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Microsoft today announced it has simplified how Microsoft accounts are managed by its users, including on Outlook.com. The change is rolling out now and will be available on all accounts in the next few days. To manage your aliases (or make other changes to your account), all you have to do is head to account.live.com, click on “Account aliases” in the left navigation bar, and then follow the instructions. Microsoft says this is a “simpler and clearer” interface for adding, removing, and setting any of your aliases as the primary one. The company also explains that since you can sign in with any alias, the main reason for setting a different alias as the primary one is to have a different email name show on your Microsoft devices. Microsoft only recently started allowing you to use any email address to sign in to your account. Several years ago, the company added the ability to rename or add aliases to accounts, but now it has deemed these tasks “a little too monolithic.” As such, since Microsoft account users have more flexibility now (you can sign in with one alias but use another to send mail or display on your Xbox), the Rename feature is a little bit dated. As you can see above, its replacement is much more straightforward. The new account alias section is worth checking out. If you want to add a new alias, Microsoft lets you create a completely new email address (with an Outlook, Hotmail, or Live domain name) or add an existing one. See also – Microsoft to stop supporting Outlook.com linked accounts in late July, will move users over to aliases instead and Outlook.com now has 400m active accounts as Microsoft completes Hotmail migration, including 125m mobile users Top Image Credit: Robert Scoble Read next: You can now use Twitter with IFTTT again

Turley: 'Pathetic' if Monica Goodling takes fall for Bush officials David Edwards and Nick Juliano Published: Tuesday July 29, 2008 Print This Email This While a recent report on illegal politicization of the Justice Department is a good first step in introducing accountability to the Bush administration, it would be "pathetic" if culpability stops with midlevel aides like Monica Goodling, a constitutional expert says. Monday's report from the Justice Department's Inspector General and Office of Professional responsibility concluded that Goodling and Kyle Sampson, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's chief of staff, acted illegally in eliminating applicants for career department jobs on the basis of political affiliation or sexual orientation. Calling the Goodling/Sampson efforts "like the Voldemort department of human resources," constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley tells MSNBC's Keith Olbermann that the report offers "a glimpse at just how unhinged the Bush Justice Department became." Turley says the 146-page report (available here) provides some information that had not previously been disclosed in congressional investigations of the firing of nine federal prosecutors, which is believed to have been politically motivated. But he says more investigation is needed to determine whose idea it was to staff the department almost exclusively with Republican loyalists. "That would be rather pathetic, wouldn't it, if Monica Goodling was the only one who went off to club fed," Turley said, speculating about the possibility of Goodling being convicted of a federal crime. Even that possibility, though is a long shot, at least for the next several months. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a Bush appointee, has refused to pursue contempt of Congress charges against administration figures who have flouted subpoenas demanding testimony, so there's little chance he would pursue perjury or other charges against a former administration official like Goodling. The White House's silence on the Justice Department report should indicate, perhaps, at least a tacit endorsement of Goodling's tactics, Turley says. "The question really is why isn't the president coming forward and saying there's a shame factor here at what occurred at the Justice Department," he said. "Alberto Gonzales picked this person, not because of the merits -- she lacked anything on the merits. She was picked because she was an extremist, and this is the result." This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast July 28, 2008. Download video

Like many Canadians, Jean-Marie Larochelle is used to lacing up his skates. The Montrealer plays in a casual beer league with his buddies, Félix Moffatt and Alexandre Bergevin. But the trio left their beer league behind for a week for a chance to play hockey in the most reclusive country in the world — North Korea. It was Larochelle who first heard about a group of Canadians going there to volunteer as coaches. He immediately contacted the group, called Hockey Foundation, and asked to join. "I love Korea and I always wanted to go visit the north, and to mix hockey and North Korea was the best combination for me," Larochelle told CBC News. Members of the Hockey Foundation, in yellow, pose for a picture with North Korea's national team, in red. (Submitted by: Jean-Marie Larochelle) It was a chance to not only play in North Korea, but to help coach the country's national team. Larochelle didn't have to do much convincing to get his buddies Bergevin and Moffatt to join him. Bergevin didn't hesitate. The veteran criminal lawyer has served as a member of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Jean-Marie Larochelle, who plays recreational hockey, joined a group of volunteers to help coach North Korea's national team. (CBC) "Certainly, it's the most reclusive country in the world. But if I had the chance to go into a courtroom to see how things unfold, I would," he said. For Moffatt, who works in film production, it was an opportunity to see how people live under a dictatorship. "We're going to play hockey. I'm not a fool, I know it's a country where freedoms are restricted and that we must think like the supreme master, but I will try to see how people live there and exchange with them." They arrived in North Korea on March 7. They were really good…We lost the first game 16-1. - Jean-Marie Larochelle, amateur hockey player Once in the capital city of Pyongyang, the three were accompanied by a guide, 24 hours a day. State television documented their every move — not just on the ice, but at tourist sites as well — and broadcast it to the nation. "You realize you're part of their propaganda machine and you don't really have a choice but to play along. There's a bit of an unfortunate aspect to that, but for us it's not anything that was too invasive," Moffatt said. What was most surprising to the group of Canadian hockey players though, was what they saw on the ice. "They were really good. We were not prepared for that. We lost the first game 16-1," Larochelle said. "We learned from them, I think, and I guess they learned a little bit too from us." The North Korean team is seen here during a practice. They won the first game handily. (Submitted by Jean-Marie Larochelle, Alexandre Bergevin and Félix Moffatt) Despite the culture clash and constant surveillance, it's a trip they would take all over again. "Personally, I'd go back in a heartbeat, for sure," said Moffatt. In fact, the three are already in talks to make it happen again next year.

Queensland police raid recreational Vietnam and Veterans Motorcycle Club under anti-bikie laws Updated Queensland Police have for the first time targeted a recreational motorcycle club as part of the State Government's crackdown on so-called "outlaw" or "one-percenter" clubs. The ABC can also reveal the state's police are preparing to extend their operations against 26 designated "criminal organisations" by prosecuting members for associating even in other Australian states. Police plan to use section 12 of the Criminal Code, which covers crimes committed either partially or wholly in Queensland. Bikie laws 'target club that isn't in Australia' The anti-bikie laws name the Scorpions as a banned "criminal" group. But experts have told the ABC while the club has several chapters in the US, there is no trace of it being in Australia. The laws are also targeting a property near Brisbane that has not had any bikie connections for six years. Read Mark Solomons' report here. The anti-bikie laws name the Scorpions as a banned "criminal" group.But experts have told the ABC while the club has several chapters in the US, there is no trace of it being in Australia.The laws are also targeting a property near Brisbane that has not had any bikie connections for six years. Senior officers say that if bikies meet in groups of three or more interstate all police need to do is get some recording of it, such as from a security camera at an airport, restaurant or service station, and if the bikies return to Queensland, they can be arrested and face up to three years in jail. The raid on Friday night targeted the Vietnam and Veterans Motorcycle Club (VVMC) at its clubhouse at Kingston south of Brisbane. Twenty officers from Road Policing Command and the QPS Taskforce Maxima anti-bikie group raided the club’s regular monthly "Bunker Bash" party. The VVMC restricts membership to men who fought in Vietnam and ex-servicemen who hold an Active Service Medal. Most of its members are in their 60s and 70s. The club is not on the list of 26 banned organisations included in the state's anti-bikie laws. No-one was searched, arrested or cautioned during the raid, according to police. One man agreed to leave the premises in circumstances that are now in dispute. Police say no-one was asked to leave. But the club's president and other witnesses said "Schultzy", a one-time president of the Life and Death motorcycle club’s Ipswich chapter, left because he was asked to do so by officers. Under the new laws, licensed premises face fines of tens of thousands of dollars if they are caught serving anyone with visible signs of membership of one of the 26 banned clubs. The VVMC had placed signs at the club entrance warning guests not to display anything linking them to "a declared criminal organisation". ABC journalists who attended the club's compound just hours ahead of the raid witnessed the club asking people arriving about tattoos, rings, belt buckles and patches that might indicate membership of a "one percent" club. VVMC president "Agro" said police had immediately recognised Schultzy because of his previous connection with Life and Death, which is on the Government's list. "I said he’s not [a member any more]," Agro said. "They say they believe he still is, so they asked him politely to leave and he said yes." Agro told the ABC that the VVMC, established in Australia 25 years ago, had longstanding links and social connections to members of several "one-percenter" clubs including the Rebels, Odins Warriors and Life and Death. All three are on the Government’s banned list. "We see them, we ride with them, we go on some of their rides with them and they go on some of our rides with us," he said. "Whatever they do is up to them. We don’t ask them what they get up to when they’re out of here." In a statement Queensland Police said the raid was "part of a strategy to develop a rapport with legitimate members of the motorcycle riding community in the interest of effective policing". It said police wanted to ensure "that criminal motorcycle gang members do not attempt to infiltrate legitimate motorcycle clubs such as the Vietnam and Veteran Motorcycle Club". Agro denies that could happen to his club. "I don't think the club could be infiltrated. They know who we are, we all fought for our country," he said. Many recreational riders have been staying off their bikes since the laws took effect, despite a Government newspaper and radio advertising campaign reassuring them that they have nothing to fear. At the Maiala Cafe on Mount Glorious in the D'Aguilar Ranges north-west of Brisbane, usually thronged with bikers each weekend, trade is down heavily. "It’s never been this quiet in the three years I’ve been here," head barista Rhiannon Deacon said on Sunday. "They're too scared to come up as groups." Do you know more about this story? Email investigations@abc.net.au First posted

Remember how stunning Watch Dogs looked when Ubisoft unveiled it two years ago? When the game came out last month, many players said that the visuals for the open-world game didn't live up to that original teaser. But now an intrepid modder has found hidden files that improve the way the game looks, right there in Watch Dogs' PC version. The discovery was announced on Guru3D (and spread after posted on NeoGAF), the various files tweak shaders, NPC density, camera angles and other elements. Mod creator TheWorse also claims that the files he's unpacked improve the game's performance, too: I'm a very obsessed person, with many things mainly graphics . Also i'm a fan of using sweetfx on every game I can use it. I like to make my own presets always. After release and this stupid stuttering problems I started searching for fixes etc. Then I saw many threads talking about the engine when I realized it was based on dunia 2 so I tried to unpack the files which obviously not worked.. so after searching so much for the unpacker I found it, started playing with it and after a long time of testing I ended up getting the E3 Bloom from 2012 working. After studying how bin hex worked and downloading many tools to convert files etc, I was able to integrate and enable many effects. The results are remarkable and are sure to give new life to arguments that Ubisoft hobbled Watch Dogs to make it viable as a release for both last-gen and new-gen consoles, as well as PC. Advertisement After downloading and installing the mod, Kotaku has found that all the improvements listed in the mod are present. (The shots above this paragraph are from Kotaku's own capture.) We've reached out to Ubisoft for comment and will update this post if and when they respond. You can see the TheWorse mod in action here.

NBC, Bill Records / AP By international TV law, the first thing that must be covered in an interview with Kyle Chandler is the lingering ghost of Friday Night Lights, the dearly departed high-school football drama, and the long-rumored and hoped-for follow-up film. As adherents to the televisual legal code, BuzzFeed asked Chandler about said movie adaptation during an interview about his role in the lovely coming-of-age drama The Spectacular Now. "Friday Night Lights was a great movie, and the TV show. After five shots at it, five seasons, as it went on, it got smaller and smaller and smaller, and it almost got canceled. We were up against American Idol the first year and it got moved," Chandler said, recapping the long saga of the low-rated but critically-adored show, based on the 2004 film adaptation of H.G. Bissinger's book of the same name. "[Producers] Jason Katims and Pete Berg and those guys kept it alive, kept the material so fresh, and ended the thing so perfectly. I think that's a tribute to those guys. I like the ending of the show as much as I like the whole thing in the sense that it was just done so classy, it was just done so well. Hats off to those guys." So, was that a way of saying that he'd rather just preserve the show as is, and not revive it in movie form? "Yep," Chandler said simply. "That was a great experience, I really loved it. I still keep in touch with the people quite closely." Chandler in Argo It's hard to blame him; he ended the show on a high note, winning an Emmy for his role as everyone's favorite tough-but-fair high-school football coach Eric Taylor. Chandler has since moved on from "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose" to a successful film career with major roles in two Best Picture-nominated CIA dramas last year, Zero Dark Thirty and the ultimate winner, Argo. His director on the latter, Ben Affleck, just signed on as Batman in WB's Man of Steel sequel, and to say there's been backlash is an understatement. Initially, Chandler did not want to comment on the recent piece of news, but when BuzzFeed suggested that it seemed like a fun casting — and that the internet, as is its wont, may have over-reacted — he chimed in a bit. "What I hope is that he nails it and I hope he looks at everyone and says, 'Take that!'" Chandler said. As for his current project, The Spectacular Now, the actor has a small-but-important part as the mysterious father of lost teen soul Sutter Keely (played by Miles Teller) and he turns out to be quite the disappointment once his son tracks him down. It's a complete about-face from the stand-up Coach Taylor and Chandler admits he took the role in part because, upon first reading the script, he had no idea how he could tap into someone who is, as Chandler put it, "that much of a fuck up." "You look at the material and say, 'Wow who the hell is this guy? And if you screw this up, Kyle, you're going to screw up their movie,'" the actor explained. "I don't know fathers like this. I have no basis to put on a father that is that delinquent, that much of a fuck up, but what I did get, when I was 14, I lost my father. He passed away. That's where I sort of delved into, because I knew the kids' loss because basically, his father was dead to him. That kid was going through his trouble. When I was 14, I went through my trouble. For two-to-three years, it was a wild ride. That, I could relate to." Sutter is a heavy drinker for an 18-year-old high-school senior. He's a good kid with a broken compass, headed for a life adrift after he's unmoored by graduation. And Chandler knew the character well. "Just a kid, young with no father, raised by his mom, no guidance and on his own, trying to figure out the rules of everything on his own, making all the mistakes that you make trying to figure it out," the actor remembered. "I think it's pretty clear the kid has a good heart; I think when I was a kid, I had a good sense of what I wanted to be, but I didn't have the knowledge inside of me to know who that was." Chandler, Teller and co-star Shailene Woodley

Australia Pushes South Korea Into Life-Plus-70 Copyright Terms As Part Of Free Trade Agreement from the finally!-now-south-korea's-creators-will-have-a-reason-to-create! dept When it comes to free trade agreements, the concessions to incumbent copyright industries always seem to be a foregone conclusion. Australia has made some bold steps towards fair use to be implemented in its copyright reform efforts (and in the face of heavy criticism), but on other fronts, it seems more than willing to take several steps back to compensate for any forward momentum. While copyright reform hums away in the background, legislators in the foreground are laying the path for more of the same stuff that hasn't worked anywhere else, like "three strikes" programs and web filtering. Australia has just put the finishing touches on a free trade deal with South Korea, and hidden amongst the pages of legal wording is a 20-year gift to the copyright industries: The Australian government today released the final negotiated terms of the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA), which is intended to give Australian businesses increased access to the South Korean market, and likewise for businesses from the Republic of Korea conducting business in Australia. Under the terms of the agreement, Korea will extend its current copyright laws by 20 years to harmonise its copyright laws with Australia, so that both nations will have a copyright term of "not less than the life of the author and 70 years after the author's death", or 70 years after the first performance, recording, or publication of a work. The transition arrangements give South Korea two years to implement the copyright changes. This puts yet another country on the Bono/Disney gold standard and helps ensure South Korea's public domain will be as impoverished as Australia's and the United States'. This must be the " level playing field " corporate copyright holders envision when they speak grandly about the tech industry " pitching in " to make sure the incumbents are still around to collect these royalties a half-century from now. Filed Under: australia, copyright, south korea, trade agreement

Methodological Thinking in Psychology 60 Years Gone Astray? Edited by: Aaro Toomela, Tallinn University Jaan Valsiner, Niels Bohr Professor of Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University A volume in the series: Advances in Cultural Psychology: Constructing Human Development. Editor(s): Jaan Valsiner, Niels Bohr Professor of Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University. Published 2010 In recent years an increasing dissatisfaction with methods and thinking in psychology as a science can be observed. The discipline is operating under the tension between the traditional quantitative and the new qualitative methodologies. New approaches emerge in different fields of psychology and education—each of them trying to go beyond limitations of the mainstream. These new approaches, however, tend to be “historically blind” – seemingly novel ideas have actually been common in some period in the history of psychology. Knowledge of historical trends in that context becomes crucial because analysis of historical changes in psychology is informative regarding the potential of “new/old and forgotten” approaches in the study of psyche. Some approaches in psychology disappeared due to inherent limitations of them; the others disappeared due to purely non-scientific reasons. And some new approaches were rejected long ago for well-justified scientific reasons. This book brings together contributions from leading scholars in different fields of psychology – cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, cultural psychology, methodology of psychology. Each of the contributors discusses methodological issues that were more thoroughly understood more than half a century ago than they are now. Overall, the contributions support the idea that in important ways 60 years old psychology was far ahead of the most recent trends in mainstream psychology. CONTENTS Modern Mainstream Psychology Is the Best? Noncumulative, Historically Blind, Fragmented, Atheoretical, Aaro Toomela. Questions, Patterns, and Explanations, Not Hypothesis Testing, Is the Core of Psychology as of Any Science, Stellan Ohlsson. The Quantity/Quality Interchange: A Blind Spot on the Highway of Science, Joel Michell. Studying the Movement of Thought, Alex Gillespie and Tania Zittoun. Understanding a Personality as a Whole: Transcending the Anglo-American Methods Focus and Continental- European Holism Through a Look at Dynamic Emergence Processes, Tatsuya Sato, Kosuke Wakabayashi, Akinobu Named, Yuko Yasuda and Yoshiyuki Watanabe. Metaphors in Psychological Conceptualization and Explanation, Hans Dooremalen and Denny Borsboom. Remembering Methodology: Experimenting with Bartlett, Brady Wagoner. Reflections on Some Neglected Ideas About Psychological Measurement from the Personalistic Perspective of William Stern (1871–1938), James T. Lamiell. Qualitative Developmental Psychology, Günter Mey. The Role of Observational Methodology and the Application of Film in Early American and European Developmental Psychology, Kurt Kreppner. What Would Be Gustav Theodor Fechner Legacy For Psychology In The 21St Century? Arno Engelmann. Forgotten Methodology: Vygotsky’s Case, Nikolai Veresov. Vygotsky’s Methodological Approach: A Blueprint for the Future of Psychology, Holbrook Mahn. General Conclusion: Have Sixty Years Really Gone Astray? Back to the Future, Aaro Toomela and Jaan Valsiner. Contributors.

Programmers love to discuss interviewing programmers. And hate to discuss it. Interviewing touches the very heart of human social interaction: It’s a process for picking “winners” and “losers,” for determining who’s “in” and who’s “out.” Today I’d like to discuss an anti-pattern, Carnac the Magnificent. Carnac the Magnificent was a recurring comedic role played by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. One of Carson’s most well known characters, Carnac was a “mystic from the East” who could psychically “divine” unknown answers to unseen questions.–wikipedia The “Carnac the Magnificent” anti-pattern is setting up a situation where the only way to pass is to guess what the interviewer is looking for. Here’s an example from a blog post that is currently causing tongues to wag: Write a program that outputs all possibilities to put + or - or nothing between the numbers 1 , 2 , …, 9 (in this order) such that the result is always 100 . For example: 1 + 2 + 34 – 5 + 67 – 8 + 9 = 100 . According to TFA, this question is a “filter,” designed to separate those who have no hope of being a programmer from those who have the basic qualifications to write software for a living. the problem with the problem So what is the problem? Well, the problem is that there are too many ways to solve the problem. For starters, you can generate all of the possible strings (e.g. 123456789 , 12345678-9 , 12345678+9 , 1234567-89 , 1234567-8-9 , 1234567-8+9 , 1234567+89 , 1234567+8-9 , 1234567+8+9 , …), then use eval to compute the answer, and select those that evaluate to 100 . Or you could do the same thing, but avoid eval and bake in a little of your own computation. Because eval is “bad.” And of course, this brute force executes fewer than 10,000 iterations, and runs faster than you can blink on contemporary hardware. But you’re applying for a job where you’re supposed to know about “scale” and “speed,” so you could optimize things and not do obviously wasted computations. Nothing that starts with 12345 can ever add up to 100 , for example. Aren’t programmers supposed to know this? And should you solve this recursively or iteratively? One is fast, the other reveals the underlying mathematical symmetry of the problem. no hire! There are a bunch of ways forward (many more than these four considerations, in fact). And you can easily imagine a sadistic interviewer failing a candidate for getting the correct answer the wrong way. If you use eval , you’re a bozo. And if you write your way around eval , you’re a “theorist” who doesn’t know when to use the right tool for the job. If you don’t optimize, you don’t value scale. And if you do optimize, you’re wasting time that could be better used for another part of the interview. And if you solve it without recursion, you don’t grasp elegance. And if you do solve it with recursion, sorry, but we use JavaScript here, Lisp jobs are down the hall. Here’s the most naïve code I can think of: for ( let o1 of [ "" , "+" , "-" ]) { for ( let o2 of [ "" , "+" , "-" ]) { for ( let o3 of [ "" , "+" , "-" ]) { for ( let o4 of [ "" , "+" , "-" ]) { for ( let o5 of [ "" , "+" , "-" ]) { for ( let o6 of [ "" , "+" , "-" ]) { for ( let o7 of [ "" , "+" , "-" ]) { for ( let o8 of [ "" , "+" , "-" ]) { const expr = `1 ${ o1 } 2 ${ o2 } 3 ${ o3 } 4 ${ o4 } 5 ${ o5 } 6 ${ o6 } 7 ${ o7 } 8 ${ o8 } 9` ; const value = eval ( expr ); if ( value === 100 ) { console . log ( expr ) } } } } } } } } } (es6fiddle) Every single thing you can say negatively about this solution represents an unstated requirement. Likewise, here’s a recursive solution: function solutions ( accumulatedOutput , runningTotal , ... numbers ) { if ( numbers . length === 0 ) { if ( runningTotal == 100 ) console . log ( accumulatedOutput ); } else { const [ first , ... butFirst ] = numbers ; if ( accumulatedOutput !== "" ) { // case one, addition solutions ( ` ${ accumulatedOutput } + ${ first } ` , runningTotal + first , ... butFirst ); // case two, subtraction solutions ( ` ${ accumulatedOutput } - ${ first } ` , runningTotal - first , ... butFirst ); } else solutions ( ` ${ first } ` , first , ... butFirst ); // case three, catenation if ( butFirst . length > 0 ) { const [ second , ... butSecond ] = butFirst ; solutions ( accumulatedOutput , runningTotal , first * 10 + second , ... butSecond ); } } } solutions ( "" , 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ); (es6fiddle) It’s faster, and more beautiful mathematically, but it’s actually harder to understand how it works than the iterative solution. And it took me a lot longer to write. As did this one, based on Generators and Iterators: // Utility function from https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix const filterIterableWith = ( fn , iterable ) => ({ [ Symbol . iterator ]: function * () { for ( let element of iterable ) { if ( !! fn ( element )) yield element ; } } }); // problem-specific functions const catenate = ( left , right ) => left * Math . pow ( 10 , Math . ceil ( Math . log ( right ) / Math . LN10 )) + right ; function * expressions ([ first , ... rest ]) { if ( rest . length === 0 ) { yield [ first ]; } else { for ( let restBlanks of expressions ( rest )) { const [ firstOfRest , ... restOfRest ] = restBlanks ; yield [ first , '+' , ... restBlanks ]; yield [ first , '-' , ... restBlanks ]; yield [ catenate ( first , firstOfRest ), ... restOfRest ]; } } } function calculate ([ first , operation , ... rest ]) { if ( rest . length === 0 ) { return first } else if ( operation === '+' ) { return first + calculate ( rest ); } else if ( operation === '-' ) { return first - calculate ( rest ); } } const is100 = ( expr ) => calculate ( expr ) === 100 const solutions = filterIterableWith ( is100 , expressions ([ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ])); (es6fiddle) Again, this highlights a ceratin way of thinking about the problem, that of viewing it as a pipeline of operations on iterable collections: Recursively generate all the expressions, and filter for those that sum to 100 . Beyond proving that a candidate knows how to write things recursively, or with iterators, or both… Why are either of these better? When are they better? For which interviewers are these better? We don’t know from the problem as stated. So maybe what you should do is ask the interviewer about the hidden requirements. Optimize for speed above all else? Write tests or not? Is shorter code better? Should the code be factored neatly and all repetition DRY’d out? That seems reasonable, diving requirements is part of a developer’s job. And some interviewers will rate you highly for that. But others will consider it wasting time when all they wanted as a working answer, any answer, you are obviously tedious and slow and can’t GetShitDone™. The bottom line is, there is no right thing to do given a problem where the interviewer does not make it very, very clear what they want. The only person who can get this right is Carnac the Magnificent, a mystic from the east who can read minds and the contents of sealed envelopes. stress Now let’s be honest: If the interviewer and the interviewee are on the same page, this doesn’t seem bad. But the fact is, the interviewee will be stressed 100% of the time. And that is not good for the interviewee or for the interviewing process. There is good stress and bad stress, and uncertainty about what the interviewer wants is bad stress. You aren’t testing whether the candidate can solve hard problems, you’re testing whether the candidate can write code just before an all-hands where the CEO will announce layoffs. the right way forward If all you want is working code, say so, preferably in writing so that all candidates get the same information: Write a program that outputs all possibilities to put + or - or nothing between the numbers 1 , 2 , …, 9 (in this order) such that the result is always 100 . For example: 1 + 2 + 34 – 5 + 67 – 8 + 9 = 100 . Use any technique you want, the only thing that matters is getting the correct answer. Or be up front that you want production-ish code: Write a program that outputs all possibilities to put + or - or nothing between the numbers 1 , 2 , …, 9 (in this order) such that the result is always 100 . For example: 1 + 2 + 34 – 5 + 67 – 8 + 9 = 100 . Although this is a toy problem, solve it using the kind of code you’re use in a production code base. Or encourage the candidate to ask questions: Write a program that outputs all possibilities to put + or - or nothing between the numbers 1 , 2 , …, 9 (in this order) such that the result is always 100 . For example: 1 + 2 + 34 – 5 + 67 – 8 + 9 = 100 . Feel free to ask questions if you need clarification on what is required. simple, right? That’s simple, right? So why do people do this? My theory is They don’t know they are asking a Carnac the Magnificent problem. Interviewers often have a huge blind spot about how it feels to be on the other side of the table. Perhaps they were hired with this exact same question, they wrote out an answer without asking any questions, they were hired, what’s the problem? Or they asked a few questions, they weren’t failed for wasting time, why do some candidates charge ahead without asking questions? You need to have experience with interviews and experience working with a variety of programmers to appreciate how a “simple” technical question might actually have hidden pitfalls. Sometimes that’s a pitfall in itself! Imagine a 22 year-old extremely smart programmer interviewing a 52 year-old veteran. Why is the veteran thinking so hard about this problem? Their brain must have fossilized. NO HIRE. Let me be brutally frank: Part of the job of being a software developer is to understand the ways in which things that appear simple—like code, user experiences, security protocols, and almost everything else we touch—are not actually simple. And it is our job to either make them simple, or make it very clear that they aren’t that simple and document the way in which they aren’t simple. If you’re interviewing candidates, it’s your responsibility to figure out that the interviewing process, including the questions you ask, isn’t as simple as it appears, and then to make it simple. Ask hard questions, fine, but don’t make the process hard. tl;dr Hidden possible requirements add stress to the interviewing process, and it’s bad stress, not good stress. And it causes the most stress for the candidates with the most experience. So you get bad results. It’s so easy to get good results from questions: Be clear about what you want from the candidate. So if you are interviewing programmers, here’s your homework: Go through all of your interview questions, whether technical or otherwise, and ask yourself if there are any hidden assumptions about what you expect. Then ask yourself if your process would be even better if you made those implicit requirements explicit. I think you’ll find that eliminating Carnac the Magnificent from your interviewing process will make it better. (discuss on hacker news) post scriptum: Note: I’m not saying that the author of TFA poses the question exactly as worded to real candidates without any further discussion. TFA is a blog post explaining the problem to fellow interviewers, not going into all the details of how to set up the problem, whether to encourage conversation or give hints, and so forth. However, I am saying that I have seen similar problems posed as filters, without any further exposition about what is wanted, and I have definitely encountered interviewers who have hidden expectations, interviewers who are impatient if asked too many questions, interviewers who are judging candidates by the speed of writing a solution and consider questions to take up valuable time, and so forth. TFA was simply an excuse to discuss something I have observed many, many times over the past couple of decades.

In Taiwan, Police Evict Protesters From Government Building Enlarge this image toggle caption David Chang /EPA /LANDOV David Chang /EPA /LANDOV Enlarge this image toggle caption Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images Early Monday morning, police moved into the Executive Yuan in Taipei to remove student protesters who had barricaded themselves inside the cabinet offices. That erupted into a dramatic clash between protesters and police, which resulted in 58 arrests and 137 people injured. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the demonstrations are in response to a controversial trade agreement that would bring the country closer to China. The paper reports these protests have been the most divisive the country has seen since President Ma Ying-jeou took office six years ago with promises to forge closer relations with China. The paper adds: "According to Mr. Ma's government, the pact, which focuses on services, is an essential step to further liberalize cross-Strait trade and will provide select businesses with wider access to China's market. "Protesters, though, have demanded that the agreement be nullified and seized the meeting chamber of the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday. They argue that the deal will hurt small businesses and job prospects for people in Taiwan, especially the young. They say that the negotiations lacked transparency and that the deal may enable China to exert more influence over Taiwan's economy and politics." The Associated Press reports that protests in Taiwan are common "but violent confrontations relatively rare." The wire service reports on the Chinese reaction to the protests: "China's government has not commented on the protests, although an editorial Monday in the official newspaper Global Times was harshly critical. "'The Taiwanese students lack the courage and determination to commit to regional economic integration, fear losing out and change and only wish to defend the status quo,' the editorial read, contrasting Taiwan's hesitation with South Korea's embrace of the Chinese economy." Correction on March 25 at 1:26 p.m. ET. An earlier version of this post referred to the Executive Yuan in Taipei as the legislature. It is not. It is a cabinet compound. We've updated the post to reflect this correction.

SF-IRA support for tyranny - SF-IRA support for the Nazis The IRA supported the Nazis in WW2 Sinn Fein / IRA, being hard leftists, like to call their opponents "fascists". And indeed there is some truth in it , as regards the hard-core loyalists at least. But SF-IRA are not the people to criticise. The IRA supported the Nazis in WW2 (the real ones, not just rhetorical ones). They ran safe houses for Nazi spies, aided Nazi intelligence, and even helped Nazi bombers. They planned to bring about a Nazi German invasion of Ireland, and would no doubt have been installed as a quisling government had Germany occupied Ireland. Introductory reading - secondary sources Introductory reading - primary sources If you still refuse to believe me, then see this page: IRA support for the Nazis - original documents These are primary sources - screenshots of original documents. Not secondary sources. Many people refuse to believe the information on this page. Here are some gentle introductions:The Military Channel, 2011. The IRA supported the Nazis, and the Nazis supported the IRA. The IRA helped the Luftwaffe bomb Belfast and Derry. Hitler would of course have done to Ireland what he did to every other country. In the Wannsee Conference notes of Jan 1942, Ireland's 4,000 Jews were listed for extermination. No doubt Irish quislings would have helped in this, as quislings helped in every other country. Luckily, the IRA failed in their plans, and the Jews of Ireland were not exterminated. The IRA has still not apologised for this. The IRA did not break off its alliance with Nazi Germany when the Holocaust started. The Holocaust began in earnest with the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Nazi Germany began the systematic extermination of the Jews of Europe, first with mobile death squads, later with gas chambers. There were hundreds of mass killings from 1941 onwards. For example: 34,000 Jews were executed at Babi Yar, Ukraine, in Sept 1941 . . 25,000 Jews were executed at Rumbula forest, Latvia, in Nov-Dec 1941. The IRA stayed allied to Nazi Germany during this period. The IRA Army Council re-affirmed this alliance in April 1942. Mass execution of Jewish women, Nazi-occupied Soviet Union, inThis is photo 2725/1 in the Yad Vashem Photo Archives See also photo 2725/11 Jewish women and children lined up for execution in the massacre at Liepaja, Latvia, in Dec 1941. This is photo 2573/24 in the Yad Vashem Photo Archives. In the Wannsee Conference notes of Jan 1942, Ireland's 4,000 Jews were listed for extermination. (See "Irland" in list B.) In Feb 1942 the IRA was helping Nazi spies in Ireland. In April 1942 the IRA Army Council passed a formal resolution supporting co-operation with Nazi Germany. From p.223 of The Secret Army, J. Bowyer Bell, 1997 edn. Chief-of-Staff of the IRA at this time was Seán McCool. The IRA would be the Vichy regime if the Holocaust came to Ireland. This all means that, incredibly, these organisations were founded by Nazi collaborators: Sean Harrington, Chief-of-Staff of the IRA 1941-42, was a Nazi collaborator.The above is from(MI5 diaries), Volume 1: 1939-1942 Charlie Kerins, Chief-of-Staff of the IRA 1942-44, was a Nazi collaborator. The above is from the Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, Australia, 1 Feb 1943. Some guy (apparently) called "Ru Ni Digs" disputes my page: He denies that Sean Harrington, Chief-of-Staff of the IRA 1941-42, and Charlie Kerins, Chief-of-Staff of the IRA 1942-44, were Nazi collaborators. So the items on Harrington and Kerins above are a response to him. The fact is that every Chief-of-Staff of the IRA from 1937 to 1945 was a Nazi collaborator. It was policy. Every IRA leader supported this policy. If "Ru Ni Digs" claims some IRA leader broke with policy and did not support the alliance with the Nazis, I think it’s up to him to provide proof of this extraordinary claim. "Ru Ni Digs" claims I use Stormfront as a source, which is simply a lie. There are many Irish memorials to Nazi collaborators. And new ones being built all the time. Memorial to the Nazi collaborator Charlie Kerins, opposite the Bon Secours Hospital , Tralee.See street view "Charlie's" bar in Tralee is named after a Nazi collaborator. Memorial to the Nazi collaborator Tom Barry. Fitzgerald Park, Cork. See street view. From here. See more. Nazi graffiti daubed on grave of Tom Barry, Mar 2013: Tom Barry is buried in St. Finbarr's Cemetery, Cork. Republican graves at St. Finbarr's, including Tom Barry's, were vandalised in Mar 2013. Nazi graffiti was daubed on them. Disgraceful. Anyone who does this should be jailed. Nelson McCausland of the DUP seems to be alone in spotting the possible irony that Tom Barry was a Nazi collaborator. Evidence so far though points to an attack by an unstable person with legal problems, rather than a political attack. There may be all sorts of good reasons why they did so, but the Irish state commemorated a Nazi collaborator with a postage stamp.Nazi collaborator Sean MacBride appeared on an Irish stamp in 1994.From poppe-stamps.com Nazi supporter George Bernard Shaw appeared on a stamp in the same set. (Shaw has appeared on Irish stamps multiple times .) Christy Moore's simplistic view of the Spanish Civil War: Even if we just stick to the Spanish Civil War, this song is terribly simplistic. Christy Moore describes the war as: "Truth and love against the force of evil; Brotherhood against the fascist clan." Franco was a fascist dictator and ally of Hitler who committed atrocities. But the Spanish Republicans included communists and allies of Stalin who committed atrocities such as killing 7,000 clergy. I would not support either side. Christy Moore attacks the Irish who fought for Franco: "Many Irishmen heard the call of Franco; Joined Hitler and Mussolini too. Propaganda from the pulpit and newspapers; Helped O'Duffy to enlist his crew. The word came from Maynooth, "support the Nazis". The men of cloth failed again; When the Bishops blessed the Blueshirts in Dun Laoghaire; As they sailed beneath the swastika to Spain." Yes, the church was wrong to support fascists, but missing is the fact that the fascists' enemies were torturing and killing priests and nuns, and burning churches. The "anti-fascists" burned synagogues and churches, castrated priests, raped nuns, banned religion. Notice how Christy Moore makes out that the other side were fighting for Nazi Germany . In fact, the only Irishmen who actually fought for the Nazis were the IRA republicans, including .. Frank Ryan. Unfortunately for Christy Moore, Frank Ryan's later behaviour makes this song a tribute to a Nazi collaborator. Christy Moore's support for communist tyranny: Christy Moore has very dodgy politics. In 2001 he covered "Companeros", a tribute to the Cuban communist dictatorship. See lyrics. Incredibly,was erected in Ireland in 2014. Memorial to Frank Ryan erected at Limerick City Hall, Sept 2014. Shameful. From the unveiling of the Sean Russell statue in 1951 What kind of a Nazi collaborators' day out would it be without a good old The shameful statue of the Nazi collaborator Sean Russell, Fairview Park, Dublin. Here in July 2009 it has been vandalised, with Nazi flags painted on. Photo from here. Henry McDonald, 9 May 2004, says: "Dublin remains the only city in democratic Europe where a figurine still stands in homage to a man who openly collaborated with the Nazis." Even worse, as Tony Allwright points out, this is "the only statue in Dublin to an Irish volunteer killed during World War 2" - a stooge who died on a Nazi U-boat! This statue should be removed by the state and destroyed. Note I do not support non-state action against this statue (or any other Irish memorial to a Nazi collaborator). I believe in the rule of law, not the rule of direct action. In response to the listing here of Seán McCool as a Nazi collaborator, someone called Ruairi McCool sent me the following threatening email in Nov 2009. Instead of providing evidence that his (I assume) relative did not in fact collaborate with Nazi Germany, he writes: Mr Humphrys, How dare you label great warriors of Ireland Nazis! You don't deserve to live you Jewish bastard! Eat shit! I'm a hero if I murder 100 Palestinians, am I?! While one might understand an emotional reaction to having a relative criticised, a death threat is completely out of order. I referred the email to the Gardai. He seems to deny that his relative was a Nazi collaborator. But this is fact, not opinion: The Secret Army, by J. Bowyer Bell, states that Seán McCool helped Nazi spy Günther Schütz in 1942. From pp.220-222 of 1997 edn of The Secret Army: When Seán McCool became Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1942, "McCool and McNamee were tireless and even took up the German thread again. On February 28, 1942, German Sergeant Gunther Schuetz escaped from Mountjoy. ... he disappeared down the old Republican pipeline to appear .. at Mrs Caítlín Brugha's house. ... McCool established direct contact with the Brughas and plans were begun to get Schuetz out of the country on a fishing boat with a shopping list of IRA needs." (McCool was captured in the middle of these plans.) Of course, it is no surprise that McCool helped Schütz and had contact with Nazi Germany. Every single Chief-of-Staff of the IRA from 1938 to 1944 collaborated with Nazi Germany. They only stopped because the Nazis lost the war, not because anybody thought collaborating with the Nazis was wrong. "What do you think of the war now the Russians are making great headway. It's hard luck that their successes are helping to save the cursed Empire once again apparently. Still a lot of things could happen before the end of it all is reached. So here's hoping." - Seán McCool, letter of 28 Mar 1944, disappointed that the war is not going to finish off Britain. From Sighle Humphreys papers, UCD Archives, P106/893(1). I also had republican relatives who supported the Nazis and may have even collaborated with them. It was said that one of my relatives spent the day in tears when Hitler died. But unlike Ruairi McCool, I feel no need to defend them. They made their own decisions, and it is their shame not mine.Seán McCool's collaboration with Nazi Germany in 1942.From p.221 of, J. Bowyer Bell, 1997 edn "tombarry1921" (who used the handle of a Nazi collaborator) said that the IRA collaborating with Nazi Germany in fact proves their anti-Nazi credentials! Defenders of the IRA and Sinn Fein react in various absurd ways to the information on this page. They often end up saying that supporting the Nazis was "DuineEileAmhain" said it was all long ago. (And this from people who bang on about 1916, Cromwell and the Famine!) Here is a classic example. "AndrewDJMorgan" declares strongly that he is anti-Nazi, and Nazis should be "beaten". The same guy, "AndrewDJMorgan", declares that the IRA supporting the Nazis in WW2 was fine. From this thread about the IRA and the Nazis, which has other hilarious Shinners in it. I sum up the above. Modern Sinn Fein regularly calls its opponents "fascists", attacks Fine Gael as "blueshirts", and so on. This nauseating hypocrisyis amusingly easy to answer.Nauseating Sinn Fein hypocrisy."Horrors of IRA collaboration with Nazis", more like.SF-IRA, the party that collaborated with the Nazis in WW2, and threatened people who fought the Nazis with, now lectures us about the Holocaust. Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein, the person lecturing us about the Holocaust above, made a speech in 2003 honouring the Nazi collaborator, IRA leader Sean Russell. From here. More fun with Sinn Fein hypocrisy on Twitter, Dec 2014 - Jan 2015. Fine Gael Minister Charlie Flanagan attacks Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein TD Padraig MacLochlainn unwisely links Fine Gael to the Blueshirts. A perfect chance for me to dump something like the above in the thread. Answer that, Sinn Fein! My tweet is mentioned in the Belfast Telegraph, 5 Jan 2015. Sinn Fein Councillor blocks me for mentioning IRA support for Nazis. In Aug 2016, I noticed anti-Israel Sinn Fein Councillor Paul Donnelly blocking various pro-Israel critics. So I tweeted a link to my page: "IRA support for the Nazis - original documents". One tweet, to a page of primary sources, not opinion. He responded by blocking me. The true heroes of WW2 - The Irish who fought for the allies Not content with collaborating with the Nazis in WW2, the IRA even bombs those who did the right thing andthe Nazis.In 1987 in Enniskillen the IRA bombed a memorial service to the allies in WW2, killing 11 people.Search for videos here and here A true Irish hero: Paddy Finucane, leading RAF fighter pilot in WW2. And search for images. Freedom fighters: The US military, the UK military, and their allies land in France, 1944, to liberate Europe from the Nazis. From here. When the brave US troops landed in Northern Ireland in 1943 to prepare for the coming liberation of Europe, the IRA threatened to kill them. The Nazi collaborator Hugh McAteer, Chief-of-Staff of the IRA, denounced the American military presence in Northern Ireland as an "invasion of our rights" and warned that US troops could expect to be targeted by the IRA. "Oh here's to Adolph Hitler, Who made the Britons squeal, Sure before the fight is ended They will dance an Irish reel." - The IRA's War News, 23 Nov 1940, applauding Nazi Germany's conquest of Europe.

How to Be a Productive Procrastinator Why do today what you can do the day after tomorrow? Procrastination expert Timothy Pychyl and self-professed "structured procrastinator" John Perry discuss the latest research on this type of behavior and how to prioritize what's really important. NEAL CONAN, host: This is Talk of the Nation. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. And whether you're surfing videos on YouTube or listening to this program when you should be making headway on that booming finance report, many of us have become quite adapt at rationalizing our doddling. It's a wonder anything ever gets done. Today, the latest on procrastination, if that's not a contradiction in terms. Expert Timothy Pychyl joins us to talk about the inner mechanics of lollygagging and he'll bringing us up to speed on research. We'll also hear from a self-professed structured procrastinator who claims procrastination is his best friend. So tell us, is procrastination a positive or negative force in your life? 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. And you can also weigh in on our blog at npr.org/blogofthenation. Later, to Chicago for closing arguments in the R. Kelly trial, but first, procrastination, and let's go right to the phones. Mark is calling, Mark from Portland, Oregon. MARK (Caller): Hi Neal, thanks for taking my call. CONAN: Go ahead. MARK: I was thinking about this as I heard it announced earlier. I thought, the worst procrastinators in the world are probably the ones that resolve the problem at best, and that's artists. CONAN: Really? MARK: Well, we're constantly thinking of doing new work, a new masterpiece. And I can say, I call into Talk of the Nation many times. I had the honor of talking to Simon (unintelligible) about a year and a half ago... CONAN: Oh, I remember that, yes. MARK: About the power of art. But I think as people see our works of art, and I guess I produced a few masterpieces, I don't want to refer to that myself but his relate to science, doing sketches of the eyepiece of a telescope as featured in the NASA web sites quite often. I think = it's interesting that people see these. They're impressed by them, they expect you to do another one. They want to keep being entertained by artists so we're constantly pressed to produce new work. And that's tough. I mean, you're working against your own sense of ideas, I think. CONAN: But it's other people's expectations that, in a sense, weigh you down. MARK: It is. And it can pressure you to the point where you want to try to outdo your last work so you're kind of pressured to think of doing something better the next time. So you tend to procrastinate. You don't want to release something until you feel it's really great, and it's kind of a - there's an oxymoron taking place there, I think, between expectations of performance and trying to produce at the same time. So you find yourself kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. CONAN: And then you call the radio. (Soundbite of laughter) MARK: Hopefully someone's going to offer something as a resolution. But you know, artists are known - all artists are really known to be performing artists, who are kind of entertainers, in a way, I think, in the public eye. CONAN: Well, let's see if we can get some answers for you, Mark. MARK: All right. CONAN: Thanks very much for the call, and good luck on your next masterwork. MARK: All right, thank you. CONAN: Bye-bye. Timothy Pychyl is with us. He is an associate professor and graduate chair of Psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, in Canada. He writes the blog, "Don't Delay," for psychologytoday.com and joins us today from the studios of the CBC in Ottawa. And it's interesting, Tim - first of all, thanks very much for being with us. Dr. TIMOTHY PYCHYL (Graduate Chair, Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada; Procrastination Expert): It's my pleasure. CONAN: But nevertheless, what we were just hearing about from Mark, the artist, in terms of - well, you know, other people expect a lot from me. I've got to make sure, until it's perfect. Well, that goes to some of the research you've just been doing. Dr. PYCHYL: Absolutely. In fact, one of the most recent papers published has been about perfectionism. There have been a few over the years, but you know, perfectionism comes in a couple of different flavors. Broadly speaking, you can think about adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism. So adaptive perfectionists have positive strivings. They're doing things because they're interested. They want to do them well. What I heard in Mark's thoughts is that he has concerns over mistakes, there is a lot of doubt over action, whether he can be better than he was the next time, and that's certainly related to procrastination, so I understand his feelings that it's easier to put it off than to try to live up to everyone's expectations. But the other thing with Mark is that, you know, he's being too hard on himself in some ways because producing art isn't always just the moment when you have the brush on the canvas, for example. The production of a creative piece, there's a lot of thought that has to go into it, and if we try to say that anything but brush to canvas is procrastination, then we're undermining what it is to be creative. And so I think we have to watch that we don't call every delay or every sort of inaction, procrastination. CONAN: Yet, you also go on and cite some other research that suggests, in fact, we find all sorts of reasons to suggest to ourselves that we do need to delay, in fact, and some of them are quite bad for us, like getting drunk. Dr. PYCHYL: Well, I mean, when we want to rationalize, we want to avoid things. You know, that's avoidance in approach and avoidance we recognize at some level that we're doing that, and so we want to move ourselves away from that. So it's one of the many coping strategies we have of self-medication, to try to dull those senses. But it's not the most common. We've certainly published on that, in terms of - we do see students, for example, who use more substances, whether it be alcohol or others, to try to put out of their mind that, hey, they're not doing the work they're supposed to do. I didn't hear that in what Mark had to say. I really heard this notion of perfectionism that you picked up on. And also just a notion that, you know, we're only as good as our last performance, and when we put that kind of pressure on ourselves, we're no longer striving for success. We're trying to avoid failure. And that's interesting the way he frames it, so a lot of it has to do with his attributions. I think if he thinks a little bit more about how lucky he is to be in a position to not only have produced what people consider masterpieces but to be able to continue in his art, he might try to let go of the attributions of, oh, my next one might not be as good, as opposed to, wow, isn't that great, I have an opportunity to do this again. CONAN: Let's get Angie on the line. Angie's with us from Belmont in California. ANGIE (Caller): Hi. CONAN: Hi, Angie. ANGIE: I'm actually procrastinating right now. I'm writing my PhD dissertation and it's coming along nicely but I had to call you instead. (Soundbite of laughter) CONAN: How much more left to work on it? ANGIE: Yes, I tend to be one of those people who - I have to clean my house top to bottom before I can focus on my work, and it can't be something, for me personally, like I couldn't paint my toenails right now but I could definitely clean my house or, you know, make sure all my plants are watered for the zillionth time. CONAN: Yeah. Mine was making sure the books were in the correct alphabetical order. ANGIE: And you know, I'm actually originally from Oregon, and so maybe, just like Mark, so maybe there's a bunch of procrastinators in Oregon. CONAN: Well, I know that the standard piece of advice for people involved in a big task like a dissertation is to break it down into a number of smaller tasks, but it sounds like you're already halfway through it, at least, Angie. ANGIE: Oh, yeah. It's coming along, but the thing is, too, I can't be far away from my computer. Like I couldn't procrastinate and actually leave my house. CONAN: I see. ANGIE: Because if some spark of genius came up then I want to be right there to document it. (Soundbite of laughter) CONAN: Have you heard the words "lap top"? ANGIE: I have a laptop! Dr. PYCHYL: Or notepad. But I think that's interesting that you picked up on this notion of defining the task, breaking it down, because as I listen, I don't really hear - I hear this talk about thesis or dissertation, but when my students talk about writing a dissertation, they say, oh, I'm working on my thesis, I think. You're not doing very much probably. But if you say, I'm struggling with the fourth paragraph in my methods section or the transition from the results to the discussion, then I know you're thinking. So I think the way we phrase our tasks is very much part of what it means to break something down. And the other thing is that, yeah, it is tempting to see these other tasks as pressing, but we have to recognize that that's just a flag that we are about to put off something that's rather important to us. You know, your house could get very, very dirty and someone else could clean it, but no one, no one else can write this dissertation but you. So it really will behoove you to catch yourself at the moment you think, yeah, I'm just going to wash those dishes, it will only take a minute, and say, oh, here I go again. I'm just going to keep the seat of my pants right here for a while, and what you'll find is a lot of the almost unconscious anxiety you're having is going to dissipate when you start to make progress on that goal. CONNA: And do you think Angie would do well to forgive herself for procrastinations in the past? Dr. PYCHYL: Well, it's interesting you'd say that. Certainly, the most recent paper we've got out for review is about forgiveness. And in fact, it plays in women's favor. We found a gender difference here, that women who self-forgive, who forgive themselves for procrastinating, are more likely to procrastinate less in the same task the next time. And the rationale there is that when you don't forgive, there's a lot of negative emotions associated with that, so you want to avoid it. But if you forgive yourself and then you get a second chance. So absolutely, self-forgiveness, particularly for women, seems to make a difference. CONAN: Angie? ANGIE: Thank you. I forgive myself. CONAN: Congratulations. Dr. PYCHYL: Get back to work. ANGIE: Thank you. OK. Goodbye. CONAN: So long, Angie. Keep listening. Let's see if we can get - this is Bibi(ph). Bibi is with us from Tucson, in Arizona. BIBI (Caller): Hi. Thanks for taking the call. CONAN: Sure. BIBI: I wanted to ask your guest if he thinks there could be some type of psychological illness, per se, associated with procrastination. Like, is it possible that the obsession could be perfection and then the compulsion being procrastination? CONAN: Or Bibi, is it possible you're just naturally lazy? (Soundbite of laughter) BIBI: Well, that's not - sort of, when I called in, I said, you know, a lot of people think of procrastinators as being lazy. But I think it's deeper than that. Dr. PYCHYL: Yeah. I agree that it's deeper than that. And there's no doubt about that. It's not about time management but when you started your question, I was thinking, well, certainly depression is related to amotivation. And in fact, we got to make sure that when we're talking to someone, that they're not clinically depressed because that's what you need to treat. And any task delay will disappear once the depression goes away. But then you turned to the notion of perfectionism. Well, if you consider that a psychological illness - and I'm not sure I want to call it that - I would say it's a psychological dysfunction, per se, especially if it's this socially prescribed, maladaptive perfectionism. Absolutely. If what you're doing is trying to live up to other people's standards and that creates this inner conflict that the only way out is procrastination, then the problem, per se, is the perfectionism, and the procrastination is one of the few ways that you're trying to exert control in the world. So it's many times that irrational thoughts are at the root of our procrastination, and we have to start there. CONAN: Have you ever met anybody, by the way, Timothy Pychyl, who is naturally lazy? Dr. PYCHYL: Well, I don't even like the word that much. I think we like to use it against other people. It's one of these things that - it's not a kind thing to say about another person. So I'm not too sure what a lazy person is. I think that there are people who don't seem to be very connected to their goals or engaged. But, yeah, I'm not convinced I even understand the word, at times. CONAN: Bibi, thanks very much for the call. BIBI: Thank you. CONAN: And good luck to you. Thanks very much. So stay with us. We're talking with Timothy Pychyl, an associate professor and graduate chair of psychology at Carleton University, in Ottawa. He's also an expert on procrastination. If you'd like to join the conversation, the question to you today is, is procrastination a negative or a positive force in your life? Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. Our phone number, if you'd like to join us, is 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. It's the Talk of the Nation from NPR News. (Soundbite of music) CONAN: This is Talk of the Nation. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. We're talking about procrastination. As anybody who has ever procrastinated knows, you can do that endlessly. Our guest is Tim Pychyl, who writes the blog "Don't Delay" for psychologytoday.com. And if you'd like to join us, tell us, is procrastination a positive or negative force in your life? Our number is 800-989-8255. Email is talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our blog at npr.org/blogofthenation. Let's go to Mike. And Mike's with us from Mystic, in Connecticut. MIKE (Caller): Hi, Neal. Thanks for taking my call. CONAN: Sure. MIKE: Are you there? CONAN: Yeah. Go ahead. MIKE: Hi. I'm calling today because I've got a story about procrastination being a positive force in my life, for a change. CONAN: Go ahead. That's interesting. MIKE: I have a 2000 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, and I was up in Maine skiing this winter. And I got one of those cracks in the windshield that went all the way across and also broke a leaf spring. I've been thinking about getting that stuff fixed, you know, and it's just as simple as picking up a phone call and calling the glass place to come and put a new windshield in my truck but I just haven't gotten around to it. And then about a week ago, I found out that Toyota is going to buy my truck back, and the condition of the truck is irrelevant to the price that they're going to give me for it. So procrastination literally paid off for me. CONAN: There you go. Congratulations, Mike. Dr. PYCHYL: Yeah. And that's a classic availability heuristic in social psychology. We can remember those points in time when it really does pay to procrastinate. And of course, there are times when it does. I have the same thing right now, Mike. I have a crack right across the windshield of my car. But I don't feel I'm procrastinating in getting it fixed because I've never set an intention and said, next Wednesday I'm going to get it fixed. Now once I set the intention and if I go past that date, then I'm truly procrastinating because for some reason, I thought that was the optimum time to act. But in some ways, you have this loosely defined, someday, I should get that fixed. So I'd say that you delayed the intent - even the forming of an intention. So at that sense, delay could pay. It's certainly the thing that we look back on later. But the problem is, then we use it to rationalize very problematic procrastination. So again, I want to emphasize, we shouldn't say that all delay is procrastination. But I'm glad they're buying your truck back, Mike. MIKE: Yeah. Well, I think when it first happened I said to myself, oh, yeah, I'll get that done. Well, I was up at Maine at the time, so you know, at first I said, well, as soon as I get back home I'll do it. And then it was next week, and then it just kind of went on a backburner. CONAN: Yeah. It turns out you could see pretty well through that crack. MIKE: Yeah, you know. Dr. PYCHYL: Well, for sure. MIKE: Every week or so somebody asked me, when are you going to get that fixed? Finally, I can say, I'm not going to. CONAN: Mike, congratulations. Thanks. MIKE: Thanks. CONAN: Joining us now is John Perry, a professor of philosophy at Stanford University, co-host of the radio show "Philosophy Talk." He's a self-professed structured procrastinator, and he joins us now from the studios of Clear Channel Broadcasting in Modesto, California. Nice to have you with us today. Professor JOHN PERRY (Philosophy, Stanford University; Radio Co-Host, "Philosophy Talk"): Well, nice to be here, Neal. CONAN: And would you have described Mike as a structured procrastinator? Professor PERRY: Well, that depends. I mean, the idea of structured procrastination is that if you're a procrastinator, that's like being left-handed - you just are, you aren't, right? If you're a procrastinator, then you've got this source of motivation: not doing the thing you're procrastinating, which is usually something you regard as sort of important and for some reason you just deep down don't want to do it. And the question is, what are you going to do with that time? Are you going to just sit on a couch feeling bad about not doing it? Then you'll end up being both a procrastinator and very depressed. The trick is to have a lot of less important things on your list, so that by doing the less important things, you can avoid doing the thing that it's really important for you to procrastinate. And I just discovered one day - I was wondering why, since I'm such a procrastinator, I had a reputation on the university as being a guy that got a lot done. And it occurred to me, ah! I'm really - I'm making it work for me. So that's what structured procrastination is. CONAN: Yeah. But clearly, you don't have a problem getting over that initial hurdle of making a list. Professor PERRY: Well, sometimes you - you know, making lists is very important. If you're really down in the dumps and lazy, then you want to have a list that says, like, get out of bed. Turn off the alarm. CONAN: Yeah, cup of coffee. Professor PERRY: Sharpen your pencil. (Soundbite of laughter) Professor PERRY: And then the trick is to check each one off. And you'd find out how motivating that is in the morning. Once you get two or three things checked off, you kind of - you're going for the day. But the real trick with structured procrastination is you need to have certain self-deceptive skills so that you think tasks are really important that maybe, really, in the end, aren't that important. But I have those so I'm OK. CONAN: This is just simply a form of self-deception. Professor PERRY: Well, yeah. It's - I mean, it's not that I recommend it. But I'm just saying, if you're a procrastinator, you may not feel so bad about yourself if you realize that this is what's happening. And you may not spend a lot of time - and a lot of people say, well, if you procrastinate, it's because you've got too much to do. You need to just have the one task in front of you and then you'll get it done. But that's - you know, that's just wrong. If you just have the one task in front of you, you'll go watch the "Simpsons" on TV or something. (Soundbite of laughter) Professor PERRY: But if you've got a whole structure of less important stuff, and then it turns out the thing at the top - like, my typical thing is, right now, I'm supposed to get my booklist for next fall in because the bookstore will allow my students to return the books and get a bigger - at a less of a discount if I get the booklist in by some completely unreasonable date. CONAN: Arbitrary date in the future. Professor PERRY: Yeah. So that's at the top of my list. And I definitely won't do it, and I'll get a lot of other stuff done in the meantime. And then someday I'll do it. And it'll work out just fine, and the students won't know why they're getting screwed when they return their books. (Soundbite of laughter) CONAN: I wonder, Tim Pychyl, do you see any benefit in structured procrastination? Dr. PYCHYL: Oh, I do. I want to say hi to John, because we've had some email contact. Professor PERRY: Hi. Hi, Tim. Good to meet you. Dr. PYCHYL: You too. And John, you're my favorite philosopher. I say that a lot now because he gives the best advice. And in fact, as you listen, you don't have to listen so much to the structured procrastination as the - he knows and writes that happiness is the product of the pursuit of your goals. And what he's really arguing here is that you've got to use your worst enemy, your worst habit - in this case, procrastination. As John said, that you're left-handed, let's use it somehow. And in tennis, that might be you have a wonderful, two-handed backhand. So he's saying, use that to motivate yourself. So if you make a list, a bunch of things to do, and you start checking them off, well, we know from some recent research by Ken Sheldon that - University of Missouri - that when we have progress on a goal, we have higher well being. And when we have higher well being, we're more likely to do the next thing on our list. And so I think John's advice is well taken. I think that where John and I have had some disagreement is that he's the kind of guy that always has something useful, or at least marginally useful, on his list. And unfortunately, there are some people who will go after the "Simpsons." I know we're going to get people saying, what's wrong with the "Simpsons"? Nothing. But you know what I mean, they have a list in front of them, and they say, well, I'm not going to do any of these things. And then they sit and surf the channels. But absolutely. I really like what John has to say, and I like the advice he gives to his students, as well. CONAN: It's probably - it's too much "Simpsons" if you're reciting the words along with them. (Soundbite of laughter) Dr. PYCHYL: Well, yes. Professor PERRY: There's a - I kind of think there's people over on the left that don't procrastinate. I've got friends like that. They kind of make me nervous to be around but they're very admirable people. And then there's people over on the other side that are really clinically depressed and reading my funny, little articles isn't going to do anything for them. But I'm convinced by the thousands of emails I've gotten that, you know, because I was just writing something funny that I kind of described how I work. I found out from my son that Robert Benchley, by the way, wrote something very similar 40 years ago. But that was before the Internet, so it doesn't count. (Soundbite of laughter) Professor PERRY: But yeah, there's just - there's just lots of people who - I had a woman write me and she said, you know, my brother has been after me for being a procrastinator for as long as I can remember. And for the first time in my life, after reading your article on structured procrastination, I feel like a worthwhile human being. By the way, I'm 75 years old. I thought, wow! There's a lot of people that share this particular psychological make-up. So that's what it's all about. CONAN: Let's get Lynn(ph) on the line, and Lynn's calling us from Kansas City. LYNN (Caller): Hi. I have some creative procrastination techniques. One is to let things pile up until they're aged and just don't matter anymore. (Soundbite of laughter) LYNN: Invitations, notices of a dance and so forth. If you let them pile up, you can just dump them. CONAN: Yeah, the invitation to the Bush inaugural doesn't matter anymore. LYNN: That's right. And the second one is a similar one, which is if I let things pile up enough, there'll be somebody there who'll need the information badly enough that they're willing to help me. I often wait to do paperwork till my sister comes to visit because she's very good at dispatching it. So I tend to feel guilty because the cut pile gets really big, but I know that whenever she comes I'm going to get rid of it. So it's actually healthy for me to wait because I get it done faster, and I get it done with assistance. Professor PERRY: Well, there is this phenomenon that's connected with perfectionism that you were discussing before. You kind of have an inappropriate perfectionism. A lot of people are perfectionists who don't know it because they've never done anything remotely perfect. (Soundbite of laughter) Professor PERRY: But that's really a side issue right now. So you - no, you get a request from someone to write a review of a book or something for a publisher. And you know, your brain says, I'm going to write the best one of those that's ever been written. I'm going to write one so good that when the publisher reads this, she's just, you know, she's just speechless. And that's silly but for some of us, you do that all the time. And then procrastination is a way of waiting for the last minute and giving yourself permission to do a fairly crappy job. And you know, it works well. Mr. PYCHYL: Yeah, and it also protects your sense of self. LYNN: You're saying it lets you permission to not do something. Professor PERRY: Yeah. CONAN: Yeah. LYNN: To say, oh, I've waited too long, so I'm not going to do that. I'm an artist and I should have entered that show but I waited too long. But you know, the reason I waited too long to enter the show is because I have too much to do and I really shouldn't have entered the show. Professor PERRY: Yeah. But it probably is self-protection. You didn't enter the show because you might have... CONAN: And I wanted to ask Tim Pychyl to follow up a little bit on that. We give ourselves permission to do a bad job. Dr. PYCHYL: Well, it's important sometimes because that gets you started and then you don't end up doing a bad job at all. But when you set yourself up to this level of perfectionist, you're going to self-handicap to make sure that you don't put it out on the line. Because I don't want to - Joe Ferrari(ph) tells us that all the time. Sorry, I interrupted you, go ahead. CONAN: Go ahead. LYNN: Susan said, I'm not going to do this because I've been procrastinating about it. The reason I'm not doing it is I know I wouldn't do a good job, so that gives me permission to resign. Dr. PYCHYL: Well, I mean, that's a decision, then, too. But I mean, the thing that was interesting, as I listened to you, is that you have a lot things going on in there. And some of it I'd call procrastination, some of it's really strategic delay. You delay and enlist the help of others. LYNN: Exactly. Dr. PYCHYL: I mean, that's the example with your sister. So, you know, again, I think we have to be careful about what we consider, well, this is my strategy to get it done, as opposed to this is truly just procrastination. CONAN: Yeah. Dr. PYCHYL: And I think that we have to differentiate amongst them or else we get confused. CONAN: Thanks, Lynn. LYNN: Thank you. CONAN: OK. Go ahead, John Perry. Professor PERRY: These days it's often a strategy for getting some sense of how important the task is to the person for whom you're doing it, particularly with email. You agree, you know, I think I'm procrastinating by not answering my email, but actually, it's sort of a strategy because the important stuff they'll email you right back. And a lot of stuff they never do and it couldn't have been too important. CONAN: Let's get Tysa(ph) on the line, Tysa with us from Reno, in Nevada. TYSA (Caller): Hi there. I just wanted to say procrastination has been part of my life forever. I - my motto in life is I always get it done. And I do. But I wait until the very last minute. And I found that - I believe it's because I actually do a better job at the last minute. I'm just wondering, you think it might be a mind trick, that I'm... CONAN: Working best under pressure. Tim Pychyl, boy, that's a familiar refrain, I think. Dr. PYCHYL: It is. And actually, we're just finishing up a thesis here at Carleton on that. And we found, really, no evidence of the arousal procrastinator. Professor PERRY: Oh, really. Dr. PYCHYL: Yeah. We've looked at the personality variables of extroversion and sensation seeking and also something known as reducing and augmenting, that reducers reduce pain and augmenters augment pain. And these are classic arousal-based personality differences. And we don't find any relationship between those individual characteristics and the actual procrastination. We do see a small relation with those characteristics and the excuse that I work better under pressure. And again, as a professor, we see lots of students who, because they've only ever worked under pressure, they think it's the only way they can work. And so it is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy that way because you've never taken the time to do it another way. CONAN: You figure those people go on into journalism? Dr. PYCHYL: I hope so. Because that's their lives. (Soundbite of laughter) CONAN: Tysa, thanks very much for the call. TYSA: Thanks. CONAN: Bye-bye. And we're talking with John Perry at Stanford University and also with Tim Pychyl of Carleton University in Ottawa. You're listening to Talk of the Nation from NPR News. Email question from Gail in Manhattan, Kansas. "What's the difference between structured procrastination and prioritizing?" Professor PERRY: Well, the difference between structured procrastination and prioritizing may be that structured procrastination is prioritizing as done by a procrastinator. But for... CONAN: In reverse. Professor PERRY: Yeah. But to be really successful you have to have certain self-deceptive skills. That is, you have to be able to convince yourself to put at the top of your list - that is, put it at the place where you're probably not going to work on it something that can grab you as very important, but ultimately, isn't all that important. Most procrastinators have good self-deceptive skills, I find. But maybe Timothy has done some real empirical work and that's not so. Dr. Pychyl: No, I think that's the case. But I think, really, what you've got there is two things that fuel motivation. One is avoidance and one is approach. And so you're taking that avoidance motivation that the procrastinator has in spades and using it to fuel other behaviors. So I think it's - that what's the difference there is that, you know, someone who is an approach-oriented person would prioritize and say, this is my number one task and I'm going to do it. But by self-deceiving a bit, you put your number one task up there that's important but doesn't really have a deadline, but you're trying to avoid - well, now I've got all the motivation in the world to do the other task. So I think that that's why it's such a good strategy for someone who's approached the world as always avoiding. CONAN: My procrastination technique at the moment is that online banking is fun! (Soundbite of laughter) CONAN: Let's go to Ian, and Ian's with us from San Francisco. IAN (Caller): Hi! I am a professional pianist, and I just graduated from the Conservatory of Music here. I'm wondering if you all see a connection between procrastination - I'm talking about artists and musicians in the practicing process - if you see a connection between that and the insecurities associated with performance anxiety on stage. CONAN: Tim Pychyl, any work on that that you know of? Dr. PYCHYL: There's no data that way. And that's an interesting way you took that question. I was anticipating something different, but no, there's no data that I could speak to that way. The closest is a paper that was recently published about the flow experience, that Csikszentmihalyi defined, is that artists and musicians, in particular, get so deeply absorbed in what they're doing that time sort of escapes them and they're really in the moment. And certainly, procrastination and flow experiences are each at opposite ends of the scale, it seems. So that's what the only other thing that even begins to speak to that. So I don't know about this avoidance or anxiety of performing. IAN: Well, what interested me was the sort of insecurities that you associated with procrastinating a creative process. I was wondering if they connect with the insecurities that we performers associate on stage with performance anxiety. Dr. PYCHYL: Well, threat of evaluation is certainly highly related to procrastination. So to the extent that you see that performance as - you know, as we heard with Mark, you know, that it might not be my next masterpiece, as opposed to, isn't it wonderful? I get a chance to perform again. And those are just two different ways of looking at something. And I think it makes all the difference in terms of the emotional response you have to that opportunity and then whether or not, you know, it's going to be related to other ways you act in life, which would include procrastination. CONAN: And when you get the performance anxiety, Ian, how does it manifest itself? Does it prevent you from going on stage? IAN: Well, it more affects you on stage. You know, you'll have a case of the nerves where your physical function that you've been training so long, for example, with the piano, they tend to shut down. And then you're not able to do what you've been preparing yourself to do in the heat of the moment. CONAN: So your muscle memory all goes, and you're sitting up there wondering, what do I do now? And if you have to think about it, boy, you're in trouble? IAN: Yeah, exactly. CONAN: All right. Ian, don't think about it! (Soundbite of laughter) IAN: Thank you. CONAN: Thanks very much for the phone call. Dr. PYCHYL: There's a blog up on Psychology Today written by a guy named Jesse Bering. He's in Queen's University, Belfast. And he wrote recently about the topic of transparency, when people get up to give public speeches. So I encourage your last caller to take a look at Jesse's blog because it talks about that stage fright and how we can get over it. CONAN: Can you guys stay with us a couple of minutes? Professor PERRY: Absolutely. CONAN: OK. We're going to take a few more questions about - well, procrastination. 800-989-8255, if you'd like to join us. Email is talk@npr.org. We'll also go to Chicago and talk about closing arguments today at the R. Kelly trial. I'm Neal Conan. It's the Talk of the Nation from NPR News. (Soundbite of music) CONAN: This is Talk of the Nation. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. We're wrapping up our conversation on procrastination with Tim Pychyl, associate professor and graduate chair of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa. He also writes the blog "Don't Delay" for Psychology Today at psychologytoday.com. And also with us, John Perry, professor of philosophy at Stanford University and co-host of the radio show, "Philosophy Talk," and self-professed structured procrastinator. And I wanted to read you this email we got from Eric. "I believe it's valuable to have at least one particularly onerous task to which one is procrastinating, so when you're on a plane and the wings start to shake and wobble, you can console yourself on your imminent demise with the knowledge that at least you didn't waste your time cleaning out the basement." Dr. PYCHYL: Absolutely. (Soundbite of laughter) Professor PERRY: A deep and profound fellow, that Eric. ` CONAN: He's come up with something that goes to the heart of the human experience. Let's see if we can go to Leslie, Leslie's with us from Overland Park in Kansas. LESLIE: Yes, hello! Hi, thanks for taking my call. I wanted to mention a = I guess kind of a support group that I'm on that helps me and the women on it deal with procrastination. And we keep each other accountable for things that we like to get done. It's based on the web site, flylady.net. And we have email pop-ups that pop up on particular days, things like, I don't want a Wednesday, where you list something you've really been putting off. Or Friday Five, where you list five things that you would really like to accomplish that day. And we have found that it really helps us a lot. CONAN: Tim Pychyl, do you think a support group could be helpful? Dr. PYCHYL: Absolutely. There's two strategies in there that are so important. One was structure, you're starting to structure what you're going to do. But the other one was making your goals public. It's hard to be self-deceiving when other people know what you're doing. It's just excellent. And I think that most of us find that that kind of social support keeps us accountable, and we can't play those games in our heads anymore. And when we do, we have someone to gently nudge us along and help us say, oh, yeah, that is my intention, that is my goal. And we get back on track. LESLIE: Yeah. We also meet personally sometimes for coffee and things like that, and you know, we talk about other things, too. So it's really nice. CONAN: What happens, Leslie, if you don't do the task that you're supposed to do and that people remind you about? I mean, do they come over and whack your kneecaps? LESLIE: Oh, no, no, no. You might - we're not too strict about it. But you might get an email saying, hey, how did you do on your list? CONAN: Aha. LESLIE: So you feel like someone else cares, you know. I found that it does help. And we also remind each other sometimes to use a timer, which is one thing that this woman Flylady says. You can do anything for 15 minutes. If you set a timer, it kind of puts you in a race against the clock, and it's sometimes actually kind of fun because you can wash a lot of pans in 15 minutes. You know, one of those things that we tend to put off, so... Dr. PYCHYL: Yeah. LESLIE: It helps us deal with clutter and to stop our procrastination habits a little bit. So I've really enjoyed the list. CONAN: Leslie, good luck. Thanks very much for the call. LESLIE: Thank you. CONAN: Let's go now to Marie. And Marie has been very patient with us on the line from Mount Kisco in New York. MARIE: Hi, how are you? CONAN: Very well, thanks. MARIE: Good. I've suffered my whole life from what I call clean slate syndrome, which is that there's so many tasks hanging over your head that you just can't start any single one of them because they all have to end up perfect and you know you can't do it. I barely, barely graduated from prep school, only because of my teacher's pity did I make it out. And went off and enlisted in the army to learn a little bit of discipline. And I don't know if it was that or just, you know, eventual maturity, that taught me, number one, just, you know, lie to myself, set my goals a little lower. Say, I'm only going to read two pages because two pages is better than none. And I end up reading all 40 pages. And number two, you know, when there's a plaintiff(ph) behind me, I found enormous value in sort of just ignoring the task that you're doing and recognizing that it's going to be over eventually. It's amazingly helpful! Dr. PYCHYL: I loved both those strategies because once you prime the pump and get going, as you said, you say, I'm going to read two pages, which is a reasonable goal, one you could deal with. And then you find you read 40 because you started. Yeah, I think those strategies make a lot of sense, and I think it's right that you - it's hard to tell whether you kind of just grew up or you got rid of some of those irrational thoughts. MARIE: And reading those two pages lets you forgive yourself because then you congratulate yourself when you finish the 40. Dr. PYCHYL: Absolutely. MARIE: And as you forgive yourself more, you're more and more able to start pat. CONAN: And John Perry, the lowered expectations, is that something that you find valuable? Professor PERRY: Oh, absolutely. And also the timers, that's a great idea. I once had a bunch of alarm clocks so that I used one to wake up and then one went off about 40 minutes that says, go in your study and get to work, and so forth and so on. But it was leading to divorce so I had to abandon that strategy. But the whole idea of getting feedback, public feedback, even if it's from an alarm clock that says, come on, get going, and a to-do list that break things down. You read two pages and if then you have time read a third page. For the procrastinator, these are all great pieces of self-manipulation, which is the secret. CONAN: Marie, thanks very much for the call. MARIE: Well, thank you to all you procrastinators. I feel loved. Professor PRERRY: You are. CONAN: It was just that the idea earlier, not Marie but the caller just before her had the procrastinators' club who would meet from time to time. And I think there have been a million comic strips about, what time does the procrastinators' club meet? It's one of those conundrums I don't think we'll ever answer. Professor. PERRY: Yeah. They haven't decided yet but they intend to decide when they are going to meet anytime soon. CONAN: John Perry, thanks for much for being with us today. Professor PERRY: It was great to be here and great to meet Timothy, my favorite psychologist. (Soundbite of laughter) CONAN: John Perry, professor of philosophy at Stanford University, co-host of the radio show, "Philosophy Talk." He's a self-professed structural procrastinator and with us from the studios of Clear Channel Broadcasting in Modesto, California. And our thanks, as well, to Tim Pychyl. Appreciate your time today, Tim. Dr. PYCHYL: My pleasure. CONAN: Associate professor and graduate chair of psychology at Carlton University in Ottawa. And you can read his blog, "Don't Delay," at psychologytoday.com. And when we come back, we'll go to the R. Kelly trial. Copyright © 2008 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so. This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here and the tablet app roundup here. Apps TeamSpeak Android Police coverage: TeamSpeak Comes To Android, Lets You Voice Chat From Anywhere TeamSpeak, a popular communication method, especially in the gaming communities, is now available on Android. -- TeamSpeak software enables groups of people to speak with one another over any platform or operating system. For over 10 years TeamSpeak has become among the preferred voice chat solutions for online gamers, friends and family, and small businesses world-wide. Most TeamSpeak users typically connect to their guild or clan's TeamSpeak server to chat with fellow team mates, discuss strategy in real-time, or facilitate online events. With this app and TeamSpeak's cross-platform design you can connect to any TeamSpeak server running on Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems and chat with users running the TeamSpeak client on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, or Android. TeamSpeak for Android is optimized to enhance your mobile device experience and keeps you connected with your peers while you're on-the-go. TeamSpeak operates in a similar fashion to Ventrilo and Mumble, but not Skype. You must be connected to a TeamSpeak 3 server to communicate with other users using TeamSpeak (directly connecting to users is not possible). For a list of public servers please download the TeamSpeak client for Windows, Mac, or Linux and choose Connections > Server List or contact your clan/guild/group's administrator for server connection information. To rent your own private server from one of our global Authorized TeamSpeak Host Providers please visit us at www.TeamSpeak.com. FEATURES: * Local bookmarks * Multi-server connectivity * Push-To-Talk (PTT) and voice activation * Identity management * Channel and player information * Player status notifications The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Canon DSLR Controller by Chainfire Android Police coverage: [New App] DSLR Controller Beta Lets You Control Your Canon EOS From Your Android Phone Or Tablet The things Android lets us do - they blow minds every day. What is that - do you want to control your Canon DSLR using your phone? There's now an app for that made by the genius Chainfire (look up his other apps if you don't know him yet). -- DSLR Controller is the first and only app that allows you to fully control your Canon EOS DSLR from your Android device with only a USB cable. No computer or laptop required, no root required, only a compatible mobile device, a compatible camera, and the right USB cable. Features include but are not limited to: - Live View - Auto Focus (tap Live View) - Manual focus adjustments in Auto Focus mode - Histogram - Zoom control - Grid display - Bulb capture - Continuous capture - Extensive modification of settings --- Shutter speed --- Aperture --- Exposure Compensation and Bracket --- Flash Compensation --- ISO speed --- Auto-Focus Mode --- Focus and Zoom area (tap-and-hold Live View) --- Picture Style --- Drive Mode --- White Balance --- Color Temperature --- Auto-Lighting Optimizer --- Metering Mode Sixaxis Controller (root) Android Police coverage: [New App] Sixaxis Controller Lets You Play Games On Your Rooted Android Device Using A Playstation3 Controller In the same vein of "Holy crap, Android can do that?" this app lets you use a PS3 Sixaxis controller to control your rooted Android device. Confirmed working by many and highly impressive, don't you think? -- Finally the wait is over... The ultimate gaming experience awaits! Now you can play games on your phone the way they were meant to be played! Sixaxis Controller allows you to use your Sixaxis and DualShock 3 controllers in many of your favourite games and applications. * IMPORTANT * - ROOT access is required!!! - Due to the way pairing is done with the controllers, you need to manually pair your controller with the PC utility 'SixaxisPairTool' (available on the website) and a mini-USB cable. - Be sure to read the instructions in the help menu carefully. Features: - Up to four Sixaxis and DualShock 3 controllers supported at once - All 17 buttons on the controller can be mapped to any key press in Android - Analog sticks emulated as digital key presses Pano Pano is an award-winning app that lets you take beautiful, seamless panoramic photos straight from your phone, no other software necessary. Pano has gotten rave reviews from hundreds of thousands of users around the world. Features: - Deliciously simple interface - Take 360-degree panoramas with up to sixteen photos - Handy semi-transparent guide helps you line up each shot perfectly - Advanced alignment, blending, and colour-correction algorithms provide seamless images in just seconds - Finished panos save directly to your device - Panos can be resumed if interrupted MAX GO Android Police coverage: HBO Releases MAX GO - A Full Episode/Movie Streaming Android App For Cinemax Subscribers Introducing MAX GO®. The new streaming service from Cinemax®. Instantly access over 400 of the biggest Hollywood hit movies, indie favorites, and Max After Dark Series – now available on Android smartphones. It’s free with your Cinemax subscription through participating television providers. Secure Settings plugin for Tasker/Locale Android Police coverage: [New App] 'Secure Settings' Brings An Insane Amount Of Advanced And Root Features To Tasker/Locale Users See the app's description for the insane amount of new functionality Secure Settings brings to Tasker/Locale. A true masterpiece for advanced Tasker users. -- Secure Settings is a Tasker/Locale compatible Plugin for Android 2.2 and up. In order for this application to work properly, one of these applications must be installed! THIS IS A MUST HAVE FOR TASKER POWER USERS!! Bord Excellent chalkboard app with support for both phones and tablets. If you have kids, it's a must. -- Turn your device into a beautiful chalkboard. Bord unique features: - Realistic chalk - Create drawings using six colors and three thicknesses of chalk. You can draw even with 10 fingers at once! - Realistic sponge - Clean drawings with a sponge which left subtle traces of chalk. To completely erase the drawing shake device! - Playback drawing - Load your saved drawings with playback of drawing in realtime or in different speeds! - Email & Facebook - Send your drawings on e-mail and make your grandma happy! Post your creations directly on Facebook! - Tablets - Bord fully supports tablets with Android Honeycomb 3.0 (ex. Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab, HTC Flyer) Cyanide & Happiness If you, like me, are a fan of C&H (and by that I don't mean Calvin and Hobbes), you're going to want to jump on their official Android app. -- The hit webcomic Cyanide & Happiness (Explosm.net) is now here for Android. * Comic Archive: Get access to all ~1,800 C&H comics in an easy-navigable archive. Get new comics the second they're available, or somehow bend the rules of space and time and get them even earlier! * Shake for random! * Portrait/Landscape viewing. * Favorites: Save your favorite comics for quick (and offline!) viewing later. Impress your friends! Impress your enemies! Impress otherwise apathetic people! It's really versatile! * Animated Shorts: Watch streaming C&H animated shorts from the comfort of anywhere. * News: Read all about upcoming events, books, announcements, the works! * Seizure Mode: Shake! TekTrak Mobile Security Android Police coverage: TekTrak Mobile Security Comes To Android, Offers Cross-Platform Protection With iOS For A Full Family Solution I tried TekTrak last week and it quickly became one of my favorite security/recovery apps. With a free trial and $5/year fee, it doesn't break the bank, but provides a lot of valuable cross-platform features, so that you can track your whole family from the same site. In all of my tests, TekTrak worked without a hitch. My favorite differentiating feature - location history. And here's a little tip for you - if you go to GetJar's Gold apps list right now, you can grab the Pro version of TekTrak (basically, a 1-year account) for free. -- Never lose your device again! TekTrak is a security application for your Android device, which allows you to find your phone/tablet, in case it gets lost or misplaced, and secure any private information stored on the device. Remote Locate Last Known Location Remote Ring Location History Remote Lock/Unlock Data Wipe Send Message Remote Wi-Fi Enabling MultiLock The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Android Police coverage: [New App] Football Fans, Listen Up: Official NFL Fantasy Football 2011 App Is Here Manage your NFL.com Fantasy Football teams on the go. The official 2011 NFL.com Fantasy Football app lets you perform crucial fantasy tasks: • Join or create a league • Check live fantasy scoring • Sit/Start and Add/Drop players • Propose and accept trades • Read up-to-the minute player news • Manage teams in multiple leagues The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Gogo Inflight Internet Gogogo! -- Just because you’re in the air, doesn’t mean you should be without Internet access! With the free Gogo app, you get quick and easy sign-in to Wi-Fi in the sky, every time you fly a Gogo equipped flight. The app automatically detects the gogoinflight signal, leaving you more time to surf the skies, and less time fumbling with your phone settings. Just sign in, and get online in air, with the touch of a button. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Fox Sports Mobile FOX Sports brings you the most comprehensive sports app available. Why download multiple apps for each of your favorite sports and teams? The FOX Sports app does all of this for free. Sports covered: - NFL and NCAA Football - MLB - NBA, WNBA and NCAA Basketball (men’s and women’s) - NHL - NASCAR - Golf - Tennis - Soccer (MLS, Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, and more) - MMA & Boxing - Motorsports (F1 & IndyCar) A brilliantly simple idea, although really - it's probably easier to remember those birthday reminder emails that Facebook sends out weekly. Complete with a horribly ugly (but functional) widget. -- You will never forget their birthday again. Facebook Birthday Scheduler won´t let you miss your Fb friends´ birthday. Choose the date, the message you want to send, the time and stop worrying. Facebook Birthday Scheduler will do the work for you! The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Scottrade Mobile Android Police coverage: Scottrade Releases Android App That Lets You Stream Real-time Quotes, Trade Stocks, And More [Video] Free real-time quotes without a Scottrade account? Account management, trading, and research? Yes, please. -- Everything you need for secure online trading, right from your phone. Get mobile trading functionality in a secure, easy to use app, plus: • Real-time streaming quotes • Market news, analyst views & insider moves • Price alerts & conditional orders • Scottrade SmartText™ for technical analysis This app is free to everyone. Scottrade customers can also manage accounts and trade. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Media Converter Very intriguing idea, but beware of how data-heavy this app can get. -- Convert Video, Audio, Images, Documents, E-books and archives between nearly any file formats! The most complete and full-featured file converter on the market! VIDEOS: Convert nearly any format to 3GP, 3G2, FLV, MKV, MP4, MPEG-2, OGG, WEBM, or WMV. AUDIO: Convert nearly any audio format to MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA, AAC, FLAC, M4A, or MMF. IMAGES: Convert nearly any format to JPG, PNG, BMP, EPS, GIF, HDR, EXR, SVG, TGA, TIFF, WBMP, or WEBP. DOCUMENTS: Convert just about anything to PDF, DOC, TXT, ODT, FLASH, or HTML. EBOOKS: Convert ebooks between many formats such as EPUB, MOBI, PDF, LRF, FB2, LIT, PDB, TCR. ARCHIVES: Convert files to archives, or convert between archive formats! Supports ZIP, BZ2, 7Z, and GZ. Presto!BizCard Free A very impressive business card app - probably the first I've considered actually using. -- Capture, save and organize your business cards. Presto! BizCard app offers you a quick and convenient way to scan and add your business cards directly into your phone using the most accurate OCR technology available. Simply take a picture of your business card or select from your photo library, BizCard converts it to your contacts instantly. Between swiping through your business card images or from text mode, you can easily find the right contacts at your finger tip. No matter making calls, texting or browsing the contacts, the advanced business card management system provides many ways to make your life easier. You simply find the contacts you need and get in touch from there. Features: -Automatically rotate card images -Retrieve business cards quickly by swiping the images or via Smart Search -Steady mode allows you to accurately capture business cards smoothly -Magnifies selected image fields to provide easy verification -Sort card information by name or company -Make calls, send E-mail or SMS with the customizable quick access buttons -Export information to built-in Contacts -Send business cards via SMS or E-mail in vCard, plain text or image format -Supported image formats include: JPG, PNG, and BMP The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Twitvid Twitvid lets you post videos or photos on Twitter or Facebook from your Android device. IKEA Catalogue My reddit submission The IKEA catalogue for Android. My reddit submission headline for this app was something like "and you don't even need to compile it while looking at instructions drawn by 2-year-olds." However, beware of the catalog size - I'm pretty sure right now the app downloads it into your device's internal memory and cannot be moved to SD. /facepalm -- - Flip pages back and forth using 'swipe' gestures. - Easy First, Previous, Next and Last navigation toolbar. - Zoom in and out of any page to get a closer look using double tap and multi touch (pinch) gestures. - Jump straight to any page simply typing in the page number - Handy thumbnail navigation for even quicker page flipping! - Table of contents: The familiar print catalogue colour-coded index is now included with handy links directly to the main sections. - Search: Search the entire catalogue simply and quickly by keyword and phrases. - Bookmarks: Found what you want? Save those pages, and customise the name for easy reference when you are ready to visit our store. - Share: Share pages or products through e-mail, facebook or Twitter to family and friends! - Products: Tap on the “+” sign and get an image, basic information and product price, tap on the handy more information link to get detailed product information. - Store locator: Find an IKEA store close to you! Visual Traceroute Visual Traceroute will show you, on a map, the path your data travels to any server in the world. Very easy to use, just enter the server's name and press go. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Chop Chop Free Android Police review: [Review] Chop Chop Looks To Cut Down Note-Taking Competitors Chop Chop is a fast note-taking tool that makes data input easy, even at your most inconvenient time. Key Features - 4 data functions: Numbers, Words, Checklist, Pairs. - App Widgets at home screen for instant note taking. (Full-Version) - Automatically creates entry when copied to clipboard. (Full-Version) - Recognizes Phone numbers, email, latitude and longitude. - Ability to export to CSV, TXT format. (Full-Version) - Search your notes easily. - Backup and restore your notes with ease. - Share via Facebook, Twitter, Email, Whatsapp, SMS and many more. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Intuit Online Payroll Now you can pay your employees anytime, anywhere with just a few taps. Key Features* - Preview employee paychecks before approving - Pay employees with Direct Deposit or manual paychecks - View a report of last payroll run - Quick access to individual employee information - Automatically syncs with your Intuit Online Payroll account Payroll products supported - Intuit Online Payroll - QuickBooks Online Payroll - QuickBooks Payroll for Mac Double Parked Simple, yet well designed app that beats fiddling with timers and alarms. The title is quite misleading, but I suppose the author was going after the cool name factor. -- Take parking to the next level, use this mobile app to keep track of how much time is left until you have to move your car. Features: the time you parked, current time & time left until you have to move your car. Includes a fully customizable alarm (play your own mp3's) Qriocity Video Unlike the music service from Sony's Qriocity, the video service is only available to Xperia-branded phones. Fine, don't take my money, Sony! Oh well... -- Want the hottest new movie releases and popular television shows delivered right to your phone? You can watch anytime, anywhere with Qriocity! With thousands of movie titles, you can enjoy the latest hits from Hollywood, as well as all the classic films you love, from all major studios. Plus, you’ve got options. Choose to purchase for rent or own most titles. This application is only supported if you have a Sony Ericsson Xperia™ phone with the latest Sony Ericsson software (version 4). The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Facebook Messenger Android Police coverage: [Update: Now Available] Facebook Introduces Messenger, A Powerful Mobile Extension To Chat Android Police review: [Review] If Facebook Messenger Can Keep Sync Instant And Reliable, It Is Worth Your Time With Facebook Messenger, you can reach friends right on their phones, get and send messages fast, message everyone at once and more. Top Features - Message friends, groups of friends or anyone in your mobile contacts - Map your location, find your friends and make plans on the go - Get mobile notifications so you never miss a message - Include photos so friends can see what you're doing Marriott International Whoa, a hotel app that doesn't suck? Color me impressed. -- With the free Marriott Mobile app, you can: - Make hotel reservations at 3,600+ hotels and resorts in 70 countries, 24/7 from anywhere - Access your Marriott Rewards account or enroll in the Rewards program - Find hotels near your current position with GPS functionality - Browse hotel photos, maps, and amenities - View upcoming reservations - Browse city guides with helpful tips about your destinations - Call a hotel or get help immediately with Marriott reservations via phone (if supported by your device) - Cancel upcoming reservations - Do all this securely just like you would on Marriott.com. Skitch by Evernote Evernote, which just announced its acquisition of Skitch, already released the Skitch app into the Market. Notable is its simplicity and integration with Evernote (which is probably why they bought it in the first place). Oh, and it's free. -- Skitch is the fun and fast way to create great-looking annotated images, snapshots and sketches of ideas. It’s the perfect way to quickly draw attention to anything in a picture; take a snapshot of something awesome, draw an arrow and add a caption, then post the image on Twitter or Facebook. When you’re at a conference, snap a picture of the people you meet, annotate it with their names and save it into Evernote. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Comcast SportsNet Get the best local sports coverage from Comcast SportsNet wherever you are! Stay up-to-date on your favorite local teams with breaking news, instant analysis, scores, stats, schedules, exclusive articles and columns from CSN Insiders and more. Be the first to know everything about your favorite baseball, football, hockey and basketball teams – all from the convenience of your mobile device. Covering: - Bay Area sports (including San Francisco, Bay Area, San Jose. Oakland) - Chicago sports - New England sports (including Boston) - Philly sports - Washington, DC sports Pops Android Police coverage: [New App] 'Pops' Brings Vivid Animated Notifications To Your Android Phone Watch the video - don't trust the pictures and text. -- Pops will notify you about incoming messages - whether emails, SMS, Facebook or Twitter - with stunning onscreen videos and animations from an ever-growing gallery. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch FLUD News FLUD organizes your favorite news sites and blogs into a sexy award-winning interface, putting you fully in charge of the front page! You’re dragging feeds side to side to compare what is new. You’re dragging articles up and down to check out the latest headlines, newest to oldest. You always see the latest and its always a blast. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Sky Sports News As expected, this app seems to be locked down to UK devices. -- Get the latest sports stories via the all new Sky Sports News Android App. Gifinator Gifinator is an animated gif creator that is super easy to use! Just touch the screen to take pictures, tweak your animation, and share your gif with your friends! Now anyone can have fun with stop motion! Taste of Home aste of Home's recipe app brings you thousands of delicious recipes featuring the season's freshest flavors right to your phone from the #1 food & entertaining magazine in the world. Each season we will bring you new recipe collections, filled with Taste of Home's best recipes for fresh fruits and veggies, plus recipes perfect for holiday parties and potlucks. With a photo and easy-to-follow directions for each recipe, plus nutrition facts and reader-submitted tips, it's simple to find the perfect recipes for family dinners or special occasions. The Taste of Home app allows you to browse for recipes by course, cooking style, cuisine, ingredients or holidays, save your favorite recipes to find again easily, and share your favorites with friends through email and Facebook. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Gismeteo Weather Forecast Gismeteo is one good looking weather app - I'll give them that. -- Official and absolutely free weather application for Android from Gismeteo. ✔ Current weather all over the world (temperature, wind, air pressure etc.); ✔ your own photo for every favorite place; ✔ weather forecast for 7 days; ✔ detailed forecast for 48 hours; ✔ geomagnetic storm and other alerts; ✔ local weather; ✔ quick switching through favorite places; ✔ widgets for home screen; ✔ support of Russian, Ukrainian and English languages. TouchRetouch Free Android Police review: [(P)Review] TouchRetouch Fixes Your Photos, Removes Your Need For Photography Skills TouchRetouch was previously available only as a paid version. This is the free version so you can try it for however long you want. -- TouchRetouch Free is an award-winning photo editor that allows you to remove unwanted content or objects from any photo, using just your finger and your phone. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Room 77 Checking in to a hotel? Find the perfect hotel room in our database of 500,000+ rooms across thousands of hotels in 30 destinations (and counting). Like you, we know all rooms are not created equal. Room 77 helps you find the perfect room to request based on your preferences. Use our hotel room search engine to get important details and land a great room. Submit room reviews & photos to help fellow travelers find the best rooms. FriendCaster Chat If you don't like the official Facebook Chat app, give FriendCaster Chat a go, especially if you're already using the main FriendCaster app instead of the official Facebook app. -- FriendCaster Chat for Facebook is the latest and greatest new Facebook chat app. Keep up with your facebook friends quickly and easily with our beautifully designed and easy to use interface. Mark your "favorite" facebook friends for even faster access. Choose your own color theme (we offer 5 themes right now with many more to come). In addition, FriendCaster Chat seamlessly integrates with FriendCaster for Facebook, the top 3rd party facebook app here in the Android Market. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch The Going To Bed Book Android Police coverage: [App For Kids] The Going To Bed Book Is An Illustratively Rich Children's Book For Android, From The Makers Of The Tale Of Peter Rabbit I'm not a kid (well, maybe at heart), but I can still appreciate every Loud Crow Android pop-up book. If you have kids, the creativity and interaction levels of these books are going to blow their minds (in a good way). Check out the video to see what I'm talking about. -- The first digital Sandra Boynton book app is here, and it’s completely terrific. Far beyond any e-book experience, The Going to Bed Book app has all the magic and appeal of a traditional pop-up book, offering lively interactivity and thoroughly mesmerizing discovery. Imagine! An ark that rocks. Characters that respond to touch with sound and movement. Tap water that turns on and off, and steam that fogs the screen. Can you write your name in the steam? Of course! There are teeth to brush, and a group exercise session with ten pajama-clad animals (big and small) each with its own unique exercise. Help the little piggy turn off the lights, then rock yourself to sleep to the music box sound of twinkling stars. There's something wonderful to discover on every page. Phereo for 3D devices Phereo 3D allows to browse through thousands of 3D images and share your own stereo photos on Phereo.com. Application shows stereo on HTC EVO 3D: fully supports its stereoscopic display and built-in stereo camera. Splat Splat Lite OK, OK, I can hear your rumblings already, but let me explain why this app made it in. First of all, it's extremely well designed and polished. Second of all, it's completely useless... until you realize that it has one-click sharing of your final masterpieces. Combine it with the ease of pulling photos of your Facebook friends, and there it is - instant value right there. Of course, it's all in good fun, but I've gotten a few friends who haven't seen themselves with tomato juice all over their faces in a while (perhaps too long of a while /squints eyes). -- SplatSplat is an angst-reduction App that allows you to chuck virtual tomatoes at your friends and then share the resulting picture on Facebook or via email. Use the photos on your phone/tablet, or any of the pictures of your Facebook friends. They all become targets for you to throw tomatoes, pizza, rotten eggs or watermelons. Splat Splat includes Immersion’s MOTIV haptic effects. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Citi ThankYou Rewards Search, scan and redeem for select ThankYou rewards in-store at Best Buy with your phone. Plus, you can browse the rewards collection, check your points balance, and choose your shipping method on the go. Just log in with your registered ThankYou* Member Account user name and password to: - Scan item barcodes off the shelf to see how many points you’ll need to redeem them - Redeem your points for in-store or ship them to your address - Find the nearest retailer to pick up your reward using our store locator - Check your points balance and browse the rewards collection with our secure login The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch My Vodafone My Vodafone lets you keep track of your Vodafone account usage. Texas Instruments No, it's not a calculator app from TI (/insert sad face), which is why it occupies the last place in today's roundup. -- TI's app for Android is the design engineer's best resource for information related to TI's parts. Currently, you can use it to learn about TI parts, share their information with your colleagues, and otherwise plan your designs from any place with 3G or WiFi access. Soon, you will be able to use the app to sample and buy TI's parts, as well. Games We posted the game roundup separately - see here. Live Wallpapers Hologram Live Wallpaper This is one surreal live wallpaper - just watch the video. I especially like the rotating poo. -- Hologram Live Wallpaper allows you to create a 3D hologram as your home screen. The screen moves as you move and creates a 3D depth to the scene. Drumroll... I shit you not (pun intended): The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Widgets Android Pro Widgets A nice set of widgets, especially for people with Sense withdrawals. -- Advanced widgets package with many themes and features. A set of powerful and extremely useful home screen widgets. Designed for both smart phones and tablets All widgets contain advanced features hard to be found on other products. Try it! Scrolling is supported on all devices and all launchers (Read notes 2 and 3 below). Available widgets: Agenda & Calendar People Bookmarks Messaging Facebook Twitter Timeline [Licensed version only] Quick Event - Quick Calendar event insertion tool w/ native language processing and speech recognition capabilities. For Tablets We posted the tablet roundup separately - see here. WTF App(s) Of The Week Rocket Boy Sorry guys, this roundup is a bit dry on WTF apps, but I did manage to find one that is so hilariously bad that it immediately stood out. The description is pretty lollerrific as well. P.S. Yup, it's as bad as it looks. -- Rocket Boy is a action game. Touch and launch the Rocket-Boy. Let's move the Rocket-Boy from a rocket to a rocket by timing. The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch Know A Worthy New App? Let Us Know! If you have an application in mind for the next issue of the roundup, feel free to send us an email and let us know. Important: there are 2 requirements in order for the app to be considered, listed below. the app's launch date has to be no longer than 2 weeks ago it has to be original, ground-breaking, well-reviewed, interesting, fun, etc - the cream of the crop Now, if and only if the above requirements have been satisfied, fire up an email to this address: [email protected]. 1 sponsored placement per week is available (your app would be featured at the top and marked as sponsored) - please contact us for details.

The “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video provided the definitive image of Nirvana and the ’90s alt-rock boom at large. It’s one of the most iconic music videos ever made, casting Nirvana as the entertainment at a high school pep rally populated with anarchist cheerleaders and a janitor prone to mop-dancing. Now All That Is Interesting (via CoS) has shed some light on how it was made. Below, find director Samuel Bayer’s casting call for the video, which summons fans ages 18-25 to Stage 6 at GMT Studios in Culver City, California on 8/17/91. They’re instructed to adopt a high-school “personna” (sic) and be ready to stay for several hours. Reading this unexpected artifact is a lot more fun than being an extra, and it requires a lot less patience. And of course you’ll want to watch the video again now:

President Obama may have invited Ahmed Mohamed to bring his now-famous homemade clock to the White House — but the high schooler is going to have to get it back from the cops first. Mohamed’s family has hired lawyers to get it back after police seized it during his wrongful arrest earlier this month, according to a Wednesday report by NBC News. Mohamed, 14, was arrested at his high school in a Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas earlier this month when police mistakenly thought his clock, which he brought to school to impress his teacher, was a bomb. Afterward, Mohamed received invitations to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, and Facebook. He also got an invitation to go to the White House from President Obama: Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great. — President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015 Two lawyers from Dallas had been hired “to pursue Ahmed’s legal rights and regain his science project from the Irving Police Department,” according to a statement Wednesday from the family, as cited by NBC. Ahmed and his two siblings were also removed from the district and homeschooled, “because of religious persecution,” the statement said, according to NBC.

By Ma’an News Agency \| – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces Friday suppressed Bethlehem’s “Santa Claus March,” shooting tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at participants, with many suffering from tear gas inhalation. A number of demonstrators, including five journalists and foreigners, participated in a march near the Israeli checkpoint 300 in the north of Bethlehem, which separates residents from Jerusalem. The march, which includes participants dressing up as Santa Claus close to the Christian holiday of Christmas, was launched under the banner “Terrorism and occupation are two sides of the same coin,” and demanded the opening of Israeli checkpoints for Christian tourists to celebrate the holiday in the birthplace of Jesus Christ. A Ma’an reporter witnessed Israeli forces fire rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas into the crowd, which caused a number of participants to suffer tear gas inhalation. Five journalists were also injured, including the cameraman for the Jordanian al-Roya TV Muhammad Shoudha. Israeli forces reportedly fired tear gas canisters directly at his foot. An Israeli border police spokesperson told Ma’an that “15 men in the afternoon threw rocks at Israeli soldiers,” he said, adding that “some of them were dressed as Santa Claus and tried to cross the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.” The spokesperson also said that two Israeli soldiers were injured by rocks being thrown at them. The injuries were reported as light. This was the second such march to be organized this year in Bethlehem for the Christian holidays. Israeli-imposed restrictions on Palestinian movement, regulated by more than 196 illegal Israeli settlements scattered across Palestinian territory, more than a hundred Israeli checkpoints and physical obstacles, and the construction of the Israeli separation wall has continued to strain the movement of Palestinians and has caused the tourism industry to plummet. Christmas is typically a time of year where Bethlehem receives droves of Christian tourists visiting the Nativity Church in the Old City, however activists have pointed out that the tourism industry has severely declined, with Israeli authorities continuing to tighten control over Palestinian movement as the Israeli occupation now enters its 50th year.

On Feb. 23, Jackson Riemerschmid and his friend Jacob Weingast addressed the New Rochelle Board of Education in New York with a letter — a letter signed by 40 New Rochelle High School students explaining the problem they had with their graduation gowns. For years, girls were expected to wear white gowns while boys were expected to wear purple, and that made Riemerschmid, 17, Weingast and many of his peers uncomfortable. In fact, to them, this system of assigning colors by gender was "archaic," and had "no place in our community," according to Talk of the Sound. At the meeting with the school board, Weingast read the letter aloud and afterward, Riemerschmid talked about his own experience transitioning while being a student at New Rochelle High School, and why those graduation gowns were such a problem. They were there to fight for more inclusion. Jackson Riemerschmid Mic/Courtesy of Jackson Riemerschmid Riemerschmid said he realized the issue the second he applied for graduation. "They hand out to all the seniors a slip of paper that asks your height, your weight and your gender," Riemerschmid said in a phone interview. "It says 'male' and 'female.' I just came out as trans this year. I was freaking out and saying, 'What do I put?' because on my records I'm female but I identify as a male." Weingast thought similarly and weeks before the board meeting, they approached the principal, Reginald Richardson, together to explain that the gowns (and the form for them) weren't inclusive to transgender and non-binary people. For Riemerschmid, the colors signified even more than just the separation and identification of two genders. "Not only the gender aspect but just the fact that girls wearing white to signify purity and virginity, and guys are wearing purple, which is supposed to signify royalty," he said. "I found that to be sexist. "Additionally, trans and non-binary students go through so many things like locker rooms and bathrooms and the school's asking them to define themselves along a binary they don't identify with at all." Surprisingly to both of them, Richardson understood and encouraged the two to take the issue to the Board of Education. And in March, less than three weeks after Riemerschmid and Weingast presented their letter, students won the right to choose the color of their gown, regardless of the gender filed in their records, with Richardson promising just one gown color for everyone in 2017, therefore ending New Rochelle's practice of assigning graduation gowns by gender. "As we support all of our students on the path to adulthood, we have come to know that a number of them have begun the journey of identifying as transgender, gender neutral, gender-fluid or non-binary gender," Richardson wrote in an email to the community. "Having a single color cap and gown for graduation is an important step toward creating an atmosphere that allows all of our students to enjoy the capstone event of their high school career equally, without the anxiety or fear that gender-specific colors might cause." Assigning graduation gowns by gender is yet another uncomfortable inconvenience (much like bathrooms and locker rooms) to people who don't define themselves as one gender or another, or identify themselves as a gender they weren't originally assigned. The color of one's gown, and what it can signify, is a minor detail that has larger implications, so it was important for Riemerschmid, who is graduating in June, to fight for this now so classes behind him and trans and non-binary individuals after him don't have any sort of anxiety when they're about to graduate. After all, high school can already be pretty tough. Read more: Yale to Offer Students Gender Neutral Bathrooms In bringing the issue of gender-neutral graduation gowns to the attention of his school and school board, Riemerschmid joined a legion of young people who have done (and are doing) the very same thing. Over the past few years, more and more young people have petitioned for the color of their high school graduation gowns to not be reliant on a person's gender for the sake of inclusion. In 2013, a transgender student at Fostoria High School in Ohio fought for — and won — their right to dress in the color correlating to their gender. In Maryland's Montgomery County in 2015, three schools opted for gender-neutral gowns after student petitions, with five more added to the list to change by 2016. In February, students in Greenwich, Connecticut, fought against girls having to wear white, while boys wear red. Currently, students in East Haddam, Connecticut, want to do away with their blue-for-boys and white-for-girls graduation dress code. "Schools around the country are beginning to reconsider their policies to ensure that unspoken assumptions and long-held ideas about gender don't have a discriminatory effect on their students," Eliza Byard, the executive director of the national Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, told the Washington Post in 2015. Source: Mic/Jackson Riemerschmid This new wave of bucking tradition comes at a time when more and more LGBTQ youth are living their truths, with less than half of teens now, according to a recent report, identifying as heterosexual. Additionally, 56% of teens report knowing someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns like "them," "they" or "ze." "It's become less of an oddity now, and we're getting more comfortable with being ourselves," Riemerschmid said. Even in the public eye, it's young people who are most outspoken about things like gender and gender norms. In the past few months, Jaden Smith, 17, modeled in a skirt more than once and spoke out against gendered clothing. "I'm just saying that I've never seen any distinction," Smith told GQ Style. "I don't see man clothes and woman clothes, I just see scared people and comfortable people." Smith is hardly alone. Amandla Stenberg, 17, also recently came out as bisexual and discussed using they/them/their pronouns on her Tumblr. Rowan Blanchard, 14, recently came out as queer as well. With celebrities like these in the public eye, Generation Z seems to be the most open generation about their gender and sexuality on record, and that's helping increase both visibility and understanding among young people. With a majority of young people more understanding of the issues facing transgender and non-binary people than previous generations, this fight for gender-neutral graduation gowns seems natural. However, the different proposed policy changes across the country haven't avoided backlash. In Greenwich, a Change.org petition was launched online, criticizing the move to augment the gowns' colors. Change.org Students at New Rochelle High School (L) and students at Greenwich High School "It is tradition that the graduating class at Greenwich High School is presented their diplomas in front of a crowd of fellow students in red and white gowns," the petition, which garnered over 400 signatures, reads. "At our last Greenwich High School event we should be given a final opportunity to exercise our freedom with responsibility by expressing both of our school colors." Days after the petition launched, Greenwich headmaster Chris Winters ditched the idea for gender-neutral gowns entirely. In an open letter, Greenwich Time reported, Winters said he regretted not surveying students before throwing the idea out there. That's not to say every effort has been met without controversy. A Change.org petition was launched against Riemerschmid and Weingast's efforts with more than 800 signatures. "I'm signing because this entire discussion is based on CHOICES," one signee wrote. "New Rochelle is not unique in this discussion; school officials are deciding all over the country to striping the CHOICES from their communities." Even after the principal signed off on the policy to let students choose whatever color gown they want to wear when they graduate, Riemerschmid faced a much more serious threat from the opposition. In March, his car was vandalized, first with his side-view mirror getting torn off and then, days later, the back of his car was smashed in and the weapon used (a hammer) was left at the scene. Source: Mic/Courtesy of Jackson Riemerschmid "Honestly I don't harbor any bad feelings towards those people," Riemerschmid said. "They don't understand what this means to us. Even reading the comments on the counter-petition, it shows me how little they understand about what gender identity means." Riemerschmid said the threats he faced were worth it, given that now classes after him and non-binary students who are younger than him won't be put in an uncomfortable position upon graduating. "It just takes initiative whether it be from the administrative point of view or individual," he said. "Even with grad gowns, tons of people who were like, 'Yeah, sure I support trans people' but as soon as they had to change their colors, people started putting on the brakes. We just need a larger understanding of what this means to people because to us, it means a lot." In June, Riemerschmid and Weingast and some of their friends who identify as male and some of their friends who identify as female and their friends who identify as neither will all be proudly wearing purple.

Smartphone use, however, is growing, and Okryu's presence suggests that the government does not consider the technology to be a threat to the country's rigid social order. While cellphones are still largely absent from the countryside, it has become common to see people using them while walking down the streets of the capital. After years in which it limited mobile phones to elites or banned them entirely, North Korea began allowing their broad use in 2008. By 2013, the number of mobile and smartphones mushroomed to about 2 million, or nearly one for every 10 North Koreans. Last year, North Korea's mobile phone network, Koryolink, started allowing customers to use their phones to look at a very limited number of local websites — such as the ruling party newspaper, the state news agency, a TV show download site, a local university site and a science and technology site called "Hot Wind." Okryu (pronounced ong-yu) is managed by the General Bureau of Public Service, a government organization that oversees shops, restaurants and producers of consumer goods. Bureau official Jong Sol Hwa recently confirmed the online shopping site, announced with much pride by state media last month, is up and running. It's impossible to say how popular the new site is or if the average North Korean shopper is even aware of it. The site's managers haven't announced statistics about page views, unique users or sales volume. During a demonstration for an AP Television News crew, a bureau official clicked on the site for the Kumsong Food Factory in Pyongyang and scrolled down to a pack of cream buns, which brought up a new page with that item and its price — 78 North Korean won (less than 1 U.S. dollar, depending on which exchange rate is applied), which is in line with prices at stores in Pyongyang. The next step is to type in how many packs the user wants and tap the buy button. After hitting confirm, the purchase is finished. How were the goods delivered? And when? Those questions weren't answered in the demonstration, though they are critical to the website's success. Foreigners — whether they are inside or outside North Korea — are barred from using the service. North Korean shoppers may find it particularly useful that the site lists similar items together so they can compare prices. That is a luxury here because advertising is nearly non-existent and traveling to do bargain-hunting can be difficult. Evidently, the socialist country is content to inject some competition into its virtual world.

When it comes to draft prospects, comparisons to NFL players are easy to make but difficult to legitimize. You might have heard that University of Pittsburgh defensive tackle Aaron Donald seems very similar to Bengals All-Pro Geno Atkins. Both are undersized, pass-rushing, three-technique tackles. Scouts have made the comparisons. Chiefs general manager John Dorsey told TheMMQB.com that it’s fair, too. And now, Atkins has given the comparison his stamp of approval. "Yes, definitely," Atkins told TheMMQB.com this week. "He has the tool set and skills to be a dominant three technique: motor, speed, leverage and strength. I’m definitely looking forward to see what he does in the league." Atkins wasn’t drafted until the fourth round in 2010 by Cincinnati. Now Donald is being talked about as a first-round selection after a decorated college career and, like Atkins, an impressive Senior Bowl week during which he looked unstoppable. How did that happen? Atkins (6-1, 293 pounds at the combine) busted the mold and paved the way for players like Donald (6-1, 288 at Senior Bowl). "I think [Atkins] showed that if you can play, you can play no matter your size," Donald said this week from Arizona, where he was training at Athletes Performance Institute. "If you can be productive, make plays and help the team win games, that's what it's all about. He did that and all the teams passed on him because they thought he was undersized. I bet a lot of teams are regretting that now. He's one of the best three techniques in the NFL for sure. The success he's having in the NFL, I think he paved the way for a lot of guys that were undersized." Atkins was a little bit of a different prospect. He wasn’t a flashy player at Georgia with 11 sacks and 33.5 tackles for a loss in his four-year career. The only time he made the All-SEC team was in ’07, his sophomore season. Donald won the Lombardi Award for the nation’s top lineman or linebacker, and became the fourth player to win both the Nagurski Award (top defensive player) and Outland (top interior lineman) after leading the country with 28.5 tackles for a loss as a senior. Donald had 29.5 career sacks. "He'd probably be the first pick in the draft," Belichick says of Atkins now. "The guy can ruin a game by himself." Don’t expect NFL teams to make the same mistake they did with Atkins. "He’d probably be the first pick in the draft," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said of Atkins before facing Cincinnati last season. "He was an athletic guy that you saw maybe as a sub rusher, a nickel sub rusher, but he’s way more than that. . . . This guy has some power rushes where he just takes linemen back, those guards back and it just looks like they’re on roller skates. He just walks them, literally, right back into the quarterback. He’s very quick. He can get the edge and work up or up-and-under on the guards. Then when they try to set deep or take those quick moves away from him, he can turn those into power moves and collapse the pocket. He can ruin a game, there’s no question the guy can ruin a game by himself." Donald shows the same type of disruptive potential as Atkins. Donald owned the one-on-one pass rush drills against top offensive linemen at the Senior Bowl (he won 12 of 15 battles) just as Atkins did in ’10. Donald used a variety of moves and, in what will be very important in the pros, he showed he can win with both quickness and power. Possess only one of those traits, and you might last a long time as a role player. Use both, and you can be a star in the NFL. Donald has decent arm and hand length despite his size, and uses them violently at the point of attack. His feet are too quick to be cut. Donald is going to be a problem to block for 60 minutes. The game film backs it up as well. There isn’t much he can’t do. "Just by his performance here [at the Senior Bowl], he's caught a lot of the scouts' eyes," Dorsey said in Mobile. "He uses his quickness and athleticism; he's probably a better fit in the 4-3 than a 3-4 scheme. I think he's helped himself this week and shown he'll be able to play at a high level in the NFL." Donald (left)more than held his own against the top talent at the Senior Bowl in January, dispelling notions that he thrived against weaker competition at Pitt. (G.M. Andrews/AP) Donald (left)more than held his own against the top talent at the Senior Bowl in January, dispelling notions that he thrived against weaker competition at Pitt. (G.M. Andrews/AP) Even though talents like Atkins and Donald can find a home in any scheme, they are ideally suited to play just one position: three technique (on the outside shoulder of a guard, next to a legit nose tackle) in a 4-3, so that will eliminate some teams as far as Donald’s draftability. But the Atkins lesson will be on each team’s mind. "I think what happens is when you take a player that’s productive (in college) and maybe there's a deficiency in some area, whether it’s height, weight, arm length or hands, what teams will do then is say, ‘OK, how does that affect the scheme we're in?'" Rams general manger Les Snead said. "The key is always when you take that type of player, having a plan for success, a detailed plan for success: how you're going to use him in your scheme and then always the perseverance to execute the plan. But you always go wait a minute, we have a guy who's maybe a rectangle in a square, but this guy's a really good rectangle. How can we use him? "Somebody is going to come out of every draft that maybe you didn't have rated as high as he played to. I think good organizations say, ‘Let's look at that case study and learn from it.’ You can't change it, but you can learn from it. I think Geno is one of those cases. What did we all miss on him? We all learned something from that." Donald will have a few more things going for him as well heading into the draft. While there was some question about Atkins’ desire—he’s proved to be a bit of an ambivalent superstar given his laidback nature—Donald is a nonstop, in-your-face competitor. He’s going to take that to the NFL Scouting Combine this week in Indianapolis where Donald said he’s going to “shock” people with his physical testing. He could best all the marks Atkins put up in ’10, including running an unheard of 4.6 40-yard dash at nearly 290 pounds. The Big Board Where does Aaron Donald rank among the Top 50 prospects in the draft, according to Andy Staples? FULL STORY "Everything that I do, I want to be the best at it. That's why I want to shock a lot of people," Donald said. "They probably think I'm going to do this and do that, and I want to exceed expectations." Donald has also grown to love film study, which has been a key to Atkins’ rapid rise from situational pass rusher as a rookie to All-Pro. Donald was known to be the first guy in and last guy out with the Panthers. “Each year I improved at becoming a student of the game, started breaking down film a lot better, stayed in the film room a lot more," Donald said. “[Defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield] helped me a lot learning the little keys that offensive linemen give you so you can take advantage of it and learn the formations a lot better as far as how the back's set up. When you know what you're doing out there, it makes things a lot easier and allows you to play faster. The film room has helped my pass rush and run stops, so I’m non-stop grinding at it.” Undeniable production. Top-notch competitor. Would-be combine test freak. Relentless in the film room. Go ahead, make the comparisons to Atkins. They sound on point. And Atkins agrees.

Let’s play a little game. Let’s find out if you’re among the 60% of smart dog owners or among the 40% who really, really need to read the rest of this article. Veterinarians reportedly place between 35% to 45% of their patients on prescription diet dog food. And dog owners apparently seem willing to follow these directions. A 2011 Pet Food Industry survey shows 83% of dog owners believed their vet was the most important source of information when it comes to nutrition. This is surprising, because there’s certainly no evidence of this. “Most US veterinarians would admit their formal education on companion animal nutrition consisted of one basic course that, in some cases, had to be taught by a professor from another program because no veterinary faculty had the knowledge or expertise to teach it.” Says veterinarian Debbie Phillips-Donaldson. “Any information on nutrition received after veterinary school usually comes via a handful of petfood manufacturers that sell through the veterinary channel. That information is by its very nature prone to be limited and biased.” Today I’m going to show you why DNM isn’t the only one calling Bull$hit on prescription diets. What Our Vets Say About Prescription Diet Dog Food I spoke about prescription diets with pet food guru Marion Smart PhD recently and she said something that I thought would be fun to follow through with. She said, “How do you think vets would evaluate prescription diets if we just showed them the ingredients? Would they be able to tell if they were prescription diets?” So I called up some of our veterinary friends and gave them four pet food ingredient labels, one of which was a veterinary diet. I then asked them to list which food or foods they thought was a grocery store food and which food or foods they thought was a premium food. Want to play the game with us? Here are the four ingredient labels I asked the vets to rank. Can you guess which one is the prescription diet? Food #1 Food #2 Food #3 Food #4 The Answer: Prescription Diets Revealed Now, if there’s one thing I can say about my veterinary friends, it’s that they don’t follow direction very well! Only one of the vets actually ranked all of the foods as asked. But the rest had some very interesting things to say about the prescription diet. So to start, here are the rankings in order from best to worst from Dr Marty Goldstein, author of The Nature of Animal Healing: Food #2 ranked first because it contains all whole foods Food #4 ranked second because it contains meal but otherwise contains whole foods Food #1 ranked third, thanks to the by-product rice, by-product meal and overall low quality ingredients Food #3 ranked last, based on the use of corn for its first ingredient, followed by by-product meal. And if you haven’t guessed already, the prescription diet in that list is Food #3. Want to hear what some of the other vets had to say about the prescription diet? Dr Jodie Gruenstern: This food was the lowest quality in the list. It contains GMO corn, soy (lots of it!), which is a common allergen, synthetic vitamins/minerals, shavings (if you didn’t know, the ingredient cellulose is literally sawdust), natural flavors, which usually mean MSG. Dr Jean Dodds: Poor quality food: the first ingredients are corn, which is often GMO, and chicken by-product meal rather than whole chicken. Flax and soy are phytoestrogens. Dr Judy Morgan: This is a Pet Store Food. Corn is the first ingredient, no muscle meat used, only by-product meal, synthetic vitamin/mineral supplement, corn and soybean are GMO, waste fillers are abundant. Overpriced in my opinion, considering the poor quality, cheap ingredients used). Dr Dee Blanco: This one starts with corn to increase inflammation, then adds lighter fluid to it with soybean products and poor quality protein. Then it tries to make up for the poor quality foundational ingredients by adding synthetic supplements of the poorest quality, such as calcium carbonate, folic acid, ‘generic Vit E supplement’, etc. Looks like they added l-tryptophan to calm the nervous system down after putting the body into overdrive inflammation. Natural flavors?? Could be an entire cadre of carcinogens, allergens and toxins. Argh! Dr Peter Dobias: The worst recipe – first ingredient is corn, then by-product, then flavors, wood chips. It may not be supermarket food but a veterinary diet right?! So, as you can see, our vets didn’t exactly think the ingredients in the prescription diet were high quality. In fact, they thought many of them would be harmful. So why exactly do we trust our vets to prescribe diets when this is the best they can offer? And, more importantly, why are vets gullible enough to think these foods can do anything to change chronic health issues in dogs, such as allergies, kidney disease, or in the case of this particular food, joint disease? If we really want to look at the quality of these diets, I think the first place to start is who’s making them? The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree The major players in the prescription diet category are the major players in the regular pet food category: Hill’s Science Diet Purina Royal Canin Iams These companies are hardly renowned for quality ingredients. In fact, most veterinary diets are manufactured by companies that predominantly manufacture lower quality grocery store foods. The same company that makes lower quality foods like Alpo and Beneful is also making prescription diets. How much better do you think the veterinary food would be? Let’s compare two Hill’s foods: a regular food (Natural Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe Adult) and a prescription food (j/d Canine Joint Care). The regular pet store brand: And the prescription food: Now, a 30lb bag of the regular food is $47.99 at Petsmart. The prescription diet dog food can also be purchased at Petsmart for $84.95 for a 27.5lb bag. It’s twice as expensive! Now, you might be thinking this is because the prescription diet was formulated and tested with a specific condition in mind. This is completely false. While an over-the-counter food with a health claim (such as controls weight) is subject to FDA regulations and enforcement, the FDA practices “enforcement discretion” when it comes to veterinary diets. Put another way, this means the FDA has not reviewed or verified the health claims on any veterinary diet. Did you catch that? There are very few ingredients in veterinary diets that aren’t also in other regular diets. In the example above, I’d say the pet store brand is a better quality food, wouldn’t you? The prescription diet contains by-product meal (which comes straight from the rendering plant), lots of soybean and corn products (a cheap replacement for animal protein) while the regular food contains more expensive, higher quality ingredients. Apart from fish oil, what food ingredients exactly would help dogs with joint pain? As Dr Dee Blanco stated, this food would actually cause inflammation. And fish oil is a terrible addition to pet foods. It’s much too fragile to be added to processed foods and as soon as the bag is opened, it will oxidate and cause inflammation in your dog. Ironic isn’t it, when the food is supposed to be treating inflammation in the first place? Consider The Source Those two diets are made in the exact same plant. The manufacturer uses the same suppliers. Doesn’t it stand to reason that the quality of ingredients will be the same? I challenge the pet food industry to prove that chicken by-product meal, soybeans, brewers rice and powdered cellulose have been extensively researched and proven better than the higher quality foods used in most regular pet foods. So if your vet ever says your dog needs to be eating a prescription diet, ask him to review the ingredient list. Then ask him for hard evidence that the foods in the prescription diet are any better than those in regular diets. I think we know what the answer will be. And if you’re one of the smart 60%, then I know you already know the answer! It’s nothing but Bull$hit.

Ordinarily, cheesecakes need a water bath to set properly. This one is no different. I used my roasting pan filled with hot water and sat the spring-form pan in the middle of the removable rack. Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake Yield: One 8" cheesecake Note: Do not substitute homemade cake flour (regular flour mixed with cornstarch) for this recipe. Use a store-bought cake flour such as Swan's Down. Wondra flour will also work beautifully. 9 oz. cream cheese (one 8 oz. brick plus 1 oz. of another brick) 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/3 cup fresh, whole milk 6 eggs, room temperature - whites and yolks separated 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar 1/2 cup plus 1/8 cup extra fine granulated sugar 1/3 cup plus 1 tsp. cake flour 3 tbsp. corn starch Melt cream cheese, butter and milk in a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir occasionally to break up cream cheese and combine the ingredients. Remove bowl from heat and allow to cool. Mixture will be thick. If lumpy, use a whisk to vigorously beat the mixture until smooth. Set aside. When mixture has cooled, fold in the egg yolks, flour and corn starch. Fold until thoroughly incorporated. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and mix again, gradually adding the extra-fine sugar a little at a time until soft peaks form. Note: Soft peaks: mixture should be white and opaque, and meringue will fall onto itself when the beaters are lifted from the bowl. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and fold together until well incorporated. Pour into an 8-inch round spring-form pan that has been lightly greased and lined (sides and bottom) with parchment paper. Place a piece of aluminum foil over the top of the cake so it does not brown. Bake in a water bath for 1 hour 10 minutes. When timer sounds, bake for an additional 10-15 minutes with the oven door cracked. Carefully remove pan from water bath and let stand until cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove spring-form ring and serve. Notes: Substitutions are not recommended for this recipe. Be sure to use whole milk, cake flour and extra-fine sugar. If you can't find extra-fine sugar, grind regular sugar finer in a food processor. One tablespoon of lemon juice may be added to the cooled cheese/butter/milk mixture for flavor. Sprinkle matcha green tea on finished cake, or top with fresh fruit for serving. <A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_cw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fspribake-20%2F8010%2F432365ad-751c-458c-8398-d388829a6b3b&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A> link In Dreams: Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake By Heather Baird Friday, August 19, 2011 Friday, August 19, 2011 In Dreams: Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake Recipe ByPublished: I've been daydreaming about this cheesecake ever since I laid eyes on it a few months ago. The ingredients are simple: cake flour, fresh milk, eggs, sugar, cream cheese. It is proof positive that ordinary pantry items can be transformed into something extraordinary when handledTo clairifyYes, those are bold words for a cheesecake, but entirely true. Like the name indicates, it is light and cottony and its sponginess will have you tearing it apart with your bare hands just to examine the beautiful interior. It's a sponge cake-slash-cheesecake hybrid. A beautiful thing.I have converted the recipe to cup-and-spoon measures so casual home bakers (in the US) can enjoy this recipe, but if you are an avid baker or otherwise inclined to use a scale for measurements, you can find the original recipe (in grams/oz.) here

The past nine releases of Jetpack have started to reveal our vision for next-generation features that will boost WordPress’ incredible success by making it more social, more connected, more mobile, and more customizable. Over three million downloads later, we’re excited to report that the community has embraced this seemingly impossible vision for combining the best of hosted and non-hosted WordPress. This tenth release brings some of the most-asked-for features into the hands of millions of Jetpackers. Publicize to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr… You no longer have to jump through hoops and developer portals to connect your blog to your friends on your favorite social networks. Through Jetpack and your WordPress.com account, you can connect to each network with just a few clicks and broadcast to your audiences and followers across several networks, making WordPress your true digital hub. Activate Publicize from the main Jetpack page in your dashboard, then go to Settings → Sharing to add social sharing connections. Post by Email If you live in Gmail, Outlook, your BlackBerry, or just find it easiest to email on the go, you’ll love the new Post by Email feature. Email anything to your secret address — a photo, a video, a bunch of photos, an audio file, ten pages of single-spaced text — and we’ll figure out how to make it beautiful and put it on your blog literally within seconds after you send it. Combined with Publicize and the previously-released Subscriptions module, that post will go out to all your friends including ones that subscribe via email, completing the loop of email / blog nirvana. To set up your special address go to Users → Your Profile in your dashboard and click the “Enable Post By Email” button. Photon Your Images Have you ever switched themes to find that full-width images break out of the layout and no longer fit your theme? Are you frustrated that images on your blog take too long to load? Jetpack Photon fixes all of that by making the advanced image acceleration and image editing service from WordPress.com available to the broader WordPress community, essentially making every image a fully dynamic object that themes and plugins can transform to their heart’s content without killing your server. In fact, if you enable Photon, you will see your CPU and bandwidth usage plummet as images are served through the global WordPress.com cloud, meaning less load on your host and faster images for your users. Infinite Scroll Infinite Scroll brings the future of reading on the web to your website. Speed and performance are key, and Infinite Scroll loads new content quickly without a full-page refresh. Instead of the old way of navigating down a page — by scrolling and then clicking a link to get to the next page and waiting for the page to refresh — infinite scrolling pulls the next set of posts into view automatically when the reader approaches the bottom of the page. Your theme needs support for this to work. There are already several themes in the directory with Jetpack Infinite Scroll support and theme authors will find documentation for adding it to any theme on jetpack.me. Onwards… Jetpack 2.0 isn’t just about shiny new things, we’ve also fixed dozens of bugs and under-the-hood things to keep Jetpack one of the smoothest running, most secure, and most stable plugins out there. I want to personally thank all of the members of the Jetpack community who have shared countless hours of testing, feedback, and criticism. Your thoughts and passion have made the plugin immeasurably better than it would have been otherwise, and rest assured we’re still listening closely to your feedback around better stats, module activation and deactivation, developer mode, translation, and documentation. 40.703165 -74.016990 Explore the benefits of Jetpack plans Compare plans in detail to see how Jetpack can help you design, market, and secure your WordPress site. Compare plans

The University of Florida on Tuesday announced the schedule for a planned renovation of the Stephen C. O’Connell Center as well as some specifics about what improvements will be made to the facility by the time it is completed in the winter of 2015. According to the school, Florida is already “in the process of choosing a firm to design the project” and hopes to pick one soon in hopes of getting construction on the 33-year-old facility started in nine months. O’Dome renovations will begin in March 2015 and conclude in December 2015 with the project set at a price tag of $45 million. The school has already signed off on a $10 million contribution to the project with the University Athletic Association tasked with raising the remaining $35 million. Athletic director Jeremy Foley mentioned in May that the Gators are still $15 million away from their overall fundraising goal. The following are among the renovations scheduled to be made to the facility: » “Prominent main entrance” between Gate 1 and Gate 2 » Club seating and club lounge » Chair-back seats, permanent in the lower level » “Center-hung, high-definition video board and new sound system” » New concourse and concession stands » New offices and locker rooms » Updated “mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems” The O’Connell Center currently seats 11,548 but its capacity is expected to decrease due to changes inside the bowl. The last major renovations made to the main bowl of the facility were a $2.5 million project that installed four 12’ x 16’ video boards in December 2006 and separate $900,000 project that reconfigured some lower level seating during the summer of 2011. UF unveiled a renovated gymnastics studio in December 2012, which expanded the area to 18,000 square feet (adding 6,600 square feet) while upgrading offices, training rooms, equipment and electronics at a cost of $4.5 million. Foley has previously spoken about the Florida men’s basketball team playing its fall non-conference home games across the state in 2015 though no specific plan has been laid out for the other sports that will be affected by the O’Dome’s 10-month closing. The Gators volleyball team is not expected to play a single home game in 2015. Check out additional mockups of the scheduled renovations published by The Gainesville Sun when the project was first announced in 2012.

Designing for Adaptation + Resiliency RESOURCES From the Green Ribbon Commission (GRC) Coastal Resilience Solutions for South Boston (to be issued summer 2018) Report on Governance Models (to be issued fall 2018) Feasibility of Harbor-... Designing Boston The Designing Boston Series provides a forum to discuss current trends and concerns in architecture and urban planning that may shape Boston’s future. Topics include designing for... Boston Architecture Diary The Boston Architecture Diary is a new online guide for all events related to architecture and design that celebrate Boston’s architectural heritage and introduce cutting-edge thinking about... Urban Design Workshops These workshops provide a valuable resource to public agencies and major property owners by providing big-picture design thinking that supports larger planning and public outreach processes. Modeled... Refugees, Resiliency, and Public Space To address a need for child-focused public space facilities to help improve the quality of life for Syrian refugee families. The initiative will establish a collaboration with design professionals in... Boston Futures: 2024 and Beyond Boston Futures is a community discussion series about the future of Boston and how Boston’s Olympic and Paralympic bid might help us achieve a shared vision for that future. Overhaul: The 2013–2014 Transportation Series Traffic Advisory was a speaker series focused on opportunities and challenges for Greater Boston. Traffic Advisory speakers include regional, national, and international transportation policy makers... Fulfilling the Promise: Community Building and the Emerald Necklace The Emerald Necklace, a park system created by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted more than 100 years ago, winds through the city of Boston and parts of Brookline from the Back Bay... Northern Avenue Bridge competition The City of Boston and the Boston Society of Architects invited the public to participate in an Ideas Competition about the future of the Northern Avenue Bridge. The Northern Avenue Bridge... Suffolk Downs Urban Design Workshop The Suffolk Downs Urban Design Workshop is the third in an ongoing series of Urban Design Workshops organized by the BSA Foundation. The workshops’ overall goal is to open up dialogue... Beacon Yards Urban Design Workshop The Beacon Yards Urban Design Workshop was the first in this new series.Two interdisciplinary teams, composed of designers from various firms and disciplines and led by Alex Krieger of NBBJ and... Housing Urban Design Workshop The second BSA Urban Design Workshop examined Mayor Walsh’s housing initiative and took place March 30–April 2. The site focuses on the Dorchester Avenue corridor between the Broadway and...

REDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Ron Henrick is 79 and in his retirement likes to work as a clown and as Santa Claus every Christmas. When one of his neighbors busted into his house, Santa grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun. "I was going to shoot his a**," said Henrick. He had awoken to noise Friday morning and found a man -- his own neighbor -- stealing his TV. He grabbed his gun while the 5-10, 220-pound intruder grabbed his stationary bike. "When he was coming at me, I was coming at him with the gun. He grabbed (the bike) and threw it at me and I (closed the door) and it tore up everything. Lucky I did that, because it probably would've killed me," he said. Henrick said the thief fled his home after that. "I told the cop, I said, 'If I would've shot him it would've made a hell of a mess with a 12-gauge,'" he said. Henrick said he hasn't had any problems like this in the 30 years he's lived in his Redford Township neighborhood. However, he's a little afraid now because the man also tried to get into his garage. That's where he keeps his 1933 Plymouth. Henrick has owned the car for nearly 60 years. He claims that on separate occasions the passenger seat was once occupied by Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. "She rode in it in 1957 when I was in Hollywood California," he said. Henrick has a warning if his neighbor comes back for the car. "He's a dead man. I'll get him, because this is my pride right here," he said. The suspect remains in jail. Police already have connected him to another home invasion in which he stole a TV on the same street. He's expected to be arraigned on charges this weekend. Neighbors, of course, want him out of the community. Copyright 2015 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Then last month, a federal judge here, Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, ordered the international capture of Samuel Salman El Reda, a 43-year-old Colombian citizen whom prosecutors here had accused of helping coordinate the local Hezbollah cell that Argentine investigators said had carried out the bombing. Investigators here believe that they have solved the case in principle, having accused the Iranian government of planning and financing the attack, and Hezbollah of executing those plans. But some experts, including a former American F.B.I. agent who assisted the Argentines in their investigation, are skeptical about the claims of direct Iranian involvement. “The guilt field was painted with a bit too broad a brush,” said the former agent, James Bernazzani, who led the F.B.I.’s Hezbollah operations unit in the late 1990s. Mr. Bernazzani said he was still “convinced” of Hezbollah’s involvement, “but we surfaced no information indicating Iranian compliance.” Such doubts have long clouded the investigations. Previous inquiries were riddled with incompetence, witnesses who were threatened and bribed, stolen evidence and accusations of a cover-up involving the former Argentine president Carlos Menem. The Argentines, nevertheless, maintain that Iran was behind the attack, and have had limited relations with Tehran partly because of the investigation’s importance to the nation’s 230,000 Jews, the largest Jewish community in Latin America. The 1994 bombing came two years after the Israeli Embassy here was bombed, killing 29 people, a case that also remains unsolved. Mohsen Baharvand, the chargé d’affaires at the Iranian Embassy here, said Iran was an “easy scapegoat” for the attack. “The whole claim against Iran in the AMIA case is a big lie,” Mr. Baharvand said in an e-mail message, using the Spanish acronym for the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association. Photo Judge Juan José Galeano’s original investigation focused on the so-called local connection, including people involved in selling a van that had been loaded with explosives. But his inquiry went awry after he decided to pay a suspect, Carlos Telleldín, $400,000 to falsely accuse police officers of being involved in the plot. Amid the scandal, Mr. Telleldín and four police officers were acquitted in 2004. Judge Galeano was impeached a year later. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who took over the investigation in 2005, has intensified a line of inquiry that Mr. Galeano had played down: the involvement of Iran. In 2006, Mr. Nisman formally accused several members of Iran’s government of planning and financing the bombing, including former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Central to the indictments was an Iranian defector, Abdolghassem Meshabi, who said that the plot had been hatched in Tehran and that Iranian officials had paid Mr. Menem about $10 million to help cover up Iran’s involvement. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Mr. Menem denied any involvement last November. His former advisers have insisted that he was determined to solve the case, not cover it up, and that Mr. Bernazzani had said the F.B.I. did not view Mr. Meshabi as a credible witness. With the case seemingly stalled, Argentina’s Supreme Court in May ordered it reopened, saying it was unreasonable to throw out all the original investigative work because of the Galeano corruption scandal. The court ruled that the investigation had been valid until Oct. 31, 1995, when Mr. Galeano decided to offer the money to Mr. Telleldín. Judge Corral said an appeals court might decide to retry Mr. Telleldín, a used-car salesman who was acquitted after spending 10 years in jail awaiting trial. Mr. Telleldín said in an interview that he was innocent and that it would be “impossible to prove” that he knew the van he sold was going to be used for the bombing. Mr. Nisman, meanwhile, is pressing on with his investigation of Mr. El Reda. In the weeks before the bombing, Mr. El Reda shuttled between “safe houses” in Buenos Aires and a red brick house in Foz do Iguaçu, a Brazilian town in the Triple Frontier area where Argentina meets Brazil and Paraguay, investigators said. From millions of phone call records and the help of an unidentified Hezbollah operative, investigators say they were able to piece together evidence of a terrorist cell involving Mr. El Reda that kept in close contact with Beirut leading up to the bombing. On the morning of July 1, 1994, Mr. Nisman said, Mr. El Reda made a call from the international airport here to a cellphone registered in Foz do Iguaçu, a call that may have set off the final phase of the attack. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Other calls to the cellphone were made from public phone centers near the Jewish community center and near a mosque in Buenos Aires where the cultural attaché at the Iranian Embassy, one of the people charged in 2006, spent a great deal of time, Mr. Nisman wrote in court papers. Mr. El Reda had forged close ties with the Iranian attaché, Mr. Nisman said. Calls were often made from those same locations to the communications center of Hezbollah in Beirut and to known militants in the Triple Frontier, Mr. Nisman said. Mr. Bernazzani warned that that “doesn’t prove anything,” because what had been said on the calls was not known. “Telephones don’t get indicted, people do,” he said. Mr. Nisman, nevertheless, said that at 7:41 a.m. on the day of the bombing a final call was made from Aeroparque airport in Buenos Aires. Forty minutes later, a flight bound for Puerto Iguazú in the Triple Frontier took off. Mr. Nisman said he believed that Mr. El Reda made the call before boarding the plane. Then, at 9:53 a.m., a van loaded with about 600 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil exploded in front of the community center. A few days later Mr. El Reda left South America for Lebanon, where he still lives with his family, Mr. Nisman said.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The busiest day yet at the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine saw the offensive linemen and tight ends go through on-field workouts, and a cast of players take their turns with media interviews, including the top QB prospect who said he'd win a Super Bowl next season. Here's a look at the players who fared well, and those who did not, throughout the day. Friday's top performers 1. LSU offensive tackle La'el Collins drew praise from analysts for the athleticism he displayed, particularly in position drills. At the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., some NFL scouts suggested Collins' best fit in the NFL might be as an offensive guard. But Collins' performance at the combine figures to give rise to his standing as a tackle prospect who can handle the faster pace of play on the edge. 2. Jake Fisher drew strong reviews Friday for his efforts, including a 5.01 40-yard dash that ranked second among offensive linemen. Fisher, a tackle prospect from Oregon, was also a standout to Jeremiah and turned in the best 20-yard shuttle time of the big men as well (4.33). Given the pace at which Oregon plays on offense, it comes as no surprise that Fisher proved to be one of the more athletic linemen on hand. 3. Minnesota tight end Maxx Williams ran a 4.78 40-yard dash, the third-best time at his position, and drew praise from NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah for the ease with which he caught passes. Williams did nothing to hurt his status as a potential first-round pick, and figures to have little to prove at the Golden Gophers' pro day event. 4. Cam Erving, Florida State's versatile offensive lineman, helped himself in more ways than one. His 40-yard dash of 5.15 seconds ranked him in the top 10 at his position, but his bench-press reps (30) and fourth-ranked broad jump (112 inches) combined to give him one of the top overall performances among offensive linemen. Erving's pro potential will be evaluated as both a tackle and an interior player -- he played both tackle and center in his final year at FSU -- and he'll leave the combine with both possibilities intact. 5. MyCole Pruitt of Southern Illinois ran the fastest 40-yard dash among tight ends at 4.58, the best vertical jump at 38 inches, and ranked fourth in the broad jump at 118 inches. Along with his obvious athleticism, the 6-foot-2, 250-pound Pruitt has soft hands as well. What they're saying "Yeah, I like the Bucs, but you know, the Bucs are the Bucs." -- Florida DE Dante Fowler, Jr., on growing up in St. Petersburg, Fla., near Tampa * * * "I look good, and I know it." -- Florida State QB Jameis Winston on an unflattering photo that circulated on social media earlier this week Biggest workout winner Little-known prospect Ali Marpet of Hobart College was the fastest offensive lineman in the 40-yard dash event, logging one of only two sub-5.0 times (4.98 -- and the other came from a long snapper). Marpet's day caught the eye of NFL Media draft analyst Lance Zierlein, as well. Between Marpet's showing at the combine (he also pushed 30 reps in bench press testing) and his strong performance at the Senior Bowl in January, his draft arrow is undoubtedly pointing up. Biggest workout loser Wisconsin's Rob Havenstein didn't finish especially high in any of the combine testing, perhaps not altogether surprising given his massive size (6-8, 333 pounds). He ran a 5.46 40-yard dash, better than only eight others, finished near the bottom of the linemen in the 20-yard shuttle (4.87), and turned in the worst three-cone drill time (8.28). He also managed only 16 reps on the bench press, the lowest total in the field. » Bucky Brooks breaks down which prospects were buzzworthy, and which were buzzkills, in his list of Friday's combine winners and losers. Biggest media darling Dante Fowler, Jr., DE, Florida: The former Gators stud was the star of the show on Friday as he held court from the podium to discuss everything from his position at the next level to growing up in St. Petersburg. It was probably a sign of how captivating he was that several NFL-centric media members asked him if he was always this loose in such a setting. Biggest media flop Frank Clark, LB, Michigan: Off-the-field issues dominated the conversation with Clark at his table and he didn't exactly put concerns to rest or address them head on. He did discuss how he is going to counseling but still managed to pass off blame to other things. Not a great look. » Jameis Winston was the marquee name during Friday's media session, but several other top prospects also took the podium. Here's a look at the podium stars and busts from Day 3. What NFL Network analysts are saying "I fully expect Brandon Scherff to be the first offensive lineman off the board. I think he kicks inside and Day becomes a starter." - NFL Media analyst Mike Mayock on Iowa OT Brandon Scherff * * * "He is the only tight end I have in the first two rounds." Mike Mayock on Minnesota TE Maxx Williams * * * "This guy is a physical specimen. He definitely has the athletic ability to be a tackle." - NFL Network analyst Shaun O'Hara on Pitt OT T.J. Clemmings » Find out what else NFL Network analysts were saying about Friday's top offensive linemen and tight ends. Six other things we learned Friday 1. At least one former Washington teammate is willing to go to bat for Marcus Peters. Peters was dismissed from the Huskies' program last season and is among the prospects in this draft that will be red-flagged for character concerns. However, Hau'oli Kikaha, a pass-rushing prospect who played with Peters at UW, had nothing but nice things to say about Peters on Friday, calling him a "good teammate" and a "great guy." "It was unfortunate," Kikaha said of Peters' dismissal. "A number of things could have been done to prevent all of that, but the main thing is that he's kind of matured and feels better about everything. And he's here (at the combine). And he's going to be at (Washington's) pro day. Everything is kind of put to rest and at peace. I'm happy for him." Naturally, a teammate would stick up for Peters. But NFL clubs will go far deeper than that in determining whether his attitude issues with the Huskies will manifest into a problem on the next level. 2. Missouri defensive end Shane Ray measured 6-2 5/8 at the combine Friday morning, allaying fear among scouts that one of the NFL draft's top pass-rushing prospects didn't stand as tall as his official college listing. NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah revealed some concern among scouts for Ray's height last week, with some expecting him to measure in the 6-1 range. 3. Nebraska defensive end Randy Gregory weighed in at only 235 pounds, 10 pounds less than his playing weight as one of the top pass rushers in the Big Ten. Presumably, Gregory slimmed down for the combine to excel in the 40-yard dash and various agility drills, but at 6-foot-6, there were NFL scouting concerns about his light frame even at 245. Gregory will work out on Sunday. If he performs well enough to skip Nebraska's pro day event, don't be surprised if he starts adding weight to show NFL scouts that he can carry more size. 4. Miami offensive lineman Ereck Flowers, whose 37 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press might prove to be the best of the entire combine field, is acting as his own agent. "I've done research with my father and I see no reason to have one," Flowers said. "I'll probably get a lawyer for the contract. But other than that, I'm my own agent." That's a bold move, to be sure, as Flowers is believed to be the only player at the combine without an agent. But it's one less check he'll have to write out of his signing bonus, and one less voice involved in getting a rookie contract completed. 5. USC defensive lineman Leonard Williams said he had to play rugby rather than Pop Warner football as a youngster because he was over the 180-pound weight limit by 30 pounds. 6. T.J. Clemmings, the Pittsburgh offensive lineman whose draft stock has risen sharply, didn't exactly draw a lot of scholarship offers coming out of high school. The potential first-round pick was offered by only Rutgers, Seton Hall and Providence. Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter @ChaseGoodbread.

Menino was a city councilor when he helped Gus Schumacher, then the Massachusetts commissioner of food and agriculture, launch a program to help WIC recipients double the value of their food coupons if they spent them on fresh produce. Launched at the Roslindale farmer's market one Saturday in August 1986, the program, which became known as Bounty Bucks, gained traction not only across the state but eventually at the federal level. As the Double Value Coupon Program, it is active at 350 farmer’s markets nationwide in 21 states and Washington, D.C., and helped give rise to the “fruit and vegetable prescription program,” which pays doctors and nutritionists to help tailor healthier diets for overweight and obese patients and redeem “prescription” coupons for fresh produce at participating supermarkets and farmer’s markets. The mayor helped launch that, too, with Boston hospitals. Before the term “food deserts” entered the lexicon, Menino was one of the country’s first mayors to work hard to attract supermarkets to low-income neighborhoods. In a talk at Tufts University on Food Day in 2011, he said he was proud to have opened 25 new supermarkets in Boston, particularly in areas full-service supermarkets hesitated to go. They didn’t always succeed. Three years ago Menino fought to keep Walmart out of Roxbury, by then a certified food desert, even though a locally owned supermarket he had worked hard to attract had pulled out for lack of business. He saw Walmart as a threat to local ownership and the ambitious redevelopment plans he had put into place, which are now coming to fruition. (And Walmart still isn’t in Boston.) He did, however, favor the replacement of a failed Latino supermarket in Jamaica Plain by Whole Foods, despite the strong opposition of activist groups that claimed to represent poor and ethnic residents and that viewed its arrival as the last nail in the coffin of gentrification. Gentrification was well under way and had been for years--and the longtime urban pioneers who had moved to JP decades before in fact welcomed its arrival, as I told Whole Foods CEO Walter Robb in a conversation on Thursday at the Washington Ideas Forum just when the news broke of the mayor’s death. Menino used various city funds to shore up the Latino bodegas that remained in the neighborhood, which still has a strong Latino presence. Whole Foods didn’t create a local housing fund to offset rising rents its presence would cause, as activists had wanted; but it did keep its promise to stock a lot of Latino fruits and vegetables in the produce department of its relatively small—and constantly crowded—store. The mayor’s support for local food went far beyond episodic and politically expedient gestures. He championed the creation of a 2.5-acre organic garden with its own CSA on the grounds of the city’s largest homeless shelter; actively supported fundraising for Boston’s first year-round indoor food market, which is finally breaking ground; cleared the way for parking spaces for 40 food trucks when the idea was first taking off, because he was tickled by food trucks and liked the food they sold; and, significantly, created a full-time position four years ago for a director of his Office of Food Initiatives, whose director, Edith Murnane, had worked on similar food-access and justice issues at Community Servings, a Jamaica Plain group (of which I’m a board member) that serves nearly 10,000 home-delivered meals a week to critically ill people in 18 communities. Menino’s successor, Marty Walsh, has kept the Office of Food Initiatives in place. That will be another part of the Menino legacy.

Princess Leia in the original Star Wars Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already inspired hundreds of think pieces, none more amusing than those by feminist writers who are positively over the moon about Rey, the movie’s female protagonist. Make no mistake, I like Rey. Daisy Ridley brings the right amount of joy and wonder to the character, cutting force-empowered hyper-competence with the right hint of surprised determination. But the fact that feminists are hailing her (and a couple of other bit-part characters) as some sort of ideological revelation shows how little they know about modern science fiction, including Star Wars itself. Advertisement Advertisement Perhaps my favorite piece in this nonsensical vein was Jezebel’s “Finally, Women Do More than Give Birth and Die in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” But writing in more sober tones, columnists at The Atlantic and Slate couldn’t help but declare basically the same thing: that the new movie is distinctively different and more feminist than every other entry in the franchise. “Rey . . . is Star Wars’s first feminist protagonist,” gushed The Atlantic’s Megan Garber. “No distressing damsel, she’s instead a fighter and a survivor and a nurturer and an all-around badass.” So what was Leia if not a fighter, survivor, and all-around badass? All the way back in 1977, just as the “right side of history” was establishing that starlets could kick just as much butt as male action stars, Carrie Fisher’s character blasted stormtroopers, resisted torture, gave up her home planet for obliteration, mocked her “rescuers,” blasted more stormtroopers, and helped plan the attack on the Death Star, all in the trilogy’s first two hours. Subsequent installments saw her do even more blasting and play an even bigger role in the military affairs of the Rebel Alliance. She infiltrated a slaver’s den dressed as a bounty hunter, then choked Jabba the Hutt to death using the very chain with which he’d imprisoned her. How empowering is that? Advertisement RELATED: Star Wars: Revenge of the Social-Justice Warriors Leia paved the way for the legions of butt-kicking females that dominate modern sci-fi/fantasy films. From Sigourney Weaver to Angelina Jolie to Mila Jovovich to Scarlet Johansson to Jennifer Lawrence, the empowered woman is everywhere. She outfights men, outthinks men, and displays physical prowess that the mind can scarcely comprehend. Does anyone remember Serenity? At the climax of the movie, River, a young girl who looks like she weighs 100 pounds soaking wet, takes down dozens of rabid, howling “reavers” in hand-to-hand combat. It’s a gripping scene, and not atypical for the genre. Advertisement Indeed, modern sci-fi has been so open to the female action star precisely because it provides a rationale for the physical empowerment of women. Genetic engineering, The Force, training from birth, or alien power – any number of explanations allow you to actually believe that Rey could to toe-to-toe with Kylo Ren, that Black Widow could make mincemeat of alien warriors, or that River could eviscerate those reavers. Advertisement #share#But for the feminist Left, the past is a yawning abyss of sexism. It’s almost like they haven’t actually watched the last 40 years of science fiction. They’ve read academic deconstructions of Leia’s slave-girl costume, of course. They live in perpetual frustration that Iron Man isn’t Iron Woman. And they hate that “ze” is portrayed with excessive gender-specificity. But have they watched any of these characters in action? Is it not enough to laud Rey simply because she’s awesome? RELATED: What Supergirl’s Feminist Cheerleaders Get Wrong about Female Strength Advertisement J. J. Abrams pulled off the impossible — he made almost everyone happy, mainly because the progressive Left knows so little about the last 40 years of sci-fi that it failed to realize that Rey isn’t remotely revolutionary. Americans have known and loved great, strong female characters for generations. But progressives demand “progress,” and as my colleague Stephen Miller notes, they are unlike to leave the franchise’s next director alone to craft a compelling story with compelling characters. Next, they’ll demand that the story itself contain progressive elements. Perhaps we’ll learn that the First Order’s real sin isn’t that it’s totalitarian and bloodthirsty but that it wouldn’t let Han Solo marry Chewbacca. Or maybe the Resistance is virtuous mainly because it can teach America how to integrate women in ground combat. Will Kylo Ren triumph over the dark side by discovering his true self and becoming Kylie Ren? Advertisement #related#Both the original films and the newest Star Wars work because their stories echo the story — the chosen one, the journey, the adventure, the ultimate struggle of good versus evil. In that context, the sex and race of the characters is immaterial compared with the quality of the script and the excellence of the actors. But if you politicize the story — defining good and evil according to the dictates of social justice rather than their more commonly understood meanings — then fewer people will care what happens in that galaxy far, far away. Is social justice worth a billion dollars in lost revenue? I’m guessing not, so I eagerly look forward to the next installment, when Rey’s just as courageous as Leia, and the feminists applaud her character as if they’ve never seen anything like it. Advertisement If ignorance keeps them in bliss and a beloved franchise is saved, it will be worth it. Advertisement — David French is an attorney and a staff writer at National Review.

LOS ANGELES- For one little girl, Adrian Young turned out to be more than a crossing guard. Young became her guardian angel. The crossing guard had just finished her shift at Alexandria Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles when she heard the girl screaming. “She was like ‘Please don’t let her take me. I don’t know her. She’s not my mom,'” Young told CNN affiliate KABC. “I just told her to grab onto me as tight as she could, and I held onto her and the lady just began to attack me, so I just thought about attacking her to make sure she can’t take this little girl,” Young said. “I kind of went into mother mode … because I couldn’t see myself letting this little girl be taken. I’m just grateful I was there.” At a public event last week, Los Angeles City Council Member Mitch O’Farrell honored Young for her heroism. “Sometimes superheroes come in small packages,” O’Farrell said, referring to Young’s height. “And because of her diligence, training and awareness and just because she cares so much about children, she prevented what could have been a kidnapping of a child.” Police were able to find the suspect after Jones and the 8-year-old rendered a description. The woman, 50-year-old Maria Ramirez, was charged with one count of felony kidnapping.

What this report finds: Raising interest rates is a poor strategy for managing asset bubbles. Low rates did not cause the housing bubble of the early 2000s and higher rates would have been ineffective at preventing it. To deflate an asset bubble interest rates would have to be raised to levels that would cause enormous damage to the labor market. Fortunately, the Federal Reserve has numerous tools besides rate increases that would be more effective and inflict less collateral damage on the nonfinancial side of the economy. Why this matters: Some policymakers are calling on the Federal Reserve to raise short-term interest rates to prevent the types of asset bubbles whose implosion caused the last two recessions. There is no significant bubble in the economy right now and, even if there were, raising rates should be a last resort. If the Fed raised interest rates it would do little to deflate any bubbles but do a lot of damage to the economy: unemployment would increase and already struggling wages would grow even more slowly. How we can fix the problem: Policymakers should stop invoking asset bubbles as an argument for raising interest rates. There are better tools for deflating asset bubbles before they grow big enough to damage the economy: Communications. The Fed can issue statements warning of an asset bubble, present data demonstrating the misalignment of asset prices and economic fundamentals, and warn market actors that it is prepared to take steps necessary to deflate the bubble. The Fed can issue statements warning of an asset bubble, present data demonstrating the misalignment of asset prices and economic fundamentals, and warn market actors that it is prepared to take steps necessary to deflate the bubble. Deleveraging. The Fed and other regulators, such as the Federal Housing Administration, could require that potential buyers of homes and stock front more of their own, versus borrowed, money to make those purchases. Allowing less leverage would curb bidding up of asset prices. The Fed and other regulators, such as the Federal Housing Administration, could require that potential buyers of homes and stock front more of their own, versus borrowed, money to make those purchases. Allowing less leverage would curb bidding up of asset prices. Supervision. The Fed could require that financial institutions be prudently managed. This includes requiring larger capital buffers and a higher percentage of liquid assets on their balance sheets. This could also include requiring these firms to set aside more capital for especially risky assets and to account for how they would absorb large losses in particular asset classes. Introduction and key findings The pace and timing of interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve will be one of the most important policy issues in coming years. Traditionally, this debate has been a pretty straightforward attempt to balance the benefits of tighter labor markets—lower unemployment, more hours of work available, and faster wage growth—against the costs of accelerating inflation. In recent years, however, a number of economists, commentators, and even Fed policymakers have added another argument: that higher interest rates are necessary for avoiding the kinds of asset bubbles that led to a recession in both 2001, when the bubble was in the stock market, and 2008, when the bubble was in home prices. Deflating asset bubbles before they grow big enough to damage the economy is a worthy goal, but it is not a convincing rationale for raising short-term interest rates. Lower short-term rates are not a sufficient condition for bubbles to appear, and likely aren’t even a necessary condition; indeed, the claim that low interest rates in the early 2000s caused the housing bubble is substantially wrong. On the flip side, raising short-term rates is not a particularly effective tool for bursting bubbles. And given the collateral damage that results from raising interest rates—higher unemployment and slower wage growth for most workers—it is a particularly bad tool to use, and a terrible tool to pick up first, if you are worried about bubbles. This brief highlights the case against using short-term interest rate increases as a primary tool in the fight against asset bubbles. Its key findings are: The early 2000s housing bubble was not driven by low interest rate policy. Many countries—several with tighter monetary policies than the United States had at the time—experienced housing bubbles in the early 2000s. The historical evidence shows that raising short-term interest rates is a largely ineffective tool for fighting bubbles. The scale of rate increases that would be needed to deflate an asset bubble are large enough to cause enormous damage to the real (i.e., nonfinancial) economy. The Federal Reserve and other regulators have numerous tools besides raising short-term interest rates to combat asset bubbles, and increases in short-term rates should not be considered at all until all of these other tools are used. These tools can broadly be characterized as communication, deleveraging, and supervision. Communication. Researchers and policymakers have recently noted the importance of Fed communication in shaping financial markets. This logic should extend to preventing bubbles. Deleveraging. An enabler of asset bubbles is the leverage that investors take on to purchase ever-more-expensive assets. The Federal Reserve and other regulators have tools that can deleverage the demand for assets. One example is increasing margin requirements to make it harder to purchase stocks with debt. Another is increasing the share of a home’s price that must be paid upfront. Supervision. Besides the leverage taken on by purchasers, another key feature of the latest financial crisis was excess leverage and deficient liquidity of financial institutions themselves. In its role in supervising the banking sector, the Federal Reserve has the opportunity to monitor financial institutions to ensure that the twin problems of liquidity and leverage do not enable bubbles or amplify the effect of their bursting. Can interest rates cause or stop bubbles? The case of the 2000s housing bubble Asset market bubbles caused the last two recessions in the United States, and the latest downturn was the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Some critics of the Fed’s accommodative interest rate policy during and after the Great Recession have argued that it was precisely such a policy—too-accommodative interest rates during and after the 2001 recession—that inflated the housing bubble. Did the Fed make a mistake in keeping interest rates low for an extended period in the early 2000s? The answer to this question can help inform whether interest rate policy should be a primary tool in checking asset bubbles. The argument rests on claims that, as the housing bubble inflated in the early 2000s, the Fed kept short-term interest rates much lower than economic conditions warranted. Since low interest rates should, all else equal, encourage borrowing, and since mortgage debt is by far the single largest category of household borrowing, the case continues that easy credit engineered by the Fed pumped up the demand for homes and inflated the bubble. The corollary to this argument is that, rather than keeping rates low, the Fed should have raised rates once the 2001 recession ended. There are a number of reasons to reject this diagnosis and the proposed cure. First, studies that have estimated the magnitude to which interest rates drove the rise and fall of home prices in the 2000s find very modest effects. Glaeser et al. (2012), who examined the relationship between home prices and long-term interest rates, find that less than a quarter of the increase in home prices in the 2000s can be linked to low interest rates. Importantly, however, the long-term rates examined by Glaeser et al. (2012) are not necessarily a good indicator of the Fed’s short-term interest rate decisions. In the mid-2000s longer term rates remained stubbornly low even as the Fed hiked short-term rates. Given this disconnect between the Fed’s policy rates and the longer-term rates examined by Glaeser et al. (2012), the direct effects of the Fed’s policy decisions on home price appreciation in the early 2000s are likely small indeed. This interpretation is buttressed by Kuttner (2012), who reviewed the empirical literature directly relating home price appreciation and short-term interest rates controlled by the Fed. He finds that the connection between the two is far too small to implicate the Fed’s interest rate policy as a significant driver of home price gains. Second, the reduction in short-term interest rates didn’t coincide nearly tightly enough over the period of rapid home price growth to indicate a strong link. Home prices began rising in the late 1990s, as interest rates were being increased. The pace of price growth did rise in the early 2000s as interest rates were lowered, but the pace of growth remained torrid between 2004 and 2006 as interest rates were being sharply increased. In short, the sharp rise in prices began in a period of rising rates and persisted nearly undiminished during another period of rising rates. Third, other countries with relatively tight interest rate policies were nevertheless experiencing housing bubbles at the same time we were. Home prices in France, Denmark, and the United Kingdom (among others) rose faster than in the United States from 2001 to 2006, yet monetary policy in those countries was tighter than in the United States relative to their inflation and unemployment rates (i.e., applying a neutral “Taylor rule,” discussed in the next section). While former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke obviously has some stake in arguing that low interest rates did not spur the home price bubble, his data on cross-country comparisons of monetary policy tightness and home price appreciation—displayed in Figure A—are compelling. The horizontal axis is an indicator of monetary policy tightness in the context of inflation and unemployment rates, and the vertical axis shows the change in inflation-adjusted home price appreciation between 2001 and 2006. The random array of dots in this scatter-plot indicates that there is very little relationship between measures of home price appreciation and the tightness of monetary policy in this group of countries. Figure A Weak link between monetary policy and home prices between 2001 and 2006 : Relationship between change in home prices and tightness of monetary policy in select countries Index of monetary policy tightness Cumulative real home price appreciation, 2001–2006 Australia -0.75 36.87 Austria -1.45 -3.3 Belgium -1.73 52.27 Canada -2.19 40.66 Switzerland -1.61 7.96 Denmark -1.54 54.7 Germany -0.7 -13.47 Spain -3.51 72.23 Finland 0.01 36.13 France -1.46 60.8 United Kingdom -0.07 54.9 Greece -4.05 27.07 Ireland -3.49 68.72 Italy -1.95 31.98 Japan -0.4 -20.16 Norway -0.26 32.63 Netherlands -1.34 11.13 New Zealand -0.1 69.92 Sweden -0.36 41.85 United States -2.45 27.91 Chart Data Download data The data below can be saved or copied directly into Excel. The data underlying the figure. Note: Monetary policy tightens moving left to right on the x axis. Source: Bernanke (2010) Share on Facebook Tweet this chart Embed Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website. Download image Finally, there are many solid macroeconomic reasons why interest rates should have been kept low in the early 2000s. Employment growth following the 2001 recession was by far the weakest of any recovery in the postwar period. Between 1948 and 1990, it took an average of 13 months from the end of a recession to fully regain all employment losses. Yet it took 38 months following the 2001 recession. In fact, employment growth did not even turn consistently positive until August 2003, 21 months after the official end of the recession. The notion that interest rates should have been sharply increased even while jobs were still being actively shed in the economy is hard to credit. If low rates didn’t cause the bubble, could higher rates have stopped it? An interest rate increase capable of deflating the home price bubble would have to have been enormous. This can be seen by applying a standard “Taylor rule” to assume that the Fed determined interest rate policy in the 2000s by weighting deviations from unemployment and inflation targets equally. The Taylor rule argues that the interest rates under the Fed’s control should be changed based on a weighted average of expected inflation and productive slack in the economy. As expected inflation rises, the Taylor rule argues for rates to rise in order to cool the economy; when productive slack rises, rates should fall in order to spur spending that will fire up the economy. A common criticism of Fed behavior in the early 2000s was that it kept interest rates below (far below, it is often implied) what a neutral Taylor rule would have recommended. But this criticism turns out not to be true. Applying a neutral Taylor rule that weights inflationary expectations the same as concerns about the economy underperforming its potential would have led the Fed to adopt a path of interest rates very much like it actually pursued in the early 2000s. Figure B, reproduced from Bernanke (2010), shows the actual federal funds rate (FFR, or the key Federal Reserve policy interest rate), as well as two measures of what this rate would have been following a neutral Taylor rule. One Taylor-rule line shows the likely FFR had the Fed followed this rule using available real-time data. But these real-time data were subject to revisions, and these revisions later led to higher rates of price inflation in subsequent data releases. So the other Taylor-rule line shows the likely FFR had an omniscient Fed looked into the future and saw the final reported rates of inflation. Figure B Too low for too long? : Actual interest rates and those implied by “neutral” Taylor rules with equal weights on inflation and unemployment deviations between 2000 and 2006 Actual Neutral Taylor, omniscent Neutral Taylor, real-time data Jan-2000 6.000% 7.590% 6.010% Apr-2000 6.500% 7.840% 5.830% Jul-2000 6.500% 7.740% 5.330% Oct-2000 6.500% 7.390% 4.800% Jan-2001 5.000% 6.900% 4.080% Apr-2001 3.750% 6.550% 3.410% Jul-2001 2.500% 4.990% 2.690% Oct-2001 1.750% 3.400% 2.130% Jan-2002 1.750% 2.300% 3.550% Apr-2002 1.750% 2.400% 3.920% Jul-2002 1.750% 2.620% 3.530% Oct-2002 1.250% 3.510% 3.130% Jan-2003 1.250% 4.330% 2.630% Apr-2003 1.000% 2.860% 1.680% Jul-2003 1.000% 3.640% 1.880% Oct-2003 1.000% 3.460% 2.150% Jan-2004 1.000% 3.230% 2.610% Apr-2004 1.250% 4.650% 3.220% Jul-2004 1.750% 4.620% 2.660% Oct-2004 2.250% 5.860% 2.870% Jan-2005 2.500% 5.560% 3.210% Apr-2005 3.250% 5.260% 4.530% Jul-2005 3.750% 6.590% 4.605% Oct-2005 4.250% 6.750% 4.680% Chart Data Download data The data below can be saved or copied directly into Excel. The data underlying the figure. Source: Reproduced using data from Bernanke (2010) Share on Facebook Tweet this chart Embed Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website. Download image The line showing actual interest rates illustrates that the Fed did keep rates slightly below what a neutral Taylor rule would have yielded. This might have been a good thing: at very low rates of inflation (in the Fed’s preferred measure it averaged just 1.7 percent in 2003 and 2004), it is far from clear that the Fed should weigh unemployment and inflation concerns equally when coming out of a stubborn employment recession, as was the case in the early 2000s. But just in terms of precluding a bubble, even the rates set by an omniscient Fed would not have been anywhere near large enough to suppress the large increase in home prices that occurred after 2002 (the year when actual interest rates and neutral Taylor-rule prescriptions diverged). For example, the difference between the actual FFR and the counterfactual “see the future” Taylor-rule target averaged 2.25 percentage points between 2003 and 2005. In Kuttner’s survey (2012) cited earlier, the 10-quarter effect of a 0.25 percentage-point increase in the FFR on home prices ranges from 0.2 to 0.5 percent. This suggests that the effect of a hypothetical FFR that was 2.25 percentage-point higher on average over that time would have been home prices that were at most 4-5 percent lower than what actually occurred. But real home prices rose by 30 percent in that time. So, even with an omniscient Fed, there would still have been a housing bubble. Taking the Kuttner (2012) results a step further implies that cutting real home price appreciation in 2003–2005 just in half would have required raising the FFR by 7.75 percentage points above its average rate in those years. Standard estimates of the effect of an FFR change of this magnitude include a rise in the economy’s output gap of roughly 3 percent, leading to a substantial increase (at least 1.5 percentage points) in unemployment and a core inflation rate substantially below the Fed’s long-run targets. In short, using short-term interest rates as an instrument to brake housing price appreciation in those years would have meant the Fed missing both parts of its “dual mandate,” with unemployment too high and inflation too low. In summary, changes in the Fed’s short-term interest rates simply don’t provide a direct-enough lever on home prices to make short-term rates a useful tool in restraining home prices. Moreover, the collateral damage from raising rates enough to stem a home price bubble would have been enormous. The difference in interest rate policy between what the Fed did in the mid-2000s and what would have been necessary in order for it to stem the housing bubble is not credible as a guide for future practice. Finally, it is important to note that there is no evidence that the other destructive bubble faced by the U.S. economy in recent years—the bubble in equity markets in the 1990s—was spurred by low rates or would have been amenable to restraint from higher rates. The stock market bubble accelerated just after a sharp increase in Fed-policy interest rates beginning near the end of 1993. The bubble got larger and larger even as rates stayed generally steady throughout the late 1990s. Few economists (we could find none) argued in real time that the Fed caused the stock bubble, leading one to conclude at least that excessively low interest rates are not a necessary condition for bubbles. All of these considerations highlight the two key weaknesses in the case that interest rate increases should be the primary tool used for fighting asset bubbles: (1) they don’t work very well in restraining bubbles, and (2) they often directly harm the nonfinancial sector. This is not a new insight. Tinbergen (1952) identified the need to have as many policy instruments as one has policy targets. Leaning on interest rate policy (one instrument) to restrain financial markets (one target) means that rate policy cannot be used to target full employment. Prudent policymakers hence should look for another instrument to target financial market stability—and one that has more direct effects. If not rate increases, then what? The argument that interest rate policy should not be the primary tool deployed against financial market bubbles is not a recommendation for complacency in the face of bubbles. On the contrary, a key reason for not leaning on interest rate changes to restrain bubbles is that fighting bubbles is too important to be done with policy instruments that are not well-targeted to the task. Instead, the Fed and other financial regulators should adopt other tools aimed at restraining financial sector excess and preventing bubbles. Below we present three classes of tools in the rough order in which policymakers concerned about bubbles should deploy them: communication, supervision, and deleveraging. Communication There has been a growing recognition by researchers and monetary policymakers in recent years of the importance of “forward guidance,” the communications channel of Fed policy. For some reason, however, the usefulness of this communications channel has yet to be fully applied to bubble prevention. But if forward guidance works at all, then central banks may be able to use their stature as respected authorities on the economy to provide information to markets that will shrink, or at least hinder the growth of, a bubble. There is good reason to believe that statements from central banks—backed up by solid research by the bank’s staff—could have an impact on asset bubbles. First, there is a substantial literature (see for example Geraats 2002 and Kuttner and Posen 1999) on the idea that comments by central banks influence behavior. The argument is that by declaring its adherence to an inflation target, a central bank may be able to convince actors in the economy that it is willing to take strong measures to reach this target. This will lead firms and workers to adjust their inflationary expectations accordingly, with workers reducing their wage demands and firms more actively resisting wage demands if the target were met. The result would be a fall in the inflation rate. More recently, the focus of central banks on the importance of forward guidance to the markets also suggests that statements by central banks have a direct impact on the behavior of financial market actors. The argument is that, by convincing financial markets of a long-term commitment to sustaining low interest rates, central banks will be able to get actors in the markets to perform in a way that will lower long-term interest rates in the near term. There is also a literature on the concept of “rational bubbles,” the notion that it may be profitable for actors to invest in bubbles even if they fully understand that current prices are not supported by the fundamentals of the market. They can profit from the run-up in prices as long as they get most of their investment out of the market before it collapses (see Diba and Grossman 1988). If there is validity to the notion that comments from the central bank can influence wage- and price-setting behavior, and that forward guidance can persuade investors to accept lower long-term interest rates, then it should also be the case that talk from the central bank can affect investors’ behavior when a bubble is taking shape, especially if many of the actors are acting rationally. If rational investors come to believe that a central bank is prepared to take strong steps to deflate a bubble, then the perceived risk of a price collapse grows, making investors more likely to exit the market. If enough actors are persuaded to leave the market, then Fed talk will have the desired effect of deflating the bubble. This is a fairly simple story whereby a central bank could deflate a bubble by convincing market actors that it is prepared to take the steps necessary to deflate the bubble, i.e., raise interest rates or change regulatory rules radically enough to choke off credit growth aimed toward the bubble-inflated asset, even if the bank never carries through with these actions. What would be necessary for this sort of scenario to occur is first that a substantial portion of the actors in the market believe that there is in fact a bubble and therefore a serious risk of a price collapse. Second, they would have to believe that the central bank is prepared to take the steps necessary to collapse the bubble, even if this potentially interferes with other goals such as hitting its inflation target or maintaining high levels of employment. A limited examination of the response of financial markets in the immediate aftermath of statements from central banks indicates that markets do seem to take such warnings seriously. Alan Greenspan’s “irrational exuberance” comment prompted a decline not only in the U.S. market but also in most major European markets (the German market fell by more than 4.0 percent) and in Japan (which dropped more than 3 percent). A similar response followed remarks by Fed Chair Janet Yellen in 2014. In congressional testimony she warned that the prices of some social media and biotech stocks appeared to be out of line with their earnings potential. She also noted that junk bonds seemed to be overpriced given their inherent riskiness. Her written statement included the evidence to back up these assertions (Yellen 2014). No one expected that every investor and fund manager would dump their holdings of these assets based on Yellen’s comments, but fund managers with heavy stakes in these assets would have been looking for new jobs if the price of these assets subsequently plunged and they had no good answer as to why they ignored Yellen’s warnings. In essence, this Fed-talk strategy of bubble-fighting is an attempt to make sure that the “who could have known?” response of financial money managers to the housing bubble will never again be an acceptable excuse. Yellen’s warnings certainly had some near-term effect, with the price of the assets she identified falling considerably. For example, the share price of Twitter and Facebook fell 1 percent the day after Yellen’s testimony, while Yahoo, Google, and LinkedIn posted slightly smaller losses (Cirilli and Hattem 2014). Yellen also highlighted biotech stocks as being potentially inflated in price, and the iShares NasDaq biotechnology exchange-traded fund fell by 4 percent in the two days following her talk (Saft 2014). Unfortunately, neither Greenspan nor Yellen’s initial forward guidance was followed up. But there is little reason to think that there would be diminishing marginal returns to such a strategy. In regard to Yellen’s 2014 testimony, it was encouraging to see the Fed experiment with this approach. Preventing the excessive growth of asset bubbles is an important task, but it is also important that the Fed carry through this task in a way that doesn’t itself cause serious economic damage. At the moment, there is no obvious asset bubble that would have large macroeconomic consequence if it burst, so Yellen’s decision to not follow up her earlier warning is defensible. If a significant bubble appears in coming years, however, the clear step one could take in addressing it should be simple communication. Deleveraging Many recent bubbles have been aided by leverage—debt taken on to purchase the asset and hence bid up its price. This happened most starkly during the 2000s housing bubble. Rapidly rising prices, all else equal, should have boosted homeowners’ housing wealth. But homeowners’ equity in their houses barely budged, as homeowners took out loans collateralized by their homes’ rising value. Further, as the bubble expanded, financial institutions began offering more and more ways for buyers to purchase and borrow against homes at ever-high degrees of leverage—some loan-to-value ratios topped 100 percent. The enabling feature of leverage in boosting the purchase of specific assets means that financial regulators—including the Fed—should impose limits on this leverage for specific assets when prices become delinked from underlying fundamentals. In the case of housing, this rule implies that the Fed and other regulators, such as the Federal Housing Administration, could begin demanding that potential buyers offer more money upfront (i.e., take on less leverage) when purchasing a home. These limits could vary over the business cycle and with the state of the housing market. Currently, financial market deregulation and the rise of shadow banking have allowed many leverage limits (practical ones, if not legal ones) to amplify home price swings rather than dampen them. Intelligent regulation could stop this. In the case of equities, buyers sometimes use margin loans to purchase stock. The Fed has the authority to impose higher margin requirements (i.e., restrict how much leverage is taken on) to buy stocks. This strategy was suggested in the late 1990s stock market boom but never implemented. But unlike housing, the direct effect of higher margin limits is likely circumscribed: fewer than 5 percent of stock purchases are done on margin. But the effect of limiting margin buying may be greater than this number would indicate. For one, prices are set not by the average buyer but by the last buyer (the “marginal” buyer, in the jargon). If last buyers are more likely to purchase stocks with the aid of margin loans, their purchases could have an outsized effect on prices. For another, changing margin requirements could be a powerful complement to the pure communications strategy outlined above. It essentially could signal that the Fed is serious if and when it communicates to the investing public that it feels a particular asset class has become overvalued. Supervision The final class of policies that can help avoid asset bubbles is prudent supervision of financial institutions—authority that is firmly in the wheelhouse of the Federal Reserve. This supervision can encompass a number of aspects. For example, the Fed can institute overall leverage limits or capital requirements on financial institutions themselves, regardless of the composition of their balance sheets. Because higher capital requirements can increase the cost of purchasing assets, they can slow down the process of credit creation. Given that available credit can be a condition for inflating or sustaining bubbles, such increases in capital requirements can be adjusted depending on the state of financial markets. Besides overall capital requirements, the Fed could also apply sector-specific risk weights or capital charges for those assets that look to be bubble-inflated. This requirement would reduce financial institution demand for such assets and hence lean against bubbles. The Fed can also undertake supervisory stress testing that requires financial institutions to account for how they would absorb large losses in a particular asset class. For example, if home prices began rising rapidly and threatened to reach 2006 levels again, the Fed could ask banks how they would be affected by a 25 percent fall in national home prices. If the answer is that this drop would cause great financial distress, banks would be required to boost capital and reduce exposure to downward price swings in assets linked to home prices. A final set of supervisory tools available to the Fed concern liquidity regulations. A key driver of the financial market crises following the housing bubble was the illiquidity of many assets held by financial institutions. Basically, as the depth of the home price collapse became apparent, there were few buyers for the mortgage-backed securities that formed the assets of many financial institutions. Regulators could remedy liquidity risk in part by having mandates on what share of an institution’s assets need to be held in more liquid assets. Highly liquid assets (say Treasury bills) are safer in that there will almost always be ready buyers for them, but they produce lower earnings for financial institutions. As a consequence, minimum liquidity requirements would reduce the demand for (and hence raise the cost of) illiquid, risky assets that can sometimes be the source of bubbles (homes, in the most recent case). Regulators can, of course, vary liquidity requirements over the cycle, increasing them during boom times and relaxing them when the economy and/or credit creation are slowing. Conclusion Asset bubbles have the potential not only to distort the economy but to wreck it. Policymakers arguing for vigilance in avoiding them should be applauded. However, bubbles should be approached and targeted with suitable tools—tools that can reliably affect asset prices without inflicting severe collateral damage on the nonfinancial sectors of the economy. Today many policymakers and commentators are unhappy that the Fed is persisting in its policy of keeping short-term interest rates low or raising them only slowly. They have argued that avoiding bubbles justifies raising these rates even as overall economic activity remains weak and price inflation remains below the Fed’s preferred targets. This is unwise. Laying the blame for asset bubbles on low short-term rates disregards economic history and wisdom. Policymakers who are serious about avoiding bubbles should reach for policy tools besides raising short-term rates. These more effective bubble-fighting tools exist; let interest rates hammer their own nails. About the authors Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He has written numerous books and articles, including Getting Back to Full Employment: A Better Bargain for Working People (with Jared Bernstein) and Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy. Josh Bivens joined the Economic Policy Institute in 2002 and is currently the director of research and policy. He has authored or co-authored three books (including The State of Working America, 12th Edition) while working at EPI, edited another, and has written numerous research papers, including for academic journals. Endnotes Examples of this argument from Fed policymakers can be found in Stein (2014) and George (2016). Bernanke (2010) further notes that there is a strong correlation between the change in current account deficits and home price appreciation across countries. Those looking for a policy lever to restrain housing bubbles should hence look to exchange-rate policies. We recognize we’re pushing these estimates too far. Hiking the FFR up high enough to cause a recession would surely have some spillover effects in reining in price growth through income channels. But that’s part of the point—if the argument is that the Fed must engineer an outright recession to avoid excess asset market inflation, then it really does seem to require that a better bubble-fighting tool be found. References Bernanke, Ben. 2010. “Monetary Policy and the Housing Bubble.” Speech to the annual meeting of the American Economic Association, Atlanta, Ga., January 3. Cirill, Kevin, and Julian Hattem. 2014. “Tech Stocks Tumble After Yellen’s Remarks.” The Hill, July 15. Diba, Behzad and Herschel Grossman. 1988. “The Theory of Rational Bubbles in Stock Prices.” Economic Journal, vol. 98, no. 292, pp. 746-54. George, Esther. 2016. “The Outlook and Monetary Policy.” Speech given to economic forum in York, Nebraska. Geraats, Petra. 2002. “Central Bank Transparency.” Economic Journal, vol. 112, no. 483, pp. F532-65. Glaeser, Edward, Joshua Gottlieb, and Joseph Gyourko. 2012. “Can Cheap Credit Explain the Housing Boom?” In Housing and the Financial Crisis. University of Chicago Press. Kuttner, Kenneth. 2012. “Low Interest Rates and Housing Bubbles: Still No Smoking Gun.” Working Paper. Williamstown, Mass.: Williams College. Kuttner, Kenneth, and Adam Posen. 1999. “Does Talk Matter After All? Inflation Targeting and Central Bank Behavior.” Working Paper No. 1999/04. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Center for Financial Studies, Goethe University. Saft, James. 2014. “Who’s Afraid of Janet Yellen?” Reuters online. Stein, Jeremy. 2014. “Incorporating Financial Stability Considerations Into a Monetary Policy Framework.” Speech given to the International Monetary Fund, April 13. Tinbergen, Jan. 1952. On the Theory of Economic Policy, Amsterdam: North Holland, 2nd edition. Yellen, Janet. 2014. Statement by Janet L. Yellen, Chair, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, July 15, 2014.

On February 7th, the first CouchDB Day took place in the nice city of Hamburg, Germany. It was a blast! This blog post is a recap of the Day and will report about what happened. But first of all, we would like to share some impressions with you. We were lucky enough to have a film team at the event and we are super excited to present the first CouchDB Day Mood Film. The Day before As this was the first CouchDB Day, Robert and me took extra care of everything in advance. At least we think we did. So the day before the event, we met with Holger Blank, Klaus Trainer and Sebastian Rothbucher to set up everything in the location. Thanks again to Holger and SinnerSchrader for hosting us. We couldn’t have imagined a better place. You rock! 🙂 We had a main room with a capacity for approx. 120 people – the amount of attendees we expected. Furthermore, there was a lounge where we decided to serve breakfast and lunch.And we had two more conference rooms. The main room is that big so that we divided it into two rooms. So if counting correctly, we had four rooms for hacking, speaking or simply hanging around. Each with a projector for sure. Preparing everything was quite easy because my former fine colleague Daniel Goos form SinnerSchrader had already setup the audio stuff and the fridge for drinks was filled ;-). So nothing stopped us from looking forward to the next morning. But we shall not forget to check out the party location and the beer they served there. That’s we did as our last task at this day. The Day We arrived at 08:00 in the morning. Pretty early for a Saturday but looking forward to an awesome event saved us from complaining about the time. And believe it or not. There had already been some attendees waiting to get in. Cool start. We opened doors at 08:30 and the people came in time. Awesome. The mega cool two by two Espresso machine started to roar. Everything was fine. At 09:00 Robert and me gave the introduction and welcomed everybody. The first impression was a blast. With ~100 people attending, our “no show” rate was low. Perfect. After some info and proposals how we thought to run the day, it was our pleasure to welcome Jan Lehnardt as our keynote speaker. Hacking, talking, presenting It was extremely cool to see, that many groups had been formed after a quick “find my interest”. There was an introduction to Erlang by Robert Newson, an introduction to Hoodie by Ola Gasidlo and Sven Lito and an introduction to Fauxton by Sebastian Rothbucher and Robert Kowalski for example. But a lot more groups sat together and discussed or hacked. This was, for us as the organisers, exactly what we were looking forward to. So at this point of the day: mission accomplished. Talks As our idea was that all attendees work on and with CouchDB, we decided to have only three talks. After lunch, we were extremely happy to hear and see a live introduction to CouchDB 2.0 by Klaus Trainer. And directly after Klaus, we saw Frank Mecklenburg with his talk How to replicate the Internet into your browser and a short Q&A. This was perfect after a well received and yummy lunch provided by Schanzenstern Hamburg. After these talks the attendees went back to form different groups and worked on various other things. Again – Cool! At around 16:00 we served various cake and stressed the two by two Espresso machine again. It was delicious and extra sugar motivated everybody. We recognised, that the time period between the lunch talks and the last talk was a bit long. Maybe everyone ate too much because it was that good ;-). So to not stress everybody’s mood, we asked Ólafur Arason if he would start 30 minutes earlier with his talk Reusing CouchDB cookies for token based urls. And so he did. Outro and Party Well, after one more Q&A for Ólafur’s talk, we came to the end of the day. Robert and I were extremely happy that everything went that well and obviously everybody was happy with the day. So the last thing we had to ask the attendees is to wait a bit for a family photo and show them the way to the next whisky bar … aka the CouchDB Day party. Party The party location was a bar in Altona called Laundrette. Funny fact: you can bring your laundry and wash it there ;-). The party was super awesome and the budget we had (and some extra 😉 ) was enough to make everyone happy. It was again a full success. ## Committer meeting on Sunday We already planned a CouchDB committer meeting for Sunday. And so we met in the Ubilabs office (thanks for hosting us again) and started to discuss the next steps to CouchDB 2.0. This day was also a success because hacking on CouchDB 2.0 resulted in a even more stable CouchDB 2.0 developer preview. Videos and Photos The CouchDB project has a CouchDB Youtube Channel at CouchDB Youtube . You are welcome to watch the talks from the CouchDB Day. And we have also Flickr album where we put some photos from the event. Please check it out at CouchDB Flickr. Conclusion and thanks CouchDB Day 2015 was a blast. The feedback we received was extremely good. Some people already asked us when the next CouchDB Day will happen this year :). Please be patient and expect the next one next year. All this would not have bend possible without our great sponsors. Please visit http://day.couchdb.org and say hello to them. You all rock! And we also want to thank the people who helped to make this day so extremely successful. The people who talked about stuff in the groups, the speakers, the helpers, the video crew, the food crew, the photo crew and last but not least the attendees. The CouchDB Day would not have happened without you! You rock and you are awesome. Extra special thanks go out to sum.cumo GmbH for doing all the financial stuff for us. And to Luigi Dileone for creating the awesome CouchDB Day logo. Thank you! We are looking forward to see all of you next year. Because … … There will be a CouchDB Day 2016! Promised! All the best for you from Robert and Andy

Lloyds, RBS and NatWest customers have all been locked out of ATMs or unable to use their cards at check-outs. A lack of investment is only compounding the problem IT systems at the high street banks have come under the spotlight again, as another week has seen another set off customers cut off from their cash – and experts say things are set to get worse as new technologies and regulation put more strain on companies' creaking systems. Customers of Lloyds Banking Group were the latest to be hit by payment problems, after a server failure meant that for around three-and-a-half hours debit card transactions were declined and ATMs up and down the country would not dispense cash. While not as catastrophic as the "glitch" which caused some customers of RBS's banking brands to go weeks without being able to access their accounts properly, it was another sign that ageing IT systems are in need of a serious overhaul. "The banks do have a problem, but it's not a new problem, and it's not an easy problem to fix, which is why it's taking so long," says David Bannister, editor of Banking Technology magazine. "In the old days these machines just had to run overnight in batch mode – it was like newspapers with just one edition – but now they have to deal with news that is being updated throughout the day. The users – us – are using internet banking, ATMs, we're spending money online. The reconciliation between what is going on in the background is the hard part, and the gulf is widening all the time." Ben Wilson, associate director of financial services for techUK, says some of the "legacy systems" at banks are 30-40 years old and were originally set up for branch banking, but "then they needed to be ATM-focussed, then there was online banking, then mobile banking". He says: "Banks have bolted on these changes because it is cheaper and less risky than starting from scatch, but every time you bolt on a change it becomes more complex." 'A house of cards' As well as new banking channels, systems are also tinkered with whenever regulatory changes are made, and when a product is withdrawn or changed. Jim McCall, managing director of the Unit, which works with banks and other companies on their mobile apps, says that while anyone now building a system from scratch would "abstract out as much as possible so [different elements] are not as reliant on each other", the banks' systems often resemble a house of cards. "If you make a change to a tiny bit of code on one thing it is like the butterfly flapping its wings far away and somewhere someone's mobile app stops working," he says. To make things more complicated, says Colin Privett, UK managing director of software firm Cast, new functions are usually "written in different programming languages, on different machines, by different teams". He adds: "This prevents a single person/team from ever fully understanding the entire structure of a system. That is why when things do go wrong it can often take hours, or even days, to fix as teams scramble to find out where the problem lies." 'Chronic underinvestment' After the last round of IT issues at RBS, its chief executive, Ross McEwan, admitted to years of under-spending on its computer systems and said the bank was "investing heavily in building IT systems our customers can rely on". This period of underinvestment saw the bank lay off some of its IT staff, and other banks have done the same. Privett says across the banks' problems have been compounded by "chronic under investment in these systems, particularly over the past few years when banks had to deal with squeezed budgets, meaning quality checks were often the first thing to get cut". Mark Holland, a partner at the consultancy firm Holley Holland, says that changes such as increased capital requirements mean that banks have less money to invest, and when they do have cash the back-office is low down the list of priorities. "Very little investment goes into this space – it goes on the sexier types of technology. It always will do – no bank will spend money on shiny new equipment, there is nothing in it for them." There have always been technical problems behind the scenes, Bannister says, but "they used to happen in the middle of the night" when that one batch payment was done. Now things go wrong during the day and consumers are much more aware of it, as are the media, with websites such as Twitter allow customers to broadcast problems as they arise. Wilson says the IT failure at RBS was a "watershed moment. This has been an industry issue for years, but suddenly it became public interest". Continuing breakdowns That's not to say the problems are not getting worse. As banks continue to layer new systems on top of old there will continue to be breakdowns, and they will become more frequent unless more money is spent. "To solve the problem and to make their systems robust a lot of money has to be spent on the back-end," Bannister says. McCall says overhauling systems is a "huge budget project", and very difficult to do when people never stop using their bank. "It's a bit like trying to change the windscreen while you're driving down the M6," he says. Holland says that even scheduling in maintenance is nigh on impossible. "Payments are going through 24/7 – there isn't a second of time when the system can be switched off. For the banks, periods such as Christmas and Easter might seem like a quiet time, but for a consumer it's the opposite." Wilson says banks are starting to think about collaborative approaches, realising that the systems that sit behind them do not need to be unique and that they could save money and time by working together. There are examples in the US, where banks are sharing back-office systems. Certainly, the need for robust systems will grow as our changing habits put technology at the forefront of our spending. As mobile payments take over from cash, we will be more dependent than ever on reliable IT.

A new look at the human genome suggests that unappreciated variations in its fundamental architecture, rather than point-by-point mutations, may be responsible for most genetic difference among people. Point-by-point mutations, called single nucleotide polymorphisms, involve simple changes to DNA lettering. They're the best-studied type of variation, the target of most genomic disease hunts, and the substance of commercially available personal genome readouts. More complex yet less-studied are structural variations, which involve large-scale changes: wholesale duplications and reversals, or unexpected additions and omissions, of long DNA sequences. Traditional genome sequencing techniques are too fuzzy and piecemeal to make sense of these, yet "our observations suggest that structural variations are more specific to individuals than single nucleotide polymorphisms are," wrote researchers led by Jun Wang of the Beijing Genomics Institute in a July 24 Nature Biotechnology study. It might seem counterintuitive that big changes have been harder to detect than small ones, but it's a consequence of how genomes are read. Every method involves breaking long DNA sequences – the human genome contains three billion DNA pairs – into pieces, then trying to reassemble them. The methods vary according to fragment size and reassembly technique, but as a rule it's far less expensive and time-intensive to use small fragments. As a result, most genomic studies, including gold-standard genome-wide association surveys, involve sequences reassembled from small pieces. As with a jigsaw puzzle or a book, however, larger fragments would work better. If the pieces are too small, or the text blocks just a few letters long, it's difficult to be certain what the final product ought to look like. It's possible to compare two pieces, but not puzzle sections or paragraphs. "One reason you've heard more about single nucleotide polymorphisms, that they've come to the fore even though they're a more minor form of variation than these structural variants, is that they were easier to see," said Yale University bioinformaticist Mark Gerstein, who was not involved in the study. In the new study, Wang and colleagues used algorithms that assemble long, relatively intact genome sequences from small fragments, allowing them to see more structural variation than is usually possible. In a high-profile earlier study, they'd used it to sequence a giant panda genome; this time they compared structural variations across 106 people from the 1000 Genomes Project. They found that individuals seem to be distinguished less by their SNPs than their structural variations. "Defining structural variations will be of considerable importance for future analyses of personal genomes," they wrote. The new study didn't attempt to link structural variation with traits or disease, but it's possible that as-yet-unstudied structural variations contain a portion of what geneticsts call the "missing heritability." Of common disease risk that's clearly hereditary, only a small fraction can currently be traced to genes. "Structural variations are a very hot topic," said Gerstein. "They're probably the major form of variation in humans." Image: A comparison of structural variation in an Asian genome (left) and one African genome (right). (Wang et al/Nature Biotechnology) See Also: Citation: "Structural variation in two human genomes mapped at single nucleotide–resolution by whole genome de novo assembly." By Yingrui Li, Hancheng Zheng, Ruibang Luo–, Honglong Wu, Hongmei Zhu, Ruiqiang Li, Hongzhi Cao, Boxin Wu, Shujia Huang, Haojing Shao, Hanzhou Ma, Fan Zhang, Shuijian Feng, Wei Zhang, Hongli Du, Geng Tian, Jingxiang Li, Xiuqing Zhang, Songgang Li, Lars Bolund, Karsten Kristiansen, Adam J de Smith, Alexandra I F Blakemore, Lachlan J M Coin, Huanming Yang, Jian Wang & Jun Wang. Nature Biotechnology, July 24, 2011.

DALLAS — Bruce Kevin Hawkins, 52, of Desoto, Texas, was sentenced this morning before U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to serve 41 months in prison and pay $219,109 in restitution for his role in a foreclosure rescue scheme that exploited vulnerable homeowners facing foreclosure, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas. Hawkins pleaded guilty in June 2017 to one count of mail fraud. He has been in custody since the time of his arrest in January 2017. A federal grand jury in Dallas returned an indictment in December 2016 charging Hawkins and three others with felony offenses stemming from a “foreclosure rescue scheme” they ran from approximately February 2012 through January 2013. Richard Bruce Stevens, 51, of San Antonio, Texas, and Christina Renee Caveny, 37, of Dallas, also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced later this year. Mark Demetri Stein, 36, of Carrollton, Texas, is awaiting trial. According to documents filed in the case, Stein operated Real Estate Solutions, Stevens used Texas Real Estate Services, and Hawkins formed ERealty Mortgage Group, LLC, as foreclosure rescue companies. The conspirators used third parties to contact homeowners and offer them an opportunity to get out of their present home loans and receive a new home loan with a reduced interest payment and reduced monthly payment. Hawkins and other conspirators falsely represented to homeowners that they had “investors” standing by who were ready to quickly purchase the homeowner’s present loan from the lender holding the current mortgage. They also falsely represented that they would use investors to purchase the homeowner’s loan from the original lender at a greatly reduced price through a “short sale” process. Furthermore, Hawkins and other conspirators falsely represented to the homeowners that the homeowners had the legal authority to transfer their homeowner’s deed to the defendants. As part of the scheme, the conspirators fraudulently required homeowners to start making all future loan payments to them based on fraudulent so-called “loans,” and they also told homeowners to ignore late payment notices sent by lenders. As part of the scheme, the conspirators conducted a fraudulent “closing” for each homeowner where they caused the homeowner to pay them a large down payment on the new “loan,” and they also had the homeowner sign fraudulent documents, such as a promissory note, deed of trust, special warranty deed, and/or a so-called “land trust.” Further, according to plea documents, the conspirators falsely represented to homeowners that the conspirators could “sell” their property back to the homeowner with a new loan, when the conspirators well knew they did not legally own the property. The conspirators also told homeowners to ignore notices of nonpayment from their present lender as they continued to unlawfully collect monthly so called “mortgage payments” from homeowners. In fact, conspirators instructed several homeowners to file for bankruptcy but to not follow up with the bankruptcy process as an additional means to delay foreclosure and conceal the conspirators’ criminal conduct. Conspirators concealed that all down payment and monthly mortgage payments fraudulently collected from homeowners was spent for their own personal benefit. The defendants recruited at least 70 distressed and vulnerable homeowners who were facing the imminent threat of foreclosure on their homes and fraudulently collected a total of at least $242,000 from them. This case is one of several felony prosecutions of bankruptcy-related crimes prosecuted since May 2013 as a result of the Bankruptcy Fraud Initiative in the Northern District of Texas. As part of that initiative, 23 defendants have been convicted and 2 defendants are pending trial. The Dallas FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jarvis prosecuted. # # #

On September 2, more than 200,000 Argentine workers rallied in the Plaza de Mayo in downtown Buenos Aires, the capital, to denounce the right-wing, anti-labor policies of the country’s president, Mauricio Macri. This demonstration may presage a movement toward unity on the part of the country’s traditionally split labor movement. The Marcha Federal (Federal March), as the protest’s leaders call it, began with rallies in a number of other Argentine cities, including Rosario, Córdoba, La Matanza and Avellaneda, and then marched over three days to Buenos Aires. It was initially organized by unions, including the two branches of the Argentine Central Labor Federation (CTA) and the other, smaller labor groups. By the time the Marcha got to Buenos Aires, many other people’s organizations had joined in support. The purpose of the march was to demand a reversal of key policies of the Macri government, which took power in December of last year. These policies have caused great suffering to Argentine workers and their families. Upon taking power, Macri imposed a major currency devaluation which had the impact of making the lives of ordinary Argentines much more expensive, because of the increased cost of imported items. Though the devaluation was billed as an inflation fighting measure, it has had the opposite effect: Already high inflation has jumped even higher, to more than 40 percent annually and rising. For workers and the poor specifically, the inflation rate is already 54 percent this year. In addition, Macri’s government has cut subsidies for public services such as electricity and natural gas, and has laid off thousands of government workers, including 30,000 in Buenos Aires alone. As the economy has contracted, private industry has laid off tens of thousands more. In May, the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the national legislature where Macri does not have a majority, passed legislation for the suspension of further layoffs, but Macri vetoed this. An effort to stop Macri from raising electricity rates appears to be stalled in the courts. In order to get his program through, Macri had to win over legislators from other parties than his own. He was able to do this because of splits in the Justicialist Party, which is the core of the Victory Alliance which ruled Argentina and set it off on a progressive “Bolivarian” path under presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Some Argentine history with the Perón family The Justicialist Party was founded in 1947 by then President Juan Domingo Perón and his colleagues. Perón was a populist who got strong labor support due to social reforms during his first administration (1946-55), which benefited the working class economically. But ideologically, he also had some fascist ties. Perón was overthrown by the military in 1955. When he was finally able to return to power in 1971, he was older and took a more conservative tack. A left-right split in the Justicialist Party soon appeared, and took violent forms. When Perón died in 1974 he was succeeded in the presidency by his second wife, Isabel (Evita, Perón’s first wife, had died of cancer in 1952). The right-wing trend became dominant within the Justicialist Party, and then in 1976 came the coup which brought in the fascist military dictatorship. The military dictatorship, under the pretext of suppressing violence from the left-Justicialist “Montoneros” movement, and with U.S. support, carried out brutal repression against all kinds of leftists including the non-Peronist Communist Party, labor and all other dissident elements. At least 30,000 people were murdered or “disappeared” by the military. In many cases, pregnant women were kept prisoner until they gave birth, then they were murdered and their newborn babies handed over to military officers and other supporters of the dictatorship to raise as their own. These cases are still being investigated, perpetrators still being sentenced to prison, and demands for justice for these families continue to be put forward by the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, by the Communist Party and others. So any suggestion from a right-wing politician like Macri that perhaps not so many were murdered, or perhaps there is no need to keep on prosecuting the perpetrators of the repression, sets off alarm bells. Macri and others have made some troubling statements recently. Promising new alliances toward unity The General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the major labor federation which historically supported Perón and the Justicialist Party, and has been considered one of the more conservative labor federations in Argentina, now may be moving closer to the other federations in opposition to Macri’s economic policies. Although the CGT did not officially co-sponsor the Federal March, its leadership made clear that if member unions wanted to participate, they were free to do so. They participated with other federations in demonstrations against Macri’s policies earlier this year and may call for a general strike, probably sometime in October. This is seen as a step forward by more left-leaning groups. Mario Alderete, labor secretary of the Communist Party of Argentina, said that the march “[has] generated conditions for the building of a general strike,” though citing “the resistance of one part of the labor leadership which has remained passive when faced with the adjustments imposed by the government. It is necessary to carry out overwhelming actions against [the Macri economic policies] and repression. This is one of the first and necessary reactions of the people’s sector to the attacks of ‘Macrismo.'” Macri got some of his initial proposals passed due to defections from Kirchner’s Victory Front in the Chamber of Deputies. Thus he ended up striking a deal very unfavorable to Argentina, with the “vulture” hedge funds against which his predecessor had been having a long-term fight. This is in line with Macri’s strategy of opening up Argentina to new penetration by foreign multinational corporations and also increasing the country’s access to the bond market. Macri’s cabinet is packed with neoliberal figures who are especially close to transnational corporations including Shell, IBM, and JPMorgan Chase. But now even some more conservative elements in Argentine politics may be beginning to feel queasy about the direction Macri’s economic policy has been going. Economist Aldo Pignatelli, who belongs to a more right-wing trend within Peronism, has warned that Macri’s economic policies increasingly resemble those of the military dictatorship. This suggests that the legislators may continue to balk at Macri’s more extreme projects. At the rally in the Plaza de Mayo, Hugo Yasky, secretary general of the Argentine Workers General Federation of Labor (one of the two branches of the CTA which sponsored the event), hailed the “unity of the workers. Also the unity, which marks a distinct new moment in the confluence of the labor movement with the social movements; unity and convergence with the student movement, with human rights organizations, with the [small-scale producers], the small-scale and family farmers, unity with informal workers, with the [worker cooperatives],” and with many other sectors who participated in the Federal March. We will see now how far this unity reaches, and how much it can impede Macri’s rush to the right. Photo: People march in the Plaza de Mayo. \| Victor R. Caivano/AP

In boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts, a journeyman is a fighter who has adequate skill but is not of the caliber of a contender or gatekeeper. Outside of combat sports, a "journeyman" is a trader or craftsman who has completed an apprenticeship, but is not at the level of a master craftsman. Hence, when applied to sports, a "journeyman" implies a fighter who is no longer a novice, and has the sufficient degree of skill that may be expected from a professional, but who does not have the mastery possessed by the title contenders. Journeymen will often serve as opponents for young up and coming prospects and will often step in at late notice should a fight fall through. Journeymen are said to have little or no expectation of winning fights against contenders or most gatekeepers, but this does not preclude them from having a winning record against less-skilled fighters.[1][2] In testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, DeGuardia[3] states that becoming a journeyman is the fate of many professional boxers, and that a boxer will realize that he has become a journeyman "after about 10 years" in the profession. Journeymen boxers float "from promoter to promoter, or manager to manager, hoping to get placed as opponents in fights" by promoters, and making very little money. They will "fight all the time, anywhere, in order to make enough money to get by." In earlier testimony to the committee, it had been reported that some journeymen boxers regard themselves as existing in the sport solely as "a body for better men to beat on."[4] History [ edit ] Svinth[5] reports that the activities of journeymen boxers changed over the course of the 20th century, with journeymen of the 1920s fighting a couple of times per week and spending little time in the gymnasium, but journeymen of the 1990s fighting a couple of times per year and sparring in the gymnasium three or four nights per week. Quotes [ edit ] Journeymen are the foundation of boxing...Journeymen make boxing. Without journeymen you don’t get Miguel Cotto or Nate Campbell, or Joan Guzmán...You give me ten guys who are journeymen and I'll give you fifteen or twenty guys that they (the journeymen) made world champions. 200, 50, Nate Campbell - IBF & WBO Lightweight Champion[6] I sold my soul to the flesh trade. I paraded isolated muscles controlled by an isolated mind. Promoters and managers are the farmers and we are the cattle. 200, 50, Michael Murray, former boxer - Author of The Journeyman[7] See also [ edit ]

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron is ready to make Brexit hurt — but only insofar as Britain’s pain makes Europe stronger. Fresh from diplomatic highs with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the French president sees little interest in picking fights with London during Brexit talks. Nor does he want to exploit the domestic miseries of Prime Minister Theresa May, according to two sources familiar with Macron’s thinking. With his sights set on a “reset” of the European Union through reform, Paris will pursue a pragmatic approach to Brexit talks, which started this week in Brussels. But Macron does not want the European Commission, which negotiates on behalf of member countries, to go easy on Britain. Instead, officials said, he sees Brexit as a grand opportunity to leverage Franco-German influence on the global stage, drive integration and press ahead with reforms that Britain would normally have opposed from inside the EU tent. That means seeking to assert EU interests on matters like Britain’s “financial passport” or euro clearing rights for the Continent, as Brexit talks get under way. “There is no desire to punish Britain ... but we will probably end up seeing that Britain has lost its voice on many issues that are of direct interest” — Top French diplomat In the long term, Macron’s aim is to forge a post-British compact for the EU — one in which continental powers are freed from London’s liberalizing influence on trade and other fronts. According to the same officials, specific areas where Macron is ready to charge ahead in parallel with Brexit talks include: Trade: Macron will press the EU this week to develop bolder and nimbler anti-dumping tools, including a centralized “alert” platform to warn of unfair trade practices — changes Britain would have opposed. Defense: He’ll set the ball rolling on “permanent structured cooperation” on defense, kickstarting joint procurement and some operations — another proposal Britain does not like. Eurozone integration: Down the line, after German elections, Macron will drive integration via harmonization of fiscal and welfare schemes as well as moving forward with a eurozone budget and finance minister. German Chancellor Angela Merkel endorsed the moves this week, against British wishes. The end result, the officials said, would be a stronger EU, and Britain finding it has lost, not gained, sovereignty in the process. And no amount of cozying up to Trump will compensate for London’s reduced influence on the Continent, they added. “There is no desire to punish Britain ... but we will probably end up seeing that Britain has lost its voice on many issues that are of direct interest,” added the diplomat. “Even the Brexiteers are starting to recognize this now.” Leading from behind For all his ambition to be the new François Mitterrand to Angela Merkel’s Helmut Kohl, Macron wants to lead from far behind in Brexit talks, letting the Commission be the public face of the negotiations rather than throwing his weight around in public. The reasons for this are both procedural — the Commission, not member countries like France, has the mandate to negotiate — and tactical. The French establishment feared a potential “Frexit” as long as Marine Le Pen was within striking distance of the presidency, but Brexit is now far down the list of domestic political concerns. So Macron has no interest in getting into spats over fishing rights, the fate of British holiday home owners in Dordogne or the Le Touquet border control treaty that many in the country blame for the creation of migrant camps like the one in Calais. Where he does have a powerful interest is in showing voters he can revive Franco-German ties and make good on his promise of leading Europe into a new dawn. This requires trumpeting Franco-German chumminess at every chance, like this week when the two countries put forward joint proposals to EU peers, or in July when France and Germany will hold a joint summit. The message to London in both cases: You won’t get in the way of our blooming diplomatic romance. In Brexit talks, the lead-from-behind approach means deferring to Barnier — a former French minister — on all questions, at least in public. This way, France avoids looking like a “bad cop” while being assured its interests are well represented by a man who knows them intimately. Most of all, Macron wants to stop Britain from driving a wedge between EU member countries, striking side deals or doing anything that would reduce the leverage of 27 states against one. And his team is convinced that when it comes to Brexit, for once, the EU is unified. “It’s one side-effect of constant crisis, over Greece, migration, etc — we’ve learned how to talk to each other,” said another diplomat close to the president. “On Brexit there is pretty broad agreement.” Messieurs Brexit Macron’s approach on Brexit means that France has no equivalent to David Davis, no “Mr. Brexit.” Instead, several key officials inside and outside the president’s office will follow the dossier. While Macron’s chief diplomatic adviser Philippe Étienne will help the president fathom Germany’s shifting political tides, Clément Beaune, a 35-year-old adviser on Europe and the G20, will be Macron’s No. 1 “Brexit whisperer” in the halls of power. A graduate of the elite ENA school of public administration, Beaune has been at Macron’s side since the president was economy minister under François Hollande. Beaune advised Macron, the then-minister on EU and international affairs, helping him craft the push against Chinese steel dumping that is now at the heart of the president’s broader vision for a more defensive EU trade policy. At the Élysée, Beaune is seconded by two technical advisers, Alexandre Adam and Nicolas Jégou. Outside the president’s office, Philippe Léglise-Costa is France’s most senior Europe hand. At the head of the General Secretariat for European Affairs, which answers to the prime minister’s office, Léglise-Costa brings deep insight into the EU decision-making process, as well as five years of frontline experience from battling crisis after crisis under Hollande. Léglise-Costa also headed a working group that spent months gaming out Brexit negotiations and establishing French positions. One blank spot in the French Brexit team is who will succeed Pierre Sellal, France’s veteran former ambassador to Brussels. One source named Léglise-Costa as a possible successor, but clues as to the president’s thinking on this are few and far between. ‘Europe first’ Of course, nobody will do as much to shape France’s approach to Brexit, and to European reform, as Macron himself. During his time as an adviser to Hollande, Macron was known as a cheerful presence at all-night negotiations over Greece and a quiet supporter of Athens remaining in the eurozone. He took an ardent interest in EU affairs, identifying both France’s declining influence in Brussels and the political benefit of its historic role as a builder and visionary member of the bloc. It was during his stint as economy minister, however, that Macron developed more pointed views on how Europe should evolve: away from free-trade orthodoxy, toward a “Europe first” vision that advocates swift reprisals for dumping and more robust mechanisms for balancing out unfair competition situations between European states. His efforts to beef up European defenses against Chinese steel dumping foreshadowed the assertive approach he will bring to Brussels this week. “The president will bring his vision of a protective Europe to the European Council,” an adviser to the president said this week. “We consider that Europe does not go far enough, does not react quickly enough when we face a situation of unfair competition, or when inside Europe we have fraud and abuses.” With Merkel’s announcement that she supports his idea for a eurozone budget and finance minister, it looks as though momentum is moving in Macron's direction — again. Vis-à-vis Britain and its post-Brexit relationship with France, Macron took tough positions during his campaign. He argued in favor of being “more demanding” of Britain on the handling of migrants at the border crossing in Calais, hinting at a possible renegotiation of the Le Touquet treaty. He also appealed directly to British financial services workers, urging them to come and work in France. However, now that the campaign is over, and British applications for French passports are skyrocketing (up 254 percent in a year but from a low base), Macron is less interested in casting Brexit as a Franco-British matter. Instead, he wants to emphasize cooperation on security, as he did last week when he unveiled a joint program to combat online jihadist propaganda at a dinner with May at which the Le Touquet Treaty was not raised. France will “continue to seek stronger engagement” on migrant processing, as well as a financial contribution and help with unaccompanied minors, said the aide — but these are Franco-British concerns only tangentially linked to the Brexit talks. Overall, Macron can be expected to bring the same ice-cold approach to Brexit talks that he brought to his reading of France’s political situation, which allowed him to seize the presidency at age 39. He will assess power dynamics, identify opportunities to assert leverage, and strike with maximum effect when he sees a chance to press his agenda on Europe. With Merkel’s announcement that she supports his idea for a eurozone budget and finance minister, it looks as though momentum is moving in his direction — again.

From Bulbanews, your community Pokémon newspaper. Serial codes to be distributed in participating stores Shiny Tapu Koko artwork Participating stores in Hong Kong and Taiwan will be distributing serial codes for Shiny Tapu Koko from April 28 to May 31, 2017. The codes can be redeemed from April 28 to June 30, 2017. This Tapu Koko will be level 60, have the Ability Electric Surge, hold an Electric Seed, and know the moves Nature's Madness, Discharge, Agility and Electro Ball. Its original Trainer will be Melemele and it will be in a Cherish Ball. Tapu Koko cannot be obtained Shiny in the games, making this and the Japanese and Korean distributions the only ways to obtain it at present. For the complete list of stores, please see the official Chinese Pokémon Sun and Moon site for further details.

Police say two people are in the hospital after they were shot in a church parking lot.Video: 2 people shot in NW OKC church parking lotOklahoma City police said one person is in custody accused of shooting two males after an altercation at Northwest Baptist Church.Police were called to the scene around 7:30 p.m. after calls came into 911 reporting the incident.The two victims were taken to a local hospital. A lieutenant on scene said the extent of their injuries is unknown.Investigators have not identified the three people involved. The cause of the shooting is still under investigation.A church member said there was an open gym event inside the church when the altercation broke out. No one inside the church was hurt.Church administrators are expected to meet in the morning to discuss the shooting on their grounds.It’s unclear if those involved are linked to the church.Stay with KOCO 5 on air and online as we continue to follow this developing story. Police say two people are in the hospital after they were shot in a church parking lot. Video: 2 people shot in NW OKC church parking lot Advertisement Related Content Police release new details in church parking lot shooting Oklahoma City police said one person is in custody accused of shooting two males after an altercation at Northwest Baptist Church. Police were called to the scene around 7:30 p.m. after calls came into 911 reporting the incident. The two victims were taken to a local hospital. A lieutenant on scene said the extent of their injuries is unknown. Investigators have not identified the three people involved. The cause of the shooting is still under investigation. A church member said there was an open gym event inside the church when the altercation broke out. No one inside the church was hurt. Church administrators are expected to meet in the morning to discuss the shooting on their grounds. It’s unclear if those involved are linked to the church. Stay with KOCO 5 on air and online as we continue to follow this developing story. AlertMe

I've been working on my health and losing weight for a while now, and part of my success has been packing my lunch every day. My current lunch bag is falling apart, and every night I look at it and think, "Ugh, you again? You look gross, and you smell weird." As small a thing as that is, it made packing lunches a drag. No more! Santa has come to the rescue with a brand new lunch box for me. I'm excited to pack all my goodies inside. Lunchbox, are you ready to see the world? Because you're with me now, kid. I'm talking all corporate refrigerators and breakrooms your heart can take. You like carrot sticks and Greek yogurt? Well, boy, do I have good news for you. Santa also sent me "Living Well, Spending Less," which is great because after the holidays I always feel like I need a financial tidy-up. I can't wait to dig into the book and start saving that dough. Santa, you're awesome! Never change!

On July 19, the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), filed a petition (pdf) asking the USDA to remove milk as a required food from the national school lunch program. The PCRM petition argues that milk should not be included as part of a healthy school lunch for the following reasons: There’s limited proof that milk improves bone health or reduces the risk of osteoporosis. Dairy foods may create other health risks. Milk does not prevent bone fractures and injury in children and adults. Cows milk is the number one source of saturated fat in children’s diets. One in eight Americans is lactose intolerant. More than 1 million U.S. children struggle with milk allergies. Furthermore, PCRM nutrition education director Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., points out that, “Focusing on milk as the single most important source of calcium in children’s diets distracts schools and parents from foods that can actually build bones, like beans and leafy greens.” Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment. According to PCRM, the federal government spends more money on dairy than any other food item in the school lunch program. They also argue that the amount of calcium your body ultimately absorbs is based on various factors, such as genes, vitamin D intake, exercise and more, so maybe the real focus should be on an overall healthy lifestyle, not just making sure kids get that daily container of milk. PCRM points out that there are other ways for kids to get their daily calcium, such as from foods like beans, tofu, broccoli, kale, collard greens, cereals and other calcium-fortified beverages, including orange juice and soy milk. That said, this issue is already creating some massive debates. First of, the national school lunch program isn’t exactly known for stellar quality. It’s taken literally 15 years for healthy school lunch changes to occur, and it’s super unlikely that we’ll see USDA sanctioned lunches packed full of tofu and kale anytime soon. On top of this, TIME Magazine talked with a dietician, along with other doctors who note that kids seem to “really like milk” and it may be irresponsible to remove milk from lunches considering it packs in plenty of other nutrients beyond calcium, such as vitamin A, protein, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B12 and phosphorus. Getting back to the other side, schools don’t serve organic milk and while conventional milk may have nutrients, it’s also packed with hormones, chemicals and antibiotics, all major problems. On top of icky additives in milk, kids in this country are insanely overweight, and fatty dairy products may have something to do with it. Still, it’s hard to blame dairy products alone for the 17% childhood obesity rate, especially when so many kids are indulging in poor food choices, huge portions and barely exercising. It’s in poor taste to blame milk alone for overweight kids when there are actually many factors at play. What do you think? Should plain old milk be removed from school lunches? Tell us what you think in the comments. + Doctors Petition USDA to Remove Milk as Required Food from School Lunches + Source Lead image by Ale_Paiva via sxc.

The head of a key Senate subcommittee is questioning the reliability of part of the U.S. missile defense system after a failed test earlier this month. The Defense Department maintains rocket-like interceptors in silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., as part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System, designed to shoot down incoming threats such as nuclear missiles. An interceptor launched from Vandenberg during a July 5 test missed its target over the Pacific Ocean. Now, some lawmakers are criticizing the Pentagon's plans to spend more than $1 billion in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 in part to expand the fleet of interceptors to 44 from 30. "It's our responsibility to ensure that those capabilities perform as advertised," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said during a July 17 hearing. "We know the threat is real. The question is whether our defense is real." The panel met to hear testimony from Navy Vice Adm. James Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, on the agency's fiscal 2014 budget request. Syring said a preliminary review of the test traced the problem to something called the exoatmospheric kill vehicle -- the portion of the missile that separates from the main body to “intercept” or knock an incoming projectile out of the sky. "The kill vehicle did not separate from the third-stage booster," he said. "It wasn't the booster, sir. It wasn't the guidance system. The EKV did not separate." Syring said he remains confident in the Boeing Co.-made system -- even though it's never actually taken out an intercontinental ballistic missile -- and pledged to conduct a full evaluation of the program. "What's important is continued testing," he said. Durbin cited among his concerns the system's mixed record of hitting targets in only 8 of 15 attempts; the high cost of testing, which runs about $215 million per exercise; and the fact that many of the interceptors aren't operational. Syring acknowledged that unlike the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System -- the sea-based program that equips Navy cruisers and destroyers with the Aegis radar system and Standard Missile-3, or SM-3, interceptors -- the ground-based system faced a more demanding development schedule that resulted in interceptors being deployed before testing was complete. Durbin said the problem is a recurring one that affects other weapons systems such as the F-35 fighter jet, the Pentagon's most expensive acquisition program. "We've run into this repeatedly, whether we're talking about the F-35 or others -- keep producing even while you're testing," Durbin said. "We've reached a point now where we're making some critical budget decisions and may not be able to afford that luxury. What troubles me is this is a system that still hasn't been proven to be able to protect America." Syring said the agency is working on "flying before we buy any more" interceptors. It's also exploring the possibility of developing a universal kill vehicle that could be used with both ground-based interceptors and sea-based SM-3s.

EVERETT — Nikita Scherbak was left off Russia’s preliminary roster for the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championships. Anyone who was at Xfinity Arena on Wednesday night was left asking themselves, “Why?” Scherbak put on a highlight-reel show Wednesday in the Everett Silvertips’ 4-2 victory over the Spokane Chiefs, and it was a pointed reminder to the Russian coaches who snubbed Scherbak just what they’ll be missing. Scherbak’s inclusion on the Russian team for World Juniors seemed a foregone conclusion. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound native of Moscow is the full package offensively, with a rare combination of size, speed, skill and vision that prompted the Montreal Canadiens to select him in the first round of this year’s NHL draft. It’s almost unheard of for an NHL first-rounder who’s in his 19-year-old season not to make his country’s team for World Juniors. But when Russia released its preliminary roster of 38 players last Friday, Scherbak’s name was nowhere to be found. “I wasn’t surprised,” Scherbak said following Thursday’s practice at Xfinity Arena. “It’s Russia, you never know. I don’t really want to talk about that. The coaches pick who plays in World Juniors. I just want to say, ‘Good luck,’ to Team Russia in World Juniors.” Scherbak’s performances with Everett wouldn’t seem to be the reason for his non-inclusion. He leads a first-place team in scoring with 33 points (14 goals, 19 assists) in 21 games. His rate of 1.57 points per game is the third-best in the Western Hockey League, only trailing the Kelowna duo of Rourke Chartier and Nick Merkley. The full breadth of Scherbak’s abilities were on full display Wednesday as he had two goals and an assist in an electrifying performance. The night was capped off by a breathtaking end-to-end dash during which he undressed one Spokane defender, blew past a second, then deked his way around the goaltender to score the all-important insurance goal late in the game. “He had a great night,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said following Wednesday’s game. “He’s a difference-maker in games, he showed that tonight. Especially that last goal, it’s a very talented goal, hard for a lot of people to make that kind of play. It’s why we wanted a guy like him on our team.” But evidently not everyone wants Scherbak on their team. He played for Russia during the Subway Super Series, appearing in the games Nov. 10 and 11 against the WHL all-stars. Scherbak went pointless in the two games, though Russia won both 3-2. Scherbak scored during the decisive shootout in the first game. On Wednesday, Sunaya Sapurji of Yahoo Sports translated a story in the Russian press in which Russia World Juniors coach Valeri Bragin spoke about Scherbak being left off the roster. Sapurji’s translation, presented in two Tweets, said: “We don’t like (Nikita Scherbak’s) effort in these games at SSS. Other players that we have, played better. We gave a chance to everyone; (those) who used it — got a spot on roster.” Scherbak said he wasn’t told the reason why he was left off the roster by anyone involved with the Russian team. He was disappointed he won’t get a chance to play for his country at World Juniors. “Of course you’re frustrated, but I’m trying not to think about that,” Scherbak said. “I’m just going to keep going and play my game. Every time you enjoy playing for your national team, and I hope I will play for the men’s national team in the World Championships (in the future).” While Scherbak won’t be bringing his abilities to the international stage, the Silvertips aren’t complaining. World Juniors are Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Montreal and Toronto, meaning Scherbak would have missed a minimum of five Everett games had he made Russia’s team. That number could have ballooned to as many as 11 based on leaving early before the Christmas break for Russia’s selection camp, as well as recovery time following the tournament. Instead, the Tips will have Scherbak’s services uninterrupted. As for Russia, it remains to be seen whether it will regret leaving Scherbak behind. Tips add a forward Everett moved to address its depth issues up front, bringing in 19-year-old forward Jake Mykitiuk from the Spruce Grove Saints of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Mykitiuk, a 5-foot-7, 160-pound native of St. Albert, Alberta, spent his 16- and 17-year-old seasons in the WHL with the Prince George Cougars. He spent the past two seasons in the AJHL with Spruce Grove, with whom he won a league title last season, and the Sherwood Park Crusaders. This season with the Saints he had 10 goals, 13 assists and 74 penalty minutes in 31 games. Mykitiuk gives Everett 14 forwards, though Dawson Leedahl (knee) and Logan Aasman (upper body) remain out injured. Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.

Image caption The trial is being held at Sheffield Crown Court A gun was held to the head of a 13-year-old sexual abuse victim as a "warning" against speaking out, a court has heard. Eight men are on trial charged in connection with the sexual abuse of three girls between 1999 and 2003. The men, who are accused of rape, indecent assault and other offences, deny the charges. Jurors at Sheffield Crown Court has been hearing police interviews with the woman who is now in her twenties. One woman, who said she was sexually assaulted as a 13-year-old in 2003 by a group of Asian men, described being plied with alcohol and drugs and passed around for sex. 'Sort of warning' On one occasion, she said, a gun was held to her head by an unnamed man in a car. He said he was going to shoot her, counted down from three and pulled the trigger but the gun was empty, she told police. Asked by officers what she thought of the incident, the woman said: "I took it as a sort of warning, like I shouldn't say anything." During police interviews she told how she was forced to have sex with men in Clifton Park and in an alleyway in Rotherham town centre. "They'd start off nice and get more aggressive when I said no. No was just not an option", the woman told police. She said the men told her she owed them money for the alcohol and drugs they'd given her and said she had to pay it back by going with them for sex. The trial continues. Eight on trial

Philippe Wojazer / Reuters Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde (R) stands with her lawyers before the start of her trial. PARIS, Dec 19 (Reuters) - French judges convicted IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Monday of negligence for a state payout made while she served as France’s finance minister in 2008, but imposed no punishment, citing her preoccupation at the time with the global financial crisis. It was unclear whether the verdict would force Lagarde from her position as managing director of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund, a job she started in 2011. The IMF said its executive board was meeting on Monday to consider the implications of the ruling. The board has consistently voiced confidence in her ability to lead the crisis lender effectively as the case wound its way towards trial over the past five years. But a shift in its view could prompt a new IMF leadership crisis. Lagarde’s predecessor, Dominique Strauss Kahn, resigned in 2011 over a sexual assault scandal. The French government, which controls about 4 percent of the IMF board’s voting power, said it had complete confidence in Lagarde’s ability to carry out her responsibilities. Lagarde was back on the job in Washington on Monday, phoning Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to commend him on a decision to nationalize a troubled bank. In Monday’s ruling, the judges did not find negligence in Lagarde’s decision to seek an out-of-court settlement with tycoon Bernard Tapie. But they said her failure to contest the award to him of about 400 million euros ($417 million) was negligent, and led to a misuse of public funds. “The context of the global financial crisis in which Madame Lagarde found herself in should be taken into account,” Martine Ract Madoux, the main judge on the case, said in explaining the absence of any sentence. She also cited Lagarde’s good reputation and international standing as reasons why the court did not hand down a punishment. The charge against Lagarde could have carried a sentence of up to a year in prison. Lagarde, whom IMF members reappointed in February, has won respect from global finance leaders for pushing governments to do more to boost economic growth and helping to include China’s yuan in the fund’s currency basket. Lagarde’s lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, said immediately after the ruling that his team would look into appealing the decision. Though an appeal could clear her name, it could also turn out worse for Lagarde since she was not given a sentence. “Since Madame Lagarde was not sentenced, I wonder about whether to appeal or not to the highest court,” Maisonneuve told reporters outside the court. Lagarde, who described the case as a five-year ordeal for her, argued in the trial last week that she had acted in good faith, and with the public interest in mind. She said she had signed off on the arbitration - against the advice of some Finance Ministry officials - to end a costly 15-year-old legal battle between the government and Tapie, a supporter of then-President Nicolas Sarkozy. The case dates back to a time when Tapie sued the French state for compensation after selling his stake in sports company Adidas to then state-owned Credit Lyonnais in 1993. He accused the bank of defrauding him after it resold its stake for a much higher price. With the case stuck in the courts, the two sides agreed to a private settlement and Tapie was awarded a 403 million euro payout, including interest and damages.

The Philadelphia Flyers announced today that Jimmy Watson and Rod Brind’Amour have been selected for induction into the Flyers Hall of Fame. The two will be officially enshrined in pregame ceremonies ahead of two separate games during the 2015-16 season. FLYERS HALL OF FAME FLYERS HALL OF FAME MEMBERS 1988 - Bob Clarke and Bernie Parent 1989 - Bill Barber, Ed Snider and Keith Allen 1990 - Rick MacLeish and Fred Shero 1991 - Barry Ashbee and Gary Dornhoefer 1992 - Reggie Leach and Gene Hart 1993 - Joe Scott and Ed Van Impe 1994 - Tim Kerr 1996 - Joe Watson 1999 - Brian Propp 2001 - Mark Howe 2004 - Dave Poulin 2008 - Ron Hextall 2009 - Dave Schultz 2014 - Eric Lindros and John LeClair 2015 - Eric Desjardins 2015-16 - Rod Brind'Amour & Jimmy Watson 2015-16 FLYERS SCHEDULE “Jimmy Watson and Rod Brind’Amour are two players who played the game in a way that truly epitomized Philadelphia Flyers hockey," said Flyers Chairman Ed Snider. "They were hard-working team leaders both on and off the ice who played with a lot of intelligence, grit, and determination. This is a very deserving honor for both of them, and I couldn’t be happier to welcome these outstanding men into the Flyers Hall of Fame."“Jimmy was a great defenseman and teammate not to mention a two-time Stanley Cup champion and a five-time all-star,” said Flyers President Paul Holmgren. “He was an extremely competitive player who could always anticipate the action. We’re very pleased that he gets to join his brother Joe in the Flyers Hall of Fame.“Rod’s work ethic was unparalleled as a player," added Holmgren. " He was always the first one on the ice and in the gym and always the last to leave. He played the game with passion and he is most deserving of this latest honor. Rod personified Flyers hockey.” Watson played his entire NHL career for the Flyers, which spanned 613 games over 10 seasons from 1973 until 1982. He was drafted by the Flyers in the third round (39th overall) of the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft, joining his brother Joe, an original Flyer. Watson appeared in four games that season while spending the rest of his time with the Flyers’ American Hockey League affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, and made the NHL roster for good the following season. “I am absolutely thrilled and humbled by the whole thing,” said Watson. “This is a tremendous honor and I am very excited to be a part of the Flyers Hall of Fame. Gosh, it is amazing how it all evolved but here we are and I am extremely proud to be getting inducted. What a wonderful honor.” Watson went on to play on both Flyers championship teams in 1974 and 1975, and became a five-time NHL All-Star. Watson finished his career with 38 goals and 148 assists for 186 career points and a plus-295 rating, including a plus-65 season in 1975-76 and a plus-53 season in 1979-80. The career plus-minus total is the fifth-best in Flyers history. The 186 points currently rank 10th among defensemen in Flyers history, while the 613 games played currently rank him 15th overall in team history and fifth among defensemen. Brind’Amour was acquired from the St. Louis Blues along with Dan Quinn in exchange for Ron Sutter and Murray Baron on September 22, 1991. He spent parts of nine seasons with the Flyers from 1991-2000, which included a career-high 97-point season in 1993-94 (35g-62a) and seasons of 87 points (26g-61a) in 1995-96 and 86 points (37g-49a) in 1992-93. “It was a tremendous honor and privilege to play as long as I did for one of the best franchises in all of sports,” said Brind’Amour. “To be recognized in this way is hard to put into words but something I will cherish for the rest of my life. I thank the Flyers organization for this tremendous honor.” In 633 career games with the Flyers, Brind’Amour recorded 235 goals and 366 assists for 601 points. He ranks among the franchise’s all-time leaders in several categories, including: ninth overall and fourth among centers in points; 10th overall and fourth among centers in goals; seventh overall and fourth among centers in assists; 12th overall and third among centers in games played; eighth overall in shorthanded goals (18); and ninth overall in power play goals (75). The dates of the ceremonies for Watson and Brind’Amour will be announced with the Flyers’ 2015-16 promotional schedule later today. Watch below for a brief history of the Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Fame 2015-16 Flyers full and partial season ticket memberships are now available and include the best prices, plus access to team events, an interest free payment plan option, and more. Call 215-218-PUCK or visit PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video Three inmates ran from the van when it stopped at the hospital. Police caught one of the inmates. Coleman and Burns were left on the loose. There were 11 total prisoners in the van. Three went inside the hospital with the two guards and three ran. Five stayed locked up in the back. UPDATE: 6:17 p.m. - Authorities say they have located the two inmates that were still on the run from an attempted escape this afternoon. Michael Coleman and Lester Burns have been arrested and are back in custody. Police say they were located near the 1200 block of Chestnut in Weatherford. They were apparently standing in a backyard in that area. It's not sure if anyone was home at that residence. Here are the photos of all the inmates involved in the attempted escape: UPDATE: 5:40 p.m. - Multiple police force agencies are in Weatherford, Oklahoma searching for two inmates still on the loose. One is Michael Coleman. He is wearing a black t-shirt with a teddy bear on it. The other inmate is Lester Burns. He is wearing a camouflage t-shirt and he has a cast on his right arm. Police say they stopped at the hospital because one inmate was complaining of chest pains. The two guards took three inmates into the hospital and left the rest of them in the van with the keys still in the ignition. Inmates were able kick out the partition in the van and got to the keys. UPDATE: 3:47 p.m. - Authorities said they have six of the inmates back in custody who escaped from the Weatherford hospital Tuesday afternoon. They have recovered the van and the shotgun as well. The van never left the hospital. They are looking for one black man wearing a green t-shirt and blue jeans and a white man in a camouflage t-shirt. Officials, this afternoon, said they found the van in a mobile home park in the area. Authorities have not released the reasons they were arrested. UPDATE 3:03 p.m. - We are getting reports that five of the inmates who escaped are back in custody. One may actually still be in the hospital and the two others are still on the loose. Our report from earlier this afternoon: Please enable Javascript to watch this video WEATHERFORD, Okla. - Officials are searching for a group of inmates who they said escaped from a Weatherford hospital Tuesday afternoon. Authorities said eight inmates took a white Chevrolet van with Tennessee plates, tag number 009-46H2 and speed fro the hospital. Officials said they believe the van belongs to the "Prisoner Transportation Services of America" and has "PTS" written on the sides. Weatherford officials said a shotgun was inside the van the inmates stole. Authorities said they are not sure which direction the inmates might be traveling. Police said the private company, PTS, was driving the inmates through Oklahoma when one got sick. They stopped at a Weatherford hospital and that is when the inmates took off in the van. If you see them or have any information, officials ask you to call 911 immediately. According to the PTS website, they are based in Nashville, Tennessee, and is one of the nation's largest prisoner extradition services in the nation. This company has lost prisoners in the past. Back in 2009 they lost an attempted-murder suspect between Florida and Pennsylvania. That led to a search for the cuffed and shackled inmate. In 1995 a shackled inmate escaped in September at Philadelphia International Airport while in the custody of a Prisoner Transportation Services guard and was captured a week later in Maryland.

Congress Confederate Flag In this June 30, 2015 photo, a Confederate flag flies at the base of Stone Mountain in Stone Mountain, Ga. The House in Congress has voted to ban the display of Confederate flags at historic federal cemeteries in the deep South. The low-profile move came late Tuesday after a brief debate on a measure funding the National Park Service, which maintains 14 national cemeteries, most of which contain graves of Civil War soldiers. (AP Photo/David Goldman) (David Goldman) The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to ban the display of Confederate flags at historic federal cemeteries in the deep South. The low-profile move came Tuesday evening after a brief debate on a measure funding the National Park Service, which maintains 14 national cemeteries, most of which contain graves of Civil War soldiers. The proposal by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., added language to block the Park Service from allowing private groups to decorate the graves of southern soldiers with Confederate flags in states that commemorateConfederate Memorial Day. The cemeteries affected are the Andersonville and Vicksburg cemeteries in Georgia and Mississippi. "The American Civil War was fought, in Abraham Lincoln's words, to 'save the last best hope of Earth,'" Huffman said in a debate in which he was the only speaker. "We can honor that history without celebrating theConfederate flag and all of the dreadful things that it symbolizes." The flag ban was adopted by a voice vote. The Park Service funding bill is scheduled for a vote on Thursday. Pressure has mounted to ban display of the flag on state and federal property in the wake of last month's tragic murders at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. The accused killer, Dylann Roof, posed with the Confederate flag in online photos and reportedly has told authorities that he wanted to start a race war. Following the lead of GOP Gov. Nikki Haley, the South Carolina Senate has voted to remove the flag from the Capitol grounds and the state House was taking up the measure Wednesday. But House leaders have deferred action on a plan by Bennie Thompson, a black Democrat from Mississippi, to ban Confederate images such as that contained in the Mississippi flag from being displayed in the House complex. Numerous statues of Confederate figures such as Jefferson Davis, the president of the ConfederateStates, are also on display in the Capitol. Pressure has mounted to ban display of the flag on state and federal property in the wake of last month's tragic murders at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) criticized President Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE on Sunday for calling members of the press "the enemy" and declining to comment on a Republican congressional candidate's assault on a reporter last week. "No comment at all from Donald Trump on the incident in which a reporter was violently assaulted last week. 'The enemy,'" Beyer wrote on Twitter, quoting an earlier tweet from the president. No comment at all from Donald Trump on the incident in which a reporter was violently assaulted last week. "The enemy." https://t.co/kx6aX6e49P — Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) May 28, 2017 During his trip abroad and after returning to Washington on Saturday, Trump remained silent on a Wednesday episode in which Republican Greg Gianforte, a candidate in Montana's special House election, allegedly body slammed a reporter after being asked a question about the American Health Care Act. ADVERTISEMENT Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault for the attack, which happened the day before the election. Despite the charge, Gianforte narrowly beat Democrat Rob Quist. On his first full day back in Washington, Trump blasted the media in a pair of tweets on Sunday over their use of anonymous sources. He also resurrected his previous accusation that members of the media are "the enemy." Whenever you see the words 'sources say' in the fake news media, and they don't mention names.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2017 ....it is very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2017 Democrats have accused Trump in recent days of propagating and promoting harsh — and potentially violent — treatment of journalists. The president himself has maintained a combative relationship with the press, and has often called reporters and media outlets "dishonest" and "fake news."

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