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Time to move away from the scientific facts of GMO safety, vaccine safety and efficacy, and whatever else stimulates my brain. Actually, if I were to start a new blog, it would be about baseball, so there’s that. I was watching some nonsense on TV, when the pseudoscience-pushing fool stated that evolution is “just a theory.” Of course, this silliness has been refuted over and over and over. To write about it again would bore some of the readers here, mostly because it’s been done a million times by better evolution biologists than I could ever hope to be. Then I read an article that the germ theory, which essentially describes how pathogens, like viruses, bacteria, parasites and other microorganisms, cause diseases, was wrong, meaning vaccines don’t work. Here we go again. What is a scientific theory? It’s hard to start this discussion without fully understanding what constitutes scientific theories. At its core, scientific theories describe the mechanisms (causality) of observed phenomena. The core component of a scientific theory is that it can provide explanations and predictions of similar phenomena that can be tested through the scientific method. Scientific theories are not developed by one person writing a book in a library somewhere, they result from huge bodies of work over long periods of time. Theories rest upon the products of numerous contributors over time, and are supported by vast amounts of evidence. One person, even a Nobel Prize winning biologist, cannot themselves “invent” a theory. Usually, a theory evolves (sorry, couldn’t resist) from initial research into hypotheses through scientific consensus to a published theory. This process is a continuum, and it may actually be impossible to point out the exact date the theory appears.The evolution (really, I’m on roll) of scientific theories is a key element of the scientific method as they are used to make predictions about the natural world. This predictive ability is most certainly not something like a psychic, it is the ability to use the scientific method to question a prediction about a future result (say man evolving a fifth limb), and answer it. If the theory of evolution predicts that fifth limb, but the prediction fails through a scientific study, then the theory gets revised. The theory of evolution explains the fact of evolution because of the overwhelming evidence. But if someone were to bring something new, published in real science journals, we might revise the theory. For example, there is a joke that evolution might be overturned if we found a rabbit fossil in a rock layer far earlier than when mammals evolved. But would that really refute evolution? Not really, maybe it was an error in determining the age of the rocks, or our rock aging science needs revision. Or maybe, mammals evolved earlier than we thought. Or an alien visitor, intelligent rabbits, visited our planet 1 billion years ago. But finding a rabbit in some rock strata way below the point where rabbits evolved wouldn’t have an effect on the theory of evolution. So this evolution theory is really a fact? Not exactly, but close enough. Evolution is an observed fact. We’ve got over 200 years of observation of evolution through fossils, and through observation of things living in our contemporary world. Few real scientists doubt the existence of evolution. However, in the early 1800’s, when science was just observing the change of species over time, there was no theoretical explanation of what we were observing. We didn’t know the mechanisms that were driving what we observed. That’s why some people proposed “some anonymous god did it,” a default position for those who cannot understand natural phenomena. Then Charles Darwin and the often forgotten Alfred Russel Wallace independently presented their explanations of the foundation of evolution, natural selection. Please help me out by Tweeting out this article or posting it to your favorite Facebook group.There are two ways you can help support this blog. First, you can use Patreon by clicking on the link below. It allows you to set up a monthly donation, which will go a long way to supporting the Skeptical RaptorFinally, you can also purchase anything on Amazon, and a small portion of each purchase goes to this website. Just click below, and shop for everything. But Darwin and Wallace didn’t know what we know today, so their initial “theory” has evolved (oh really, maybe I should stop) into a more complex theory of evolution that encompasses some of our newer knowledge, such as genetics and DNA. Today, the theory of evolution, with some semantic changes depending on author, states that evolution is change in heritable traits of biological populations over successive generations as a result of natural selection or genetic drift. Despite the nearly 200 years since Darwin and Wallace, science has only added some mechanisms, but the essential fact of evolution being a change in population over time has not been modified by new data. It has been strengthened. That’s the great thing about scientific theories. They are built on huge mountains of evidence, not on guesswork or beliefs. They withstand the bright lights of criticism over time, but they are modified as new evidence is provided. Back to germ theory and vaccines–WTF? Germ theory is one of the essential foundations of biology, along with evolution and cell theory. Without germ theory, biology would have to be redone from top to bottom. Of course, if germ theory is somehow refuted, we’d change our understanding of biology. But let’s get back to that germ theory denier pontificating about the evils of vaccines. According to that article, The germ theory of Louis Pasteur is the basis of vaccination, and he actually retracted his theory on his deathbed. It is postulated that diseases that go into our bodies from outside sources, making us a victim to the results. Wait what? Creationists say this about Charles Darwin: Charles Darwin, after a career of promoting evolution and naturalism, returned to the Christianity of his youth, renouncing on his deathbed the theory of evolution. The story appears to have been authored by a “Lady Hope,” and relates how she visited him near the end and received his testimony. Seriously, I think that all anti-science types meet in a convention to discuss their strategies. Next up, Monsanto renounces GMOs upon its deathbed. Here’s the thing. Neither Pasteur or Darwin understood that they had developed a “theory” of anything. And if they did renounce it on their deathbed, in itself, it has no meaning. Germ theory and evolution have stood the test of time and withering scientific analysis. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that Pasteur really did anything of the sort on his deathbed. Back to germ theory. It is probably one of the most well-established principles in medicine and epidemiology, as well as a cornerstone for public sanitation policy. Compared to the evidence supporting the germ theory, evolution is merely an asterisk in science. To refute germ theory, you’d need so much research from so many different researchers, it might be 100 years before we’d see a change. But my bet would be any researchers who thought they could refute germ theory, would change their minds about a year into researching it. But if you completely deny germ theory, then vaccines would have to be considered completely worthless. Because vaccines themselves are dependent upon germ theory in that we accept that the vaccines cause an immune response to a pathogen which remembers that germ for future needs. If that pathogen enters the body, and before it becomes infectious or destructive, the immune system says “I know that thing, it’s dangerous” and attacks it. Because we scientists know that the germ causes the disease, we can create an immune response to it. There is a subgroup of germ theory deniers, called HIV/AIDS deniers, who don’t think that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes AIDS, despite overwhelming evidence that it does. We can tell the virus is in AIDS patients. We can see the evidence of how HIV causes AIDS. And if we reduce the HIV viral load, we can reduce the symptoms. And we just don’t see AIDS symptoms in non-HIV infected individuals. So there’s that. So if you deny that the measles virus causes measles, then you’re going to think that measles vaccines are useless. In fact, that would be a rather intelligent choice. But is there any evidence that viruses or bacterial don’t cause related diseases? Well that would be no. We can isolate the virus that causes chickenpox. And we can stop it with vaccines. We can isolate the virus that causes measles, and we can stop that with vaccines. Although nothing in science is irrefutable, that’s one of the basic principles of science is that we can imagine ways to refute basic principles, like theories, germ theory is practically irrefutable. And with regards to vaccines, the underlying scientific theories are just as nearly undeniable. By the way, Louis Pasteur invented the procedure to heat liquids to kill pathogens, a process we now call pasteurization. Milk is pasteurized to kill virulent bacteria that can harm children and adults. Of course, some people think pasteurization is evil. There’s no winning. So scientific theories are pretty powerful? Absolutely. Let me be clear. There is no question about the theories being constantly challenged, sometimes by real science, and sometimes by charlatans who just pull pseudoscience out of the thin air. Most theories are challenged, but those theories were rejected in favor of other theories. Germ theory and evolution have not only withstood the test of time, they have withstood the test of newer and better evidence. As scientists learned more about how biology works–in other words, as they gathered more data and evidence–our current theories, like germ theory and evolution (and frankly many more, like the Big Bang, cell theory, and abiogenesis) became more solid, more predictive of future events. The science of vaccines is supported by germ theory (and evolution and cell theory), the most basic principles of the science of diseases and immunology. I guess one could reject vaccines for any number of silly reason, but the principles underlying vaccines is nearly unassailable. Again, if you want to overturn germ theory, cell theory, evolution or whatever, you just can’t say that its wrong, and expect any intelligent person to accept it without criticism. To refute these basic observed facts and underlying theories, you need mountains of evidence. I think there are over 1 million published articles supporting evolution. There may be 10X that amount for germ theory. So why have scientific theories anyways? Because we need explanations, or we can’t further our research. We can observe, over and over again, that an apple falls down from a tree on this planet. The theory of gravity explains why. We find fossils in the ground that seem to show a link between humans and apes. But the theory of evolution describes how apes and humans evolved. The theory of vaccination, yes it’s a scientific theory of immense power, is supported by germ theory, cell theory, and evolution. Good luck in refuting that science event though it may be possible (you see, real science is openminded to all possibilities, including the possibility that we’re wrong, but only when evidence is presented), it is not probable. Some random website is going to proclaim that Louis Pasteur was full of crap and germ theory is a lie (probably pushed by Big Pharma and Monsanto), that’s not evidence. That’s just a level of denialism that borders on the delusional. I’m sure if we could take the Tardis back in time (maybe with a pet rabbit that escapes), we would probably use a different word than theory to describe these scientific principles. Like, the fact of evolution that is supported by boatloads of evidence and if you don’t like it because it offends your beliefs, then just go hide under a rock. Or something like that. Related |
Rating: 9.0. 1. Introduction 2. Game Max Falcon: Exterior 3. Game Max Falcon: Interior 4. System Installation 5. Testing: Thermals and Acoustics 6. Closing Thoughts 7. View All Pages Usually when a case costs just £39.99, we would expect the bare minimum of features and ‘iffy’ build quality. However, Game Max are trying to change that with their Falcon RGB case. It features two 120mm RGB fans at the front, as well as a PSU shroud, acrylic window side panel and two integrated fan controllers. Could this become the go-to case if you are on a tight budget? While Game Max may not be a brand you would typically associate with luxurious PC cases, we are nonetheless interested to see how the Falcon RGB chassis gets on. With a price of £39.99, the Falcon is definitely at the ultra-budget end of the spectrum – in this review we assess the build quality, practicality and cooling performance to see if it is worth the cash. Specification |
Photo: AP In January, Ted Cruz suggested “spanking” Hillary Clinton for not calling Benghazi a terrorist attack. And at a campaign rally on Sunday, Cruz once again advocated a hands-on approach to discipline, this time in response to a young protester yelling, “You suck!” “In my household, when a child behaved that way, they’d get a spanking,” said Cruz, according to Time correspondent Phil Elliot. It’s an odd topic for a presidential candidate to keep mentioning. One possible explanation is that spanking advocacy is an easy way to annoy leftist critics while entertaining his base. Another is that spanking is so common in the Cruz house it just naturally comes up a lot. “Pass the salt (and you will not be spanked),” Ted might tell his wife. “Will do (as long as you do not spank me),” Heidi might reply. What, other than lying about Benghazi and protesting campaign events, earns a spanking in their household? We’ve reached out to the Cruz campaign for comment and will update if and when he hear back. |
Munori, a passionate in-line skater who plays hockey every Sunday at a park in the central business district, has just laced up his first pair of blades and stepped out onto the ice. He appears steady on his feet as his teammates Amos Ndung’u, Alex Kabwoya and Michael Munyaro—who all also got their start playing roller hockey—give him a quick demonstration of how to cut, turn and brake. Ice flies. “It feels awkward,” Munori says, shifting his foot to examine the blade. “Like I’m new to it.” He glances around the rink, where the rest of the players are warming up. “At least this place is not as cold as I thought.” If you didn’t know you were fewer than 90 miles from the equator, it would be hard to tell from the inside of the Solar Ice Rink. The scrape of skates and blaring music echo off mural-covered walls where painted figures of every skin color skate, ski and toboggan against an idyllic alpine backdrop. It’s the only ice rink in East or Central Africa, and it’s where the Kenyan Ice Hockey League meets for a game every Wednesday night. The games are informal, with a mix of local and international players. There’s no official uniform, though a handful of the guys wear custom-made jerseys emblazoned with hockey sticks crossing the distinctive shield on the Kenyan flag. By necessity, the equipment is all imported, and much of it is donated or improvised. Many players don’t wear helmets. And even the more experienced ones, who basically skated out of the womb in Slovakia or Canada, sometimes have trouble stopping because the rental skates' blades are so worn. |
Be accountable Believe in yourself Connect the dots Deconstruct new skills Engage with others Focused practice Get started Hypothesize, test, adjust Use your imagination Find joy in learning Personal knowledge management Listen more Make space Build a network Observe Find a passion Question assumptions Rest Use spaced repetition Tinker with things Unlearn and relearn Be vulnerable Be willing to fail Exercise regularly Yield Zigzag This chart is created by learnstreaming.com . Check out the full graphic from this page June 17, 2014Here is a cool chart featuring some important tips to help your students be smart learners. You can use this chart in your class with your students as a motivator to boost their learning moral or as a checklist for assessing their learning habits. While some of these tips are straightforward such as tip 6, 9, 11, other tips are a bit generic (tip 23, 25,26). Overall, these suggested tips cover several skills students need to work on to be better learners. These skills include sensory-motor skills, communicational skills, emotional skills, inter and intrapersonal skills, and critical thinking skills. They also touch on key areas integral to effective learning including: introspection, creativity, confidence, imagination, networking, passion, sharp observation, experimentation among many others.Here is a quick round-up of the tips featured in the graphic below: |
Florida Boy, 14, Handcuffed, Arrested For Refusing To Go To Middle School Share Tweet A Florida middle school student was arrested this week for refusing to leave bed and go to school. The 14-year-old boy’s mother called police Tuesday morning for assistance when her child refused to go to R.J. Murray Middle School in St. Augustine (where the school year opened August 18). When St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived, the teen’s 42-year-old mother said that she had taken away her son’s laptop and cellphone, and disconnected Internet service in their residence in response to her son’s refusal to attend classes. The teenager--who recently moved to Florida from New York with his mother--did not appear concerned when deputies told him he faced arrest. “Do what you gotta do,” the teen said. “I’m not going to school.” Deputies then arrested the boy--who was sitting on his bed--for resisting without violence/obstruction of justice, a misdemeanor. The child was handcuffed and transported to the county jail (from which he was later released into his mother's custody). The woman told deputies that her son “failed grades in New York for skipping school, as well as being in trouble with the law.” |
What Does ACR Tell Us About MLB Aces? In recent weeks I've been dabbling with a new statistic that I created to evaluate starting pitchers. This statistic is called Ace Composite Rating (ACR). Up to this point, I've only used ACR to evaluate the starting pitchers for the Detroit Tigers. The calculations I arrived at using ACR numerically confirmed what I was seeing out of Tiger pitchers: that Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez had been their best pitchers, that Rick Porcello has pitched quite well, that Drew Smyly is fitting in nicely in the Detroit rotation, and that Justin Verlander is struggling mightily. While the numbers I came up with using ACR passed the eye-test, they still lacked context. I needed to know the Ace Composite Rating for all starting pitchers in MLB before the statistic could really be useful to baseball fans or fantasy owners. Now that we've arrived at the All Star Break, it seems like a perfect time to find out how all those pitchers stack up thus far. Using data from Baseball-Reference I pulled the numbers from the first half of the season on all starting pitchers with seven or more starts. The numbers included in the calculations for ACR are ERA, H/9, HR/9, BB/9, K/9, and IP/GS. I purposely avoided using any hard core sabermetric numbers in the calculations for ACR because I wanted the final number to be accessible for average baseball fans and useful for fantasy baseball owners. These are the top 25 starting pitchers in all of Major League Baseball through the first half of the season based on Ace Composite Rating. Editor's note: if you like this article, then you'll enjoy the rest of our MLB and fantasy baseball analysis. Our writers bring you daily analysis on MLB prospects, MLB closers, fantasy baseball sleepers, waiver wire pickups, and much much more. We hope you enjoy our passion for baseball and the MLB analysis that we share every single day. If you're interested, you can see the how the rest of the starting pitchers in MLB stack up in terms of Ace Composite Rating right here. Be warned -- this chart is enormous. Still, for all you fantasy owners out there, it can definitely be useful if you're thinking of making some changes to your pitching staff over the All Star Break. If you're not interested in wading through the entire chart, let me break it down for you. It turns out that the league average ACR for all starting pitchers with seven or more starts comes out to -3.16. That means that there have been 90 "above average" starting pitchers in all of MLB thus far. Once the ACR reaches the break-even point of 0, we're looking at about the best 33 starting pitchers in MLB, roughly the top 20%; meanwhile, the top 10% of starting pitchers all hold an ACR of 1.75 or better. And Clayton Kershaw is, well... on another planet. With this information, I can tell you what I'm going to be doing during the All Star Break: I'm going to see where each of my starting pitchers stacks up in terms of ACR, and I'm going to see if there are any places I can upgrade via the waiver wire. I would recommend you do the same. There are more than a handful of pitchers who are above average in terms of ACR who are still available in many fantasy leagues. With a couple of well-informed moves, you could be blowing your competition away with pitching in no time. Best of luck to all you RotoBallers in the second half of this MLB season. |
eye Title Creator Tracklist: Disc 1: 1. Open Up 2. Passerby 3. Cut It Ya Match It 4. Lightning 5. Out Loud 6. Even 7. Prince Of Spades 8. Flying Horses 9. 5/4 Here We Go 10. Bullet Holes 11. Bats In The Belfry 12. The General Disc 2: 1. Elias 2. Cover This 3. Steeples 4. Two Coins 5. Bang Bang 6. Railway 7. Questioned Apocalypse 8. Water Stop 9. Carry You 10. Mission 11. Time Served Source: CD Dispatch 10,616 11K 2000-05-07: Westminster School by Dispatch etree eye 10,616 favorite 12 comment 7 1. Rage Against the Machine Intro 2. Cover This 3. What Do You Wanna Be 4. Here We Go 5. Open Up 6. Bullet Holes 7. Root Down 8. Bats in the Belfry 9. Drums 10. Bang Bang 11. Water Stop 12. Past The Falls 13. Questioned Apocalypse 14. Two Coins 15. Flying Horses 16. The General 17. What I Got (Sublime Cover) 18. Outloud 19. Stir It Up (Bob Marley Cover) 20. Get Up, Stand Up (Bob Marley Cover) 21. Three Little Birds (Bob Marley cover) 22. Stir It Up (Bob Marley Cover) 23. Even 24. Railway 25.... favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 7 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Dispatch 787 787 2014-08-03: Seaside Park by Dispatch etree eye 787 favorite 0 comment 0 01. Intro 02. Outloud > Mrs.Robinson > Outloud 03. Bats In The Belfry 04. Here We Go* 05. Open Up 06. Bang Bang > Friend Of The Devil > Bang Bang 07. Lightning 08. Two Coins+ 09. Beto 10. Passerby^ 11. Flag 12. Josaphine 13. Flying Horses# 14. Elias#@ 15. Get Ready Boy# 16. The General% 17. When The Saints Go Marching In% 18. Mission 19. Outro Topic: Dispatch, GOTV, 2014, Gathering Of The Vibes, Bridgeport, CT, Dave Malloy, CTDave Source: matrix : SBD & AKGck63> NiantPFA actives > V3 > R4 (16/44) Audiophile CD Collection 2 2.0 All Points Bulletin by Dispatch audio eye 2 favorite 1 comment 0 Tracklist: Disc 1: 1. Open Up 2. Time Served 3. Here We Go 4. Cover This 5. Riddle 6. Bang Bang 7. Ride a Tear 8. Lightning 9. Mayday 10. Even 11. Passerby 12. Prince of Spades Disc 2: 1. Past the Falls 2. Bullet Holes 3. Fallin' 4. Two Coins 5. Bridges 6. Elias 7. Carry You 8. Bats in the Belfry 9. Out Loud 10. The General Source: CD Audiophile CD Collection 3 3.0 Silent Steeples by Dispatch audio eye 3 favorite 1 comment 0 Tracklist: 1. Steeples 2. Past the Falls 3. Water Stop 4. Hey, Hey 5. Flying Horses 6. Questioned Apocalypse 7. Seasons: Movement III 8. Mayday 9. Born Normal 10. Bridges (Strength in Numbers) 11. Walk With You 12. Elias (live in studio) Source: CD Audiophile CD Collection 34 34 Circles Around The Sun by Dispatch audio eye 34 favorite 1 comment 0 Tracklist: 1. Circles Around the Sun 2. Not Messin' 3. Get Ready Boy 4. Sign of the Times 5. Josaphine 6. Flag 7. Come to Me 8. Never or Now 9. We Hold a Gun 10. Feels So Good Source: CD Dispatch 457 457 2014-08-03: Tom Nevers Field- The Nantucket Music Festival by Dispatch etree eye 457 favorite 0 comment 0 Dispatch Live at Tom Nevers Field The Nantucket Music Festival Nantucket MA 2014-08-03 Outloud, Bats in the Bellfry, Passerby, Bang Bang, 2 Coins, The General, Flying Horses, Outro Topic: G-Man,Dispatch, Nantucket Music Festival Source: audience> Audio Technica AT 2020> Digi Mod Edirol UA5> Zoom H2 Audiophile CD Collection 8 8.0 Who Are We Living For? by Dispatch audio eye 8 favorite 1 comment 0 Tracklist: 1. Everybody Clap 2. Open Up 3. Just Like Larry 4. Time Served 5. Even 6. Passerby 7. Carry You 8. D. Bits 9. How Now 10. Lightning 11. Granite 12. Prince of Spades 13. Parade Speed 14. Headlights 15. Blood 16. 10ft, 5ft, Bag 'Em 17. Douggie Mayu's Source: CD Audiophile CD Collection 11 11 Gut The Van by Dispatch audio eye 11 favorite 1 comment 0 Tracklist: Disc 1: 1. Open Up 2. Passerby 3. Cut It Ya Match It 4. Lightning 5. Out Loud 6. Even 7. Prince Of Spades 8. Flying Horses 9. 5/4 Here We Go 10. Bullet Holes 11. Bats In The Belfry 12. The General Disc 2: 1. Elias 2. Cover This 3. Steeples 4. Two Coins 5. Bang Band 6. Railway 7. Questioned Apocalypse 8. Water Stop 9. Carry You 10. Mission 11. Time Served Source: CD Audiophile CD Collection 1 1.0 Who Are We Living For? by Dispatch audio eye 1 favorite 1 comment 0 Tracklist: 1. Everybody Clap 2. Open Up 3. Just Like Larry 4. Time Served 5. Even 6. Passerby 7. Carry You 8. D. Bits 9. How Now 10. Lightning 11. Granite 12. Prince of Spades 13. Parade Speed 14. Headlights 15. Blood 16. 10 Ft, 5 Ft, Bag 'Em 17. Douggie Mayu's 18. Gone 19. Spades (Acoustic) 20. Bulls on Parade 21. 5/4 Source: CD Dispatch 1,572 1.6K 2002-06-02: WBCN Studios by Dispatch etree eye 1,572 favorite 3 comment 0 1. Teaser 1 2. Teaser 2 3. Kickovers - "Grounded" 4. Teaser 3 5. Teaser 4 6. Teaser 5 7. Intro 8. Bullet Holes Intro 9. Bullet Holes 10. Interview 1 11. Prince of Spades (with Alice In Chains - "Rooster" tease) 12. Interview 2 13. Open Up 14. Interview 3 Topic: Live concert Source: Aiwa CA-DW700M FM Tuner > PowerBook G3 Sound In > Coaster 1.1.3 > SoundStudio 2.0.3 > Shorten Dispatch 531 531 2013-06-08: The Venue Formerly Known as Great Woods by Dispatch etree eye 531 favorite 0 comment 0 Circles Around the Sun Passerby Out Loud Get Ready Boy Open Up Time Served Bang Bang Two Coins Lightning Flag Here We Go Railway Beto Broken American Josaphine Bats In The Belfry The General E: Ya Cut It Ya Match It* Flying Horses Elias Source: Elation KM201's>Lunatec V3>Microtrack II (24-bit/48kHz) Audiophile CD Collection 28 28 Circles Around the Sun by Dispatch audio eye 28 favorite 1 comment 0 no barcode Tracklist: 1. Circles Around The Sun 2. Not Messin' 3. Get Ready Boy 4. Sign Of The Times 5. Josaphine 6. Flag 7. Come To Me 8. Never Or Now 9. We Hold A Gun 10. Feels So Good Source: CD Dispatch 740 740 2001-02-03: Pearl Street Downstairs by Dispatch etree eye 740 favorite 1 comment 0 1. Intro 2. Time Served 3. Open Up* 4. Just Like Larry 5. Whaddaya Wanna Be 6. Cover This 7. Bullet Holes 8. Lightning 9. Carry You 10. Bang Bang#^ 11. Jam > Prince Of Spades 12. Cut It Match It > Ms. Jackson 13. The General Encore: 14. Hubs > For What Its Worth > Hubs Show notes: * - "So Lonely" Police Outro # - Gin & Juice Intro ^ - "Blue Sky" Allmann Brothers Tease Source: Microtech Gefell SMS2000/210 > Sonosax SXM2 > DAP1 Dispatch 1,240 1.2K 2014-08-03: Gathering of The Vibes by Dispatch etree eye 1,240 favorite 3 comment 0 1. intro 2. Outloud -> 3. Mrs. Robinson -> 4. Outloud 5. Bats In The Belfry 6. Here We Go * 7. Open Up 8. Bang Bang -> 9. Friend Of The Devil (partial) -> 10. Bang Bang 11. Lightning 12. banter - Boo Reiners appreciation 13. Two Coins + 14. banter - fan appreciation 15. Beto 16. Passerby ^ 17. banter - Stanley Jordan appreciation 18. Flag 19. Josaphine 20. banter - acoustic numbers 21. Flying Horses # 22. Elias #@ 23. banter - beautiful faces 24. Get Ready Boy # 25. banter -... Topics: Neumann, TLM170, flac16, 16 bit, split mics, GOTV, Gathering, Vibes, reggae, folk, Darian Cunning,... Source: Split audience mics Dispatch 16,937 17K 2013-06-09: Mountain Jam Hunter Mtn Ski Area by Dispatch etree eye 16,937 favorite 3 comment 1 Dispatch June 09, 2013 9th Annual Mountain Jam Hunter Mtn. Ski Area Hunter, NY source: Neumann km184> V2> Sony PCM-M10 transfer: microSD> USB> Samplitutde 11 (16/44.1)> cdWave> FLAC recorded/transfered by Rob Clarke robclarke.km184 -at- gmail.com disc 1: 01. Open up 02. Broken American 03. Here We Go 04. Circles Around The Sun 05. Passerby 06. Bang Bang 07. Two Coins 08. Carry You disc 2: 01. Flying Horses 02. Flag 03. Outloud 04. Josaphine 05. The General 06. band intros. 07.... favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews ) Topics: Live Concert, Mtn Jam, Mountain Jam Source: Neumann KM184> V2> Sony PCM-M10 Dispatch 429 429 2000-11-09: Avalon by Dispatch etree eye 429 favorite 0 comment 0 1. Even 2. What Do You Wanna Be? 3. Open Up 4. Land Down Under 5. Cover This 6. Bullet Holes 7. Wake Up 8. Prince of Spheres 9. Carry You 10. The General 11. Bats in the Belfry Source: Neuman KM-184 > Graham Patten DMic-20 > DA-P1 (48.0) Dispatch 9,980 10.0K 1996-04-16: Middlebury College by Dispatch etree eye 9,980 favorite 9 comment 11 Disc One 01. Intro -> Chanting 02. Silent Steeples 03. Remake Me 04. Go Quietly 05. Matador -> 06. Questioned Apocalypse 07. Flute Instrumental -> 08. More Flute Instrumental -> 09. Past the Falls 10. Mayday 11. Walk With You Disc Two 01. Brad's Senior Project 02. Hey Hey 03. Bridges 04. ??? ^ Instrumentals 05. 06. 07. 08. favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 11 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Dispatch 4,614 4.6K 2000-02-12: Middlesex School by Dispatch etree eye 4,614 favorite 4 comment 4 Disc 1 01. Intro 02. Questioned Apocalypse 03. Past the Falls 04. Two Coins/Stoned Me/Bulls on Parade/Chad rap 05. Steeples 06. What Do You Wanna Be? 07. Brad speaks (DISPATCH) new record may 08. Bullet Holes 09. Bang Bang (with sing along) 10. Bats in the Belfry 11. Birthdays/Greg taking a picture 12. Open Up 13. Cover This 14. Root Down/Watcha Want ending Tape Cuts Out Here Disc 2 (Set 2) 01. Intro 02. Here We Go (w/ Corey Cally on guitar) 03. Brad talking (dispatchmusic) 04. Time Served 05.... favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 4 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown>Tape Dispatch 106 106 2014-08-03: Gathering of The Vibes by Dispatch etree eye 106 favorite 0 comment 0 *** THIS IS A 24 BIT RECORDING, NOT INTENDED FOR MP3 STREAMING, OR CD BURNING *** *** The normal CD quality version of this show is available for streaming and *** *** download here: http://www.archive.org/details/dispatch2014-08-03.tlm170.flac16 *** 1. intro 2. Outloud -> 3. Mrs. Robinson -> 4. Outloud 5. Bats In The Belfry 6. Here We Go * 7. Open Up 8. Bang Bang -> 9. Friend Of The Devil (partial) -> 10. Bang Bang 11. Lightning 12. banter - Boo Reiners appreciation 13. Two Coins +... Topics: Neumann, TLM170, flac24, 24 bit, 24/96, split mics, GOTV, Gathering, Vibes, reggae, folk, Darian... Source: Split audience mics Dispatch 445 445 2013-06-09: Mountain Jam IX by Dispatch etree eye 445 favorite 1 comment 0 1. tuning / intro 2. Open up 3. Broken American 4. Here We Go 5. Circles Around The Sun 6. Passerby 7. Bang Bang -> 8. Friend Of The Devil -> 9. Bang Bang 10. banter - honored to be here 11. Two Coins 12. banter - handmade guitar 13. Carry You * 14. Flying Horses 15. banter - props to the sign language interpreter 16. Flag 17. Outloud -> 18. Mrs. Robinson -> 19. Outloud 20. Josaphine 21. The General 22. banter - these 3 days / band+crew intros 23. Elias Topics: Neumann, TLM170, flac16, 16 bit, mountain, jam, mountain jam, Dispatch, jamband Source: Audience Audiophile CD Collection 5 5.0 Bang Bang by Dispatch audio eye 5 favorite 1 comment 0 Tracklist: 1. Here We Go 2. Bats in the Belfry 3. The General 4. Bang Bang 5. Mission 6. Drive 7. Two Coins 8. Railway 9. Whirlwind 10. Out Loud 11. The Way It Goes 12. Bats in the Belfry (acoustic) Source: CD Disc One 1. What Do You Wanna Be 2. Here We Go 3. Cover This 4. Bats In The Belfry 5. Bang Bang 6. Bullet Holes 7. Root Down 8. The General 9. Open Up Disc Two 1. Out Loud 2. Hubs 3. Railway 4. Questioned Apocalypse 5. Burning the River 6. Past the Falls Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Dispatch 668 668 2013-06-08: The Venue Formerly Known as Great Woods by Dispatch etree eye 668 favorite 0 comment 0 Circles Around the Sun Passerby Out Loud Get Ready Boy Open Up Time Served Bang Bang Two Coins Lightning Flag Here We Go Railway Beto Broken American Josaphine Bats In The Belfry The General E: Ya Cut It Ya Match It* Flying Horses Elias Source: Elation KM201's>Lunatec V3>Microtrack II (24-bit/48kHz) 117,273 117K Dispatch collection ITEMS 36 VIEWS 117,273 by Dispatch collection eye 117,273 Limited Flag: NoSBD / LimShows Dispatch 1,121 1.1K 2000-05-01: Holy Cross by Dispatch etree eye 1,121 favorite 1 comment 0 1. What Do You Wanna Be 2. Here We Go 3. Cover This 4. Root Down 5. Bats in the Belfry 6. Bullet Holes 7. The General 8. Mission Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Dispatch 1,465 1.5K 2014-08-03: Gathering of The Vibes by Dispatch etree eye 1,465 favorite 1 comment 2 Dispatch August 3, 2014 Gathering of the Vibes Seaside Park, Bridgeport, CT Taped/Transfered By: Cam Keough Source 1: Busman BSC-1(Omnis)-> Naiant Littlebox(OT)-> Tascam DR-680(24/48) Source 2: Akg 460/CK61-> Naiant Littlebox(OT)-> DR-680 Lineage: DR-680-> Ext. HD-> Vegas-> Soundforge-> CD Wav-> NCH Switch-> TLH Set list: I Need Help favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 2 reviews ) Source: Source 1: Busman BSC-1(Omnis)-> Naiant Littlebox(OT)-> Tascam DR-680(24/48) Source 2: Akg 460/CK61-> Naiant Littlebox(OT)-> DR-680 Dispatch 1,425 1.4K 2000-12-29: Irving Plaza by Dispatch etree eye 1,425 favorite 0 comment 0 1. What Do You Wanna Be 2. Here We Go 3. Cover This 4. Time Served 5. Bullet Holes 6. Bang Bang 7. Carry You 8. Cut It/Match It 9. Prince of Spades 10. Even 11. The General Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Audiophile CD Collection 5 5.0 Avaliable For Licensing by Dispatch audio eye 5 favorite 1 comment 0 Tracklist: 1. Time Served 2. Open Up 3. Here We Go 4. Headlights 5. Bang Bang 6. The General 7. Cover This 8. Two Coins 9. Blood 10. Passerby 11. Whirlwind 12. Bridges 13. MayDay 14. Prince Of Spades 15. Even Source: CD Audiophile CD Collection 13 13 Gut The Van [Live] 2 Disc Set by Dispatch audio eye 13 favorite 1 comment 0 2 cds Tracklist: Disc 1: 1. Open Up 2. Passerby 3. Cut It Ya Match It 4. Lightning 5. Outloud 6. Even 7. Prince Of Spades 8. Flying Horses 9. 5/4 Here We Go 10. Bullet Holes 11. Bats In The Belfry 12. The General Disc 2: 1. Elias 2. Cover This 3. Steeples 4. Two Coins 5. Bang Bang 6. Railway 7. Questioned Apocalypse 8. Water Stop 9. Carry You 10. Mission 11. Time Served Source: CD Dispatch 1,041 1.0K 2013-06-09: Mountain Jam by Dispatch etree eye 1,041 favorite 3 comment 0 Dispatch 06/09/2013 Mountain Jam Hunter, NY. Source: AKG ck61 (NOS) > NBob Actives/Naiant PFA > Naiant Littlebox(OT) > R-44 (24bit/48Khz) Location: LOC, 12'stand Transfer: SDHC>USB>WAVELAB>CDWAV>FLAC Enhanced with GAKables Recorded and transferred by jibooer 01. Open up 02. Broken American 03. Here We Go 04. Circles Around The Sun 05. Passerby 06. Bang Bang * 07. Two Coins 08. Carry You 09. Flying Horses 10. Flag 11. Outloud 12. Josaphine 13. The General 14. Elias * w/ FOTD... Topics: dispatch, akg, actives, jibooer, mtn, jam Source: AKG ck61 (NOS) > NBob Actives/Naiant PFA > Naiant Littlebox(OT) > R-44 (24bit/48Khz) Dispatch 1,253 1.3K 2001-05-15: The Warfield Theater by Dispatch etree eye 1,253 favorite 1 comment 1 Disc 1 01. Here We Go 02. Open Up (Down Under) 03. Time Served 04. Cover This 05. Bullet Holes 06. Bang Bang 07. Prince of Spades 08. Cut it Ya Match it (Ms. Jackson) 09. Lightning 10. Even 11. The General 12. Bats in the Belfry favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Schoeps MK4s>rmod box (old)SBM-1>D8, Disc 1 1. Intro 2. Passerby 3. One Truth 4. Open Up 5. Time Served 6. Even 7. Out Loud ! 8. Lightning 9. Bang Bang Disc 2 1. Two Coins 2. Prince Of Spades 3. Bats In The Bellfry 4. Cover This 5. Hubs 6. The General @ 7. Mission 9. Dreidel Song & Burtons Birthday 9. Here We Go # Topic: Live concert Source: AKG C 391s (CK91 cardioid capsules) > Monster Cable > GP DMIC-20 (48khz) > BNC to Coax > Oade Digi IO > D8 (48khz) Location/Setup:60 ft center / X 90 13 ft high Dispatch 9,781 9.8K 2000-06-09: The Wetlands by Dispatch etree eye 9,781 favorite 14 comment 4 Disc One 1. Intro 2. Cover This 3. Wide Right Turns 4. Whaddaya 5. Open Up 6. Bullet Holes 7. Bang Bang 8. Railway Station 9. Rootdown --> 10. Bats 11. Here We Go Disc Two 1. Intro sound check 2. Past the Falls --> 3. Questioned Apocalypse 4. Two Coins --> Stoned Me --> Two Coins 5. Carry You 6. Elias --> Like a Prayer 7. The General 8. War 9. Passerbye 10. Outloud 11. Mission 12. Hubs favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 4 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Earthworks SR-77 > Sound Devices MP-2 > Excalibur IIs > Grahm Patten ADC20 > D8 Dispatch 2,704 2.7K 2001-03-14: 40 Watt Club by Dispatch etree eye 2,704 favorite 1 comment 1 1.) Passerby 2.) Here We Go 3.) Time Served 4.) Cover This 5.) Bullet Holes 6.) Bang Bang 7.) Lightning 8.) Carry You 9.) The General 10.) Prince of Spades 11.) Just Like Larry 12.) Open Up 13.) Even favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Dispatch 5,707 5.7K 1999-09-03: Hamilton College by Dispatch etree eye 5,707 favorite 3 comment 2 1. Intro 2. What Do You Wanna Be 3. Here We Go 4. Cover This 5. Railway 6. Bang Bang 7. Bullet Holes 8. Open Up Disc 2 9. Water Stop 10. Steeples 11. Burning the River (Pete solo) 12. Passerby 13. Past The Falls 14. Questioned Apocalypse 15. Two Coins 16. Cut It/Match It 17. Elias 18. Root Down Disc 3 19. Bats in the Belfry 20. The General 21. Eye of the Tiger (Survivor cover) 22. Mission 23. War (Bob Marley Cover) 24. Outloud (ENCORE) 25. Stir It Up (Bob Marley Cover) (ENCORE) 26. Hubs (ENCORE) favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 2 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown *** 24 bit source. not for CD's **** 1 Here We Go 2 Open Up 3 Passerby 4 Flag 5 Two Coins 6 Lighting 7 Bang Bang (G-Dead) 8 Spades (Lap Steel) 9 Outloud 10 Josaphine 11 Carry You 12 Flying Horses 13 General Topics: Dispatch, Phoenix, McDowell Mountain Music Festival, MMMF, Grout Source: Schoeps CMC6/Mk4 > Sound Devices 744T (24 bit@48KHZ) Dispatch 499 499 2013-06-09: Hunter Mountain Ski Area by Dispatch etree eye 499 favorite 0 comment 0 01. Open Up 02. Broken American * 03. Here We Go 04. Circles Around The Sun 05. Passerby 06. Bang Bang ** 07. Two Coins 08. Carry You *** 09. Flying Horses * 10. Flag 11. Outloud **** 12. Josaphine 13. The General 14. Elias Source: Neumann km184 (left of sbd/ortf) > Sound Devices MP-2 > Edirol R-09HR (16/44) Dispatch 1,824 1.8K 2001-06-09: 9:30 Club by Dispatch etree eye 1,824 favorite 2 comment 0 Disc 1 1. Just Like Larry 2. Open Up 3. Cover This 4. Bullet Holes 5. Lightning 6. Bang Bang 7. Time Served 8. Here We Go (with The Lost Trailers) Disc 2: 1. Even 2. Prince of Spades 3. Carry You 4. Flying Horses 5. The General 6. Mission (ENCORE) 1. Just Like Larry 2. Open Up 3. Cover This 4. Bullet Holes 5. Lightning 6. Bang Bang 7. Time Served 8. Here We Go 9. Even 10. Prince of Spades 11. Carry You 12. Flying Horses 13. The General 14. Mission Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Audiophile CD Collection 2 2.0 Four Day Trials by Dispatch audio eye 2 favorite 1 comment 0 Tracklist: 1. What Do You Wanna Be 2. Bullet Holes 3. Wide Right Turns 4. Here We Go 5. Cover This 6. Mission 7. Hubs 8. Root Down 9. Headlights 10. Fats 11. Whaddya Wanna Be 12. Dem Shoes 13. [untitled] 14. [untitled] Source: CD Dispatch 2,451 2.5K 2001-12-11: Vic Theater by Dispatch etree eye 2,451 favorite 1 comment 0 Disc 1 ------ 01. Rage Against the Machine Intro 02. Passerby 03. Time Served 04. Cover This 05. One Truth 06. Open Up Down Under 07. Here We Go In the Air Tonight 08. Bullet Holes 09. Intro -> 10. Bridges 11. Flying Horses Disc 2 ------ 01. Past the Falls I'm On Fire 02. Bang Bang 03. Lightning 04. Even 05. Intro -> 06. Bats in the Belfrey 07. Mission 08. (Crowd Noise) 09. The General Topic: Live concert Source: MD -> Edirol UA-3 -> USB cable -> Sony Vaio FX-150 -> Cool Edit Pro -> CD WAV Dispatch 4,551 4.6K 2001-12-13: Lupos Heartbreak Hotel by Dispatch etree eye 4,551 favorite 6 comment 1 Disc 1 1. Bullet Holes 2. Bang Bang 3. Passerby # 4. Time Served 5. Cover This 6. Even 7. Spades 8. Rooster % 9. One Truth 10. Open Up 11. Here We Go @ Disc 2 1. Past The Falls * 2. Questioned Apocolypse 3. Headlights 4. Gasoline Dream 5. Lightning 6. The General 7. Bats In The Bellfry !!!!! 8. Mission favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: AKG C 391s (CK91 cardioid capsules) > Monster Cable > GP DMIC-20 (48khz) > BNC to Coax > Oade Digi IO > D8 (48khz) Location/Setup:20 ft left center / X 90 10 ft high Dispatch 4,604 4.6K 1998-09-26: Hamilton College by Dispatch etree eye 4,604 favorite 7 comment 1 Disc One: 1. Waterstop 2. Steeples 3. Past the Falls 4. Questioned Apocalypse 5. Two Coins -> Elias -> Sabotage* 6. Elias 7. Here We Go 8. Bats in the Belfry -> Rootdown 9. Cover This 10. Bang Bang Disc Two: 1. Playin' 2. Hubs 3. Railway 4. The General 5. Mission 6. What Do You Wanna Be 7. Flying Horses 8. Outloud 9. Hey Hey favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Dispatch 2,841 2.8K 2001-11-28: House of Blues by Dispatch etree eye 2,841 favorite 4 comment 1 Disc 1 (71:31) 01. Passerby 02. Time Served 03. Here We Go 04. chat 05. Bullet Holes 06. Carry You 07. chat 08. Cover This 09. Even 10. Prince of Spades 11. Flying Horses 12. Headlights 13. Open Up 14. Bang Bang 15. Drums > Bang Bang Disc 2 (29:06) 01. Lightning 02. chat 03. The General > What You Got 04. Bats in the Belfry > Drums > Bats 05. Outloud > Stir it Up / Stand Up for Your Rights ( 1 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: HOB Webcast @ 100K > Total Recorder > CD Wav > SHN Dispatch 960 960 2001-02-11: 7th Street Entry by Dispatch etree eye 960 favorite 0 comment 0 1. What do you wanna be? 2. Here We Go 3. Time Served 4. Bulletholes 5. Bang Bang 6. Carry You 7. Cover This 8. The General Topic: Live concert Source: DCN>WAV Dispatch 1,773 1.8K 2001-03-22: Cat's Cradle by Dispatch etree eye 1,773 favorite 1 comment 0 1. intro 2. the general 3. bats in the belfry 4. Open Up 5. Time Served 6. Wide Right Turns 7. Cover This 8. Bulletholes 9. Bang Bang disc 2 1. Prince of Spades 2. Water Stop 3. Parade Speed > Just Like Larry 4. Passerby 5. Even 6. Mission 7. Elias 8. Two Coins 1. Intro 2. The General 3. Bats in the Belfry 4. Open Up 5. Time Served 6. Wide Right Turns 7. Cover This 8. Bullet Holes 9. Bang Bang 10. Prince of Spades 11. Water Stop 12. Parade Speed -> Just Like Larry 13. Passerby 14. Even... Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Dispatch 3,035 3.0K 2002-05-31: Chicago Sun Times Building by Dispatch etree eye 3,035 favorite 1 comment 2 1. Here We Go 2. Cover This 3. Time Served 4. Passerby 5. Bullet Holes 6. Bang Bang 7. Lightning 8. Prince of Spades 9. Outloud -> Stir It Up (Bob Marley Cover) 10. Even 11. Open Up -> Land Down Under (Men at Work Cover) 12. The General (NO ENCORE) 1. Here We Go 2. Cover This 3. Time Served 4. Passerby 5. Bullet Holes 6. Bang Bang 7. Lightning 8. Prince of Spades 9. Outloud->Stir it Up 10. Even 11. Open Up->Land Down Under 12. The General favorite favorite favorite ( 2 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Dispatch 7,960 8.0K 2001-04-03: 9:30 Club by Dispatch etree eye 7,960 favorite 7 comment 2 Disc 1 1. Intro 2. Mission 3. Here We Go 4. Talking 5. Open Up/Land Down Under 6. Talking 7. Bullet Holes 8. Talking 9. Bang Bang 10. Lightning 11. Root Down 12. Cover This 13. Time Served 14. Even 15. Questioned Apocalypse Disc 2 1. Prince of Spades 2. Two Coins/And Then It Stoned Me 3. Carry You 4. Cut It, Match It/Just Like Larry/Ms. Jackson 5. Elias/Break My Stride 6. War 7. Passerby 8. General/What I Got 9. Drums/ Bats In The Belfrey favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 2 reviews ) Topic: Live concert Source: Unknown Dispatch 2,040 2.0K 2013-06-28: Electric Forest Festival by Dispatch etree eye 2,040 favorite 1 comment 1 Dispatch 2013/06/28 Electric Forest Festival Ranch Arena Rothbury, MI Taped&Uploaded by DodiLittle **Shout out to Everyone who helped make this recording possible** *16-bit* 44.1kHz Source: SP C4s > TinyBox (transfos) > M-10 > MicroSD Lineage: MicroSD > Audacity > SoundStudio > WAV > XLD > FLAC Tracks: 01. Here We Go 02. Time Served 03. Get Ready Boy* 04. Passerby 05. Outloud 06. Beto > 07. Two Coins 08. Lightning 09. Flag 10. Flying Horses^ 11. ¡Make a Whole... favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews ) Source: SP C4s > TinyBox (transfos) > M-10 > MicroSD |
Junior college prospects are some of the biggest wildcards in a recruiting class for college football teams. Not every program taps into the junior college ranks for options, but immediate help can be found at this level. While junior college recruits often help right away, some are more of a project and can take half (or more) of a season to develop. Additionally, junior college recruits are often utilized to bolster the depth of a position with a lot of underclassmen or provide a bridge to a player that may not be ready to play by the first game. This season’s crop of junior college prospects has plenty of intriguing names, including Alabama offensive lineman Charles Baldwin, Texas Tech receiver Derek Willies, Baylor offensive lineman B.J. Autry, Tennessee defensive end Jonathan Kongbo and Utah offensive lineman Garrett Bolles. And that doesn’t include an interesting crop of quarterbacks coming to the FBS level, starting with Virginia Tech’s Jerod Evans and Utah’s Troy Williams. Here’s a quick look at some of the key impact junior college recruits for 2016: College Football's Top 25 Impact JUCO Transfers for 2016 File Away for 2017: Greg Bryant, RB, UAB/Clifton Garrett, LB, UAB UAB is a year away from officially returning, but coach Bill Clark just put the finishing touches on a recruiting class ranked No. 2 among Conference USA teams in the 247Sports Composite. Bryant – previously at Notre Dame – and Garrett – previously a five-star recruit at LSU – should be impact players in Conference USA in 2017. 25. Dre Massey, WR, Florida Massey is the first of two Florida junior college prospects to make this list. The South Carolina native transferred to Gainesville after two seasons at Holmes Community College and is expected to make an impact for a receiving corps that returns only two players with more than 25 catches last year. He displayed big-play ability at the junior college level, grabbing 21 receptions for 548 yards and six touchdowns. 24. Chris Gaynor, OL, TCU In addition to finding a quarterback – likely Kenny Hill – to replace Trevone Boykin, TCU opens spring practice looking to find four new starters on the offensive line. Tackle Joseph Noteboom is the lone returning starter, but there’s talent and experience in the form of Austin Schlottman, Aviante Collins and Matt Pryor. Gaynor is another name to watch this spring, as the Florida native ranked as the No. 77 JUCO prospect in the 247Sports Composite and was a second-team NJCAA All-American at Dodge City Community College. 23. David Luafatasaga, LB/Alec Dana, WR, Utah Two of Utah’s biggest concerns next fall revolve around the linebacker unit and receiving corps. However, the junior college ranks should provide some instant help for coach Kyle Whittingham. Luafatasaga ranked as the No. 19 junior college prospect in the 247Sports Composite and lands at Utah after a standout season at Arizona Western (93 tackles, four sacks). Dana is another impact recruit, as the California native has three seasons of eligibility remaining and grabbed 39 passes for 543 yards at Chaffey College. 22. Javon Wims, WR, Georgia The Bulldogs weren’t particularly deep at receiver last season, and with the departure of Malcolm Mitchell, this unit is in need of a few more playmakers for true freshman quarterback Jacob Eason. One answer should come in the form of Wims – the No. 11 junior college recruit in the 247Sports Composite. The Hinds Community College product caught 47 passes for 779 yards and nine scores last season and the necessary size (6-foot-4) to be a physical addition to the receiving corps. Related: Grading College Football's New Coach Hires for 2016 21. Emmanuel Beal/Kapri Doucet, LB, Oklahoma Oklahoma is poised for another run at the playoffs next season, but the defense has to reload at a few spots for the Sooners to advance to the national championship. Linebacker is the biggest area of attention this spring, as All-Big 12 performer Eric Striker expired his eligibility and Dominique Alexander declared for the NFL Draft. Jordan Evans (83 tackles in 2015) returns, and four-star recruit Ricky DeBerry is ready to contribute after a redshirt year. Beal and Doucet were two pickups in the 2016 signing class for coach Bob Stoops, and both could factor into the linebacker rotation. Even if he’s not a starter, Beal could help replace some of the pass rush off the edge left behind by Striker (7.5 sacks in 2015). 20. Tyree Horton, LB, TCU TCU’s linebacking corps was in good shape prior to Signing Day, but this group got a little deeper with the addition of Horton. The Florida native ranked as the No. 8 junior college prospect in the 247Sports Composite and recorded 63 tackles and 6.5 sacks at Highland Community College last year. He should bolster one of the Big 12’s top linebacking groups in 2016. Related: College Football's Top 50 Returning Players for 2016 19. Justin Crawford, RB, West Virginia Wendell Smallwood’s surprise departure to the NFL has opened the door for Rushel Shell to regain the No. 1 spot in the West Virginia backfield. However, the coaching staff wants to have competition and needs a second option to emerge. Crawford should compete with Donte Thomas-Williams for the No. 2 role in Morgantown after an impressive two-year stint at Northwest Mississippi Community College. Crawford rushed for 3,161 yards and 30 scores and was voted the 2015 Spalding NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year. 18. Na’Ty Rodgers, OL, Houston Houston’s offensive line was hit hard by injuries last season, but this unit did just enough for the Cougars to win the American Athletic Conference title and claim a Peach Bowl victory over Florida State. The good news for coach Tom Herman? This unit should be even better in 2016. Will Noble and Colton Freeman are back after solid freshman seasons, and Rodgers could bolster one of the tackle spots. The Maryland native ranked as the No. 7 junior college recruit by ESPN. 17. Larry Williams, OL, Oklahoma State Oklahoma State’s offensive line has struggled over the last two years, but there are some signs of optimism for 2015. The Cowboys return all five starters from last season’s group, and coach Mike Gundy landed a potential impact addition from the junior college level. Williams started 11 games at Hutchinson Community College last season and was the No. 78 player in the 247Sports Composite for JUCO recruits. He could help right away at one of the guard spots in 2016. 16. Malcolm Pridgeon, OL, Ohio State Ohio State isn’t bringing a junior college lineman to sit on the bench next fall. And with the Buckeyes replacing three starters from last season’s unit – including both tackles – Pridgeon should factor right away into the rotation. The New York native checks in at a massive 6-foot-8 and 325 pounds and ranked as the No. 4 junior college prospect in the 247Sports Composite. Related: College Football's Pre-Spring 1-128 QB Rankings for 2016 15. Tyrell Chavis, DT, Penn State The Nittany Lions’ defense was hit hard by departures this offseason, as coordinator Bob Shoop left for Tennessee, end Carl Nassib and tackle Anthony Zettel expired their eligibility and tackle Austin Johnson left for the NFL. With the departures up front, the door is open for impact newcomers this season. Chavis heads to Happy Valley after a two-year stint at Nassau Community College, which included a strong 2015 campaign (39 tackles and six sacks). The Virginia native ranked as the No. 23 junior college prospect in the 247Sports Composite. 14. Jamarcus King, CB, South Carolina New coach Will Muschamp’s acumen on defense should help South Carolina take a step forward on this side of the ball in 2016. The Gamecocks struggled mightily on defense last year, surrendering 30.4 points a game in SEC contests. Additionally, South Carolina ranked 83rd nationally in pass efficiency defense in 2015. King should help the secondary right away after two years at Coffeyville Community College. He picked off three passes in 2015 and was regarded as top junior college cornerback by ESPN. 13. Nate Strong, RB, Missouri Finding ways to jumpstart the offense is new coach Barry Odom’s biggest priority this spring. Missouri ranked last in the SEC in rushing offense and averaged only 13.6 points a game last season. Drew Lock is a promising quarterback to build around, but the sophomore needs help in the supporting cast. Ish Witter returns after leading the Tigers with 518 rushing yards last season, but Russell Hansbrough expired his eligibility and Morgan Steward retired due to a hip injury. Strong is a potential impact recruit for Odom and the ground attack, as he ranked as the No. 15 junior college prospect in the 247Sports Composite. Related: Grading College Football's Head Coach Hires for 2016 12. Nick Terry, DL, UCLA UCLA’s front seven was hit hard by injuries last season, with standouts Myles Jack (LB) and Eddie Vanderdoes (DL) missing significant portions of the 2015 campaign. As a result, the Bruins finished eighth in the Pac-12 against the run and ranked eighth in the conference with 28 sacks generated. Improving both of those areas will be a priority this offseason for coach Jim Mora, and Terry should provide help in the trenches. He was the No. 38 junior college prospect by ESPN after a standout season at American River College. Fellow JUCO teammate and defensive lineman Chigozie Nnoruka is also joining the Bruins in 2016. 11. Mark Thompson, RB, Florida With Kelvin Taylor leaving early for the NFL, there’s an opportunity for a new starter to emerge at running back for the Gators. Sophomores Jordan Scarlett and Jordan Cronkrite have a head start on the No. 1 spot, but Thompson will be a player to watch. The Pennsylvania native ranked as the No. 5 junior college recruit in the 247Sports Composite and rushed for 1,298 yards and 18 scores at Dodge City Community College last year. 10. Jeremy Faulk, DT, Baylor All four starters are gone from last season’s defensive line in Waco, and there are big shoes to fill on the interior with the early departure of Andrew Billings to the NFL. Just like he did on the offensive line, coach Art Briles went to the junior college ranks for immediate help. Faulk – a 6-foot-1, 295-pound tackle – should help right away. In one season at Garden City Community College, Faulk recorded 87 tackles (18.5 for a loss), 7.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. The Bears also signed a second junior college defensive tackle (DeQuinton Osborne) to bolster the line this season. Related: College Football's Pre-Spring Top 75 RBs for 2016 9. West Virginia Defensive Backs The secondary is West Virginia’s biggest need entering spring ball, and coach Dana Holgorsen used the 2016 signing class for immediate reinforcements. Four junior college recruits are headed to Morgantown, including Mike Daniels (Globe Tech CC), Elijah Battle (Dodge City CC), Toyous Avery (Coffeyville CC) and Kyzir White (Lackawanna College). White is the highest-profile signee of the bunch, ranking as the No. 20 junior college prospect by ESPN. He’s also the brother of former West Virginia standout receiver Kevin White. 8. Arizona State’s JUCO Class The Sun Devils inked eight junior college prospects on Signing Day, and coach Todd Graham should get key contributions from his recruiting class on both sides of the ball. On offense, linemen Tyson Rising and A.J. McCollum will have a chance to push for playing time right away with only one returning starter up front. The secondary was torched last season (35 TD passes allowed) and Lloyd Carrington and Kweishi Brown have expired their eligibility. Defensive backs Maurice Chandler and J’Marcus Rhodes should play a lot next year, while linemen – Koron Crump, Christian Hill and Dougladson Subtyl will bolster the depth and talent in the trenches. 7. Ryan Parker/Taj Williams, WR, TCU TCU’s receiving corps isn’t in bad shape, but the Horned Frogs are losing two of their top targets in Josh Doctson (79 catches) and Kolby Listenbee (19.9 ypc). Parker and Williams ranked as top-10 junior college recruits in the 247Sports Composite and both should push for playing time right away. Related: College Football's Top 20 QBs on the Rise for 2016 6. Jonathan Kongbo, DE, Tennessee Kongbo ranked as the No. 1 junior college prospect in the 247Sports Composite and had several – USC, Ole Miss and Florida State – high-profile suitors before choosing Tennessee on National Signing Day. The Congo native has an interesting backstory in his route to Knoxville, as he spent a redshirt year at Wyoming and transferred to Arizona Western College for the 2015 campaign. During his only year at Arizona Western, Kongbo recorded 16 tackles for a loss and 11 sacks. And in even more good news for Tennessee – Kongbo is only a sophomore and has a ton of untapped potential. 5. B.J. Autry, OL, Baylor The offensive line is the biggest question mark for Baylor entering offseason practices. Center Kyle Fuller is one of the best in the nation and is a good place to start the rebuilding project. However, four spots are up for grabs, and coach Art Briles has recruited plenty of talent at this position to add competition and depth. Autry was a key pickup in the 2016 signing class, as the Alabama native is considered the nation’s No. 1 guard prospect in the junior college ranks. He should push for immediate playing time. 4. Garrett Bolles, OL, Utah Utah enters the 2016 offseason with uncertainty at quarterback and receiver, but coach Kyle Whittingham’s team should have one of the Pac-12’s top offensive lines this year. This unit loses center Siaosi Aiono, and returns five players with significant starting experience from 2015. Additionally, Bolles was a huge pickup on the recruiting trail for Whittingham, as the Utah native ranked as the No. 3 junior college prospect in the 247Sports Composite. Expect to see Bolles as a major contributor to Utah’s offensive line next fall. Related: College Football's Top 10 Impact JUCO QBs for 2016 3. Derrick Willies, WR, Texas Tech Quarterback Patrick Mahomes needs a new go-to target with Jakeem Grant out of eligibility. The Red Raiders’ offense may not have to look far for an answer, as the incoming recruiting class featured two talented junior college prospects at receiver, including Willies – the No. 3 overall prospect in the ESPN JC 50. The California native caught 49 passes for 1,115 yards and 14 scores at Trinity Valley Community College last season. 2. Charles Baldwin, OL, Alabama Alabama’s offensive line loses two starters, but there’s a solid core in place with the return of left tackle Cam Robinson and guard Ross Pierschbacher. Baldwin ranked as the No. 1 junior college prospect by ESPN and should have an opportunity to step in immediately as the team’s new starter at right tackle. 1. The Quarterbacks Earlier this offseason, Athlon Sports profiled 10 junior college quarterbacks poised to make an impact in 2016. Virginia Tech’s Jerod Evans, Utah’s Troy Williams and Auburn’s John Franklin III are just a few to watch next season. Go more in-depth with our 10 impact junior college quarterbacks to watch article. Other JUCO Transfers to Watch Offense: Juwann Winfree, WR, Colorado; Darrion Landry, WR, Bowling Green; Dwayne Wallace, OL, California; Jonah Trinnaman, WR, BYU; Marquez McNair, WR, UTSA; Byron Pringle, WR, Kansas State; Jeff George, WR, Tennessee; Demetri Moore, OT, Virginia Tech; Paul Ramirez, OL, Arkansas; Chris Gaynor, OL, TCU; Defense: Tramal Ivey, DE, USF; Mat Boesen, DL, TCU; William Johnson, LB, North Texas; Handsome Tanielu, DT, BYU; Paul James, DE, Auburn; Phillip Napoleon, DL, Oregon State; Josh Allen, DE, Arizona; Ronald Walker, DB, Louisville; A.J. Hotchkins, LB, Oregon; Lashard Durr, DB, Mississippi State; Jayme Thompson, DB, Indiana; Tre Brown, DT, Mississippi State; Alexis Johnson, DT, Tennessee |
The state's case against accused serial killer Homer Lee Jackson III suffered a significant blow after a judge this month threw out his alleged confession, finding Portland police used improper and coercive tactics during more than seven hours of questioning over two days. Police arrested Jackson, now 57, in October 2015 and accused him of strangling two teenagers and two women in their 20s who worked as prostitutes in the 1980s. He's pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder charges. It's the latest setback in a case that has lingered for two years after police announced at a news conference that they had finally solved the asphyxiation deaths of four African American women who had been sexually assaulted and their bodies dumped. Relatives and friends of the women filled three rows in the courtroom's gallery when Jackson entered his plea. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have been locked in a series of pitched court arguments about the quality of evidence in the case against Jackson, who was collecting disability payments and had lived quietly in a Northeast Portland for 13 years at the time of his arrest. He told court officials he was taking medication for paranoid schizophrenia. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Michael A. Greenlick now has suppressed the two days of statements that Jackson made to two Portland cold case detectives when he was first taken into custody in October 2015, finding they were "made under the influence of fear produced by threats (and promises of leniency.)'' The judge cited more than a dozen examples from the interrogation. Read excerpts of police interrogation that concerned judge in accused serial killer case At several points during the interview, Detectives Meredith Hopper and James Lawrence told Jackson that if he admitted to killing the women and explained why, they'd help him, he'd feel "great relief" and everything would turn out "for the best for everybody." At other times, the detectives were hostile, exploiting Jackson's religious belief by suggesting God would never forgive him for his sins and promising that bad things would happen if he didn't start talking, the judge said. Hours into the questioning on Oct. 15, 2015, Hopper advised Jackson not to put the families of his alleged victims through the pain of a trial. If he did, she told him, jurors would look at him as a monster because he couldn't remember how many women he killed. The detectives would make sure he got the severest penalty if he didn't come clean on the killings, she said. After Jackson continued to deny involvement, Hopper said, according to transcripts of the interrogation: "Well then, you are a monster, my friend. You deserve what's coming to ya and I hope you get every bit of it. Because I think you're a nice guy to talk to, very pleasant, but I'm telling you right now, you are a monster and we will do everything we can to make sure you spend as much time in prison as we can put you there for. Because that's what's coming. You have the power to help these people." The judge also highlighted Lawrence's likening of the case to a train as the detective urged Jackson to confess and "get on'' the train and then warned that if Jackson didn't, he'd get "run over'' by the train. Conor Huseby, one of Jackson's defense lawyers, argued that the promises of leniency mixed with threats showed the detectives were trying to manipulate Jackson into confessing to murders "it was abundantly clear he had no memory of.'' State prosecutors countered that the detectives lawfully pressed Jackson about how he should clear his own conscience and give closure to the families of Essie Jackson, 23, killed in March 1983, Tonja Harry, 19, killed in July 1983, Angela Anderson, 14, killed in September 1983 and Latanga Watts, 29, killed in March 1987. Homer Jackson and Essie Jackson aren't related. Jackson's statements were voluntary, and the detectives made no threats, the prosecutors said. "There is simply nothing threatening about calling the defendant a monster nor is it threatening to tell the defendant that the detectives will work as hard as possible to do their jobs and make a strong case against the defendant in order to keep him in prison as long as possible,'' wrote Deputy District Attorney Susan O'Connor. "A threat must be more than expression by the officer of an intent to do something that the officer is authorized to do.'' The judge disagreed. "Police threatening the worst punishment if convicted, I believe, is coercive," Greenlick ruled. Citing case law, he said police have the power to follow through on threats of harsher penalties and it's reasonable for a defendant to believe that could happen. "Given the totality of circumstances, I believe the defendant could have started to believe that he would suffer a number of detrimental consequences, including that the judge and the jury would consider him to be a monster, the police would seek the longest possible penalties, the victims would be angry and influence prosecution negatively," the judge said. "It might also have been reasonable for him to believe that the interview might not end until he cooperated and he would not be able to let his family know what is going on." Though the judge said he isn't required by law to determine whether he believed Jackson's statements were false or wrong, he called it "noteworthy" that Jackson admitted only to the killing of the 14-year-old yet had no recollection of what occurred and provided details that were inconsistent with how she died. "It sure appears that the defendant became convinced that he committed murders for which he had no memory," Greenlick said. "The fact that the defendant remembers Ms. Anderson or remembers being at a place where she took johns obviously does not mean that he committed murder on this particular date 34 years ago," he said. Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Jenna Plank argued that under recent case law, "the probable truth of a confession" shouldn't be a factor in deciding whether a statement can be admitted as evidence at trial. The judge said he wasn't ruling on the truth of the statements. But he said he found in his close review of the interview with Jackson that the types of inducements or threats made by police can create a risk of an inaccurate admission. "Backing that up is my concern the defendant isn't really able to come up with anything specific about any of these murders even though he seems to be trying," Greenlick said. The judge threw out all of Jackson's statements to police after Lawrence, responding to Jackson who asked to call his sister during a smoke break on the first day of questioning, told Jackson that he couldn't call his sister until "we get to a point where we are working together on this." Before that break, Jackson had repeatedly denied any involvement in the killings. After emerging from that break, he suddenly remembered "the girl in the house," referencing the death of Angela Anderson, the interrogation transcript shows. The judge issued his ruling from the bench Oct. 2, but then sought more input from lawyers regarding an unusual turn in the interrogation, when police called Jackson's sister and allowed him to talk to her on speaker phone while the detectives listened and participated in the conversation. When his sister asked why Jackson was there and why he was talking to police without a lawyer, he said, "I did it." The judge ruled Tuesday that the unlawful police tactics tainted Jackson's admission to his sister as well, finding it reasonable for Jackson to believe at the time that "that the detectives would evaluate the statements he made to his sister and potentially react negatively to them. Prosecutors haven't yet discussed with Oregon Department of Justice lawyers whether to appeal the judge's ruling to a higher court, Plank said Wednesday. "We're still moving forward,'' she added, noting there are hearings set next month on other pretrial motions in the case. Prosecutors allege Jackson's DNA was found at three of the crime scenes. Jackson's lawyers have countered that his DNA isn't the only male DNA at the scenes and often was found in less suspicious places than the DNA of other potential suspects. -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian |
International students protesting outside the immigration offices in Dublin today ANOTHER ENGLISH LANGUAGE school has closed in Ireland, bringing the national total to 16 since April 2014. The news came as students from some of the closed colleges protested in Dublin over the issue. The spate of closures was recognised today by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), a state agency which develops awards and standards. It said today that there have been 16 confirmed college closures affecting non-EEA students since April 2014. In many cases, the colleges offered a mixture of English language and other business and related courses. “These closures have no doubt impacted on a large number of learners from both financial and academic perspectives,” said QQI. Some students from closed colleges have protested over the issue. ACELS recognition The QQI said it is important, “to ensure that there is clarity regarding the relationship between these providers and the ACELS recognition process which QQI operates”. It explained that ACELS is “a voluntary national scheme responsible for the development and management of the recognition / inspection of English language teaching organisations (ELTOs)”. ACELS is a voluntary scheme, meaning that English language providers can operate in Ireland without having ACELS recognition. Many of the colleges that closed over the last year have been operating in the State for a number of years without ACELS recognition. Source: QQI “Many schools, including MEC, which has featured in the news over the weekend, also offer non-Irish accredited English language programmes,” said QQI. QQI went on: Of the 16 colleges that closed, 15 offered English language programmes. Seven of these colleges had applied for ACELS recognition and had been refused or their application was in process at the time of their closure. Three colleges had their ACELS recognition withdrawn prior to their closure. Four had never applied for ACELS recognition. Two had ACELS recognition at the time of closure. One of these ensured that it taught its own students or relocated those students. The second was part of a larger group of providers in the UK which closed and didn’t have any non-EEA students enrolled. In 2014, students who were enrolled with providers who had ACELS recognition were offered an opportunity to finish studying with another ACELS-recognised provider at a reduced cost. This was as part of the national task force for students affected by the closure of private colleges. QQI said it “understands the concerns of students and staff of the closed colleges” and anticipates that regulatory reforms on student immigration being devised by the Departments of Justice and Education will help in addressing the circumstances that have led to these closures to date. |
The news of Jose Fernandez’s death shook the sports world on Sunday morning, but nowhere was it more crushing than at Marlins Park, where fans and teammates gathered to remember a talent taken far too soon. With Sunday’s game canceled, the Marlins gathered anyway. They met as a team, talked about Fernandez together, trying to process the loss together and grief together. Then, they stood united for a press conference. Players wore their jerseys, surrounding a table where manager Don Mattingly sat along with execs David Samson, Michael Hill and veteran player Martin Prado. Scroll to continue with content Ad They were moved to tears as they talked about Fernandez — their 24-year-old ace, who was found dead early Sunday morning after a boating accident that killed two other people. Mattingly was particularly emotional, breaking down in tears while talking about Fernandez. Marlins Manager Don Mattingly tearfully remembers the life and legacy of José Fernández. pic.twitter.com/BeuYgxHPHV — SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 25, 2016 “When I think about Jose, I see such a little boy,” Mattingly said at one point. “The way he played, there was just joy with him.” At another point: “When he pitched … you just see that little kid that you see when you watch kids play Little League or something like that. That’s the joy that Jose played with.” Jose Fernandez gestures into the crowd after a recent game at Marlins Park. (AP) The Marlins painted Fernandez’s No. 16 on the pitcher’s mound Sunday morning and players such as Dee Gordon and Christian Yelich were seen kneeling in front of it. Story continues The mound at Marlins Park pic.twitter.com/X4yp7CE7QE — clarkspencer (@clarkspencer) September 25, 2016 This photo of Dee Gordon by the mound today at Marlins Park says it all. pic.twitter.com/vJVCNKsqOT — Cards Nation (@CardsNation13) September 25, 2016 Outside the stadium, fans had started to gather, bringing flowers and wearing No. 16 jerseys as a way to remembering the young pitcher. #Marlins fans have made the entrance to Marlins Park a makeshift memorial for Jose Fernandez pic.twitter.com/XVP26SYLou — Manny Navarro (@Manny_Navarro) September 25, 2016 Here's is the video clip of #Marlins fans leaving flowers for Jose Fernandez and shedding tears in his name pic.twitter.com/9eLu52WvBG — Manny Navarro (@Manny_Navarro) September 25, 2016 Family members crying in front of Jose Fernandez's makeshift memorial at Marlins Park. Not a dry eye around here. So much sadness pic.twitter.com/D5iq344XSx — Manny Navarro (@Manny_Navarro) September 25, 2016 Though only 24, Fernandez had already established himself as one of the best arms in all of MLB. This season, his 16-8 record, 2.86 ERA and 253 strikeouts (second in baseball) made him one of the candidates for NL Cy Young. He won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2013. More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports: Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! |
On Sunday, the Trail Blazers had what is called a “Blackout” day, which means no practice, no coming in for treatment, no weight lifting, no nothing. It is a day designed to give the players a break from basketball, a day when the lights stay off, leaving the practice courts black. But it was no surprise when this Sunday, hours after the Blazers returned from Milwaukee, the lights flickered on and Pat Connaughton dribbled onto the court for a shooting session. The way Connaughton sees it, there are no off days. “I don’t ever want to look back and be like, ‘Oh, if I just put in a little more time,’’’ Connaughton said. “I just want to make sure I put in my work.’’ If there has been an unexpected boost, or a pleasant surprise to the Trail Blazers’ early season, it has been Connaughton, whose shooting off the bench has been a subplot to an encouraging 2-1 start. His confident play, and accurate shooting, is rooted in days like Sunday. During the summer, Connaughton would hold two-a-day workouts, which included a requirement to make 500 three-pointers in each session, 1,000 a day. “This is the year I wanted to make sure I was prepared for,’’ Connaughton said. “If it didn’t work out this year, then at least I could say I did it in attack mode. But I wanted to be ready for the moments.’’ So far, he has. After earning the backup shooting guard role with a solid preseason, Connaughton has been more than an adequate replacement for the departed Allen Crabbe, who was traded to Brooklyn. Less than three minutes into the season opener in Phoenix, Connaughton was thrust into the game after Maurice Harkless got in foul trouble and the offense had sputtered to just two points. He instantly jump started what would turn out to be the most dominant opening night victory in NBA history by making his first five shots, eventually finishing with 24 points in 32 minutes. He was also a factor in Indiana, hitting 3-of-4 shots, including two three-pointers, and in Milwaukee he continued the trend of making his first shot. All told, Connaughton has made 13-of-20 shots, including 7-of-12 from three-point range, and scored 35 points. Crabbe in the first three games last season went 13-of-27, including 5-of-11 from three, and scored 40 points. It has been nearly the same production at a fraction of the cost (Connaughton makes $1.4 million while Crabbe last season made $18.5 million). But even after the successful trip, and the flood of texts and calls from well-wishers, Connaughton knew he couldn’t, as he says, “start drinking the Kool-Aid” and rest on his laurels. After arriving home from Milwaukee in the early hours, he was back at the practice courts the next morning. “For me, it’s funny because you hear from people, ‘Oh, you played so well on the road trip; you started the season the way you wanted to,’ but when I look at it, I look at Milwaukee, and I think I could have played better. I had two turnovers I could have avoided if I just took the jump shot that I had been shooting well.’’ It all replayed in his mind. The corner three he missed in Phoenix. A trailing three he missed in Milwaukee. The passing up a three in Milwaukee to penetrate, which resulted in a charge. The passing up a shot against the Bucks to make the extra pass, which was picked off. Those two turnovers had him talking to himself after he was pulled in the third quarter, as he went to the bench tapping his chest and saying “Shoot the ball … Shoot the ball … Shoot the ball.’’ “I’m keeping that fresh in my memory,’’ Connaughton said. “I have to do more things better.’’ It’s that work ethic and attention to detail that has elevated Connaughton from a baseball player trying to make the NBA, to an everyday rotation player. Connaughton will likely play around 20 minutes each game, and coach Terry Stotts says he has always had confidence in Connaughton, dating back to last season when he played him in the playoffs. Stotts says he doesn’t see that changing. But there is no question Connaughton’s stock has risen after the first three games. “What he did is good for his confidence, good for the (coaching) staff’s confidence,’’ CJ McCollum said. “Lots of guys can shoot in practice. Lots of guys can shoot when there is nobody in the gym. And some guys can shoot at home in front of the home crowd. But not everybody can shoot on the road, at OKC, or at Golden State. That’s when you really see about players. Like a close game in Milwaukee … things change … and that’s when you judge people.’’ Connaughton, who says he has worked out on all but one “Blackout” day in his two-plus seasons in Portland, knows that rest will become more important now that he has graduated from a bit player to rotation player. Even so, he figures he will always be in the gym, “Blackout” or not. “For me, the biggest thing has kind of been just building off good play,’’ Connaughton said. “This is the sport I’ve worked at the most in my entire life, so I want to go out there knowing I can do this, as opposed to playing timid and trying to figure things out. And to do that, I have to put in the work.’’ So for about an hour, he shot Sunday. While he was there, he saw a rehabilitating Noah Vonleh, and team captain Damian Lillard. And as he was leaving, McCollum was coming in for a workout of his own. McCollum took note as he and Connaughton crossed through the doors. “The work ethic is there,’’ McCollum said, nodding. “He knows what is at stake here.’’ Today's Blazers' links: NBC Sports Northwest has video of Evan Turner's feelings about the plus/minus statistic. Nick Krupke at KPTV has a nice feature on Maurice Harkless and his hobby of photography. The Oregonian's Joe Freeman reports that Noah Vonleh is targeting a Nov. 1 return at Utah. Mike Richman at The Oregonian writes about the Blazers' streak of winning home openers. The New Orleans Times-Picayune previews tonight's Pelicans-Blazers game. |
I've been playing the piano on and off for more than a decade, and at home I have the scrappiest, messiest folder of sheet music you've ever seen. It's culled from a variety of sources (photocopied jazz standards, out-of-copyright classics, and rough MIDI transcriptions), and covered in scathing notes-to-self ("NO PEDAL YOU COWARD"). It's battered and beloved, but my god, I'm pretty sure I'd swap it in a heartbeat for the Gvido — a new, dual-screen E Ink device that's designed to hold thousands of digital scores. The GVIDO holds thousands of songs and supports hand notation Well, okay, maybe it'd take more than a heartbeat for me to decide, but the Gvido is certainly an interesting prospect. It's built by Japanese firm Terrada Music, who unveiled the device earlier this month. It sports two 13.3-inch E Ink displays, comes with 8GB of internal memory (and microSD), and weighs 650 grams — about half the weight of a MacBook Air. It charges via microUSB and is compatible with Wacom pens for making notes on the score. You turn pages with a touch panel on the side of the device. All this sounds brilliant. Imagine, with the Gvido you could download a bunch public domain sheet music, load up the device, and have all the sheet music you're going to need for years in a single place. The E Ink displays mean it'll last a good while on a single charge, and the microSD slot means you'll never run out of space. However, I do have a few misgivings. For a start, the demo video above makes the Gvido look pretty slow to use. If you're whipping through something with a fast tempo you can't afford to wait for the E Ink to refresh when it would be quicker to turn a physical page. (Side note: the score in the video is for Moonlight Sonata, but that's not what's being played.) Similarly, it's not clear how you navigate between scores, and while it's easy to flick through a physical book, it might be frustrating to have to tap, tap, tap, through a massive index of music on a slow E Ink screen. and what about the price? Price is also an unknown. Liliputing, which first spotted the Gvido, points out that a device with a single 13.3-inch E Ink display sells for $800, so doubling the number of screens certainly isn't going to be much cheaper. And at that price, you may as well buy a Surface and the fantastic StaffPad software. These quibbles aside, though, this is certainly some very interesting hardware. According to Terrada Music's press release the company has only recently started exhibiting the Gvido, first at the music industry conference Midem earlier this month. Hopefully we'll find out more about the product when it launches — although Terrada hasn't put a date on that yet. Hopefully when they do we'll find out how we're supposed to pronounce "Gvido" too. |
K-Love (stylized K-LOVE) is a contemporary Christian music radio programming service in the United States operated by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF). The network is one of three formats produced by the Educational Media Foundation, the other two being K-Love Classics and Air1. As of March 2013, the network's programming is simulcast on over 440 FM stations and translators in 47 U.S. states and 1 U.S. Territory.[1] K-Love has over 12 million listeners weekly online and in cities across the United States on FM radio including Anchorage, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York City.[2] It is also the sixth-most online-streamed station in the world.[3] History [ edit ] The 1980s [ edit ] K-Love began in 1980 as a single radio station with the call sign KCLB. It was a full-time contemporary Christian music radio station, launched by radio personality Bob Anthony, in Middletown, California.[4] After several tries at purchasing a station in San Francisco, a small, non-commercial radio station was acquired just north of San Francisco for $67,000.[5] On October 15, 1982, 91.9 KCLB came on the air for the first time with Bob Anthony as announcer. The very first song played on KCLB was "Praise The Lord" by The Imperials, which was a hit on the Christian Music charts in 1979.[6] With the slogan "The Positive Alternative, Christian Music Radio KCLB 92FM", the station continued to grow in listeners. In 1986, Dick Jenkins was hired as General Manager.[7] That same year, Bob Anthony left the station and moved to Oregon, to start a new radio ministry. On September 12, 1988, a 9,000-acre brush fire destroyed KCLB's main transmitter building on Geyser Peak. The radio station transmitter was relocated to 4,000-foot Mount Saint Helena.[4][7] The new location improved signal strength, and listeners reported they could now hear the station as far as 125 miles away.[5] As KCLB continued to expand its signal reach, in 1987 the signal could be heard on transmitters in San Rafael, Salinas, and Monterey, California that rebroadcast KCLB's signal.[5] In 1988, KCLB changed its call letters to KLVR, and adopted its on-air brand name K-Love and the slogan "Encouraging Words, Positive Music, K-Love Radio".[7] By 1989, the signal could be heard in Santa Cruz, San Jose, and Los Gatos, California via microwave transmission and television subcarriers.[5] The 1990s [ edit ] K-Love expanded its reach during the 1990s by purchasing small stations and translators, and repeating its signal. In 1992, K-Love began using satellite technology to expand to locations further away than just northern California. The Educational Media Foundation continued to purchase small translators in California but also bought stations in Portland, Oregon (KLVP),[8] Phoenix, Arizona (KLVA),[9] Oklahoma City (KYLV)[10] and San Antonio (KZLV).[11] During the 1990s, K-Love also began to expand its on-air personalities. David Pierce joined in 1991.[12][13] Also Mike Novak,[14] JD Chandler and Larry Wayne[15] started working air shifts in the late 1990s. In addition to expanding the on-air talent, K-Love expanded its facilities and moved its headquarters from Santa Rosa to Sacramento in 1993.[7] In 1998 K-Love increased its reach online by streaming live on klove.com.[7] The 2000s [ edit ] During the decade of the 2000s, K-Love went through a period of expansion through the purchase of stations and translators across the United States. On October 5, 2000, Colorado Christian University sold KWBI Morrison / Denver, KJOL Grand Junction and KDRH Glenwood Springs, Colorado as well as 18 translators to K-Love.[16] The Colorado radio network was sold for a reported $16.6 million. A Colorado Christian University release said the board considered "many offers from Christian, as well as other suitors," but the priority was finding a buyer committed to "top-quality Christian programming."[17] KWBI is now KLDV, and is one of K-Love's most listened to signals.[18] K-Love picked up the KWBI calls for their radio station in Great Bend, Kansas. In 2003, the EMF took advantage of a window of time where the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowed for the filing of new applications for FM translators, also known as the "2003 Auction 83 filing window" and labelled as the "Great Translator Invasion of 2003."[19] During that time, the FCC received over 13,000 applications for original construction permits on translators. EMF filled over 800 applications,[20] of which over 250 have been approved, and most of those now carry the K-Love network.[21] In January 2007, the EMF purchased 94.3 WJKL Elgin, Illinois, which broadcasts to the Chicago area, for $17 million.[22] Shortly after the purchase, a flood hit the WJKL transmitter site that knocked the station off the air for more than a week.[23] WJKL has since moved and now broadcasts from Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois to the Chicago market.[24] On November 30, 2007, K-Love purchased 97.3 KCXM, which was an ESPN radio affiliate for Kansas City, for $16 million.[25] The call letters were changed to KLRX shortly after and now broadcasts from Lee's Summit to the Kansas City area.[26] As a result, these and other station purchases, plus the new translators approved during the 2003 filing window, the K-Love radio network grew to be the largest broadcaster of contemporary Christian music in the world.[27] By 2010, K-Love had an estimated listenership of 6 million people,[28] from both terrestrial stations and on-line streams. In 2002, the EMF moved its headquarters from Sacramento, California, to Rocklin. The new headquarters now housed K-Love, Air1 and Christian Music Planet magazine.[7] On July 15, 2009, K-Love bought 101.9 WKLU, which broadcasts to Indianapolis, for $4.75 million, plus $1.55 million for the studio. The studio then became the broadcast location for the K-Love Morning Show.[29] In January 2004, K-Love partnered with Premier Christian Cruises and had its first annual "K-LOVE Friends & Family Music Cruise". Passage on the cruise sold out 13 weeks after sales began in April 2003.[30] In 2001, Christian radio personality Jon Rivers, along with his wife Sherry, became the K-Love Morning Show hosts, and broadcast from their ranch in Texas.[31] The K-Love Morning Show became popular and continued with Jon and Sherry for seven years until March 28, 2009, when it was announced that Jon and Sherry Rivers would no longer be hosting the morning show, due to family issues.[32] Host Lisa Williams assumed the duties of hosting the program, and was later joined by Eric Allen.[32] Other DJs also joined the K-Love team during this time such as Scott Smith[33] and Kelli Caldwell, which eventually became the afternoon show.[34] On October 1, 2007, Mike Novak was named CEO and President of EMF, K-Love, and Air1, replacing Dick Jenkins,[35] and as a result stopped having a regular on-air shift. After purchasing a radio station in Indianapolis, as of November 2009, the morning show broadcasts from Indianapolis, Indiana. K-Love Logo used until 2014. Into the new decade, K-Love began to purchase more full-power stations in medium and larger markets. Since 2010, K-Love has begun broadcasting, or upgraded signals in Dayton, Ohio (WKCD formerly WCDR),[36] Jacksonville, Florida (WCRJ),[37] Knoxville, Tennessee (WYLV, formerly WDLF),[38] Salt Lake City (KKAT),[39] Stockton, California, San Francisco, California (KLVS),[40] San Diego, California, Camden, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan on WDKL 102.7 FM. In May 2011, K-Love came on the air on WKLV Port Chester, which covers New York City.[41] The WKLV (formerly WCTZ) signal originates from a new transmitter site atop the Trump Plaza building in New Rochelle. This made it the largest market in which K-Love could be heard until late 2017 when K-Love purchased KSWD covering the entirety of Los Angeles and surrounding areas.[42] In July 2012, EMF exchanged WLVM (formerly WABB Mobile, Alabama) with Cumulus Media, for Classic Hits WRQQ Nashville (a major hub for the Christian music community and where the majority of labels originate from). EMF changed WRQQ's call sign to WLVU, which now broadcasts K-Love programming.[43][44] McDowell's K-Love NASCAR car In July 2010, K-Love began sponsoring MacDonald Motorsports' #81 car and Michael McDowell in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.[45] Then in March 2012, K-Love announced it would be the primary sponsor of Tony Pedregon's Funny Car for 12 of the final 20 races of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season.[46] In February 2013, K-Love announced the inaugural K-LOVE Fan Awards, a listener-voted awards show for contemporary Christian musicians held in Nashville. The inaugural ceremony was held in June 2013, and hosted by Phil, Kay, Jasie, and Missy Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame.[47] In July 2011, K-Love made changes to its on-air staff: Amanda Carroll joined the team in the mid-morning time slot,[48] and the network announced that Lisa Williams and Eric Allen would no longer be hosting the K-Love Morning Show.[49] JD Chandler took their place until the K-Love Morning Show with Craig, Amy, and Kankelfritz acquired the spot in November 2011.[50] In December 2013, K-Love presented a Christmas music special for the cable network Up, K-Love Music City Christmas. The special was hosted by Candace Cameron Bure, and featured performances of Christmas-themed music by various contemporary Christian musicians.[51] Also around that time, K-Love slightly retooled its CCM format to be adult contemporary-oriented while its counterpart Air1 gradually reformatted from Christian rock to CCM themselves. K-Love also operated an online radio stream, K-LOVE France which aired a mix of English and French Christian music until May 2017 [52] when EMF transferred all operations of K-LOVE France to French entity, Radio Gospel. In mid 2018, K-Love introduced a new format that started as online only, airing Christian music from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. This 'Christian Oldies' format, branded as K-Love Classics soon moved to FM and was first heard on 88.1 WAIW in Chicago.[53] The station airs music by artists such as Bryan Duncan, Nicole Nordeman, Keith Green, Point of Grace, Steven Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant, and The Imperials. List of stations [ edit ] Ministry [ edit ] K-Love has a full-time ministry team that processes over 100 phone calls a day from listeners seeking guidance. According to the ministry, the pastors and staff at K-Love pray for over 1,000 prayer requests every day, and on average, intervene in one suicide case per day.[54][55] Requests are submitted online or over the phone.[56] K-Love also partners with other ministries and donates air time and web site space to these ministries. Some of the ministries have included International Cooperating Ministries, Compassion International, Food For The Hungry, Teen Challenge, Cure International and Faith Comes By Hearing.[57] Awards and nominations [ edit ] Christian Music Broadcasters Echo Awards [ edit ] Year Category Nominee(s) Result 2007 Air Personality of the Year (Markets 1-25 & Networks)[58] David Pierce (K-LOVE) Nominated Jon & Sherry Rivers (K-LOVE) Nominated Industry Impact[58] EMF (K-LOVE & Air1) Nominated Music Director of the Year (Markets 1-25 & Networks)[58] Jon Rivers (K-LOVE) Nominated Program Director of the Year (Markets 1-25 & Networks)[58] David Pierce (K-LOVE) Nominated 2011 Promotions Director of the Year[59] Mike Tedesco (K-LOVE & Air1) Won 2013 Station of the Year - Major Market[60] K-LOVE Won National Religious Broadcasters Awards [ edit ] Year Category Nominee(s) Result 2013 Billy Graham Award for Excellence in Christian Communications[61] K-LOVE & Air1 Won Best Christian Workplaces [ edit ] Year Category Nominee(s) Result 2004 Media[62] EMF (K-LOVE & Air1) Won 2006 Media (100+ Employees)[63] EMF (K-LOVE & Air1) Won 2007 Media (100+ Employees)[64] EMF (K-LOVE & Air1) Won Finances [ edit ] K-Love is governed by the Educational Media Foundation, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit ministry. No individual owns any stock in the corporation, which is held for charitable purposes. Members of the Board of Directors at large serve without compensation for rotating four-year terms, and a person with supervisory accounting experience holds one of the board positions.[65] K-Love stations are licensed as non-commercial educational stations; therefore, most of K-Love's funding is provided by donations. The majority of donations are made during seasonal pledge drives, usually held in the spring and in the fall.[54] In addition, EMF is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Founded by Billy Graham, the ECFA oversees EMF's financial affairs, ethics and reporting standards.[65] EMF is recognized by Charity Navigator with a Four-Star rating, the highest given to charities.[66] In addition, EMF is audited yearly by an independent accounting firm, ensuring accuracy and completeness of its books and records.[65] Charity Navigator reported K-LOVE's CEO Mike Novak makes $463,420, including bonuses, as of 2010.[67] See also [ edit ] |
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said the nomination of Rod J. Rosenstein as deputy attorney general will not be scheduled to move out of his committee until the Senate Judiciary Committee gets an FBI briefing on Russia. (Photo by Rachel Mummey for The Washington Post) Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley said Tuesday he will hold up the deputy attorney general’s confirmation vote as collateral until FBI Director James B. Comey briefs his panel about investigations into alleged ties between the Trump administration and Russian officials. “I’m not going to schedule a hearing on the deputy attorney general until we get a briefing from Comey,” Grassley (R-Iowa) said Tuesday, even though, as he noted, “the Justice Department would like to get their deputy out of committee just as soon as they can.” Deputy attorney general nominee Rod J. Rosenstein had his confirmation hearing before the committee last week and is expected to earn enough votes to be confirmed on the Senate floor. But before his nomination can go to the full Senate for confirmation, the Judiciary Committee must schedule a meeting to approve his nomination. The schedule is at Grassley’s discretion. Grassley said he informed the Justice Department’s legislative affairs office last Thursday that he would not schedule the business meeting necessary to move Rosenstein’s nomination out of committee until the department scheduled Comey for a briefing with committee members. Grassley added that he had no preference for whether the briefing would be private or public, saying he would be satisfied with “whatever the law allows.” Rosenstein is a particularly critical figure as far as the Justice Department’s investigations into alleged Russian ties to the Trump team go. If confirmed, he would assume the attorney general’s responsibilities for any probe related to the Trump campaign, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself. The judiciary committee has taken a keen interest in the substance of those probes, with Grassley and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), formally requesting a briefing on related matters in mid-February, after the resignation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. But Grassley has been growing increasingly frustrated with the Justice Department for failing to send the FBI director to brief his committee on its investigations, or furnish the transcripts of Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Grassley complained last week that during a phone call between himself, Feinstein and Comey last Monday, Comey informed them he was still seeking clearance to brief the committee. Since then, Grassley has also given his blessing to the efforts by heads of the crime and terrorism subcommittee to solicit evidence from the Justice Department pertaining to President Trump’s charge that the Obama administration ordered wiretaps on him. But the committee has received none of what it asked for — nor any indication from the Justice Department about when a response might be coming. As the Judiciary Committee waits, Comey has been making trips to Capitol Hill to speak with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Gang of Eight — the party leaders and intelligence committee heads who receive the highest-level briefings. He is expected back on Capitol Hill next Monday to give public testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which is holding a public hearing on the allegations of Russian election meddling, as well as purported ties between Trump team members and the Kremlin, and the spate of recent leaks that has brought much of this information to light. On Monday, the Justice Department also communicated with the House Intelligence Committee to let its leaders know the department would need more time to furnish an answer to the request of Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and ranking Democrat Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) to provide evidence to back up Trump’s wiretapping claims. The letter from Nunes and Schiff was sent on the same day Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the chairman and ranking Democrat of the Judiciary Committee’s crime and terrorism subcommittee, first demanded a similar collection of “warrant applications and court orders … related to wiretaps of President Trump, the Trump Campaign, or Trump Tower.” The Judiciary Committee members have received no response, Graham said. “We have jurisdiction over the FBI. It wasn’t a complicated letter, so I expect some kind of reply,” Graham said Tuesday. “This is not an unreasonable request, it should be answered.” Graham said he didn’t know whether to direct his frustration at Comey or at the Justice Department. But he hinted that his frustrations were reaching a boiling point — noting that if, at any point, he feels the committee process is not working, he will resume his call for a special committee to investigate Russia-related allegations. |
I had this realization long ago that all new technologies seem to first surface as a lower-key version that exists mostly as a toy. If you think about the great innovations of our recent history, you may think of things like the internet, computers, or smart phones. But, before you could buy an iPad, you could buy touchscreen toys made for kids. Sure, they were low resolution and didn’t have very sophisticated software, but it was still a portable computer with a touchscreen OS running various apps. The personal computer itself was an innovation that sprung forth from the ashes of the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64, and those were just an evolution of pong. So in the beginning, the entire reason for the technology revolution, the modern personal computer, was born as a game. I’m not saying that the invention of pong is what enabled the computer revolution to happen. I think it would’ve happened regardless. But what’s interesting is that this great technology we have today gave us a hint that it was coming with the growth of digital arcade games in the late 70s. Apple was releasing the first personal computers right around this time. Most people didn’t know what a computer was needed for. However, everyone seemed to know what the arcades were for. Gaming is fun! There was a ton of exposure to computer technology through digital arcades. So when you’re sitting around thinking about what’s on the horizon in the technology field, consider looking at the new high-tech toys first. They may shed a shimmer of light on what someone else somewhere is using that same technology for. Browsing amazon, I can quickly find a few toys that may be hinting at greater things to come: Sifteo Cubes Intelligent Game System Sphero iOS and Android controlled ball with 20+ Apps for gameplay I leave you with this snippet from Paul Graham’s post about ideation: “Just as trying to think up startup ideas tends to produce bad ones, working on things that could be dismissed as “toys” often produces good ones. When something is described as a toy, that means it has everything an idea needs except being important. It’s cool; users love it; it just doesn’t matter. But if you’re living in the future and you build something cool that users love, it may matter more than outsiders think. Microcomputers seemed like toys when Apple and Microsoft started working on them. I’m old enough to remember that era; the usual term for people with their own microcomputers was “hobbyists.” BackRub seemed like an inconsequential science project. The Facebook was just a way for undergrads to stalk one another.” http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html Did this tutorial help you? Support my Patreon Your support on Patreon allows me to make better tutorials more often. |
Legions of Santas are currently perched in malls all over the country, waiting for your children to climb atop their laps and whisper to them their most secret desires. The Mall Santa thing has to be one of the creepiest traditions we have, and yet it seems like it will never die -- and as a result, a lot of people out there in internetland have embarrassing pictures of themselves as kids posed with Santa, and sites like sketchysantas are there to redistribute the most humiliating of those memories for the rest of us to enjoy. This first creepy Santa is a vintage found photograph owned by collector Albert Tanquero, who has an amazing array of vernacular/found photos on his Flickr page. It's easily the scariest picture of Santa I've ever seen, if not one of the creepiest photos I've ever come across, right down to the taxidermied donkey. The following Santas were found in the voluminous archives of sketchysantas: Santa should at least try and look like he's having fun, right? Santa's about to have a complete mental breakdown. He's got the crazy-eye, as they say. How can she be so calm with this leering maniac's arm around her? Note to Santas everywhere: masks are scary. If you look so unlike Santa Claus that you must make use of a mask to sustain the illusion, you might consider another line of work. Santa looks like death warmed over. I think Santa and his lap-dweller might be the same age. So much gone horribly awry here ... Santa's got a Percodan addiction. 80s glasses look weird on Santa. Also, Santa looks a little like Mark Borchardt from American Movie (then again, maybe it's just the 80s glasses). Merry Christmas, people! |
by Adnan Tabatabai Several developments and incidents in the past three decades have led to a deep rift between Tehran and Riyadh. This rivalry has mounted into antagonism. Today, the possible breakthrough in the decade-long dispute over Iran’s nuclear program has caused anxiety in the Saudi kingdom. Observers and experts alike maintain that a comprehensive nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 (the US, Britain, France, China, and Russia plus Germany) — and US-Iran rapprochement in particular — would critically undermine Saudi Arabia’s interests. But this conventional wisdom overlooks important recent developments. Iran now capable of bold diplomacy The new administration in Tehran is both willing and able to adopt bold steps in foreign relations. While the self-perception of being a or the regional power is as well-defined now as it was under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a new approach is now in place. The strategy is no longer to confront, provoke and humiliate competitors and to proclaim strength through isolation, but to seek cooperation through a reconciliatory approach leading to the creation of “win-win solutions,” to use the language of President Hassan Rouhani. This political mindset is being promoted by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. His foreign policy approach is based on both a strong popular mandate as well as the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Indeed, whenever Zarif’s critics at home have become too outspoken, Khamenei has supported Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, calling them, for example, “soldiers of the revolution”. This enables the Rouhani government to define ambitious foreign policy goals. Saudi Arabia in a state of weakness In contrast to Iran’s relative stability following the exit of Ahmadinejad, the Saudi ruling elite is going through a critical evolutionary process and is, therefore, situated in a state of confusion and weakness. The urgent question of succession has already led King Abdullah to circumvent the prerogative of the 34-membered Allegiance Council and designate the 68-year-old Prince Muqrin bin Abdelaziz as deputy crown prince and possible future king. Yet some doubt whether Muqrin is capable of steering the kingdom through the challenges ahead. The removal of Prince Bandar bin Sultan as intelligence chief has been of similar significance. Iranian officials welcomed this move and read it as a sign of failed Saudi strategies particularly in Syria. With Prince Mohammed Nayef taking over the Syrian file, a possible shift in Saudi Arabia’s Syria policy seems possible. Recent reports of Saudi-US cooperation to provide advanced anti-tank missiles to Syrian rebels, however, show that this possible shift may still divert significantly from Tehran’s position. The kingdom will nevertheless have to pinpoint its alliances. The current rift with Qatar may indicate disintegrative processes in the Gulf. Former Assistant Secretary General for the Shura Council in Oman, Ahmad Ali M. al-Mukhaini, has been supportive of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) seeking multi-level arrangements with Iran. He has even written: “We need to have a counterweight to Saudi Arabia along commercial, energy and security lines. Would this be a role for Iran? The answer is yes.” Furthermore, the Arab Youth Survey 2014 has shown that the population of the Gulf sees regional neighbours as their biggest allies. Even polls from 2011, when the provocative Ahmadinejad was still president, also show that despite anti-Iran rhetoric by Gulf monarchy leaders, Iran came third (18%) by a large margin after Israel (71%) and the US (59%) when respondents were asked which country poses the biggest threat to regional stability. The Saudi kingdom might, therefore, be aware of the dangers of solely relying on its Western allies or exploring cooperation with Israel. In short, seeking cooperation with Iran may, after all, be less costly. Iran’s track record of good relations Many of President Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet members were ministers, deputies or advisors during the presidencies of Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani (1989-97) and Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005). Throughout those years, and particularly the 90s, Iran-Saudi relations improved before reaching a new low under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13). Iran’s Islamic revolution of 1979 and its expansionist ambitions caused grave concern in the Gulf region over the threat of possible Shia uprisings. The revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini angered the Saudis by calling monarchies “un-Islamic” governments. Saudi Arabia’s desire to counter and contain revolutionary Iran also resulted in Saudi support for Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war. After a decade of open hostility, tensions cooled down during the presidencies of Rafsanjani and Khatami. Strategic and economic cooperation took shape, some of which even lasted until the early years of Ahmadinejad. But the latter’s increasingly radical rhetoric, his close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG), and Iran’s growing influence particularly in Iraq and Lebanon through the IRGC infuriated the Saudi kingdom, even to a point of supporting military action against Iran to halt its nuclear program. For months, there has been talk of an Iranian high-rank delegation visit to Saudi Arabia, but it has not yet happened. Meanwhile at numerous speeches and interviews, Zarif has stressed the need to “build networks, not blocs” to tackle the many challenges the region faces. He has also repeatedly reached out to Riyadh. An Iran-Saudi rapprochement would immediately ease the proxification of the many fragile contexts of the region ranging from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon and Pakistan. The respective strategic interests must be settled; the rhetoric that accentuates the sectarian divide — a discourse that has created dangerous realities on the ground in terms of identity politics particularly in Iraq and Syria – must be halted. Saudi Arabia’s opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood, the recent decree by the King to criminalize “home-made” jihadists who fight in Syria, and tensions with Qatar regarding these issues indicate the the kingdom is trying to come to terms with Sunni extremism beyond its control. Rapprochement with Iran would, at least, minimize the dangers coming from the Shia fronts and, potentially, even lead to joint efforts to tame militant jihadist forces. How the US can help It’s time to convey the idea that Middle East powers must shape the future of their own neighbourhood — an idea that was chanted by protesters throughout the region during the wave of Arab uprisings that began in 2011. A gradual withdrawal of the US presence would encourage and strengthen a sense of ownership and shared responsibilities. Asked about the major objective for the US to support Iran-Saudi rapprochement, Gary Sick, who served as an Iran specialist on the National Security Council staff under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan told LobeLog: “Ideally, what the United States would want — and what every other responsible power with interests in the region should want — is for both of these key players to focus their efforts on resolving regional disputes.” “That means that Iran needs to visibly temper its involvement with proxy forces and to actively seek rapprochement with the GCC states. Similarly, Saudi Arabia needs to turn away from its recent excursions into self-defeating and even irrational policies and return to the more cautious and pragmatic policies that have served it so well since its inception,” said Sick, now a professor at Columbia University in New York. “Admittedly, that is asking a lot, and I doubt that it will happen overnight. Still, it describes approximately the strategic relationships that existed in the Persian Gulf in the mid-1970s and again in the early 1990s,” he said. In order to minimize Saudi scepticism, “the United States and its allies need to bring Saudi Arabia more into the actual decision-making process on regional affairs while providing constant and persuasive reassurance of sensitivity to Saudi interests,” he said. Considering the regional policies of the Rouhani government, it is plausible to assume that any opening signals from Riyadh will be echoed in Tehran. Photo: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) meets with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah ibn Abdel Aziz, 09 December in Tehran, on the sidelines of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit. Credit:AFP/Getty Images |
“Justice League,” the DC Comics superhero movie reaching theaters Friday, Nov. 17, is less about justice, per se, than about self-sacrifice, teamwork and finding a way to go on in the face of death. And not just the death of Superman, who purportedly perished in last year’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” but that of a 20-year-old college student named Autumn Snyder — a daughter of director and co-writer Zack Snyder. After her passing in March, Snyder threw himself back into work in what he later called “a cathartic thing . . . to just bury myself and see if that was the way through it.” It wasn’t. After two months, he withdrew and asked filmmaker Joss Whedon — whom he’d already had helping rewrite some scenes in this all-star story of Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), the Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) defending Earth against alien warlord Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) — to direct the final reshoots and bring the movie home. “Zack made the effort to call everyone specifically,” Fisher recalls. “It was terrible news to get, but Zack said that he was having to step away, understandably so, to deal with family issues. I can’t imagine how tough it was for him.” When shooting resumed, Fisher said, the set felt “just different. But it was very much that sense of let’s get it done, let’s get it done for Zack, let’s get it done for the fans, let’s get it done for the people who need and want this film.” “I heard about it fairly soon after the event,” Charles Roven, a producer of DC’s films going back to “Batman Begins” (2005), says gingerly. “It was absolutely devastating emotionally. And in true Zack and Debbie style,” he says, referring to fellow producer Deborah Snyder, Zack’s wife and Autumn’s stepmother, “they took the time to grieve and then went back to stay the course.” When they no longer could, “Everybody completely understood.” With Whedon — who wrote and directed Marvel’s two Avengers movies before decamping to DC to develop a Batgirl film — already working on “Justice League,” he was, says Roven, “the natural individual to go to, to see if he were willing to step in and finish the movie.” Whedon “actually wrote us all a really nice letter,” Fisher says, “introducing himself and just giving us the tidbits that he was thinking of and explaining the situation for all of us.” His arrival led many to wonder if Whedon’s trademark wit and humanism would lighten what Variety has called “DC’s house style of grim darkness.” Roven and Affleck have acknowledged that reviews of “Man of Steel” (2013) and “Batman v Superman” often described those hit films as dark and dour, and when director Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” this year pleased audiences and critics alike with its more positive and hopeful storytelling, Whedon’s late stewardship of “Justice League” suggested the film might go more in that direction. “I really don’t know how to break down the scenes that [Joss] wrote with Zack versus the scenes that he wrote later,” Roven says. “If you take ‘Man of Steel,’ ‘Batman v Superman’ and ‘Justice League’ as a trilogy — they were all directed by Zack, with the third one having some influence by Joss — I would say this is the lightest of the three. That doesn’t mean it’s a comedy!” Trust us — nobody will think that. Industry estimates project a $110 million to $120 million domestic opening weekend, comparable to the $121 million made by Marvel’s “Thor: Ragnarok” when it arrived earlier this month. But for Roven — who was age 10 when the Justice League of America debuted with a slightly different lineup in “The Brave and the Bold” #28 (cover-dated March 1960, on sale Dec. 29, 1959) — the movie actually seems to be about more than the millions it will make. The millions are important, obviously, but the longtime Hollywood heavyweight — who in an interview has been cordial but controlled, sharing a chuckle occasionally but instinctively watchful of words — appears to let his guard down when his mind goes back to those Silver Age days. Sign up for Newsday's Entertainment newsletter Get the latest on celebs, TV and more. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. “Oh, yeah!” he says, suddenly lighting up. As a kid in those much more casual times, “I’d go to the neighborhood liquor store and buy ‘Action Comics’ and ‘Detective Comics,’ and when I read my first Justice League comic I was completely flipped out and thrilled!” If “Justice League” makes audiences flipped out and thrilled, it will have done its job. |
Senate Republican leaders visiting the White House on Tuesday told President Obama in blunt terms that there’s no chance his Supreme Court nominee will receive hearings this year. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Senate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE (R-Ky.) told Obama what he’s been telling reporters and constituents: that the next occupant of the Oval Office should be the one to fill the court vacancy. ADVERTISEMENT “I told the president what I’ve been saying for close to two weeks now,” McConnell said. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley Charles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyOvernight Health Care: Senators grill drug execs over high prices | Progressive Dems unveil Medicare for all bill | House Dems to subpoena Trump officials over family separations Senate confirms Trump court pick despite missing two 'blue slips' GOP lawmaker says panel to investigate drug company gaming of patent system MORE (R-Iowa) also attended the meeting, as did Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidSenate confirms Trump court pick despite missing two 'blue slips' Can Lindsey Graham take the politics out of judicial battles? Bottom Line MORE (D-Nev.), Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph LeahyDems introduce bills to restore Voting Rights Act provision Can Lindsey Graham take the politics out of judicial battles? Senate plots to avoid fall shutdown brawl MORE (D-Vt.) and Vice President Biden, who helmed the Judiciary panel during his Senate career. The meeting was brief, providing another sign that neither side is backing down in the partisan battle over replacing the late Justice Antonin Scalia. “We killed a lot of time talking about basketball,” Reid said. The White House and Senate Democrats have ratcheted up the pressure on Grassley in recent days in hopes that he might be shamed into holding hearings. The Iowa senator controls the committee that oversees Supreme Court nominations. But Grassley indicated he’s not going to budge. Instead, he offered a constitutional defense of the Senate’s decision to postpone the matter until 2017. “I said this is more basic than just the stuff we’ve been talking about. You have a certain view of the role of government. We have a different view of the role of government,” Grassley said, paraphrasing the conversation. Grassley argued that Obama’s aggressive use of executive authority makes it virtually impossible for Republicans to put another one of the president’s nominees on the court, likely tipping its ideological balance. “You believe you’ve got a pen and a phone and you can do certain things Congress won’t, and you’re looking for the court to back you up, and we just don’t agree with that,” he said. Reid had a blunter take. “They were adamant. They said, ‘No, we’re not going to do this at all,’ ” Reid told reporters on the West Wing driveway. “All we want them to do is to fulfill their constitutional duty, and at this stage, they are deciding not to do that,” he added. “They’re going to wait and see what 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 will do, I guess, as far as a nomination.” Tuesday’s sit-down discussion was the first in-person meeting among the leaders since Scalia’s death last month. The meeting lasted 35 to 40 minutes, according to Grassley. About half of it was devoted to the Supreme Court vacancy. The leaders also discussed criminal sentencing reform legislation, Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis and a bill now on the Senate floor intended to combat opioid abuse. Before he traveled along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, McConnell told House Republicans at their weekly meeting that he’s standing by his promise not to hold hearing or votes on an Obama nominee. Scalia was the leading conservative voice on the bench, and an Obama replacement could give liberals a five-vote majority. The president “made it very clear” in Tuesday’s meeting that he would consider any nominees recommended by McConnell and Grassley, according to Reid. But the GOP leaders did not offer up a list of names. Asked what leverage Democrats have to force a vote, Reid suggested they would continue to shame Republicans over their stance. “We have that nasty little Constitution, which says they are obligated to hold hearings and they are obligated to vote,” he said. “They swore to uphold the Constitution. They’re not doing that. They are walking away from that.” Reid added that Obama’s nominee “should be coming very quickly.” The Democratic leader last week attacked Grassley, saying he would be remembered as the most obstructionist Judiciary Committee chairman in history. When Grassley in turn accused Reid of throwing “childish tantrums,” Democrats pointed to that as evidence he was “feeling the heat.” But Grassley on Tuesday said the impasse over the court pales next to other controversies he’s weathered during his 35-year Senate career. “It just goes with the turf,” he said. “When you talk about heat, this is nothing compared to when you’re only one of two Republicans to vote against the Persian Gulf War.” Grassley said he also felt more heat from Democrats when Republicans were contemplating scrapping filibusters for judicial nominees in 2005. Democrats later did it themselves by invoking a controversial procedural tactic known as the nuclear option. Even as the court standoff persists, Obama is continuing to comb through materials about potential nominees. Senior adviser Brian Deese was tapped to lead the selection process on Monday, alongside White House counsel Neil Eggleston. The White House is working to show that it’s taking a serious and deliberate approach to picking a nominee, an effort to contrast with Republicans’ quick decision to block Obama. White House press secretary Josh Earnest indicated Obama did not expect the meeting Tuesday to change anyone’s mind. “The meeting was pretty straightforward,” he said. “No one represented that he was about to change his position.” But he stressed that Obama believes it’s his “responsibility to consult intensively with Congress before making a lifetime nomination to the Supreme Court.” “The president felt it was important, even in an election year, to continue that consultation.” Republicans, however, have been quick to note past comments and actions by the vice president and other Democrats that they say show there’s precedent for their decision. GOP leaders have frequently cited a 1992 floor speech by Biden, who said then-President George H.W. Bush should wait until after the fall elections to put forth a hypothetical nominee. “We will reiterate that the American people will have a voice in the vacancy on the Supreme Court as they choose the next president, who in turn will nominate the next Supreme Court justice,” McConnell said early Tuesday on the Senate floor. “We will observe the ‘Biden Rule.’ ” Obama and his allies are hopeful that Senate Republicans will back off their stance under pressure from politically vulnerable senators who are facing scrutiny at home. Grassley himself faces reelection in November and is expected to cruise to victory. But former Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge (D) announced last week she is considering challenging the longtime senator, a sign his Supreme Court stance could cause political difficulties in his home state. That argument could be amplified if Donald Trump emerges as the Republican Party’s likely presidential nominee after the Super Tuesday contests. “Kind of amusing, the GOP is making their vulnerable incumbent senators walk a plank on SCOTUS in the hope that Trump might get to pick,” tweeted former Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer. — Updated at 5:29 p.m. |
If you’ve got a new blog, you need to fill it up with lots of quality and unique content, but you also need to let other people (and the search engines) know that it even exists. If you have a great blog that people will be genuinely interested in, here are three quick and fast ways to get the word out there. Add your Feed to RSS Aggregators Public RSS aggregators will take your website’s feed and republish it in a place where people and bots can find it. The downside is that there’s a potential for duplicate content issues – especially since you’re blog domain is new and unestablished in the eyes of the search engines. Minimize your feed’s output: Adjust Feed settings to show only content excerpts Only submit to RSS directories that do not use “nofollow” on feed links use “nofollow” on feed links Only submit after your blog has been initially indexed by at least Google Recommended Feed Aggregators: FeedAgg.com Feedage.com MillionRSS.com STAY AWAY FROM FEEDFURY – This site is basically a scraper that will take your Feed and claim it as their own by putting nofollow on it. They have no contact information and there’s no way to remove a feed once it is submitted to them! If you submit a new website’s feed to this shady directory, they will probably end up ranking higher than you for your own content. Join Social Bookmarking Websites In theory, social bookmarking websites help get good content noticed because users can vote on what they like in order to send it to the top pages with heavy traffic. Even better, popular links end up generating a lot of link juice and pagerank. Here are some great social bookmarking sites that can help you get some backlinks and human eyes on your work: Digg Reddit Propeller DropJack Furl.net Folkd Users prefer it if you link to actual stories rather than front pages or categories. To have the best success, you should spend some time reading and getting to know what topics the users of the bookmarking site are most interested in. Comment on Related Blogs When you’re promoting a new website, it doesn’t even matter if the blogs you are commenting on are nofollow. Post with your name and a link, and try to add comments that are useful and interesting. By posting on related blogs you respect, you’re also introducing yourself to the webmaster(s) there and inviting them to see if they’re interested in your new project. Don’t think of other bloggers as competition – you have to start thinking of them as peers and experts in a network that you want to be a part of. These few steps probably won’t put you at the top of the search engine rankings, but they will help you establish a base that makes it harder for other scraper sites to claim credit for your work and it will help some actual humans aware of your new website. |
Hullabaloo Wednesday, January 16, 2008 They've Really Come Full Circle by dday I'm sitting here watching the Tweety Show and in between plugs for his Tonight Show appearance, he's brought on Stephen A. Smith. Who is a sportswriter. Not someone who used to be a sportswriter who writes news columns, but a sportswriter (actually the Philly Inquirer cancelled his column last year). Tweety brought on his guests as Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, Margaret Carlson of Time Magazine, and Stephen A. Smith of ESPN. Without a hint of irony. Now, there's nothing wrong with someone who isn't a member of the political media holding a political opinion (for example, er, me), or even espousing that opinion on television. However, take a look at Stephen A.'s "comment" about last night's Democratic debate: SMITH: I was totally bored, Chris, I was totally bored and I was disgusted. I thought Barack Obama took a significant step back. I think the race issue, the fact that he was being turned into the black candidate, per se, I think really affected him, and I think it showed. I thought he was entirely too deferential last night, deferring to Hillary Clinton on a number of occasions. He didn't seem to be himself. And the reason why it was even more conspicuous is that he had been gaining momentum over the last few weeks or so. You know, winning the Iowa caucuses, coming in second in New Hampshire, really making a statement that he was going to make a run for the Presidency. I thought that the momentum was favoring him tremendously, and he took a significant step back. Because I think that he was looking at his own community looking at him, and he started wondering about himself. And we saw some trepidation on his part for the first time. MATTHEWS: That's interesting. Interesting assessment. Now, I've seen enough editions of SportsCenter in my lifetime to know that you could have easily replaced Barack Obama's name with Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan or any other young phenom, and the above paragraph would have made the same amount of sense. Over the last few weeks, politics has devolved into the same subject matter as sports talk radio. And so a discussion between three individuals who want to lead the United States for the next four years is "boring" and devolves into freshman-year psychobabble about how one guy deferred to someone else and there weren't any "fireworks" and the momentum stalled and it's enough to make you "disgusted." I have never seen Stephen A. utter a political thought on television in his entire life, but he fit right in because the analysis has sunk to the level of sports talk, not because he elevated anything on his own. Watch the sports metaphors fly in the segment right before his: MATTHEWS: Dana, it seems to me that if they return to their corners , as they say in boxing, there's no fight going on. And if they are in their corners, each in their separate corner, why would anything change except Hillary leading out here in California by about 20 points and on to Super Tuesday where she takes it home to the bank? MILBANK: Yes, conceivably that's how it could happen. I don't see how a debate in which they aren't sparring is going to be exciting to the voters or allow either of them to get any momentum whatsoever. I mean, I'm not sure, maybe they do care about Yucca Mountain out there in Nevada, but I think they do want to see these guys mixing it up . We want to see that kind of fratricidal battles going on on the Republican side. MATTHEWS: (overtalk, mumbling something incoherent about Dr. Strangelove) What do you call, bodily fluids... What are they talking, Yucca Flats, Yucca Mountain, What are they talking about? It's impossible to tell the sportswriter from the political reporter here. And yes, what the hell are those candidates talking about? Yucca Mountain? The safe and proper storage of nuclear waste? Who cares? Yell at each other about how the black guy did coke and the woman's a ball-buster! Throw a chair! Mix it up! Is it any wonder that, in the world of political broadcast media, the one man who smokes everybody else was seen as one of the more thoughtful and intellectual sportscasters at ESPN? The debate in this country is so dumbed-down that Stephen A. Smith's presence on Hardball actually represents a step up. At least he's used to ascribing emotional significance to performance in the field of play, in using the events as a metaphor, as sportswriters so often do. He doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, but that doesn't really put him out of place, either. The reason those comments over race got more attention than, say, the candidates' competing economic stimulus packages is that the traditional media doesn't really want to understand them. They'll hide behind the argument that nuts and bolts issues don't post big ratings, but really, they don't have the expertise to engage them. More often it's rollodex analysis, where men and women from think tanks, almost all of them either center-right or certified wingnut, and all with very defined and specific agendas, are brought in to opine without resistance, when these shows pay any lip service to the issues at all. This is nothing new. I was reminded of this moment today. KING: Okay. Were you impressed with this “fuzzy [math],” top 1 percent, 1.3 trillion, 1.9 trillion bit? KOPPEL: You know, honestly, it turns my brains to mush. I can’t pretend for a minute that I’m really able to follow the argument of the debates. Parts of it, yes. Parts of it, I haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. And Ted Koppel is arguably one of the most serious journalists on television. Identity and personality is how we've been picking Presidents for a long time. Sometimes it works, sometimes you get George Bush. But I can't help but think that the malaise we all feel is part and parcel of a press corps that refuses to take serious matters seriously. They can't conceive of the real-world consequences behind numbers and facts and reality, preferring to discuss elections with the depth and penetrating insight of a Sweet Valley High novel or the local high school basketball game (an epic battle where two sides will mix it up!). So many of us are starving for a process that recognizes how much this all matters, how it's not a game played for the benefit of court jesters in ill-fitting suits, how the goal is not conflict, like a televised drama, but progress, which is too difficult for them to contemplate. . dday 1/16/2008 02:53:00 PM |
Bengals CB William Jackson has been dominant against top opponents By Austin Gayle • Dec 1, 2017 Bouncing back from a torn pectoral injury that cost him his entire rookie campaign, Cincinnati Bengals cornerback William Jackson III has returned to his formerly dominant self to anchor the Bengals secondary. But this should come as no surprise. The former first-round pick (No. 24 overall in 2016) drew high praise coming out the University of Houston and fortunately for Jackson and Bengals’ fans, his injury a year ago hasn’t prevented him from tapping into his collegiate success in Cincinnati. Now 12 weeks into the season, Jackson ranks third in yards allowed per coverage snap (0.67), second in passer rating allowed (41.4) and fifth in coverage snaps per reception allowed (17.8) among cornerbacks with 130-plus coverage snaps. Additionally, he is one of just 14 NFL cornerbacks who have logged at least 200 snaps in coverage and to not have allowed a touchdown all season. He currently holds the league’s 24th-highest grade among all cornerbacks with an 82.3 overall grade. Adding even more legitimacy to his outstanding efforts, Jackson has played a significant amount of his coverage snaps along the boundary against some of the league’s best wide receivers. Of his 214 coverage snaps, only nine have come in the slot, where he has allowed just one reception for one yard on one target. Jackson has earned significant snaps against four different receivers who currently own overall grades above 73.0 in the nine games he’s played this season, squaring off against Antonio Brown (93.9 – first), Davante Adams (79.8 – 24th), T.Y. Hilton (76.4 – 38th) and Marqise Lee (73.9 – 50th). This normally-dominant group of four, however, combined for just two receptions for 42 yards (seven targets) when Jackson was the primary coverage defender. Of the four, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Brown stands out as not only the top graded receiver this season, but the highest graded Jackson has faced all season, as the savvy Steelers superstar currently leads all wide receivers in overall grade (93.9) and ranks second in yards per route run (2.91). However, Brown had no such success in his duel with Jackson in Week 7. Targeted four times with Jackson as the primary coverage defender, Brown recorded zero receptions, while the Bengals’ budding star logged two passes defensed. As anticipation builds for Round 2 of the Brown-Jackson bout on Monday night, a few other high-profile wide receivers are also in line to go toe-to-toe with Cincinnati’s top cornerback over the final stretch of the season. With the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings – both of whom boast dynamic duos at the wide receiver position – on the schedule Weeks 15 and 16, Jackson will have his fair share of opportunities to solidify his stardom with strong performances in the two tilts. Playing just over 80 percent of his snaps in the slot, Lions’ Golden Tate (84.5) should only see a few snaps opposite of Jackson while Marvin Jones Jr. (82.6) takes a better look from him outside the numbers. Similarly, Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen (86.9) plays just over half of his snaps in the slot, meaning Stefon Diggs (83.3) should see the most of Jackson between the two. Regardless of how he fares in what is ought to be a labor-intensive finish to his sophomore season, Jackson’s impressive start speaks volumes to his potential at the cornerback position. Of course, the competitor in Jackson won’t have him taking the field against some of the league’s best solely for experience. |
With the abundance of new albums that are released these days, it is hard to get too enthusiastic over one release. It is uncommon to achieve the kind of anticipation that there used to be when a new cd was due to come out and few artists are able to generate such excitement. Within the Prog genre, Dream Theater are one of those bands, and with their upcoming new album, they have certainly set the Prog world on its collective ears. Few bands in the Prog genre have been able to sustain the career that Dream Theater has. In fact, over the last 10 years their popularity has continued to grow. There have been larger tours, top 10 albums and even Grammy nominations. Now, 6 years removed from the departure of founding member and original drummer, Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater step up to the plate with their most ambitious studio effort in their almost 30 year existence, the 2-disc rock opera, ‘The Astonishing’, due out on January 29th. The band has slowly been revealing information over the last couple of months about the story and characters helping to build the intrigue about the album. They have also announced tour dates in which they will be performing this rock opera in its entirety. It has been slightly over two years since Dream Theater released their self-titled album, one of the more successful albums of the band’s illustrious career. However, while indeed “astonishing,” this new project might stand to be its most polarizing to date. Already billed as a rock opera, the expectation, from what they have been revealing, is for something along the lines of their previous concept album Scenes From A Memory (highly regarded as their pinnacle) meets Tommy, The Wall, or Operation Mindcrime. All of these are timeless, epic, concept albums which set the bar unreachably high. Yet, Dream Theater almost pull it off. Let’s be clear; this is an incredible achievement. The scope of this album is something to behold. Very few bands could produce such an album. The production, orchestration, and musicality are all top notch, and it is epic beyond epic. On the surface, it is everything a Dream Theater fan should treasure. However, with all its wonders, for some it might simply be too much and too long. With 34 tracks spread out over 2 discs and over 2 hours of music, it is a lot to absorb and impossible to do in one or even a handful of listens. John Petrucci’s story and concept is not for the faint-hearted, ADD, casual listener. The story is about a future land in which music is only done by machines as controlled by the empire; however, a small band of rebels hold onto and fight for the hope of true music. The story is complex and there are a number of characters. Labrie does the brunt of the work here, singing the parts of all the characters, tackling the different styles and ranges in his most accomplished recording. As mood and themes are introduced, there is a familiar atmosphere a la Six Degrees. The production is signature Dream Theater as carried out once again by Petrucci. Sonically, Rudess seems to be most up front on this album. There is an abundant use of pianos, strings and weird sounds. There are the usual instrumental surgical chops the DT community expects, and the cooperative soloing efforts of Rudess and Petrucci are as assimilated to each other as ever. The guitar solos have a great mix of virtuoso chops and melodic maturity and beauty. John Myung and Mike Mangini continue to provide the solid foundation which allows LaBrie, Petrucci, and Rudess to shine, although, missing is the overall playing creativity and interaction of drums and bass—perhaps this is necessary when delivering such a long and epic production. This album might not be what every Dream Theater fan is used to getting from the group. It takes several patient listens from beginning to end to come to grips with the entirety of the music. There is excellent music; however, complete songs are largely absent here. It is not an album where it is easy to pick out 3-4 songs you can listen to repeatedly at first. The case for the 34 songs is defended by a significant amount of transitions and filler material for the purposes of theatrical continuity; however, the songs have a tendency of becoming homogenous as the music progresses the story onward. As in any musical or Broadway play, there are repeated themes, altered by various characters and tempos throughout. In a theater setting, this is necessary. But listening while driving or working on a computer without total focus, the effect this is meant to achieve instead often results in, “haven’t I heard this part before?” Maybe this says more about the lack of attention span this current generation is afflicted with. A shorter, more condensed collection could have resulted in an even better musically intense experience and historically rank higher among DT enthusiasts (see suggested playlist below). There are moments where the band is at its Prog best and there are a number of tracks that indeed are memorable. The album’s first single and main opening track, “The Gift of Music” is replete with virtuosity and melody, and does a nice job setting the tone. One of the best tracks “A Life Left Behind” kicks off with a brilliant acoustic piece by Petrucci before jumping into a nice jazz motif seemingly lifted from a Rudess solo album. The hook in the chorus here is the best on the album. “Chosen” is one of the more outstanding power ballads the band has ever written and is one of those repeated melodies that appears throughout the album. It should be the audience cellphone lighting moment of the show. “A New Beginning” is the first disc’s most metal track and the long extended guitar solo here is one of Petrucci’s best on the disc, exuding loads of bluesy improvisation. Disc 2 kicks off with the rocking “Moment of Betrayal” which is destined to be the song most Dream Theater diehards will pick as their favorite. Much of the rest of disc 2 is tasked with moving the story along. There are few fully fleshed out songs, rather more parts that lead into other parts, outside of “Our New World” which is ready for radio single treatment. All this leads up to the epic closing title track which brings everything to a climactic ending. Part of the curse of being a long time top band is the burden and pressure of living up to the expectation of their own past masterpieces. Not only have DT set the bar at its highest level with their past classics, other bands have raised their level of musicality as well. Dream Theater’s efforts with ‘The Astonishing’ should be appreciated and admired as they continue to push themselves to try to be beyond what they have done in the past. Their desire to perform the album live in its entirety should turn out to be a worthwhile experience. While not a perfect album and not their best work, it is a worthy addition to an already “astonishing” catalog, even though it will take some real investment of your time. Released on January 29th, 2016 on Roadrunner Records Key Tracks: A Life Left Behind, A New Beginning, Moment of Betrayal, Our New World Full Tracklisting: Act I 1. “Descent of the NOMACS” 1:11 2. “Dystopian Overture” 4:51 3. “The Gift of Music” 4:00 4. “The Answer” 1:53 5. “A Better Life” 4:39 6. “Lord Nafaryus” 3:28 7. “A Savior in the Square” 4:14 8. “When Your Time Has Come” 4:19 9. “Act of Faythe” 5:01 10. “Three Days” 3:44 11. “The Hovering Sojourn” 0:28 12. “Brother, Can You Hear Me?” 5:11 13. “A Life Left Behind” 5:49 14. “Ravenskill” 6:01 15. “Chosen” 4:32 16. “A Tempting Offer” 4:20 17. “Digital Discord” 0:48 18. “The X Aspect” 4:13 19. “A New Beginning” 7:41 20. “The Road to Revolution” 3:35 Act II 1. “2285 Entr’acte” 2:20 2. “Moment of Betrayal” 6:12 3. “Heaven’s Cove” 4:20 4. “Begin Again” 3:54 5. “The Path That Divides” 5:10 6. “Machine Chatter” 1:03 7. “The Walking Shadow” 2:58 8. “My Last Farewell” 3:44 9. “Losing Faythe” 4:13 10. “Whispers on the Wind” 1:37 11. “Hymn of a Thousand Voices” 3:39 12. “Our New World” 4:12 13. “Power Down” 1:25 14. “Astonishing” 5:51 Suggested Playlist: 1. “Dystopian Overture” 4:51 2. “The Gift of Music” 4:00 3. “A Better Life” 4:39 4. “A Savior in the Square” 4:14 5. “When Your Time Has Come” 4:19 6. “A Life Left Behind” 5:49 7. “Chosen” 4:32 8. “A New Beginning” 7:41 9. “Moment of Betrayal” 6:12 10. “Begin Again” 3:54 11. “The Path That Divides” 5:10 12. “My Last Farewell” 3:44 13. “Losing Faythe” 4:13 14. “Our New World” 4:12 15. “Astonishing” 5:51 |
The sea ice extent in the Arctic is at its lowest level ever for this time of year, according to the latest information from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The NSIDC reports that the recent ice loss rates have been 38,600 to 57,900 square miles -- more than double the climatological rate. "The main contributors to the unusually rapid ice loss to this point in June are the disappearance of most of the winter sea ice in the Bering Sea, rapid ice loss in the Barents and Kara Seas, and early development of open water areas in the Beaufort and Laptev Seas north of Alaska and Siberia," the NSIDC explains. The NSIDC further notes that the far north's snow cover is "nearly gone, earlier than normal, allowing the coastal land to warm faster." SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts In its most recent Arctic Report Card, the NOAA reported that changes to the Arctic had been "profound," and that with global warming projected to increase, "it is very likely that major Arctic changes will continue in years to come, with increasing climatic, biological and social impacts." * * * * * * |
The Making of a Farm Bill If you work on U.S. agricultural policy in Washington, D.C. for a long enough period, you learn two important rules of thumb. Rule No. 1: once a new farm bill is done, the House and Senate Agriculture Committees will strongly resist any legislative changes to it, claiming it would jeopardize the bill’s delicate balance to ‘re-open it.’ Rule No. 2: as soon as that farm bill is fully implemented—if not sooner—stakeholder groups will start thinking about what changes they might like to be made the next time. Because of the first rule, over time the groups have learned they need to squirrel away their new policy ideas until the Committees commence their consideration of the new farm bill. Typically, that window opens around two years before the existing farm bill expires. The Agricultural Act of 2014 expires on September 30, 2018. Even though recent farm bills have included between 10 to 15 separate titles, most of the public attention—both positive and negative—has focused on the titles which authorize and fund the programs which make up the farm safety net—the Commodity Title, usually Title I, and the Crop Insurance Title, which is a relatively recent addition to the farm bill pantheon. Stakeholder groups are actively engaged in trying to influence the final outcome of the farm bill debate by offering various proposals, especially for these two titles. A Brief History of U.S. Farm Bills The first farm bill, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, was enacted in 1933, in response to the economic hardships faced by U.S. farmers as a result of a pair of major catastrophes. The first was the Great Depression, which started after the U.S. stock market crashed in 1929 and the resulting softening of aggregate demand accelerated a slide in commodity prices that had started in the previous decade. The second was the Dust Bowl, which started in 1931, with drought and persistently high winds which initially picked up topsoil throughout the Southern Plains states, leading to severe yield declines of 50% or more for wheat and corn crops in states like Oklahoma and Kansas. The Dust Bowl persisted for eight long years, driving as many as 3.5 million people to abandon their farms and move to other parts of the country. Due to the confluence of these two disasters, it is estimated that per-capita income for farmers was only one-third that of the rest of the U.S. population in the 1930s (Mercier). The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 was aimed at boosting farm income by reducing the amount of agricultural commodities produced for the U.S. market. It paid farmers to withhold some of their land from cultivation so as to increase the prices that would be received for the crops. Also, each farmer was given the option of receiving loans for his crops from the federal government based on the established loan rates, with the crop itself serving as collateral. At the end of the loan period, the farmer could either repay the loan or forfeit the crop to the government if prevailing crop prices had fallen below the cost of repayment. The bill was 54 pages long, and had only two titles, 'Agricultural Adjustment' which included the commodity programs described above, and 'Agricultural Credits'. In later farm bills, a focus on land set-asides for conservation purposes was incorporated in the legislation in the 1950's, with the establishment of the Soil Bank Program. In the 1973 Agricultural and Consumer Protection Act, the food stamp program was incorporated into a farm bill for the first time. This was the first farm bill to exceed 100 pages in length, coming in at 250 pages. The 1977 Act was the first that included a separate agricultural research title, although individual research provisions had appeared in earlier bills. The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 was the first to consolidate all commodity program provisions into one title—in previous bills, dairy, wool and mohair, wheat and feed grains, cotton, rice, peanuts, soybeans, sugar, and general commodity provisions all had their own titles (Schertz and Doering). The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 added an energy title, and the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 added separate crop insurance and horticultural crop titles. The addition of titles that incorporated new sets of policy issues over the years reflects two related phenomena: First, it reflects the recognition that farm policy needs to be about more than just producing more and more commodities, that is, the supply aspect. In order to balance the market, farm bills also need to address expanding or finding new outlets for the products, on the demand side. Second, it also reflects the fact that agricultural productivity gains and other socio-demographic factors over the decades increasingly had led to a shrinking of the area of the country where agriculture accounted for a significant share of economic activity. Consequently, in order to maintain political support for farm bills, more policy issues were pulled in to garner and maintain interest in the legislation by both rural and urban members of Congress. Since the first farm bill in 1933, there have been 16 more like it over the past eight plus decades, with a new one enacted every five years on average. The longest gap between two farm bills was nine years, between 1956 and 1965, and the shortest gap was one year, between 1948 and 1949. Most farm bill provisions are designed to expire at the end of a given bill, so as to give the House and Senate Agriculture Committees the impetus to re-examine the policies periodically in light of changes in market environments over the medium term. The Committees have also chosen to leave so-called permanent legislation, primarily the commodity provisions of the Agricultural Act of 1949, in place rather than repeal it, with their authority temporarily suspended for the term of that farm bill. This practice helps to create additional pressure to have a new farm bill in place when the old one expires, or at least be prepared to extend the old farm bill. If Congress failed to take either step, the programs from 1949 would kick back in. Those programs would support key commodities at prices from more than 100 years ago, adjusted for inflation. For example, the so-called parity price for corn as of January 2016 was $13 per bushel, while the U.S. market price was about $3.70 per bushel. Major Stakeholder Groups for the Commodity and Crop Insurance Titles There are different organizations representing the political interests of producers of nearly every major and minor crop and livestock type in this country, plus a couple of general farm organizations which represent broad cross-sections of producers. It is not uncommon for farmers to belong to more than one farm or commodity group at the same time. Chief among them in both numbers of farmers represented and in its ability to influence the farm bill process is the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). With organizations in every state—plus Puerto Rico—and in most of the nation's 3,007 counties, AFBF reported its membership at about 5.9 million as of 2015. In policy terms, AFBF is viewed as a relatively mainstream organization by U.S. farmers in most regions of the country, who tend to be politically conservative and vote Republican. An Agri-Pulse Farm and Rural Poll taken right before the 2012 general election found that 78% of farmers planned to vote for the Republican presidential candidate. The other main general farm organization, the National Farmers Union (NFU), is viewed as more politically liberal and has its core of support in a handful of Plains States such as North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado, and Montana, although it has members in 33 states. NFU was established in 1902, and AFBF in 1919. Table 1: Key Information on Major U.S. Farm and Commodity Groups 1NCC represents the entire cotton supply chain, not just growers. 2NMPF consists of member cooperatives, some of which cross state lines. Also influential in the Farm Bill process are the groups which represent producers of the row crops who receive the bulk of the benefits from the commodity and crop insurance titles. The largest groups—in terms of crop acreage harvested—include the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), the American Soybean Association (ASA), the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG), and the National Cotton Council (NCC) (Table 1). Within the livestock sector, only dairy farmers receive direct support from programs included in the commodity title. Their main national organization is the National Milk Producers Federation. To the extent that other livestock groups engage in farm bill issues, such as the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the National Pork Producers Council, they tend to focus on programs in the conservation title which help pay for manure management and on trade promotion programs such as the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program in the trade title. After the federal crop insurance program was pulled into the farm bill process starting with the 2008 Farm Bill to make it easier to shift funding between the two safety net titles, organizations representing crop insurance companies and agents—which also employ agricultural economists—also became key stakeholder groups in the process as well. Prior to that bill, crop insurance had been addressed in separate legislation, since the underlying authority for the program does not expire periodically the way most other farm bill programs do. The 2014 Farm Bill, the latest in the series, contains 12 titles in 949 pages of legislative text. Stakeholder Group Participation in the Farm Bill Process The starting point for this process is that all the farm and commodity groups listed above share a basic viewpoint--that having a farm bill is a good thing, for their members and the country. Occasionally, groups which share a number of members in common will work together, such as NCGA and ASA working on a revenue program for the 2014 Farm Bill. They also recognize that they need allies outside of production agriculture to keep the farm bill cycle going, which is why they joined nutrition advocacy groups in opposing the effort by conservative House Republicans in 2013 to split the nutrition programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), away from the rest of the farm bill. In March 2016, an informal coalition of 254 different local, state, and national organizations with interests in commodity programs, conservation, nutrition, agricultural research, rural development, agricultural credit, and crop insurance signed a joint letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Budget Committees and Appropriations Committees, calling on them to refrain from demanding cuts to farm bill programs as part of the fiscal 2017 budget process. These groups with disparate interests may sometimes fight over the pot of money available under the farm bill or over specific policy issues, but they all support its continuation. For such groups, the initial steps they take in their own deliberations are typically two fold. First, they solicit ideas from members on how perceived problems with the previous farm bill might be addressed, either informally at the state level or through member committees specifically assigned to such a task. For example, NCGA has a long-established Public Policy Action Team (PPAT), which currently consists of 15 grower members—members of state Corn Grower Boards—and several NCGA professional staff, charged with keeping an eye on federal agricultural policy and regulation on farm and risk management programs. The PPAT members regularly meet with federal policymakers and other thought leaders on agricultural policy to get a sense of how the range of policies and programs affect the corn sector. Most of the organizations have professional staff at both the state and national levels who work to flesh out these ideas. Once a menu of policy options has been generated, U.S. farm and commodity organizations typically follow one of two paths in determining their policy priorities for an upcoming farm bill debate. Most of the groups have annual state conventions late in the calendar year where policy ideas are proposed and voted on by delegates. Those proposals that gain support at the state level are then forwarded to the national headquarters of the organization and placed on the agenda for possible votes at the next national meeting. For example, the various state Farm Bureaus hold their annual meetings in November or December, and then AFBF holds its annual meeting in January after that. The policy proposals considered at such meetings do not always focus solely on farm bill issues. The debate and votes on the lengthy list of policy resolutions typically occupy a full day at the AFBF annual meetings. For example, the list of issues considered by voting delegates to their 2007 annual meeting, held right at the beginning of the debate that ended with the 2008 farm bill, included the following: the Countercyclical and Direct Payment Programs from the 2002 Farm Bill (support) funding the next farm bill at 2002 levels (support) non-trade-distorting assistance for specialty crop growers that would qualify as 'Green Box' under WTO rules on domestic support (support) standing agricultural disaster assistance program(oppose) comprehensive immigration reform, including an improved H2A guest worker visa program (support) voluntary animal identification program (support) voluntary country of origin labeling program (support) regulation of agricultural dust under the Clean Air Act (oppose) development of animal cloning (support). Such a process is typical for U.S. farm and commodity groups as they seek to develop their own ideas of what should be included in the next farm bill. However, because the need to react to changing market conditions or implementation problems with farm programs does not always fit neatly into farm groups' meeting calendars, most of them also have empowered their national leadership (Presidents and members of the Board of Directors) with the authority to endorse or reject new policy ideas on behalf of the organization on a more ad hoc basis. For example, concerns about widely different payments for the 2014 crop year under the Agricultural Risk Coverage-county option (ARC-CO), even between adjacent counties in a state, were raised in early 2016. After consulting with Farm Service Agency (FSA) officials about the source of the discrepancy, farm groups realized that it stemmed from the fact that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) often had insufficient information on yields in counties outside core production areas to publish estimated county yields. For counties lacking such estimates, FSA was forced to rely instead upon estimates drawn from data collected by USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA), which created the discrepancies. This information became known to farm groups after their annual meetings. Since this issue was not addressed in the policy resolutions voted on at ASA's annual meeting in March of 2016, the advice to their members to be more diligent in returning NASS surveys in order to improve the coverage of NASS county yields for soybeans had to be approved by the ASA Board instead. Role of Agricultural Economists Many of these groups ask professional agricultural economists, either employed within their organizations, as private consultants, or working at land grant universities, to take a look at the farm bill specific ideas generated within the membership—to vet them, flesh them out, and in many cases come up with preliminary estimates of the budget costs associated with the proposal and potential benefits their members would receive if the new policy were to be implemented. These analyses can either be requested near the beginning of the policy process, or after the basic policy concept is approved by the membership at the association's annual meetings. In addition, there are agricultural policy entities at a number of U.S. universities, such as the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri and Iowa State University, the Agricultural and Food Policy Center (AFPC) at Texas A&M University, and the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center (APAC) at the University of Tennessee, which have gathered together agricultural economists with specific expertise on a wide range of policy issues. These groups are relied upon by both farm groups and the House and Senate Agriculture Committee staffs for providing objective, even-handed analyses of farm program proposals using similar methodologies to those used by U.S. government agencies. Individual economists at other universities also engage in analyses which can impact on the farm bill process, some in favor of the existing array of policies as well as some work in opposition to those policies. Some of this work is done on behalf of specific organizations, for example critiques of crop insurance programs for the Environmental Working Group (Babcock 2016), or for more general policy education purposes for both farmers and the public, such as the work done by several economists under the FarmDoc outreach effort at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Public Phase of the Farm Bill Process Begins Economic analyses are usually released at the same time the farm or commodity organization floats its new policy ideas, to provide them with some economic justification for the proposed changes to the farm bill. The farm groups are then invited to provide witnesses to the hearings held early in the farm bill process by the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, often either state presidents from that group or other prominent grower members from the chair's home state if that crop is widely grown in their state. The first hearings are typically held outside of Washington, D.C., in the home states of key members of the Committee. Witnesses at those hearings are often asked very basic questions, such as "what do you like about the current farm bill?" and "what changes would you like to see made in the next farm bill?" Beginning early in 2012, the House Agriculture Committee held 13 hearings on farm bill issues, four of them outside of Washington, D.C. in New York, Illinois, Arkansas, and Kansas. The Senate Agriculture Committee actually started its farm bill hearing process several months earlier, with seven hearings stretched between May 2011 and March 2012, two of them held outside of Washington, D.C., in the home states of the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee, Michigan, and Kansas. In the run-up to the 2008 Farm Bill, the House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson required any groups who wanted to present farm bill proposals to the Committee for consideration to also submit credible estimates of the budgetary costs of those proposals were they to be implemented. This experiment was not repeated in the farm bill cycle that culminated in the 2014 Farm Bill. Once the public hearings are completed, informal conversations between Committee staffers and farm and commodity group representatives continue, as the staffers try to piece together provisions for the commodity and crop insurance titles that all the stakeholder groups and Committee members can live with. Draft legislative language for those provisions are evaluated for cost by the Congressional Budget Office, and then modified to make sure the cost of the whole package stays within the budget constraints the Committees face. This part of the farm bill process culminates in the draft bill that the Chairman offers to the Committee for consideration, in a public meeting known as a mark-up. While there are many more steps that must be completed to get a farm bill across the finish line, once the bill is reported out of the respective Committees, other players in the process, such as congressional leadership, USDA staff, and ultimately the White House begin to play more prominent roles.Agricultural economists at USDA often contribute to the process by advising on how proposed changes might affect the operation of farm programs, especially during the conference committee process. The Full Tapestry of the Farm Bill Process A similar process is followed by other membership-based groups with vested interests in other titles of the farm bill outside of commodity and crop insurance programs. There are also groups, not necessarily membership-based, which coalesce around opposition to specific portions of the farm bill, such as those proposing tighter limitations on individuals receiving farm program payments than are currently in law, or other groups or organizations wanting to block grant funding for the SNAP program to individual states and take it out of the hands of USDA.Their participation in the process is largely governed by the same two basic rules as the farm and commodity groups, namely when to introduce new ideas into the cycle. While this description of the process represents only a slice of the full tapestry of the current farm bill process, it does allow for tracing the process back to the very beginning, the first farm bill conceived during the throes of the Great Depression, and how it has evolved since that very first 54-page farm bill to the 949-page Agricultural Act of 2014. For More Information Babcock, B. 2016. Crop Insurance, A Lottery That’s a Sure Bet. Environmental Working Group. Washington, D.C., February. Mercier, S.2011. Review of U.S. Farm Programs. Policy background paper commissioned by the AGree initiative. Schertz, L. and O.C. Doering III. 1999. The Making of the 1996 Farm Act. Iowa State University Press, Ames. Stephanie Mercier (smercier@farmjournalfoundation.org) is Director of Policy for the Farm Journal Foundation, and former Chief Economist for the Democratic staff of the Senate Agriculture Committee. |
ACCOUNTANTS are the most trusted business advisor, following a breakdown in honesty between companies and their bank managers. A fifth (21%) of businesses say they are more open and honest with their accountants than their bank managers, according to a Sage Omnibus survey of more than 1,000 of its customers. Exactly half, 50%, of those surveyed believe their accountant provides the most valuable business advice, with 4% believing this to be the case with friends, 2% family, and bank managers sloping in at 2%, alongside solicitors 2%. The latest statistic is indicative of the detachment of business owners with their banks. Honesty is also the best policy, with 15% of small business owners also claiming they are more honest with their accountant than even friends, family or spouse. About 44% turn to their accountants first for business advice, 21% to the internet and 18% to business groups or Chamber of Commerce associations. Jim Scott (pictured), managing director of Sage Accountants Division, said: “Accountants have played a key role in the success of many businesses, but it is in challenging times that the value they bring really comes to the fore. More business owners than ever are turning to accountants for guidance as the regulatory landscape evolves, and the fact that over one in seven are more honest with their accountant than they are with their nearest and dearest underlines just how valued their counsel and advice really is. “Businesses that view accountants more as trusted partners and less as mere service providers when accounts need to be filed are also better placed to make the most of new technologies, including cloud-based software and mobile apps that provide access to up-to-the-minute information anytime, anywhere.” |
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., May 28 (UPI) -- The integrated air and missile defense Battle Command System downed a ballistic missile in its first flight test by Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Army. The test on Thursday was conducted using the IAMD BCS, a Patriot system radar and two adapted Patriot launchers connected at the component level to the IBCS integrated fire control network, Northrop Grumman said. Using measurement data from the Patriot radar, the IBCS track manager established a composite track on the ballistic missile, the IBCS mission control software assessed the track as a threat and presented an engagement solution. The engagement operations center operator then used the IBCS mission control software to command the launches of two Patriot PAC-2 interceptor missiles to destroy the target in flight. "IBCS is crucial to the Army vision for an IAMD C2 [command and control] capability across all echelons and AMD assets, including joint systems," said Brig. Gen. (P) L. Neil Thurgood, Army program executive officer, Missiles and Space. "The success of IBCS allows our ability to acquire needed radars and interceptors to plug into our architecture without having to buy entire systems and to optimize the sensor/shooter relationship to the target. "Additionally, IBCS allows for a single AMD C2 that is tailorable at every echelon and reduces the training burden while enhancing mission success." Northrop Grumman's IBCS is to replace seven legacy command-and-control systems to provide a single integrated air picture, reduce single points of failure and offer the flexibility for deployment of smaller force packages. The networking sensors and interceptors – instead of linking them -- provides wider area surveillance and broader protection areas. IBCS's open systems architecture allows integration of current and future sensors and weapon systems and enables interoperability with joint C2 and the U.S. ballistic missile defense system. |
A Saint-Paul man has been sentenced to five years in prison in connection with a week-long assault of a woman last summer, which the judge described as "brutal, cruel and degrading." David Beaulieu was sentenced in Moncton's Court of Queen's Bench on Thursday. (CBC) David Beaulieu, 40, pleaded guilty on Jan. 14 to assault causing bodily harm between Aug. 9 and 19. He had initially been charged with unlawful confinement and aggravated assault. Beaulieu's victim, who can't be identified due to a publication ban, testified that Beaulieu burned, hit and kicked her, threw hot water at her, ripped her hair out and shoved feces and garbage in her face. Moncton Court of Queen's Bench Justice Stephen McNally said the 34-year-old woman's numerous injuries were "significant, severe and painful." The photos of her injuries, which were submitted to the court as evidence, were "extremely disturbing," McNally said during sentencing on Thursday. Assault causing bodily harm carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. 1-year credit for time served The judge sentenced Beaulieu to five years, but gave him one year of credit for the time he has already spent in custody since his arrest in August. Beaulieu showed no emotion as the sentence was read. His victim was hugged by several supporters after the sentence was handed down. Crown prosecutor Marc Savoie had recommended a five-year sentence, arguing the assaults were "close to torture," and stressing the severity of the attacks over several days. Defence lawyer Robert Rideout had requested a conditional sentence and time already served. RCMP previously said they had received a tip on Aug. 19 that a man was driving around with an injured woman in the back of his van. Later that afternoon, the police located the suspect vehicle on Regis Street in Dieppe and conducted a traffic stop. The driver co-operated with the police and opened the back of the van, where police found an injured woman, who was taken to hospital. |
Most people in this country, certainly most members of the political class and especially its expression in Washington, don’t realize what Donald Trump is trying to do in Europe and Russia. Back in December I explained that Trump has a plan to break up the European Union. Trump and his key advisor Steve Bannon (former Breitbart chief) believe they can promise an advantageous trade agreement with the United Kingdom, thus strengthening the UK’s position in its negotiations over exiting the EU. With such a deal in place with the UK, they believe they can slice apart the EU by offering the same model deal to individual EU states. Steve Bannon discussed all of this at length with Business Week’s Josh Green and Josh and I discussed it in great detail in this episode of my podcast from mid-December. Now we have a rush of new evidence that Trump is moving ahead with these plans. One point that was clear in Green’s discussions with Bannon and Nigel Farage is that Trump wants to empower Farage as its interlocutor with the United Kingdom. Given Farage’s fringe status in the UK, on its face that seems crazy. But that is the plan. And it is a sign of how potent Farage’s guidance and advice has become for Trump’s view of Europe, the EU and Russia. Two days ago, the United States out-going Ambassador to the EU gave a press conference in which he opened up about Farage’s apparently guiding role in the Trump world and what he’s hearing from EU Member states. From the The Financial Times (sub.req.) … Donald Trump’s transition team have called EU leaders to ask “what country is to leave next” with a tone suggesting the union “is falling apart” this year, according to the outgoing US ambassador to the bloc. In a pugnacious parting press conference, Anthony Gardner warned of “fringe” voices such as Nigel Farage, the former UK Independence party leader, holding influence in Washington over Mr Trump’s team. Speaking days before leaving office, Mr Gardner said it would be “lunacy” and “the height of folly” for the US to ditch half a century of foreign policy in order to support further EU fragmentation or become a “Brexit cheerleader” in Brussels. “I was struck in various calls that were going on between the incoming administration and the EU that the first question is: what country is about to leave next after the UK?” he said. “The perceived sense is that 2017 is the year in which the EU is going to fall apart. And I hope that Nigel Farage is not the only voice being listened to because that is a fringe voice.” Today in a new interview with the Germany’s Bild and the Times of London Trump expanded on these goals dramatically. Trump leveled a series of attacks on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, suggesting he’d like to see her defeated for reelection and saying she’d hurt Germany by letting “all these illegals” into the country. Trump also called NATO “obsolete”, predicted other countries would soon leave the EU, and characterized the EU itself as “basically a vehicle for Germany.” Trump and Bannon are extremely hostile to Merkel and eager to see her lose. But what is increasingly clear is that Trump will make the break up of the EU a central administration policy and appears to want the same for NATO. My own view is that Trump and Bannon greatly overestimate America’s relative economic power in the world. Their view appears to be that no European country will feel it is able to be locked out of trade with a US-UK trade pact. An America eager to break up the EU seems more likely to inject new life into the union. However that may be, Trump and Bannon clearly want to create a nativist world order based on the US, Russia and states that want to align with them. The EU and NATO are only obstacles to that goal. |
The main advantage for native applications is that they can access all native APIs a platform could offer (contacts, camera flash, SMS, telephony, network, bluetooth, sensors, raw sockets...) while a progressive web application can not (yet) as they are constrained by the Standard Web capabilities. The goal for progressive web applications is to expand these capabilities to cover the most critical cases. In this mood, take a look at Progressive Web Apps: Escaping Tabs Without Loosing Our Soul where you can find a list of what a progressive web application should offer: Responsive: to fit any form factor Connectivity independent: Progressively-enhanced with Service Workers to let them work offline App-like-interactions: Adopt a Shell + Content application model to create appy navigations & interactions Fresh: Transparently always up-to-date thanks to the Service Worker update process Safe: Served via TLS (a Service Worker requirement) to prevent snooping Discoverable: Are identifiable as “applications” thanks to W3C Manifests and Service Worker registration scope allowing search engines to find them Re-engageable: Can access the re-engagement UIs of the OS; e.g. Push Notifications Installable: to the home screen through browser-provided prompts, allowing users to “keep” apps they find most useful without the hassle of an app store Linkable: meaning they’re zero-friction, zero-install, and easy to share. The social power of URLs matters. From these points, linkable was one of the first characteristics imported by native applications from the Open Web in the form of mobile deep linking. But special mention deserve the combo fresh + installable as it represents one of the main advantages of the Web as a platform over the native alternatives. Here installable means that it appears in your home screen. It does not mean you require to pass downloading and installation stages. You open a URL or discover a service while browsing and it's done: it appears in your home screen. Fresh refers to how a regular web works, offering an instant load and seamless updates. You are not asked for installing an update from the web of YouTube, it is deployed and you consumes it the next time you visit it. I'm not talking about the benefits of the remaining points because you were asking for the differences and, for instance, re-engagement is something native applications already have via push services and notifications and now web applications have caught up. Other related and key question is about which platform is more suitable for your needs. If you are not accessing special hardware capabilities, the Web should be enough and choosing the web you are free from the marketplaces, proprietary ecosystems and by the way, you can ensure certain grade of ubiquity and interoperability. As final notes, I recommend you to browse www.flipkart.com from a mobile with Chrome. It's pretty awesome: no bugs, smooth navigation, app-like feeling. Go offline and it will continue working. A truly real world example of that post. Add the app to home screen and next time you open it, the experience is even better. You can take a look at Firefox OS as well as an example of bringing more platform APIs to the Standard Web (with more or less success). |
Government confirms it’s preparing legal action against the public protector over her Nkandla report. JOHANNESBURG - Government says it will approach the high court to have Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's controversial report on the security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead reviewed. Ministers in the security cluster say some of the findings and the actions recommended in the report are irrational and, in some cases, contradictory. As a result, government says it would be difficult to implement some of the recommendations and it needs clarity from the courts. The state's legal team is already compiling court papers and government expects them to be filed at the high court within the next week. Government spokesperson Phumla Williams has told Eyewitness News the ministers did not take the decision for a judicial review lightly. "I think it is a decision that we had to take in order to deal with the issues that are raised by the public protector. There is no point in us saying we'll implement recommendations that are, in our mind, contradictory." In March, Madonsela found that Zuma unduly benefitted from the R246 million upgrades to his private KwaZulu-Natal home. The report, released in March, said the upgrades cost around R246 million and that the president and his family unduly benefited from them. Madonsela said government dismally failed to manage service providers and prevented project costs from rocketing from R27 million to the current figure. She recommended that Zuma pay back a percentage of the costs involved in building features such as the swimming pool, the visitor centre and a cattle kraal. But the president has publicly stated that he never asked for the upgrades and would not pay back any funds. In Parliament, an ad-hoc committee was set up shortly before the elections to consider the report, but was soon put on hold until after the polls. |
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a poll taken over the weekend about the looming debt-ceiling crisis and government shutdown, most Americans said that they were totally excited about the new iPhone 5s. When asked about the prospect of a debt-ceiling logjam leading to a downgrade of the U.S. economy, seventy-two per cent of those surveyed said that the new iPhone looks like the most awesome iPhone yet. Questioned about the disastrous impact of the U.S. government defaulting on the nation’s debt, sixty-five per cent agreed with the statement, “I can’t believe I waited on line all Friday for the 5s and they told me they’re sold out until October.” On the topic of whether the debt-ceiling crisis could plunge the world economy into the most apocalyptic catastrophe since the financial meltdown of 2008, Americans were deeply divided over which color iPhone they would choose, but agreed that all of them looked amazing. Get the Borowitz Report delivered to your inbox. Photograph by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty. |
Ever wondered what it would be like to cook-on-wheels? We’re not talking about an elaborate cooking van that dishes out fried chicken for $10 but a luxury car that perches a cooktop right beside the plush rear seat upholstery. Audi Japan has introduced the A8 5.5 variant that seems to be named as interestingly as it is designed. The 5.5 name is inspired by 5 (five, in Japan Go) and 0.5 (half, in Japan Han). Gohan literally translates to rice. It’s true that the Japanese love their rice but the idea of someone being chauffeured around in an A8, wanting to make their own meal is a bit far-fetched. But then again, it’s Audi and the Japanese. They’ll always surprise you with what you think you know. The car can be seen as something of a tribute to the rice-eating culture in Japan. The car is equipped with a broad-brimmed cooking pot called ‘Hagama’ that is native of Japan. The pot delivers heat directly to the core, thus making the rice cook perfectly well. Given that the innovation has found its stride, the company has leveraged technology to further facilitate a great on-road cooking experience. The touchscreen is used as a menu panel to help users select multiple cooking options. Now, everyone can customize their rice dish to their own taste. This seems too curious to be true. I have a hunch that it could be one of the most epic automotive pranks of all time. [ Via : Audi ] |
Rocky Patel confirmed that EO Brands’ Cubao line is now being sold exclusively through mail-in order retailer Thompson’s. There’s a slight caveat in that the official word from a representative from Rocky Patel was, “it’s still available to (brick and mortars) that want it.” We last reviewed Cubao as part of Lancero50 here. Rocky Patel bought a 50% stake in EO Brands/United Tobacco last year in a deal that saw them take over national distribution. Despite Thompson’s exclusivity there are no changes in price. In addition, there are no changes to any other Rocky Patel or EO Brands, including 601. — el niño diablo. Update (September 23, 2011): Statement from Erik Espinosa reads: Cubao is still available to B&M’s. Thompson’s is the only major internet/catalog retailer that will have Cubao. I hope this clarifies everything. I spoke with Erik yesterday and he confirmed that the only retailers that were going to be prohibited from carrying Cubao were those in the “big four” that were not Thomson’s, i.e., CI/Cigar.com, JR and Famous. That still hasn’t stopped many retailers from blowing Cubao out, including site sponsor Atlantic Cigar. In addition, the Cubao No. 6 (5 1/2 x 52 Parejo) has been discontinued. — el niño diablo. |
So I’ve spent most of this week playing Skyrim. And I’m going to tell you all about it, but first I must warn you, gentle reader, that much of my recount pertains to the explorations of an exquisitely detailed virtual world. I’ll probably go on at some length about the flora and rock formations, as though I’ve been out hiking. There is an observation which is likely to be made upon hearing such descriptions, which of course is “Well if you like nature so much, why not just put down the controller and go the hell outside?”. Regardless of whether this question is asked in earnest or in trollery, the answer is the same: Because there is not a goddamned forest, mountain or valley on earth where I can set out for a romp only to find that by the end of it I’ve killed a flying, fire-breathing reptile the size of a mead hall, absorbed its sweet dragony soul, and taken its bones for a trophy. So trolls are barely an appetizer at this point. In fact, I ate rendered troll fat out of a wooden bucket my very first hour in Skyrim. But more on that in a moment. As I’ve probably mentioned previously, I’m not much of an RPG fan, in general. Although I love a good story as much as the next guy, I’ve always found things like companion and inventory management to be tedious. And frankly, sometimes the story isn’t all that good, anyway. The Elder Scrolls series has always been ambitious in this respect, with general success, relative to the genre as a whole. There are those who will happily point out all kinds of flaws with various entries from the series, but to my eye, these flaws are often the result of designing such expansive, ambitious worlds, and simply not quite having the technology to perfect them. In this respect, Skyrim is a definite leap forward. The environment is damn-near photorealistic, and though there are some Minecraft-ish moments when perhaps gazing through the window of the top floor of a tower that’s been besieged by and subsequently cleared of bandits, these are few and far between. Obviously, Skyrim is meant to be a fantastic realm (because you know, it has dragons, trolls and wizard school), but it was clear that some inspiration had been drawn from the landscapes of northern Europe. For the most part, moving from landmark to landmark actually felt like journeying across a natural terrain. Even insignificant environmental features were distinct from one another: Cairns marking the footpaths that diverged off the main roads, trees, boulders, hot springs, all unique, all beautiful to look at. Beyond the environment, there were a lot of references to Norse folklore sprinkled throughout the game, but with liberal doses of fantasy to keep things interesting: Mages in the employ of Jarls, horned helmets (okay look, there is no actual evidence linking horned helmets to denizens of northern Europe during the viking age. That kind of thing is for Elmer Fudd and the NFL. Maybe Denmark in the late Germanic age, but that’s completely different), and plenty of draugr. Draugr used to terrify me, to be completely honest. My mom told me the story of a fisherman who was out late one stormy night, and as he was trying to sail back to land, he spotted a boat out on the waves heading towards his own. As the boat came nearer and nearer, he was able to see that it had actually been chopped in half, and was captained by none other than the reanimated corpse of a dead man. It was said that draugr guarded their treasures fiercely, and any man killed by them was doomed to become one himself. Fun times! To find myself set upon by draugr in various parts of the game was, to me, quite effective in its creepiness, and induced a lot of swearing. I can’t say if it was because of personal association, or simply because these monsters were done particularly well, but either way—mission afuckingcomplished. And I’ve already mentioned the dragons, who we learn after some exploration, snooping, and a whole lot of mountain climbing, aren’t just randomly showing up, but have been awakened by someone or something. Apparently, dragons don’t really die unless a dragonborn kills them and sucks out their souls at the moment of death. And it just so happens that I’m dragonborn, as I find out after being summoned to the Throat of the World by the Greybeards. No, not the guys from Something Awful, but an order of monks so powerful that they are sworn to silence, because their voices will kill every living thing in a 100 foot radius. Try to talk to them and they simply shake their heads, that’s how serious this business is. And that is what you will be soon too, after some training, grave-robbing, stealth-doing and alchemy-learning. By now you’ll have seen the brilliant skill tree, so I won’t even get too deeply into that. Suffice it to say that the design is breathtaking and functional in way that I previously thought impossible. It’s a complicated system, but one which works. My only real issue with it is that it’s quite easy to back one’s self out of the menu by accident, which is a mere annoyance in the face of such a vast improvement over Oblivion’s system. One interesting quirk: in order to utilize any of the ingredients for alchemical recipes, one must taste them. So in addition to eating fruits, bread, cheese and various animals I hunted/caught, I also had to put things like spider eggs, butterfly wings and yes, troll fat (I told you we’d come back to that) right in my mouth. This was not simply because I was feeling experimental, but because this is how the properties of each ingredient are discovered. This has been discussed more eloquently and at much greater length here. Unless health is already very low, ingesting random plants and bugs is not dangerous, but the accompanying vomit noises are quite realistic. And speaking of noises (it’s a segue! Oh come on, most of them were okay up until now), the audio design was magnificent. I’m definitely one who appreciates good foley work. If I’m watching a video of someone stomping on bubble wrap (don’t ask), I want to hear the snap-snap-snapping of it beneath their feet. To know that I was in for an entire game’s worth of snow-crunching footsteps and dragon battles was reason enough for me to yoink this title from the grasping hands of the writing staff and check it out myself (sorry guys). To say I had expectations for Skyrim’s audio is a bit of an understatement, but I was not disappointed. Aside from my own footfalls, there were plenty of sound effects that added texture and depth to the surroundings, but were also important cues. Though many of these noises were but a notch above ambient levels, they provided just enough subtle guidance to be effective. For example, a faint pulsing sound became louder and then softer, indicating that I’d passed by whatever was making it. I turned back to investigate, and was able to “follow” the sound to a glowing plant, which I then ate. It damaged my health. The volume and panning with regard to position and distance from the source of any given sound is spot-on. Even when standing in a conversation, I turned to look 90º, and the sound responded so perfectly that I barely noticed. Inconsistent audio is not always the most noticeable flaw to most, but for those who do notice such things, it can significantly detract from the overall experience. Of course Skyrim is not the first game to make use of such techniques, but it’s done so well here that it bears mentioning. Something that’s not always done so well here are conversations with NPCs. The voice acting was generally pretty good as I engaged in purposeful, voluntary conversation, but if I happened to be standing in the vicinity of anyone, sometimes they’d just start spouting off lines arbitrarily. There was a military officer in particular who appeared more awkward at making small talk than the guys at the 3rd and Pike Metro stop. By contrast, the merchant at Warmaiden’s, Ulfberth War-Bear, seemed to speak largely in innuendo: “You look like you need a new weapon. Something BIGGER, perhaps?”, and in reference to Adrianne, the blacksmith and namesake of Warmaiden’s, “It was a childhood nickname. She was playing with swords even back then”. Maybe my mind is in the gutter, or maybe EW. But honestly, no big deal. I can walk away from annoying townsfolk mid-sentence because the world of Skyrim is not so finely-tuned that I’ll lose out by not using conventional social protocol. Beyond the various townsfolk, I also acquired two companions. The first, a woman named Lydia, aligned herself with me after I did a favor for the Jarl. He also gave me a title, Thane of Whiterun, and a pretty badass weapon. Lydia is useful enough in a fight. She’s probably saved me a few times, even. And she’s generally quiet, which I appreciate. However, she has an attitude problem if ever I ask her to carry things, even if it’s to equip her with a better weapon. “I am sworn to carry your burdens”, she says, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the “sworn”. It was amusing the first few times, but by this point it just makes me want to tell her that she can either STFU or be unemployed, especially in light of the fact that she gets lost in water and rock formations fairly often, and is generally kind of slow to keep up when we’re not actually fighting. My other companion has a much better story, which is one of the most well-designed encounters I’ve ever witnessed in a game. Lydia and I were on our way somewhere new, and we’d been walking the whole way. Once a map point has been discovered, it’s possible to “fast travel” between two points, but if you’re heading somewhere new, be prepared for a hike. We’d somehow gotten off track just a bit, but were on a path and headed back in the right direction, when suddenly we saw an animal on the road. It stood up and began to move, but seemed neither to attack us nor run away. Not really knowing what to expect, because it wasn’t exactly an obvious “FOLLOW ME, GUISE”, I turned off the path and went after it. Shortly, I came upon a clearing with a small cottage. Inside, lying on a rug was the animal from the road, who turned out to be a dog. Beyond him, there was a body lying on a bed. After making sure it wasn’t going to turn draugr and make a surprise attack, I searched the body and found a note explaining that the owner of the cottage had accidentally eaten something poisonous, and knew he would die. He went on to say that it was probably just as well, since most of his friends were already dead aside from Meeko, the dog. When I turned back around, Meeko was looking at me, wagging his tail expectantly. All I had to do was talk to him, and joined me from that point forward. The entire event was so moving that when Meeko was killed in battle later on by some draugr, I reloaded a save, took Meeko to a safe area, and made him wait there so he wouldn’t get hurt. And really, that anecdote actually summarizes my overall impression pretty nicely. Skryim is definitely attractive, but more than a pretty face. It’s not without flaws: There have been a few random bugs, floating objects and at one point I had an arrow stuck in my arm. Companion management kind of sucks. Don’t bother to spend your money on a horse (it’s not possible to fight on horseback, and Lydia has an even harder time keeping up when running. Though admittedly, Red Dead Redemption set the bar for horses pretty damn high). However, the beauty of the world, and the experiences in it somehow feel more meaningful than any other game I’ve played this year. There is a level of emotional nuance and subtlety here the likes of which I haven’t ever seen applied to this genre. Skyrim does not rely on orphans, sexualized waifs and other cheap shots because it doesn’t have to. There are no heavy-handed, cutscene-dependent manipulations. The world is sufficiently amazing; I am moved to save it without actually having an obvious personal stake in the situation handed to me with a cheap narrative device. It’s simple: The dragons are back, now I’m going to end them. Somehow, that is intrinsic motivation. The world of Skyrim speaks for itself, and the graceful complexity of it far outweighs any of its flaws. Now excuse me, I need to go ingest this sweet giant toe I just found. |
I've spent some time in Seattle over the years, and I always come away thinking, "Man, what a pretty place." It's the best of so many worlds...you've got the charm of being on the coast, the interesting architecture of downtown, lots trees and vegetation, all set in front of a backdrop of Mount Rainier. That's hard to beat. Naturally, Seattle draws a lot of photographers for the reasons I listed above. But it also has the attention of time-lapse enthusiasts that seek to document the motions this vibrant city undertakes from day to day. Kevin from Rank Productions is one such time-lapse enthusiast that spent over two years getting the footage for the video above, with a little motivation and help during shooting from Rob Habon. Two years is a long time to collect footage, so saying that this film was a labor of love would be an understatement! And though Seattle is the subject of his this time-lapse, Kevin now lives on the road and is currently exploring Australia and New Zealand. When asked why he's on the road now, Kevin simply stated, "Videography and photography has really motivated me to go out and document the amazing places on earth." That sounds like a great way to live your life if you ask me... Check out the video above to see how Kevin depicts his hometown, complete with a soundtrack supplied by Seattle natives Odezsa. Gear Used: Canon 7D Magic Lantern LRTimelapse Syrp Genie Time-Lapse Videos Simplified If you look at the list of gear that Kevin used, you see just four things. Talk about a simplified kit! But that just goes to show that you don't need a ton of specialized gear to create awesome time-lapse videos. One of my favorite time-lapse video essentials is the Syrp Genie, which is pictured above. This little gadget is super small and super portable, and it has no external wires or batteries that make adding motion to your videos a hassle. Genie gives you complete control over motion whether you're creating a time-lapse like Kevin's or working with real-time video too. That's the case whether you're using a rail system, a slider, or your own DIY setup for motion - Genie is adaptable to all kinds of gear and will give you ultra-smooth motion each and every time. Genie also makes smooth in and out motion easy with customizable in and out points, and with several built-in time-lapse presets and HDR controls, you can start making incredible videos right out of the box. It just doesn't get much simpler than that! If you want awesome time-lapse footage but don't want to spend hours and hours setting up your gear and programming your motion control device, get a Genie. With just a few clicks of a button, you can start a simple time-lapse of the stars, clouds, or even people. Better still, with Genie's autostart function, you can tell it when to start filming so you don't have to stay up late or get up early to get things rolling. You've seen the results in Kevin's video, so what are you waiting for? Create your own time-lapse magic with a Syrp Genie or one of their other incredible time-lapse products. |
The Denver Outlaws have faced postseason heartbreak for each of its eight previous years in MLL — dominating regular seasons only to fall in spectacular fashion in the playoffs year after year. At last, the Outlaws can call themselves champions. Denver beat the Rochester Rattlers, 12-11, in front of 8,149 fans at the MLL championship Saturday at Fifth Third Bank Stadium near Atlanta. It wasn’t without its dramatics. Drew Snider buried a high shot in transition from 15 yards out with 56 seconds left for the game-winner — Denver’s first lead since 19 seconds into the game. A clutch play 2-pointer from the always-clutch Jeremy Sieverts tied the game with just over five minutes to play, following a late-game surge from the ageless John Grant Jr. “This means everything,” goalie Jesse Schwartzman said while hoisting the Steinfeld Cup on the CBS Sports Broadcast. “We weren’t going to let this one slip today. We played this one for Lee, Junior, Train….This is eight years coming.” “We had a lot of jitters tonight. In the end we put our heads down and played lacrosse and got it back,” MVP John Grant Jr. said after his three-goal, one-assist performance. “I love Denver, I love this team, and I’m so happy to be here.” “Well, that’s why we brought him to Denver in the offseason. He’s 5-5 now in MLL Championship games. Didn’t look so good there for a while – his record was going to stay," Denver coach B.J. O'Hara said of Grant's performance. "But he led the way on the offensive end, and then we had great performances at the other end by a really good defensive group and our goalkeeper. Anthony Kelly played on one leg and won us a lot of faceoffs. That’s what was able to get us back in the game was we had some possessions.” Denver initially got the start it wanted. Chris Bocklet started the scoring just 19 seconds into the game, after the Rattlers’ defense failed to pick him up on transition following an Anthony Kelly face-off win. Outlaws goalie Jesse Schwartzman made two big saves to follow. But then it was all Rattlers for the first quarter. Michael Lazore got it started for the Rattlers, scoring on a high-to-high shot in transition to beat Schwartzman. Then, Miles Thompson had an impressive one-handed interception a clear on the ride during a Rattlers’ EMO, taking a hard hit from Schwartzman just outside the crease while he scored to make it 2-1. John Ranagan continued the barrage with his hands free coming down the alley to make it 3-1. Mark Cockerton had a nifty rebound goal, burying a second chance off a Kevin Leveille shot. Dave Lawson would get the last goal in the quarter — all of the goals in the first quarter unassisted — beating Michael Simon and burying a shot with no slide coming to make it 5-1 at the end of the first. Dom Sebastiani scored to start out the second quarter, the Outlaws looking more relaxed offensively. Justin Pennington fed Sebastiani cutting through for an easy score to make it 5-2. Next, Bocklet would get his second goal of the day, cutting the lead to two goals as the Outlaws’ ball movement improved. He was fed by Eric Law and buried a shot from 10 yards out on the wing. The run would be broken by John Ranagan, who had an impressive title game, scoring just inside the arc after working a two-man game with Justin Turri. Denver's Grant Jr. would get his first goal of the game in highlight fashion, diving just at GLE and into the netting behind the goal, burying the ball above John Galloway’s right shoulder before landing and cutting the score to 6-4. Rattlers coach Tim Soudan threw a challenge flag but the refs confirmed the ruling on the field of a goal. Turri would extend the lead to start the second half, with Wolf feeding Turri along the crease to make it 7-4, with Turri finishing while being hit to the ground. Ranagan then completed his hat trick to extend the lead to four goals. Law converted a highlight-reel goal, sneaking the ball past Galloway at GLE on a non-existent angle, using his back hand to get enough space to squeak between the pipe and Galloway’s leg. But Wolf would get the goal right back with his first goal of the championship game, using his blistering first step to come around the net for time to beat Schwartzman. Jeremy Sieverts made it 9-6 on his first score of the game, but that was quickly erased by Lawson rolling back to his left and scoring with less than a minute left in the quarter. John Grant Jr., at 39 years old, wouldn't let the Outlaws go quietly and took over in the final frame. A Rochester breakdown led to Grant easily walking around GLE to score one-on-one with Galloway. Law set a pick that confused Lade and Manley behind the net. Grant Jr. two minutes later scored another highlight-reel goal, going over the shoulder to beat Galloway and cut the lead to two goals. Junior and Law combined behind the net, with Grant feeding Law off the two-man game and Law cashing in at GLE to make it a one-goal game. Lawson broke the Outlaw run with a lefty sidearm heater from up top, fed by Cockerton. A fourth tally from Lawson was called off for a crease violation. Then Sieverts — a clutch performer all season — knotted up the game with a 2-pointer with just over five minutes left to play. Sieverts had seven 2-pointers during the season, most in the league but none more important than Saturday night. “Some people who don’t know the MLL scoff at that [2-point] rule, but that’s what it can do. Such an exciting play," O'Hara said. "Jeremy Sieverts leads the league in that effort, and we’ve become used to seeing him do that. That was a huge one. Boy that was a huge one.” Note: Commissioner Dave Gross at halftime on the CBS Sports Broadcast confirmed the league would not expand in 2015, but that a move to Atlanta in '16 is possible. "This is a tremendous market. We’re not expanding in 2015 but knock on wood for 2016," he said. |
IT IS just 50 hours since the referendum result was announced. In that time, Britain’s prime minister has resigned, there has been a coup against the leader of the Labour party (still playing out as I write), sterling has had one of its biggest one-day falls in history, the banks are starting to talk about moving jobs to Europe, and Scotland has opened the process of calling a second independence referendum. The political turmoil was predictable and predicted in this blog. Most MPs backed the Remain case and now have to implement the Leave case. Even the Leave campaigners are balking at invoking Article 50 immediately; David Cameron reversed his position and has left the decision to his successor. That means it won’t be until October. This can be presented as tactically shrewd; there is no rush. Although the rest of the EU is pushing Britain to act immediately, it would seem as if it can’t force the pace. But it also reflects the lack of clarity among those in the Leave campaign about what kind of deal they want; a Norway-style approach (with continued free movement and budget contributions) or complete separation (with restricted access to the single market). Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Of course, this politicking only extends the period of uncertainty that will follow the referendum result. The nature of Britain’s trading relationship with the EU will not become clear until late 2018 at the earliest. All the more reason, then, for investors and businesses to delay any decision to put money into Britain; the potential economic damage is greater. Friday’s market moves saw a much bigger (7%) fall in the domestically-focused FTSE 250 than in the more multinational FTSE 100, which dropped 3%. The problem for Britain is that it has a huge current account deficit, which needs financing from abroad. There is much talk about the way that a weaker sterling can boost exports, but it also raises the costs of imports (like oil) which will widen the deficit in the short term. Ian Harnett of Absolute Strategy Research says that I remain convinced that the economics and politics of an isolated England leave UK assets and markets very exposed to the risk of a capital account induced recession...I am therefore very unhappy to confirm my view that in the coming months we will see sterling close to parity and UK equities, even with that fillip, 20% lower. A weaker pound will also lead to higher inflation. Two things can happen in response. Either wages can rise in compensation, in which case business costs will rise and the competitive advantage of devaluation will be eroded. Or wages won’t rise and people's living standards will be eroded. So a Leave campaign fuelled by voter anger over squeezed living standards will result in a further squeeze in those living standards. But will it happen? Ingenious arguments are being devised to find ways that withdrawal might be avoided after all; for example, thanks to devolution, some think that the Scottish government may have an effective veto. Your blogger overheard an earnest phone call yesterday saying that Technically the vote is only advisory and Boris Johnson doesn’t really want to leave the EU. So they can fudge it. Perhaps a new prime minister will call a general election to get a new mandate (what does it mean if it gets defeated?). Perhaps the terms of any exit deal would be put to the electorate in a second referendum (but what happens if that gets defeated?). Endless complications—chaos, in other words—lie ahead. |
3 Cost Effective CGI Techniques Guest post by Hugh Hancock of Strange Company. When you hear the phrase ‘special effects’ as applied to your films, you probably think, ‘we can’t afford that’. Or alternatively, maybe you think, ‘we don’t need that’. In 2015, both of those thoughts are outdated. The price of visual effects is in free-fall – so much so that I recently abandoned ‘Machinima’, the indie animated medium I pioneered for the world of Real Filmmaking. I had previously avoided live-action film because it came with so many limitations, but we’ve hit a tipping point on that, and many things I would have thought impossible to do on an indie budget are now more than doable. And at the same time, independent filmmakers outside the usual scifi-fantasy-action-horror genres are starting to realise that VFX ain’t just for the genre guys and girls any more. Almost every commercial movie and TV show uses subtle VFX these days. And you, too, can use them to enhance production values, improve storytelling and create scenes you couldn’t create any other way. So, I think that pretty much every filmmaker should be considering how she or he can use CGI to enhance their production. Here are three ways that you can affordably use CGI elements to enhance your films: Set Extension And Replacement With the advent of sophisticated tracking tools, you can easily modify your set in post-production. Set modification is comparatively simple. For each shot where the element you want to modify appears, you’ll simply track the camera (a function that After Effects now provides, although arguably external tools like Syntheyes are still better), then create a 3D element with the appearance you need. That element would usually be created in Photoshop. Here’s a simple example of going through the whole process in After Effects to remove an object from a complex moving shot: So what can you do with this? • You can remove or change inconvenient elements in a shot. Not only does that let you ‘fix it in post’, but with production planning it can save you a fortune. For example, you can remove modern-day elements from a historical shot, change a sign on a building (up to and including skyscrapers), or perfect your framing by taking out elements you don’t need. • You can create set elements that you don’t have or can’t afford, from jeeps to castles to entire cities (in the background). For example, here’s Star Wars director Gareth Edwards demonstrating how he added Constantinople to the skyline of Attila The Hun. And here’s how this effect pretty much makes Game Of Thrones possible. 2. Greenscreen Greenscreen has been around forever, but until comparatively recently it’s been a complete PITA to use and usually looked terrible unless you had an army of assistants to clean up your footage. But thanks to the ongoing march of technology in the VFX world, these days keying tools are (comparatively) easy to use. They’re also much, much faster than they used to be; Premiere’s ‘Ultra Key’ is particularly quick, and it’s now available in After Effects too. Here’s an example of what you can do as a rank amateur. This was literally the first time I’d touched modern greenscreen tools, and the tech side of the process took me less than a day: So what can you do with greenscreen? The obvious thought is to put people in fantastic, historical or sci-fi sets, as above – and of course you can do that. But there’s much more, too. For example, here’s Mr Gareth Edwards again (who was one of the big pioneers of using this kind of technology outside Hollywood) turning a single energetic actor into an entire army: At the less dramatic end, greenscreen can save your ass from expensive location pickup shots. I recently shot an action short in an abandoned factory, which was due to be entirely renovated the day after shooting. On the day, one actress couldn’t make the shoot. Disaster? Nope. We’re just picking up her shots on a greenscreen, then matching them into footage we shot on the day as background plates. What else could you do with greenscreen on your production? • You can completely re-locate your footage. TV shows do this all the time. Watch Gossip Girl’s interiors, frequently shot against a gorgeous New York backdrop, or check out these examples of studio-shot footage plus greenscreen. Again, people tend to remember the really spectacular uses of greenscreen, but just being able to shoot a sequence in your garage and have it look like it’s on a glitzy terrace, for example, can really change the possibilities of your film. • You can place your characters in harm’s way without doing the same with your actors. Stu Maschwitz’s DV Rebel’s Guide has hundreds of examples of this sort of thing. But, in short, the process is: shoot dangerous thing, shoot actor against green, key out background, composite and match lighting. All the tension, none of the lawsuits. 3. Stock Footage Insertion It’s tremendously easy these days to composite elements of stock footage into your shots. And this can be astonishingly powerful. The best use of stock footage compositing I’ve seen recently was in the TV show Orphan Black. At one point, a character’s attempting to flee another character who has a gun, into a cornfield. Firing guns on set is expensive, as we all know; and in this case it wouldn’t have served the scene. Instead, they simply cut to a wide shot, then had a gunshot go off – and some birds fly up, startled by the shot. Now, it’s possible that those were real birds. But if it was me shooting that scene, I’d definitely have just composited in the bird footage. It completes the shot, and turns a static video of a cornfield into a moment of high drama. Here are a few ways you can use this technique, which takes minutes, to add production value or allow you to shoot scenes that otherwise wouldn’t be possible: • The absolutely classic use for the insertion of stock footage is gunfire. Doing it well requires more than just a simple insertion of a flare, but it’s comparatively quick. Here’s a video demonstrating a single gunshot created in After Effects: • Explosions, fire and smoke are all effective uses of a stock footage insertion, allowing you to add the kind of shots you wouldn’t believe possible on a low-ish budget. If you watch a lot of TV shows carefully, you’ll see these effects all the time. Video Copilot are the usual go-to people for this kind of effect, and the results, done well, can be very impressive: • Subtle atmospherics can really add to production value and mood for a scene. Subtle smoke and fog, in particular, are comparatively easy to use and are very effective, and even more drastic changes like rain are also possible. Rain’s a bit of a pain in the neck to composite correctly, but it’s worth it for a wide shot. • Finally, background elements, or even actors, are a possibility. Have a stock-element character in a police uniform walk in front of your main character, out of focus, to sell an investigation scene. You can build a crowd from a whole bunch of stock elements, given time. It won’t hold up in focus for even a minute, but it’ll work as an out-of-focus background or a quick wide. And, of course, there’s the option of adding wildlife, as mentioned above! More Ambitious Stuff … and a few things you shouldn’t try You can get even more ambitious if you have the time or a modest budget. • CGI objects are much easier to sell than CGI characters. Even cars, planes or buildings are comparatively simple to build, render and make work in a shot. You’ll probably need a CGI expert or a month or so learning a CGI program to create, render and export the objects, but it’s doable on an indie budget. • If you’re going to go for CGI-that-looks-like-CGI, energy effects are probably the easiest ones to get away with. Beams, energy blasts, eldrich portals – a bunch of additive layers and some particle effects, and you can get to the point where they don’t get in the way of the story, at least. • It’s possible to substitute CGI for makeup to a significant extent if you only need it for a few shots. Zombie effects, glowing eyes, weird skin textures: all of those are very doable with 2015’s CGI. Here’s a great single-shot tutorial on a fairly drastic CGI makeup job. There are a few things you probably can’t get away with, though: • People loved my most recent short film, but the one negative comment I got was about the quality of the CGI. That’s because I’d gone for broke and included an entirely CG character as one of the two characters in a 10-minute piece. Even given I’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years, and I use the same motion capture technology as the Avengers Assemble team used, I couldn’t quite reach over the Uncanny Valley (although I have some ideas for improving in the future). For most filmmakers, CGI characters are still out of reach unless they’ll only be in a shot or two and, preferably, aren’t humanoid. • Animals are hard. You’ll need a hand animator to do their animation, which will be really expensive, and you’ll have a lot of the same problems as you would with humanoid creatures (above). If the animal doesn’t have fur, you don’t need it for more than about ten seconds and you have some budget to burn, it’s doable. If not, avoid. And that’s it! Have you had massive wins – or massive misses – using CGI elements in your productions? Let us know in the comments, or on Hugh’s Twitter. |
0 of 6 The St. Louis Rams were completely excluded from the 2013 Pro Bowl despite finishing with a respectable 7-8-1 record (according to NFL.com). The two-win Kansas City Chiefs were inexplicably awarded five Pro Bowl bids, but the drastically improved Rams were ignored by voters for a second consecutive year. The Pro Bowl carries little meaning and the credibility of the voting process is laughable at best, but the total lack of respect for St. Louis was surely a shocker for the local fans. It's not that the Rams had any monumental snubs, but they deserved a representative or two simply as recognition for the widespread improvement throughout the franchise. That recognition won't come this year, but if St. Louis continues on its current path, there will certainly be a number of Pro Bowl Rams in the future. With that in mind, which current Rams are bound to visit Hawaii in the near future, and what must they accomplish to make that happen? Read on for insight into those questions. |
We collect and annotate a dataset of 64,121 ECG records from 29,163 patients. The ECG data is sampled at a frequency of 200 Hz and is collected from a single-lead, noninvasive and continuous monitoring device called the Zio Patch (iRhythm Technologies) which has a wear period up to 14 days. Each ECG record in the training set is 30 seconds long and can contain more than one rhythm type. Each record is annotated by a clinical ECG expert: the expert highlights segments of the signal and marks it as corresponding to one of the 14 rhythm classes. We collect a test set of 336 records from 328 unique patients. For the test set, ground truth annotations for each record were obtained by a committee of three board-certified cardiologists; there are three committees responsible for different splits of the test set. The cardiologists discussed each individual record as a group and came to a consensus labeling. For each record in the test set we also collect 6 individual annotations from cardiologists not participating in the group. This is used to assess performance of the model compared to an individual cardiologist. |
Most of Berlin is still sleeping when Julia Krüger packs her backpack in her bare offices on a recent cold winter morning. Krüger, who works for the division of misappropriated apartments in the city's central Mitte district, takes along her employee ID card, a small notebook, a digital camera, two apples, a sandwich and some chocolate. She's wearing athletic shoes so that she won't have any trouble climbing stairs. Krüger, 24, is preparing to take back a part of Berlin that has been stolen. Today, she'll be on the hunt for dozens of the city's illegal holiday apartments, which, Krüger claims, are bad for the city's neighborhoods. "I have the feeling that I am doing something good with my work," she says. Krüger, who wears turquoise-colored nail polish and has the determination of an elementary school teacher, has requested the manager of a communist-era apartment building near Friedrichstrasse to meet her on-site at 8 a.m. She will ask him to open the doors to apartments which she suspects are being used as illegal vacation accommodations. "It would be best, of course, if we run into tourists," she says. Twelve Million Guests No German city receives more visitors than Berlin. Last year, almost 12 million tourists checked into hotels, youth hostels or pensions in the city. But many tourists also want to go beyond the Brandenburg Gate and TV Tower; they want to get a feel for the real Berlin -- something they can't find in anonymous hotels. As a result, thousands of them end up in apartments that used to house normal Berlin residents, but are now being rented to tourists, either on a temporary or permanent basis. Internet portals like Airbnb have created a niche market controlled by a handful of commercial providers that has become massively successful. Anyone can offer up their apartment using the service: All they have to do is write a short description, add three or four photos and, voilá, they've made the true Berlin experience accessible to the world. For some renters, Airbnb has become a lucrative source of side income. For others it is even their main earnings source. And for tourists, it provides a much better bargain than hotels. The Berlin Mietergemeinschaft, a renter's rights and advocacy organization, estimates that 18,000 vacation rentals are scattered across the city, a number that represents enough housing for a small city. According to research conducted by the University of Applied Sciences in neighboring Potsdam, over 7,000 short-term accommodations in Berlin are being offered by private individuals and commercial operations on Airbnb alone. A short time ago, a number of German media organizations reprinted an artist's illustration showing the number of Airbnb offerings versus rental apartments in the Wrangelkiez, a popular area of the city's Kreuzberg quarter. She found 102 vacation-rental listings, but only a single normal apartment for rent on one of the top rental listings websites. Unregistered Vacation Rental Ban In autumn of 2013, the Berlin city government passed a law banning all vacation rentals that had not been registered with the local authorities by summer 2014. The city granted an extension to just under 6,000 accommodations, but they, too, will have to be made available on the normal apartment rental market beginning by May 2016. The ban was imposed to prevent the city from becoming victim to property owners who would rather rent their apartments for 700 per week to tourists rather than offer them to normal residents for much less. The law is also meant to show that city officials in Berlin are taking the fight against gentrification seriously. Julia Krüger's boss says the idea is to create the impression among the people that the agency has an armada of employees working to stop these illegal rentals. But that armada is a bit sparse in Mitte, Berlin's central district, which is also home to the most vacation apartments. Right now it includes only four employees, with only two of those actually conducting inspections outside the office. Since starting her job six months ago, Krüger has been busy reviewing complaints from residents in the neighborhood who believe their neighbors are operating vacation apartments. Krüger has collected all of them in four binders. During each shift, she inspects two to six properties together with her colleague Diana Schmidt. Detective Work The two women approach their work like detectives, piecing clues together as they go. Indicators of a possible vacation rental can be a number instead of a name on the doorbell or the observations of neighbors. But it is seldom that they come across clear evidence. "We often have to rely on our gut feeling," says Krüger. If they consider the evidence they have collected to be sufficient, the owners are ordered to rent their apartment to normal renters after a hearing. So far, though, there has not been a single instance in which the complicated administrative procedure has been ushered through to completion. It's frigid and dark outside as Krüger and Schmidt, 46, reach the apartment block. The building manager walks across the street with a bunch of keys. Krüger has already taken photos of the gray-brown façade of the dreary East Germany-era apartment building, which looks like it hasn't changed a bit since the days of communism. In the hallway, the building manager closes the door to the first apartment on the eighth floor. Inside, there's a worn out leather sofa and a bed frame that has been taken halfway apart. There is no sign of any tourists and it smells as if the windows haven't been opened for quite some time. Krüger walks through the apartment and photographs each room, noting that there are "three rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom" and that it is "vacant". The smell is even stronger in the second apartment, where someone left household appliances and ruptured trash bags behind on the carpet. It's obvious that the sloppily emptied apartments served as vacation accommodations until a short time ago. All the furniture that has been left behind is identical and someone forgot to remove a sign on the inside of one of the apartments reading: "Please remember to close the door each time you leave your apartment." The building manager says the apartments have been empty since last summer and that the owner wants to demolish the structure and construct an "exlusive new building" on the property. More than half the apartments have been cleared. The only reason the building hasn't been torn down yet is due to resistance from a handful of renters who are fighting against being driven out. Broad Approval for Crackdown When the Berlin government made the decision to crack down on holiday rentals -- just as Munich and Hamburg had previously done -- the decision was met with broad approval. The vacation rentals had become a symbol for everything that had gone wrong with Berlin's apartment market as well as the tourism industry. The city is plagued with rapidly rising rents and the socially weak are being forced out of the more attractive central parts of the city. The city has also been helpless in figuring out how to deal with loud partying tourists and profiteers who are turning parts of the city into an amusement park. Many view the battle against the vacation rentals as being decisive in the effort to wrestle a piece of Berlin back from speculators and tourists. After two hours and without finding any current vacation rental, Krüger and Schmidt leave. The building manager points to the residential complex across the street and says, "There are vacation apartments all over the place there. You can tell by the curtains, which all look the same." It looks as though the city employees may have missed their day's quarry by just a few meters. "I'm hungry," Krüger says, packing up her camera. She will later write down "third party complaint" to note the tip-off from the building manager. Both want to return at some point, but first they need to check whether the vacation rental already has a legal extension until fall under the new rules. There's another aspect that complicates local officials' hunt for illegal vacation apartments. Most holiday rentals these days are only listed on the Internet. With a few clicks on Airbnb and other sites, you can peer into the living rooms of "elegant apartments in the Prenzlauer Berg district" or a bathroom in a "comfy studio in Kreuzberg." Renters almost never provide the exact address of an apartment. Furthermore, under current rules, Krüger and Schmidt are allowed to search sites such as Airbnb, but they are prohibited from using them to conduct sting operations. Germany's data privacy law bans them from conducting any form of undercover research. 'Needle in the Haystack' "As things now stand," says Stephan von Dassel, "we're looking for the needle in the haystack." Dassel is the district councilor for Berlin-Mitte and is responsible for the implementation of the vacation apartment ban. He is sitting in his office in the third story of city hall, a man with square glasses and sharp ears, who almost sinks into his desk chair. Dassel would like to have software programmed that would put together an address from the clues that a vacation-rental ad leaves behind online. He claims it would be simple from a technical standpoint. But he will most likely not be able to implement his plan. Berlin's privacy commissioner considers the use of a computer program like the one Dassel suggests as only being permissible if there is "initial suspicion" -- meaning, if the district authority already suspects that illegal vacation-apartments exist in a street. If the software doesn't work out, Dassel says, then he only sees one other solution: that a hacker offers him a CD with the addresses of all of the vacation homes in Mitte. "I don't know if I would be allowed to buy it," he says, "but I would do it." The allusion is to a recent wave of CDs and DVDs sold by sources within Swiss and Luxembourg banks to German government authorities for significant sums of money in exchange for data that has helped them identify tax evaders. It's now a steel blue morning two weeks after the first failed attempt. Julia Krüger drags herself across the street in a different part of the Mitte district; she has a cold and would rather be sitting in the office. Diana Schmidt is holding a cigarette in her left hand, and, in her right, a piece of paper that might be their key to success today. The women have by chance managed to find an advertisement online that shows the address of a vacation rental. It is supposedly on the ground floor of a pre-war building in a well-to-do area -- nice furniture, 90 square meters, space for six people, according to the ad. It costs as much as 216 per day. Another Let Down The blinds are down, and nobody reacts to Krüger's ringing. The sign with the name on it is nondescript. Krüger presses on a random buzzer. "Mitte district office. Misusage. Please open the building door," she calls into the intercom system, when a neighbor answers. Even though most Berliners are in favor of the ban, they are occasionally called names, Krüger says, like Stasi-spy, or they are taken for con artists. People are also sometimes angered by the fact that, according to the law, the women may enter a suspected vacation rental without a search warrant. Dassel, however, thinks it's unlikely that this right would stand up before the court, if a renter refused them entry. A retired couple in a bathrobe let Krüger and Schmidt into the building and then welcomes them into their home. "I need to sit down, I have unbearable pain," the man says, by way of greeting, and then slumps onto a stool in the hallway. Then he starts his monologue. He has never encountered any tourists, he claims, "and I know everything that happens in the building." The man talks and talks, and Julia Krüger rolls her eyes. At some point, his wife interrupts: "To be brief, we don't know anything." Because an online ad is not considered sufficient proof, the case goes into the "hold file." Krüger and Schmidt don't have any option except to return another time. And to hope that a tourist opens the door. |
Chicago, Once Again, Blocks Uber From Airport Pickups By Jim Bochnowski in News on Jun 2, 2015 9:45PM A yellow cab (Photo by Elena Kovalevich via the Chicagoist Featured Photos pool on Flickr) For the second straight year, the city is preventing Uber and other ride-share companies from picking up passengers at Midway and O'Hare. Under regulations passed last year, companies such as Uber are prohibited from picking up passengers at O'Hare, Midway and McCormick Place. This rule could be overturned, but only if a complicated set of conditions is met. Uber has been attempting to drum up public support for a modification of the rules via an online petition to the airport commissioner. It had about 370 signatures Tuesday afternoon. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, however, that proposal is dead in the water for the time being. In an e-mail to the Sun-Times, mayoral spokesperson Elizabeth Langsdorf wrote that "The administration is not planning to revisit those rules at this time — especially while the city continues to receive and investigate complaints about rideshare vehicles attempting to game the system." This comes as good news to the city's traditional taxi drivers, who operate in the city with additional expenses, including the cost of securing a taxi medallion, and can reap larger fares from taking passengers to and from the airport. As Peter Enger, an official with the United Taxidrivers Community Council, told the Sun-Times: "Even though the waits are very long, O’Hare is the place where we know we can make money. We're not competing with a hidden fleet of private car, UberX drivers. We've already had plenty of money taken from us on the streets of Chicago. We can't allow it at the airports." |
ASSOCIATED PRESS King Tut's tomb seen in a 2007 file photo. Egyptian officials believe there may be two hidden burial chambers beyond the walls of the tomb. King Tut's tomb may be hiding a huge secret. Egyptian officials said on Monday there's evidence of two hidden chambers behind the tomb's famous painted walls -- and one expert believes those secret rooms could be the long-lost final resting place of Queen Nefertiti. Monday's inspection of the walls of the 3,300-year-old tomb revealed scratches and other markings. "This indicates that the western and northern walls of Tutankhamun's tomb could hide two burial chambers," Mamdouh Eldamaty, Egypt's antiquities minister, told Ahram Online. Eldamaty visited the tomb with Nicholas Reeves of the University of Arizona, who made headlines around the world this summer when he said an examination of high-resolution scans of the tomb's walls showed evidence of a covered-up doorway. Reeves believes Queen Nefertiti's tomb lies beyond the wall, and that it may be completely undisturbed. #Tut is not enough "@artnet: Are we on the cusp of one of the biggest archaeological discoveries ever? http://t.co/Dj7o8sD4m3" — Lilly Library Duke (@LillyLibDuke) September 28, 2015 After inspecting the tomb in person, Reeves said there's even more evidence of hidden chambers. “What my Egyptian colleagues discovered is that there is a distinct difference in the surface of the surrounding wall and the central part that would be covering the door,” Reeves told National Geographic. “The surrounding wall is a softer plastering. At the point where I suspect there’s a doorway, it’s quite gritty.” NatGeo reports that gritty material is of the same type archaeologist Howard Carter discovered around another blocked entrance when he uncovered Tut's tomb in 1922. In addition, Reeves told Ahram that the ceiling extends past the tomb on both the northern and western walls. "I am pretty sure that a very important discovery is to be made soon inside Tutankhamun's tomb," he told the news agency. The next step is to visit the tomb with ground-penetrating radar, which may reveal any hollow space beyond the walls without damaging the paintings. Eldamaty said they will announce the results on Nov. 4, the anniversary of the discovery of King Tut's tomb. He said that while there is evidence of two hidden chambers, he doesn't think Queen Nefertiti will be found on the other side of those walls. "Maybe a room or a tomb... something there which will be a new addition to Egyptology but I don't agree that much with him that it is Nefertiti's tomb there," he told Luxor Times last month. He said he hopes it is Nefertiti, but added that whatever is hiding will be "an important discovery." |
+ T - Поделиться: Как-то осенью, после раскопок в букинистическом, зашла по дороге в маленькое знакомое кафе. Не то что замерзла, просто хотела посидеть спокойно над добычей. А кафе мало того что небольшое, там еще и столик в углу наполовину закрыт ширмой. Можно туда забиться и наслаждаться одиночеством. Кто чем, впрочем. Я раз сунулась со своим капучино за эту ширму, а там парочка — намертво сплетясь ветвями. Причем настолько одуревшие от любви, что меня, кажется, даже не заметили. Девушка только высунулась на секунду из-за бороды приятеля, словно птичка из куста, и скрылась обратно. Мне же от смущения показалось, что у парня десять рук... В общем, на этот раз я заглянула осторожно — никого. Да и вообще в кафе было пусто. Обрадовавшись, размотала шарф, уселась, достала книжки. Пересмотрела и придвинула к себе Платонова, а все остальное отложила на край стола. Том был увесистый, поеденный жизнью, с желтоватыми страницами. И замлела над ним. Народу никого. Тихо, только девчонки за стойкой переговариваются вполголоса. Глоток кофе — полстраницы. Еще глоток. Еще полстраницы. И еще. И так увлеклась этим неторопливым кайфом, что не заметила, в какой момент атмосфера в кафе изменилась. Стало неуютно. Кто-то отрывисто сипло матерился. Загремели стулья. Я порадовалась, что скрыта ширмой. И совершенно напрасно. Потому что легкая соломенная загородка отодвинулась и в освободившемся проходе появилась громоздкая фигура. Пришелец постоял, по-бычьи нагнув наголо обритую круглую башку, и тяжело опустился на стул напротив. Мне все это крайне не понравилось. Я решила, что надо продолжать читать, как будто ничего не замечаю. Такие люди не интересуются субтильными нахмуренными женщинами в очках. Может, он соскучится и уйдет. Надежды оказались тщетны. Он сидел и давил мне на психику. Наконец я раздраженно подняла глаза. Визави, разумеется, был пьян. При виде бандитской морды, расплющенных ушей и золотого перстня на среднем пальце настроение у меня совсем испортилось. На серой футболке, обтягивающей массивную грудную клетку незнакомца, горилла трахала блондинку. Явно скоромные надписи под этой жизненной сценой я читать побрезговала. Мужик уперся в меня страшноватым стеклянным взглядом и грозно посапывал. И наконец медленно, разделяя слова, спросил: — Пушкина... любишь? — Люблю, — с вызовом ответила я, в принципе уже готовая к конфликту. Собеседник еще посопел и вдруг сказал ворчливо: — И я его люблю. Люблю Александр Сергеича. Веришь — землю готов целовать там, где он проходил. Я, оторопев, молчала. А что тут, собственно, скажешь. Дух божий дышит где хочет. Вот такой пушкинист попался. Официантка на цыпочках принесла ему кофе. — Хочу квартиру у вас в Питере купить. Чтоб в его доме. Где он жил. Эту — на Мойке хотел. Отказались. Но я другую куплю. Стены буду целовать там. Полы буду целовать. Гений ведь! Люблю его. Ты что тут читаешь? А-а... А что один кофе? Погоди, сейчас пирожных закажем. Да не маши руками, я курить бросил, теперь вот на сладкое подсел. Над пирожными мы познакомились. Мужик оказался предпринимателем из Уфы. Во всяком случае, он мне так сказал. Звали его Димой. Питер — его любимый город после Сан-Франциско. Следующие двадцать минут мы оживленно обсуждали переписку с Пущиным и другие подробности личной жизни поэта. На все корки ругали Геккерна. Я, распалившись, пообещала подарить Диме двухтомник «Друзья Пушкина». Сгоряча съела три пирожных. Потом эклер ударил мне в голову и мы с пушкинским фанатом чуть не поругались из-за Натали Гончаровой. Привести слова, которыми Дима из Уфы характеризовал моральные качества Натальи Николаевны, я стесняюсь. — ...А как вы относитесь к Платонову? — неожиданно для себя спросила я. Дима опять помрачнел. Откинулся на спинку стула. Долго молчал. Наконец оперся обеими руками о стол, приподнялся, приблизил ко мне лицо, обдав сложной смесью алкогольных запахов, и свистящим шепотом медленно сказал: — Охуительный. Я понимающе покивала. — Помногу только не могу читать, — пожаловался Дима. — Крыша съезжает. Я опять покивала. Ну действительно ведь – оху... прекрасный писатель. И крыша съезжает. — Я его в первый раз, — доверительно продолжил мой новый друг, — на зоне читал. Там вообще — у-уу! крыша от Платонова едет. Обнаружив такое родство душ, мы совсем размякли. От Платонова перешли к Гоголю. От Гоголя к Италии. От Италии к Феллини. Дима блаженно, едва не со слезами, вспоминал эпизоды из «Амаркорда» и порывался заказать еще пирожных. И наконец рассказал, как они с приятелем ездили в Римини, на могилу классика. Каким-то невероятным образом их занесло в туристический автобус. («Пьяные, что ли, были» - недоумевал Дима.) Равнодушный гид тараторил программный текст, а под конец сказал, что если есть желающие, они заедут на могилу Феллини, а если таковых нет, то поедут в торговый центр. Народ облегченно загомонил: «В центр!» И тут, словно всадник Апокалипсиса, в проходе встал Дима. И грозно объяснил шокированным туристам, что автобус едет на могилу великого Федерико. А кому не нравится, пусть «засунут языки в жопу и сидят в автобусе», пока Дима с другом будут поклоняться праху. Видимо, были еще какие-то доводы, о которых Дима мне рассказывать не стал, но только водитель беспрекословно поехал в Римини. Там два интеллектуала нашли могилу гения, выпили из фляжки коньяку, налили и Феллини, прямо на землю — чтобы было на троих, как полагается. Вернулись в автобус и сказали: «А теперь можете ехать в торговый центр». Допили коньяк и заснули. Мы помолчали. Я все еще улыбалась, представляя, как они пили с Феллини коньяк. — А вообще, — сказал Дима, мрачнея на глазах, — это мертвое кино. Мертвое кино... Для мертвых людей. — Что? — растерялась я. — Феллини. И Пушкин. Платонов. Это все для мертвых людей. И я — мертвый человек. После этих слов он совсем захандрил. К тому же вдруг материализовался из воздуха невзрачный молодой человек в строгом черном костюме, который почтительнейше именовал Диму Дмитрием Васильевичем и оказался личным водителем. Дима нехотя встал, расцеловался со мной через стол и вышел. Двухтомник «Друзья Пушкина» так и стоит у меня на полке. Дима, будешь опять в Питере — он тебя ждет. |
David Cameron has cautioned Vladimir Putin against ripping up the international rulebook by destabilising Ukraine and promised to warn the Russian president of the long-term economic consequences if he pursued this course when the two leaders meet at the G20 summit this weekend in Australia. It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since the Ukraine crisis erupted. It is also expected that Barack Obama will hold a bilateral with Putin at the summit. Putin was debarred from a meeting of G8 leaders in Wales earlier this year in protest at the Russian invasion of Crimea In his set-piece foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor of banquet in the City of London, he warned his business audience that Britain’s economic security depended on its national security, adding: “Russia’s illegal actions are destabilising a sovereign state and violating its territorial integrity.” He said Russia was “ripping up the international rulebook and disregarding the democratic will of the Ukrainian people to determine their own future. This weekend has seen further shelling, and reports of more heavy weapons moving from Russia into south-east Ukraine.” He added: “There will be those who say that this isn’t our business and that we shouldn’t interfere. And some will argue that we can’t – that we have no influence to bear. But I believe both views are wrong.” He acknowledged that no military solution was available, but said “economic sanctions on Russia are having an impact. Capital has flown out of Russia, banks are short of finance, and the Russian stock market and Rouble have fallen significantly.” He said that Russia’s actions posed a grave danger to the rest of Europe, adding that Britain should not need to be reminded of the consequences of turning a blind eye when big countries in Europe bully smaller countries. Although the former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev has said that the world is on the brink of a new cold war, Cameron said this was not the outcome he sought and nor was it inevitable. But he promised he would tell Putin at the Brisbane summit that if “Russia continues on its current path, then we will keep upping the pressure and Russia’s relationship with the rest of the world will be radically different in the future. Of course there will be those who will argue that we should just draw a line under what has happened and that our own economy will suffer if we don’t. But they are wrong. “If we allow such a fundamental breach of our rules-based system to go unchecked then in the long run we will suffer more instability and ultimately be worse off as a result. So once again Britain’s engagement is not just morally right, but also in our national and economic interest.” |
The Golden Disk Awards has revealed the confirmed the attendees for their two-day event which includes the largest names in the Korean entertainment industry! For January 14th, confirmed artists include BEAST, Ailee, Taeyang, 4Minute, Apink, Miss A‘s Fei, WINNER, SISTAR, GOT7, Girl’s Day, AOA, Epik High, Tasty, K.Will, and Korean MC Kim Sung Joo. Meanwhile, EXO, CNBLUE, INFINITE, BTS, Taetiseo, VIXX, BESTie, SHINEE‘s Taemin, B1A4, Red Velvet and MCs Girls’ Generation’s Tiffany and Super Junior‘s Leeteuk who will host along with Miss A’s Fei are confirmed to attend on the year-end ceremony on January 15th. The 29th Annual Golden Disk Awards will commence in Beijing in January and voting for Golden Disk of the year and Digital Album (single) of the year are currently open and the competition is getting heated as the day draws near. Take a look at who’s nominated at the 2015 Golden Disk Awards! Tune in to see the hottest performances and see if your favorite artist wins the coveted awards. Source: Baidu |
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Wednesday, in ongoing efforts to strengthen the political connection between the two countries. "My visit to China and your visit here today in Jerusalem express the determination of our two governments to form even stronger friendships between our two countries and much stronger cooperation," Netanyahu stated, in an official press briefing with Yi. "Our strengths, I believe, complement one another. China has massive industrial and global reach; Israel has expertise in every area of high technology; and I think that the combination could be very beneficial to China and of course to Israel." Among the areas Netanyahu mentioned for collaboration included agriculture, water management, global transportation and healthcare - not just hi-tech. The Prime Minister also stressed another regional issue: the importance of maintaining a hard stance against a nuclear Iran. "We believe that for the peace of the world, for the peace of the coming years and decades, Iran must be denied the capability – I stress the word – the capability to develop nuclear weapons," the Prime Minister stated. "It must fully comply with UN Security Council resolutions. It must end all enrichment, dismantle its centrifuges, eliminate all stockpiles of enriched uranium and dismantle its heavy water reactor in Arak so that it will not be able to produce plutonium." "I think that this is something that the international community in its entirety must stand firm on," he concluded. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi responded positively. "It gives me great pleasure to come to Israel," Yi began, noting that this is his first time visiting the Jewish State. "I have first and foremost come to Israel for the furtherance of friendship between our two countries," Yi stated. "Indeed, there is a profound traditional friendship between people of our two countries." "Our two economies are highly complementary, and the mutually beneficial cooperation between us enjoys a very bright future. During your visit to China this year, Mr. Prime Minister, you reached a very important agreement with President Xi Jinping, and Premier Li Keqiang of China on how to further deepen the mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries." Yi referred to a deal struck between Netanyahu and Chinese officials to establish a task force for economic growth between the two countries. "I have come to explore with my Israeli counterpart on how to further implement all the important consensus and explore the various areas of even stronger cooperation between us so as to deliver greater benefits to both peoples." Israel has stepped up efforts to create economic ties with China in recent months. Both Netanyahu and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett visited the Asian superpower earlier this year and reported great success. Bennett noted that not only did China express great interest in working with Israel's hi-tech industry, but also that they had no interest in getting involved in Israeli-Arab political affairs. But the burgeoning friendship is not without its complications. Just yesterday, the family of an American killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack accused the Israeli government of "sabotaging" a lawsuit against the Bank of China - which is accused of facilitating the transfer of funds for terrorist groups - due to Chinese government pressure. According to the Wultz family, whose 16 year old son Daniel was killed in a 2006 Tel Aviv suicide bombing by Islamic Jihad, Netanyahu agreed to pull a key witness in return for a lucrative visit to China in May with his family. |
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