discount with your plumber by paying cash in hand is something that is a big cost to the Revenue and means others have to pay more in tax. "I think it is morally wrong. It is illegal for the plumber but it is pretty implicit in those circumstances that there is a reason why there is a discount for cash. That is a large part of the hidden economy." Mr Gauke told Mondays BBC's Newsnight programme: "When a tradesman says 'here's a 10%, a 20% discount on your bill if you pay me cash in hand' that is... as a big a problem in terms of loss to the Exchequer as tax avoidance. "Revenue is not being paid as it should be paid... If people do that, they have to do so with the recognition that it means taxes will be higher for the rest." Last month Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the use by comedian Jimmy Carr of a Jersey-based scheme as "morally wrong". That was one of a number of high-profile cases of people using financial loopholes to legally avoid large tax bills. The Treasury estimates that 14% of all unpaid tax income is due to aggressive avoidance schemes, which are not illegal but are deemed unfairly to deprive the government of income. The proposals include: Measures to make finance companies disclose details of wealthy clients who take advantage of such schemes Firms having to disclose how all their tax avoidance schemes work, not just the ones for which they are being criticised Publishing warnings about tax avoidance schemes that are effectively being mis-sold, to make it easier for taxpayers to identify when they are on the receiving end of a hard sell by a disreputable promoter They comes alongside plans to legislate to curb tax avoidance through a general anti-avoidance rule. Companies could face fines of more than £1m if they flout the new rules. Analysis Don't expect a list of avoiders to be pinned up on the door of your local tax office. These proposals are aimed at giving HM Revenue and Customs more detail on the individuals using tax avoidance schemes, not as a public shaming exercise. The tax authority will not publish people's confidential tax affairs. It already receives a register - often populated by tax agents and company names using these legal schemes. But, under these plans, HMRC will have a clearer sight of who it is dealing with if it decides to wrestle with the most "aggressive" schemes. Mr Gauke acknowledged that tax avoidance - which is legal, unlike tax evasion - was difficult to define, adding that there was "always a barrier to be put up between unfairness and clarity". He defined "aggressive" schemes as those which are "contrived" to defy the will of Parliament by depriving the government of expected revenues. He promised to "strengthen our description" of what constitutes tax avoidance to make schemes easier to control. In a speech to the Policy Exchange think tank, Mr Gauke said HM Revenue and Customs already had an "excellent compliance record", adding: "We are building on the work we have already done to make life difficult for those who artificially and aggressively reduce their tax bill. "These schemes damage our ability to fund public services and provide support to those who need it. They harm businesses by distorting competition. They damage public confidence. "And they undermine the actions of the vast majority of taxpayers, who pay more in tax as a consequence of others enjoying a free ride." He promised to deal with "cowboy advisers", who devise and sell schemes to divert money away from the Exchequer. Mr Gauke told the BBC News Channel: "This is a message to people who might be tempted by an unfair tax avoidance scheme: if something looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. "It's unfair because other taxpayers are having to pay more as a consequence... We want to nip it in the bud and ensure that people don't get engaged in aggressive tax avoidance schemes." Mr Carr last month confirmed making a "terrible error of judgement" after it emerged he used a complex scheme to reduce his tax bill.

Forget about unemployment for a minute. There's another statistic that receives less media attention but offers a clearer indicator of midterm elections. It's real disposable income -- the money you have after taxes, adjusted for inflation. Here's the relationship between RDI and House losses (data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.) It's not perfect correlation, but the trend is clear. When folks feel richer, they reward the party in power. Masket is tracking income between the third quarter in the year before the election and the second quarter of the election year. If if divide Q3-2009 into Q2-2010 figures, we get 0.015 -- or 1.5 percent income growth. On the X-axis, that would put 2010 between Reagan 1982 and Clinton 1994. You might be wondering why real disposable income figures aren't even worse, considering the severity of the recession and the stickiness of our high unemployment. First, the government has sent hundreds of billions of dollars in checks to Americans to keep them spending, through the stimulus and unemployment insurance and Census payrolls. Second, consider the "real" in real disposable income means adjusted for inflation. In the 1970s and early 1980s, high inflation gnawed at families' buying power. Today, inflation is so low we're worried it might turn negative. Low inflation is bad for the economy because it means families and companies are slow to spend money. But low inflation is OK if you've got money to spend because it keeps prices down. As my colleague Dan Indiviglio recently reported, the latest income statistics add insult to injury, with government money winding down and private incomes slow to pick up the slack. Of course, no two elections are alike, and one statistic -- even one key statistic -- in an election just an ingredient in a very large stew. But as you watch the returns tomorrow, remember this indicator as evidence that Democrats are running into a strong headwind. It is the number that best gets at the question, "Are you better off now than you were a year ago?"

Joe Biden. AP Joe Biden has a new job. The University of Pennsylvania announced on Tuesday that the former vice president has been named the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice professor, where he'll be leading the brand-new Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, focusing on foreign policy, diplomacy, and national security. "Joe Biden is one of the greatest statesmen of our times," University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann said on Tuesday. "In his distinguished career of service to our nation, he has demonstrated a unique capacity to bring people together across divides and to craft constructive responses to some of the toughest and most important policy challenges of our day." The Penn Biden Center will be based in Washington D.C., though Biden himself will also have an office on the University of Pennsylvania's campus in Philadelphia. "At Penn, I look forward to building on the work that has been a central pillar of my career in public office: promoting and protecting the post-WWII international order that keeps the United States safe and strong," Biden said in a statement. Apart from his role at the University of Pennsylvania, Biden will also be the founding chairman of the Biden Institute— which will focus on public policy — at his alma mater, the University of Delaware.

Coming Soon The Last Summer The summer after they graduate from high school, a group of teens navigate friendship, romance and family relationships before heading off to college. Green Eggs and Ham Opposites Guy and Sam take a road trip to save an endangered animal, learning to try new things like hope, friendship, and a certain delectable dish. The Legend of Cocaine Island This documentary follows American Rodney Hyden's journey to find a rumored stash of cocaine in the Caribbean with help from a colorful group of misfits. Wine Country When a group of longtime girlfriends goes to Napa for the weekend to celebrate their friend's 50th birthday, tensions from the past boil over. My Husband Won't Fit Kumiko and Kenichi meet in college and build a happy marriage together. But over time, an unusual problem threatens to destroy their relationship. Amy Schumer Growing Amy Schumer talks marriage, pregnancy, politics and more in a new stand-up special filmed at the Chicago Theatre. Beats An agoraphobic hip-hop prodigy and a disgraced former music manager cross paths in Chicago’s South Side and help each other face demons of their pasts. Team Kaylie After one too many misdemeanors, selfie-obsessed teen socialite Kaylie Konners is legally tasked with leading an after-school wilderness club.

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17). The amazing story of an ISIS leader who converted to Christianity after meeting Jesus in a dream is proving this passage in Acts to be true. Last week, this story made headlines when Gina Fadely, director of Youth With A Mission Frontier Missions, Inc. (YWAM) sat down with Todd Nettleton, host of The Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network. “One of our YWAM workers in the Middle East was contacted by a friend earlier this year and they met up and he was introduced to an ISIS fighter who had killed many Christians already,” Fadely recalls. Fadely added that the jihadi admitted to not only brutally killing Christians, but “enjoying the act.” And, as we all know, this fighter wasn’t alone in his zeal for persecuting those who are deemed “enemies” of Allah. Christians and other Muslims who refuse to comply with ISIS extremism have both become targets of violence. ISIS has become synonymous with cruelty as footage of gruesome beheadings have circulated around the internet. But we all know that no one— not even a bloodthirsty jihadi— is beyond the reach of God. “[The fighter] told this YWAM leader that he had begun having dreams of a man in white who came to him and said, ‘You are killing my people.’ And he started to feel really sick and uneasy about what he was doing. The fighter said just before he killed one Christian, the man said, ‘I know you will kill me, but I give to you my Bible.’” Sadly, the Christian was killed. But the ISIS fighter took the Bible and began to read it. That’s when he was visited by Jesus in another dream, according to Fadely. “In another dream, Jesus asked him to follow him and [the fighter] was now asking to become a follower of Christ and to be discipled.” Stories like this are becoming increasingly common as people all over the world report meeting Jesus face-to-face in dreams. It shouldn’t come as any surprise to those of us who have been radically transformed by Christ. God is still doing the impossible right before our very eyes. Todd Nettleton added his own perspective on the story, saying that whenever we hear about the atrocities being committed against Christians at the hands of ISIS militants, we should be careful not to, “write them off as being out of reach of God’s grace and out of the reach of God’s Spirit.” “So who knows? Perhaps this man will be like Saul in the Bible who persecuted Christians and he turned from that persecution of the early church to become the Apostle Paul,” Fadely said. “God can turn it around.”

BOULDER, Colo. — In his most extensive comments on the JonBenet Ramsey case, the former Colorado police chief who led the investigation into the high-profile 1996 slaying of the 6-year-old beauty queen acknowledged online that officers botched the initial handling of the crime scene. Mark Beckner, former chief of the Boulder Police Department, participated Saturday in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. He told the Daily Camera on Tuesday that he didn't realize his comments would filter out to the rest of the world. See also: 7 Reddit AMAs That Went Horribly Wrong "I talked to the organizer, and my impression was that this was a members-only type group that talked about unsolved mysteries all around the world," said Beckner, 59. Most of Beckner's responses in the AMA now appear to be deleted, but The Denver Post cached the original threads. JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family's home on Dec. 26, 1996, after her mother, Patsy Ramsey, called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note had been found. In the Reddit forum, Beckner said police should have separated JonBenet's parents and gotten full statements from Patsy and John Ramsey that day. The case was initially mishandled due to a "perfect storm type scenario," he wrote. "It was the Christmas holiday and we were short staffed, we faced a situation as I said earlier that no one in the country had ever seen before or since, and there was confusion at the scene as people were arriving before we had enough personnel on the scene," he wrote. No one has been prosecuted in the case. Court documents released in 2013 show a grand jury recommended indictments against the Ramseys, contrary to the long-held perception that the secret panel ended their work in 1999 without deciding to charge anyone. At the time, then-District Attorney Alex Hunter didn't mention an indictment, saying only that there wasn't enough evidence to warrant charges against the Ramseys, who had long maintained their innocence. In 2008 — two years after Patsy died — former District Attorney Mary Lacy cleared the Ramseys of any role in their daughter's death, based on DNA evidence that pointed to the involvement of a third party. Additional reporting by Mashable

SAN JOSE — Police are on the lookout for at least one suspect after a man was tied up in his home early Saturday during a robbery. Around 4:17 a.m., officers responded to the 5000 block of Bougainvillea Drive for calls of a home invasion robbery, said department spokesman Officer Albert Morales. When police arrived, Morales said they found an unidentified man suffering from nonlife threatening injuries. According to Morales, an unknown suspect or suspects assaulted and tied up the man and stole several undisclosed items from his home. A neighbor found the man and was able to untie him before calling police. The suspects, who have not been identified, remain at-large, Morales said. The incident mirrors a similar case from August when a 17-year-old boy was tied up while his home on Anjou Creek Court was robbed by two suspects. Contact Katie Nelson at 408-920-5006 and follow her at Twitter.com/katienelson210.

CONESTOGA TOWNSHIP, Pa. () -- A courtesy note letting a woman know she had nothing to fear when she saw a strange man sleeping on her sofa apparently failed to quell her concerns. Police say the woman returned to her Conestoga Township home to find a note saying "Don't be scared when you come, Bob is here" on her door and an unknown man sleeping on her living room sofa the afternoon of June 21. The man was identified as 28-year-old Robert Sheets, an acquaintance of the woman's boyfriend, police said. While the boyfriend said he knew Sheets, he explained he did not know him very well, had not spoken to him for a long time and did not know how he knew where he lived. Sheets was charged with criminal trespass and possession of a controlled substance.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany and the United States will begin negotiations this month on an agreement not to spy on one another in wake of the revelations by NSA leaker Edward Snowden about massive electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency, a senior German official said Monday. Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff, Ronald Pofalla, told reporters such an agreement would offer a unique opportunity to set standards for the future work of Western intelligence agencies now that the Cold War is over. U.S. Embassy spokesman Peter Claussen said he had no immediate comment about Pofalla's remarks, which were made following a meeting of a parliamentary committee overseeing intelligence services. Pofalla gave no details about how the agreement, which he said would also cover economic intelligence, might limit NSA operations such as PRISM, which compels major Internet firms to hand over detailed contents of communications such as emails, video chats and more. Public outrage over Snowden's allegations has been especially strong in Germany, where privacy is cherished after the country's painful history of mass surveillance of the citizenry in communist East Germany and Adolf Hitler's Nazi state. With national elections in six weeks, the government is under pressure to respond to public anger without endangering its relations with Washington, which shares intelligence gleaned by NSA. U.S. officials have defended the NSA programs as necessary to prevent terrorist attacks, including those in Europe. But Germany's independent privacy watchdogs say the surveillance programs breach an EU-U.S. pact meant to ensure cross-border data protection. German officials are seeking European support for a new global charter safeguarding personal privacy online, Merkel raised the issue of alleged NSA spying with President Barack Obama when he visited Berlin in June. Her government this month also canceled a Cold War-era agreement that allowed the U.S. and Britain the authority to request German authorities to conduct surveillance operations within the country to protect their troops stationed there. But Merkel has also argued that governments had a duty to defend its citizens in an era of global terrorism and has scoffed at comparisons between U.S. spying and the massive surveillance in communist East Germany where she grew up. Following the parliamentary meeting, Pofalla also said that cooperation between NSA and Germany had averted an average of three to four attacks per week against German soldiers in Afghanistan. In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell the United States cooperates "on a breadth of civilian, military, and security issues together with our partners throughout the world, and our relationship with Germany is no different." "We look forward to continuing our dialogue and cooperation with our European allies and partners," Ventrell said. __ Associated Press correspondent Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.

This workout is simple. Not a lot of thought goes into it, but it's difficult if performed properly. Properly means all-out with no quitting because you think you're done. More repetitions can be squeezed out if you just hang in there. If you have never attempted this workout, you'll experience an unusual level of fatigue. However, that's not an excuse to cash your chips in until you reach the point of actual fatigue. As you probably have surmised, this is an upper body workout that uses a standard 45-pound Olympic barbell for all exercises. One upside is there will be no tedious weight plate changing and no need of a spotter. Minimum resistance is used, but maximum reps are the goal. Before I cover the simple details, understand this workout can be implemented in a number of different contexts: Bored out of your gourd? It's absolutely something different. Competition. Compete against an opponent of equal ability. How many total reps can you crank out? A new training stimulus. Trust me, this will be different. That once-in-a-while venture into the insane. For endurance enhancement. It's an awesome endurance workout if done all out. An acute muscle pump prior to taking posing pictures? It definitely will work. A desire to feel sore the day after. I guarantee if you do it properly, you'll experience muscle soreness approximately 24 hours post-workout. Enjoy. Additionally, I completely know this is high-volume workout that should only be performed occasionally. I am not a high-volume guy for the most part, but this a one of those workouts that is unique and worthy of undertaking. Here are the exercises in the order they should be performed. I will also offer some insight and tips on how to assure each set ends with a happy moment. Make sure to record the reps achieved so you can attempt to better it in the future. The rest between exercises should not exceed a minute and a half. 1. Bench Press - Ladies, depending on your strength, if you get over 100 reps, you're a badass. Guys, 200+ reps are not uncommon. No racking of the bar is allowed, but when you need a brief respite (which will be hard to avoid needing), rest the bar briefly on the chest or in the complete lockout position. As you fatigue, do mini sets of five or ten reps with those brief breaks between. Eventually, either position will become uncomfortable, but hang in there. 2. Bent-Over Row - Rep goal for gals is 35+ and guys 60+. Again, if you're one strong person, you may get 60+ and 100+, respectively. I don't like placing a rep number arbitrarily because I don't want you to sell yourself short. It doesn't matter provided you take it to the limit. Take a slight bend in the knees, with back flat, and brace your forehead on a padded bench or wall. Pull some reps to your lower abs and some to your upper abs. Mix it up - alternate 10 to 15 to lower the 10 to 15 to upper. Your forearms will be jacked after this event. 3. Standing Overhead Press - By now your pushing muscles will be suffering from the bench press. Suck it up and go for max reps pressing the bar overhead. No more rep goal numbers. Just give it your all. No push presses - use the upper body only. 4. Upright Row - Crap. It's starting to get ugly. Your upper body is getting fried by now. Use a narrow, overhand grip (extended thumbs touching - you'll be able to do it closer together than pictured, since you'll be using the barbell), stand tall, and pull to the chin leading with the elbows. On top, the elbows should be above the shoulders. Thought your forearms were incapacitated prior to this? They will be knocked down a few notches provided you go all out. (Is there any other option?) 5. Triceps Extension - These can be done standing or lying. If standing, the elbows are pointing skyward, the bar is lowered down and back, and the elbow extension upward emphasizes an up and back trajectory. If performed lying (on a flat bench) again, the upper arms are pointed skyward, the bar is lowered down and back to the top of the head, and the bar is again pushed up and back. 6. Bicep Curl - Standing, arms fully extend on each rep, no bouncing. Find a way to keep that form and get it done. Finished? Not yet. Repeat the sequence. Yes, two rounds. The upside on the second round will be fewer reps performed. If done with true effort, there should be a 33% to 50% decrease in the number of reps achieved the second time around. Again, record the reps and rest no more than a minute and a half between rounds. The 45-pound bar upper body workout is simple to understand but difficult to do. Take the challenge and throw it into your routine sometime. You’ll be pleasantly surprised. Photo 1 courtesy of Eleiko. Photos 2&3 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Inept, corporatists or lobbyists Compromised board members (NaturalNews) Some organic food experts are worried that the term used to describe non-genetically modified crops and produce may soon become nearly meaningless, thanks in large part to undue (read) influence on the Department of Agriculture.According to Jerome Rigot, PhD, writing in a blog posted at the Cornucopia Institute, which promotes food safety backed by science, it may no longer be accurate to rely on the USDA's "organic" labeling as remaining "true to its mandate of assuring consumers that food under this label is truly healthy and grown or raised with minimal impact to the environment," as well as respecting "the health and well-being of the workers and animals involved."Rigot notes that, among other concerns, Consumers Union, the publisher of, recently downgraded its rating of the Agriculture Department's organic seal and label. The director of the Consumer Safety and Sustainability Center for the magazine, Dr. Urvashi Rangan, testified to the National Organic Standards Board in late 2014: "Organic is slipping. And as a result, we have downgraded its rating from highly meaningful to meaningful." He further noted that the rule of the magazine "is to help educate people about what organic means as well as what it doesn't mean."Regarding these concerns, Rigot wrote:withoutThe determination was odd, says Rigot, because literally hundreds of high-res photos, satellite imagery and state regulatory documents were submitted as evidence to the NOP which, together, should have produced more than enough doubt to motivate someone to launch an investigation.A former NOSB board member who manages the country's first certified organic dairy farm, Kevin Englebert, was clearly disappointed by the NOP decision, seeing it as a lapse of the organization's responsibilities."For the NOP to not even investigate these facilities means one of three things: 1) the personnel who made that decision are inept, 2) they are too close and friendly with corporate lobbyists and multimillion-dollar certifiers that are involved in the process, or 3) the most likely scenario, corrupt politicians are preventing them from enforcing the law," he said, as quoted by Rigot, who intimated that elements of all three reasons might be at play.He noted that the National Organic Program is a very small part of the Agriculture Department. However, many large corporations have a significant vested interest in organic foods, especially the processed foods industry (including General Mills, Smuckers, Coca-Cola, etc.), and similar to GMO corporations , they'll do whatever it takes to expand their bottom line."Circumstantial evidence makes it reasonable to conclude that the same type of undue industry influence that appears to have prevented Vilsack and the USDA from acting quickly to end the Salmonella outbreak [in 2014] and limit the health toll is behind efforts to dilute the federal organic standards, control the NOP leadership, and limit or obstruct the ability of the congressionally authorized National Organic Standard Board from doing its job efficiently and with integrity," Rigot wrote.For more breaking news regarding organic agriculture, check out Organics.news , powered by FETCH.news In September 2014, we reported that the Cornucopia Institute had conducted a study to examine the voting records and backgrounds of the 15 members of the NOSB.The board is an advisory body created by the secretary of agriculture to make recommendations aimed at preserving and protecting the organic farming industry. What's more, the board is also required to maintain and update the National List of Approved and Prohibited Substances – a list that identifies substances and other compounds that cannot be used in organic crop and livestock production.The NOSB's seats are supposed to be filled with members representing farmers, environmentalists, public interest advocates, handlers, retailers, scientists and a USDA certifying agent. However, Cornucopia found in its study that corporate representatives were filling seats intended for farmers and other independent organic industry stakeholders, often leading to decisions that were not beneficial to the organic food and livestock industry.Details surrounding that study are posted here

Image caption McCormick's fake bomb detectors were used at Iraqi checkpoints staffed by the British military A millionaire businessman who sold fake bomb detectors to countries including Iraq and Georgia, knowing they did not work, has been convicted of fraud. James McCormick, 56, of Langport, Somerset, is said to have made £50m from sales and sold more than 6,000 in Iraq, the Old Bailey heard. Police said the devices, modelled on a novelty golf ball finder, are still in use at some checkpoints. One Iraqi bomb victim described him to the BBC as a "morally bankrupt" man. Both civilians and armed forces personnel were put at significant risk Det Insp Ed Heath, Deputy senior investigating officer Fake bomb detectors 'destroyed lives' During Tuesday's hearing at the Old Bailey in London, the court was told McCormick's detectors, which cost up to $40,000 (£27,000) each, were completely ineffectual and lacked any grounding in science. Richard Whittam QC, for the prosecution, said: "The devices did not work and he knew they did not work." McCormick's claims McCormick had claimed the devices could bypass "all forms of concealment", detecting drugs and people along with explosives, the court heard. He claimed they would work under water and from the air, and would track an object up to 1km (3280ft) below the ground. The bomb detectors came with cards which were "programmed" to detect a wide array of substances, from ivory to $100 banknotes. Other substances could be detected, it was claimed, if put in a jar with a sticker which would absorb its "vapours" and was then stuck on a card that would be read by the machine. In reality, McCormick's device was based on $20 (£13) golf ball finders which he had purchased from the US and which had no working electronics. Police said McCormick showed a complete disregard for the safety of those who used and relied upon the device for their own security and protection. The court heard there was no evidence that McCormick had tried to sell the products to the Ministry of Defence. 'Morally bankrupt' BBC Two's Newsnight programme conducted an investigation into the devices sold by McCormick's company, resulting in a UK government ban on their sale in Iraq and Afghanistan in January 2010. It found that senior Iraqi officials knew the devices did not work and it alleged some had received bribes to ensure they were purchased. Iraq spent more than $40m (£26.2m) on 6,000 devices between 2008 and 2010, the programme said. General Jihad al-Jabiri, the head of the Baghdad bomb squad, is currently serving a jail term for corruption, along with two other Iraqi officials. One senior Iraqi official told the BBC that the useless devices had created a false sense of security - and that no punishment would make up for the blood that had been shed as a result. BBC Newsnight also spoke to Haneen Alwan, an Iraqi woman who needed 59 operations after she was injured in a bomb blast in January 2009. She was two months pregnant at the time and lost her child. She told the programme: "When people passed through checkpoints using these devices, they thought they would be safe, but they are useless. The man who sold them has no conscience. He is morally bankrupt. How could he sell them just for money and destroy other people's lives?" Image caption The fake bomb detectors were based on a $20 golf ball finder, pictured between two examples of McCormick's fake devices Meanwhile, Avon and Somerset Constabulary's Det Insp Ed Heath told the BBC the devices had been used at numerous checkpoints in Iraq. He said: "It is clear that both civilians and armed forces personnel were put at significant risk in relying upon this equipment. "McCormick showed a complete disregard for the safety of those that used and relied upon the device for their own security and protection. He amassed many millions of pounds through his greed and criminal enterprise." The force's Det Supt Nigel Rock described McCormick as a "conman", adding: "We have heard evidence from many, many experts, scientists, leaders in their field, who have said this was a fraud. A sham. "That device has been used and is still being used on checkpoints. People using that device believe it works. It does not." McCormick was remanded on conditional bail to be sentenced on 2 May. Watch Newsnight's full report on the fake bomb detector story and the programme's investigation into it at 22:30 BST on BBC Two on Tuesday 23 April 2013.

favorite favorite favorite This falls right between the final Palladium show and the beloved Golden Trinity, receiving little attention for a long time. Though it's not the equal of those peaks, there are the usual May '77 highlights. Like the Palladium, the New Haven Coliseum had a relatively small capacity. The 1st set is over 1½ hours and longer than the 2nd set! Having spent more time on the other May '77 shows, my opinion of this one has lessened slightly - even though, listening to the official, the long tunings are cut. While not in the top 20 from the spring '77 tour, it has plenty of GOGD. Donna is great on this show. First Set. Promised Land is sluggish but Sugaree takes off. Though it's not 5/19 or 5/28, they stretch it out and take a few risks that mostly work. Keith tries for Mexicali but it's Mama Tried and El Paso - both perfunctory (by '77 standards). Tennessee Jed is also a bit sluggish and not near as ON as others this week (cf. the 9th & 12th). The set then takes off starting with Looks Like Rain with Keith & Donna both top of their game. Garcia's use of placeholder notes in Peggy-O is magical and the way he expresses the very end of the solo is insane while Bobby is more active than usual. It's one of the greatest Peggy-Os period. Everyone listens closely to intertwine with Jer on a magnificent Music Never Stopped. Second Set. Starts great but then flags. Bertha is wrangled until it becomes hot and Scarlet is even better. Hang with it until it soars.The beginning is cut on the SBD and patched on the official with the first 12sec of 5/13. After Fire the set's average to below average (for '77), but in Good Lovin' Phil offers a perfect boat launch with his Bass waves. St. Stephen makes a great setlist, though it's an average version. Sugar Mag is cut in the middle (smoothed on miller SBD) but it's a rough version anyway. The official is patched with 5/17 (@1:47>2:23) and sped-up to match. Johnny B. Goode is a wash. 1st Set : B- 2nd Set : C Overall = 3 Stars Highlights: Looks Like Rain - One of month's best (up there with 5/11) Peggy-O - Jer's expression this night is magical, as many have noted Music Never Stopped - Almost as good as 5/7 Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain - The former is nearly as good as 5/25 SOURCES: There's finally an AUD for patching Scarlet. The 123485_sbd_miller (Betty Board remaster) is still the best source. The others are slightly boomy by comparison. The show is on May 77 Get Shown the Light with long tuning gaps cut and a couple patches from other shows. - June 13, 2018Shoulder Show

Former Fox News presenter greeted with protests and empty seats as he takes his message to the Temple Mount The temperature may have dropped a little in Jerusalem on Wednesday night, but it was more than compensated for by the heat produced by Glenn Beck as he brought his "Restoring Courage" rally to the Old City. The former Fox News presenter and devout Mormon stood at a podium beneath the gunmetal grey of the dome of the al-Aqsa mosque to direct a tirade of invective at governments, human rights organisations, the United Nations, Europe and Arab states – and sometimes just "them", whoever they are. Despite a strangely subdued start, the rightwing polemicist finally roused his audience to whoops and cheers with his trademark preacher's inflection. But all the while, the distant noise of anti-Beck protests provided a backdrop to a 90-minute programme of declamation, music and presentations. Dressed as though attending a funeral, Beck stood in sharp contrast to the casual attire of his overwhelmingly white American Christian audience, many of whose baseball caps and T-shirts denoted their state of origin, their church or their adherence to the US Tea Party movement. But the surprising number of empty seats belied the organisers' claims that demand for tickets had outstripped availability at the 2,000-capacity Davidson Centre. Beck, who was deemed too extreme even for Fox television after 400 advertisers pulled their commercials from his show earlier this year, had come to Jerusalem to "restore courage" to the Jewish state and salute Israelis as "people who stand against the entire tide of global opinion". "The world is burning," he said. "Whatever we've grown to think is solid and strong and durable is under siege. The threats are mounting. The evil is growing. Darkness is falling." After many impassioned references to God's covenants to return the Jewish people to their land, Beck turned his attention to what he saw as a legion of enemies that Israel and its God-fearing supporters faced. Referring to the UN, he said: "In New York, so-called leaders are talking about human rights. But what they do is abuse the very meaning of this phrase. They condemn tiny Israel, democratic Israel, free Israel – Israel which values human life above all others." He said western governments focused on criticism of Israel instead of condemning countries such as Syria which was "slaughtering its people". "In some countries it is a crime not to condemn Israel. The diplomats are afraid. They are cowards and so they surrender to falsehood. The truth matters not." Even some Israelis, he said, were beginning to doubt themselves. "My friends, do not lose hope. You must not lose confidence in yourselves. You must draw courage." Always remember, he added, that they were "led to this land by God. He promised that Israel would rise again. We have seen this promise fulfilled. Israel, we have witnessed the dawn of your redemption." Israel's steadfastness was especially important given "what the world describes as the 'Arab Spring'. I said, are you mad? Behind many of the revolutions is a familiar force which I said would come to the borders of Israel and bring death. And so it has in the past seven days." The reference was to last week's attack on the Israeli-Egyptian border in which eight Israelis were killed. Human rights organisations, he said, had become "grotesque parodies of the principles they pretend to represent. They denounce nations like Israel and America and leave alone nations which have no freedoms at all. Whatever moral force they once had is spent." The audience reserved its most fervent responses and standing ovations for its familiar enemies of big government and liberal institutions. It included representatives of Christian Zionism whose ardent support for Israel is derived from the belief that the Jewish people's return to the holy land is a prerequisite of the second coming of the Messiah. But the accompanying belief that Jews must then convert to Christianity in order to be saved has prompted widespread opposition to Christian Zionism – and Beck's rally – within Israel. Some rabbis denounced the broadcaster and called on Jews to boycott the event. From the left, opposition stemmed from Beck's rejection of a Palestinian state on the basis that it would cut off the holy sites of Jerusalem "from the rest of the world". But protesters were kept well away from the rally, whose venue was itself controversial. The podium, a choir and orchestra, and rows of plastic chairs were sited at an archaeological site below the Temple Mount, revered by Jews, which is also known as Haram al-Sharif, the third holiest site for Muslims. The Muslim call to prayer rose above the al-Aqsa mosque as the audience awaited their hero. For Bonnie Wimsatt, 59, from Washington DC, part of a group of Christians on a 10-day tour of which the rally was the climax, her reason for the 6,000-mile trip was simple. "We're here to support Israel‚ a peace-loving nation surround by people who want to harm them," she said. "They're always fighting a battle – they can't go outside their front door without someone shooting at them." At the overflow venue a few miles away, where around 2,000 people gathered to watch the rally on a large outdoor screen, Michael Novatka, a born-again Christian and "self-proclaimed Jew" from Florida, said: "Glenn Beck tells the truth, but the rest of the world doesn't want to hear it. I've been watching him for years, and agree with what he says. Now that he's left Fox, he's stepping it up."

In Partnership with Machine Project. As part of the Getty initiative Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A., Machine Project asked artists to take on the whole environment of Los Angeles and create performances shot on video and edited into short experimental films in response to notable architectural sites throughout the city. Looming over the southern terminus of the 210 freeway in Pasadena are the soaring white columns and black glass walls of Ambassador Auditorium, the home of the evangelical Harvest Rock Church and the Pasadena Symphony. The auditorium was the centerpiece of the Modernist campus of Ambassador College, founded by radio evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong and his Worldwide Church of God in 1947. Today Maranatha High School occupies a number of the buildings on the campus, including its beautiful, once state-of-the-art pool, with south-facing floor to ceiling windows, stained glass accents, and vintage tiling details. Just outside, a railing and rusted chain guard a conspicuous stairwell that descends into the patio. Behind the locked door at the bottom is a bunker-like room where two plate glass windows provide an aquarium-style view of the diving well. These rooms were for swimming and diving coaches to observe their teams, but were largely replaced by underwater cameras. ing is the experimental collaboration between John Wood and Max Markowitz. They make improvised music within predetermined structures, and their performances often stretch over several hours. For Wash, the video posted above, Wood and Markowitz tested the pool to find its natural resonant frequencies and harmonies, and then channeled sound through speakers installed both above and below the surface. The audience was encouraged to swim and explore an underwater viewing room over the course of ing's slowly shifting three-hour performance. If "Wash" leaves you wanting more, here's 17 Weird Pool Performances Your Swim Coach Doesn't Want You To Know About: 1. Busby Berkeley's famous 1930s pool choreography 2. Juliana Snapper's underwater opera "You Who Will Emerge from the Flood" (2009 - 11) 3. Ulrich Kreiger & Clay Chaplin's scuba sound composition Aquacoustica 4. Stephen Van Dyck's Belly Flop Gallery, "a Southern California nomadic performance and installation space, theater, concert hall, disco, opera house, laboratory, auditorium and space of worship that appears as a filled and functional swimming pool. " 5. Rodney Dangerfield's "Triple Lindy in Back to School" (1986) 6. Cirque du Soliel's "Le Reve" at Wynn Las Vegas 7. Brooklyn punk band Japanther accompanied by synchronized swimmers in "Dangerous When Wet" at New York University (2006) 8. Max Neuhaus 'Water Whistle' series (1971-74) 9. Classic So-Cal empty pool skating from Bones Brigade 2 - Future Primitive (1985) 10. In Velvet Water (1974), Chris Burden tries to breathe water in a sink, while his audience watches from the other side of a wall on a closed-circuit television broadcast. Chris Burden. 11. Jenny Rogers' queer underwater spaghetti western "Trick Saddle" (2005) 12. Andrea Grover's mellow "Jacuzzi Movies" at CAMH 13. Soulja Boy's original Crank Dat instructional video, taught millions to dance the meme, inexplicably filmed in an empty pool. 14. Mickey Remann's "Liquid Sound" at Toskana Therme. "Six swimming pools housed under glass domes - where bathers float effortlessly in body temperature salt water watching stunning light shows and listening to soothing music." Dig this story? Sign up for our newsletter to get unique arts & culture stories and videos from across Southern California in your inbox. Also, follow Artbound on Facebook and Twitter.

I am not an engineer and will not give recipes for pipe size, spacing or equipment. Rather, I’ll look at the principles and steps a farmer should take before investing big bucks in tiles. Tile drainage is not a new technology. Many of the better soils of the world are on flat, low lying, high organic matter land that is subject to excess water from time to time. The Mecca of soil science, Broadbalk Field (continuous wheat since 1840) at Rothamsted Research in the U.K., was tile drained early in the plot history. Clay tiles were dug in by hand — that is how “tiling spade” was named. ADVERTISEMENT Much of the farmland in the Great Lakes basin of Ontario is not considered valuable crop land until it is tile drained. In the U.S. Midwest, tiles have been in place since the 1860s. As needed the original clay tiles are replaced and plastic pipe has been used since the 1950s. My first experience with tile drains had nothing to do with farming. In 1961 I was a pipe layer for a contractor installing sewer systems in Cupar, Sask. Our tiles were running water by the time we got a few blocks. They move groundwater as well as sewage. In towns with saline soils the lagoons can be very salty. Across the world, most tile drains are used for water table control, usually at depths of about four feet. Spacing depends on soil texture: sandy lands 75 feet or more, clay loam soils 50 feet or less. In many cases in rolling land in Saskatchewan I think the targeted design would fit the bill. Often, it is not so much the acres involved as the inefficiency those few problem acres cause with big farming equipment. ADVERTISEMENT A recent project at Melfort, Sask., was completed as a parallel system and is functioning well. In hindsight, it was my idea that the same amount of pipe installed on a targeted basis would have reclaimed more acres for the same money. Watch the costs Much of the cost is in the tile drain pipe itself. Now it is all imported from the U.S. we’ll face the impact of the U.S. dollar. There’s no need for me to tell farmers what that means in terms of price. Back in the 1980s I recall touring a drain pipe manufacture plant in southern Alberta (Taber?) using recycled plastic. The plant is no longer there. I think there could well be a business opportunity here. If my facts are wrong, I am sure a reader will let us know. ADVERTISEMENT Saline Soil Reclamation Tile drainage is only one part of the equation for saline soil reclamation. The other part is leaching, which in many areas means irrigation. (See my column in the February 2, 2016 issue of Grainews for more detail on that topic.) Drainage and leaching is the only reclamation for salty ground. In the 1970s, soil salinity was raging, as it is now, farmers were making money and much money was wasted putting expensive tile in the ground that never ran any water and never reclaimed anything. Let us not repeat that mistake. In the 1970s and ’80s there were only a few drain tile contractors, some using trenchers, but many using laser controlled drain plows with D8 Cat tractors. Today there are very simple (but expensive) drain plows that can have depth control using technology that many smart young farmers can easily handle. And, the huge four wheel drive tractors are already on many farms. I am convinced that many will pick the right drain plan and make it work on their farm. First things first Before tiling be sure to check out the wealth of information available with a mouse click. Both Manitoba and Minnesota Ag websites have a lot of info. Detailed land elevation contours are needed and many farms already have that from GPS equipment they are already using. What is not as high tech, but just as important, is knowing where the water table is and how it fluctuates over time. Shallow observation wells (about 10 feet deep) can be simply and cheaply installed by anyone. I can do it, so anyone can. See my column in the October 20, 2015 issue of Grainews for instructions. The real game stopper can be not so much getting rid of the water, but where that water is going and who or what is going to be negatively impacted. Permits are required in most places so do be careful and think of others before barging ahead.

March 23, 2015 Fabien Potencier Jakub Zalas has been part of the Symfony Core Team since we announced it last year. He has been involved in the community since a very long time (his first contribution dates back from 2011). He is also one of the most active developers in the Symfony issues queue; he cleans it up on a regular basis to keep the amount of "real" issues manageable by everyone. His commitment to the project shows as he is in the top 10 Symfony contributors. That's why I'm very happy to announce that Jakub is taking the lead on the DomCrawler component. It might seem like a small task as the size of the code is quite small compared to other components, but there are a number of tough challenges as the component is used by many third-party tools (with almost 5 million downloads on Packagist, and its usage by popular projects like Goutte, Behat, and many more). He successfully added namespace support for Symfony 2.4 after a lot of research, and he recently proposed a pull request to boost the performance of the component. I'm sure he will do great things in the future.

Frenchman who ripped a Muslim woman's veil off is given a five-month suspended sentence Muslim woman had her veil ripped off at a fairground in Nantes 30-year-old man protested that he was just enforcing French law Veil ban came into force in April 2011 A Frenchman who ripped a Muslim woman's veil off her eyes was given a five-month suspended prison sentence today. The 30-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he was merely trying to 'enforce' his country's laws when he carried out the attack in the French city of Nantes. He approached the woman in a fairground in September last year and pulled away the veil that was covering the woman's eyes. Veil attack: The 30-year-old man pulled away the veil that was covering the woman's eyes at a French fairground last year (posed by model) A judgment against him released by the Nantes criminal court said: 'Ordinary citizens are not entitled to take the law into their own hands.' The man, who originally gave a false identity to police, said he was a firm believer in the 2010 law brought in by government of former President, Nicolas Sarkozy. But the judge said that he had acted like a 'vigilante' and carried out the attack solely because he was prejudiced against the women's faith. Mr Sarkozy had described Muslim face coverings as an affront to the principles of the French Republic, saying that they could be used by both shoplifters and terrorists to hide their own identities. The defendant pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated assault and apologised for what he had done, according to his lawyer. He was also ordered to pay compensation to his victim, who also remains unnamed, in accordance with a court order. The incident in the Brittany city was one in a long line triggered by Mr Sarkozy's ban, which came into force in April 2011. Previous president: Nicolas Sarkozy brought in the veil ban after describing it as an affront to French principles Last September, Louis-Marie Suisse, a Muslim teenager from Marseille received a two month prison sentence for biting a policewoman who arrested her for wearing a full-face veil. Under the law, women found guilty of wearing niqabs in public can be fined the equivalent of around 130 pounds, or be forced to go toe citizenship classes.

I was a strange child. I visited Parliament at 10 and decided I would be an MP (it took me to 2010 to achieve that childhood dream). I joined the Conservatives at 14 – initially excited by Margaret Thatcher and what I thought Toryism represented: family, education, community, a work ethic, a ladder of opportunity for everyone to climb. Now, at 48 and a member of the party for all these years, it seems hard to believe that the Conservatives have not won a healthy majority since 1987. This is why I have come to believe that if Conservatives are to really win again, we need to acknowledge five fundamental truths and respond with radical reform. First, we have no message or narrative. No one really understands what Conservatism is all about, except in terms of austerity, economics and Brexit. Second, and related to our first problem, we have allowed Labour to claim the positive language of compassion. The words social justice, welfare, NHS, compassion, low pay, the poor, poverty and the underdog are all associated with the left. Third, our electoral performance has been wanting. Even after the years of Gordon Brown, we had a coalition. After Ed Miliband a tiny majority. After 2017, none at all. The argument about the popular vote being the highest is illusory if we pile up votes in safe seats but lose swathes of votes in others. Fourth, the idea that we are winning working class votes is mixed. While Conservatives won some working class seats because of Brexit, there are plenty of marginal working class seats we lost as well. If the working class voters narrative is true, who is to say they will remain Tory if they feel that the party has back-slided over Brexit and the divorce bill is too high? Where’s the guarantee they will stay with Conservatives after Brexit is completed, even if they were supportive of the deal? Why would they not go back to Labour? Moreover, our support from women has declined, especially from full-time female workers and those in their 30s, many of whom work in the public services, hit by pay restraint. Tories all know that our backing from the younger generation is nothing short of a calamity. Fifth, not only do Conservatives have an ever-declining membership but our party grassroots infrastructure is so bad that if health and safety inspections were in play, they would have closed it down a long time ago. To paraphrase, the Conservative name is so tarnished and so misrepresented that we need a simple way of explaining to everyone what we are about and that we are on their side. Conservatives have to have the narrative that we are the party of the ladder of opportunity. That if you are on lower income, Tories give you the ladder to get you the skills, to get the education, jobs, security and prosperity that you need. But this is not just a ladder by itself, it’s a ladder that is grafted by government, it is a ladder that the people are brought to by government, it’s a ladder that has a social ambulance always there at the bottom, ready if people fall off. It’s a ladder that has hands around it, to help people every step of the way. Second, that ladder of opportunity is all about Conservatives being, what I call, the true Workers Party. I believe that we need a fundamental re-brand. I also have a vision that our party will actually be not just a workers party but a real modern workers’ trade union movement for the British people. This is a Conservative Workers Party focused on jobs and skills (especially apprenticeships), wages (lower tax and the living wage), welfare (the NHS and housing), and workers’ services (like energy bills). Tories would be the party of social justice and redistribution too: redistributing the significant extra tax revenues raised from cutting taxes for big business and spending that on tax cuts for the lower-paid or on our poorer communities. The Conservative Party would be like a modern trade union, offering bursaries to encourage low income candidates, fuel discount cards to members, bus passes to young apprentices and proper democracy. Party members would have one member one vote for the party board and be able to vote on policy and motions for party conference. It is time for us Conservatives to develop a romantic and ethical message of our own, recognising that we need radical change if we are to inspire millions to vote Tory: not just reluctantly with their heads because of the economy, but with their hearts too. Unless Conservatives do so, I believe we will never get the strong victory our country needs. Robert Halfon is the Conservative MP for Harlow and chairman of the Education Select Committee.

A few facts about attending UC Berkeley are simply preordained: too many people, too few resources and not enough money to go around. These tried-and-true problems of a public university shape the fabric of our academic lives. We, the mass of UC Berkeley students that swell the campus to maximum capacity on a daily basis, are responsible for our own educations. No unsolicited academic counseling, no training wheels — that’s the education we signed up for, and that’s what we’re getting. Joan Didion, class of 1956, put it best when she wrote, “Berkeley is a great place only for students capable of self-definition. It is a place of great riches, but it gives them up readily only to people of great expectations.” On this campus, self-preservation and self-motivation create just as much momentum as intellect. This quality and its centrality to the Berkeley experience may be best exemplified by office hours — the nebulous space for faculty-student engagement that is both completely optional and deeply integral to understanding how students navigate their academic lives, whether we’re knocking down professors’ doors or avoiding office hours altogether. As UC Berkeley students, we are used to being told to take control of our own educations, and this means students probably know that it’s a good idea to catch some one-on-one time with the academic greats that teach our classes. Despite this, office hours are hardly a guaranteed part of the student experience, and not all students choose to use them. Physics professor Bob Jacobsen says he sends out emails and makes announcements in class, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference: His students simply aren’t coming. Other professors say the same. “I hear this from everybody, and everybody thinks it’s mysterious,” Jacobsen said, who is also the dean of Undergraduate Studies for the College of Letters and Science. “First- and second-year students don’t show up…kind of like you don’t go to see the teacher after class unless you’re in trouble.” Students can and should take advantage of unstructured time with professors. But as with everything at UC Berkeley, the narrative of office hours is not simply that all students aren’t showing up when they should. Some students are in fact attending office hours, lots of them, and facing a totally different lack of access — too much attendance. When Andrew Packard, a professor of mechanical engineering opens his doors to students, he hardly has time to see them all. “They come a lot,” he said. “To the point where sometimes there’s so many people outside you can literally talk to people for one minute or two minutes each.” Freshman Anisha Agarwal, an intended computer science and cognitive science major, has already decided most office hours won’t be worth the effort because of the problem Packard faces — too many people and too little time. “If I am taking an hour out to go to office hours, I want to engage with my professor,” she said. “And if I can’t do that, it defeats the purpose.” The ironic reality of the office hour-enhanced education is that it simultaneously encourages participation and depends on the inaction of some students. A single student can spend 30 minutes prodding a professor for help on an idea only when the 20, 50 or 700 other students in the class choose not to show up. This problem is not a question of the merit or efforts of the professors at hand. Professors at UC Berkeley, although busy, tend to care deeply about their students and what stimulates them intellectually. They want us to come to office hours, and they want us to come often. Offices too crowded to contain their students may point to where the system can stretch and bend to allow for more individualized attention — the real meat of a holistic education. Professors who are simply waiting for us to show up point to where students can and should be doing more. Office hours in their best form allow for even a large campus with finite resources to feel intimate and unlimited in intellectual wealth. Gary Firestone, a professor of molecular and cell biology, puts the potential power of the office hour this way: “How well can you talk to your family at a big wedding versus at a six-person dinner?” UC Berkeley, in all its vastness, is exactly what Firestone describes — the massive wedding of student interests and university accessibility, and we all are seated at six-person tables, at times completely unaware of the guests only a couple of spots closer to the podium. The office hour and its potential to get us out of our seats and into deeper realms of academic fancy can help us consider where education is most potent and how it works best. Every Thursday, Alastair Boone and I will share this space to explore the public university in two bimonthly columns. As a pair, we hope to engage with what it means to attend UC Berkeley — myself from a reported angle and her from an experiential perspective — in an effort to broach multifaceted university issues that simply can’t be covered in one week’s time. We want to start conversations, and we hope you’ll join us in this pursuit. Libby Rainey and Alastair Boone write the Thursday column on bits and pieces of the UC Berkeley experience.

The Second Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought during the First World War on the Western Front from late August to early September, in the basin of the River Somme. It was part of a series of successful counter-offensives in response to the German Spring Offensive, after a pause for redeployment and supply. The most significant feature of the 1918 Somme battles was that with the first Battle of the Somme of 1918 having halted what had begun as an overwhelming German offensive, the second formed the central part of the Allies' advance to the Armistice of 11 November. Battle [ edit ] On 15 August 1918, British Field Marshal Douglas Haig refused demands from Supreme Allied Commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch to continue the Amiens offensive during World War I, as that attack was faltering as the troops outran their supplies and artillery, and German reserves were being moved to the sector. Instead, Haig began to plan for an offensive at Albert, which opened on 21 August. The main attack was launched by the British Third Army, with the United States II Corps attached. The second battle began on 21 August with the opening of the Second Battle of Bapaume to the north of the river itself. That developed into an advance which pushed the German Second Army back over a 55 kilometre front, from south of Douai to La Fère, south of Saint-Quentin, Aisne. Albert was captured on 22 August. On 26 August, the British First Army widened the attack by another twelve kilometres, sometimes called the Second Battle of Arras.[2] Bapaume fell on 29 August. The Australian Corps crossed the Somme River on the night of 31 August, and broke the German lines at the Battle of Mont St. Quentin and the Battle of Péronne. The British Fourth Army's commander, General Henry Rawlinson, described the Australian advances of 31 August – 4 September as the greatest military achievement of the war.[3] On the morning of 2 September, after a heavy battle, the Canadian Corps seized control of the Drocourt-Quéant line (representing the west edge of the Hindenburg Line). The battle was fought by the Canadian 1st Division, 4th Division, and by the British 52nd Division.[4] Heavy German casualties were inflicted, and the Canadians also captured more than 6,000 unwounded prisoners. Canada's losses amounted to 5,600.[5] By noon that day the German commander, Erich Ludendorff, had decided to withdraw behind the Canal du Nord. By 2 September, the Germans had been forced back to the Hindenburg Line, from which they had launched their offensive in the spring. On their way to the Hindenburg Line, in a fierce battle, the Canadian troops, led by General Sir Arthur Currie, overcame the earthworks of the incomplete Canal du Nord during the Battle of Canal du Nord.[6] In late September/early October, one of the epic battles of the whole war was the breach of the Hindenburg Line (the Battle of St. Quentin Canal) by British, Australian and American troops (under the command of Australian General John Monash). Soon after, the Canadians breached the Hindenburg Line at the Battle of Cambrai. A key part of the German supply line ran parallel with the front. This second 1918 battle around the Somme was part of a strategy designed to push parts of the German line back behind this main supply line so cutting it and making impossible the efficient maintenance of the German forces on the front. The campaign began with battle of Bapaume and, starting shortly after, the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, outside the Somme area, with the aim of reducing salients before using the fluidity of the broken line to press on to the strategic railway. It was hoped that this fluidity would be present as, owing to the German advance in the spring, the German forces were well in advance of their hitherto impregnable, very well prepared defences on the Hindenburg Line. This policy worked but it took some very determined work at the St. Quentin Canal, among the prepared defences, to achieve success. See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ]

SIX FLAGS NEW ENGLAND Agawam, Massachusetts Six Flags Theme Parks Park News - (10/23/18) Six Flags Magic Mountain and Six Flags New England are having a friendly wager over the outcome of this year’s World Series which will feature the LA Dodgers vs the Boston Red Sox starting on October 23rd. If the Dodgers win then SFNE will change the name of their Thunderbolt coaster to the “Dodgers Thunderbolt” for the opening weekend of Holiday in the Park, plus the park President will wear a Dodgers jersey at the opening night of Holiday In The Park, plus fly a Dodgers flag on top of the Scream tower. If the Boston Red Sox win then SFMM will rename Revolution as “Red Sox Revolution” for the opening weekend of Holiday In The Park along with their President wearing a Red Sox jersey and a flag flying over the SFMM main gate entrance. (10/10/18) A reader reports in that the Gotham City Crime Wave is indeed just being taken down for a full winter refurbishment, and that it will return next season. Another reader also confirmed the rumor that the new Cyborg ride for 2019 will indeed be placed inside the current Justice League building structure. (10/8/18) A reader sent in a picture from Six Flags New England this weekend showing off the site of the Gotham City Crime Wave ride, which is now in pieces. Is this just for a full off-season rehab, or are they looking to remove the attraction? Anyone know more? There is always a chance that the location could be used for the new indoor Cyborg flat ride, but the common thought was that Cyborg may go into the park’s current “Justice League” building which formerly was used for an indoor version of Joker’s Wild. (4/6/18) According to News Plus Notes, Six Flags New England will retheme a section of the park to become Gotham City. The new themed zone will be home to many DC hero and villain characters, such as the new Harley Quinn Spinsanity ride, but the park's Mind Eraser coaster will also be rethemed as The Riddler Revenge, as you'll twist, flip and turn on the line-green inverted coaster track, with yellow supports. The Riddler Revenge will also feature all new coaster trains, with Vekoma's more open, soft and comfortable restraint system. (1/22/18) In addition to a confirmation about the removal of Buzzsaw at Six Flags New England, I'm told that the park's Tea Cups ride is being moved to the former Buzzsaw location, to make room for Harley Quinn Spinsanity which is taking over the former Tea Cups spot next to Joker. 2018 - Harley Quinn Spinsanity - (6/1/18) The local news reports that the new Harley Quinn Spinsanity ride at Six Flags New England is now set to open this Saturday to park guests. (8/31/17) Six Flags New England changed the artwork on the top of their Facebook page to show Harley Quinn Spinsanity coming for 2018, but this is not the same ride going to Six Flags over Texas. This one appears to be a Zamerpla Discovery giant pendulum swing ride standing 15 stories tall. HARLEY QUINN Spinsanity to debut at Six Flags New England in 2018. Swing back and forth at 70mph and at 15 stories in the air. #sixflags pic.twitter.com/41lx9DHKqi — Six Flags NE (@SF_newengland) August 31, 2017 (8/14/17) Looks like we know what Six Flags New England is planning for 2018. A document posted by the local Town of Agawam mentions that a planning meeting with Six Flags will take place on Aug. 17th regarding the installation of a "Giant Discovery Thrill Ride" at the park. This would be a reference to the Zamperla Giant Discovery, their version of the Giant Frisbee ride concept, and confirming our rumor from last week that this was exactly what Six Flags was planning to add for 2018 at SFNE. (8/9/17) According to the latest rumor, Six Flags New England could be adding a giant inverted frisbee style pendulum ride, much like the Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth ride installed into Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for 2017. The same ride was also installed into La Ronde as Titan. Since the rumored location may place it somewhere in near the Batman and Joker coasters, I could see them sticking with the Wonder Woman theme here. 2019 - Cyborg and Buccaneer Beach - (12/23/18) According to the minutes of the local Agawam Planning Board meeting from the end of November, Six Flags New England seems to have a second project in the works for 2019. This one would see a new addition to the waterpark called Buccaneer Beach, which would replace the existing Bonzai Beach. According to the minutes everything at Bonzai Beach will be demolished except for a beverage stand, and the new Buccaneer Beach “includes a pool, a changing room building, pool filter building, landscaped areas, concrete patio areas and cabanas.” (11/12/18) Is a second attraction in the works for Six Flags New England in addition to the small Cyborg flat ride? According to the agenda for an upcoming meeting at the Agawam Planning Board on Nov. 15th, they are going to discuss the site plan for a “New Water Park Attraction” being proposed by Six Flags New England. If a major new waterslide is in the works for Hurricane Harbor, that could definitely explain why the rest of the park was only getting a single small flat ride. If anyone happens to be in the area and wants to attend the meeting, I’m sure we'd love to hear the rest of the details. (8/30/18) Six Flags New England will add Cyborg in 2019, described as a "new dark ride experience". I'm not 100% sure exactly what kind of ride this is, but it appears to be a new spinning flat ride of some kind that will be placed indoors and enhanced with special effects and music. "Step into S.T.A.R. Labs to witness a new technological device when the sentient cybernetic system called THE GRID hacks into the mainframe and takes control of the entire lab." Based on the video footage shown, the ride system looks like it could be a Chance Freestyle. A SUPER futuristic thrill ride is coming to our park next year. ?? CYBORG™ will debut a new dimension of thrills in 2019. ?????? pic.twitter.com/oZYrqC3MBI — Six Flags NE (@SF_newengland) August 30, 2018 >

In its first 47 years, the Super Bowl has always been played in a warm-weather location or indoors. Miami and New Orleans have each hosted the championship game of American football ten times, and other warm locales have hosted 23 games. Another four games have been played in cities with cold and snowy winter climates—Indianapolis, Minnesota, and Detroit (twice)—but each time the stadium had a dome. On February 2, 2014, the National Football League will hold its first outdoor Super Bowl at a northern, cold-weather stadium. The Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite acquired this view of Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on January 30, 2014. In the image, the south end of the stadium casts a long winter shadow over the field. Metlife is part of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, which includes the Meadowlands Racetrack (horse racing) and the Izod Center (indoor arena, east of Metlife, along the New Jersey Turnpike). A crust of snow, ice, and salt make the surrounding parking lots appear gray. The segmented brown parcels around the stadium are marshy “meadowlands.” Sitting along the west bank of the Hackensack River about five miles west of New York City, the Meadowlands have a long and environmentally difficult history. Before European settlement, the area was covered with wetlands and Atlantic white cedar forest. Colonists cut down the forests, set up dikes to drain the land, and turned it to meadows for livestock. In later years, the land was abandoned and became a dumping ground for everything from household trash to chemical waste to rubble (used as ship ballast) from the World War II London Blitz. For the past five decades, the land has simultaneously been reclaimed for the sports and entertainment complex and for restoration of some wild lands. Sit low in a kayak in these wetlands, and you might see nothing more than waterfowl and wild marsh grasses. Stretch your head upward and you can see the New York Skyline and the New Jersey Turnpike. The wildlife this weekend will be in the stadium and its parking lots as Americans celebrate the big game. Snow has been reported in the area seven times in the past month, including two major snowstorms, according to The Weather Channel’s website. The National Weather Service forecast for February 2 calls for cloudy skies, daytime temperatures near 48° Fahrenheit (9° Celsius), and nighttime temperatures around 28°F (-2° Celsius). There is a 20 to 30 percent chance of rain before the game and of snow after it. NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data from the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.

10 August 2009 | dark_fibre 10 | This should not be missed! Just got home from a preview of District 9. We had seen the previews and were intrigued to see just what the film would be like. The film style was very much documentary like with lots of sound byte style comments settings the scenes and giving commentary all through the film. These in my opinion took it from being what could have been just another "aliens vs humans" film and elevated into the realms of social commentary. The aliens are presented almost as animals yet you rapidly start to sympathize with them and tune into their desperation. If it wasn't for the alien space ship in the background and the poor being alien in every sense, you would think this was a movie about any slum and the people who prey on the inhabitants. Like other films which cover the worst that humans can do, there is a brutal violence present and the directory has not shied away from depicting it. This is not a film you want to watch after a big meal. Just ask my girlfriend. She thought she would have to leave half way through. In all, this is a film we worth every cent to see. Right up until the end you are never sure what's going to happen next. The characters are believable and the style of the film just adds to it. This could have happened, and in fact may happen. For a first effort, Neill Blomkamp has created one of the best SciFi for a while, his future work will be well worth paying attention to.

Russian-born American businessman and president of the United Fruit Company Samuel Zemurray Photograph by Eliot Elisofon/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. This is an excerpt from Rich Cohen’s The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, out this week from FSG. Samuel Zemurray took his money and went south. Wisteria bloomed along the railroad tracks. Towns drifted by. He could smell the ocean before he could see it. He was like a kid on the frontier, who, a day after the harvest, folds his savings into a roll and goes to try his luck in town. He was 17, a big kid, 6-foot-3 in boots, the wingspan of a condor. It was said he could swear in five languages. Having emigrated from Russia in 1891, Sam settled in Selma, Ala., where his uncle owned a store. That’s where he saw his first banana: golden-green, piled in the wares of a vagabond peddler. Soon after, charmed by this hint of paradise, he headed to the Gulf, looking for his own supply. It was the beginning of an adventure that would eventually make Sam one of the most powerful men in America, the head of the United Fruit Company, “El Pulpo,” the dreaded octopus with its tentacles in everything. In later years, Sam could alter the history of South America with a phone call, a string of expletives, a wave of the hand. But in the beginning, he was just a kid with a realization about bananas—an epiphany that changed everything. Mobile was booming in the last years of the 19th century, a seedy industrial port filled with all the familiar types: the sharpie, the financier, the scoundrel, the chucklehead, the sport. Sam was a bit of everything. He could be shrewd, but he could also be naive. He was greedy for information. He took a room in a seamen’s hotel near the port. The waterfront was crossed by train tracks—dozens of lines converged here. Boxcars crammed with coal, fruit, cotton, and cane stood on the sidings. The railroad conductors were the aristocrats of the scene. They drank coffee in the station house, smug in their checkered caps. The docks were crowded with stevedores, most of them immigrants from Sicily. The train sheds were crowded with peddlers, mostly Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia. They bought merchandise off the decks of ships and sold it from carts in the streets of Mobile. One evening, Sam stood on the wharf watching a Boston Fruit banana boat sail into the harbor. The Boston Fruit Company, which would become United Fruit, dominated the trade, with a fleet that carried bananas from Jamaica to Boston, Charleston, New Orleans, and Mobile. Zemurray would have seen one of the smaller ships that made the trip to the Gulf ports, a cutter with sails and engine. The funnel sent up black smoke. The pier strained under the weight of unloaders who appeared, as if out of nowhere, whenever a ship landed. As soon as the boat was anchored, these men swarmed across the deck, ants on a sugar pile, working in organized teams. In the South, in the days before mechanical equipment, bananas were unloaded by hand, the workers carrying the cargo a stem at a time—from the hold, where the shipment was packed in ice, onto the deck of the ship. A banana stem is the fruit of an entire tree—100 pounds or more. Each stem holds perhaps 100 bunches; each bunch holds perhaps nine hands; each hand holds perhaps fifteen fingers—a finger being a single banana. Sam would have watched closely as the workers formed lines that snaked from the deck of the ship down a ramp, and across the pier to the waiting boxcars. Each stem was passed from man to man until it reached the open door of the train, where an agent from the company examined it for bruises, freckles, color. If the stem passed muster, it was loaded into the car, which was air-cooled and straw-filled. When the car was full, the door was swung shut and locked. An empty car was rolled into its place. This continued for hours—a shift might run from 3 p.m. until midnight. When a train was packed, the switchman signaled and the cargo was carried across the South. The bananas that did not past muster were dumped on the side of the yard, where they were further divided. Some were designated as turnings, meaning they were on their way to being worthless. At the end of the day, they were sold at a discount to local store owners and peddlers. You could see them, with their carts piled high, trundling through the streets, calling, “Bananas, bananas for sale! A nickel a bunch! Yes, we have bananas, we have bananas for sale!” The bananas that did not make the cut as greens or turnings were designated “ripes” and heaped in a sad pile. A ripe is a banana left in the sun, as freckled as a Hardy boy. These bananas, though still good to eat, delicious even, would never make it to the market in time. In less than a week, they would begin to soften and stink. As far as the merchants were concerned, they were trash. Sam noticed everything—the care with which the bananas were handled, the way each boxcar was filled and rolled to a siding, how men from the banana company, college men, moved through the crowd barking orders—but paid special attention to the growing pile of ripes. Anything can cause a banana to ripen early. If you squeeze a green banana it will turn in days instead of weeks; ditto if it’s nicked, dented, or banged. A ripe banana will cause those around it to ripen, and those will cause still others to ripen, until an entire boxcar is ruined. Before refrigeration was perfected, as much as 15 percent of an average cargo ended up in the ripe pile. Sam grew fixated on ripes, recognizing a product where others saw only trash. He was the son of a Russian farmer, for whom food had once been scarce enough to make even a freckled banana seem precious. Rich Cohen, author of The Fish That Ate the Whale. Photograph by Rich Cohen. After the ship had been unloaded, after the trains had carried off the green bananas, after the merchants and peddlers had taken away the turnings, Sam walked down to the pier to talk to the company agent. They spoke as the sun went down, the man with the Ivy League elocution and the kid with the Russian accent, who rolled his Rs and spit his vowels. Zemurray had $150. That was his stake. He figured it would go further if he spent it on ripes. He was no fool. He knew what this meant—that he would have to move fast, that he was entering a race with the clock. Three days, five at the most. After that, he would be left with a pile of glue. But he believed he could make it. As far as he was concerned, ripes were considered trash only because Boston Fruit and similar firms were too slow-footed to cover ground. It was a calculation based on arrogance. I can be fast where others have been slow. I can hustle where others are satisfied with the easy pickings of the trade. Zemurray’s first cargo consisted of a few thousand bananas. He did not spend all his money but retained a small balance, which he used to rent part of a boxcar on the Illinois Central. The trip to Selma was scheduled to take three days, meaning he would have just enough time to get the fruit to market before the sun did its worst. In most cases, a fruit hauler would spend a few dollars extra for a bed in the caboose, but since the freight charge used the last of his money, Zemurray traveled in the boxcar with his bananas, the door open, the country drifting by. The train left on a Tuesday morning, say, the sun fiery above the smoky freight yard dawn, the clank of wheels over switches, the ocean drifting away. Color and country: blue in the morning, green at midday, red in the evening. Zemurray sat in the boxcar doorway. The train traveled maddeningly, infuriatingly, exceedingly slow. In the country, it went the speed of a trotting mule. In the towns, it was no faster than a man walking. In the cities, it stopped altogether, sometimes for hours, waiting for cargo and crew. Zemurray paced the railroad bed, hands on his hips, muttering. Stop lights. Temporary holds. What was supposed to be three days was turning into five, six. With each hour, the bananas became more pungent. He spoke to the conductor, who commiserated, saying, “What a terrible shame.” In a Mississippi train yard, where the redbrick buildings, feed stores and tinsmiths crowded close to the tracks, a brakeman, hearing Sam’s story, said, “You’ve got good product there. If you could just get word ahead to the towns along the line, I’m sure the grocery owners would meet you at the platforms and buy the bananas right off the boxcars.” During the next delay, Zemurray went into a Western Union office and spoke to a telegraph operator. Having no money, Sam offered a deal: If the man radioed every operator ahead, asking each of them to spread the word to local merchants—dirt cheap bananas coming through for merchants and peddlers—Sam would share a percentage of his sales. When the Illinois Central arrived in the next town, the customers were waiting. Zemurray talked terms through the boxcar door, a tower of ripes at his back. Ten for eight. Thirteen for ten. He broke off a bunch, handed it over, put the money in his pocket. The whistle blew, the train rolled on. He sold the last banana in Selma, then went home in the dark. When he tallied his money, it came to $190. His first real success: After accounting for expenses, Sam had earned $40 in six days. Zemurray had stumbled on a niche: ripes, overlooked at the bottom of the trade. It was logistics. Could he move the product faster than the product was ruined by time? This work was nothing but stress, the margins ridiculously small (like counterfeiting dollar bills), but it was a way in. Whereas the big fruit companies monopolized the upper precincts of the industry—you needed capital, railroads, and ships to operate in greens—the world of ripes was wide open. Within a few weeks of his return to Selma, Zemurray set out again, then again, then again. It was in these months, on train platforms and in small towns, that Zemurray first came to be known as Sam the Banana man. Historians later described the young Zemurray as a fruit peddler, no different from other poor Jews who pushed carts through Manhattan’s Lower East Side, except instead of a wagon, Sam worked out of a boxcar. (He was “Sam the Banana Man,” according to Life, “who once used railroads as pushcarts.”) It made sense, but only in a shallow way. In truth, Sam Zemurray was more interesting and unique—as a salesman of a perishable product, he was a kind of existentialist, skirting the line between wealth and oblivion, health and rot, a rider of railroads, a chaser of time. It was life: Move the fruit now or you’re ruined forever. He became a gambler by necessity—a risk-taker, a salesman, a brawler. “The little fellow,” as the big wheels in Boston called him, but the little fellow would build a kingdom from ripes. Sam eventually went into turnings, yellows, even greens. By 1912, he was living in the jungle in Honduras, where, working with mercenaries, banana cowboys, he had overthrown the government, empowering a president more friendly to Cuyamel, the company Sam led to victory against United Fruit. In the end, he would live in the grandest house in New Orleans, the mansion on St. Charles that is now the official residence of the Tulane president. He continued to wield tremendous influence into the mid-’50s, a powerful old man who threatened, cajoled, explained, a mysterious Citizen Kane-like figure to people in his city. When he died in 1961, the New York Times called him, “The Fish That Swallowed the Whale.” But part of him would always remain that big kid peddling ripes from a boxcar on the Illinois Central.

By itself, concrete is a very durable construction material. The magnificent Pantheon in Rome, the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome, is in excellent condition after nearly 1,900 years. And yet many concrete structures from last century – bridges, highways and buildings – are crumbling. Many concrete structures built this century will be obsolete before its end. Given the survival of ancient structures, this may seem curious. The critical difference is the modern use of steel reinforcement, known as rebar, concealed within the concrete. Steel is made mainly of iron, and one of iron’s unalterable properties is that it rusts. This ruins the durability of concrete structures in ways that are difficult to detect and costly to repair. While repair may be justified to preserve the architectural legacy of iconic 20th-century buildings, such as those designed by reinforced concrete users like Frank Lloyd Wright, it is questionable whether this will be affordable or desirable for the vast majority of structures. The writer Robert Courland, in his book Concrete Planet, estimates that repair and rebuilding costs of concrete infrastructure, just in the United States, will be in the trillions of dollars – to be paid by future generations. Steel reinforcement was a dramatic innovation of the 19th century. The steel bars add strength, allowing the creation of long, cantilevered structures and thinner, less-supported slabs. It speeds up construction times, because less concrete is required to pour such slabs. These qualities, pushed by assertive and sometimes duplicitous promotion by the concrete industry in the early 20th century, led to its massive popularity. Reinforced concrete competes against more durable building technologies, like steel frame or traditional bricks and mortar. Around the world, it has replaced environmentally sensitive, low-carbon options like mud brick and rammed earth – historical practices that may also be more durable. Early 20th-century engineers thought reinforced concrete structures would last a very long time – perhaps 1,000 years. In reality, their life span is more like 50-100 years, and sometimes less. Building codes and policies generally require buildings to survive for several decades, but deterioration can begin in as little as 10 years. Many engineers and architects point to the natural affinities between steel and concrete: they have similar thermal expansion characteristics, and concrete’s alkalinity can help to inhibit rust. But there is still a lack of knowledge about their composite qualities – for example, in regard to sun-exposure-related changes in temperature. The many alternative materials for concrete reinforcement – such as stainless steel, aluminium bronze and fibre-polymer composites – are not yet widely used. The affordability of plain steel reinforcement is attractive to developers. But many planners and developers fail to consider the extended costs of maintenance, repair or replacement. There are technologies that can address the problem of steel corrosion, such as cathodic protection, in which the entire structure is connected to a rust-inhibiting electric current. There are also interesting new methods to monitor corrosion, by electrical or acoustic means. Another option is to treat the concrete with a rust-inhibiting compound, although these can be toxic and inappropriate for buildings. There are several new non-toxic inhibitors, including compounds extracted from bamboo and bacterially derived “biomolecules”. Fundamentally, however, none of these developments can resolve the inherent problem that putting steel inside concrete ruins its potentially great durability. The environmental costs of rebuilding This has serious repercussions for the planet. Concrete is the third-largest contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, after automobiles and coal-fuelled power plants. Cement manufacturing alone is responsible for roughly 5% of global CO₂ emissions. Concrete also makes up the largest proportion of construction and demolition waste, and represents about a third of all landfill waste. Recycling concrete is difficult and expensive, reduces its strength and may catalyse chemical reactions that speed up decay. The world needs to reduce its concrete production, but this will not be possible without building longer-lasting structures. Anna Frodesiak/Wikimedia Commons In a recent paper, I suggest that the widespread acceptance of reinforced concrete may be the expression of a traditional, dominant and ultimately destructive view of matter as inert. But reinforced concrete is not really inert. Concrete is commonly perceived as a stone-like, monolithic and homogeneous material. In fact, it is a complex mix of cooked limestone, clay-like materials and a wide variety of rock or sandy aggregates. Limestone itself is a sedimentary rock composed of shells and coral, whose formation is influenced by many biological, geological and climatological factors. This means that concrete structures, for all their stone-like superficial qualities, are actually made of the skeletons of sea creatures ground up with rock. It takes millions upon millions of years for these sea creatures to live, die and form into limestone. This timescale contrasts starkly with the life spans of contemporary buildings. Steel is often perceived to be inert and resilient too. Terms such as “Iron Age” suggest an ancient durability, although Iron Age artefacts are comparatively rare precisely because they rust. If construction steel is visible, it can be maintained – for instance, when the Sydney Harbour Bridge is repeatedly painted and repainted. However, when embedded in concrete, steel is hidden but secretly active. Moisture entering through thousands of tiny cracks creates an electrochemical reaction. One end of the rebar becomes an anode and the other a cathode, forming a “battery” that powers the transformation of iron into rust. Rust can expand the rebar up to four times its size, enlarging cracks and forcing the concrete to fracture apart in a process called spalling, more widely known as “concrete cancer”. Sarang/Wikimedia Commons I suggest that we need to change our thinking, to recognise concrete and steel as vibrant and active materials. This is not a case of changing any facts, but rather of re-orientating how we understand and act on those facts. Avoiding waste, pollution and needless rebuilding will require thinking well beyond disciplinary conceptions of time, and this is especially true for the building and construction industries. The collapsed civilisations of the past show us the consequences of short-term thinking. We should focus on building structures that stand the test of time – lest we end up with hulking, derelict artefacts that are no more fit for their original purpose than the statues of Easter Island.

Following some close examination, scientists believe the neutron star's magnetic field is to blame. It spins so fast that it creates an inner edge to the gaseous disc collected from its companion star. The best way to think of it is like a merry-go-round -- the field spins at such a velocity that hardly anyone can get on. As the gas accumulates at the edge, however, it gradually spins faster and is able to make the jump. That build up, the team says, is what causes the seemingly erratic and powerful type-II bursts. "The Rapid Burster is the archetypal system to investigate type-II bursts -- it's where they were first observed and the only source that shows both type-I and type-II bursts," Jakob van den Eijnden, a PhD student at the Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy in Amsterdam explains. Indeed, type-II bursts have only been discovered in one other place: Bursting Pulsar, another binary system uncovered in the 1990s. The far-flung location, as far as scientists can tell, exhibits type-II bursts exclusively, however. That makes the Rapid Burster unique, and a constant curiosity, one that will no doubt attract further examination in the future.

Sleep inertia is a physiological state of impaired cognitive and sensory-motor performance that is present immediately after awakening. It persists during the transition of sleep to wakefulness, where an individual will experience feelings of drowsiness, disorientation and a decline in motor dexterity.[1][2] Impairment from sleep inertia may take several hours to dissipate. In the majority of cases, morning sleep inertia is experienced for 15 to 30 minutes after waking.[3] Sleep inertia is of concern when decision-making abilities, safety-critical tasks and the ability to operate efficiently are important soon after awakening. In these situations, it poses an occupational hazard due to the cognitive and motor deficits that may be present. Symptoms [ edit ] "Grogginess", as defined by a drowsy or disoriented state in which there is a dampening of sensory acuity and mental processing. Impaired motor dexterity and decrease in cognitive ability. These gross impairments may be responsible for the associated increase in reaction time and drop in attentiveness. Deficits in spatial memory [4] Reports of heightened subjective fatigue These symptoms are expressed with the greatest intensity immediately after waking, and dissipate following a period of extended wakefulness. The duration of symptoms varies on a conditional basis, with primary expression during the first 15–60 minutes after waking and potentially extending for several hours.[4] Tasks that require more complex cognitive operations will feature greater deficits as compared to a simple motor task; the accuracy of sensory and motor functioning is more impaired by sleep inertia as compared to sheer speed.[5] In order to measure the cognitive and motor deficiencies associated with sleep inertia, a battery of tests may be utilized including psychomotor vigilance task, descending subtraction task, auditory reaction time task, and the finger tapping task.[4][6] Causes [ edit ] Studies have shown that abrupt awakening during stage 3 sleep, slow-wave sleep (SWS), produces more sleep inertia than awakening during sleep stages 1, 2 or REM sleep [5] Prior sleep deprivation increases the percentage of time spent in slow-wave sleep (SWS). Therefore, an individual who was previously sleep deprived will have a greater chance of experiencing sleep inertia. [5] Adenosine levels in the brain progressively increase with sleep deprivation, and return to normal during sleep. Upon awakening with sleep deprivation, high amounts of adenosine will be bound to receptors in the brain, neural activity slows down, and a feeling of tiredness will result [7] Studies show that individuals express a lack of blood flow to the brain upon awakening. Levels of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral blood flow velocities (CBFV) will take up to 30 minutes to increase and reach daytime levels.[5] Studies using advanced imaging have shown that cerebral blood flow will return to waking levels in the brainstem and thalamus first. Then, after 15 minutes, the brain's anterior cortical regions receive normal daytime blood flow. This 15 minute time period corresponds to the sleep inertia period.[6] There has been a great deal of research into potential methods to relieve the effects of sleep inertia. The demand for remedies is driven by the occupational hazards of sleep inertia for employees who work extended shifts such as medical professionals, emergency responders, or military personnel. The motor functioning and cognitive ability of these professionals who must immediately respond to a call can pose a safety hazard in the workplace. Below are some of the various methods that have been suggested to combat sleep inertia. Napping [ edit ] When a person is sleep deprived, re-entering sleep may provide a viable route to reduce mental and physical fatigue but it can also induce sleep inertia. In order to limit sleep inertia, one should avoid waking from the deeper stages of slow-wave sleep. The onset of slow-wave sleep occurs approximately 30 minutes after falling asleep, therefore a nap should be limited to under 30 minutes to prevent waking during slow-wave sleep and enhancing sleep inertia. Furthermore, self-awakening from a short nap was shown to relieve disorientation of sleep inertia as opposed to a forced awakening but these results may warrant more research into the nature of arousal after sleep periods.[4] Caffeine [ edit ] Caffeine is a xanthine derivative that can cross the blood-brain barrier. The caffeine present in coffee or tea exerts its stimulating action by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain. By antagonizing the adenosine receptors caffeine limits the effects of adenosine buildup in the brain and increases alertness and attentiveness. Previous research has shown that coupled with a short nap, consuming caffeine prior to the nap can alleviate the effects of sleep inertia.[4] Nonetheless, individual degree of consumption and tolerance to caffeine may be responsible for variation in its efficacy to reduce sleep inertia symptoms. Light [ edit ] The natural light provided by the morning sunrise may contribute to a reduction in sleep inertia effects. Research simulating increase of light at dawn was shown to potentiate the cortisol awakening response (CAR).[4] The CAR is a spike in blood cortisol levels following awakening, and is associated with the return to an alert cognitive state. Other [ edit ] Some other stimuli that could potentially minimize the effects of sleep inertia are sound and temperature. There is moderate evidence that the presence of mild sounds and a sharp decrease in the temperature of the extremities may independently reverse sleep inertia symptoms.[4] Noise is thought to increase attentiveness upon awakening.[citation needed] A drop in temperature of the extremities may prevent heat loss, facilitating the return of core body temperature to homeostatic daytime levels.[citation needed] See also [ edit ]

Since high school, Alabama safety Landon Collins has subscribed to a motivational ritual, visiting YouTube on the night before every game. Search term: Sean Taylor. Up pop the highlights, and up spikes Collins' adrenaline. "I watch 30-minute videos. There's a 22-minute video. There are 7-minute videos," Collins said last weekend from the NFL scouting combine. "There are some (videos) of him talking. There is so much that I watch on him." So much, in fact, that Collins almost always carries over his viewing into the next morning. "I can't get it all in in one night," he said. "Because I've got to get my rest. … It just reminds me of why I'm doing this." Taylor, a standout safety for four seasons in the NFL before being murdered in 2007, registers as an idol to Collins, the reason he wears No. 26 and the basis for his rooting interest in the Redskins. Like Taylor, Collins prides himself on being an instinctive playmaker, an imposing presence on the back end of a defense. Also like Taylor, selected fifth by the Redskins in 2004, Collins will almost certainly be an early first-round pick in the NFL draft, widely regarded as the top safety in this year's class. ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay pegs Collins as the only safety likely to be picked in the first two rounds. And around the league, there's a sentiment that the talent at safety falls off sharply thereafter. So for a team like the Bears, eyeing secondary reinforcement and picking at No. 7, Collins could be worth a deeper look. "With Collins, there are some limitations in terms of his man-to-man coverage," McShay said Monday. "But he has really good range in deep zone coverage. He supports the run hard. And he has very good ball skills." With the shortage of elite safety talent in this draft, the Bears might take their biggest swings at the position in free agency, leaving little to chance on draft weekend. And if new general manager Ryan Pace is truly intent on taking the best player available in the first round, it might be a stretch to bite on Collins when the Bears would be better suited targeting an outside linebacker or defensive lineman to energize their 3-4 defense. Tribune reporters Dan Wiederer and Rich Campbell discuss what's ahead for the Bears. Tribune reporters Dan Wiederer and Rich Campbell discuss what's ahead for the Bears. SEE MORE VIDEOS Collins also fits best as a strong safety, a role Ryan Mundy handled well for the Bears last season. Still, there's no question the Bears need additional support in their defensive backfield. And in that regard, Collins is an intriguing prospect. He certainly passed the eye test at the combine Monday, turning in a 4.52-second time in the 40-yard dash and a 35-inch vertical leap. All that at 6 feet and 228 pounds. Those are obvious measures of explosion in a player whose college film already has NFL talent evaluators sold on his physicality and vision. "He's almost a weak-side linebacker in size," McShay said. "And to run that speed and have the workout he had is pretty impressive. And you see that on tape." If the Bears would rather push for an upgrade at free safety, Pace might look toward Rounds 3 and 4 as a sweet spot to target prospects such as Fresno State's Derron Smith, Virginia's Anthony Harris and Arizona State's Damarious Randall. Collins, however, has established himself as the head of the safety class overall, certain he has proved himself on the field after a 2014 season in which he recorded a team-best 103 tackles, three interceptions, two fumble recoveries and seven passes defended. Within Collins' skill set, shades of Taylor are noticeable. Collins also wants it known he admires Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor, another back-end playmaker with swagger who has brought flair back to the strong safety position. "(In Chancellor) you've got a big safety who people say can't move. Can't do this, can't do that, can't cover the middle of the field," Collins said. "And he shows that when he has the opportunity to do that, people fear him. That's what we like to do." dwiederer@tribpub.com Twitter @danwiederer

Twiggy is a new Pythonic logger. >>> log.name(‘frank’).fields(number=42).info(“hello {who}, it’s a {} day”, ‘sunny’, who=’world’) INFO:frank:number=42:hello world, it’s a sunny day I started the project at Pycon. I was suffering from burnout, and looking to rekindle my interest in programming. I whined about the standard library’s logging package on IRC and Jesse Noller “invited” me to do something about it. I’m developing Twiggy because I want to give something back to the Python community, of which it’s been an honor and pleasure to be a member of these past eight years. I don’t have any immediate need for such a thing in a larger project- heck, I’m not even working right now. This post is intended to give an overview of Twiggy, and persuade you that it should be your new logger. For a more complete introduction, please see the documentation. Why Logging Matters When we write code, logging is often an afterthought. I think this is a mistake. Logging is: your only view into a running program view into a running program your only view of past execution view of past execution your data for post-mortem analysis and domain-specific measurement Given that, I think we should be logging more than we do. A lot more. Though given logging’s history as being slow, error-prone and generally unfun, it’s excusable that we don’t. Want to know what your code is doing without dropping into a debugger or cluttering up with print statements? Logging. Need to figure out why that daemon keeps crashing? Logging. Business guys want to know what the customers bought and why? Logging. Logging. We can’t live without it. So let’s do it better. What’s Wrong with the Standard Library’s logging Let me begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to Vinay Sajip for developing and maintaining the standard lib’s logging package since 2002. I mean that. In the numerous applications I’ve used it in, I’ve found it to be useful, featureful and very well documented. You have my thanks. When talking to folks in the community, I heard vague displeasure with the standard lib’s logging. It’s complicated. It’s slow. 3rd place in poll of modules needing a redesign. People are flaming mad. Folks had some pet peeves too. newlines in output unhandled exceptions during logging bring down the whole program only supports tuples for format strings too much locking Whatever. The big problem in my opinion is that it’s full of Java. The standard lib’s logging is a port of log4j, just like PEP-282 says. Twiggy: More Pythonic As near as I can tell, Twiggy is the first totally new design for a logger since log4j was developed in 1996. Let me say that again: Twiggy is the first new logger in 15 years. We’ve learned a lot about how to build software in that time. Let’s make use of that knowledge. Logging Should be Fun Let’s start with messages. Twiggy uses new-style format strings by default. Way nicer than %s (printf). >>> from twiggy import log >>> log.name(‘twiggy’).info(‘I wear {} on my {where}’, ‘pants’, where=’legs’) INFO:twiggy:I wear pants on my legs Output is better. No more hard-to-grep traceback lines cluttering up your logs. >>> try: … 1/0 … except: … log.trace(‘error’).warning(‘oh noes’) WARNING:oh noes TRACE Traceback (most recent call last): TRACE File “<meet_twiggy.py>”, line 2, in <module> TRACE ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero Twiggy includes easy support for structured logging. In the past, we stuffed key-value data into our human readable messages. >>> log = logging.getLogger(“stdlib.logging”) >>> log.info(‘Going for a walk. path: %s roads: %d’, “less traveled”, 42) INFO:stdlib.logging:Going for a walk. path: less traveled roads: 42 Twiggy preserves the structure in such messages, making parsing and sophisticated formatting possible. >>> log.name(‘twiggy’).fields(path=”less traveled”, roads=42).info(‘Going for a walk’) INFO:twiggy:path=less traveled:roads=42:Going for a walk More about logging messages Modern Configuration Twiggy uses loose coupling between loggers and outputs for configuration. This approach should look familiar to anyone who’s used Django’s URLconfs. from twiggy import addEmitters, outputs, levels, filters, formats, emitters # import * is also ok def twiggy_setup(): alice_output = outputs.FileOutput(“alice.log”, format=formats.line_format) bob_output = outputs.FileOutput(“bob.log”, format=formats.line_format) addEmitters( # (name, min_level, filter, output), (“alice”, levels.DEBUG, None, alice_output), (“betty”, levels.INFO, filters.names(“betty”), bob_output), (“brian.*”, levels.DEBUG, filters.glob_names(“brian.*”), bob_output), ) # near the top of your __main__ twiggy_setup() Filtering in Twiggy is smart. You can use builtin types as filters and Twiggy will just do the right thing. Strings are treated as regexps on message text. emitters[‘alice’].filter = “.*pants.*” # alice only gets messages with pants More about configuration So Fast it’s Free Outputs in Twiggy support asynchronous logging using the multiprocessing module. Twiggy can move the operation of writing to a file, database or server to a separate process and out of your application’s critical path. That makes logging basically free. And the best part is that Twiggy handles this for you, which means any outputs you write can take advantage of asynchronous support with no additional work. Solves Your Problems. Pets Your Puppy. A common problem in logging is the need to maintain context across several messages. This often comes up in webapps, where you’re shuttling request objects around. You can extract that context each time, but that quickly gets tiresome and may be impossible if it was created somewhere else. Twiggy makes this easy. Each call to fields() creates a new, partially-bound logger that can be passed around. >>> ## an application-level log … webapp_log = log.name(“myblog”) >>> ## a log for the individual request … some_request.log = webapp_log.fields(request_id=‘12345’) >>> some_request.log.fields(rows=100, user=’frank’).info(‘frobnicating database’) INFO:myblog:request_id=12345:rows=100:user=frank:frobnicating database >>> some_request.log.fields(bytes=5678).info(‘sending page over tubes’) INFO:myblog:bytes=5678:request_id=12345:sending page over tubes >>> ## a log for a different request … other_request.log = webapp_log.fields(request_id=‘67890’) >>> other_request.log.debug(‘Client connected’) DEBUG:myblog:request_id=67890:Client connected And we haven’t even gotten to the cool stuff or the features. The Future Twiggy works well now – you can start using it today. Since it’s core infrastructure, I believe a logger should be absolutely bulletproof. Twiggy’s not there yet. I’ll be focusing on getting it into rock solid shape over the next few weeks. I’ll also be porting to Python 3.x, mainly for its saner unicode support (I’ll maintain a 2.x branch if there’s sufficient interest). Output backends are one of Twiggy’s weak spots. Currently, there’s only support for files. Future outputs will likely include: email, SQL database, syslog/NT event log, JSON/HTTP (CouchDB anyone?), message queues, etc.. Really, the sky/boredom’s the limit. ;–) I’ll be adding some features to support common use cases – timing context managers, argument inspection decorators, that sort of thing. Also in the works is unittesting support – the ability to ensure that particular paths through your code produce the correct log output. I’m planning support for a standard library logging compatibility mode. Ideally, one should be able have 90% of code that uses logging work out of the box. from twiggy import logging_compat as logging log = logging.getLogger(“oldcode”) log.info(“Shh, don’t tell”) Even better, Twiggy could inject the compatibility layer into sys.modules, meaning no modification to old code at all. # in your twiggy_setup: from twiggy import logging_compat logging_compat.hijack() # take over! Way further down the road, I’ve got ideas for a zero-configuration log analysis tool called hatchet. But for now, I’m excited about Twiggy – I hope you are too. See also: Discussion on reddit

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Joey Votto is baseball's newest $200 million first baseman. The Cincinnati Reds slugger on Monday agreed to a 10-year, $225 million contract extension, according to a person familiar with the deal but not authorized to speak publicly about them because the deal is not finalized. Votto's extension ties him to the Reds through 2023 and continues a wild run of baseball spending. In agreeing to the fourth-largest deal in baseball history, Votto became the third first baseman in four months to top the $200 million mark. Albert Pujols agreed to a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels in January, and Prince Fielder followed with a nine-year, $213 million pact with the Detroit Tigers in January. Before this off-season, only Alex Rodriguez, whose current 10-year deal is worth $277 million, had cracked the $200 million barrier. Earlier Monday, the San Francisco Giants signed Matt Cain to an extension that guarantees him at least an additional $112.5 million. But in beating a Monday night deadline that Votto set with the Reds to reach an extension before opening day, Votto became the rare small-market star who will stay with the club that originally drafted him. And he will receive a full no-trade clause as part of the deal, as well, according to the person with knowledge of the contract. Votto's deal will take effect after the final two years on his current three-year, $38 million deal expire. He'll make $9.5 million this season and $17 million in 2014.

German soldiers stand on the tarmac with their backpacks facing a Transall military supply aircraft at the NATO air base in Hohn, Germany, in September 2014. (Daniel Reinhardt/European Pressphoto Agency) When President Trump says America's European allies should boost their militaries, he means they should increase their respective domestic defense budgets. But that's not how Europeans understand the idea of boosting military capability — a difference that could shape the transatlantic defense debate significantly over the next years. European defense officials consider something else far more important than increasing spending: making their armies more efficient. European officials will point out that some nations with high military spending, like Greece, nevertheless lag behind when it comes to the operational capabilities of their armies. And multinational military units, financed by several countries, are increasingly seen as a way to increase the efficiency of Europe's militaries at low cost. A Dutch-German multinational brigade has already existed for decades. Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland recently established a joint army unit, while Norway, Romania and the Czech Republic have announced plans to deep military cooperation. And just this week, Germany and France announced plans to establish a joint fleet of 12 military transport planes. All of this indicates how European militaries could change over the next years. Joint military units are supposed to solve a problem that has worried defense officials for years. By financing 28 different national armies, they say, E.U. member states waste too much money on investments that could theoretically be shared among countries. For example, France and Germany might be better off sharing 15 new helicopters rather than each fielding 10 obsolete ones. Supporters of joint units say the end goal is not to create one unified European army. “There won't be a European Army anytime soon, if ever,” said Marcel Dirsus, a German security politics scholar. “Foreign and defense policy are at the core of national sovereignty [and] European states often disagree vehemently when it comes to the use of force. The Iraq War is an obvious example. What would a European Army do if some countries want to use force and others do not?” A U.S. soldier watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad in April 2003. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters) The war in Iraq strengthened disarmament supporters in Europe, but more recent conflicts have weakened their influence again. The NATO air campaign in Libya in 2011 and France's intervention in Mali in 2013 made Europeans realize the extent to which they rely on private contractors or the air forces of other countries, especially the United States. “It was a wake up call which resulted in an agreement that more should be done on a European level,” said Martin Michelot, a French defense expert with the German Marshall Fund. Britain's decision to leave the European Union also helped those who have long demanded stronger military collaboration in Europe. The United Kingdom had opposed closer military ties over fears it would lose control of its own army, which is one of Europe's largest. Following the Brexit vote, the European Union announced the establishment of a joint center that coordinates European military training missions in Africa and elsewhere. But will more efficient European militaries satisfy President Trump? Maybe not, and some countries — especially in Eastern Europe — argue the continent should prepare for a scenario in which many nations will be forced to almost double their defense spending in less than a decade. All NATO members have committed to spend 2 percent of their respective GDPs on defense by 2024, but it is likely that many nations won't be able to meet that target. Even if they were to increase their budgets only slightly, major revisions in the European defense industry would be necessary. European defense companies are not equipped to suddenly increase production of tanks, helicopters or planes, meaning that American companies would likely benefit most from any increases in European defense spending.

China has screened the original Star Wars movies for the first time almost four decades after George Lucas’s space opera helped usher in the Hollywood blockbuster era. Star Wars, from 1977, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) all got an outing on 14 June, with an official Shanghai international film festival screening of the first film in the series taking place on 16 June. Reaction was mixed, with local Disney reps citing “huge buzz and excitement” from filmgoers in the world’s most populous nation, but some viewers complaining that the original movie was not, in fact, much cop. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Watch the original’s trailer – video “The visual effects are amazing for 1977,” wrote filmgoer Xiaosi Buxiang on the Chinese website Douban. “But the character design is weak, the leading actress is not beautiful, the leading actor is not handsome and action scenes are like children fighting.” Overall, the film picked up a rating of 8.3 out of 10 from viewers, as well as more than 35,000 comments. Another user, posting as T-maxdo, suggested the film should be viewed through a “comparative perspective”, writing: “In 1977, the United States already had such stunning imaginative creativity and movie special effects, while China had just ended the cultural revolution period and its people had just emerged from a dark era.” Hollywood films were rarely shown in the country in the 1970s, when mainly Chinese-produced movies were sanctioned for public screening. The number of screens on which to project them was also small – as recently as 2002, China had only 1,300 cinemas. There are now at least 10 times that figure, and China is on course to overtake the US as the world’s largest box office before 2020. That transformation has come about in part through a huge program of cinema building and following the introduction of an annual quota system allowing foreign films to be shown. In 2013, this was increased from 20 to 34. At the 16 June screening of Star Wars at a central Shanghai cinema, John Williams’s famous theme played in the lobby and fans wearing C-3PO and stormtrooper-adorned clothing flooded into an almost sold-out show. Many had already seen the movies via illegal download, while others were more familiar with Lucas’s later, oft-derided prequel trilogy, but all were keen to see the older film on the big screen. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Watch the trailer for the new episode – video Star Wars: Chewbacca's script shows Han shot first Read more “This will be the first-ever theatrical screening of the original trilogy in China,” Disney China’s Kerwin Lo told AFP before the screenings. “The huge buzz and excitement generated is going to be great for the Star Wars franchise and the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” It was not clear whether the festival screened the original, CGI-less versions of Lucas’s movies or the much-criticised 1997 Special Editions. Nor at this stage was it therefore obvious whether in China, Harrison Ford’s Han Solo shot bounty hunter Greedo first.

The_Fragger 3rd Party Developer Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Bavaria Posts: 644 Christmas Update 24.12.2015 Dear flightsimmers, The Year 2015 is about to call its final days and christmas is ringing its bells and in the radios we all here christmas songs setting us into the tone of our beloved family parties. As we promised we would also share news for the year 2015 one last time. A lot of different events were taking place the last few weeks. DCS 2.0 finally made it to our home computers and a long awaited Nevada map was released. Also on the Polychop Simulations front some little and bigger updates can be announced. First we like to announce a new team member, Bryan D,(ED Username Poly_B) who joined our team in November 2015. In addition to the announcement of the new team member we also want to share the name of the project that Bryan is taking care of. Junkers Ju87 D-5/G-2 are the planes that Bryan is working on. As a former military aircraft and helicopter technician he knows most of the important parts of a plane by heart. Due to the nature that Bryan is influenced by the love of WW2 fighter planes he asked if we would support the idea of developing a German ww2 plane, which is in his case the JU87 Stuka. At the beginning of December the first polygons started to shape in virtual space and the plane is coming along quite well. We hope to provide you screenshots of the Stuka during the next few months. We assume first take off for internal testings in 2016, which is as always subject to change, so we do not want to make promises on that specific timetable at all at the moment. Further we want to thank our new testers a lot too and would like to announce thier names to make it official. New testers are 229th Gunfightersix, 229th Xtra and Larry. All of them are real helicopter pilots and blend into our testing policy, which will significantly change in 2016 as we figured some issues how to handle the amount of testers in a good way and so we decided to come up with a new structure of our testing team, which is more important for our testers. What we will come up with is the idea of a lead tester who will stay in touch with the testers and who will give the feedback directly to our Lead programmer. We as Polychop Simulations team also want to thank all the french pilots and mechanics in particular. Without their help the gazelle would have not been developed to the point where it is right now. We can not share their names as they asked us not to. Due to the fact that we highly respect their wish, we only want to share that in total we have 5 Gazelle pilots and 6 mechanics that helped working out the system in a digital version from the beginning on. As consequence of the above mentioned we want to share with you the current state of the SA342M Gazelle. - We are animating the pilots - We are separating commands so available commands are specific or common to Copilot or Pilot positions - We are preparing the module for Multicrew in multiplayer - We are preparing the module to be protected by Starforce - The module is constantly improved in all aspects, systems, animations, UI pictures etc ... - The writing of the flight manual has been started and in progress - The french campaign is complete and ready to fly - The english campaign voicing is in progress - French and english training missions are done - Additional single player and multiplayer missions are in the work We also have a certain plan for the update for the gun, rocket pods and the mistral but that is part of the future plan for the 2nd half of 2016. We are willing to announce an approximate release date for the SA342m Gazelle Viviane HOT, which we plan for the first quarter of 2016, if all goes well now and planned. About the multicrew, it is most likely that it will be incorporated later in an update, as we have preplanned and most parts are prepared for such a code change, which will be delivered by ED hopefully soon. Let us now take a look at our 2nd helicopter that is developing well. The 2D and 3D work of the BO105PAH1 is finished and the PAH1 (german) made it into the programming phase and finally Pat can start to bring it to life step by step. We plan to intergrate the MEDUSA calculation system the first time with the BO105PAH1 which will run through integration tests later this year after the release of the SA342M and as soon TOWSIM has finished last code lines of the calculation tool. In short again about the MEDUSA system it includes the flightmodel configurations for all types of helicopters, which includes, configuration of the bladecount of main and tail rotor, weight of the helicopter, RPM, measurments of the airframe and various other factors that are vital for a helicopter flight. The MEDUSA system calculates the FM based on factor as stated and autorotation landings are also calculated as factor. BO105 HKP-9a (tow)/(HELITOW) The 2D/3D work of the swedish external model is also done. At the moment we are busy transforming the German cockpit into the Swedish cockpit. That process should be finished during the first quarter of 2016. Coding of the HKP-9a will follow the coding of the PAH1. We want to thank the swedish people who spend time to get us detailed pictures and informations on the swedish HKP-9a and accelerated the developing process in that case. Thank you very much! We do have some sad news though, we decided not to share much about the Tornado at the moment, as we are running through negotiations with 3 mature plane manufacturers about 3 projects. One project would line up with the Gazelle and the Bo105 and the other 2 projects are bigger projects that have an estimated developing time of 2 - 3 years minimum. What we saw during the last days though is, that our Lead 3D artist Sven started to work in his free time on a fixed wing again, and also is preparing the blueprints for our 3rd Airbus Helicopters project. which is part of the negotiations. We also communicated with ED about the plans and they are supported and welcomed by them. At the end for this christmas news we do want to to share that we are looking for programmers for the upcoming projects, as our Lead Programmer Pat will not be able to handle all the projects by himself due to the complexity and amount of the work. What we can say though is, that all the upcoming projects we are planning and negotiating behind curtains are worth to be part of and also wanted by the flightsim community. So please Pm any of us 3 team members if you are interested in working with us on the upcoming projects. Further details about that via Pm. We do wish everybody a wonderful Christmas time and a happy new year. See and read you in 2016. Cheers Your Polychop Simulations Team Attached Thumbnails 2D/3D Artist MILTECH-5 /PD BO-105 PAH1A1/VBH / HKP-9A / BO-105 CBS-5 KLH https://www.facebook.com/PolyDynamicsDCS/ Spoiler : Windows 10 (x64) 3x Corsair SSD GT 250 GB Mainboard: Asus Rampage IV Gene CPU: Intel Core I7-2600K@3.40Ghz RAM: 24 Gb Graphics: MSI GForce GTX 980 TI 4GB HOTAS Warthog Hofmann Simpad Rudders Oculus Rift / Oculus Touch Heavy Metal is the law ! Windows 10 (x64)3x Corsair SSD GT 250 GBMainboard: Asus Rampage IV GeneCPU: Intel Core I7-2600K@3.40GhzRAM: 24 GbGraphics: MSI GForce GTX 980 TI 4GBHOTAS WarthogHofmann Simpad RuddersOculus Rift / Oculus TouchHeavy Metal is the law ! __________________

For more than a decade, the Hancock Park House of Davids delighted all who drove past with its 19 little David statues, and blinded its many visitors with its glittered surfaces and awed them with its invisible furniture and baffled them with its enormous chairs. It was a tacky wonder, thanks to owner/dreamer Norwood Young, but now its just one more thing a flipper has Pottery Barned to death. Moment of silence, please. Young sold the house in April 2012 (for $1.45 million) and work had begun by summer on a pretty thorough overhaul. The exterior and interior have both been methodically drained of all flavor, and its seven bedrooms and bathrooms have been pared down to five each (the loss of the old master bath and its centerpiece gold tub is especially sad). The guesthouse has also been completely madeover in wood and glass and tile. It's just hit the market for $2.888888 million. · 304 South Muirfield Rd [Redfin] · House of Davids is For Sale For $2.4 Million, Let's Look Inside [Curbed LA] · Inside the House of Davids With Owner Norwood Young [Curbed LA]

Truthout combats corporatization by bringing you trustworthy news: click here to join the effort. Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind: Concrete Ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements and Communities Victoria Law and China Martens PM Press, 2012 $17.95 256 pages In many ways, the two kids I helped raise had great childhoods. There were four adults who loved them – a mom and stepmom, a dad and stepdad – and they were surrounded by role models who were engaged in efforts to improve their communities and world. They learned early that different people have different strengths and grew to appreciate variation in both style and substance. That said, regardless of which house they were living in on a particular day, they always bristled when they were dropped off in activist-sponsored child care or dragged to demonstrations. “It’s boring,” they’d whine. “There’s nothing for us to do.” More often than not, they were right. Activist mothers Victoria Law and China Martens have compiled an anthology aimed at changing this. Fifty-one essays offer practical ideas – outlining specific ways to integrate kids into conferences, rallies and meetings and ensure that babies and toddlers are well tended. The goal? To enable exhausted parents and caregivers to participate in movements for social justice by offering concrete support to them and their offspring. What’s more, several contributors address caring for parents and other elders and highlight how best to bolster comrades and friends when they are grieving. Furthermore, the importance of maintaining one’s own mental and physical health is spotlighted as a political imperative. As the chapters unfold, the devastation wrought by ageism, homophobia, transphobia, racism and classism is unveiled. At the same time, anthology contributors take pains to present a liberatory vision, one in which the collective good trumps individual betterment and where what goes on behind closed doors matters. Jessica Trimbath’s “The Red Crayon” is a case in point. A stark look at the intersection of race, class and gender, she brings readers into the waiting room of Novum Pharmaceutical Research, where a small band of women, some with kids in tow, sit and wait. All are eager to participate in a paid study of Levonorgestrel/ethinyl estradiol and pooh-pooh possible side effects such as breast tenderness and vomiting, anxiety and blood clots. After all, it sounds like easy money. Trimbath’s description of the place is unsettling: “The tension in the waiting room rises as the kids get more bored and mothers get angrier,” she writes. “Last time I was here, a mother hit her son in the face and I stood up and started yelling, telling her I was going to call the police. I threw down the words child abuse and she threw down white bitch and we stood there screaming at each other, both of us tired and triggered, two adult children, survivors of abuse and addiction.” This particular story has a relatively happy ending; the two women eventually make nice and a truce is called. Yet the bigger question remains: how can we support one another in meaningful ways while simultaneously meeting the social, emotional and material needs of our children? Mariah Boone’s “Lactivists Do It Better: What Radical Parents’ Allies Can Learn from La Leche League International” presents a standard that should be sacrosanct: “No one takes any activist less seriously because she has a child on her lap at a La Leche League conference and there are always willing arms to pass children among whenever they are needed,” she writes. “Marches and events are planned under the assumption that children of various ages will be involved and all activities take into account the needs of mothers and children.” Needs, of course, are always diverse, but planners of the 2009 City From Below conference in Baltimore are celebrated for their attempt to meet them. According to writers Sine Hwang Jensen, Harriet Moon Smith and China Martens, the confab initiated something called Kidz City. Far beyond a narrow conception of child care, Kidz City boasted volunteers who ran fun workshops and activities specifically for youth, teaching them about composting, seed-bombing the neighborhood, and later engaging in banner- and sign-painting. In addition, a workshop called Genderful World encouraged the kids to dress wildly, wearing clothes picked from a costume box. Some of these activities were conjured up by Britain’s four-year-old Child Rearing Against Patriarchy Collective (yes, they go by the unfortunate acronym, CRAP), a group that provides care and offers hands-on advice for those wishing to make activism more family-friendly. Their chapter in the book gives instructions to anyone wishing to participate in a Kids or Family Bloc at a demonstration, march or rally. Start planning early, they begin. “Give yourself plenty of time to get to meeting points and allow for nappy changes, nose bleeds, tantrums, and all the weird and wonderful things that go with bringing children anywhere.” Then, once at the event site, find the person who is responsible for providing first aid. Also find the Kids Bloc representative who will serve as the liaison for transmission of any crucial information. If you want to protect yourself or your children from photographers, they continue, use masks or face paint. Lastly, organizers are told to compile a list with the names and phone numbers of each child and his or her caregiver/s, plus info on allergies, medications and other health data that might be relevant. Lastly, they urge organizers to create a mechanism for post-event feedback. As for meetings and conferences, the CRAP Collective makes clear that: “child and family provision should not be an afterthought but an integral part of every event. Ask non-parents to provide a kids’ version of the adult workshops so that the younger generation feels involved and respected for their participation.” An example: a climate change workshop geared to elementary school kids that sensitizes them to global warming and leads to collaboration between adults and children. Similar to CRAP’s anarcho-feminist model, Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind zeroes in on Mexico’s Zapatistas and heralds the way they integrate children into daily activities. At meetings and conferences, Victoria Law writes, “babies sometimes cry, but no one takes much notice and, unlike meetings and events in the north, no one dares suggest that the mothers leave…. The Zapatistas incorporate their children into the struggle, teaching not only with stories and words, but also by example.” Other contributors to the anthology chime in to add a host of divergent perspectives on what is needed to make activism possible. Among them are Clayton Dewey’s “Babyproofing for Punks,” which addresses the need for safety and hygiene in places the child may visit. Mikaela Shafer suggests ways to support parents who are in mourning for a child who has passed away, and Amariah Love offers tips on organizing a local child care collective to work at events coordinated by progressive groups. Jennifer Silverman’s jolting piece describes ways to deal with kids with special needs, and reminds us that “17 percent of children [in the United States] have a developmental or behavioral disability including autism, mental retardation, or ADHD as well as delays in language or other areas.” All told, the collection is stimulating, and whether we are parents, eldercare providers, or simply concerned human beings, inclusivity – not leaving anyone behind – is key to making the changes we wish to see. After all, if another world is possible, doesn’t it have to include the young, the old and the in between – whether able-bodied or not?

For other uses, see Mission Earth Mission Earth volume 1: The Invaders Plan Cover ofvolume 1: Mission Earth is a ten-volume science fiction novel series by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. Hubbard died three months after the publication of volume 1, and other volumes were published posthumously. The series' initial publisher, Bridge Publications coined the word dekalogy, meaning "a series of ten books", to describe and promote the novel. Made up of about 1.2 million words, the epic is a "satirical science fiction adventure set in the far future." Each volume in the series topped numerous bestseller lists.[1] The second volume, Black Genesis, was nominated for the 1987 Hugo Award in the Best Novel category.[2] Plot [ edit ] The Voltars want to conquer the planet Earth as a base for their planned invasion of the galactic centre. The Voltars are convinced that Earth is about to destroy itself through pollution and possibly war, which would disrupt the future timetable of conquest. Fleet Combat Engineer Jettero Heller, a character of perfection, incorruptibility, and astonishing ability, is assigned to prevent the destruction of Earth. Reaching New York City, he investigates the problem, unaware that he is being tracked and that factions on Voltar want his mission to fail. Unknown to Heller, Earth is also the base of a secret operation conducted by the diabolically evil Lombar Hisst, Commander of the Apparatus, who seeks to usurp the Voltar throne. To gain control, Hisst has been importing illegal narcotic drugs from Earth to enslave the heads of government on Voltar. Hisst works to make Heller fail in his mission. Hisst assigns a stooge named Soltan Gris to supervise the mission to Earth, in order to sabotage it. Gris finds himself in possession of twelve tons of pure gold, which he tries to launder through a Swiss bank account and keep for himself; he becomes a prisoner of two man-hating lesbians who end up marrying him, but not before various tortures are inflicted upon him. He has terrible money and girlfriend troubles, and he hires a hit man who eventually targets him. Heller discovers a conspiracy headed by Delbert John Rockecenter who keeps the population of Earth sedated with drugs and rock and roll music. Heller's attempts to break the demonic control of Earth by Rockecenter make him a target, and the corporation uses its most dangerous weapons to destroy him: psychiatry and psychology, and a mad, idealistic public relations genius by the name of J. Walter Madison. Madison initiates a wide-reaching public relations campaign to make Heller known to the world as the "Whiz Kid", but results in destroying Heller's reputation so that all of Heller's efforts to save the planet come to naught, as Madison's employer, Rockecenter, wanted. Heller's outstanding skills and abilities are reinforced by the arrival on Earth of his fiancée, the Countess Krak, and the alliance and friendship of the Mafia—specifically the Corleone family. After a series of world-shattering events, which include the impact of an ice meteor on the Soviet Union, the world's entire oil supply being turned radioactive, and a black hole orbiting the Earth, Heller returns to Voltar to find that not only have Hisst's plans to enslave the government nearly succeeded, but Madison is starting a galactic civil war. After the defeat of Hisst and Madison, a massive cover-up operation commences to wipe out the effects of PR, psychology and psychiatry. All mention of these subjects is censored and the planet Earth is eradicated from all star charts and similar items. As far as the Voltarans are concerned, planet Earth no longer exists. Volumes [ edit ] Page counts are from hardcover editions, and total 3992 pages. Public reaction [ edit ] Critical response [ edit ] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes the series "whose farcical overemphases fail to disguise an overblown tale that would have been more at home in the dawn of pulp magazines." More forgiving literary critics usually cite Battlefield Earth as Hubbard's best work of the later years of his life (i.e., better than Battlefield Earth, his only other later published work of fiction). The books, however, do carry dozens of blurbs of praise from some newspapers and well known sci-fi authors, such as Orson Scott Card and A. E. van Vogt. The New York Times review of the first volume, The Invaders' Plan, describes it thus: "... a paralyzingly slow-moving adventure enlivened by interludes of kinky sex, sendups of effeminate homosexuals and a disregard of conventional grammar so global as to suggest a satire on the possibility of communication through language."[3] In L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, a survey of Hubbard's literary career, Marco Frenschkowski of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz described the Mission Earth series:[4] The satire is not humorous, but biting and harsh, which makes the novels not easy to read. Also Hubbard somehow had lost contact with developing narrative techniques: he writes exactly as he had done 40 years earlier. When read as entertainment Mission Earth is disappointing: it does not entertain. Many of the scenes (especially some sexual encounters) are incredibly grotesque, not in a pornographic sense, but they are violently aggressive about modern American ideals. The Mission Earth novels on the whole are a subversive, harsh, poignant attack on American society in the 1980s. As such they have so far received almost no attention, which perhaps they do deserve a bit more. They also have some quite interesting characters, especially when read with a deconstructionist approach. These 11 later novels by Hubbard are not Scientology propaganda literature, but have some topics in common, especially the very strong opposition against 20th century psychology and psychiatry, which is seen as a major source of evil. All open allusions to Scientology are strictly avoided. They are not as successful in their use of suspense and humour as Hubbard's early tales, but have to say perhaps more about the complex personality of their author. Censorship attempt [ edit ] In 1991, the town of Dalton, Georgia attempted to remove the Mission Earth books from its public library, citing what was described as "repeated passages involving chronic masochism, child abuse, homosexuality, necromancy, bloody murder, and other things that are anti-social, perverted, and anti-everything." The attempt was unsuccessful, though this placed the Mission Earth series into the category of banned books that have been challenged in the United States.[5] Sales controversy [ edit ] The Mission Earth books were a major sales success, particularly the earlier volumes in the series, with all individual volumes reaching the New York Times bestseller list.[6] The extent to which this reflects actual popularity is strongly questioned.[7] A large number of booksellers, publishing executives, and former Scientologists state that, as with other Hubbard books, the Church of Scientology engaged in a massive book-buying campaign, similar to the campaign to promote Battlefield Earth, so as to deliberately inflate sales of the series in order to promote it as a best-selling work of literature.[7] Stories of the books being sent to stores bearing other stores' price tags circulated throughout the science fiction fan community. In a two-year span, Hubbard logged 14 consecutive books on the New York Times list. Adam Clymer, a New York Times executive, said that, while the books have been sold in sufficient numbers to justify their bestseller status, "we don't know to whom they were sold." He said the newspaper uncovered no instances in which vast quantities of books were being sold to single individuals.[7] Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ]

Time by Jill Lawless / AP British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks after returning from Buckingham Palace outside 10 Downing Street on June 9, 2017 in London, England © Karwai Tang—Getty Images (LONDON) – Embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed ministers to her shaky government Sunday, as some Conservative colleagues rallied to support her – and others said her days were numbered after last week’s disastrous election. May is seeking a deal with a Northern Irish party to prop up the Conservative minority government, and lawmakers said the rebuff from voters meant the government would have to abandon planned policies and re-think its strategy for European Union exit talks. A stream of senior lawmakers entered her office at 10 Downing St. on Sunday afternoon, to learn what roles they had been given in government. May’s weakened position in the party rules out big changes to the Cabinet lineup. Downing St. has already said that the most senior ministers – including Treasury chief Philip Hammond, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Amber Rudd – will keep their jobs. As rumors swirled about plots to oust May, Johnson denied he was planning a leadership challenge. He tweeted that an article in the Mail on Sunday newspaper headlined “Boris set to launch bid to be PM as May clings on” was “tripe.” “I am backing Theresa May. Let’s get on with the job,” he said. The Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority in Thursday’s election – a vote May called in a bid to strengthen her mandate ahead of exit talks with the EU. Instead, she has left Britain’s government ranks in disarray, days before the divorce negotiations are due to start on June 19. May’s party won 318 seats, 12 fewer than it had before the snap election, and eight short of the 326 needed for an outright majority. Labour surpassed expectations by winning 262. Former Treasury chief George Osborne – who was fired by May last year – called May a “dead woman walking,” and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was ready to contest another election at any time. Many senior Conservatives say May should stay, for now, to provide stability. But few believe she can hang on for more than a few months. “I think her position is, in the long term, untenable,” Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry told Sky News. But Graham Brady, who chairs the influential 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative lawmakers, said a “self-indulgent” party leadership campaign would only cause more uncertainty. He acknowledged that the government would be unable to get many of the measures promised in its election platform through Parliament. May called the election to win explicit backing for her stance on Brexit, which involves leaving the EU’s single market and imposing restrictions on immigration while trying to negotiate free trade deal with the bloc. Some say her failure means the government must now take a more flexible approach to the divorce, potentially softening the exit terms. Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, who took the party from one Scottish seat to 13, said there would now have to be “consensus within the country about what it means and what we seek to achieve as we leave.” To stay in power, the Conservatives are seeking support from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party. May’s office said Saturday principles of an agreement had been reached, but the two sides later clarified that they are still talking. “We have made good progress but the discussions continue,” DUP leader Arlene Foster said. Downing Street said it hopes to finalize the deal next week, after Parliament resumes sitting. The two sides are looking to form a “confidence and supply” arrangement. That means the DUP would back the government on confidence motions and budget votes, but it’s not a coalition government or a broader pact. The alliance makes some modernizing Conservatives uneasy. The DUP is a socially conservative group that opposes abortion and same-sex marriage and had links to Protestant paramilitary groups during Ireland’s sectarian “Troubles.” Conservative lawmaker Nicky Morgan told ITV that she could support a confidence and supply arrangement with the DUP, but any closer deal would be “a step too far.” A deal between the government and the DUP could also unsettle the precarious balance between Northern Ireland’s British loyalist and Irish nationalist parties, whose power-sharing administration in Belfast collapsed earlier this year. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny tweeted Sunday that he had spoken with May “and indicated my concern that nothing should happen to put (the Good Friday Agreement) at risk.” The 1998 Good Friday agreement set up power sharing in Northern Ireland, largely ending years of sectarian violence. The British government doesn’t have long to ink a deal. It is due to present its platform for the next session in the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament on June 19. The speech will be followed by several days of debate and a vote. By tradition, defeat on a Queen’s Speech vote topples the government. Corbyn said Labour would try to amend the Queen’s Speech to include its own commitments to end austerity and boost public spending. Without the amendments, he said Labour would try to vote down the speech. “I don’t think Theresa May and this government have any credibility,” Corbyn told the Sunday Mirror, predicting that there could be another election within months. “I can still be prime minister,” Corbyn said. “This is still on.” See Corbin “I can still be prime minister.” http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/jeremy-corbyn-insists-he-can-still-be-pm-and-vows-to-fight-theresa-may-all-the-way-a3562121.html

True, muscle consumes around three times as much energy as fat, but the cells of our other organs are even hungrier. Fat people have larger organs and more cells overall to keep running, compared with their slim counterparts. This means that their overall energy consumption – or their resting metabolic rate – is larger. Source: Journal of Nutritional Sciences Are you an apple, who carries weight around their tummy, or a pear, who loads it onto their bottoms, hips and thighs? In the past, “apples” were generally considered at higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, because their abdominal fat secretes chemicals that boost inflammation, raise blood pressure and cause insulin resistance. In contrast, the fat that sits on your buttocks was thought to be relatively benign, but recent research from the University of California at Davis suggests that this so-called "gluteal" fat also releases these harmful substances. In other words, whatever your body shape, too much excess fat could be bad news. Source: University of California, Davis Although many women like to think of themselves as “hourglass-shaped” (or a pear with a couple of apples on top) 3D body-scanners tell a different story. When Manchester-based researchers used these machines to scan 240 British women, they found that 63% of them had similar bust, waist and shoulder measurements, and little waist to speak of – making them “rectangle-shaped”. Only 13% were an “hourglass”; the rest were “pears” (8%); “spoons” (a top-heavy hourglass shape) (7%); “inverted triangles” (6%), and “triangles” (3%). Women also become more rectangular as they age: 80% of women over the age of 56 fell into this category. Source: Manchester Metropolitan University Though “man boobs” – aka gynaecomastia – often go hand in hand with a beer belly and a double chin, they're not as flabby as they look. In fact, in most cases they are caused by the growth of breast tissue. Overweight men sometimes develop them because fat cells produce the female hormone, oestrogen, which stimulates breast growth. And while testosterone would usually inhibit such growth, levels of testosterone decline as men age. Source: UK National Health Service When Turkish researchers surveyed 200 men, they found that those with a higher BMI and an obvious belly lasted an average 7.3 minutes in bed; men in the slimmer group lasted just 2 minutes, and were more likely to suffer from premature ejaculation. The reason is probably reduced testosterone, which often goes hand in hand with obesity. However, while large men may last longer, they may struggle to get it up in the first place: being overweight is also associated with erectile dysfunction. Source: International Journal of Impotence Research Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Instagram.

​Liverpool's on-loan Fenerbache winger Lazar Markovic has hinted at a permanent move to the Turkish club in the summer, but will not make a decision over his future until then. He told ​AMK Spor that he is open to the possibility of staying with the club and is not ruling anything out. "If I can stay at Fenerbahce, why not?" He said. "I (will) think in dealing with this issue. Let's come together (and decide)." Markovic was signed by Brendan Rodgers as part of a mass £100m spending spree following Luis Suarez's transfer to Barcelona. He scored twice last season, although he was in and out of Rodgers' first team. He is only 21 and still has time to prove his worth at Anfield and live up to his hefty £20m fee. With already eight appearances for Fenerbache so far, the Serbian could be persuaded to continue his promising career in Turkey. Current Reds boss Jurgen Klopp revealed he will be keeping an eye on him amongst other loanees, but it remains to be seen whether or not he will fit into his plans for next season, with many changes to the club expected.

A CAMPAIGNING Bolton MP has slammed the government after new figures showed the Tories are spending six times more on transport projects in London than in the North West. The Institute Public Policy Research (IPPR) reported that over the next five years the Conservative government will spend £290 per person on transport for Bolton. This figure pales in comparison to the £1,870 that London will be given per person for the same period. The total amount of spending for Northern transport is half the amount allotted to London’s Crossrail project. Mr Crausby, MP for Bolton North East, condemned the government’s decision as ‘a slap in the face’. He said: “Areas like Bolton need huge investment in public transport and the government should be investing in our future.” Mr Crausby has often championed the need for more investment in Bolton’s transport system. He also previously criticised the state of overcrowding on Bolton’s trains, denouncing attempts by former Prime Minister David Cameron to solve the issue as ‘broken promises’. Ed Cox, Director of IPPR North, urged the new Secretary of State to adapt a ‘North First’ approach, committing ‘£50 billion’ to ‘both road and rail priorities in the North’. Mr Cox’s proposal is supported by the IPPR North’s statement that the North’s ‘£300bn economy is worth more than those of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.’ Mr Crausby shared the point of view proposed by IPPR, saying that for the North West’s economy to flower, it will ‘need the infrastructure in place.’ Two years ago, Bolton News launched the ‘Let’s Get Back on Track’ campaign, in response to the frustration of local commuters to cuts to Bolton railway, which was already in deemed to be in a dire state. Faced by the figures produced by IPPR, Mr Crausby argued that Bolton’s transport needs are yet to be heard by Westminster. He said the regional differences in transport investment did ‘reflect a problem between Westminster and the North.’ He added: “I think that nothing sums up the Northern powerhouse better than investment in Northern Transport. “The current government’s behaviour towards northern transport is worrying and they don’t seem to be listening.”

Brazile merely the tipster...Clinton the true cheater in debate Donna Brazile is all over the news right now and the villain of the day on most conservative websites for her role in obtaining presidential debate questions in advance and then providing them to the Clinton campaign ahead of the actual televised event. There is much outrage over her clearly dishonest and unethical behavior, with her laughable denial captured on FOX News, looking full face into the camera and lying as only a Democrat pol can when confronted with the hard evidence. Even the leftist media is seeking a bit of separation from this obvious cheater, as CNN has fired her as an on-air contributor. But all this outrage is misdirected; Brazile merely provided the heads-up, very detailed for sure, as she not only gave the Clinton campaign the word-for-word question about a very emotional public issue – contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan – but also provided a physical description of the female questioner so there could be no mistaking when and where the stolen response needed to be used. Brazile even noted that the questioner had a rash from her public water contamination. As you could expect, armed with all that forbidden information, Clinton managed to be right on top of this emotional public issue during the debate, demonstrating how she's a thoroughly prepared leader for America, right? Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! What this now exposed situation makes abundantly clear is that this contemptible woman, her loathsome campaign staff, and the despicable Democratic Party leadership, when offered the chance to cheat, even with tens of millions of Americans watching, had no reluctance to do so. Hillary Clinton went out there on that debate stage forearmed with at least one answer that we know of (and who knows how many others?), looked straight into those cameras just like dishonest Donna Brazile, and cheated before the entire world. And this is the person the Democratic Party offers to America to be entrusted with our futures and our nation with all our national wealth? Crooked Hillary, indeed...and she infects all those around her.

Ok, let's get a few things out of the way right off the bat: 'E.D.M.' and 'Crest Factor' are likely to be viewed as contentious terms, so let me tell you exactly what I mean by them. *E.D.M. Electronic. Dance. Music. That's how simple that explanation should have to be, but let me elaborate a bit, just in case. What I don't mean is the wave of vaguely electro-house tinged, big-room, festival music that recently swept North America. What I do mean is music, made via electronic means, with the intent of people dancing to it. This covers everything from house, techno, and trance to drum n' bass, dubstep, hip-hop and beyond (including all the myriad sub-genres). Basically, anything meant to get bodies moving in a bar, club, warehouse, field, parking lot, stadium, etc. **Crest Factor. Ok, to be fair, unless you're Paul Frindle you're probably not going to call me out on this, but I have a great deal of respect for Paul, so let me clarify. What I'm getting at is the difference, in dB, between the peak and average levels of your music. This is called many things: peak to average ratio, peak to loudness ratio (PLR), peak to short-term loudness ratio (PSR), micro-dynamics (or just dynamics), dynamic range (DR), crest factor, and probably a few others I'm forgetting. All these terms have slightly different technical (or non-technical) definitions, but point at the same concept. Ok, good. Now that that's out of the way let me explain to you why, in my humble opinion, we should all be mixing and mastering our electronically-composed-and-produced-music-which-we-hope-people-will-dance-to (E.D.M.) with a higher peak to average ratio (or crest factor, or ...whatever...) The Loudness Thing Oh man, where to even start with this. The whole loudness thing is such a red herring, but unfortunately without a little background it's easy to get swept up by many of the claims about why intrinsic loudness is necessary. Stop me when you've heard (or maybe even made) one of the following arguments: "It needs to be loud so that it will bump in the club", "It needs to be loud so that it sounds as good as all the other big-name E.D.M. tracks it gets played back to back with", "It needs to be loud because that's just part of the sound of E.D.M.". Et cetera. Et cetera. Two of these are relatively easy to address, while one definitely benefits from some slightly more in-depth understanding. Let me address the easier ones first. that's just part of the sound of E.D.M. I'm calling bull$h!t on this one. There is so much E.D.M. out there that boldly contradicts this. "Like what", you ask? Oh, I don't know, how about anything that has ever been pressed to vinyl? Remember, for a long time vinyl was one of the dominant ways E.D.M. was played, and I've heard more than one vinyl mastering engineer say that E.D.M. was largely responsible for keeping vinyl alive during the heyday of the CD. Need more examples? How about a good deal of both deadmau5 and Daft Punk's discographies, or the new Plastikman album EX. The list goes on. it needs to compete with all the other big-name E.D.M. tracks You do realize that no matter how you DJ, you have gain control over individual songs, right? If you're totally in-the-box (e.g. Ableton, Traktor without a mixer, etc.) this may mean turning the louder songs down a bit. Trust me, as long as you're not coming out of the headphone jack on your laptop the sound guy can make everything plenty loud (more on this later). If you are coming out of the headphone jack, well, maybe it's time to get a modestly priced interface. If you're using Traktor, Serato, CDJs, etc. with an external mixer, you have both the input gain and channel fader to balance the loudness of the tracks you're playing. If you're not doing that, then you've got a few more things to learn about DJing. It needs to bump in the club Ok, this is where a little background information comes in really handy. I get it. You're worried that if it doesn't sound loud enough at a normal playback volume on your regular home monitors, or maybe even your laptop or phone (*cringe*), it won't be loud enough in the club. Here's the thing. The amount of power that's being used for amplification is drastically different. Think about it: a live PA system, like the ones used in most bars and clubs (never mind the huge line arrays used for festival stages), has to have enough power to make even the most dynamic material playback at a reasonable listening volume for the venue. So what is that 'most dynamic material' that needs to be supported? A live band! A live mix of a band with drums, bass, a few guitars, keyboards, and vocals can easily have a crest factor of 14-16 dB, if not more. This is why most live consoles have at least 18 dB of headroom over 0 VU. The live sound engineer (aka FOH engineer) will mix with a target average level of around 0 VU (+4 dBu), if not a bit lower, and have the amplification system set up so that it produces the desired loudness when it receives average levels in that range. The amplification system will also be designed with enough headroom so that when it receives high peak levels from things like kick drums, bass slaps, loud vocal phrases, etc. it can pump them out without being driven into clipping. So what does all this mean for you in E.D.M. land? It means that if your track has been mastered with an RMS level of about -4 dBFS (frighteningly common), your interface is calibrated with +4 dBu equal to -18 dBFS (also common, not necessarily frightening), and your output isn't attenuated at all (it probably isn't), the FOH engineer will turn you down by about 14 dB. Now your peaks are at +8 dBu in a system that can handle peaks of at least +22 dBu (likely closer to +25 or +27 dBu), meaning there's at least 14 dB of completely unused headroom.

Autopsy shows St. Louis teenager Vonderrit Myers was gunned down by police while fleeing By Thomas Gaist 25 October 2014 The results of a private autopsy indicate that St. Louis teenager Vonderrit D. Myers, who was gunned down earlier this month by an off-duty cop, was running away when he was shot, then subsequently killed execution-style with a bullet to the head, attorneys for his family said Friday. Myers was killed on October 8, two months after the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which sparked mass protests that were met by a militarized police crackdown. Jerryl Christmas, an attorney for Myers’s family, said the findings contradicted claims by police that Myers had engaged in a shootout with the officer. “The evidence shows that the story we’ve been given by the Police Department does not match up. There’s no evidence that there was a gun battle going on,” Christmas said. Jermaine Wooten, another attorney for Myers’s family, said that according to eyewitness testimony, Myers was “screaming on the ground...begging this officer to stop.” “The officer then runs up the hill, approaches Vonderrit, and then we hear one single shot. Vonderrit is not screaming anymore,” the attorney concluded. The officer, whose name has not been made public, remains on paid administrative leave. The autopsy, conducted by renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht at the request of Myers’s family, showed that the 18-year-old, who family insists was unarmed, was shot six times in the back of his legs, once in the front of the leg, and once in the head. “Six of the eight gunshot wounds were directed posteriorly. They struck Mister Myers on the rear part of his body,” Wecht said. The numerous hits to Myers’ legs strongly suggested that the teenager was running away when the shots were fired, he added. In addition to the six shots to Myer’s back, the still-unnamed St Louis police officer fired a downward, execution-style shot to the head, which passed through the youth’s left cheek, and was lodged in his body, Wecht found. “The head wound would have rendered Vonderrit immediately unconscious,” Wecht said. Myers’ wounds indicated that the shots to his legs traveled a “significant upward direction,” Wecht said, suggesting that they were fired at the youth’s back as he ran uphill away from the officer. “With Vonderrit running up the hill away from the officer and the officer shooting then from a lower down position, that would fit in perfectly and explain how you have bullets that appear to move upward in the body,” Wecht noted. Preliminary results from a separate autopsy conducted by St Louis Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Graham similarly found that Myers “was shot six to seven times in the lower extremities, with the fatal shot entering the right cheek.” Dr. Graham is currently preparing a final report. The St Louis police department has repeatedly altered its account of events that day, eventually settling on a convoluted narrative in which Myers initially fled from the officer, then entered into a “physical confrontation” with the officer, and finally fled again up a hill before firing three shots at the officer. Seeking to square this account with the latest autopsy results, a lawyer representing the officer involved claimed that Myers was shot as he fell forward onto the ground, while pointing his weapon at the officer 180 degrees behind him. “He was propped up on his left elbow, and his legs were facing out at the policeman as he went down, but he was still holding the gun and pointing it at the policeman,” the lawyer said. To substantiate their version of events, the police are pointing to a forensic report by the Missouri State Highway Patrol asserting the presence of gunpowder residue on Myers’ body and clothing. The same report acknowledges, however, that such residue could stem from any number of causes, such as being shot at close range. “The presence of gunshot residue on a person’s hands could mean the individual discharged a firearm, was near a firearm when it was discharged or touched an object with gunshot residue on it. Individuals shot at close range can have gunshot residue deposited onto their hands,” the report states. The St. Louis police department claims to have possession of the weapon allegedly used by Myers, but has not made it available for public scrutiny. No DNA matching samples taken from Myers’s body have been found on Myers’ alleged weapon, according to comments made by St Louis Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Graham reported in the St Louis American. “If he had been carrying the gun, it would have had his DNA,” Wooten said. The shooting of Myers follows the August 20 police killing of 25-year-old Kajieme Powell, a mentally disturbed man who died in a barrage of a dozen shots from two police officers, including several while he was motionless on the ground. A cell phone video subsequently showed that police misled the public about important circumstances of the killing. Despite working as a private security contractor for Hi-Tek Security Services, the officer who killed Myers was reportedly wearing official police gear and wielding a police-issued weapon. A local store manager, who saw Myers just before the incident, described Myers as “relaxed, regular, no worries or nothing” as he walked out onto the street carrying a sandwich. Myers’ aunt and guardian similarly said that the young man had a sandwich in his hands minutes before he was shot, a claim substantiated by surveillance videos. Defending the use of an entire clip of ammunition against Myers, a lawyer for the St Louis Police Officers’ Association stated that whenever an officer uses deadly force, “he uses deadly force until the threat is gone.” Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

A stop sign bearing a humorous message was installed in 2007 in Oak Lawn, Illinois. A Florida woman crashed her car into a house July 7, 2016, when she blew through a stop sign while praying with her eyes closed. File Photo by Brian Kersey/UPI | License Photo MARY ESTHER, Fla., July 13 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida said a woman who crashed into a house after blowing through a stop sign told investigators she had been praying with her eyes closed. The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said the 28-year-old woman drove through a stop sign in Mary Esther around 10:09 p.m. July 7 and drove through the yard of a home and struck the house. The woman tried to back out, but the vehicle was stuck in the sand, the sheriff's office said. Deputies said the woman told them she had been praying with her eyes closed when she went through the stop sign and into the yard. The woman was cited for reckless driving with property damage.

Astrosat, India's first Multi-wavelength Space Observatory was successfully launched by ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle PSLV into a 650km orbit on September 28, 2015. Then began the process of putting each of the payloads into operation.The Charged Particle Monitor (CPM) was the first payload to go operational followed by the Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI), the hard X-ray detector on board Astrosat. CZTI was made fully operational on October 5, 2015. Then, on October 6, Astrosat was oriented towards Crab Nebula, remnant of the Supernova detected by Chinese astronomers in the year 1054. The Crab Nebula, which also includes the Crab Pulsar, is the brightest hard X-ray source in the sky, and is very often used to calibrate hard X-ray detectors. CZTI Detectors CZTI consists of four quadrants of 16 pixelated detectors each, achieving a total geometric area of 976 cm2. It is sensitive to X-rays above 10 keV energy. For every photon it detects, CZTI sends an event report consisting of position (pixel number, each pixel – 2.5mm X 2.5mm), time of detection (correct to 20 micro-seconds) and energy of the incident photon. The top of the CZTI is covered by a Coded Aperture Mask – a Tantalum plate with carefully placed holes – which casts a shadow on the detector when illuminated by a source. Imaging is performed by interpreting the pattern of the recorded shadow. The mask blocks nearly half the incident X-rays, so the effective area of the CZTI is about 490 cm2. The expected background rate is about 250 counts per second per quadrant; however, the observed counts exceeded it by a factor of four. This was understood to be due to multiple events recorded during Cosmic Ray interaction. A movie made out of images taken every 100 micro-second (http://astrosat.iucaa.in/czti/images/CZTI_Crab_5s.mpg) shows the fascinating kaleidoscopic picture of high energy interactions in space: looked at the fast rate of 100 micro-seconds, there won’t be any events 98% of the time (these blank images are skipped while making the movie), some are single events representing genuine X-rays, some are double events in neighbouring pixels due to Compton scattering and many are multiple particle induced events. This is the first time ever that a hard X-ray instrument acting as a particle tracker is sent to space. One of the tracks is shown in Figure 2, and it possibly represents a charge particle interaction. Figure 2: A snapshot of the locations of `events’ detected by one quadrant of CZT-Imager in a 100 micro-sec window. Each dot represents charges deposited in a 2.5 mm X 2.5 mm pixel of the detector. Vertical lines separate detector modules of size 4 cm X 4 cm (16 X 16 pixels). This particular track is most likely the result of charge particle interaction. Quick analysis software, based on the idea that genuine X-ray events would be isolated single events, was made operational to prune the data and detect the actual X-rays coming from Crab Nebula. A First look at Crab Nebula The ground support software had been reviewed at multiple levels and was ready to tackle the data immediately after the first orbit of the satellite during the Crab observations. Unfortunately, these software were tested using the benign ground data, and were ill equipped to handle the voluminous on board data. Hence, the first attempt was to just look at the Crab data in the first orbit without going into finer nuances like satellite location etc. A quick look at the first orbit image showed that Crab Nebula was not detected. Well, Crab is the brightest hard X-ray source, visible even to a small hard X-ray detector. Most likely, the data pruning was erroneous. The total X-ray counts as a function of time was looked into: they should be stable at the Astrosat orbit and must show a decrease whenever Crab goes behind the Earth, i.e. when the so called Earth occultation occurs. Count rates were steady, but there was no sign of decrease or increase in count rates throughout the orbit. A tense session of self introspection followed. Questions followed one after the other to explain the strange behaviour. Did the characteristics of the X-ray detectors change after launch ? However, the data contradicted the possibility. The multiple tracks show that they are genuine events and a careful look at the spectrum showed the characteristic X-ray lines emitted by the protective Tantalum cover at exactly the expected energy. Did the Mission Operation team make any error in orienting the satellite ? Well, CZT-Imager has a wide field of view and it is too embarrassing to even pose the question whether they made such a large mistake in pointing. Being Science, and not magic, an explanation would be there for this behaviour and the only way to reach at it was by systematically analysing the data at hand. Crab Nebula was Captured Crab Nebula was detected on Oct 9, 2015, observed parallely by both Mission Operation Centre at Peenya, Bengaluru and Payload Operation Centre, IUCAA, Pune. During the first orbit, there was a difficulty in detecting this Crab Nebula as the satellite happened to pass through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region when Crab was in the field of view. SAA avoidance zone was deliberately kept wide to protect the instruments, and detectors were switched OFF in this interval during the initial days of Astrosat operation. When all the data were systematically analysed and data were selected based on the availability of Crab in the detector field of view, one could see the Crab emerging from Earth's shadow (Fig 3). The image generated by deconvolving the coded mask shadows accumulated during this interval clearly shows Crab as a bright object near the centre (Fig 4). Figure 3: X-ray counts from each detector module of one quadrant of CZTI are plotted as a function of time. The counts (about 9 counts per detector or about 150 counts per quadrant) when the Earth was blocking Crab almost doubled when Crab emerged from the Earth shadow. The unfiltered raw count rate was about 1300 per second per quadrant. Figure4: Image of Crab Nebula in hard X-rays above 25 keV. The bright spot near the centre indicates Crab. The effective imaging resolution here is about 10 arcmin. The faint patches outside are `side-lobes’ of the imaging process and they will be suppressed significantly when data from all quadrants are analysed simultaneously, which will also improve the image resolution to better than 8 arcmin. Further Work In the first week of CZTI operation, Crab Nebula was stared at continuously and was also viewed at different angles to firm up the imaging ability of the instrument. The Crab Nebula was also made to bombard the instrument at several large off-axis angles so that CZTI characteristics as a hard X-ray wide angle monitor can be quantified. The black hole source Cygnus X-1 was also observed for two days. In the initial operation, the low energy threshold of CZTI was kept at 20 keV (to be brought down carefully to the design goal of 10 keV in due course) and to provide simultaneous low energy data, the Swift satellite of NASA made the following observations: Crab: Oct 6 21:51:00 to 22:12:00 UT Cyg X-1: Oct 7 14:55:00 to 15:15:00 UT One of the fascinating science objectives is to understand the accretion disk geometry in a black hole sources like Cygnus X-1. The NuSTAR satellite of NASA is operating for the last 3 years and it has the best spectroscopic sensitivity in the 10 – 80 keV region. A simultaneous observation has been made with NuSTAR (Oct 7 15:40:08 UT to Oct 8 02:25:00 UT) to observe the time dependent spectral characteristics: it will help us in understanding the instrument systematics in the 10 – 80 keV region; CZTI will provide best spectroscopic data in 70 keV – 300 keV region (by utilising Compton scattered double events) and a joint analysis with NuSTAR will provide unprecedented wide band spectroscopic data on this source. CZTI has polarisation sensitivity in the 100 – 300 keV region and the best hard X-ray polarisation measurement of Crab till date has been provided by the Integral satellite of ESA. Integral is observing Crab simultaneously with CZTI and hopefully, we will have a refined polarisation measurement of Crab, as a function of its rotation period. What Next? In the next few weeks, other X-ray instruments of Astrosat would be made operational and in about a month, all X-ray instruments (CZTI, LAXPC and SXT) will be ready to stare at interesting stars. Astrosat would be looking at some of the black hole sources / candidates like GRS 1915+105, Cygnus X-1, Cygnus X-3 during the month of November. Simultaneous observations are also planned using an Infra-red telescope at Mt Abu, radio observations at GMRT, Khodad (near Pune) and using the Himalayan Chandra Telescope, located at Hanle, Ladakh, for science analysis of CZTI. This is only the beginning, with many more events to unfold… --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CZT-Imager is built by a consortium of Institutes across India: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, led the effort with instrument design and development; Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram provided the electronic design, assembly and testing; ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bengaluru provided the mechanical design, quality consultation and project management; Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune did the Coded Mask design, instrument calibration, and hosts the Payload Operation for CZTI; Space Application Centre (SAC) at Ahmedabad provided the analysis software; Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) Ahmedabad, provided the polarisation detection algorithm and ground calibration; a vast number of industries participated in the fabrication and the University sector pitched in by participating in the test and evaluation of the payload. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Both Purina and Milo’s Kitchen are voluntarily recalling chicken dog treats nationwide due to the potential that the products may contain trace amounts of residual antibiotics. The recalled products include Purina’s Waggin’ Train and Canyon Creek Ranch dog treats, as well as Milo’s Kitchen Chicken Jerky and Chicken Grillers. On Monday, the New York State Department of Agriculture discovered traces of unapproved antibiotics used on chickens that made its way into the Chinese-made food products. The antibiotics in question are approved by China and the European Union, but not the U.S. Since 2011, more than one thousand pet owners in the U.S. have reported dogs falling ill or dying after eating Chinese chicken jerky treats. A similar spike occurred in 2007. Food Safety News published an in-depth report on the issue in March 2012. In July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released five years’ worth of data on pet treat testing, but could find no conclusive evidence of harmful substances out of 285 tests.

Kim Jong-un also stressed that the warheads were "thermo-nuclear" devices. (Reuters File Photo) North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un says his scientists have successfully miniaturised thermo-nuclear warheads to place on a ballistic missile and create a "true" deterrent, state media said on Wednesday.While Pyongyang has boasted of mastering miniaturisation before, this is the first time Kim has so explicitly claimed a breakthrough that experts see as a game-changing step for the North's nuclear capabilities.Kim also stressed that the warheads were "thermo-nuclear" devices, echoing the North's claim that the fourth nuclear test it conducted in January was of a more powerful hydrogen bomb."The nuclear warheads have been standardised to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturising them," Kim noted during a visit with nuclear technicians, the North's official KCNA news agency said."This can be called a true nuclear deterrent," Kim was quoted as saying.The North Korean ruling party's newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, carried a large front-page picture of Kim standing in front of a spherical metal object. The picture carried no caption and the paper did not explicitly claim this was part of the miniaturised warhead in question."Enough time has passed with North Korea's nuclear programme to make it distinctly possible it has miniaturised a device that can fit on a ballistic missile," said Melissa Hanham, an expert on North Korea's WMD programme at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies."I don't know that they could target that missile very well, or what it's range might be, but the claim cannot be dismissed as bluster," Hanham said.Kim's comments came a day after the North's powerful National Defence Commission threatened pre-emptive nuclear attacks on South Korea and the US mainland, as Seoul and Washington kicked off large-scale joint military exercises.Kim echoed the threat, warning that North Korea would "never hesitate to make a pre-emptive nuclear strike" in the event of any effort by the US and its allies to undermine its national sovereignty as a nuclear state.Military tensions have surged on the divided Korean peninsula since the North's nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month.The UN Security Council responded by imposing tough new sanctions last week, which Pyongyang has condemned and labelled as part of a US-led conspiracy to bring down Kim's regime by force."The stronger our nuclear strike capability gets, the more powerful our deterrent to aggression and nuclear war grows," Kim said.Experts have been divided on just how far North Korea may have gone with miniaturisation, although several US and South Korean intelligence reports and military officials have briefed on its apparent rapid progress.The issue is key as, while North Korea is known to have a small stockpile of nuclear weapons, its ability to deliver them accurately to a chosen target has been in doubt.There are numerous question marks over the North's ballistic missile capabilities, with many experts believing it is years from developing a working inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could strike the continental United States.It is also unclear whether any miniaturised device the North has designed would be robust enough to survive the shock, vibration and temperature change associated with ballistic flight.Most experts rule out the prospect of North Korea launching any sort of nuclear strike with a largely untested system, saying it would be tantamount to suicide given overwhelming US technical superiority."Kim's remarks should really be seen in the context of the cyclical, bellicose language the North uses on an annual basis, especially in the wake of the UN sanctions," Hanham said."His comments and the photos are making the message very explicit: 'We have a nuclear weapon and you have to respect us'," she added.North Korea's claim to have successfully tested an H-bomb in January was greeted with scepticism at the time as the estimated yield was seen as far too low for a full-fledged thermo-nuclear device. However, numerous weapons experts have suggested it may have been a "boosted" fission device, which makes more efficient use of nuclear material and can be made smaller without sacrificing yield.

An increased use of automation and the global recession has left many of us with a higher workload and lower pay, all while facing higher living costs. With nothing set to change, we ask when enough will be enough. In 1930, British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote a paper entitled ‘Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren’, in which he argued that future generations would be working no more than three days a week thanks to the miraculous achievements of science and compound interest. He envisioned a world where we would spend most of our time on leisure activities, with what little work was required being shared equally by all.Accumulating wealth simply to be wealthy would no longer be admired, and cut-throat, morally dubious business practices would be abandoned. Here in 2014, the grandchildren of Keynes’ contemporaries are having grandchildren themselves, but we’re no closer to his vision of the future. Instead, automation is causing jobs across a variety of sectors to vanish and the global recession has resulted in lost jobs and high unemployment in much of the developed world. For those of us who are still in work, things aren’t much better. Many of us are faced with doing the same work that would have previously been performed by a team of many, often while being paid less than before. Worse still, many companies refuse to provide yearly pay increases, meaning our salaries dwindle year-on-year while the costs of housing, transport, goods and services rise. Is worker oppression getting worse? According to some analysts, the situation is set to get worse, with the cost of living near to work in big cities soaring. In London, the city’s transport chief recently warned that overcrowding on the city’s transport networks could get so bad that low-paid workers living on the outskirts are unable to make it into work on time. “The stakes are pretty high. If you’re not able to increase transport capacity, and people find accessing work impossible, you risk social unrest,” said Sir Peter Hendy, head of Transport for London, in an interview with the Guardian. Other major cities will also face similar problems if not enough is done to meet future capacity. The growing use of robots in many industries is also a source for concern. A recent survey of 2,000 AI experts by Pew Research found that the industry was split over the prospect of job loss as a result of automation. “A number of the respondents warned that this aspect of technical evolution will lead to vast increases in income inequality, masses of people who are effectively unemployable and the possibility of breakdowns in the social order,” the organisation said. The inability to buy a home may also cause long-term problems. Many younger workers are over a decade away from being able to buy a place of their own unless they are lucky enough to receive help from family members, which in the long term will help to feed a sense of financial insecurity and further the gap between homeowners and renters. Is technology to blame for the job squeeze? Technology has played a key part in the problems that many workers face, and not just because of its direct replacement of jobs. Productivity software and apps, together with mobile internet and smart devices, have made it possible for one individual to do more work in and out of the office, meaning that the most successful workers have to be multitalented in a way never previously required. This may not seem like such a bad thing, but it means workers have to expend considerable chunks of their leisure time developing new skills to keep up, further adding to work-related stress. It also has made it possible for us to be ‘at work’ anywhere. While this can be potentially useful – it could allow us to work from home and avoid a pricey and exhausting commute – it often results in work bleeding into leisure time, without us even noticing. Many employers don’t trust their employees to work from home, but are more than happy for them to put in extra hours or respond to emails in the evening. Ultimately the technological advancements that Keynes thought would free us from work have in fact bound us more tightly to it. Enough is enough: when will it end? The sense that enough is enough is in some ways already palpable. The Occupy movement, focused around the 99% railing against the one percent, has received considerable media attention and support in cities across the globe. However, it has done little to change anything. Business owners and property magnates largely remain the same people, and the 99% have no more power than before Occupy happened. If things do get worse, however, civil unrest could become more common and that is a development that, if disruptive enough, could force meaningful change. It is likely that different countries would respond differently: in places where protests and strike action are fairly common, such events would be far more likely, but in countries where these measures are uncommon or frowned upon, the situation would need to be far worse before anything occurred. There remains, however, the possibility that technology will ultimately save us. The internet is a powerful tool to enable people to achieve, and it still has a lot of development ahead. The potential for technology to aid entrepreneurialism could result in a greater shift towards small businesses, or even a radical economic change. Some have even predicted a move towards a universal basic income – guaranteed for all regardless of working status – to prevent a lack of employment being a problem. In reality, though, if things don’t get any worse there is a chance that they will never get any better either. We will continue to put up with poor working and living conditions in the hope that we will eventually become the ones in charge.

Once the Paris police decided to storm the Bataclan theater, where four terrorists were holding dozens of people hostage, the assailants decided to detonate the suicide belts they were wearing, according to local media reports, who added that over 110 people died as a result of the siege. Three of the attackers were killed after letting off their explosive devices, while the fourth died after being shot by police. The exact number of hostages killed is still unknown. The Le Parisien newspaper claims over 100 people died, with at least a dozen suffering injuries. ces pompiers se préparent à secourir des bléssés graves dans cet immeuble. #Bataclanpic.twitter.com/fkItaAFnFW — Guillaume Auda (@GuillaumeAuda) November 13, 2015 The exact number of those held hostage is also unknown. Dozens of people who were evacuated from the theater have been rushed to hospitals. Both witnesses and police sources described the scene as “real carnage,” with dead bodies all over place. LIVE UPDATES: Many killed and injured in coordinated Parist attacks, hostages taken One of the gunmen at Bataclan reportedly shouted: "It's for Syria" and "Allahu Akbar!" meaning, “God is [the] greatest” in Arabic. It still remains unclear how the situation developed inside the concert hall. According to witnesses, the attackers stormed the venue as a California rock group ‘Eagles of Death Metal’ was performing on the stage. A Europe 1 journalist, who was inside the Bataclan, said the men were unmasked and carried what he recognized as Kalashnikov-type guns. “The assailants had time to reload at least three times. They were not masked, masters of themselves. They were very young," the reporter Julian Pearce said, according to the Liberation newspaper. Scène surréaliste. Les journalistes sont désormais équipés de gilets pare-balles. #bataclanpic.twitter.com/xMFPhfclup — Arnaud Tousch (@nanotousch) November 13, 2015 People who managed to flee the theater reported seeing between six and eight shooters inside were killing those who remained in the concert hall “one by one”. A woman called Anna, who witnessed shooting at the theatre, told BFM TV, "initially, it was believed to [be] firecrackers" after hearing the loud bangs. French President Francois Hollande arrived at the scene shortly after police stormed the venue. "The terrorists who were not far from here were killed," Hollande said after visiting a security command center near the Bataclan concert hall. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo was on the scene during the hostage siege at Bataclan. The massacre in the theatre has become the bloodiest of the six simultaneous attacks that struck Paris Friday night. According to figures given by Paris authorities and local media, over 150 people were killed in a series of explosions and shootings in the city. This figure is expected to change as more information is coming in.

Indiana is one of six schools still being considered by class of 2015 Wheeler (Ga.) center Daniel Giddens, he announced on Thursday night. The 6-foot-10, 225 pound big man announced his list of six finalists via his Twitter account in no particular order: Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Kansas and Ohio State. “Thanks to all the schools thats recruited me over the years and the coaches that took the time out to recruit me,” Giddens said before revealing his list of finalists. Indiana offered a scholarship in late November. In a text message to Inside the Hall on Thursday evening, Giddens mentioned two things that are standing out for the Hoosiers. “Their business school is top 5 in America,” he said. “And coach (Tom) Crean is an amazing coach that helps you become the best you can be.” Giddens is rated the No. 22 prospect nationally by the 247Composite and was a member of USA Basketball’s 2013 FIBA Americas U16 Championship team last summer. He has not taken any official visits yet, but took an unofficial visit to Ohio State in December. As a sophomore at Wheeler, Giddens helped lead his team to the 2013 Georgia Region 5-AAAAAA title, the Georgia Class 7A semifinals and a 21-9 record. He started all 30 games and averaged 12.0 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks per game. (Photo credit: USA Basketball) Filed to: Daniel Giddens

Turkey ranks 3rd most generous donor country Turan Yılmaz ANKARA Syrian Kurds wait in the southeastern town of Suruç in the Şanlıurfa province after crossing the border between Syria and Turkey on Oct 1. AFP Photo Turkey has become the third most generous country in the world with its $1.6 billion in humanitarian aid in 2014, after the United States and the United Kingdom, which gave $4.7 and $1.8 billion in humanitarian aid respectively.Turkey even surpassed Japan and Germany, which gave $1.1 billion and $949 million respectively in aid in the same year, according to the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report.The humanitarian assistance given by Turkey corresponds to 0.21 percent of its gross national income (GNI), which ranks Turkey top of the list of donors. The same figure is 0.03 percent for the U.S. and 0.07 percent for the U.K.Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş told daily Hürriyet in an interview that Turkey was "ethnic, religious and sect blind" when providing assistance to the people in need.“We are currently hosting around 30,000 Yazidis in Turkey. We have never asked and we will never questions about their ethnicities, identities or religions. We’ll do our best for those who seek assistance. Turkey will coordinate all of its aid,” Kurtulmuş said.Turkey’s humanitarian agency’s aid to Syrian refugees was 2.3 billion Turkish Liras in 2013, he added.The report indicates that Turkey’s humanitarian assistance has shown an increase of $591 million in the period of 2012 and 2013 and a great portion of it has been spent for Syrians. The number of Syrians fleeing violence is approximately 2.8 million and they are being hosted in neighboring countries Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.

No Agenda Show for Sunday June 23d 2013 Bono Douchebag "> "> "> "> Direct [link] to the mp3 file Bono Douchebag Executive Producers: Gary Blatt, Earl Melancon of Oregon Associate Executive Producers: Rolf Lehmann, Elizabeth Borozan, Charles Jordan, Chris Speers, Robert Siersema, Sir Barislav Marinov, Todd & Kathleen in Iowa, Sir Allan Bose, Baron Robert Goshko, Jefferey Qaiyum, Anonymous, Janet Waters 524 Club Member: Gary Blatt Become a member of the 525 Club, support the show here Knighthood: Christopher Gray Title: Sir Dr. Sharkey -> Baronet Art By: Sab Swiss ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 524.nashownotes.com New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) nashownotes.com The No Agenda News Network- noagendanewsnetwork.com RSS Podcast Feed Get the No Agenda News App for your iPhone and iPad Torrents of each episode via BitLove NEW! BitTorrent Sync

SEATTLE – A Level 3 sex offender from Kent is now charged with three counts of rape. The Seattle Times also reports police are investigating him in connection with five additional sexual assaults of prostitutes who worked on Aurora Avenue North. Brandon Cole Reed, 31, was reportedly arrested last Wednesday. The arrest came a day after another Level 3 offender was cleared of charges on the same rape cases. The Times reports, according to charging documents, Reed would pick up the prostitutes and rape them while threatening them with a knife. He also allegedly used handcuffs and mace. Reed’s criminal history dates back 20 years. When he was 11, Reed and his 12-year-old brother were convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl in Seattle’s High Point neighborhood. Their 8-year-old brother watched and 9-year-old friend helped hold the girl down.