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Prime Minister Theresa May and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn have been strongly criticised for their absence during ITV's Leaders' Debate. In the first TV debate of the general election campaign, the Lib Dems, Green Party, Plaid Cymru and SNP frequently clashed with UKIP's Paul Nuttall, at one point joining together to deride Vote Leave's '£350m a week for the NHS' pledge.

Pinochet usaba música de Julio Iglesias y George Harrison para torturar a sus víctimas Al igual que los protagonistas de la Naranja Mecánica los prisioneros del régimen asociarán para siempre estas melodías al padecimiento físico y psicológico afp Actualizado: 12/09/2013 19:57h Guardar Enviar noticia por correo electrónico Tu nombre * Tu correo electrónico * Su correo electrónico * «My sweet lord» será para siempre una canción maldita para los torturados durante la dictadura chilena de Augusto Pinochet, según un estudio británico publicado con motivo del 40 aniversario del Golpe de Estado en Chile. En la «banda sonora de la tortura» había éxitos de Julio Iglesias, el ex Beatle George Harrison o de la banda sonora de la «Naranja Mecánica». Al igual que los protagonistas de la película de Kubrick, los prisioneros del régimen asociarán para siempre estas melodías al padecimiento físico y psicológico. «Las canciones se ponían a todo volumen durante horas, todos los días, mientra se inflingían toda clase de torturas» explica Katia Chornik , investigadora de la Universidad de Manchester. Por ejemplo, un antiguo detenido explica como sus torturadores habitualmente entonaban «Gigi el Amoroso», de Dalida, antes de llevarlo al interogatorio donde era vejado con la misma canción de fondo. «Pero la música también permitió a algunos presos a encontrar el coraje para soportar el acoso y en algunos centros de Santiago como el de los Tres Alamos incluso se formaron coros», según la doctora Chornik. «La música era una manera de hacer frente a su terrible sufrimiento. Muchos presos perdían consciencia de su ser y las canciones eran una manera de recordar quiénes eran y lo que creían», considera la investigadora. La unión entre la música y la tortura es una realidad hoy en día en otros países del mundo. Por ejemplo en Irán, un centro de tortura es popularmente conocido como «la discoteca» por los agentes. La música sirve, entre otras cosas para cubrir el sonido de los gritos de los torturados. La lista se ha elaborado con el testimonio de viejos prisioneros del régimen y de un miembro de los servicios secretos chilenos de Pinochet. Durante la dictadura murieron más de 3.200 personas, cerca de 38.000 fueron torturadas y centenas de ellos desaparecieron.

Made my abusive cheating partner move out My cats and Reddit are the only thing keeping me going 156 shares

Israel breaks up Hezbollah terror cells in West Bank Israel’s security services reveal they broke up a number of terror cells in the West Bank and within Israel created by the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Hezbollah operatives from the group’s Unit 133 — its foreign operations unit — recruited the would-be terrorists through social media sites, including Facebook, the Shin Bet security service says. These terror cells had planned to carry out suicide bombings and ambush IDF patrols in the West Bank. They received funding from Hezbollah, and some members had begun preparing explosive devices for use in attacks, the Shin Bet says. “The Hezbollah organization has recently made it a priority to try to spark terror acts, doing so from far away while attempting to not clearly express its involvement,” the Shin Bet says. — Judah Ari Gross

am I the only one around here who doesnt fucking watch csi 165 shares

grorg.org: a proud member of the useless websites community. The Quest for the Ultimate Milkshake My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. Kelis 1 Since the dawn of time, humans have fought the laws of physics and pasteurisation in order to create the perfect blend of milk and shaking. To my knowledge, this battle has not yet been won, so I took it upon myself to search the world in the quest for the Ultimate Milkshake. Even though I’ve been on this mission for more than twenty years, I have not found many milkshakes that reach a worthy grade. For this reason, I only list a few milkshakes here - the best of the best. The search has covered about 20 countries and consumed many hundreds (possibly thousands) of shakes. If you have a suggestion for a great milkshake, please send it to me. At this point you might be wondering what it takes to make the perfect milkshake. Well, it is hard to quantify. I like my milkshakes heavy on the ice cream–almost to the point of requiring an industrial strength straw in order to withstand the amount of raw suction required to get the liquid from container to mouth. I also prefer if the flavour comes from the ice-cream rather than a syrup. I can’t remember ever having a great milkshake that used syrup for the flavour (they are usually way too sweet). If it is my first visit to the milkshake vendor, I start with a classic vanilla (preferably with the seeds of the vanilla bean visible). A repeat visit might have me branch out to chocolate or caramel, and then to the full flavour repertoire after that. Ok, that’s enough dairy chit-chat. Let’s get on to the shakes. Aside: New England and their “frappes” Before we start, a quick discussion about one of my favourite milkshake locations. For some reason those wacky New Englanders call their milkshakes “frappes”. I overlook this affront to the art of blended milk because they make amazing drinks. Seriously, Boston could be named the milkshake capital of the world. Generally everything I’ve had around there has been exceptional (including Cambridge and Harvard). One more thing about Boston: there is a damn fine chocolate milk available called Berkeley Farms. I’m not sure how they do it, but they’ve managed to blend together the two ingredients into a perfect mix.2 And while we’re on a chocolate milk digression, I was overjoyed to find Canada makes a customized brand of chocolate milk just for me!! 3 Toscanini’s in Cambridge, MA If you’re lucky enough to spend some time around MIT then make sure you check out Toscanani’s. It’s just up the road towards Central Square. The sign out the front says “World’s best ice cream”, which is a pretty big boast4, but they live up to it. They make fantastic milk shakes with a wide selection of flavours. There is nothing better than walking through a hot, humid Boston summer to get an icy-cold milkshake. In fact, the Toscanini milkshakes are so good there is nothing better than walking through a freezing Boston winter to get an icy-cold milkshake. And if you can enjoy a milkshake when it’s -10C, then you know it is pretty amazing. My recommendation: Vanilla. Hint: get a frequent milkshakers card if you’re going to be visiting a number of times. And you should! Emack and Bolio’s around Boston, MA and elsewhere Emack and Bolio’s motto is “Ice Cream for the Connoiseur”, and they mean it. This is a mini-chain that is now open in nine states across the US. As you can tell by the menu shown here, they put the fun back into ice cream. Now you might say that the fun never left ice cream, but whatever, Emack and Bolio’s make great milkshakes and that is all I care about. I’ve only been to the store in Roslindale, but I’m pretty confident the quality would be consistent everywhere. I’ve tried a few flavours and loved them all. I remember asking the staff what type of monster they used for the Monster Mash flavour and whether the grasshoppers in the pie were local to the area. My recommendation: Chocolate Moose, but try them all Bobtail Soda Fountain, Chicago, IL The Bobtail Ice Cream Company make fantastic ice cream, with some unusual flavours like pumpkin and cinnamon. Honestly, I’ve never tasted such great ice cream. They also have a few outlets where they’ll make you a milkshake. Now any milkshake expert will tell you that a milkshake tastes best in a metal cup. Not only does it taste better, you usually get more to drink (those 50s-style glass containers aren’t enough to fill you up). Bobtail certainly delivered, with a metal cup that instantly started condensing water on the outside and was cold enough to give you a sore hand. I visited the store in Broadway near DePaul University. I remember telling the staff about my quest for milkshake nirvana and how their creation had instantly made the list. When I visited about six months later they remembered me, a pleasant experience which made the milkshakes even tastier!! My recommendation: Vanilla milkshake (as usual). For ice cream, try the Daley Addiction. The rest of the World I’ve had a lot of milkshakes in a lot of places and the ones listed above stand out so much that I’m not bothering to mention the other contenders. Well, except one. I’d feel bad for not plugging a local shop - Rubee’s in Canberra. Their milkshake isn’t fantastic, but their “frozen custard”5 is awesome. Get a concrete. My favourite: chocolate with macadamia nuts. I’m always on the lookout for milkshake recommendations. Please send them in.

US / Death penalty: UN experts call for federal moratorium US / Death penalty: UN experts call for federal moratorium as Boston bomber gets death sentence GENEVA (26 June 2015) – The United Nations Special Rapporteurs on summary executions, Christof Heyns, and on torture, Juan E. Méndez, today called on the United States Government to establish a federal moratorium on the imposition of the death penalty with a view of abolishing it. The experts’ call comes after Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was formally sentenced to death this week for his part in the Boston marathon bombings in April 2013, confirming the recommendation made by a federal jury last month. “Despite the fact that the crimes committed by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev fall within the most serious crimes provision of international safeguards, this decision contradicts the trends towards abolishing the death penalty in the country in law and practice,” the human rights experts said. “It would have been preferable to sentence the author of the Boston marathon bombings to life imprisonment instead of keeping him in the spotlight throughout years of the appeal process,” they said. “The death penalty does not show respect for life, in fact it does the opposite. There is no proof that it has a special deterrent effect. Especially if imposed for crimes motivated by ideological or religious considerations, this form of punishment plays into the hands of those who treat life as dispensable and encourage rather than discourage them,” the experts stressed. The Special Rapporteurs recalled that more than three quarters of countries worldwide have abolished the death penalty either in law or in practice, and the US, like the rest of the world, is moving away from the use of capital punishment. The State of Nebraska abolished this punishment on 27 May 2015, and other states such as Colorado, Delaware, Montana and Kansas, are currently debating its abolition. The State of Massachusetts abolished capital punishment for state crimes since 1984 and has not executed anyone in the last 70 years. “The decision of a federal jury to impose the death penalty for a crime committed in Massachusetts, where the death penalty has been abolished for decades, illustrates how out of place this form of punishment is,” they said. The experts also called on the US Government to reconsider whether “the use of the death penalty per se respects the inherent dignity of the human person,” and noted that “such punishment causes severe mental and physical pain or suffering and constitutes a violation of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” “Despite all efforts to implement capital punishment in a ‘humane’ fashion, time and again executions have resulted in degrading spectacles. The death penalty as a form of punishment is inherently flawed,” they stressed. “The argument of the federal authorities, that their hands are tied when it comes to the death penalty since it is a matter decided by state law, is unacceptable,” they highlighted. “International law holds the nation as a whole accountable for all its constituent organs or jurisdictions. And there are concrete steps that the Federal Government could take, including a moratorium on the death penalty for federal crimes.” The Special Rapporteurs echoed previous calls by the Human Rights Committee and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urging the US Federal Government to consider establishing a federal moratorium on the death penalty. The experts are in contact with the State concerned to clarify the issue in question. ENDS © Scoop Media

One of the benefits of our recently released catching defense metrics is they’re essentially ready-to-project, thanks to the regression feature of the model (the "R" in RPM). RPM also gives us two ways to assign value to framing, one using context (the ball-strike count) and one using a flat value (recently adjusted* to ~.155 runs). To date, we haven’t found an aging curve in the PITCHf/x-based framing metric we developed. This makes projecting framing performance a little easier, and for extreme simplicity I have created a set of projections for 2014 based on a 3-2-1 weighting of framing opportunities for the past three seasons. First, though, we wanted to generate a "retrojection" to test RPM’s success in predicting 2013’s framing performances. Since RPM seasons are regressed to careers, and pitcher and umpire adjustments are derived from those actors’ “career” numbers, a retrojection requires recreating the 2008-2012 numbers as if 2013 had never occurred. Since the probabilistic portion of the model (the "P" in RPM) is specific to each season, there's no need to recreate the zone maps (see first footnote below). The WOWY (With or Without You) corrections for pitchers and the umpire corrections were all recreated without including 2013, and new regressed “career” lines were created with 2008-2012 totals for each catcher. Those 2008-2012 seasons were then regressed to these new, abbreviated career lines. Finally, the 3-2-1 weighting was applied for 2010-2012 to arrive at retrojections for 2013. The verdict? The retrojections did very well. Both context-dependent and generic run projections (as rate stats) correlated with actual 2013 performance at better than 0.81. That’s a lot of variance (>65 percent) captured by a simple model. So with a fair amount of confidence in the crystal ball and the playing time assigned to each catcher in our own Depth Charts, we can project player and team framing contributions for 2014. Yasmani Grandal is currently projected to top framing magician Jonathan Lucroy in 2014, based on playing time projections from March 30 (which may be optimistic for Mr. Grandal, as the Padres recently added a third catcher, Adam Moore). It’s a close race, perhaps too close to call. Look down just a few spots, and you'll see some other young backstops, along with the usual suspects (Brian McCann, Russell Martin, Ryan Hanigan, the Molinas). Yan Gomes just got a contract extension that raised some eyebrows; maybe his framing projection will help lower a few of them. Grouping by team, we can see Tampa’s dynamic duo leading the way, with the Rockies' terrible trio bringing up the rear. *Since first publishing RPM, we've reset the run expectancies used in the final calculations to vary by season, to reflect the drop in scoring we’ve seen during the PITCHf/x era. During that process, we realized that we were about .01 runs low on the generic framing factor. It’s a zero-sum** game, so you won’t notice a difference of any substance. **Next, we'll have to ensure that the framing totals zero out by season. The run totals do zero out overall, but in 2008 everyone seems to be getting penalized an extra run, with things moving in the opposite direction in 2013. This is reflected in our 2014 projections, too.

California Assembly Bill 5, in its original language, seemed as though it could end freelance journalism in the state. The bill, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law September 18, codifies and expands on a 2018 California Supreme Court decision that made it harder for companies to classify workers as freelancers rather than employees. As employees, workers are covered by state laws on the minimum wage, worker’s compensation coverage, workplace discrimination and other protections. As freelancers, they are not. The bill grabbed nationwide headlines because it appears to define the workers at Uber, Lyft, and other “gig economy” tech companies as employees, covered by a range of workplace protections. When it became clear the bill would pass, Uber, Lyft, and Doordash pledged $90 million toward qualifying a ballot measure that would let them continue to classify their drivers as independent contractors. The core of the Dynamex decision, and of the new law, is a three-pronged “ABC test,” which is used to determine who is and isn’t a freelancer. The “B” prong, which presents the biggest issue for freelance journalism, states that employers can only contract out work that is “outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.” A company in the business of journalism, then, could not hire freelancers to do journalism. As CJR reported in March, some publishers responded to the Dynamex ruling by cutting ties with freelancers based in California. The passage of Assembly Bill 5 offers some relief: freelance writers, editors, photographers and editorial cartoonists were given a partial carve-out, allowing publishers to hire them for up to 35 separate “content submissions” in a given year. (The law exempts more than 20 professions, including doctor, lawyer, manicurist, travel agent and commercial fisherman. Graphic designers have a full exemption, which means California judges could find themselves ruling on how much Photoshop work it takes to distinguish photography from graphic design.) PREVIOUSLY: A California class-action suit imperils freelancers It’s not hard to find freelancers who say they will run into that limit. “I’ve worked for sites such as AOL that are mostly run with senior editors doing longer stories and freelancers doing the daily news hits, and in my experience it’s been really easy to go over 35 bylines in less than a month with those,” Zac Estrada, a writer and editor in Los Angeles who covers automotive and technology news for a variety of publications, says. “Earlier this year, I was working for a site doing daily news contributions, and they wanted at least 50 per month.” Sign up for weekly emails from the United States Project California’s new freelancing rules have prompted one site, for which Estrada works as an editor, to re-examine the way it distributes work. He hasn’t had any work from that site this month. “I’m glad the state of California is looking out for workplace issues and benefit, but I don’t see a way this bill helps me,” he says. “A lot of people I know love freelancing and wouldn’t take a full-time job even if it offered them more money.” Nathan Cambridge, a freelance sportswriter in Los Angeles, covers football games and other high school and community college sporting events for local newspapers in Burbank, Glendale, and La Cañada Flintridge. All three papers are owned by the Los Angeles Times; it’s not clear from the text of the law whether the three will be treated as individual employers, or as one. If they’re considered separate, then Cambridge has exceeded 35 stories for one client twice in the past five years. If they’re considered a single employer, then he exceeds 35 stories every year (with an average of 59 per year, and a high of 103 in 2013). “In an ideal world, the company would recognize the value of my content and think, ‘Rather than not being able to use this person anymore, I’ll give them a job,’ but that’s not the world we’re in with newspapers,” Cambridge says. “What’s going to happen is, I’m going to hit 35 and they’re going to stop giving me assignments.” Community newspapers and local weeklies are going to feel the pinch of the 35-byline limit, Steve Falk, the CEO of Sonoma Media Investments, says. The company owns the daily Press Democrat in Santa Rosa and two community weeklies in Sonoma County, along with a weekly business journal, two magazines, a Spanish language newspaper, and a cannabis news website. At the weeklies, Falk says, it’s common for freelancers to write weekly columns on food, wine, or local events. “They write 52 weeks a year, and that becomes a problem now,” he says. “We will have to pick the 35 most important weeks for them to write.” The number, he adds, “just seems so arbitrary.” Why a limit of 35 stories? The number is the result of negotiations between lawmakers and interest groups, including journalists and journalists’ unions, according to Steve Smith, communications director for the California Labor Federation. The union coalition was one of Assembly Bill 5’s chief supporters, and worked on it with its author, San Diego Democrat Lorena Gonzalez. “We had a lot of discussions with journalists and with unions that represent journalists,” Smith says. “You needed to thread the needle. If you had a blanket exemption, what would prevent any newspaper or magazine or online publication from saying, ‘I’m going to get rid of all my employees and make everyone a freelancer’?” Catherine Fisk, a professor of labor law at the University of California, Berkeley, says the 35-byline rule is an attempt by the legislature “to distinguish between people who are really, effectively, a staff writer and people who are truly freelancers.” She calls the threshold a “bright-line rule” and likens it to a speed limit. “There might be reasons why 65 isn’t the best speed limit for the road you’re on, but don’t try arguing with the cop about it,” she says. Assembly Bill 5 could have been worse for newspapers and other publishers. The first drafts of the bill had no partial exemptions for freelancers who write fewer than 35 times per year. And a separate bill gave the newspaper industry an extra year to classify its freelance delivery carriers as employees. Even under the pre-Dynamex regime, newspapers faced numerous lawsuits from carriers seeking employee status and back wages. Under the bill, Uber and Lyft will be exposed to lawsuits from local and state prosecutors. Publishers aren’t likely to face the same enforcement pressure. But the risk is there, and California prosecutors are sometimes of the activist type. If publishers are sued, freelancers would be the intended beneficiaries. But it doesn’t feel that way to Cambridge, who sees his freelance work covering high school sports as something of a community service. “High school sports are there for the community,” he says. “That’s half the reason I do it, and it’s half the reason I feel threatened by this. It’s not just money and it’s not just a job that’s being threatened, it’s the community feeling threatened by this. It feels like the state of California has a beef with Uber and we’re caught in the crossfire.” ICYMI: The news according to migrants in Italy Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Tony Biasotti is a freelance writer in Ventura, California. Find him on Twitter @tonybiasotti.

Another US Navy chopper has crashed after a first accident in Norfolk (Picture: PA) A US military helicopter crashed in the Atlantic tonight – the second to come down in as many days. The Navy chopper went down off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia. It came less than a 24 hours after a Pave Hawk crashed in Norfolk on the east coast of England, killing four crew members. Four of those involved in the Virginia crash were rescued but one person later died. Teams were searching for a fifth person. Meanwhile, four crew members killed in the Pave Hawk crash were named tonight. They were Capt Christopher Stover and Capt Sean Ruane, who were the helicopter’s pilots, and special mission aviators Technical Sgt Dale Mathews and SSgt Afton Ponce. Their bodies remained at the scene on a nature reserve in Cley-next-the-Sea this evening and are not expected to be recovered until tomorrow. Capt Ruane’s wife, Rachel, said on a website at the time of their marriage in 2011 she was proud of his job and: ‘There are very few men like him.’ Police and crash investigators have been held up by munitions, thought to be live ammunition, among the debris scattered around an area the size of a football pitch. The helicopter was carrying out a low-level training mission from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Sue McKnespiey, who lives nearby, said it flew overhead ‘very fast and very low’. She added: ‘This sounded very heavy and very unusual.’ Col Kyle Robinson, commander of 48th Fighter Wing stationed at the base, said: ‘I can only imagine the hurt and sorrow felt by the family and friends of these airmen.’

“I felt like it was time to put myself in the place of that young man,” Yoba said in an interview Tuesday. “If I could admit that publicly, other people would have permission to do the same.” Yoba’s profession of his attraction to transgender women comes at a time when discussions about black men’s masculinity, sexuality and shame have garnered more attention following Willoughby’s death. Making the declaration at his own behest and without other sources claiming to have knowledge of his attraction is possibly a first among high-profile black male celebrities. AD AD Yoba’s acknowledgment is an important step toward demarginalizing transgender people, said Tricia Rose, chancellor’s professor of Africana studies at Brown University. “It blurs the presumed bright line between trans and heterosexuality,” she said. Yoba’s public acknowledgment of his attraction to transgender women serves to affirm the womanhood of transgender women, said Marquis Bey, an assistant professor of African American studies at Northwestern University. “For a celebrity to profess an attraction to trans women works to assert the gendered validity of trans women as not only women but women worthy of non-fetishistic desire,” he said. The cheers and derision that met Yoba were followed by an allegation from a transgender woman who said she had engaged in sexual activity with the actor when she was a minor and a sex worker, allegations Yoba has denied. AD AD Earlier this year, Willoughby professed his love for his transgender girlfriend on Facebook, captioning a picture of them that read: “Y’all can say whatever about Faith I really don’t care if she not passable I don’t care if she wasn’t born a woman she is a woman to me & I love her flaws that’s what makes her faith if you heard her story it’s motivating. … I’m happy you should be happy for me.” Attacks on Willoughby followed, both online and in person, including an instance that was caught on camera in which men scornfully question his sexual behavior with transgender women. Willoughby’s girlfriend said on an Instagram live stream last month that he had died. James Garrow, spokesman for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said the medical examiner has not issued a final ruling on the cause of death. AD AD Yoba captioned the video and an article about Willoughby’s death to call attention to the unacceptable behavior. He announced he would attend the National Trans Visibility March in Washington later this month and said he finds himself attracted to transgender women. “I too have felt the self-imposed shame that comes with that truth, but it’s time to speak up,” he said in the caption. The post has since been deleted from Yoba’s account. Yoba followed up with another now-deleted Instagram post on Labor Day in which he thanked people who had reached out to him in support of his public acknowledgment, apologized to his three children for the “foul messages” they’ve been receiving since his posting and reiterated his support of transgender men and women. AD The comments on the two posts ranged from expressions of thanks for his honesty to homophobic slurs. AD Shortly after Yoba declared his attraction and support, a transgender woman wrote a Facebook post claiming that she had a sexual relationship with the actor when she was a teenage sex worker in New York decades ago. She alleged that Yoba paid her for sexual favors when she was 13 and 16 years old. In a subsequent video, the woman said she chose to share her story “because he decided to say something,” noting that Yoba wasn’t the only celebrity client who had cruised the street where she worked in search of transgender women. The woman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Washington Post generally does not identify victims of alleged sexual offenses without their consent. AD While Yoba’s admission can be seen as revelatory, his declaration that he is being open and authentic could be countered if there is any truth to the allegation against him. AD Bey said that if the allegation against Yoba is true, then it is a testament to the way black sexuality is linked to societal scrutiny and spectacle. “Shame and stigma surrounding black cis male attraction to trans women is symptomatic of the general invalidating criticism black sex and sexuality is accosted by,” he said. Yoba denies the woman’s allegations and says he doesn’t know who she is. The actor said that he expected people to say “crazy” things after his posts but that he didn’t anticipate such allegations. AD The accusation, he said, is a cry for help and an indication of the issues facing transgender youth: homelessness and sex work. About 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT, according to a 2012 Williams Institute report. A December 2015 survey of 694 transgender adults found that nearly 11 percent reported participating in sex work, and an additional 2.3 percent indicated they had traded sex for rent or a place to stay. AD Marissa Miller, lead strategic director for the National Trans Visibility March, said not enough is known about the accusation for march leaders to issue a statement. The main agenda, Miller said, is the march and the 8,000 people who are expected to attend. AD “For me, knowing what my intention is and the work that I’ve done, for someone to play in that space and try to defame, vilify [and] take a moment to do that, is heartbreaking,” Yoba said. If there is an allegation of wrongdoing on Yoba’s part, a report should be filed, according to Sgt. Jessica McRorie, a spokeswoman for the New York Police Department. “The NYPD takes child abuse, sexual assaults and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors,” she said in a statement. AD Yoba said he’s not letting the “foolishness” that followed his announcement detract from the purpose of the march or his pursuit to improve the lives of transgender Americans. AD He is co-hosting a workshop during the weekend of the march about what love looks like for transgender people with transgender TV personality and model Carmen Carrera — a friend who inspired him to live his life more authentically after they hung out on a float at a recent Pride Day parade, he said. He is also negotiating a deal in Harlem that would provide housing for LGBT youths of color, he said. Yoba said closeted transgender people and men who “love a little bit more fluidly” have reached out, often using the word “brave.” “That comes from a very deep place for a lot of people,” he said.

Based on the fanfic of the same name ( link ), From the bleachers is an American High school AU. Ryuko Matoi is center snare at her local high school, just starting out her junior year with her best friend Nonon Jakuzure, the drum major. The school year seemed like it was going to be pretty boring - until she started talking to varsity cheerleader Mako Mankanshoku. It is a “ A riveting story full of romantic cliches, except now the cliches are gay “. This is a (not so little) klk fan project I’ve been working on. I post new chapters up on the 30th of every month. Credits and thanks to @ryumako for the original fanfic and for letting me do this. Chp 1 Impressions: here Chp 2: (link) Chp 3: (link) Chp 4.1: link

Export/Download Printable Text (.txt) CSV Multiverse id (.txt) Markdown/Reddit MTGO (.dek) MTG Salvation MTG Arena Copy to clipboard 3 Blood Crypt (RNA) 245 4 Bloodstained Mire (KTK) 230 4 Burning Inquiry (M10) 1 Call to the Netherworld (C19) 108 2 Collective Brutality (EMN) 85 4 Faithless Looting (MYS1) 140 3 Flameblade Adept (AKH) 131 3 Flamewake Phoenix (FRF) 100 3 Gifted Aetherborn (JMP) 239 1 Gurmag Angler (MYS1) 102 4 Hollow One (HOU) 163 1 Island (2XM) 375 2 Lightning Bolt (JMP) 342 1 Mountain (2XM) 379 3 Polluted Delta (KTK) 239 4 Soulflayer (C20) 138 1 Steam Vents (GRN) 257 4 Street Wraith (MMA) 108 4 Striped Riverwinder (HOU) 48 2 Swamp (2XM) 377 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang (FRF) 87 2 Watery Grave (GRN) 259 3 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn (C20) 107 2 Alpine Moon (M19) 128 2 Bontu's Last Reckoning (HOU) 60 1 Collective Brutality (EMN) 85 2 Fatal Push (2XM) 93 3 Leyline of the Void (M20) 107 3 Stubborn Denial (KTK) 56 2 Thoughtseize (2XM) 109 Copied to clipboard. You can now import it in the MTG Arena client. In TappedOut's comments/forums In TappedOut's comments/forums with pie-chart On your blog This will require TappedOut.js included in your blog.

A 15 year old Afghan boy was blown to pieces while tackling a bag that contained a bomb in Athens. His sister is in intensive care, struggling for her sight. The Nuclei of Fire Conspiracy deny any involvement in the deadly event. A powerful explosion which occurred at 22:41 on Sunday night outside the Greek Company for Business Management (EDEE) in Patisia, Athens, has killed a 15 year old boy from Afghanistan, also wounding his sister's eyes and slightly wounding his mother. According to the mother, the two children saw a bag outside the prestigious establishment and the girl opened it revealing a mechanical clock. Deciding it does not work, the boy immediately took the bag back where they found it when the bag exploded blowing the boy into pieces and blinding the girl. Given there was no warning phone call for the bomb, the police initially believed that the bomb could be a response of extreme-right groups to the bombing of the Golden Dawn offices earlier this month. This story has now subsided with the Ministry of Public Order claiming that the wiring of the bomb is similar to the one found outside the Chilean Consulate in Salonica last year, a device which was claimed by the Nucle of Fire Conspiracy. However the NFC published a communique in which they express their grave grief for the deadly incident and their rage at the mass media which are trying to implicate them. The NFC denied categorically any involvement in the incident, stressing that they always call two media to warn about their bombs, giving at least 20 minutes to the police to evacuate the area, while also using two mechanical clocks, so as to avert any accident. To the allegations of the media that the bomb was the one about which a warning call was made the same morning but was never found, the NFC have responded that unlike the warning call reported, their are always clear mentioning the precise road and location of the device. The morning warning call was about a bomb in EBEE an acronym that means nothing. The NFC claim that they would prefer their being arrested than leaving a blind bomb to explode after the authorities have failed to spot it. The urban guerrilla group also stressed that if indeed this bomb is the work of a revolutionary group and not a parastate provocation, then it should be immediately claimed by the group responsible - concluding that if it is a "blind attack" then it is the work of the extreme-right similar to Piazza Fontana. The authorities have refused to comment on the NFC communique claiming it will not "open a dialogue with terrorists". It must be noted that even the police admits that the pipe-bomb device used is similar to the bomb against the Buenoventura antiauthoritarian centre in Salonica earlier this year. The death of the 15 year old is the first civilian death related or allegedly related to domestic armed struggle since the early 1990s, when a rocket of the N17 aimed at the then Minister of Economics killed a bystander, effectively signaling a reversal of the then mass support for the group. It must be also noted that the 22 year old man arrested in Volos with the ecuse of a single fingerprint of his found in the supposed NFC haunt in Chalandri has been released on conditions of not leaving the country. In an unprecedented breach of the law, all media carried the man's picture, creating a climate of "man-hunt".

List of Canadians in NCAA March Madness Share: It’s that time of the year again – we are about to begin the NCAA Tournament making this the time for March Madness! After a season that had arguably the most Canadian men actively on NCAA rosters it’s time for some of them to start their trip through the tournament season. We have been following these men closely since October and now we have a complete list of our Canuck men playing in all four of the invite only events right here … NCAA Tournament Midwest Region Buffalo – Jarryn Skeete, Rodell Wigginton Kentucky – Trey Lyles New Mexico St – Daniel Mullings, Tanveer Bhullar, Matthew Taylor, Jalyn Pennie, Rashawn Brown Valparaiso – Tevonn Walker, Max Joseph West Region Oregon – Dillon Brooks Harvard – Agunwa Okolie, Chris Egi, Patrick Steeves (likely not participating due injury) Baylor – Kenny Chery East Region Villanova – Dylan Ennis Lafayette – Jake Newman Providence – Junior Lomomba Dayton – Dyshawn Pierre Oklahoma – Dinjiyl Walker Albany – Richard Peters Virginia – Marial Shayok South Region Gonzaga – Kyle Wiltjer, Kevin Pangos, Dustin Triano San Diego St – Kevin Zabo Utah – Dallin Bachynski Iowa St – Naz Long NIT Colorado St – Joe De Ciman Green Bay – Tevin Findlay Illinois St – MiKyle McIntosh Old Dominion – Denzell Taylor Richmond – Kadeem Smithen Stanford – Stefan Nastic Montana – Daniel Nwosu UTEP – Matt Willms (likely not participating due to injury) CBI Seattle – Emerson Murray, Jadon Cohee, Manroop Clair Vermont – Trae Bell-Haynes, Drew Urquhart Rider – Junior Fortunat UC Santa Barbara – Alex Hart CIT James Madison – Yohanny Dalembert Eastern Kentucky – Jaylen Babb-Harrison Maryland-Eastern Shore – Ishaq Pitt Canisius – Jamal Reynolds, Kassius Robertson, Cassidy Ryan Cleveland St – Kaza Keane Grand Canyon – Miroslav Jaksic St Francis – Ben Millaud Bowling Green – Brandon Busuttil Portland – Riley Barker (likely not participating due to injury)

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What is "beautiful?" Depends who you ask! Beauty is a very subjective thing, and its definition changes wildly depending on who you ask. What's ugly and hideous to one person is attractive and sexy to the next. There's no better example of this than the Japanese yaeba phenomenon. Some people in Japan think that a yaeba 八重歯 （ やえば ） , or snaggletooth, can be the cutest part of a woman. When those front teeth stick out or overlap, it just drives some Japanese men crazy. But why? Some say that yaeba makes a woman look cute, almost childlike; like when a kid's teeth aren't fully grown in yet. Lots of cultures value signs of youthfulness – yaeba is just looking at youth in an unusual way. Crooked teeth have become so appealing to some people that you can get a procedure called tsuke yaeba 付 （ つ ） け 八重歯 （ やえば ） or "attached snaggletooth" to get your own, fake yaeba. Want to get some fake chompers? Hop on over to Dental Salon Plasir in the Ginza district of Tokyo, one of several places across Japan where you can get tsuke yaeba. Dental Salon Plasir offers a tsuke yaeba procedure that adds custom fitted, removable caps to your teeth for around the low, low price of about US$400. Don't think it's worth the money? Then maybe their commercial will sell you on the procedure. Watch as a woman goes through the whole process of getting tsuke yaeba: And if you're still not entirely sold on the idea of getting some teeth capped, maybe the allure of fame will do it for you. There's even a new idol group comprising solely girls with yaeba called TYB48. They've got all the same looks as idol sensations AKB48 – plaid skirts, giant bows, and a young, innocent demeanor. The only way you that TYB48 looks from pop battalion AKB48 is their not-so-perfect teeth. It should be obvious (but still worth mentioning) that, like any other aspect of beauty, the attraction to yaeba isn't anywhere near universal. In the grand scheme of things, the attraction to yaeba is very niche, but it's undeniable that the attraction to yaeba is pretty unique to Japan. To me, the yaeba phenomenon is interesting because emphasizes that all over the world, people sometimes do weird things for beauty. After all, you don't have to look far to see the strange, sometimes harmful things that people do for beauty, like liposuction, Botox treatment, tattooed eyebrows or lipliner, or harsh, orange tans. If anything, the whole yaeba trend seems pretty innocuous in comparison. Unlike a lot of other beauty procedures, tsuke yaeba is completely temporary and harmless.

The latest installment in a continuing series in which American events are described using the tropes and tone normally employed by the American media to describe events in other countries. WASHINGTON, United States—On Tuesday, voters in this country of 300 million, the world’s second-largest democracy and most populous Christian nation, will head to the polls for elections that will determine control of the upper house of the legislature and serve as a referendum on the country’s embattled ruling regime. While international monitors expect a mostly free and fair contest, questions have been raised about why the equivalent of the GDP of Montenegro is being spent on a contest to determine the membership of a body expected to accomplish little over the next two years. Human rights observers have also noted a troubling rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric stoked by far-right nationalist candidates. President Barack Obama’s ruling party will almost certainly lose seats, but whether or not the opposition is able to take over the upper house will be determined by closely fought races in the nation’s torrid southeastern swamps, central agricultural region, and even frigid Arctic villages thousands of miles from the capital. There is no shortage of pressing issues, from a sluggish economic recovery to multiple foreign wars, facing this large and diverse society. Still, elections in this vast nation can often be characterized by idiosyncratic local rituals. In this campaign season, feats of strength involving dominating animals have been popular. One opposition candidate for national office has boasted of castrating pigs, another of wrestling alligators. While the country’s citizens have migrated en masse to large cities in search of greater economic opportunity, specialists in American folkways say people here still value these demonstrations of rural aptitude. Not to be outdone, government loyalists have boasted of their marksmanship and snowmobiling skills. Appealing to nationalist sentiment, the opposition has accused the government of allowing too many immigrants to make their way across the country’s southern border, tying this issue to fears of deadly viruses and terrorism. There have also been disturbing unconfirmed reports of a “war on women” being waged by religious extremists in the country’s Western mountains. In this deeply traditional society, where great import is accorded to family ties, powerful clans build patronage networks, and political office is often passed between relatives. Remarkably, one race pits the cousin of a former governor against the daughter of a former senator. With control of the upper house coming down to just a few key races, the election has been bitter, combative, and expensive. In one coastal state, the ruling party and its supporters have spent more than $26 million attacking a single opposition candidate. Not surprisingly, the election has also become a contest for influence among America’s politically powerful oligarchs, who often seek to control elections by employing a complex form of legally sanctioned slush funds. The vast fortunes spent and passions aroused are particularly noteworthy given that few expect the legislature to pass much in the way of meaningful legislation. America is still governed under an unwieldy 18th-century political model employed by few other functioning democracies. With the executive mansion and legislature controlled by two different parties, there’s little hope of large-scale reforms. While 2014 has seen a rash of military coups and America boasts both a staggering level of income inequality and the world’s most heavily armed populace, political forecasters say a violent uprising is still unlikely. While few are satisfied with the political process as it exists, most Americans are either apathetic about the state of affairs or deeply invested in the current system. Most are already gearing up for the all-important presidential election coming in two years. Not surprisingly, many expect it to be another brutal contest between the country’s two top political dynasties.

The Pentagon is raising an alarm about “rapidly” growing Chinese military capabilities, from long-range bombers to a blue-water navy, as mainstream media warn that Chinese pilots are “likely” training for strikes against the US. Long-range bomber training missions “targeting the US” – this is how the US mainstream media reported the findings of the Pentagon’s annual assessment of Chinese military capabilities in 2017, published Thursday. What the 145-page report actually says is that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) air force has “rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against US and allied targets.” China is actively developing its fleet of long-range bombers and "likely" training its pilots for missions targeting the US, according to a new Pentagon report https://t.co/dgP1O2hs1Jpic.twitter.com/VLVVkIoJin — CNN International (@cnni) August 17, 2018 From that passage, it is clear that the Pentagon is concerned about Chinese capabilities against forward US bases in places like South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and maybe even Guam – not the continental US, which China can already reach with nuclear missiles anyway. The US military seems particularly alarmed by the prospect of China developing long-range bombers. A “stealthy, long-range strategic bomber with a nuclear delivery capability” could be operation “within the next 10 years,” the report says, completing the so-called “nuclear triad” of delivery systems. It must be purely a coincidence that this assessment comes as the US is working on developing a next-generation long-range bomber, and has invested heavily in the F-35 fighter program, estimated to cost over $1.5 trillion over its lifetime. Read more The report also contains claims that China is developing weapons to target US satellites in orbit, including “kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots.” This is in no way likely to be used to drum up support for President Donald Trump’s “Space Force” plans, of course. The annual report on Chinese capabilities is mandated by US law. It is also the first such report since the adoption of a new national defense strategy in January, which called “inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism,” the primary concern for the US. A two-page fact sheet accompanying the report offers clues as to China’s actual military priorities: the current goal is mechanization, with partial “informatization” being a goal for 2020 and “basic modernization” by 2035. The Chinese leadership aims to have a world-class military “by the middle of this century,” the fact sheet says. In 2017, Beijing actually cut 300,000 personnel from its ground forces and reorganized them on a brigade structure. The PLA Marine Corps is being expanded, going from 2 brigades and 10,000 personnel to a projected 30,000 marines in seven brigades by 2020, according to Pentagon projections. This expanded marine corps would also be able to engage in “expeditionary operations” - the likes of which the US Marines have conducted since going to the Shores of Tripoli in 1801. Beijing continues to build destroyers and frigates, as well as submarines, for the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, conducted its first training deployment in 2017. The report also brings up the expansion of People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM), based around a fleet of state-owned fishing vessels operated in coastal areas. Clearly, the Pentagon is facing a “fishing boat gap” that needs to be addressed forthwith. MY TAKE: #China’s #MaritimeMilitia is known clearly to the US gov't. By documenting these important facts officially & authoritatively, the Pentagon’s 2018 China report has performed a signal service: Revealing the PAFMM & its true nature is important to deterring its future use. — Andrew Erickson 艾立信 (@AndrewSErickson) August 16, 2018 While Beijing is undeniably expanding its military capabilities, that buildup has to be seen in context. China currently has only one overseas base, in the East African country of Djibouti, and its military budget for 2018 was estimated at $175 billion. Meanwhile, the US has nearly 800 military bases around the globe, and President Trump just signed a bill authorizing the Pentagon to spend $716 billion in 2019 - up from $700 billion this year. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Flat front end, dynamic design and impressive rear spoiler – it’s clear from the outset that the new Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport1 yearns for corners and challenging country roads. Pure and unadulterated. A genuine thoroughbred. Bugatti has been producing sports cars homologated for public roads for over 110 years. In the past, vehicles such as the Type 13 and Type 35 have claimed countless victories at international hill climbs and road races. The Chiron Pur Sport1 is no exception to this long-standing tradition. The new model is an uncompromising hypersports car for exactly those winding roads – a new aerodynamic configuration generates more downforce while the lower weight increases agility. Even travelling at average speeds will stimulate all the senses thanks to a close-ratio transmission, high-performance tyres with a new material mix geared towards extreme grip as well as an agile chassis and suspension setup. By contrast with the Chiron Super Sport 300+, the record-breaking car that exceeded the threshold of 300 miles per hour for the first time, the Chiron Pur Sport focuses on extraordinary, tangible performance throughout the entire range of speeds. Chiron Pur Sport “We spoke to customers and realised they wanted a vehicle that is geared even more towards agility and dynamic cornering. A hypersports car that yearns for country roads with as many bends as possible. An unadulterated, uncompromising driving machine. Consequently, the vehicle is called Chiron Pur Sport1”, explains Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti. “By cutting the weight by 50 kilogrammes while simultaneously boosting the downforce and configuring an uncompromising, sporty chassis as well as suspension setup, the Chiron Pur Sport1 boasts incredible grip, sensational acceleration and extraordinarily accurate handling. It’s the most uncompromising yet agile Bugatti of recent times.” Extraordinary design The Chiron Pur Sport’s concept has been geared towards agility in every sense of the word. The Design Development department’s focus was to lend the Pur Sport a confident appearance. As a result, the front end is dominated by an intentionally dynamic expression. Very wide air inlets and an enlarged horseshoe panel at the bottom serve as perfect radiator air outlets. The vehicle’s striking splitter generates maximum downforce by protruding considerably at the front while also making the vehicle seem wider. Primary lines run across the air outlets on the front wing like tendons on a muscle, radiating the design image of a well-honed athlete. A new optional split paintwork design has been developed for the Chiron Pur Sport1. The entire bottom third of the vehicle features exposed carbon fibre to make the vehicle seem even lower. From the sides these dark surfaces merge with the colour of the road surface and make the Pur Sport appear even flatter. The rear of the Pur Sport proudly carries the vehicle’s rear spoiler spanning 1.90 metres to generate serious amounts of downforce, and the striking diffuser also significantly boosts the vehicle’s aerodynamics. In this process, angled wing mounts form a large X in conjunction with the rear apron, a feature that is inspired by elements of science fiction and motorsport . The design is rounded off by the extremely lightweight and highly temperature-resistant exhaust tailpipe made of 3D-printed titanium. This production method gives the components very thin walls, thus helping to save weight where it really matters. The vehicle interior is deliberately sporty and raw, and has been reduced to the absolute minimum. Large surfaces have been upholstered with Alcantara to save weight. Dynamic patterns have been lasered into the Alcantara door trim panels featuring contrasting fabric highlights with a metal look. Alcantara guarantees an ideal grip on the steering wheel and improves the side support on seats – even at extreme lateral acceleration levels. All trim and controls are made exclusively of either black, anodised aluminium or titanium. Contrasting cross-stitching adds colour highlights, as do the steering wheel’s 12 o’clock spoke and the blue centre spine. Sophisticated aerodynamics and exhaust system A large diffuser and fixed rear spoiler generate plenty of downforce at the back end, while also helping to boost agility. At the same time, doing away with the hydraulic component of the otherwise automatically extending spoiler reduces the weight by ten kilogrammes. Rear wing mounts and diffuser form an aggressive and sporty X-shaped design. “We focussed particularly on the agility of the Chiron Pur Sport1. The vehicle generates more downforce at the rear axle while the large, front splitter, air inlets, wheel-arch vents featuring optimised air outlets and a reduced vehicle height strike a clean balance at the front”, Frank Heyl, Head of Exterior Design and Deputy Head Designer at Bugatti, explains. New wheel design Frank Heyl and the Technical Development department teamed up to devise a magnesium wheel design featuring optional aero blades for the Pur Sport. Arranged in a ring, the blades guarantee ideal wheel ventilation while also boosting aerodynamics. While the vehicle is in motion the rings fitted to the rim extract air outwards from the wheel where it is immediately drawn towards the rear. This invention prevents adverse turbulence in the wheel area and also improves the flow across the side of the vehicle. A special cover on each of the five wheel nuts minimises turbulence and adds a final visual touch to the wheel’s design. Cutting the weight by a total of 16 kilogrammes results in a lower unladen weight and also reduces the unsprung masses of the already ultra-light Bugatti wheels. “All of the modifications make the Pur Sport’s handling more accurate, direct and predictable. Lower unsprung masses result in improved grip because the wheel maintains contact with the road surface more easily. Anyone behind the wheel will immediately feel its lightweight character through bends”, Jachin Schwalbe, Head of Bugatti Chassis Development, adds. An accomplished interpretation of “form follows performance”. New tyre development Bugatti and Michelin developed the new and exclusive Bugatti Sport Cup 2 R tyre in 285/30 R20 dimensions at the front and 355/25 R21 at the rear to match the new Aero wheel design. Thanks to a modified tyre structure and a rubber mix that creates more grip, this combination boosts the vehicle’s lateral acceleration by 10% to additionally increase its cornering speed. Magnesium wheel design featuring optional aero blades Uncompromising chassis and suspension setup Bugatti specifically configured the chassis and suspension to be uncompromising on winding roads – without any detrimental effect on comfort. A new chassis setup featuring 65% firmer springs at the front and 33% firmer springs at the rear, an adaptive damping control strategy geared towards performance as well as modified camber values (minus 2.5 degrees) guarantee even more dynamic handling and added agility in bends. Carbon-fibre stabilisers at the front and rear additionally minimise roll. “This setup makes the Chiron Pur Sport1 steer more directly and accurately through bends and maintains the grip levels for a very long time – even at high speeds. In conjunction with 19 kilogrammes of weight reduction of the unsprung masses the Pur Sport almost glides across roads”, Jachin Schwalbe explains. In addition to the wheels’ weight reduction totalling 16 kilogrammes, titanium brake pad base panels cut the vehicle’s weight by a further two kilogrammes while brake discs strike yet another kilogramme off the total weight. “These 19 kilogrammes fully contribute towards the performance. Less weight results in more grip and tangibly more comfort, as adaptive dampers are forced to deal with lower masses to thus be able to maintain the wheels’ contact with the road surface more easily”, Jachin Schwalbe adds. Engineers have guaranteed more direct contact with the road surface by making the connection between chassis, suspension and body 130% firmer at the front and 77% firmer at the rear. Apart from the four familiar EB, Motorway, Handling and Sport drive modes, the Chiron Pur Sport1 features the new Sport + drive mode to make this enhanced performance more emotionally tangible. In contrast to Sport mode, the traction control system kicks into action on dry race tracks at a significantly later point in the new mode aimed at more skilled cornering experts, making it possible for drivers to change their personal driving style even more than before from razor-sharp ideal lines to drifts, also through fast corners. New transmission development A new transmission featuring an overall gear ratio that has been configured 15% closer together guarantees even more dynamic handling and further improves the power distribution of the 8.0-litre W16 engine generating 1,500 horsepower and 1,600 newton metres of torque. The vehicle now unleashes its full power at 350 km/h. “We were forced to reduce the speed as a result of the vastly increased downforce, generated by the new rear spoiler”, Schwalbe explains. 80% of the transmission has been revised while the entire gear set including four shafts and seven forward gears has been adapted to the new conditions. “We reconfigured each gear and calibrated new ratios despite this iconic engine boasting an abundance of power. The gears are closer together now to enable shorter gear jumps and also benefit performance. Most of all when coming out of corners the Chiron Pur Sport1 accelerates even more aggressively in conjunction with the added grip as well as the more direct chassis and suspension”, Gregor Gries says as the Head of Major Assemblies at Bugatti. At the same time Bugatti has increased the maximum engine speed of the W16 unit by 200 rpm to 6,900 rpm. In conjunction with the closer overall gear ratio this creates significantly better elasticity. As a result, the Chiron Pur Sport accelerates from 60 to 120 km/h almost two seconds faster than the already lightning-fast Chiron2. All in all the elasticity values are 40% better compared with the Chiron2. Production output and cost 2020 will be a special year for Bugatti. The French manufacturer based in Molsheim will be delivering the first Bugatti Divo3 vehicles this year, a creation showcased at Pebble Beach in 2018, as part of a limited small-scale series totalling 40 units. Production of the Chiron Pur Sport1 will start in the second half of 2020. Limited to 60 units at three million euros excluding VAT. “With the Chiron Pur Sport1 we are showcasing an outstanding vehicle that makes your heart race shortly after having started the engine to push the limits of driving physics even further to the limit than any vehicle ever has done before. This means we have come full circle, back to the good, old Bugatti tradition”, Stephan Winkelmann adds confidently. 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SQL Tutorial SQL tutorial provides basic and advanced concepts of SQL. Our SQL tutorial is designed for beginners and professionals. SQL (Structured Query Language) is used to perform operations on the records stored in the database such as updating records, deleting records, creating and modifying tables, views, etc. SQL is just a query language; it is not a database. To perform SQL queries, you need to install any database, for example, Oracle, MySQL, MongoDB, PostGre SQL, SQL Server, DB2, etc. What is SQL SQL stands for Structured Query Language . . It is designed for managing data in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is pronounced as S-Q-L or sometime See-Qwell . . SQL is a database language, it is used for database creation, deletion, fetching rows, and modifying rows, etc. SQL is based on relational algebra and tuple relational calculus. All DBMS like MySQL, Oracle, MS Access, Sybase, Informix, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server use SQL as standard database language. Why SQL is required SQL is required: To create new databases, tables and views To insert records in a database To update records in a database To delete records from a database To retrieve data from a database What SQL does With SQL, we can query our database in several ways, using English-like statements. With SQL, a user can access data from a relational database management system. It allows the user to describe the data. It allows the user to define the data in the database and manipulate it when needed. It allows the user to create and drop database and table. It allows the user to create a view, stored procedure, function in a database. It allows the user to set permission on tables, procedures, and views. SQL Index

Donald Trump will not become US president because the voters realise it is a serious job, Barack Obama said. Mr Obama contrasted the reality of being president with the rhetoric on the campaign trail, saying doing the job is not like hosting a reality show or a talk show. The president was speaking after hosting a summit with south-east Asian leaders, and warned that foreign observers are "troubled" by the Republican primaries and debates. Mr Obama said other countries count on the US to side with science and common sense, and he criticised Republican presidential candidates for harsh talk about Muslims and immigration and for questioning climate change. Expand Close U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia during a statement delivered in Rancho Mirage, California February 13, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia during a statement delivered in Rancho Mirage, California February 13, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Read More He said: "This is not just Mr Trump." Mr Obama predicted that US voters will "make a sensible choice in the end". Mr Trump hit back, saying the president's prediction that he will not be elected to the White House "actually is a great compliment". The billionaire developer outlined his complaints about Mr Obama's presidency, saying: "You look at our budgets, you look at our spending, we can't beat ISIS. Obamacare is terrible ... Our borders are like Swiss cheese." Answering questions at a campaign event at a school in Beaufort, South Carolina, he said Mr Obama "has done such a bad job, he's set us back so far, that for him to say that actually is a great compliment". Mr Trump added that Mr Obama was "lucky I didn't run last time, when Romney ran, because you would have been a one-term president". PA Media

INDORE: In a grisly indicator of just how merciless the summer of 2019 is, 15 monkeys in ’s Punjapura Range have been killed after losing to another band of monkeys in a fight for control of a pond. This entire region has been baking in 45-plus heat for the past week. Denied water, these monkeys died as their organs shut down due to dehydration. Shocked, the forest department is carrying out a behavioural study of monkeys in the region and has made water arrangements for the group that lost the fight. A cowherd spotted the carcasses on Friday and rushed to the nearby beat office. The alarm went out and senior forest officers scrambled to the scene. Initial autopsy showed that all the monkeys died due to and consequent multi-organ failure. Foresters were puzzled because a pond was close by. Then, they saw a bigger band of monkeys, numbering 50-60, seemingly guarding the pond. “The water source was barely a few hundred meters from the cave where this group of monkeys lived. However, due to the dominance of another group, this group could not access the water source. To protect themselves from the heat, many monkeys entered the cave, but the rocks became hotter. Some of the weaker monkeys couldn’t get out of the cave, where they died,” DFO Dewas P N Mishra said. Forest officials have made provisions of water, and chickpeas for the defeated group. The carcasses were cremated, and viscera of some of the monkeys has been sent for forensic tests to Sagar to check for possible contagious infections. There are five to six groups of monkeys in the region where the deaths occurred. Foresters are surprised that territorial fights, or as in this case, a fight over water, could get so violent among monkeys. The Punjapura forest range has other herbivores, including deer, but no other fatalities due to dehydration have been reported. Forest officials have set up night vision trap-cameras to study the behaviour of monkeys and to check if any other factor contributed to the deaths.

A TEENAGER who imported drugs on the dark web so he could 'experiment' with their effects was told to 'grow up' by a judge. Recorder Gareth Evans told Charlie Juson he did not believe the 19-year-old had imported the drugs entirely for his own use. However, he said the crown prosecution service had not charged Juson with intent to supply so he must proceed to sentence on the basis he sought the drugs for personal use. Juson's barrister, Silas Reid, said Juson had been described as a 'psychonaut' by a police expert which translates as a 'sailor of the soul', someone who experiments with altered states of consciousness. Juson admitted importing a drug of class A into the country from Holland, three counts of possession of a controlled drug of class A, three of possession of a controlled drug of class B and three of possession of a controlled drug of class C when he appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Friday. Christopher Lester, prosecuting, said Border Force intercepted a suspicious package from Holland bound for Juson's home address in Highmore Street, Hereford on October 24 last year. When it was opened MDMA ecstasy tablets were found inside and the package was passed to police who carried out a warrant at Juson's home. There they found more drugs, including 2.5g of ketamine worth about £50, £5 of amphetamines, a further wrap of ketamine worth £20 and three packages of drugs that contained hallucinogenic mushrooms and mephedrone. Juson, who had no previous convictions, made full admissions in interview. Police found evidence that Juson had accessed the dark web to get the drugs from Holland. Juson said people had contacted him asking about the drugs but he had never responded. Silas Reid, defending, said the case did not fit easily within the guidelines and described Juson as a 'psychonaut', 'someone who tries as many different drugs as they can get their hands on'. Mr Reid said Juson's father died at the age of 16 because of a condition the defendant had inherited. "His arrest was a salutary lesson and then some" he told the court. Juson had received counselling, a service which would be available to him in future. Recorder Gareth Evans QC said: "This is a very unusual case. "The first offence is, on the face of it, a very serious matter, importing drugs into this country but the crown prosecution service did not charge you with being in possession of any drugs with the intention of supplying. "The case always has been that they're all for personal use and I will sentence you on that basis but please don't think for one moment I believe it." He added: "It was an experiment. The experiment is over. Grow up." Recorder Evans sentenced him to eight months in prison suspended for two years and ordered him to pay £340 costs and a £140 victim surcharge. He must also complete 200 hours of unpaid work in the community. Recorder Evans further ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs seized by police.

A Victorian man has been arrested after horrifying footage of emus deliberately being mown down went viral on social media earlier this week. Ouyen police arrested a 20-year-old Cowangie man on Friday following the animal cruelty incident which occurred sometime during the past two weeks. The man has been interviewed and is expected to be charged on summons with aggravated cruelty to an animal, cruelty to an animal, torment to an animal, destruction of protected wildlife and a number of traffic-related offences including using a mobile phone while driving and speeding. During the incident, a number of emus were allegedly struck by a vehicle between September 1 and 20 on Pellaring Road, in the town of Cowangie, about 540 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. The video appeared on social media on Wednesday evening and has since been widely shared by horrified members of the public.

‘Why is Neymar not worth €600m?’ – Buffon puzzles over Barcelona star’s fee The veteran goalkeeper believes that things have gone crazy this summer and believes that some of the prices are entirely "random" star Gianluigi Buffon has admitted that he does not understand the fees that players are being bought and sold for in this transfer market. Get Juventus Serie A title odds Neymar, for example, has been associated with a €222 million move from to , while there has also been speculation that striker Kylian Mbappe could make a €180m transfer to , , PSG or Barcelona. “It all sounds fake,” the 39-year-old goalkeeper told Gazzetta dello Sport. “Why is Neymar worth €220m and not €600m? My grandfather always said: ‘Inflate and inflate, but the balloon will always burst.’ “I can’t understand the parameters for evaluating a player anymore. It’s all very random and everything is in the hands of the people who have the most money: today it’s 10 but tomorrow it’s 100.” The Juve legend believes that his side’s domestic dominance will be challenged by , purely because of the cash the San Siro club have splashed. “I think they’ll be competitors because they have spent so much money, even if there is a state of indefinite value in this market,” he said. Juventus in for Balde & Matuidi Juventus go into this campaign, which Buffon has said may be his last, seeking a seventh successive domestic crown, having claimed a record sixth in May.

by G Edds / 0 Comments / 117 View / August 1, 2016 By Tony Adams Sports Editor Stratasys Direct Marketing, formerly know as Harvest Technologies, is a company that specializes in radid prototype design, three-dimensional computer-aided drafting (3D CAD), and the production of parts for multiple industries, such as the medical, aeronautic and aviation fields. Stratasys held a “Take Your Children to Work Day” to show some of the youth in the Belton area what Stratasys does and how they help make some of the things that we take for granted on an everyday basis better. Children were able to see how powder mixes were molded and baked into parts. They also got an opportunity to see how computers are used in the making of the parts. The pictures should tell you the amount of information the children processed and the interest level was at a high, especially with those on summer vacation preparing to return back to school. Related

Singing is hard. But like anything else, practice helps — whether you’re a professionally trained vocalist or just want to sound less pitchy for your next karaoke outing. Besides, traditional vocal coaches are an expensive investment if you’re not planning on a career that’s musical in nature. Vanido is a new app that might be able to help, claiming to be a “personal singing coach” by offering personalized daily exercises to improve both your voice and your ability to recognize notes. The app is built around “real-time visual pitch detection” — i.e., detecting what note you’re singing and showing you the results visually as you sing it. Each day the app will give you a set of three exercises to try, broken up by four categories: agility, foundation, chest voice, and head voice. Vanido looks to gamify your daily practice by grading your performance on a three-star scale, and awarding experience and level ups (although right now, there’s no social features for comparing stats with friends). I spent some time trying out Vanido, but while the app is a cool concept when it works, it’s still very much a work in progress. Vanido fared well when it came to recognizing notes, and dialed in on my range pretty accurately. But I ran into some issues when it came to actually working through the exercises. While the voice recognition works seamlessly with the iPhone’s built-in microphone, the daily exercises require a pair of headphones with a mic, and despite my best efforts in trying (along with multiple pairs of headphones) I couldn’t get Vanido to smoothly process notes. That said, the app is incredibly well designed, with bright colors and a fun interface, and for what it’s worth, the developers fully acknowledge that things are still in active development. As it is, the exercise list has a note that “new games are added with each update,” and the main menu of the app has a grayed-out “Vocal Heat” warm-up that should be coming soon, so there’s clearly more to come. Vanido is available now on the App Store for iOS users, with an Android version also in the works. I’ve only really used the app for a single day, so it’s hard to tell at this whether or not the daily practice will actually extend my range or make me a better singer in the long run. Still, assuming the app continues to get updated and those mic issues get sorted out, I can see it being a fun addition to my daily schedule. And who knows, maybe some day I’ll finally be able to hit that high note in “Take On Me.”

What is The Google Penguin Update? Google launched the Penguin Update on April 2012 to cease spamming in search outcomes. There are so many internet sites which permit acquiring or promoting backlinks to a different community for higher search outcomes. So, to cease this spamming Google releases the Penguin Update. After Google Penguin Update, Google is acquiring strict towards net spam and relevancy. If you’re a internet site owner then you must take motion towards the dangerous & low-quality backlinks. Google Disavow Links Tool lets you take away a majority of these backlinks. Like all different updates, this affected round 3% of search outcomes and affected a multitude of high-ranking websites. So, there are such a good deal of internet site house owners began engaged on the restoration of their internet sites. 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While we are able to’t disclose particular indicators as a result of we don’t wish to give individuals a far more to sport our search outcomes and worsen the expertise for customers, our recommendation for site owners is to cente creating high-quality websites that create a great consumer expertise and make use of white hat SEO strategies or els of partaking in aggressive webspam ways. According to the report, many superiority internet sites like Geek, Cultomac, Digg misplaced their excessive ranks. Here are some the reason why; Keyword dressing Low-quality backlinks Relevance Outbound hyperlink superiority Duplicate content material Websites malware Low-quality content material Affiliate Websites Black-hat SEO strategies [hidden links, text etc.] How to Recover from Google’s Penguin Update? If Google modifications any algorithmic rule replace then it should have an effect on your internet site and search rating. 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But now, Google began sending e-mail to each Google Webmaster consumer. Like in case you have any points relating to site visitants, in case you have so many low-quality backlinks and far more they may inform you by e-mail. So, that is one of the best work by Google. So, in case you are not utilizing Google Webmasters Tool then begin utilizing it. Unusual Backlinks: There are so many bloggers who permit visitant posting or visitant running a blog. But in case you are a internet site owner and your internet site has a correct area of interest and also you begin permitting visitant running a blog with some digressive area of interest then it should have an effect on your Google rating. This is legendary as Unusual backlinks. Because Google says, a majority of these hyperlinks will not be attached your content material or weblog subject. So, in case you are permitting visitant running a blog or visitant posting then keep your weblog subject or area of interest and settle for alone these articles that are attached your internet site area of interest. Keyword Density You must also consider key phrase density whereas writing an article. If you employ greater than 1.5% key phrases that are legendary as key phrase dressing, then cease doing this and attempt to keep at a lower place 1.5% key phrase density and like drawn-out tail key phrases. You can use Yoast SEO plugin which is one of the best plugin for SEO & SEOPressor plugin for correct optimization. Keyword Stuffing As I say you must keep 1.5% key phrase density to keep away from key phrase dressing. There are some plugins you should use on your WordPress internet site to keep away from key phrase dressing. Income Search Alert, Search Term Tagging 2 and Yoast SEO. Automated SEO You ought to cease machine-driven SEO, in case you are nevertheless utilizing these machine-driven SEO instruments, then cease utilizing it and attempt to repair this by your self by utilizing SEO tips for beginners . Google doesn’t permit this machine-driven SEO exercise. Social Networking If you aren’t utilizing social networking on your internet site then it’s your superlative mistake. Because among the social networking websites are hierarchical in search outcomes like Quora, Pinterest, Google+ and so forth. So, in case you have not created your internet site webpage on social media but then create it as quickly as doable. Once you could have created social media pages, then place the social media sharing button in your internet site. So, your readers can simply subscribe or abide by with you on social media and share your articles. There are many benefits of social media like 1st and most necessary is among the social media websites are hierarchical in search outcomes. 2nd is social media websites are high-quality websites with excessive DA (Domain Authority) PR (Page Rank). third is social media websites have an tremendous measure of site visitants every day. 4th is social media websites give nofollow backlinks (or els of Tumblr, Tumblr offers dofollow backlinks) which is useful to create backlinks from high-quality websites & drive site visitants in direction of your internet site. And the fifth is it’s free! So, construct your social media presence.

London REPUBLICANS looking for a friendly shoulder to cry on in the coming months could do worse than look up their ideological cousins across the Atlantic. For the Conservative Party in Britain knows what it feels like to be wiped out in a watershed election by a charismatic opponent whose victory brings jubilant scenes on the streets and heady talk of a new dawn. For the Tories, the cataclysm came 11 years ago when Tony Blair buried them in a landslide. Since then, they have suffered two more general election defeats, enduring their longest spell in the parliamentary wilderness since the mid-19th century. What might panicked Republicans learn from the Tory experience? That apparently the first response to electoral disaster is denial. In the immediate aftermath of 1997, a few brave Tory souls dared venture that the party would have to undergo radical change, that it had to inch toward the center and demonstrate that it was not as out of touch as the critics alleged. The party’s new leader, William Hague, duly tried to prove his credentials as a modern chap by wearing a baseball cap — a curious definition of modernity, admittedly, but let that stand as evidence of how passé the Tories circa 1997 seemed — and by attending the Notting Hill Carnival, a big event for black Londoners. It was “compassionate conservatism,” British-style.

Jake Ellenberger isn’t done yet. There was a moment on Saturday night in Nashville when Ellenberger was lying on the canvas, taking what seemed like an extraordinarily long time to come back into consciousness after a vicious elbow from Mike Perry put him out, where it felt like a possible end. But days later, Ellenberger is back in California after a quick stop to visit friends and family in Omaha. And he’s already well into the digestion phase of how things played out at UFC Fight Night 108 in Tennessee, and where things kind of skidded off the rails. “It’s tough,” he told MMA Fighting. “I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine a couple of nights ago, and it was like, man, I’ve fought some really good guys. And I’ve come up short, or had a tough fight. For me, this fight, this was probably the best I’ve ever felt. Like pre-fight, warm-up, everything was on. I felt great. Because I’ve had fights where I wasn’t warmed up, or I didn’t feel good, or the first round came too quick. “In the first round, I even felt good. I was like, let’s get this in the second round, let’s get it to the third, because I knew as the fight went on I could start to explore my transitions, more takedowns, that sort of thing. But it’s one of those things where you wake up and you’re like, fuuuck. It’s definitely a hard pill to swallow.” The soft-spoken 32-year old Ellenberger has been fighting for a dozen years, going back to 2005. He has stood across from a veritable who’s who in the welterweight division, and he has dished out his share of punishing knockouts. He’s also been on the receiving end of a few. His last two fights have ended in a KO and a TKO (against Jorge Masvidal). He was knocked out by Stephen Thompson via a head kick in 2015, and via TKO by Robbie Lawler a year before that. Overall, he has lost seven of his last nine fights, which has kicked up plenty of conversation. Yet sprinkled in there is the “Juggernaut,” the man who submitted Josh Koscheck and finished Matt Brown with a body kick and flash leather. It’s those performances that have kept fans who’d like him to retire at bay. “Win or lose, whether you get your hand raised or not, the sun rises the next morning,” Ellenberger said. “It’s really not as different as you think. People play so much into that, that egocentric kind of build-up — and I mean, it’s an egocentric sport, and I understand it — you can’t pay too much attention to it one way or the other. It’s like playing a very volatile market. You put your life savings in how you feel man, you’re going to wake up very disappointed.” Still, the Perry knockout will likely be discussed come year’s end for best KO of 2017. Ellenberger took the elbow flush, the latest toll exacted on him in a line of many brutal tolls. It was a scary moment for his friends and family who watched him receive medical attention in the cage, as well as his fans. Remarkably, Ellenberger says he is okay. “That was a big thing too, even with my family and just everyone, where they’re saying it’s just scary [to see],” he said. “But yeah, I feel fine. I went to the hospital and got checked out and got a PT scan, got checked out. I mean, trust me, it’s one of those things where you’ve got to ask the hard questions. But everything looked good, everything looked fine. There was nothing that he was worried about. And of course that was my biggest concern, health and stuff. But there was nothing serious.” One of those vocal with his opinion about Ellenberger perhaps overstaying his time in the Octagon was his opponent, Mike Perry, who said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour that it might be time for him to “hang up the gloves.” On that front, Ellenberger was careful not to read too much into it. “I’m a mature guy, emotionally mature as well,” he said. “I don’t pay any attention [to what he says]. This sport, that’s the beauty of this sport. The better guy does not always win. That’s the reality. I’ve beaten some really good guys. I’ve got wins over guys I probably shouldn’t have. I have over 50 fights. And just a guy like that…it’s hard because there’s no reason for me to waste my time disrespecting him. He did his job. It is what it is. It’s a hard pill that I have to swallow. “But for him to make dumb and idiotic comments, it’s like bro — you’ve made some bad decisions in the past. Let’s not become somebody who should speak for when another fighter should be done. That’s in the past.” Just days removed from the knockout, Ellenberger says he has no immediate plans to retire. Yet he was pensive, too, saying that he can ultimately read the writing on the wall, even if his desire to compete is stronger than it’s ever been. “I do [plan on going on],” he said. “I think at the end of the day, everyone’s their own person and they’ve got to decide when they’re done. And I’m not dumb. I know what time it is. I know it’s getting closer to the end of my career. I’m not 22 anymore. I know that time is coming closer, but it’s definitely not it. I would definitely like to finish on a high note. “I had a buddy ask, ‘do you wake up with that fire,’ and I go, man I can’t even articulate how much fire I have inside of me. The [Nashville] doctor told me we can’t work out, and we can’t get our blood pressure high, we’ve got to give it a week or two — and it’s hard man. I can’t even describe the fire inside of me. I love it. I love competing. I do know my time is limited, but I would not say this is the end yet.” For a guy who has fought everyone from Carlos Condit to Rory MacDonald, Ellenberger says he still has a few names out there that he’d like to face. One name in particular is Donald Cerrone, though he admits situationally it may not be the right time. But he’s not done. He knows people are telling him he should be, and that his star is down — just as he says he knows the fickle nature of MMA fandom, which bobs in accordance to wins and losses. “I don’t really pay that much attention to [calls for my retirement],” he said. “I mean, before the fight, after the fight, I tune it all out. It’s crazy how bad people will turn their back on you. It’s like, one minute you’re the best, you’re the man. The next, you’re done. It’s such a fair weather sport. It’s more comical than anything. It doesn’t bother me, and I don’t take it personal. People show you their colors. It’s a fake fan sport, I feel like. “But towards [that retirement stuff], I’ve seen guys go through some hell for sure, but come on.”

Social network diagram. Credit: Daniel Tenerife/Wikipedia (Phys.org)—A pair of researchers has found when people add someone new to their "friends" list, each is more distant than those in the inner circle. In their paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Michael Harré and Mikhail Prokopenko, both with The University of Sydney in Australia, describe test data they analyzed covering both hunter-gatherer societies and people living in modern conditions, what they found and what it might mean for people moving forward using virtual social networks. Prior research has shown, the researchers note, that humans are only capable of maintaining a certain number of people in their social world, currently, the upper limit appears to be 132 people. But, not all of those people are directly connected to any one individual, it all happens through links. Harré and Prokopenko suggest the upper limit on the number of direct friends for most people is about five. The upper limits appear to be based on biology, they note—as the human brain developed, people were living together in small groups that lived as hunter-gatherers. That led to the development of links, which are direct connections between two people, generally two people that have some type of emotional attachment. To form a larger group, it isn't necessary for every person in that group to form a connection with everyone else, all it takes is for a network of connections to exist. In primitive terms, the researchers explain, that would mean that not all of the people in a small hunting party would necessarily have to be friends, instead, each would have to be friends with just one or two of the people in the group. They have calculated that to have a social circle of 132 people, each person would only have to have a link with just five people. They also have found that the number of links a person has can be related to group size, as the group grows, more links are needed to maintain cohesiveness. As it grows to 15, for example, there will exist on average 3 links per person; in groups of 45, the number of links would grow to 3 or 4. The researchers also suggest that their findings help explain how modern societies have come to deal with networking—by forming hierarchies. In such groups, people don't have to know hardly anyone to be a part of the overall group, instead, the group is made functional by leaders. Explore further The social lives of the elderly mirror how they grow older More information: Michael S. Harré et al. The social brain: scale-invariant layering of Erdős–Rényi networks in small-scale human societies, Journal of The Royal Society Interface (2016). Michael S. Harré et al. The social brain: scale-invariant layering of Erdős–Rényi networks in small-scale human societies,(2016). DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2016.0044 Abstract The cognitive ability to form social links that can bind individuals together into large cooperative groups for safety and resource sharing was a key development in human evolutionary and social history. The 'social brain hypothesis' argues that the size of these social groups is based on a neurologically constrained capacity for maintaining long-term stable relationships. No model to date has been able to combine a specific socio-cognitive mechanism with the discrete scale invariance observed in ethnographic studies. We show that these properties result in nested layers of self-organizing Erdős–Rényi networks formed by each individual's ability to maintain only a small number of social links. Each set of links plays a specific role in the formation of different social groups. The scale invariance in our model is distinct from previous 'scale-free networks' studied using much larger social groups; here, the scale invariance is in the relationship between group sizes, rather than in the link degree distribution. We also compare our model with a dominance-based hierarchy and conclude that humans were probably egalitarian in hunter–gatherer-like societies, maintaining an average maximum of four or five social links connecting all members in a largest social network of around 132 people. Journal information: Journal of the Royal Society Interface © 2016 Phys.org

TOKYO — Nissan said on Wednesday that it expected its annual profit to be much lower than expected, a fresh blow to a company reeling from the arrest of its former top executive Carlos Ghosn. The automaker told investors that its operating profit for the 2018 fiscal year, which ended in March, was expected to be 45 percent lower than the previous year, at 318 billion yen ($2.8 billion). It was Nissan’s second downward revision in two months, highlighting the difficulties it faces as it moves past the fall of Mr. Ghosn, a corporate titan who was called in to right the company when it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1990s. Nissan said that weak sales in the United States, its largest market, and other regions had caused half of the slide in earnings, and that expenses related to extended warranties on vehicles sold in America had accounted for the other half.

Loredana Radu nu se remarca doar prin plagiatul care o leaga de Gabriel Oprea si Victor Ponta, ambii suspecti de plagiat. Radu a fost si reprezentantul legal al celebrei firme Dalli Exim SRL, infiintata de fostul sot al Elenei Udrea, Dorin Cocos. Tot avocata Radu este cea care s-a ocupat de iregistrarea USL la tribunal. O alta lucrare de doctorat coordonata de profesorul universitar Gabriel Oprea, suspecta a fi plagiata, este cea a lui Neculai Ontanu, primar al Sectorului 2 si secretar general al UNPR, subiect prezentat in exclusivitate de Hotnews in data de 11 august. a) Dacă „se preiau pagini întregi fără a se folosi ghilimele şi fără să se facă trimitere către autor” plagiatul este argumentat prin lipsa delimitării volumului preluării. b) Dacă „se preiau paragrafe ad litteram fără a fi folosite ghilimele, dar la final se pune nota de subsol. Precizez că aceste paragrafe nu sunt însoţite şi de o analiză critică” plagiatul este argumentat în mod multiplu. Cum delimitarea explicită a preluării repre­zintă o condiţie esenţială pentru identificarea contribuţiei reale a oricărui autor, absenţa delimitării nu este o simplă scăpare ci în contextul preluării dintr-o anumită operă, a unui anumit autor, a unui anumit volum, se pre­zu­mă o intenţie bine motivată. Chiar dacă se fac preluării Legea dreptului de autor precizează că volumul preluării este cât se poate de redus şi textul preluat trebuie tratat în mod explicit de cel care face preluarea. c) Dacă „se preiau pagini întregi fără a se folosi ghilimele, însă din loc în loc, anu­mite paragrafe au trimitere prin nota de subsol către autor” se constată că: c1) plagiatul apare fiindcă se preiau pagini adică volume semnificative din opera au­ten­tică; c2) fiecare preluare, fiecare paragraf preluat este o contribuţie a au­to­rului operei autentice. Cel care preia trebuie să semnaleze cititorului ce a preluat (vo­lu­mul, paragraful, textul cuprins între ghilimele) şi de la cine a preluat. Precizarea întâmplătoare a numelui autorului autentic sau cuprinderea numelui acestuia într-o listă de bibliografie nu este suficientă pentru a identifica în mod explicit contribuţia fiecăruia dintre autori. pagini intregi din teza de doctorat a lui Gabriel Oprea erau identice cu pasaje din alte lucrari fara utilizarea ghilimelelor paragrafele identice cuvant cu cuvant erau marcate cu note de subsol, insa si acestea erau preluate din alte carti lucrarile din care s-a copiat cel mai frecvent erau ale prof. univ. dr. Ion Neagu, coordonatorul de doctorat a lui Gabriel Oprea si prof. univ. dr. Nicolae Volonciu, membru in comisia de sustinere a doctoratului lui Gabriel Oprea multi autori pe care ii indica in notele de subsol nu au fost inclusi in bibliografia lucrarii, insa acesti autori erau mentionati in textele originale ordinea in care au fost aranjate subcapitolele din lucrarea doctorala a lui Gabriel Oprea este identica cu ordinea subcapitolelor din tratatul coordonatorului sau, prof. univ. Ion Neagu.

UPDATE, 6:40 AM with more information: American history just got a little sexier for 20,000 New York City high school students. A $1.46 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation will provide the NYC Department of Education with 20,000 $70 tickets to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s SRO rap-rooted Broadway musical about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The tickets will then be distributed to kids at the “Ham4Ham” lottery rate of $10, according to the participants, the other $60 paid for by the grant. Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller, author-composer-lyricist-star Miranda, Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin, NYC Department of Education chancellor Carmen Fariña and Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History executive director Lesley Herrmann created the partnership as a way of integrating the show into classroom studies, they said Tuesday morning. The Rockefeller Foundation grant technically goes to Gilder Lehrman, which will develop ancillary materials for the program and oversee distribution of tickets. The program, launching with the performance on April 13, 2016, will bring students to select matinees and include talk-backs with the cast as well as classroom prep. Although other programs have emerged in recent years to bring New York City students to Broadway shows at heavily discounted rates or for free, this initiative is taking on the added — and possibly controversial — responsibility of presenting a Broadway show as history lesson. Hamilton is based on Ron Chernow’s celebrated biography of the immigrant Founder, who became the first Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington. After a sold-out run last season at the Public Theater, the musical transferred over the summer to the Richard Rodgers Theatre. With advance ticket sales of some $40 million and most performances sold out well into the future, it has become the biggest phenomenon in years. It’s also — not incidentally and not inappropriately — minting money, regularly grossing well over its gross potential, attributable to the sale of premium-price tickets. The Rockefeller-funded program represents a kind of modest giveback, in which the show’s producers are making tickets available to an otherwise excluded audience while also being paid about half the face value of the tickets. “Our goal is to ensure that all students have a shot to see Hamilton and use its words, music and staging to further their enjoyment of American History, music and drama,” said Seller, sampling a key phrase from the show. “The Rockefeller Foundation recognizes Hamilton as a groundbreaking work of genius and everyone should have the opportunity to see it, regardless of their resources,” said Rodin. “This is doubly true of students who are finding their passions and deciding on career paths. Works like this don’t come around very often, and when they do we must make every effort to maximize their reach. We are making a small down payment towards inspiring the next generation of historians, artists, singers and musicians, and it’s one that fits squarely within our goal of expanding opportunities to achieve positive impact.” Miranda added that, “It is a dream come true to have a program like this exist in connection to Hamilton. I can’t wait to perform for a theater full of students who are learning about our Founding Fathers in class and seeing how it still relates to their own lives on stage. They will see Hamilton’s story, and I’m hopeful that the stories it will inspire in them, will change our lives in ways we can’t even anticipate.” The first group of participating high schools will be selected by the New York City Department of Education and will include schools across the five boroughs with large numbers of students eligible for free/reduced lunch. The Gilder Lehrman Institute will develop the educational programming for students and teachers. A “Hamilton Study & Performance Guide” will include an online portal for students and teachers, and printed classroom materials that will offer students a creative platform for developing and producing their own original performances of poetry, rap, songs, scenes and other art expressions. “Social studies has always been my passion, and this partnership will be transformational for New York City kids,” said Fariña. “This musical will ignite curiosity and give teachers and students the opportunity to experience American History in a unique way while connecting to the class curriculum and will cultivate a deep love of learning. I’m thrilled by this partnership and grateful to Mr. Seller, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History for enriching our students’ with this incredible work of art.”

Maybe the absolute sewer that is Washington DC needs to be dug up and gotten rid of so we can start all over again Incredible response to my piece on Podesta and naked teen “art photos” (To read about Jon’s mega-collection, Exit From The Matrix,click here.) I’ll get to the incredible response in a minute, but first the necessary bit of background. Yesterday, I wrote a piece about John Podesta’s brother, Tony, also a major Democrat political mover and shaker in Washington. A high-powered art collector as well, Tony had photos of naked teenagers on the walls of a bedroom in his house. As the Washington Post reported in 2004: “‘At political events [at Tony’s home], there’s an inevitable awkwardness’, former Clinton administration official Sally Katzen said at a Women’s Campaign Fund dinner at the Podestas’ home this summer.“The art is an ice-breaker. It puts people at ease’.” “Not always. Folks attending a house tour in the Lake Barcroft neighborhood in Falls Church earlier this year got an eyeful when they walked into a bedroom at the Podesta residence hung with multiple color pictures by Katy Grannan, a photographer known for documentary-style pictures of naked teenagers in their parents’ suburban homes.” “‘They were horrified’, Heather [Tony’s wife] recalls, a grin spreading across her face.” Then, yesterday, I wrote: “Does anyone stop to ask how permission was obtained to shoot those photos in the first place? And then to print them, sell them, show them publicly? The parents of the children gave their consent? The kids gave their consent? On what basis does anyone allow teenagers to make that kind of decision for themselves—or think that teenagers have the capacity to make such a decision? Technically, the whole operation may fall within the law (although I don’t see how), but on every other level it’s insane. And it’s child endangerment.” “And a major political operative in Washington, Tony Podesta, sees no problem with it. He has the photos on his walls at home. He displays them for his Washington insider pals and donors. They may blush, but they look. And none of them raises a public objection. They keep their mouths shut, because this is Tony Podesta, and he’s a power player.” Now we come to the incredible response. After posting the article yesterday, I emailed a person I believed could provide solid advice on the issues I raised. Could anyone be prosecuted for the naked teenager photos? Wasn’t this a crime? How could it not be a crime? And this person, who does very good work on many fronts, gave me a terse answer: “Why bother? What’s the point?” The answer was meant to indicate this was a minor blip on the radar, hardly worth dealing with. And I was overreaching to make it into a story. What?? I want to emphasize: this person I emailed yesterday is extremely bright and extremely active in working for actual justice in places many other people wouldn’t dare go. And the response was: “Why bother? What’s the point?” Oh, I don’t know, maybe the point is photos of naked teenagers on walls for anyone to see, when those kids don’t have the capacity or the right to make those decisions, and when their demented immoral parents are making those decisions for them, blithely, with happy grins on their faces, is hideous and grotesque and it’s unbelievable that no one spoke out at the time and no one thought to prosecute the parents or the photographer or the dealer that represents the photographer… Maybe that’s the point. Maybe the absolute sewer that is Washington DC needs to be dug up and gotten rid of so we can start all over again. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe the rich little scum who walked by those photos and never said a word and were afraid of the power player who displayed them on a bedroom wall in his house were culpable, and maybe they reflect a prevalent perverse attitude that keeps anything good from happening in the political landscape of our time. Maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe the fear is the point. Fear of believing in something that challenges the people in power who are out for destruction, who revel in destruction, who delight in turning life into death. Maybe that’s the point. Take any of these points. Take them all. They’re all falling below the radar, and they all need to be raised back up to a level where people can look at them again and decide whether to SAY SOMETHING BECAUSE THEY SEE SOMETHING. “Hi, nice to see you again. It’s a wonderful party, isn’t it? Say, I’m launching a new project. I’ll be doing a series of photos, art photos, of naked teenagers from the suburbs. So, ha-ha, I can’t just go door to door and call on people cold and ask them for permission. I was wondering if you knew anyone…” “Why sure. Sounds like an exciting project. Who do we know, darling? How about Bob and Marjorie? They live right up the hill near the club. They’d be interested. They have daughter, Jennifer. She’s fourteen. She’s actually quite beautiful. Stop panting, darling! My husband, he’s such a kidder…” SHOW DISQUS COMMENTS

Jürgen Klopp explained why Daniel Sturridge was not risked at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday as the manager assessed a frustrating week of injuries for his strikers. The No.15 was absent from the squad at White Hart Lane as the German began his Liverpool tenure with a 0-0 draw against the Londoners in the Barclays Premier League. With Christian Benteke and Danny Ings also sidelined with injury, Divock Origi started up front in the capital and came closest when he headed onto the crossbar. Klopp said after the game: “We had a bad week with injuries. The best news is it’s not a serious thing with Daniel. But in a week like this with two ACL, we could not risk it. “Daniel had a one-on-one situation with Jordon Ibe in training; I didn’t see it but after he said he had a little pain in a muscle. “We made a diagnosis and screened him to be sure – we can see a little bit of swelling but nothing really serious. So we have to see. I hope he’s ready to play on Thursday.” The manager continued: “When I came here and thought about Liverpool, I thought ‘four strikers of this quality – cool’. Now I have one. “That’s not the best situation at this moment, but I like Divock. And young [Jerome] Sinclair was on the bench and was close to coming in. “Our club works 24 hours to help the players come back. Danny Ings of course needs time; Benteke doesn’t need the same time, he’ll be back next week. “The best situation is when all the players are 100 per cent but it doesn’t happen so often.”

After their loss last night to the Los Angeles Kings, the Calgary Flames, who have missed the playoffs three straight years, are currently sitting in 14th place in the Western Conference with a 5-7-3 record. Many would say its early, but this shortened 48 game season is nearly 1/3 complete. The Flames, who have not won a playoff series since their dramatic run to the Stanley Cup final in 2004 continue to live off that former glory. Management led first by Darryl Sutter, and now by Jay Feaster, have executed a number of short-term band-aid like moves over recent years in an attempt to surround the core of Jarome Iginla and Mikka Kiprusoff with enough talent to go on a similar type run. In recent years we’ve seen moves that have worked, such as free agent deals to bring back Alex Tanguay, and last summer’s signing of Jiri Hudler. But we’ve also seen moves that have been puzzling, and in many ways turned out to be disasters. The trade of Dion Phaneuf and Keith Aulie to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the lack of impact players received in return is one that stands out. The subsequent big money deal given to Matt Stajan is another. And last, but certainly not least are the big trades/free-agent signings of Jay Bouwmeester (-21 last season, $6.68 million cap hit), and Dennis Wideman ($5.25 million cap hit). Put it all together and we keep seeing the same aging core surrounded by a group that is just good enough to finish on the outside of the playoffs. Meanwhile the Flames have not been amassing a great stable of prospects. While 2011 first round pick Sven Baertschi is an absolute stud and the jury is certainly out on 2012 draftee Mark Jankowski. Earlier high draft picks such as Greg Nemisz, Mitch Wahl, and Leland Irving have turned into what can best be described as busts. Tim Erixon was a good pick who spurned the organization and ended up traded to the Rangers. Meanwhile the 2007 second round pick, 2009 second round pick, 2010 first and second rounders, and 2013 second rounder, have all been traded away in search of short term fixes for the organization. They say the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If that is true, then the Calgary Flames are insane. Despite an aging core that continually loses in the first round (2006-2009), or misses the playoffs (2010-12), the Flames have never committed to a full scale rebuild of this organization. They continually try to paper over the holes of the team with big money free agent signings, and trades that sacrifice the future of the team in order to try and win in the present. Its not working, and Calgary management needs to realize that its time to move on. The Flames would be best served to take a good, hard look at their team, and start the rebuild now. This team is not a Stanley Cup Contender, in fact with the way they are currently playing, they are likely to once again miss the playoffs. Yes, I realize this means some painful decisions need to be made. Its time for franchise icon, Jarome Iginla to be moved to a contender for a package of picks and prospects. He is still a great player, but is getting older, and moving him can really accelerate a rebuild. A similar move should be made with Mikka Kiprusoff once he recovers from his recent knee injury. Other soon to be UFAs such as Anton Babchuk and Blake Comeau should be dumped for whatever the Flames can get, and trades for veterans such as Mike Cammalleri, Jay Bouwmeester, Alex Tanguay, Cory Sarich, and Lee Stempniak should be explored. Yes, I know that some of these players have “No Trade Clauses” or modified NTCs; however there have been many trades of players with such clauses over the years. One player where a decision must be made is Roman Cervenka. He is certainly young enough to be part of Calgary’s long term vision, however he is also scheduled to be a UFA this summer. A new contract should be explored, but if he chooses not to re-sign prior to the trade deadline, a move must also be made. In short, its time for Calgary to stop chasing the impossible dream, and to make the painful but smart decision to rebuild their club from the bottom up. It may feature some short-term pain for fans in the Saddledome, but the long-term payoff of a proper rebuild, and becoming a true Cup Contender can not be achieved by continuing down the team’s current path. The past several years have shown that. Its now time for GM Jay Feaster to take a leadership role and make the choice to look towards the future of the Flames. And that’s the last word. Feel free to leave comments below and follow me on twitter @lastwordBKerr or follow the site @lastwordonsport. photo credit: Dinur via photopin cc

A retired FBI agent who vanished in 2007 while investigating a smuggling case in Iran is apparently still alive, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday in a statement that deepened the mystery surrounding the man's nearly four-year disappearance. Robert Levinson, 63, who disappeared during a visit to the Iranian resort island of Kish, apparently is being held "somewhere in southwest Asia," Clinton said, citing unspecified evidence received by the State Department. Clinton did not elaborate on the nature of the evidence or the circumstances of his detention but called on the Iranian government to assist in his repatriation. "As the government of Iran has previously offered its assistance in this matter, we respectfully request the Iranian government to undertake humanitarian efforts to safely return and reunite Bob with his family," Clinton said. The evidence, if borne out, would represent the first news about Levinson's well-being in years. Levinson, who worked as a private detective after he retired from the FBI in 1998, was said by family members to have been in Iran to investigate a cigarette-smuggling case on behalf on several corporations. His disappearance March 9, 2007, has long been the subject of speculation and rumors, with Iranian defectors and others suggesting that he was imprisoned on suspicion of spying or perhaps kidnapped or killed by mobsters. The wording of Clinton's statement prompted speculation that Levinson may have been transferred to another country in the Middle East where Iran has proxy groups or influence. Dawud Salahuddin, an American fugitive living in Iran, said in 2007 that he met with Levinson before his disappearance and that the retired agent was seized by Iranian security forces on Kish, a duty-free resort island off Iran's southern coast. A few weeks afterward, Iran's state-sponsored Press TV also reported that Levinson was "in the hands of Iranian security forces." But until now there has been no official word from the Iranian government about his fate. Iran refused a request by the United States later that year to allow Swiss diplomats to try to find his luggage and look for clues to what happened to him. U.S. officials have repeatedly pressed Iran for information about Levinson, a Florida resident and 27-year veteran of the FBI, and members of his family have traveled to Tehran to appeal to the Iranian government for help. At her confirmation hearing in 2009, Clinton was urged by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) to take up the case. "We think he is being held by the government of Iran in a secret prison," Nelson said. Staff researcher Julie Tate and SpyTalk columnist Jeff Stein contributed to this report.

[www.paypal.me] [www.patreon.com] If you want to support me beyond ratings, please feel free to do so via PayPal or Patreon. Every cent helps and motivates me personally and professionally to continue creating great things!Homes in the Eclectic Style commonly found in the suburbs of America. Often referred to as McMansions, these homes have dominated American housing developments for the last few decades, and continue to do so. As such, any city in Cities: Skylines modeled after American cities would be incomplete without these homes appearing in the surrounding areas.This collection has L1 pre-construction lots, L2 construction lots, and completed houses ranging from L3 to L5. Their lot sizes range across 4x4, 4x3, 4x2, 3x4, 3x3, 3x2, 2x4, and 2x3. These assets and their associated theme are best used with Boformer's Building Themes mod or the game's styles feature.Note: Driveways can appear odd on uneven ground. (In-game concrete and paths are not used because they're not adequate, and no decals are currently available for that purpose.) It's best if you try to soften or flatted areas where you build subdivisions for these houses.

Corktown: A community on the verge of change awaits Ford's arrival Allie Gross | Detroit Free Press In 1979, Jerry Esters was working on the roof of a property he had inherited from his father in North Corktown when he had an epiphany: He could see downtown. First the train station, then the downtown skyline. The property at 14th and Perry had been in the family for years, but as Esters sat perched on the shingles, he couldn't help but marvel at just how close he was to the heart of Detroit. "It was like, right there, and you didn't have to go anywhere to see the fireworks. You could be right there and see them," the retiree, who worked as a clay sculptor at Fiat Chrysler for 33 years, said Tuesday. It was in that moment that Esters realized he had to begin investing in the neighborhood. He had to preserve his family's properties. He had to work to refurbish and maintain anything else he could get his hands on in the community that he had grown up in. A community that was cratering under disinvestment. "I was making good money so I just kept buying up buildings as they came up and became available," said Esters. Today, the 56-year-old owns seven buildings in the neighborhood — six properties on 14th Street between Temple and Perry and a two-family duplex on the corner of Vermont and Temple — and 30 lots. Esters' foresight to invest in the neighborhood was underscored Monday when it was officially announced by Matthew Moroun that the iconic and long-vacant Michigan Central Station that his family picked up at a tax auction in the 1990s had been sold to Ford Motor Company. "With Ford coming, to me what that says is that the city is turning around big-time," Esters pronounced, adding that he is most excited to see downtown Detroit's boundaries expand. "Downtown used to stop at the Lodge; now it's going to expand to where the train station is," he said. "It's going to be a lot of little things that are going to add up and make downtown more like Chicago — a bigger downtown." Read more: News of Ford's purchase of the derelict but seminal train station and its purchase and renovation of an old factory on Michigan that now houses Ford high-tech workers, has not only re-ignited discussions about the future of Corktown, it is resetting the image of what Corktown can be. The potential transformation, from having such a powerful company as an anchor in the community, is unfathomable. It calms fears from some who are anxious about being left behind but also spurs excitement from others who look forward to seeing the return to a community that once was densely populated and thriving. “I feel I used my money wisely," Esters said. "I invested back where I started.” Re-imagining a neighborhood staple Pat Springstead, the owner of Nemo's in Corktown, was in a meeting in 2013 with an associate from Soave Enterprise, the Detroit-based development firm, when he made a comment about how a lot people were beginning to move to Corktown. "Pretty soon, there needs to be a development for places for folks to live," Springstead remembers telling the associate. The developer didn't agree. He told Springstead the need just didn’t seem to be there. Fast forward five years and Soave is in the midst of erecting Elton Park, a $44-million retail and housing project on Trumbull just north of Michigan Avenue. "I’m not a soothsayer," Springstead said with a laugh. He was just, he said, paying attention. While shifts in the neighborhood have been on Springstead’s mind for some time — and he has been eager to hear about new projects like Elton Park and the Corner, nearby at the old Tiger’s Stadium site — Ford's big news is, he said, a game changer. It also means that the bar, which has been around for 53 years, is beginning to consider how it will fit into the ever-changing landscape. "All these years we’ve really been a sports bar. Shuttling people to sports events has been our bread and butter," said Springstead. That won't stop, he said, but the bar will take into account the morphing demographics. "We certainly are looking to the future to move our place, Nemo's, more into the area where younger folks who will work at Ford and live in the neighborhood will find more appealing." Some changes to come: updates to the building to make it "more open," a diversified menu and extended hours. When asked about upticks in menu prices or changes to the vibe of the neighborhood restaurant beloved for its unpretentious and easygoing atmosphere and affordable, no-fuss burgers, Springstead scoffed. "We'll obviously be spending money to improve the kitchen and facilities, so one would expect prices to go up," Springstead said, though he has every intention to "keep prices competitive and affordable for people in the neighborhood." "I think people have a negative look at gentrification; people always think of increased property costs and rents and I think that’s a disservice. Most everything all of us do is market driven and when things improve, the market improves, obviously, prices change," he said. Hope just over the bridge Down the road from Nemo's is another long-standing establishment — Hygrade Deli. Stuart Litt's restaurant is less than a mile west from the train station — a 3-minute drive in the car. But despite the proximity, there is a barrier: An overpass atop the Jeffries Freeway. It's the marker that divides Corktown from its neighbor, Core City, where Hygrade is located. While new development is edging closer, it has, for the most part, stopped just short of the freeway and the 63-year-old Litt is waiting for the day that it comes west. "I'm one mile away, but this bridge is a barrier," said Litt, who pointed out that some newcomers — who were later criticized — tried renaming the area "West Corktown" to try to associate it with its popular neighbor. While the new moniker didn't stick, Ford now brings Litt hope that the development to the east will begin to trickle toward him. "Everybody that I talk to — people with businesses or something to do with southwest Detroit — they've all been saying for years, 'Once Corktown gets to where there ain't no more room for anybody, they're all coming across this bridge this way.' While I haven't seen that yet, everybody says the same thing," he said, noting that there are several abandoned and dilapidated buildings surrounding Hygrade that he knows speculators are sitting on, just waiting for the payoff to come. "They're hoping people will come in and offer them five times what they bought it for and will do something about it," said Litt. The Ford purchase of the train station is a surprising turn of events, for the business owner who has seen the neighborhood — and his business — vacillate over the decades, and for a while, it really didn't feel like a rebound would happen. "There was at least a 20-year struggle where it was hard for the business to make money," said Litt, explaining that he got behind "personally and professionally." Litt's father, Bernie Litt, bought Hygrade Deli in 1972 from its original owner, Nate Stutz. The restaurant was first opened inside the popular Western Market just down the road but was ultimately demolished for the creation of the Jeffries Freeway — the freeway that has since become a physical and mental obstacle for Litt nearly half a century later. After the creation of the freeway, the deli was moved to its current location on Michigan Avenue just east of West Grand Boulevard. Litt doesn't remember how much his father, paid for the deli, but he knows the building was ultimately purchased a few years later for $20,000. At the time that Litt took over, a Cadillac assembly plant sat kitty-corner from the restaurant. Hygrade — with its affordable sandwiches — became a lunch hangout for the workers. When the plant slowly began to close down — much of the business moving to Pole Town — business began to peter out as well. "It wasn't a steep drop; it was a slow decline," Litt said, adding that around the same time that the Cadillac plant closed in the 1980s, workers and residents began to move out of the city as well. "It wasn't fun," Litt said, noting that the Great Recession of 2008 felt like the final nail in the coffin. "We dug ourselves into a hole," he said, adding that had he been "smarter," he perhaps would have packed it in and closed up shop during that time. Luckily, he didn't. Business, he estimates, began picking up again in the last five or six years. Litt credits people, such as Quicken employees, coming downtown. But he also is grateful for social media, which has allowed his business to get the word out, without having to pay for advertising. The result is a business that — with Ford or not — has been on the upswing. "It has value now just because Detroit has come back; the last five years is going in totally the opposite direction of the '80s when it slowed down. When I look in my bookkeeping at home, my year-end sales prove it," said Litt. He estimates that his sales have increased by 25% over the last decade. "Maybe more, I'm not good with numbers," he laughed. Litt expects sales to go up with the potential of Ford workers as new customers. He also said he believes the value of his property will rise. "I don't know what the value of my empire is right here; I might have an idea based on what I've seen sell in Corktown and what I've seen in similar situations," he said, estimating that his building, should he ever sell it, could be worth about $200,000 to $300,000. He is not, however, looking to sell. Instead, he's anxious to see what happens around him and how his business will benefit from the newcomers — what could be what he calls "Cadillac Days" again. "I'm excited for what Ford can do for the area and potentially what they can do for me," he said, noting that in an ideal future, the movement of Ford to the train station will mean that Hygrade is packed once again. "Dine in, carry out. I'm full service," he said. Still, Litt is thoughtful. And he's aware of his patron base. While others may try to capitalize on the changing demographics of southwest Detroit, Litt is not one of them. Just because Ford is coming in, doesn't mean prices are going to skyrocket. He doesn't want to lose those who have been with him during the rough times. "People don't understand that in this area, I have to deal with the affluent and the well-to-do — people from Quicken or Ford Motor Company — but I also have to deal with the people from the neighborhood. People who are low income and on a fixed income," he said, noting that in January he raised sandwich prices by 50 cents to reflect the rising food costs. It was his first menu increase in three years and an agonizing process. "I realize that people have been coming in here for years and I don't want to shut the door on them by raising prices more than they can afford. I still think about those people," he said, later adding: "Maybe I'm cheating myself. But I'm trying to keep the customers I got. I want them to know they can get a decent meal at a reasonable price." Still, while Litt doesn't want to shut out his current customer base, he remains hopeful that development will eventually make its way over the bridge. "If it wasn't Ford, the area would still resurge, it just wouldn't be as fast," Litt said. A newer resident of Corktown For Alex Lauer, a Detroit real estate agent and Corktown homeowner, this trickle effect that Litt discussed is real. It's just a matter of time before the spillover happens in Core City. "Ninety percent of people in life need an example to follow in order to do something," said Lauer, who moved to Corktown in 2011 and remembers people calling him "crazy" when he purchased his home. "I'm sure others heard that, too," he said, noting that just a year later he started to notice an uptick in interest in the neighborhood and more people and development moving in. "People just need to see others do what they want to do first, and then they go do it." While Lauer may have been an early buyer in the neighborhood, he is quick to point out that much of the neighborhood consists of those like Esters, who have been there for decades. "There are still a lot of original residents in Corktown who have seen the worst of times and they held out," Lauer said Monday. "For a lot of people, I don’t think it’s a real estate thing so much as where they’ve lived. A home is a home. You can’t always put a price on it." The shifting dynamics in the neighborhood are exciting to Lauer, but he is quick to point out the importance of dialogue between developers and newcomers and respect for those who have always called the neighborhood home. "As far as developers and big companies moving back in, they have to really be in touch with the community," said Lauer, explaining that these conversations can help set the tone for how development and gentrification can work together. "It doesn't all have to be these horrible stories that you hear," he said, noting that it's complicated, especially since there is no exact protocol for how to develop an area. "I think people need to be aware of the history of these areas that they come into and who is there, who's been there, what they do, and engage everyone as much as possible." The conversations Lauer prescribes are in many ways the foundations of Community Benefits Agreements, which require developers to meet with residents to discuss a project's community impact. Under Proposal B, which passed in November 2016, any project with $75 million in investments — including tax abatements or below market-value land transfers — must go through the process. It is likely that a project, such as the renovation of the train station will hit this threshold many times over. CBAs also go into effect if a project gets a tax break or other economic incentives. It is unclear what is in the works between Ford and the City of Detroit. Some community members have started to prep and ask questions. "Over the years, there have been so many rumors about development happening in that community," Linda Campbell of the Equitable Detroit Coalition told the Detroit Free Press in March when rumors of the possible sale began to bubble. "My first reaction is always, what will this development mean for residents in the community and nearby communities and the city of Detroit at large? What kind of public investment — if any — will be made? Is it something that will get taxpayers on the hook for corporate development? These are details we need to take a look at as citizens to see if this is truly a development project that is going to make a difference for the everyday Detroiter." For those like Campbell, there is also a huge irony when it comes to any developments in Corktown. In 2014, at the request of Mayor Mike Duggan, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr disbanded Detroit's Citizens District Councils, which were neighborhood coalitions given a direct line to city government — and a voice in local development projects — in urban renewal zones. The Corktown Citizens’ District Council had been one of the most robust and active of the community groups. "It wiped them out as a formal structure," said Campbell, who is critical of the Community Benefits Agreements legislation that has been viewed by some as a replacement of the citizens' councils. So far in Detroit, only six projects have been subjected to the law — four of them Dan Gilbert initiatives. The results, according to a spring report from WDET, have been a lot of talk and not many actual benefits. "WDET found that after 12 weeks of community benefits talks with residents across the four projects, Bedrock committed to two community benefits in its agreements with the city. The first: Bedrock would communicate with residents about construction-related activity. And the second: Bedrock would support job training initiatives, something the company has been doing for years," the WDET report stated. For Esters and others, there is excitement about what Corktown and the surrounding neighborhoods can become, but also a desire to see permanent change. "I'm not really there trying to capitalize on money as much as I am trying to see the neighborhood come back to when I was a kid," Esters said. "When it was beautiful." Contact Allie Gross: AEGross@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Allie_Elisabeth.

Mariah Carey’s sister, Alison, has filed a lawsuit against her mother accusing her of child abuse. In the suit, Alison alleged Patricia allowed and engaged several men whose identities are not revealed at present to have sex with the plaintiff when she was approximately 10 years old. The suit also alleged that the mother of the Carey sisters forced Alison to watch adults engaged in sexual acts with both adults and children during middle-of-the-night and satanic worship meetings that included ritual sacrifices. Due to these alleged horrors, Alison suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, leading her to misuse both legal and illegal drugs. Her legal complaint added that she became a drug addict to suppress the horrific memories she had as a child and had to take the help of professional counselors to come out. In compensation for the horrendous childhood memories, Alison demanded money from her mother for the immense psychological and physical damage, mental pain, anguish and severe emotional distress she had given to her intentionally. Although this is the first time details of Alison’s alleged dreadful childhood have emerged publicly, earlier she has mentioned that unlike Mariah she had lived a far darker life. The mother-of-four struggled with drug addiction for decades, even turning to prostitution. She asked Mariah for monetary help in the past, stating that she does not have enough money to support her children. According to Mariah’s reps, the singer has supported her sister numerous times, including paying for Alison’s rehabilitation. Alison has also confirmed that it was true, adding, “but she has never let me forget one single cent she has ever spent on me.” The sisters’ brother, Morgan, also thinks that Mariah is not doing enough for Alison. In 2016, he started speaking out against the singer and called her “evil” for not doing enough to help her sister. He had said: “Your sister is dying and she is struggling and where are you? You think you are so fabulous, but you are a witch… She is evil.” If you have a news scoop or an interesting story for us, please reach out at (323) 421-7514

Greetings pilgrim, You too should make a stop at the Hamlet of Fons before venturing into the more dangerous parts of the world of Decay of Logos. Wise NPC’s and a handy blacksmith will gladly help you along your journey but not all is what it seems… Gamescom is almost upon us and this year we teamed up with Utomik and Thunderful to bring you an expanded experience of the actual game, and lots of goodies! Come on down and ask us anything, we’ll have 3 developers at the booth along with the great folks from Rising Star Games, our publisher. Join us at Gamescom 2019 at the Utomik booth in the Indie Arena.

Let’s Play - 3D Ultra MiniGolf Adventures 2 Part 2 This video (x) contains misogyny, ableism, references to suicide and animal death, and content that could trigger emetophobia, coprophobia, and misophonia. Gendered and ableist slurs are scattered throughout, and ableist and sexist language is used. Lip smacking and overlapping conversations occur frequently. Keep reading

Considering most the rinks are circular, ice skating doesn't seem like an especially good way to actually get somewhere other than where you started. But if a young Canadian gets his way, that could change. He's suggested building something he calls the Freezeway, a 6.8-mile skating lane through Edmonton, Alberta, for residents and tourists who want to commute on ice. You may laugh, but Matt Gibbs has given this a lot of thought—he first proposed the idea two years ago in his masters thesis in landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. For his thesis, Gibbs focused on ways “to make winter cities more livable, in particular how can we diversify transportation options, focus on active transportation, as well as social activity.” The idea for the Freezeway was prompted in part when he found a comment by Tooker Gomberg, who as a city councilor in the 1990s suggested the city crack open the fire hydrants, let the water freeze, and watch residents skate around town. Gibbs’ riff on the idea (which he found “delightful”) is more refined, and presented in a way that seems like something that could actually happen. The route would use two existing transportation corridors, one of them an abandoned railway line. Linking them would create a loop connecting several neighborhoods to downtown Edmonton and, of course, the arena being built for Oilers hockey. Dare you to think of something more Canadian than ice skating to a hockey game. It would be available for recreation and commuting. Matt Gibbs The Freezeway would look like a big bike lane (and be used by cyclists during the warmer months) covered in ice. To contain the water long enough to have it freeze, you'd have low curbs or strategically placed banks of snow. There are many ways the idea could play out, Gibbs says. You could keep it simple by just turning on the water, letting it freeze, and calling it done. Or you could add lighting, or even a cooling system or artificial ice to allow skating in warmer months. (Hey, if Florida can have a hockey team, Canadians can skate outside in May.) You wouldn't have to build it all at once. “This design can be developed incrementally, it could ultimately become a transportation network in a city, or just a recreational resource.” Though one city councilor called the idea the stupidest thing he’s heard in 30 years, Gibbs says, the response has been largely positive. The big concerns are over cost and liability when someone gets hurt. “It would be great to have,” city planner Susan Holdsworth told the Global News. “We are trying to make the most of being a winter city and our northernness and it’s a great way to do it.” That’s exactly what Gibbs is going for. “I wanted to look at the hidden opportunities that exist living in a climate that’s below freezing for more than five months a year,” he says. The proposal isn’t unprecedented. During the winter freeze, Rideau Canal becomes a 5-mile skating corridor through the heart of Ottawa. The Dutch have been hosting a 120-mile skating race on the country’s canals since 1909. And the wild success of New York City's Highline, an abandoned elevated railway converted into a park, makes any project in its category more plausible. Many of your questions will be answered when the proposal is finalized, including where the Freezeway will go and what it will cost. But there’s no doubt it’s a fun idea, a way to make getting outside in the cold appealing, Gibbs says. I’m “trying to find ways to make people fall in love with winter as opposed to as if was some unbearable curse.”

Democratic presidential contender Beto O’Rourke said Wednesday that the 1776 Betsy Ross flag has become a symbol of white nationalism. The former House member from El Paso, Texas, made the remark while stumping at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown, where he also praised Nike for pulling the flag design from a planned sneaker design set to be released for July Fourth, reportedly at the behest of former-quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick. In his remarks, according to reporters present, Mr. O’Rourke said the 13-star flag sewn by Ross in 1776 “has, by some extremist white-nationalist groups, been appropriated.” Beto had noted that “the version of the flag that was used on Nike shoes in question has by some extremist/white nationalist groups been appropriated” — Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) July 3, 2019 White nationalists and racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan also frequently fly the current 50-star U.S. flag. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Nike had already begun shipping out the sneakers when Mr. Kaepernick told the company he and others see the Betsy Ross flag as a symbol of slavery, which was then practiced legally in all the colonies that became the United States. “I think its really important to take into account the impression that kind of symbol would have for many of our fellow Americans, respect the decision Nike made and more importantly grateful for the conversation that this is producing,” Mr. O’Rourke also said. The claim that the Betsy Ross flag is a symbol of slavery or white nationalism prompted wide derision on social media and one viral photo suggested nobody thought it was in 2013. In that photo, which was reposted or retweeted by social-media conservatives, including Donald Trump Jr., the 1776 flag is prominently featured at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. Weird that no one had a problem with The Betsy Ross Flag when it flew over Obama’s inauguration. Now it’s not patriotic… ok got it. 🙄 #morons https://t.co/wkxDRZs6bM — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 3, 2019 Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Luc Ferry, prof de philo à Paris-Diderot qui sèche les cours et c'est Matignon qui paye la note... Les services du Premier ministre a confirmé prendre en charge le remboursement à l'université Paris-Diderot (Paris-VII) des salaires versés à Luc Ferry, en raison des cours qu'il n'a pas assurés en 2010-11. L'ancien ministre de l'Education est actuellement détaché en tant que président délégué du Conseil d'analyse de la société, organisme sous l'autorité du Premier ministre. D'où la décision de Matignon de régler la facture lui-même. Mercredi, le philosophe avait été reçu par le directeur de cabinet de François Fillon. Les salaires perçus dans l'année par l'ex-ministre s'élèvent à plusieurs dizaines de milliers d'euros : Ferry touchait en moyenne «4 499 euros net par mois». Le président de l'université Paris-Diderot, Vincent Berger, a fait également savoir que le prof de philo «ne fera plus cours», d'ici à la fin de l'année universitaire. Le Canard Enchaîné avait révélé l'affaire mercredi dans ses colonnes, en citant les trois courriers adressés par Vincent Berger à Luc Ferry, dans lesquelles il lui rappelle ses obligations à venir enseigner au moins 192 heures dans l'année scolaire. Mais Ferry n'en assurera aucune.

Las Vegas is truly a city that never sleeps! Think of the 24-hour casinos, numerous entertainment shows, amazing strip clubs, and you have a place that promises to offer everything that the urban mind craves for. Of course, you can never have enough of Vegas on your first trip – You must come back again, but below are just some of the crazy things you can plan here. Get hitched. Yep! Did you know you can get married in Vegas whenever you want? Yes, getting a marriage license here is literally a matter of minutes. Of course, if you want to plan one of the custom Las Vegas weddings, you need to plan things in advance. You will find amazing packages, which can be tailored to match your requirements. Head to the Flamingo Garden. Most of us have never seen a Flamingo, and this is where you get a chance. Spread over 15 acres, Flamingo Garden is easy to access and has some amazing exotic birds. Indoor Skydiving. Not up for real skydiving as yet? In Vegas, you can enjoy Indoor Skydiving. Located at Convention Center, you can have fun at the Vegas Indoor Skydiving, which is open between 10 am and 8 pm every day. Helicopter Tours. Ever wondered how the city of lights looks from the sky above? There are organized helicopter tours that are worth every penny spent. Fly over the Grand Canyon or check the fun resorts and the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip – the choice is yours. Also, you can consider including rafting in Colorado River with the package. Enjoy the shows. From the Hollywood-inspired shows to live entertainment, comedies and more, there’s a show for everyone in Vegas. However, don’t plan on catching up more than two shows on your first trip – there’s plenty of other things to do. Wedding planning tips If you are planning a destination or elaborate wedding in Las Vegas, consider planning in advance. There are many service providers that will take bookings and can customize their services as required. Also, consider the budget, because in Vegas, you don’t need a lot of money to get married. Booking early just helps in selecting between more venues, and you can also do the rehearsals before the wedding for an extra charge. Check online now and book your tickets – A fun week of entertainment awaits in Vegas.

La direction régionale de la santé a déclaré à un correspondant de Nessma, que 9 employés de l’hôpital régional de Sidi...

IMG_2905.JPG Police detour vehicles on Manor Road on Tuesday, after another evacuation at Susan Wagner High School. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Susan Wagner High School in Sea View has apparently been evacuated for the second day in a row on Tuesday. The evacuation also marks the third time in a week students were led outside the building, apparently for safety concerns. Tuesday's evacuation occurred around 10 a.m. Brielle Avenue was closed to traffic by police vehicles, and students were gathered outside the school. Councilman Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) arrived at the school. Students began posting about it on Twitter. @SINYCliving @silivedotcom And once again it's 10:00 AM and Susan Wagner HS has been evacuated. This is becoming a very disturbing pattern — Ralph (@goodazkinbee) May 19, 2015 Wagner just needs to change its name to Susan E Isis already 💯😂😂😒 — Sin of pride ⚜️ (@SimplyJustKing) May 19, 2015 After an unfounded bomb threat sparked the school's evacuation on Monday, police took a suspect into custody. The suspect responsible for Monday morning's bomb scare at Susan Wagner High School taunted the school's principal in an e-mail, according to police. "Hey, congrats, man. You missed all four bombs. In (sic) blowing them up in 20 minutes," the suspect wrote, according to an NYPD spokeswoman. An unfounded bomb threat issued last week also forced the school's evacuation.

Social unrest will “dwarf the Rodney King and the Martin Luther King riots” Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com June 28, 2013 Following a number of tweets making threats to kill white people if George Zimmerman is acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, a former Chicago police officer warns that the outcome of the case could spark race riots in cities across America. As Infowars reported yesterday, following the woeful performance of Rachel Jeantel, the state’s so-called “star witness,” a number of Twitter users took to the social network to express their intention to kill white people in retaliation for Zimmerman going free. Tweets included remarks such as “If Zimmerman get off ima shoot the first #hispanic/white I see,” and “If they don’t kill Zimmerman Ima kill me a cracka.” In an article entitled, America Will See Its Worst Race Riot Yet This Summer, Crime File News’ Paul Huebl remarks that the case against Zimmerman should never have been filed in the first place and that when the trial inevitably collapses with Zimmerman’s acquittal, “I fully expect organized race rioting to begin in every major city to dwarf the Rodney King and the Martin Luther King riots of past decades.” Huebl is a licensed private detective and a former Chicago police officer. “If you live in a large city be prepared to evacuate or put up a fight to win. You will need firearms, fire suppression equipment along with lots of food and water. Police resources will be slow and outgunned everywhere,” writes Huebl, adding, “America may see some combat related population control like we’ve not seen since the Civil War. Martial Law can’t be far behind complete with major efforts at gun grabbing.” Huebl is not the only prominent voice to express fears that the outcome of the trial could lead to widespread social disorder. Columnist and former senior presidential advisor Pat Buchanan warned last month that, “The public mind has been so poisoned that an acquittal of George Zimmerman could ignite a reaction similar to that, 20 years ago, when the Simi Valley jury acquitted the LAPD cops in the Rodney King beating case.” Political Strategist Charles D. Ellison also warns that, “There is the risk of a flashpoint as intense as the aftermath of that fateful Los Angeles police brutality verdict in 1992,” if Zimmerman walks free. “At that time, many underestimated the potential for social unrest. And a bit over 20 years to the date, many could be making the same miscalculation at this very moment. The ingredients are there in Sanford and they loom large nationally, from an economy barely managing its own recovery to an unemployment rate that’s much higher than it should be, particularly for African-Americans,” adds Ellison. Some are even asking whether the law should be ignored and Zimmerman convicted simply to avoid race riots. “Regardless of whether or not Zimmerman acted in self defense, a large segment of the population, particularly the black population, are demanding Zimmerman be punished. And if they don’t have their demands satisfied, it is possible they might riot,” writes a poster at the Aesops Retreat forum. “So would it be appropriate to consider potential riots when deciding on whether or not to prosecute Zimmerman? Or should justice be blind and follow the rule of law?” Critics of the attempt to convict Zimmerman have cited numerous points of evidence which clearly suggest Zimmerman acted in self-defense and that the case against him was built largely on the back of contrived racial politics. – Photos taken after the incident show Zimmerman with a bloody nose and lacerations to the head, suggesting he had been physically attacked by Martin; – NBC News edited a 911 tape of Zimmerman’s call to the police to falsely depict him as a racist; – Prominent black figures like Spike Lee and Jesse Jackson immediately portrayed the incident as an assault on the black community, stirring racial tension; – President Barack Obama got involved in the case on the side of Trayvon Martin by stating, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” – A police report suggested Zimmerman had been flat on his back during the altercation and an eyewitness said that Martin was sat on top of Zimmerman beating and pushing him down; – A responder at the scene said Martin’s knuckles were bloodied, suggesting he had injured Zimmerman with a punch; – The lead investigator on the scene, Officer Christopher Serino, wrote that Zimmerman could be heard “yelling for help as he was being battered by Trayvon Martin.” If some form of social disorder, be it limited or widespread, does ensue should Zimmerman walk free, authorities will be well prepared. The Department of Homeland Security recently put out another order for hundreds of items of riot gear in order to prepare for “riot control situations.” The federal agency has also committed to buying around 2 billion rounds of ammunition over the course of the last year. ********************* Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News. The Save Infowars Super Sale is now live! Get up to 60% off our most popular products today!

A teenage girl was stabbed to death and stuffed in a freezer in a suspected honour killing after she and her cousin were kidnapped and taken to a £1.5million home by a man they knew, it is alleged. The 19-year-old's body was found 'stuffed in an American-style fridge freezer' at a detached property in Kingston-on-Thames, west London, on Wednesday evening. A second woman, 21 - understood to be the dead victim's cousin - managed to escape the property after being slashed across the throat. She banged on doors in the neighbourhood for help, before she arrived at a hospital with stab wounds and cuts, where staff alerted police. She remains in a serious condition. A 33-year-old man, who was believed to have been fleeing the country, was later arrested in Dover, Kent, on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Another man, 28, has been arrested in New Malden on the same allegations. Neighbours indicated the crime is an honour killing and the police said they were 'keeping an open mind' on the motive, but the relationship between the women and the suspects has not been confirmed. Officers said the two women knew the man who took them to the property and that they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident. Forensics have been at the scene in Kingston today, after discovering the body of a woman who had been reported missing hours earlier The 19-year-old was found dead but 'in tact' inside the house, allegedly inside a freezer A Renault Clio with a smashed drivers side window outside of the home where teenage girl's body was found stuffed in a fridge A second woman managed to escape and made it to hospital arrived with a stab wound to her throat and is in a serious but stable condition The case has now been referred to the IPCC after officers took three hours to find the teenager despite the pair being reported missing. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police also added that the dead woman was discovered 'intact' amid reports her body had been cut up. Today, forensic officers were today seen combing the Kingston home for evidence. A large silver fridge freezer, believed to be where the woman was found, could be seen in the hallway while a Renault Clio with smashed windows was parked in the driveway. It is not clear who lives at the home - which is owned by a landlord who lives next door - but the six-bedroom property is currently undergoing renovation and the owners are believed to have given the keys to a building firm. A 29-year-old woman has also been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. She has been released pending further investigation. Detective Chief Inspector Samantha Price, who is leading the investigation, said officers were keeping an 'open mind' but that kidnapping was one line of inquiry. She added: 'Our investigation is at an early stage, and we are doing everything we can to fully understand the circumstances of this terrible attack on two young women. 'At this stage one line of enquiry is that the two women were taken against their will to the address in Kingston, by a man who they both knew. They were last seen safe and well at an address in Merton, prior to being police being contacted about concerns for their safety and welfare.' She said both women had been subject to a 'violent attack'. 'Fortunately one of the women managed to get away from the address and seek help, how this happened will form part of this investigation,' she said. 'I am keeping an open mind as to the motive, but we are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with this case.' The house is owned by a landlord who lives next door and it is believed to be being renovated, with the landlord having plans to convert it into two homes Police have said it is believed the two victims were taken to the address before being attacked and the man who took them was known to them A car parked in the driveway of the home, in Kingston, has smashed front windows this morning Forensics team members are looking through the property to establish what happened over the course of Wednesday afternoon Police were first alerted over concerns for the welfare of the two women at around 5pm on Wednesday. The Met said officers searched two addresses - one in Sutton and another in Merton, both in south London - but that neither woman was at either address. They understood the women had been seen 'safe and well' earlier at the Merton address. Inquiries continued until they were alerted by hospital staff at 7.18pm, who treated the 21-year-old. Officers then carried out a detailed search of the detached property where they made the grim discovery. A neighbour, who refused to be named, said: 'Relatives told me that the man was Asian and was caught at Dover trying to leave the country. 'I heard he kidnapped them both and chopped one of them up and put her in the freezer. 'I heard he slit the other one's throat. Three people have been arrested, two men and one woman. One of the men was arrested in Kent, allegedly trying to flee Police forensics at the Kingston home. Police admitted they have had to refer the case to the IPCC as the women were reported missing hours before one was found dead An officer holds her post outside the house as forensics inspectors go in and out of the Kingston home. Searches are also taking place in Sutton and Merton Police said they know who the victim was and have informed the woman's next of kin. Police are keeping the 'honour killing' inquiry open 'When the relative told me earlier I thought "oh my God that is awful". 'There was at least six or seven cars maybe more and at least ten relatives here. 'I spoke to the neighbours earlier and they said that the person who rented the house out had only done so at the weekend.' The home is owned by a landlord who lives next door, and applied to Kingston Council earlier this year for permission to create two homes. On May 19, planning permission was denied, but a new application was submitted just 11 days later. It is currently at the consultation stage of the process. A family friend of the owners told The Sun: 'The girls had got mixed up with a gang of guys. One wanted to marry one of the boys and her family couldn't take that.' An officer receives an update from the forensics investigators in Kingston. The leafy borough has homes that sell for millions of pounds Bernett Thrones, 39, a neighbour, said: 'I could hear running on the gravel drive and then a loud knock. 'It was very sudden and very loud. I had a facemask on, but I jumped up and went downstairs. 'By the time I opened the door the person was gone. I could hear them running away on the stones. 'It was strange but I didn't realise how serious it was until the police came later. 'It's a horrible shock. 'You can't believe something like this could happen across the road.' A neighbour said she believed a family had been living there for a couple of years, with two small children The home where the murder took place is owned by the same landlord as the home next door Another neighbour said: 'The police came round and told me they were looking at a window of 1:30pm and 3pm when they went into the house. 'I wasn't at home then, but all the relatives looked south Asian I think.'

The 83-year-old emperor expressed his apparent wish to abdicate last August, citing old age and health. Japan’s Parliament on Friday has passed a law allowing Emperor Akihito to become first monarch to abdicate in 200 years. The 83-year-old emperor expressed his apparent wish to abdicate last August, citing old age and health. Under the law enacted on Friday, an abdication, which will be Japan’s first in 200 years, must take place within three years. It also highlights a pressing issue of the shrinking royal population and male successors. Female members who marry commoners lose their royal status. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ultra-conservative government supports the current male-only succession, which will make the 57-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito next in line to ascend the throne.

UPDATE, SUNDAY 10 A.M.: You would think a massive hurricane was about to sweep over America. But no, it’s just Disney Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which will be kicking off this Thursday. While the final frame of April has proven its mettle to launch summer early (e.g., Fast Five‘s 2011 bow of $86.2M), most of the majors felt it was a waste of time to launch a tentpole as Age of Ultron is really expected to take the wind out of everyone else’s box office sails (and sales) next weekend. So most distribs spent this weekend preparing for the storm: Getting out in front of Ultron; ensuring good word of mouth on their boutique titles; making sure audiences know there are other pics (particularly smart arthouse alternatives) on the marquee. Lionsgate found this weekend a prime place to get a leg up, generate word of mouth with females and counterprogram as it rolled out period romance The Age of Adaline. A24’s Ex Machina, which hit a sweet spot with the 25-34 demo, expanded this weekend to excite those fanboys waiting around in the lobby ahead of Ultron’s debut. “Films that are already in the marketplace have a better shot of hanging in there when a big film arrives in the marketplace, versus going up right against it,” says Sony domestic distrib chief Rory Bruer. Sony’s Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 posted a strong hold in second place thanks to teens, down 35% in its sophomore sesh with $15.5M at 3,633. Pic’s 10-day domestic cume of $43.9M has surpassed its $30M production budget by 47%. Funny thing — when there’s a big film like Ultron in the marketplace, distribs can adopt one of two opinions: a) a film the size of Ultron is good for business and drives more traffic or, conversely, b) it hurts business for everybody else. During the slow frame of January, most distribs whined that American Sniper’s runaway success took a significant cut of their business. Typically during summer, a tentpole spurs business for the competition as well. Says one studio distribution chief, “There are varying degrees of big when it comes to whether a tentpole will assist the competition or not. When it’s enormous, it sucks the air out.” But with Ultron expected to break the record domestic debut set by its predecessor – $207.4M – most major distribs this morning are bracing for big drops in a week. Per Rentrak, this weekend rang up $98M for all films, down 18% from last weekend and off 16% from a year ago. 2015 is still ahead of 2014 for the period of Jan. 1-April 26 by 3.7% with $3.22B. Universal is calling the fourth weekend for Furious 7 at $18.26M with a total running domestic cume of $320.5M. F7 maintains its position as the studio’s fourth-highest grossing title Stateside behind their top three hitters Despicable Me 2 ($368M), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial ($359.2M), and Jurassic Park ($357.1M). Large format accounted for 18% of the weekend haul, including Imax at 8%, and premium large format another 10%. With Ultron expected to ding F7, the anticipation by many remains that the seven-quel is headed toward $375M, which would obviously make it Uni’s highest grossing film at the domestic B.O. Globally, F7 hit $1.322 billion, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time worldwide behind Avatar ($2.8B), Titanic ($2.2B) Marvel’s The Avengers ($1.5B) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 ($1.341B) Lionsgate’s The Age of Adaline from Lakeshore/SKE arrived in third with $13.375M at 2,991. Adaline rose 8% on Saturday from Friday, moving from $4.95M to $5.35M. The pic, which stars Blake Lively and Harrison Ford, played largely to older females with femmes making up 75% and over 25ers at 58%. With Age of Adaline split 50/50 between Lionsgate and Lakeshore, the film is shaping up to be profitable for both partners. Lionsgate moved Adaline out of its January spot to grab a bigger share of the audience than the May box office provides; it’s an obvious option for adult women at the multiplex next weekend amid the Age of Ultron‘s anticipated multiple showtimes. Adaline’s A- CinemaScore translates into a likely 3.5 multiple, so the distrib is quite hopeful about the pic’s counter-programming possibilities. Following Fox’s The Longest Ride by two weeks provided enough breathing room for Adaline while also providing an opportunity for the Blake Lively film to trailer on the Nicholas Sparks film, hitting its key femme demo head on. Lively’s Gossip Girl fandom and her profile in the fashion world became key drivers to creating awareness for the film. Meanwhile, A24’s wide expansion of artificial intelligence sci-fi film Ex Machina turned out to be A24’s biggest grossing weekend in the label’s history with $5.44M at 1,255. Current cume for the pic through its third weekend stands at $6.9M, after it had 2015’s best specialty debut (on a per-theater average) two weeks ago, and dominated specialty box office again last week. The wide expansion pulls it up above specialty ranks at this point, putting it at 11th overall. Open Road’s Little Boy, executive produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, fell outside the top 10 with $2.83M at 1,045 theaters. Given the Burnett/Downey involvement (The Bible, A.D. The Bible Continues), no surprise there was a play here for faith-based audiences. Sources say that Open Road acquired the film for around $1M, thus their exposure on the film wasn’t large. Warner Bros. is content with the results of Russell Crowe‘s directorial debut The Water Diviner. Pic grossed $1.25M at 320 locales, repping a $3,906 per theater. Overall it earned an A- CinemaScore, with women making up the majority of tickets sales at 51%. Imax in 70 hubs generated $222K, 18% of the pic’s B.O. Rather than launch Water Diviner during a crowded awards season, Warner Bros. is taking advantage of platforming this film in the summer arthouse marketplace, a sphere that can be quite lucrative for smart, non-tentpoles. The top 10 films for April 24-26: 1). Furious 7 (UNI), 3,808 theaters (-156%) / $4.8M Fri. /$8.3M Sat. (+73%)/ $5M Sun. (-40%)/ 3-day cume: $18.3M (-37%) / Total cume: $320.5M/ Wk 4 2). Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 (SONY), 3,633 theaters (0)/ $3.75M Fri./ $7.3M Sat. (+95%)/ $4.4M Sun. (-40%)/ 3-day cume: $15.5M (-35%)/ Total Cume: $43.9M / Wk 2 3). The Age of Adaline (LGF), 2,991 theaters / $4.95M Fri. / $5.35M Sat. (+8%)/ $3M Sun. (-43%)/3-day cume: $13.37M / Wk 1 4). Home (FOX/DW), 3,311 theaters (-177) / $1.8M Fri. /$3.9M Sat. (+116%)/ $2.5M Sun. (-35%)/ 3-day cume: $8.3M (-22%)/ Total cume: $153.7M / Wk 5 5). Unfriended (UNI), 2,775 theaters (+36) / $2M Fri. / $2.7M Sat. (+36%)/ $1.45M Sun. (-47%)/ 3-day cume: $6.2M (-61%)/ Total Cume: $25.1M/Wk 2 6). Ex Machina (A24), 1,255 theaters (+1,216) / $1.7M Fri. / $2.2M Sat. (+32%)/ $1.4M Sun. (-35%)/3-day cume: $5.4M (+581%)/ Total cume: $5.6M / Wk 3 7). The Longest Ride (FOX), 3,140 theaters (-231) / $1.36M Fri. /$1.95M Sat. (+43%)/ $1M Sun. (-46%)/ 3-day cume: $4.3M (-38%) / Total cume: $30.3M / Wk 3 8). Get Hard (WB), 2,276theaters (-379) / $1M Fri. /$1.7M Sat. (+69%)/ $1M Sun. (-40%)/ 3-day cume: $3.9M (-21%) / Total cume: $84M / Wk 5 9). Monkey Kingdom (DIS), 2,012 theaters (0)/ $1M Fri. /$1.4M Sat. (+38%)/ $1M Sun. (-31%)/ 3-day cume: $3.55M (-22%) /Total Cume: $10.25M / Wk 2 10). Woman in Gold (TWC), 1,981 theaters (-30) / $920K Fri. / $1.56M Sat. (+70%)/ $1M Sun. (-35%)/ 3-day cume: $3.5M (-24%) / Total cume: $21.6M / Wk 4 NOTEABLES: Little Boy (OPRD), 1,045 theaters / $1.35M Fri. /$800K Sat. (-41%)/ $680K Sun. (-15%)/ 3-day cume: $2.8M/ Wk 1 The Water Diviner (WB), 320 theaters / $375K Fri. /$530K Sat. (+41%)/ $345K Sun. (-35%)/ 3-day cume: $1.25M/ Wk 1 True Story (FSL), 856 theaters (+25) / $315K Fri. /$537K Sat. (+70%)/ $323K Sun. (-40%)/ 3-day cume: $1.1M (-40%) / Total cume: $3.8M / Wk 2 Brotherly Love (FREE), 200 theaters / 81K Fri. / $101K Sat. (+25%)/ $61K Sun. (-40%)/3-day cume: $243K/ Wk 1 Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (IND), 3 theaters / $54K Fri. / $53K Sat. (-1%)/$40K Sun. (-25%) / 3-day PSA: 49K / 3-day cume: $147K / Wk 1 Kung Fu Killer (WLCO), 23 theaters / $14K Fri. / $18K Sat. (+29%)/ $11K Sun. (-40%)/3-day cume: $43K/ Wk 1 Blackbird (IMAGE), 12 theaters / $14K Fri. / $16K Sat. (+13%)/ $10.5K Sun. (-35%)/3-day cume: $41K/ Wk 1 Don’t Think I’ve Forgot (ARGT), 2 theaters / $5K Fri. / $5.7K Sat. (+15%)/ $3.4K Sun. (-40%)/3-day cume: $14K/ Wk 1 Just Before I Go (ANCHR/FREE), 2 theaters / $2.8K Fri. / $3.6K Sat. (+26%)/ $2.3K Sun. (-35%)/3-day cume: $9K/ Wk 1 MORE Previous, Saturday 7:26AM, after 6:56AM post: Lionsgate is reporting $4.96M for Lakeshore/SKE’s The Age of Adaline for Friday with Universal settling for second with Furious 7 at $4.83M. As is the tendency with Friday figures, everything just becomes more accurate as theaters close out their drawers, which occurs into Saturday morning. Furious 7 is still expected to win this weekend with a FSS of $16M- $17M and stateside cume of $318M-$319M. Box office beancounters are estimating that Age of Adaline will follow a trajectory similar to femme-driven The Longest Ride whereby Friday is its highest daily gross, dipping thereafter with an estimated opening of $12.4M, which would make it third behind Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. The Kevin James sequel from Sony grossed $3.75M on Friday and will land at No. 2 with $13.7M, off 42% in its second frame, with a 10-day cume of $42.16M. Sony is tubthumping that the sequel, with a current cume of $32.2M, has surpassed its reported production budget of $30M. Uni/Blumhouse’s Unfriended came away with a studio-reported $2M yesterday at 2,775 locales, down 71% in its second Friday. Industry estimates see the film making $5.9M in its second sesh, down 63% (typical for a horror film), and a 10-day cume tomorrow of $24.8M. Warner Bros. is reporting $1M for Get Hard in its fifth Friday at 2,276, down 27%, for a current cume of $81.2M. The studio’s new limited release, The Water Diviner collected $374K at 320 for a per theater of $1,168. TWC is reporting $916K at 1,981 for The Woman in Gold. The fourth frame for the Helen Mirren film is expected to file $3.1M with a cume by tomorrow of $21.2M. Open Road’s Little Boy took in $1.35M Friday. Industry estimate for FSS is $3M at 1,045 playdates. Updated top 10 chart for April 24-26: 1). Furious 7 (UNI), 3,808 theaters (-156%) / $4.8M Fri. (-42%) / 3-day cume: $16-M17M (-42 to 45%) / Total cume: $318M-319M/ Wk 4 2). Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 (SONY), 3,633 theaters (0)/ $3.75M Fri. (-49%)/ 3-day cume: $13.7M (-42%)/ Total Cume: $42.16M / Wk 2 3). The Age of Adaline (LGF), 2,991 theaters / $4.96M Fri. / 3-day cume: $12.4M / Wk 1 4). Home (FOX/DW), 3,311 theaters (-177) / $1.825M Fri. (-26%) / 3-day cume: $7.9M (-25%)/ Total cume: $153.4M / Wk 5 5). Unfriended (UNI), 2,775 theaters (+36) / $2M Fri. (-70%)/ 3-day cume: $5.9M (-63%)/ Total Cume: $24.8M/Wk 2 6). Ex Machina (A24), 1,255 theaters (+1,216) / $1.7M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4.88M (+5,115%)/ Total cume: $6.19M / Wk 3 7). The Longest Ride (FOX), 3,140 theaters (-231) / $1.365M Fri. (-43%)/ 3-day cume: $4M (-43%) / Total cume: $30M / Wk 3 8). Get Hard (WB), 2,276theaters (-379) / $1.05M Fri. (-27%) / 3-day cume: $3.56M (-28%) / Total cume: $83.7M / Wk 5 9). Monkey Kingdom (DIS), 2,012 theaters (0)/ $1.065M Fri. (-32%)/ 3-day cume: $3.33M (-27%) /Total Cume: $10M / Wk 2 10). Woman in Gold (TWC), 1,981 theaters (-30) / $903K Fri. (-33%) / 3-day cume: $3.1M (-33%) / Total cume: $21.2M / Wk 4 11). Little Boy (OPRD), 1,045 theaters / $1.35M Fri. / 3-day cume: $3M/ Wk 1 Previous, Saturday 1:05AM: It’s a close Friday night and when one takes into account all the industry estimates, Universal’s Furious 7 with $4.9M is passing Lionsgate’s period romance The Age of Adaline on the box office freeway by approximately $77K. The Blake Lively film about a turn-of-the-century woman who remains 29 for several decades deposited $4.83M into Lionsgate’s purse. The final frame of April flip flops annually as a date when studios can jumpstart summer (heck, in 2011 Universal proved that with Fast Five‘s awesome $86.2M bow) or take it easy. Knowing that Furious fans were going to stampede theaters to watch Paul Walker’s swan song, distribs opted to counter-program the seven-quel rather than throw another tentpole in the marketplace. They’re leaving that responsibility to Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron next weekend. F7 is on course to make $17M in its fourth weekend with its total domestic B.O. pushing $319.3M by Sunday. That FSS number is about where Universal expected the film to land; more aggressive estimates predicted $20M. The anticipation is that F7‘s Saturday could put the pedal to the metal for a 55% uptick, thanks to the gas from 615 large format screens, repping 16% of the pic’s 3,808 theater count. Social media buzz hasn’t waned. Universal brought out the film’s leading man and social media star Vin Diesel at CinemaCon to rightfully announce Fast & Furious 8‘s April 14, 2017 release date. Vin Diesel has collected close to 7M more followers combined across his Facebook and Instagram in the wake of F7‘s bow. Not only is his posting daily, but he’s already helping Uni push F7 for an Oscar (see right). Blake Lively headliner The Age of Adaline may have seduced some ticket buyers tonight who gave it a big smooch with an A- CinemaScore, but the industry is comping its opening to 20th Century Fox’s Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Longest Ride two weeks ago, which drew 73% females. Similar to the way that film was a tad front loaded with a $5.5M Friday and an 11% slide on Saturday for a FSS of $13M, industry estimates are seeing a similar trajectory for the Lakeshore/SKE financed pic which is projected to decline 5% for a $12.1M weekend at 2,991 — but in third place. Sony’s goofball sequel Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 is expected to do donuts in second place with a $13.7M second weekend, off 42% for a 10-day cume of $42.3M. Originally, Age of Adaline was scheduled to bow on Jan. 23, but Lionsgate moved Mortdecai to that spot and gave the Lively film its own island in April without much competition. Critics are split on the film at 53% rotten. The opening week promotion for Age of Adaline surrounded women with a blitz engineered to drive ticket sales and attendance in groups. In addition, Lionsgate played its campaign off of Lively’s fashionista image with a campaign that included an Allure Magazine-hosted tastemaker luncheon with the actress and NYC VIP media elite such as Georgina Chapman, Lorraine Schwartz and other key fashion influencers. Lionsgate also worked with nine top fashion & beauty YouTube stars to created a custom ‘Fashion Journey Through the Decades’ initiative where each influencer created a unique makeup, clothing, or hairstyling tutorial video inspired by one of Adaline’s decade-themed portraits. All influencers shared their videos across their social media accounts attracting 1M-plus YouTube views. They executed a similar campaign with 30 Instagram platform influencers garnering 1M total engagements. The distrib also engaged Mom Influencer bloggers with over 725K followers to spread the word after screening the film. On social, some of Adaline facets included Lana Del Rey dropping her “Life is Beautiful” music video across her accounts including Facebook (11.5M followers), Twitter (5.36M followers), Instagram (3.6M), YouTube (1.3M subs). While Lively hasn’t tweeted much to her 275K followers and her 1.2 Facebook fans, she is pretty active posting on Instagram to her 2.3M followers. https://instagram.com/p/14dD9lx4O8/?taken-by=blakelively A24’s expansion of sci-fi pic Ex Machina from 39 theaters to 1,255 is expected to shoot over the moon with an estimated $1.59M Friday and a third FSS of $4.5M. Similar to RADiUS’ It Follows, Ex Machina busted past the 1,000 theater threshold in its third frame, and the Alex Garland film is gonna a file a weekend that’s 18% bigger than what the David Robert Mitchell horror film posted during the same point in its run (It Follows is expected to count a stateside B.O. of $14M through seven weekends by Sunday). A24 held sneaks shows for the film last night, and is spreading the word to the masses, i.e. a TV spot ran during the Bruce Jenner 20/20 interview tonight. Critics are smitten with Ex Machina at 90% fresh. A24 acquired Ex Machina back in October. Universal has international on the title. Open Road Film’s Little Boy bowed in 1,045 on course for a $1.35M Friday and $3.2M weekend. Distrib catered to the faith-based demo with a number of grass roots orgs doing Thursday night theater buyouts. Pic follows an eight-year old boy who’ll do whatever it takes to end World War II so his dad can return to home. Pic is exec produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett. Open Road bought U.S. rights last June. One source tells Deadline that the pre-sales were in the $1M range. Russell Crowe’s feature directorial debut The Water Diviner from Warner Bros. pumped out $408K for Friday and is expected to make $1.1M for the weekend at 320 engagements (70 of which are Imax). Critics are split at 59% rotten, but the film earned high marks from such prestige tweeds at Rolling Stone, Variety, THR, Boston Globe and the New York Post. The top 10 films per industry estimates for the weekend of April 24-26: 1). Furious 7 (UNI), 3,808 theaters (-156) / $4.9M Fri. (-41%) / 3-day cume: $17M (-41%) / Total cume: $319.3M/ Wk 4 2). Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 (SONY), 3,633 theaters (0)/ $3.6M Fri. (-50%)/ 3-day cume: $13.7M (-42%)/ Total Cume: $42.3M / Wk 2 3). The Age of Adaline (LGF), 2,991 theaters / $4.83M Fri. / 3-day cume: $12.1M / Wk 1 4). Home (FOX/DW), 3,311 theaters (-177) / $1.8M Fri. (-26%) / 3-day cume: $7.7M (-27%)/ Total cume: $153.1M / Wk 5 5). Unfriended (UNI), 2,775 theaters (+36) / $2M Fri. (-70%)/ 3-day cume: $5.8M (-63%)/ Total Cume: $24.7M/Wk 2 6). Ex Machina (A24), 1,255 theaters (+1,216) / $1.59M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4.5M (+468%)/ Total cume: $5.8M / Wk 3 7). The Longest Ride (FOX), 3,140 theaters (-231) / $1.3M Fri. (-45%)/ 3-day cume: $3.9M (-44%) / Total cume: $29.9M / Wk 3 8). Monkey Kingdom (DIS), 2,012 theaters (0)/ $1M Fri. (-32%)/ 3-day cume: $3.29M (-28%) /Total Cume: $10M / Wk 2 9/10). Get Hard (WB), 2,276theaters (-379) / $944K Fri. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $3.2M (-35%) / Total cume: $83.3M / Wk 5 Little Boy (OPRD), 1,045 theaters / $1.35M Fri. / 3-day cume: $3.2M/ Wk 1 11). Woman in Gold (TWC), 1,981 theaters (-30) / $903K Fri. (-33%) / 3-day cume: $3M (-33%) / Total cume: $21.19M / Wk 4 Notables: The Water Diviner (WB), 320 theaters / $408K Fri. / 3-day cume: $1.1M/ Wk 1 True Story (FSL), 856 theaters (+25) / $332K Fri. / 3-day cume: $1.1M (-35%) / Total cume: $3.7M / Wk 2 Brotherly Love (FREE), 200 theaters / $70K Fri. / 3-day cume: $210K/ Wk 1 Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (IND), 2 theaters / $35K Fri. / 3-day PSA: 42K / 3-day cume: $84K / Wk 1 Blackbird (IMAGE), 12 theaters / $18K Fri. / 3-day cume: $54K/ Wk 1 Kung Fu Killer (WLCO), 30 theaters / $12K Fri. / 3-day cume: $37K/ Wk 1

1. You think you're going to get me, don't you? Well, you've got another think coming, 'cause I'm ready for you. That's why there's a forged a card in my wallet saying my blood group is AB negative, and a MedicAlert tag warning that I'm allergic to penicillin, aspirin, and phenylalanine. Another one states that I'm a practicing, devout Christian Scientist. All these tricks ought to slow you down when the time comes, as it's sure to, sometime soon. Even if it makes the difference between living and dying, there's just no way I'll let anyone stick a transfusion needle into my arm. Never. Not with the blood supply in the state it's in. And anyway, I've got antibodies. So you just stay the hell away from me, ALAS. I won't be your patsy. I won't be your vector. I know your weaknesses, you see. You're a fragile, if subtle devil. Unlike TARP, you can't bear exposure to air or heat or cold or acid or alkali. Blood to blood, that's your only route. And what need had you of any other? You thought you'd evolved the perfect technique, didn't you? What was it Leslie Adgeson called you? The perfect master? The paragon of viruses? I remember long ago when HIV, the AIDS virus, had everyone so awed with its subtlety of lethal design. But compared with you, HIV is just a crude butcher. A maniac with a chainsaw, a blunderer that kills its hosts and relies for transmission on habits humans can, with effort, get under control. Oh, old HIV had its tricks, but compared with you? An amateur! Rhinoviruses and flu are clever, too. They're profligate, and they mutate rapidly. Long ago they learned how to make their hosts drip and wheeze and sneeze, so the victims spread the misery in all directions. Flu viruses are also a lot smarter than AIDS 'cause they don't generally kill their hosts, just make 'em miserable while they hack and spray and inflict fresh infections on their neighbors. Oh, Les Adgeson was always accusing me of anthropomorphizing our subjects. Whenever he came into my part of the lab, and found me cursing some damned intransigent leucophage in rich, Tex-Mex invective, he'd react predictably. I can just picture him now, raising one eyebrow, commenting dryly in his Winchester accent. "The virus cannot hear you, Forry. It isn't sentient, nor even alive, strictly speaking. It's only a packet of genes in a protein case, after all." "Yeah, Les," I'd answer. "But selfish genes! Given half a chance, they'll take over a human cell, force it to make armies of new viruses, then burst it apart as they escape to attack others. They may not think. All that behavior may have evolved by blind chance. But doesn't it all feel as if it's planned? As if the nasty little things were guided, somehow, by somebody out to make us miserable...? Out to make us die?" "Oh, come now Forry." He would smile at my New World ingenuousness. "You wouldn't be in this field if you didn't find phages beautiful, in their own way." Good old smug, sanctimonious Les. He never did figure out that viruses fascinated me for quite another reason. In their rapacious insatiability I saw a simple, distilled purity of ambition that exceeded even my own. The fact that it was mindless did little to ease my qualms. I've always imagined we humans over-rated brains, anyway. We'd first met when Les visited Austin on sabbatical, some years before. He'd had the Boy Genius rep even then, and naturally I played up to him. He invited me to join him back in Oxford, so there I was, having regular amiable arguments over the meaning of disease while the English rain dripped desultorily on the rhododendrons outside. Les Adgeson. Him with his artsy friends and his pretensions at philosophy — Les was all the time talking about the elegance and beauty of our nasty little subjects. But he didn't fool me. I knew he was just as crazy Nobel-mad as the rest of us. Just as obsessed with the chase, searching for that piece of the Life Puzzle, that bit leading to more grants, more lab space, more techs, more prestige... to money, status and, maybe eventually, Stockholm. He claimed not to be interested in such things. But he was a smoothie, all right. How else, in the midst of the Thatcher massacre of British science, did his lab keep expanding? And yet, he kept up the pretense. Viruses have their good side," Les kept saying. "Sure, they often kill, in the beginning. All new pathogens start that way. But eventually, one of two things happens. Either humanity evolves defenses to eliminate the threat or ..." Oh, he loved those dramatic pauses. "Or?" I'd prompt him, as required. "Or else we come to an accommodation, a compromise... even an alliance." That's what Les always talked about. Symbiosis. He loved to quote Margulis and Thomas, and even Lovelock, for pity's sake! His respect even for vicious, sneaky brutes like HIV was downright scary. "See how it actually incorporates itself right into the DNA of its victims?" he would muse. "Then it waits, until the victim is later attacked by some other disease pathogen. The host T cells prepare to replicate, to drive off the invader, only now some chemical machinery is taken over by the new DNA, and instead of two new T cells, a plethora of new AIDS viruses results." "So?" I answered. "Except that it's a retrovirus, that's the way nearly all viruses work." "Yes, but think ahead, Forry. Imagine what's going to happen when, inevitably, the AIDS virus infects someone whose genetic makeup makes him invulnerable!" "What, you mean his antibody reactions are fast enough to stop it? Or his T cells repel invasion?" Oh, Les used to sound so damn patronizing when he got excited. "No, no, think!" he urged. "I mean invulnerable after infection. After the viral genes have incorporated into his chromosomes. Only in this individual certain other genes prevent the new DNA from triggering viral synthesis. No new viruses are made. No cellular disruption. The person is invulnerable. But now he has all this new DNA...." "In just a few cells —" "Yes. But suppose one of these is a sex cell. Then suppose he fathers a child with that gamete. Now every one of that child's cells may contain both the trait of invulnerability and the new viral genes! Think about it, Forry. You now have a new type of human being! One who cannot be killed by AIDS. And yet he has all the AIDS genes, can make all those strange, marvelous proteins.... Oh, most of them will be unexpressed or useless, of course. But now this child's genome, and his descendants', contains more variety...." I often wondered, when he got carried away this way. Did he actually believe he was explaining this to me for the first time? Much as the Brits respect American science, they do tend to assume we're slackers when it comes to the philosophical side. But I'd seen his interest heading in this direction weeks back and had carefully done some extra reading. "You mean like the genes responsible for some types of inheritable cancers?" I asked sarcastically. "There's evidence some oncogenes were originally inserted into the human genome by viruses, just as you suggest. Those who inherit the trait for rheumatoid arthritis may also have gotten their gene that way." "Exactly. Those viruses themselves may be extinct, but their DNA lives on, in ours!" "Right. And boy have human beings benefited!" Oh, how I hated that smug expression he'd get. (It got wiped off his face eventually, didn't it?) Les picked up a piece of chalk and drew a figure on the blackboard. HARMLESS--> KILLER!--> SURVIVABLE ILLNESS--> INCONVENIENCE--> HARMLESS "Here's the classic way of looking at how a host species interacts with a new pathogen, especially a virus. Each arrow, of course, represents a stage of mutation and adaptation selection. "First, a new form of some previously harmless microorganism leaps from its prior host, say a monkey species, over to a new one, say us. Of course, at the beginning we have no adequate defenses. It cuts through us like Syphilis did in Europe in the sixteenth century, killing in days rather than years... in an orgy of cell feeding that's really not a very efficient modus for a pathogen. After all, only a gluttonous parasite kills off its host so quickly. "What follows, then, is a rough period for both host and parasite as each struggles to adapt to the other. It can be likened to warfare. Or, on the other hand, it might be thought of as a sort of drawn out process of negotiation." I snorted in disgust. "Mystical crap, Les. I'll concede your chart; but the War analogy is the right one. That's why they fund labs like ours. To come up with better weapons for our side." "Hmm. Possibly. But sometimes the process does look different, Forry." He turned and drew another chart. HARMLESS--> KILLER!--> SURVIVABLE ILLNESS--> INCONVENIENCE--> BENIGN PARASITISM--> SYMBIOSIS "You can see that this chart is the same as the other, right up to the point where the original disease disappears." "Or goes into hiding." "Surely. As E. coli took refuge in our innards. Doubtless long ago the ancestors of E. coli killed a great many of our ancestors before eventually becoming the beneficial symbionts they are now, helping us digest our food. "The same applies to viruses, I'd wager. Heritable cancers and rheumatoid arthritis are just temporary awkwardnesses. Eventually, those genes will be comfortably incorporated. They'll be part of the genetic diversity that prepares us to meet challenges ahead. Why, I'd wager a large portion of our present genes came about in such a way, entering our cells first as invaders...." Crazy sonovabitch. Fortunately he didn't try to lead the lab's research effort too far to the right on his magic diagram. Our Boy Genius was plenty savvy about the funding agencies. He knew they weren't interested in paying us to prove we're all partly descended from viruses. They wanted, and wanted badly, progress on ways to fight viral infections themselves. So Les concentrated his team on vectors. Yeah, you viruses need vectors, don't you. I mean, if you kill a guy, you've got to have a life raft, so you can desert the ship you've sunk, so you can cross over to some new hapless victim. Same applies if the host proves tough, and fights you off — gotta move on. Always movin' on. Hell, even if you've made peace with a human body, like Les suggested, you still want to spread, don't you? Big-time colonizers, you tiny beasties. Oh, I know. It's just natural selection. Those bugs that accidentally find a good vector spread. Those that don't, don't. But it's so eerie. Sometimes it sure feels purposeful.... So the flu makes us sneeze. Salmonella gives us diarrhea. Smallpox causes pustules which dry, flake off and blow away to be inhaled by the patient's loved ones. All good ways to jump ship. To colonize. Who knows? Did some past virus cause a swelling of the lips that made us want to kiss? Heh. Maybe that's a case of Les's "benign incorporation"... we retain the trait, long after the causative pathogen went extinct! What a concept. So our lab got this big grant to study vectors. Which is how Les found you, ALAS. He drew this big chart covering all the possible ways an infection might leap from person to person, and set us about checking all of them, one by one. For himself he reserved straight blood-to-blood infection. There were reasons for that. First off, Les was an altruist, see. He was concerned about all the panic and unfounded rumors spreading about Britain's blood supply. Some people were putting off necessary surgery. There was talk of starting over here what some rich folk in the States had begun doing — stockpiling their own blood in silly, expensive efforts to avoid having to use the Blood Banks if they ever needed hospitalization. All that bothered Les. But even worse was the fact that lots of potential donors were shying away from giving blood because of some stupid rumors that you could get infected that way. Hell, nobody ever caught anything from giving blood... nothing except maybe a little dizziness and perhaps a zit or spot from all the biscuits and sweet tea they feed you afterwards. And as for contracting HIV from receiving blood, well, the new antibodies tests soon had that problem under control. Still, the stupid rumors spread. A nation has to have confidence in its blood supply. Les wanted to eliminate all those silly fears once and for all, with one definitive study. But that wasn't the only reason he wanted the blood-to blood vector for himself. "Sure, there are some nasty things like AIDS that use that vector. But that's also where I might find the older ones," he said, excitedly. "The viruses that have almost finished the process of becoming benign. The ones that have been so well selected that they keep a low profile, and hardly inconvenience their hosts at all. Maybe I can even find one that's commensal! One that actually helps the human body." "An undiscovered human commensal," I sniffed doubtfully. "And why not? If there's no visible disease, why would anyone have ever looked for it! This could open up a whole new field, Forry!" In spite of myself, I was impressed. It was how he got to be known as a Boy Genius, after all, this flash of half-crazy insight. How he managed not to have it snuffed out of him at OxBridge, I'll never know, but it was one reason why I'd attached myself to him and his lab, and wrangled mighty hard to get my name attached to his papers. So I kept watch over his work. It sounded so dubious, so damn stupid. And I knew it just might bear fruit, in the end. That's why I was ready when Les invited me along to a conference down in Bloomsbury one day. The colloquium itself was routine, but I could tell he was near to bursting with news. Afterwards we walked down Charing Cross Road to a pizza place, one far enough from the university area to be sure there'd be no colleagues anywhere within earshot — just the pretheater crowd, waiting till opening time down at Leicester Square. Les breathlessly swore me to secrecy. He needed a confidant, you see, and I was only too happy to comply. "I've been interviewing a lot of blood donors lately," he told me after we'd ordered. "It seems that while some people have been scared off from donating, that has been largely made up by increased contributions by a central core of regulars." "Sounds good," I said. And I meant it. I had no objection to there being an adequate blood supply. Back in Austin I was pleased to see others go to the Red Cross van, just so long as nobody asked me to contribute. I had neither the time nor the interest, so I got out of it by telling everybody I'd had malaria. "I found one interesting fellow, Forry. Seems he started donating back when he was twenty-five, during the Blitz. Must have contributed thirty-five, forty gallons, by now." I did a quick mental calculation. "Wait a minute. He's got to be past the age limit by now." "Exactly right! He admitted the truth, when he was assured of confidentiality. Seems he didn't want to stop donating when he reached sixty-five. He's a hardy old fellow ... had a spot of surgery a few years back, but he's in quite decent shape, overall. So, right after his local Gallon Club threw a big retirement fest for him, he actually moved across the county and registered at a new blood bank, giving a false name and a younger age!" "Kinky. But it sounds harmless enough. I'd guess he just likes to feel needed. Bet he flirts with the nurses and enjoys the free food... sort of a bimonthly party he can always count on, with friendly, appreciative people." Hey, just because I'm a selfish bastard doesn't mean I can't extrapolate the behavior of altruists. Like most other user-types, I've got a good instinct for the sort of motivations that drive suckers. People like me need to know such things. "That's what I thought too, at first," Les said, nodding. "I found a few more like him, and decided to call them 'addicts.' At first I never connected them with the other group, the one I named 'converts.'" "Converts?" "Yes, converts. People who suddenly become blood donors — get this — very soon after they've recovered from surgery themselves!" "Maybe they're paying off part of their hospital bills that way?" "Mmm, not really. We have nationalized health, remember? And even for private patients, that might account for the first few donations only." "Gratitude, then?" An alien emotion to me, but I understood it, in principle. "Perhaps. Some few people might have their consciousnesses raised after a close brush with death, and decide to become better citizens. After all, half an hour at a blood bank, a few times a year, is a small inconvenience in exchange for..." Sanctimonious twit. Of course he was a donor. Les went on and on about civic duty and such until the waitress arrived with our pizza and two fresh bitters. That shut him up for a moment. But when she left, he leaned forward, eyes shining. "But no, Forry. It wasn't bill-paying, or even gratitude. Not for some of them, at least. More had happened to these people than having their consciousnesses raised. They were converts, Forry. They began joining Gallon Clubs, and more! It seems almost as if, in each case, a personality change had taken place." "What do you mean?" "I mean that a significant fraction of those who have had major surgery during the last five years seem to have changed their entire set of social attitudes! Beyond becoming blood donors, they've increased their contributions to charity, joined parent-teacher organizations and Boy Scout troops, become active in Greenpeace and Save The Children..." "The point, Les. What's your point?" "My point?" He shook his head. "Frankly, some of these people were behaving like addicts... like converted addicts to altruism. That's when it occurred to me, Forry, that what we might have here was a new vector." He said it as simply as that. Naturally I looked at him, blankly. "A vector!" he whispered, urgently. "Forget about typhus, or smallpox, or flu. They're rank amateurs! Wallies who give the show away with all their sneezing and flaking and shitting. To be sure, AIDS uses blood and sex, but it's so damned savage, it forced us to become aware of it, to develop tests, to begin the long, slow process of isolating it. But ALAS —" "Alas?" "A-L-A-S." He grinned. "It's what I've named the new virus I've isolated, Forry. It stands for 'Acquired Lavish Altruism Syndrome.' How do you like it?" "Hate it. Are you trying to tell me that there's a virus that affects the human mind? And in such a complicated way?" I was incredulous and, at the same time, scared spitless. I've always had this superstitious feeling about viruses and vectors. Les really had me spooked now. "No, of course not," he laughed. "But consider a simpler possibility. What if some virus one day stumbled on a way to make people enjoy giving blood?" I guess I only blinked then, unable to give him any other reaction. "Think, Forry! Think about that old man I spoke of earlier. He told me that every two months or so, just before he'd be allowed to donate again, he tends to feel 'all thick inside.' The discomfort only goes away after the next donation!" I blinked again. "And you're saying that each time he gives blood, he's actually serving his parasite, providing it a vector into new hosts...." "The new hosts being those who survive surgery because the hospital gave them fresh blood, all because our old man was so generous, yes! They're infected! Only this is a subtle virus, not a greedy bastard, like AIDS, or even the flu. It keeps a low profile. Who knows, maybe it's even reached a level of commensalism with its hosts — attacking invading organisms for them, or..." He saw the look on my face and waved his hands. "All right, far-fetched, I know. But think about it! Because there are no disease symptoms, nobody has ever looked for this virus, until now." He's isolated it, I realized, suddenly. And, knowing instantly what this thing could mean, career-wise, I was already scheming, wondering how to get my name onto his paper, when he published this. So absorbed was I that, for a few moments, I lost track of his words. "... And so now we get to the interesting part. You see, what's a normal, selfish Tory-voter going to think when he finds himself suddenly wanting to go down to the blood bank as often as they'll let him?" "Um," I shook my head. "That he's been bewitched? Hypnotized?" "Nonsense!" Les snorted. "That's not how human psychology works. No, we tend to do lots of things without knowing why. We need excuses, though, so we rationalize! If an obvious reason for our behavior isn't readily available, we invent one, preferably one that helps us think better of ourselves. Ego is powerful stuff, my friend." Hey, I thought. Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs. "Altruism," I said aloud. "They find themselves rushing regularly to the blood bank. So they rationalize that it's because they're good people.... They become proud of it. Brag about it...." "You've got it," Les said. "And because they're proud, even sanctimonious, about their newfound generosity, they tend to extend it, to bring it into other parts of their lives!" I whispered in hushed awe. "An altruism virus! Jesus, Les, when we announce this..." I stopped when I saw his sudden frown and instantly thought it was because I'd used that word "we." I should have known better, of course. For Les was always more than willing to share the credit. No, his reservation was far more serious than that. "Not yet, Forry. We can't publish this yet." I shook my head. "Why not! This is big, Les! It proves much of what you've been saying all along, about symbiosis and all that. There could even be a Nobel in it!" I'd been gauche, and spoken aloud of The Ultimate. But he did not even seem to notice. Damn. If only Les had been like most biologists, driven more than anything else by the lure of Stockholm. But no. You see, Les was a natural. A natural altruist. It was his fault, you see. Him and his damn virtue, they drove me to first contemplate what I next decided to do. "Don't you see, Forry? If we publish, they'll develop an antibody test for the ALAS virus. Donors carrying it will be barred from the blood banks, just like those carrying AIDS and syphilis and hepatitis. And that would be incredibly cruel torture to those poor addicts and carriers." "Screw the carriers!" I almost shouted. Several pizza patrons glanced my way. With a desperate effort I brought my voice down. "Look, Les, the carriers will be classified as diseased, won't they? So they'll go under doctor's care. And if all it takes to make them feel better is to bleed them regularly, well, then we'll give them pet leeches!" Les smiled. "Clever. But that's not the only, or even my main reason, Forry. No, I'm not going to publish, yet, and that is final. I just can't allow anybody to stop this disease. It's got to spread, to become an epidemic. A pandemic." I stared, and upon seeing that look in his eyes, I knew that Les was more than an altruist. He had caught that specially insidious of all human ailments, the Messiah Complex. Les wanted to save the world. "Don't you see?" he said urgently, with the fervor of a proselyte. "Selfishness and greed are destroying the planet, Forry! But nature always finds a way, and this time symbiosis may be giving us our last chance, a final opportunity to become better people, to learn to cooperate before it's too late! "The things we're most proud of, our prefrontal lobes, those bits of gray matter above the eyes which make us so much smarter than beasts — what good have they done us, Forry? Not a hell of a lot. We aren't going to think our way out of the crises of the twentieth century. Or, at least, thought alone won't do it. We need something else, as well. "And Forry, I'm convinced that 'something else' is ALAS. We've got to keep this secret, at least until it's so well established in the population that there's no turning back!" I swallowed. "How long? How long do you want to wait? Until it starts affecting voting patterns? Until after the next election?" He shrugged. "Oh, at least that long. Five years. Possibly seven. You see, the virus tends to only get into people who've recently had surgery, and they're generally older. Fortunately, they also are often influential. Just the sort who now vote Tory..." He went on. And on. I listened with half an ear, but already I had come to that fateful realization. A seven-year wait for a goddamn coauthorship would make this discovery next to useless to my career, to my ambitions. < Of course I could blow the secret on Les, now that I knew of it. But that would only embitter him, and he'd easily take all the credit for the discovery anyway. People tend to remember innovators, not whistle-blowers. We paid our bill and walked toward Charing Cross Station, where we could catch the tube to Paddington, and from there to Oxford. Along the way we ducked out of a sudden downpour at a streetside ice cream vendor. While we waited, I bought us both cones. I remember quite clearly that he had strawberry. I had a raspberry ice. While Les absentmindedly talked on about his research plans, a small pink smudge colored the corner of his mouth. I pretended to listen, but already my mind had turned to other things, nascent plans and earnest scenarios for committing murder. 2. It would be the perfect crime, of course. Those movie detectives are always going on about "motive, means, and opportunity." Well, motive I had in plenty, but it was one so far-fetched, so obscure, that it would surely never occur to anybody. Means? Hell, I worked in a business rife with means. There were poisons and pathogens galore. We're a very careful profession, but, well, accidents do happen.... The same holds for opportunity. There was a rub, of course. Such was Boy Genius's reputation that, even if I did succeed in knobbling him, I didn't dare come out immediately with my own announcement. Damn him, everyone would just assume it was his work anyway, or his "leadership" here at the lab, at least, that led to the discovery of ALAS. And besides, too much fame for me right after his demise might lead someone to suspect a motive. So, I realized. Les was going to get his delay, after all. Maybe not seven years, but three or four perhaps, during which I'd move back to the States, start a separate line of work, then subtly guide my own research to cover methodically all the bases Les had so recently flown over in flashes of inspiration. I wasn't happy about the delay, but at the end of that time, it would look entirely like my own work. No coauthorship for Forry on this one, nossir! The beauty of it was that nobody would ever think of connecting me with the tragic death of my colleague and friend, years before. After all, did not his demise set me back in my career, temporarily? "Ah, if only poor Les had lived to see your success!" my competitors would say, suppressing jealous bile as they watched me pack for Stockholm. Of course none of this appeared on my face or in my words. We both had our normal work to do. But almost every day I also put in long extra hours helping Les in "our" secret project. In its own way it was an exhilarating time, and Les was lavish in his praise of the slow, dull, but methodical way I fleshed out some of his ideas. I made my arrangements slowly, knowing Les was in no hurry. Together we gathered data. We isolated, and even crystallized the virus, got X-Ray diffractions, did epidemiological studies, all in strictest secrecy. "Amazing!" Les would cry out, as he uncovered the way the ALAS virus forced its hosts to feel their need to "give." He'd wax eloquent, effusive over elegant mechanisms which he ascribed to random selection but which I could not help superstitiously attributing to some incredibly insidious form of intelligence. The more subtle and effective we found its techniques to be, the more admiring Les became, and the more I found myself loathing those little packets of RNA and protein. The fact that the virus seemed so harmless — Les thought even commensal — only made me hate it more. It made me glad of what I had planned. Glad that I was going to stymie Les in his scheme to give ALAS free reign. I was going to save humanity from this would-be puppet master. True, I'd delay my warning to suit my own purposes, but the warning would come, nonetheless, and sooner than my unsuspecting compatriot planned. Little did Les know that he was doing background for work I'd take credit for. Every flash of insight, his every "Eureka!" was stored away in my private notebook, beside my own columns of boring data. Meanwhile, I sorted through all the means at my disposal. Finally, I selected for my agent a particularly virulent strain of Dengue Fever. 3. There's an old saying we have in Texas. "A chicken is just an egg's way of makin' more eggs." To a biologist, familiar with all those latinized-graecificated words, this saying has a much more "posh" version. Humans are "zygotes," made up of diploid cells containing forty-six paired chromosomes ... except for our haploid sex cells, or "gametes." Males' gametes are sperm and females' are eggs, each containing only twenty-three chromosomes. So biologists say that "a zygote is only a gamete's way of making more gametes." Clever, eh? But it does point out just how hard it is, in nature, to pin down a Primal Cause... some center to the puzzle, against which everything else can be calibrated. I mean, which does come first, the chicken or the egg? "Man is the measure of all things," goes another wise old saying. Oh yeah? Tell that to a modern feminist. A guy I once knew who used to read science fiction told me about this story he'd seen, in which it turned out that the whole and entire purpose of humanity, brains and all, was to be the organism that built starships so that houseflies could migrate out and colonize the galaxy. But that idea's nothing compared with what Les Adgeson believed. He spoke of the human animal as if he were describing a veritable United Nations. From the E. coli in our guts, to tiny commensal mites that clean our eyelashes for us, to the mitochondria that energize our cells, all the way to the contents of our very DNA... Les saw it all as a great big hive of compromise, negotiation, symbiosis. Most of the contents of our chromosomes came from past invaders, he contended. Symbiosis? The picture he created in my mind was one of minuscule puppeteers, all yanking and jerking at us with their protein strings, making us marionettes dance to their own tunes, to their own nasty, selfish little agendas. And you, you were the worst! Like most cynics, I had always maintained a secret faith in human nature. Yes, most people are pigs. I've always known that. And while I may be a user, at least I'm honest enough to admit it. But deep down, we users count on the sappy generosity, the mysterious, puzzling altruism of those others, the kind, inexplicably decent folk... those we superficially sneer at in contempt, but secretly hold in awe. Then you came along, damn you. You make people behave that way. There is no mystery left, after you get finished. No corner remaining impenetrable to cynicism. Damn, how I came to hate you! As I came to hate Leslie Adgeson. I made my plans, schemed my brilliant campaign against both of you. In those last days of innocence I felt oh, so savagely determined. So deliciously decisive and in control of my own destiny. In the end it was anticlimactic. I didn't have time to finish my preparations, to arrange that little trap, that sharp bit of glass dipped in just the right mixture of deadly microorganisms. For CAPUC arrived then, just before I could exercise my option as a murderer. CAPUC changed everything. Catastrophic Autoimmune PUlmonary Collapse... acronym for the horror that made AIDS look like a minor irritant. And in the beginning it appeared unstoppable. Its vectors were completely unknown, and the causative agent defied isolation for so long. This time it was no easily identifiable group that came down with the new plague, though it concentrated upon the industrialized world. Schoolchildren in some areas seemed particularly vulnerable. In other places it was secretaries and postal workers. Naturally, all the major epidemiology labs got involved. Les predicted the pathogen would turn out to be something akin to the prions which cause shingles in sheep, and certain plant diseases... a pseudo-lifeform even simpler than a virus and even harder to track down. It was a heretical, minority view, until the CDC in Atlanta decided out of desperation to try his theories out, and found the very dormant viroids Les predicted — mixed in with the glue used to seal paper milk cartons, envelopes, postage stamps. Les was a hero, of course. Most of us in the labs were. After all, we'd been the first line of defense. Our own casualty rate had been ghastly. For a while there, funerals and other public gatherings were discouraged. But an exception was made for Les. The procession behind his cortege was a mile long. I was asked to deliver the eulogy. And when they pleaded with me to take over at the lab, I agreed. So naturally I tended to forget all about ALAS. The war against CAPUC took everything society had. And while I may be selfish, even a rat can tell when it makes more sense to join in the fight to save a sinking ship... especially when there's no other port in sight. We learned how to combat CAPUC, eventually. It involved drugs, and a serum based on reversed antibodies force-grown in the patient's own marrow after he's given a dangerous overdose of a vanadium compound I found by trial and error. It worked, most of the time, but the victims suffered great stress and often required a special regime of whole blood transfusions to get across the most dangerous phase. Blood banks were stretched even thinner than before. Only now the public responded generously, as in time of war. I should not have been surprised when survivors, after their recovery, volunteered by the thousands. But, of course, I'd forgotten about ALAS by then, hadn't I? We beat back CAPUC. Its vector proved too unreliable, too easily interrupted once we'd figured it out. The poor little viroid never had a chance to get to Les's "negotiation" stage. Oh well, those are the breaks. I got all sorts of citations I didn't deserve. The King gave me a KBE for personally saving the Prince of Wales. I had dinner at the White House. Big deal. The world had a respite, after that. CAPUC had scared people it seemed, into a new spirit of cooperation. I should have been suspicious, of course. But soon I'd moved over to WHO, and had all sorts of administrative responsibilities in the Final Campaign on Malnutrition. By that time I had almost entirely forgotten about ALAS. I forgot about you, didn't I? Oh, the years passed, my star rose, I became famous, respected, revered. I didn't get my Nobel in Stockholm. Ironically, I picked it up in Oslo. Fancy that. Just shows you can fool anybody. And yet, I don't think I ever really forgot about you, ALAS, not at the back of my mind. Peace treaties were signed. Citizens of the industrial nations voted temporary cuts in their standards of living in order to fight poverty and save the environment. Suddenly, it seemed, we'd all grown up. Other cynics, guys I'd gotten drunk with in the past — and shared dark premonitions about the inevitable fate of filthy, miserable humanity — all gradually deserted the faith, as pessimists seem wont do when the world turns bright — too bright for even the cynical to dismiss as a mere passing phase on the road to Hell. And yet, my own brooding remained unblemished. For subconsciously I knew it wasn't real. Then the third Mars Expedition returned to worldwide adulation, and brought home with them TARP. And that was when we all found out just how friendly all our home-grown pathogens really had been, all along. 4. Late at night, stumbling in exhaustion from overwork, I would stop at Les's portrait where I'd ordered it hung in the hall opposite my office door, and stand there cursing him and his damned theories of symbiosis. Imagine mankind ever reaching a symbiotic association with TARP! That really would be something. Imagine, Les, all those alien genes, added to our heritage, to our rich human diversity! Only TARP did not seem to be much interested in "negotiation." Its wooing was rough, deadly. And its vector was the wind. The world looked to me, and to my peers, for salvation. In spite of all of my successes and high renown, though, I knew myself for a second-best fraud. I would always know — no matter how much they thanked and praised me — who had been better than me by light years. Again and again, deep into the night, I would pore through the notes Leslie Adgeson had left behind, seeking inspiration, seeking hope. That's when I stumbled across ALAS once more. I found you again. Oh, you made us behave better, all right. At least a quarter of the human race must contain your DNA, by now, ALAS. And in their newfound, inexplicable, rationalized altruism, they set the tone followed by all the others. Everybody behaves so damned well in the present calamity. They help each other, they succor the sick, they all give so. Funny thing, though. If you hadn't made us all so bloody cooperative, we'd probably never have made it to bloody Mars, would we? Or if we had, there'd have still been enough paranoia around so we'd have maintained a decent quarantine. But then, I remind myself, you don't plan, do you. You're just a bundle of RNA, packed inside a protein coat, with an incidentally, accidentally acquired trait of making humans want to donate blood. That's all you are, right? So you had no way of knowing that by making us "better" you were also setting us up for TARP, did you? Did you? 5. We've got some palliatives, now. A few new techniques seem to be doing some good. The latest news is great, in fact. Apparently, we'll be able to save 15 percent or so of the children. Up to half of those may even be fertile. That's for nations who've had a lot of racial mixing. Heterozygosity and genetic diversity seems to breed better resistance. Those peoples with "pure," narrow bloodlines will be harder to save, but then, racism has its inevitable price. Too bad about the great apes and horses. At least all this will give the rain forests a chance to grow back. Meanwhile, everybody perseveres. There is no panic, as one reads about happening in past plagues. We've grown up at last, it seems. We help each other. But I carry a card in my wallet saying I'm a Christian Scientist, and that my blood group is AB negative, and that I'm allergic to nearly everything. Transfusions are one of the treatments commonly used now, and I'm an important man. But I won't take blood. I won't. I donate, but I'll never take it. Not even when I drop. You won't have me, ALAS. You won't. I am a bad man. I suppose, all told, I've done more good than evil in my life, but that's incidental, a product of happenstance and the bizarre caprices of the world. I have no control over the world, but I can make my own decisions, at least. As I make this one now. Down, out of my high research tower, I've come. Into the streets, where the teeming clinics fester and broil. That is where I work now. And it doesn't matter to me that I'm behaving no differently from anyone else today. They are all marionettes. They think they're acting altruistically, but I know they are your puppets, ALAS. But I am a man, do you hear me? I make my own decisions. Fever wracks my body now, as I drag myself from bed to bed, holding their hands when they stretch them out to me for comfort, doing what I can to ease their suffering, to save a few. You'll not have me, ALAS. This is what I choose to do. THE END

Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioFlorida senators pushing to keep Daylight Savings Time during pandemic Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll Intelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings MORE (R-Fla.) explained Sunday why he decided not to hold town hall meetings during the President's Day recess, saying such events were designed for activists to "heckle and scream" at him in front of cameras. During an interview Sunday with CBS4-Miami's Jim DeFede, Rubio said they are "not town halls anymore." "And I wish they were because I enjoy that process very much," the former GOP presidential candidate said. ADVERTISEMENT “The problem now is, and it's all in writing, I'm not making this up. What these groups really want is for me to schedule a public forum, they then organize three, four, five, six hundred liberal activists in the two counties or wherever I am in the state.” Rubio said these people then get to town hall events early and take up all the front seats. "They spread themselves out. They ask questions. They all cheer when the questions are asked," he said. "They are instructed to boo no matter what answer I give. They are instructed to interrupt me if I go too long and start chanting things. Then, at the end, they are also told not to give up their microphone when they ask questions. It’s all in writing in this indivisible document," he said, referencing the online group Indivisible that labels itself as a "practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda." Rubio said he believes these people are "real liberal activists," adding that he respects their right protest. "But it's not a productive exercise," Rubio said. "It's all designed to be able to have news coverage at night that says look at all these angry people screaming at your senator." Rubio said he was elected as a candidate who wanted to repeal and replace ObamaCare, adding that his opinions on a number of other issues have been well-documented. "I was elected on that platform. I was reelected by a lot of votes on that platform, and that's what I intend to do," he said. "It would be unfair to the people that voted for me, my of whom voted for me because of my opposition to ObamaCare, to now suddenly vote like the person whom I beat and so that's what I intend to do." Rubio said he thinks a large percentage of those people who attend town halls across the country are organized activists. “If it was a productive engagement or conversation, that would be fine. I'd have no problem justifying my views on these issues. The problem is they are not designed to have a productive engagement,” Rubio told said. “They are designed to basically heckle and scream at me in front of cameras so that Channel 4 and other networks and other stations at night will report.” Republican lawmakers have faced backlash during town halls held across the country. Some House and Senate Republicans who held town halls over the past week have been booed, heckled and screamed at. Rubio last week was confronted by a demonstrator who questioned why he wouldn't hold a town hall. “Senator, I thought you were in Europe,” an unidentified man tells Rubio in footage of their exchange posted on Twitter by Tomas Kennedy, whose Twitter lists him as a community organizer for SEIU Florida. "I saw all these missing child posters all over town. I’m glad you’re OK, but are you going to host a town hall? There’s a constituent town hall today. Senator, we need to hear from you — your constituents.” Rubio mostly brushed off the comments, continuing on his way and responding, “Good to see you, man." The Florida Republican defended his lack of recent town halls later that day, noting that people on both sides of the aisle can get "rude." Last week, President Trump tweeted that "so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists."

Protesters set a bank office on fire as they clashed with riot police in downtown Madrid following the death of an African street vendor. Reports claimed the deceased collapsed after a police pursuit, which law enforcement denies. A group of some 50 people, mostly immigrants and anti-racism activists, flooded the Lavapies neighborhood, where the street vendor had been living. Mmame Mbage, 35, had been in Spain for 12 years before the alleged encounter with police that resulted in his death. Protesters threw stones and bottles at police, and burned garbage containers. Several activists hurled insults at police, shouting “murderers” and “cowards” as law enforcers attempted to disperse the crowd with rubber bullets. Several police cars and motorcycles were damaged in the violence. ¿¿Qué narices está pasando en Lavapies?? pic.twitter.com/6aurtlLf5l — La chica Fénix (@LydiaLily) 15 марта 2018 г. Some 15 police officers were treated by emergency services, including three who were taken to hospital. Four passers-by who were caught in the clashes were also hospitalized, El Mundo reported. Rioting erupts in Madrid's #Lavapies district as migrants clash with police after death of Senegalese street vendor pic.twitter.com/NuyQ2oKM5r — Ruptly (@Ruptly) March 16, 2018 Fire crews were called to the scene, and the area was sealed off by police. In one of the tensest moments of the unrest, the facade of a nearby bank office caught fire, leading to an evacuation of the whole building. Some protesters threw chairs and road signs that they pulled out in the street. It was reported that looters used the opportunity to steal around 10 TV sets from CaixaBank after firefighters extinguished the flames. A street vendor identified only as Modou, who witnessed the incident that led to the unrest, claimed that police were to blame for Mbage’s death. He suffered a cardiac arrest in the street. "Municipal police arrived and chased him from Sol to Lavapies with a motorbike,” Modou told AFP. Several other unnamed witnesses have corroborated his account, the agency reported. Barricadas en las calles de #Lavapies por la muerte de Mmame Mbage pic.twitter.com/UXGappNOam — PAVPS Madrid (@Pavps_Madrid) March 15, 2018 However, police insist that the man died of natural causes and officers were first to come to his assistance as they found him collapsed on the street. Disputing the witnesses’ accounts, police said that, while a raid against illegal street trade was indeed conducted in the area, it did not involve Mbage. "They have confused two issues that have nothing to do with each other. In Sol, there was an intervention with manteros [street vendors] who ran over some tourists when fleeing, but the deceased was not involved in what happened there,” a municipal police source said, as cited by El Mundo. They said that officers returning from the operation spotted the man lying unconscious on the ground. "We were the first to assist him while SAMUR (Madrid’s Emergency Medical Service) arrived but he has died," the source said. The man did not have ID on him and shortly afterwards, his companion began calling other street vendors to the area. Mayor of Madrid Manuela Carmena expressed condolences to Mbage’s family and promised a thorough investigation of the events.

Tavaly szeptember 1-jén négy új YouTube-csatornát indított az A38 Hajó azzal a céllal, hogy a koncertfilm-archívumuk a lehető legtöbb emberhez jusson el. A csatornák műfajok szerint válnak szét (pop-rock, metál-punk, világzene és jazz). Azóta a négy csatornára több száz koncertfelvétel került fel, közel ezer számmal és többek között a Laibach, a Kvelertak, az Amorf Ördögök, Péterfy Bori, az Ivan & The Parazol, Frank Turner, a Kraak & Smaak, a Punnany Massif, a Wovenhand, a Madball, Sóley vagy az Animals As Leaders A38-as bulijai. A filmeket playlistekbe rendezték, így a koncertek egyben is lejátszhatók, illetve a számok külön-külön is. Hirdetés Hirdetés Az A38 Hajó majdnem másfél évtizedes fennállása alatt több mint ezerötszáz koncert-riportfilmet készített, és most is évente kétszázötven koncertet rögzít. Nem túlzás azt mondani, hogy a magyar és nemzetközi könnyűzene egyik legnagyobb gyűjteménye jött létre ezzel. Bár a filmeket műsorra tűzte és tűzi a Magyar Televízió, a felvételek zöme egy-két sugárzás után az archívumba kerül. [/embed] A csatornák természetesen rendszeresen frissülnek majd, folyamatosan kerülnek fel az elkészült koncert-riportfilmek. Emellett az A38 exkluzív, csak a YouTube-csatornákra szánt önálló műsorokat is tervez.

Jesus & Judas - The College Years A anachronistic comedic screenplay where Jesus and Judas meet in college and we touch on the backstory of many biblical characters.

After an 18-month investigation into the high cost of Gilead’s hepatitis C drug Sovaldi—initially listed at $84,000 for a course of treatment or $1,000 per pill—the Senate Finance Committee said the prices did not reflect the cost of research and development and that Gilead cared about “revenue” not “affordability and accessibility.” That sounds like an understatement. Sovaldi and the related pill Harvoni cost Medicare and Medicaid more than $5 billion in 2014, charged senators. ADVERTISEMENT But Gilead is far from the only drug company camping out on our tax dollars. In the 2000s, atypical antipsychotics were widely prescribed to children with behavior problems enrolled in Medicaid programs provoking lawsuits from states as their budgets were sacked. In 2008, the Texas attorney general’s office charged Risperdal maker Janssen (Johnson & Johnson’s psychiatric drug unit) with defrauding the state of millions “with [its] sophisticated and fraudulent marketing scheme,” to “secure a spot for the drug, Risperdal, on the state’s Medicaid preferred drug list and on controversial medical protocols that determine which drugs are given to adults and children in state custody.” The same year Alaska won a $15 million settlement from Eli Lilly in a suit to recoup medical costs generated by Medicaid patients who developed diabetes while taking Zyprexa. Taxpayer dollars are also churned by drug companies in military health programs. The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $717 million on 5 million prescriptions of Risperdal to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq only to discover after nine years that the drug worked no better than a placebo, reported the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2011. Drug companies have devised elaborate schemes for drug sales to states. The Texas attorney general’s office charged Janssen with bribing Texas’ mental health officials with trips, perks and kickbacks. Janssen also paid drug company-funded front groups, disguised to look like patients, to “give state mental health officials and lawmakers the perception that the drug had widespread support,” reported Bloomberg. Many alleged patient groups agitating for approval of expensive new drugs or fighting so-called “barriers” to treatment and mental illness “stigma” are actually slick drug company marketing creations. Many are entrenched in schools and on college campuses to capture “psychiatric patients” at an early age, often ensuring decades of sales. In Texas, a Medicaid “decision tree” called the Texas Medical Algorithm Project was instituted that mandates doctors prescribe the newest and most expensive psychiatric drugs first. The program was funded, not surprisingly, by the Johnson & Johnson-linked Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Another tactic drug companies use is “helping” states buy their own brand-name drugs. No conflict of interest there! An Eli Lilly-backed company named Comprehensive Neuroscience “helped” 24 states use Zyprexa “properly,” reported the New York Times. ADVERTISEMENT “Doctors who veer from guidelines on dosage strengths and combinations of medications for Medicaid patients are sent ‘Dear Doctor’ letters pointing out that their prescribing patterns fall outside the norm,” it reports. Doctors are also notified if patients “are renewing prescriptions,” lest they have “setbacks in their condition.” One such program sends registered nurses to the homes of patients who are on expensive brand drugs to ensure “compliance”–that they have not stopped taking the drugs. Just trying to help. According to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, the drug industry spent $272,000 in campaign donations per member of Congress last year. He reports that there are more drug company lobbyists than members of Congress. Even before Gilead’s $1000-a-pill hepatitis drug, the result of this unsavory lobbying is a $50 billion annual taxpayer gift to the drug industry–a fact that should outrage every taxpayer.

President Trump expressed his frustrations over an anonymous New York Times op-ed from a senior administration official, describing it as "a horrible thing," calling on the Times to out the author and admitting he had no idea who wrote it. "You just look. He was- nobody knows who the hell he is... or she. Although, they put he -- but probably that's a little disguise. That means it's she. But for the sake of our national security, the New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop." Trump then went into a rant on "deep state actors" calling them a threat to democracy. "I mean you look at the Washington Post or the New York Times, I can never get a good story. I mean you look at this horrible thing that took place today, it's really, is it subversion? It is treason? It's a horrible thing. You know the good thing about that? Even liberals that hate me say, 'that's terrible what they did.' And it is, really terrible." Trump also complained about the news coverage about him and his administration.

Landscape-wide research by former UK government agency on oilseed rape fields in England and Wales shows link between neonicotinoids and honeybee colony losses A new study provides the first evidence of a link between neonicotinoid pesticides and escalating honeybee colony losses on a landscape level. The study found the increased use of a pesticide, which is linked to causing serious harm in bees worldwide, as a seed treatment on oilseed rape in England and Wales over an 11 year period correlated with higher bee mortality during that time. The research, published in Nature scientific reports on Thursday, combined large-scale pesticide usage and yield observations from oilseed rape with data on honeybee loses between 2000 and 2010. The total area of land planted with oil seed rape in England and Wales more than doubled from 293, 378 hectares (724,952 acres) to 602,270 hectares over that time and the number of seeds treated with the imidacloprid pesticide increased from less than 1% of the area planted in 2000 to more than 75% of the area planted with oilseed rape by 2010. Comparing the pesticide usage data with honeybee colony losses, scientists led by Giles Budge at the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) in York - a former government agency that was outsourced to the private sector earlier this year - and US entomology professor Keith Delaplane at the University of Georgia, found a link between imidacloprid usage and honeybee colony losses. Losses varied between regions and low spring temperatures were also linked to higher bee losses in Wales. The study, also found that famers who used seed pesticide treatments reduced the number of applications of other insecticides, but that the long-term benefits of treating oil seed rape seeds with imidacloprid on crop yields were negligible. The honeybee is the most important commercial pollinator, globally responsible for pollinating at least 90% of commercial crops. They are the most frequent flower visitor to oilseed rape. The report’s authors said: “As long as acute toxins remain the basis of agricultural pest control practices, society will be forced to weigh the benefits of pesticides against their collateral damage. Nowhere is this tension more evident than in the system with the world’s most widely used insecticide, the world’s most widely used managed pollinator and Europe’s most widely grown mass flowering crop.” The authors call for more large-scale field-based research to determine the impacts on pollinators of the use of a newer generation of neonicotinoids. The UK government has always maintained that neonicotinoid pesticides do not threaten bees. It has laid the blame for high honeybee losses on the parasitic varroa mite which spreads viruses, and wet summers that prevent bees from foraging. A European-wide two year ban on a number of pesticides linked to bee deaths came into force in December 2013. Last month, the UK government temporarily overturned the ban on two pesticides on about 5% of England’s oilseed rape crop. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the emergency authorisation did not apply to imidacloprid. It added that the use of this particular pesticide had fallen dramatically in the UK, down from 43,900 kilos in 2005 to just 7,250 kilos in 2013. A Defra spokesperson said: “This paper provides evidence that neonicotinoid seed treatments can reduce the need for more pesticide use on crops. Large-scale field studies are needed to fully understand their effects on the environment. The government makes decisions on pesticides based on the best available scientific evidence.” It added: “The EU commission has now begun a review of the science relating to neonicotinoids and bees, and the UK will contribute fully to this review.” Paul de Zylva, senior nature campaigner at Friends of the Earth said the Fera study added to the growing evidence showing the harm neonicotinoid pesticides do to pollinators. “The pesticide industry can’t continue to maintain that there is no effect of their products on honey bees and wild bumblebees and solitary bees,” he said. But Julian Little, a spokesman for Bayer Cropscience, manufacturer of imidacloprid, said the study’s findings were “at odds with several other field studies which showed no impact on honeybees under properly controlled testing”.

india Updated: Jun 10, 2019 15:56 IST The verdict in the Kathua minor’s rape and murder case has been announced by a special Pathankot court on Monday, ending the wait for justice for a crime that had left an entire nation shocked and numbed for its depravity. Abducted on 10 January 2018, the minor girl was sedated and held captive inside a small temple where she was raped repeatedly for 5 days before being bludgeoned to death. The abduction, rape and killing of the Muslim Bakherwal girl was a part of the carefully planned strategy to remove the minority nomadic community from the area, police charge sheet had claimed. Here are some facts about the accused and their role in the gang rape and murder of the eight-year-old: 1. Sanji Ram, 60: A retired revenue department official was chargesheeted as the main conspirator who reportedly wanted to dislodge the nomadic Muslim Bakarwal community from his native Rasana village. He is accused of having incited his nephew, an alleged minor, to abduct the eight-year-old as a revenge for the Bakarwals having beaten up the boy in the past. Sanji Ram has been convicted under section 302 (murder) and 376-D (rape by a group acting with common intention) by the Pathankot special court. 2. Deepak Khajuria: A special police officer, who had a bone to pick with the Bakarwals. Deepak convinced Sanji Ram’s nephew to kidnap the girl with the assurance that he would help him get through his board exams. Deepak too has been convicted under section 302 (murder) and 376-D (rape by a group acting with common intention) by the Pathankot special court. 3. Parvesh Kumar, alias Mannu: A friend whom the juvenile took into confidence to execute the plan. On January 10, the juvenile and Parvesh drugged the girl in a forest. The juvenile raped her. Parvesh also attempted to rape her. They took the unconscious girl to Sanji Ram’s Devasthan (temple) and locked her up. There, she was drugged and gang-raped repeatedly. Parvesh was the third person to be convicted for murder and “rape by a group acting with common intention.” 3. Vishal Jangotra, alias Shamma: Sanji Ram’s son who studies in Meerut. He was also accused of raping the girl by the police. However, the Pathankot special court has acquitted him of all charges. 4. Tilak Raj: A head constable, he is accused of having struck a deal with Sanji Ram on January 12. He reportedly took Rs 1.5 lakh bribe from Sanji Ram’s sister, Tripta Devi, to scuttle the probe. Tripta and Tilak were good friends and classmates at the government primary school in Dhamiyal. Tilak Raj has been convicted under section-201 of the IPC (causing disappearance of evidence & or lying to screen the offender.) 6. Anand Dutta Verma: A sub inspector, he was paid Rs 3 lakh by January 13 through Tilak. After the girl’s body was recovered on January 17, he was paid another Rs 1 lakh to cover up the crime. Anand and Tilak had cut a deal to tamper with the evidence for a total bribe amount of Rs 5 lakh. In keeping with the brief, Anand had tutored the juvenile to stick to a fake version of events and agreed to wash the girl’s bloodstained clothes and leave out other evidence. Anand Dutta too was convicted by the court Monday. 7. Surinder Verma: A special police officer, he conducted a recce of the surroundings of Sanji Ram’s Devasthan on January 14. He has been convicted along with Tilak Raj under section-201 of IPC. The 8th accused in the case is a juvenile and nephew of the main accused Sanji Ram, who was convicted for murder by the court today. The minor is accused of strangulating the girl to death before bludgeoning her face with a stone twice. His trial hasn’t begun as the petition on his age is yet to be heard by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Also read | 6 held guilty of rape, murder of 8-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua

Welcome to the Best of NH Sin ce 2000, New Hampshire Magazine has polled and published the picks of its readers and editors in categories that range from best cupcakes to best martini to best antiques shop and everything in between. Voting in these categories takes place each year, starting in mid-January. Our online-only ballot is the best way for readers and customers to recognize the best of the best that the Granite State has to offer. Our annual Readers’ Poll and extensive list of Editor’s Picks all lead up to the state’s biggest celebration, The Best of NH Party, which is held annually each summer. Congratulations to the 2020 Best of NH winners and thank you to the 12,898 people who took time to vote!

We have some bad news for Paladins players in mainland China. The game will no longer be supported in the country, with servers shutting down on Nov. 30. Since 2017, Paladins has been distributed in China by Tencent. They made the announcement of the game’s impending closure yesterday on Chinese social media site Weibo. According to the statement, Tencent negotiated the end of their Paladins contract with developer Hi-Rez. Neither party was sufficiently interested in extending it, unfortunately. Consequently, the game’s support in mainland China is ending. Paladins‘ history in the country has been a rocky one from the start. The game found itself on a list of ethics standards violators last December, when a Chinese advisory body, the Online Ethics Review Committee, recommended the government ban it. Other offenders included PUBG, Fortnite, and to a lesser extent Blizzard’s Overwatch. If you currently play Paladins in China, make sure to log in during the final week of September. The closure announcement states that players will receive some compensation for their unspent in-game currency, if any. It’s not perfectly clear what this compensation is exactly, but it sounds like it might come in the form of in-game rewards for other Tencent titles. The compensation can be claimed by logging in at any time between Sept. 24 and Nov. 30, when the game shuts down in China for good. Paladins cross-play extends to PS4 On a more positive note, Hi-Rez recently announced some good news for PS4 players. Earlier this month, Paladins cross-play expanded to include the console into its network. PS4 players can now join their friends playing on Xbox and PC. This includes full cross-play functionality, including voice chat. As of yet there is no cross-progression between platforms, but Hi-Rez is working on it, according to the official announcement. Stay tuned to Daily Esports for more Paladins news and content!

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dave Tate has been monster huge and freakishly lean. (Now he's both.) Since he knows both sides of the struggle it makes sense that he's the most vocal and opinionated expert on all things food related. (Earlier this year, he told me to pour olive oil all over a large pizza and eat one every night, and that if I couldn't stomach it I was a "fucking wuss.") I got on the phone with him recently—while he was eating no less—to pick his brain about the old bodybuilding tradition of bulking and cutting. Tate Talks Bulking It comes down to calories in versus calories out. If you're having a hard time gaining weight you need a number to shoot for. So let's figure that out quickly. I like John Romaniello's calorie formula for figuring out maintenance levels. It's easy. And I'm all about easy. (Editor's Note: Here's Roman's formula for those who missed it last week.) Current Body Fat Caloric Intake 6%-12% – 17 calories per pound of LBM (Lean Body Mass) 12%-15% – 16 calories per pound of LBM 15.1%-19% – 15 calories per pound of LBM 19.1%-22% – 14 calories per pound of LBM 22.1% or above – 13 calories per pound of LBM So you find out your body fat percentage and then multiple your weight by that percent. Subtract that number from your weight to find out your lean mass, and then use that number and your body fat percentage to determine your calories. Using that formula, let's say you figured out you need 2,200 calories just to maintain your bodyweight. Well, let's bump that number up by, I don't know, 600 to 1,000 calories. That's the average you need to hit every single day. A big mistake a lot of guys make is they'll eat big for three days and then go back to eating like they normally do for a few days. If you figure out the average calories for that week then it's not higher than it was the week before—it's just staggered into different days. That's not going to make a difference at all. So you gotta eat big consistently. Even with my past history of eating junk, people are forgetting that I gained weight for many years, all the way from 181 to 255 pounds, by eating relatively clean. But at that point, when the calories were getting around 8,000, I just couldn't eat that much food any more. You need more calories per bite. You have to figure out ways to add more calories to the food you're already eating. So throw olive oil on everything. Put it on your scrambled eggs. You won't even know it's there. Put a handful of nuts into your morning oatmeal. What I used to do is get a big Ziploc bag and fill it with almonds, cashews, raisins, peanuts, and M&M's. But only enough M&M's to get a few with each handful. And I made sure at least one of the nuts was salted, so it'd make me want to eat more. Let's say you grab a big handful of nuts every hour or so—you're going to end up eating at least an extra 500 calories. The only thing you gotta be careful with is not to get too full from them. Since it's all high-quality fat, you'll get full quickly. Pay attention to when your next meal is and make sure you get it in. Have a scoop of Metabolic Drive® in water after every single meal. You can always fit more in, especially protein and water. You do that four or five times per day and you've just added an extra 100 grams of protein and 400 to 500 calories. Not everyone will agree with me on this, but immediately after you train, kick back a ton of sugar like Skittles or whatever. Just eat a whole goddamn box. You'll be restoring your glycogen levels, you won't gain a lot of fat, and you'll be hungry five minutes later. And you just added in like 150 grams of carbs. That'll add up quickly. But you have to do it immediately after. Like, in the locker room before you even hit your car. Then when you're driving home have your Mag-10®. Then get home and eat a meal. Be sure to brush your teeth or at least drink a lot of water and swish it around after you eat all that candy, though. It's not eating the sugar that's the problem—it's how long it sits in your mouth. And I have the cavities to prove it. No, you don't need to eat Wendy's to get big. It won't kill you, so you can if you want, but it's not necessary. Guys are always trying to look for an excuse to eat the shit. The problem is your goal is to gain weight and add in more calories. When you eat things like that—and I made a career out of it – it kills your appetite. Let's say you order two double cheeseburgers and some fries. You probably won't eat for another five hours after you finish that meal. You have to focus on total overall calories, not just shit food. Two tablespoons of peanut butter is a good start. Do that twice per day. It still won't affect your hunger. Eat a meal during your training session. I don't care if it's a Finibar™ Competition Bar or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Well, the FINibar would be better, actually. Anyway, after your main lift, just down a whole bar. It's not a huge meal and I guarantee you'll still be hungry after your training session. Plus you just added in an extra couple hundred calories. Decrease your cardio. Maybe get rid of it entirely. Be lazy. If you can lie down, lie down. If somebody else can do it, have them do it. Any hypertrophy program will help you get bigger. So just pick one. You need four to five days of weight training, but they can't last longer than an hour total. Let me repeat that. Your workouts can never last over an hour. But whichever program you pick, take the rest periods and double them. That'll make sure you're stronger for all of your sets. Tate Talks Cutting The number one thing you have to do immediately is increase your water intake. For one thing it's just fucking important. I can't believe how many guys don't get enough water. But the other reason is that it'll help control appetite. Now you're working under your baseline of calories. So take the calorie formula listed previously and take away a few hundred calories. That's your new goal, and you have to hit it consistently. When you work under your baseline of calories, macronutrients become more important. When you're bulking and eating more than you need, you have room to screw up because you're eating so much you're probably going to get all of your protein and fat in. When you're below your maintenance level of calories you don't have that margin of error. You have to be exact. I'm sick of dancing around this subject: If you don't know what you're doing, hire someone. If you're serious, figure out a way to pay them. Look across the board at how many people fail trying to get lean. It's nearly everyone. Yeah, getting lean isn't rocket science. I understand that. Exercise more and eat less. But if that shit worked wouldn't everyone be lean? You have to increase your protein. Most people don't take in enough. How many grams per pound of bodyweight? I don't know and I don't care. Just eat more protein. Figure out your strategy, whether it's low carb or carb cycling or whatever, and stick to it. Don't change it every week. Remember with bulking how we wanted more calories per bite? Well, now we want more bites per calories. So eat a bowl of broccoli with every meal. Increase your greens. It'll fill you up because there's more there. Eat more fish and more chicken. Take your time with your meals. Take weekly progress pictures, record your measurements, check your body fat and buy a damn scale and weigh yourself every day. I have my body fat checked every two weeks by the same person. Don't use the bullshit three-site caliper formula. Use the seven or nine-site one. That'll give you an idea of where you're going since we all lose fat in different places at different times. When you're getting lean it's a little awkward because there are blind spots where you're losing weight but you look worse. It's like the chicken growing inside the egg. It looks the same on the outside but there's a lot of shit going on inside. If you can stomach it, eat the same thing every day. Whatever you normally have for carbs, cut that in half and replace half the calories with high quality fat. So let's say you're taking in 400 grams of carbs per day. That's 1600 calories. So now you need 800 calories from fat. That's about 88 grams of fat you need to take in. Get it from nuts, avocadoes, and oils. Add fiber to your diet. Trust me. You want to be able to shit properly. With training I want you to use higher volume and really increase your reps. Not because higher reps "chisel" muscle or any bullshit like that. More activity equals more calories burned. So the more reps you do, the more calories you burn. For the most part, guys enjoy weightlifting more than cardio. So let's do 15-20 sets per larger body part and 10-15 for smaller muscle groups. I want everything in the 8-12 rep range. The goal is to not lose muscle. Let's face it: you're not going to gain any muscle while you're cutting. If you claim you can then you're either selling an e-book or you're full of shit. Tate Talks Trash You ever go out with a bunch of people for dinner when you're dieting? Isn't that a fucked up situation? Let's say you're at a table with seven people and everyone's ordering their food. You're at the end so you're ordering last. They're getting ribs, chicken strips, spaghetti, and whatever. No one in the group cares what they're ordering. The conversation stays the same. Then it comes to you and your first question is, "How do you prepare your chicken breasts?" People start looking at you. Then you order two plain chicken breasts with a side of broccoli with no butter or seasoning. The waiter writes it down and off he goes to the kitchen. Now everyone's looking at you like you're a freak. They didn't care that your other friend was eating ribs. They didn't say shit when the guy ordered his chicken strips. So how is your meal selection any different? It blows my mind. If you ordered something that was complete shit, no one would say anything. But because you ordered something to help you achieve a goal, it's a problem. And now for the next ten minutes you're having that stupid fucking conversation. "It's so easy for you to lose weight," they say. "I can't do it." And you're thinking, really? Here I am at Outback Steakhouse ordering two plain chicken breasts and broccoli – which is gonna cost me 40 bucks by the way – and it's easy? This is something I want to do? You think I want to sit here and watch you fuckers eat wings and ribs? I'm here for your company, not to give you dieting tips you're not gonna listen to. And the same shit happens when you're bulking, too. Let's say you're at the same restaurant. They order their food. Then it comes to you and you get three racks of ribs and two sweet potatoes. They say, "Holy shit, do you eat like that all the time? I wish I had that kind of metabolism!" And you want to say, do you seriously think I want to sit here and eat 36 fucking ribs? Do you think this is going to be pleasant for me? Three-quarters of the way through the meal you're sweating with napkins piled by your plate, the bones are stacked and are the size of the Eiffel tower. There's a heartbeat in your stomach. Then you finish eating and they say, "Well, I guess you're going to order dessert now." All you're thinking about is how the hell you're going to get back to the car. Then you get to go home an hour later and make a fucking shake before bed. Then wake up the next day and do it all over again for however long it takes. That's why there's so few people who are doing this shit and why it helps to be around people with similar goals. They understand. It's a rare breed, man. Yeah, you can stay in the middle, take some supplements here and there, take time off for whatever reason, change your program every other week and stay absolutely the same as you are now. But that's bullshit.

My awesome postcard gifter got me as a match again and sent me this book! I started reading it before bed and so far I really like the author's writing style!! THANKS!!!

There are a lot of great shows and movies about bad men from which people take the wrong lesson. Some guys wish they could be feared and respected like Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) or Walter White (Bryan Cranston). They wish they could live in Mad Men times because "men were men" then. They watch The Wolf of Wall Street and see the criminal excess as aspirational, failing to recognize that it's a cautionary tale. Those are exactly the kind of people who watch Billions and shout "Yo Bob-ay!" at Damian Lewis out of passing cars when they see him on the street. Lewis' character, hedge fund titan Bobby "Axe" Axelrod, is not someone you're supposed to root for. He's a greedy crook who made millions by shorting airline stocks while his employees were dying on 9/11. So it's weird to Lewis when wealthy women come up to him and say "you are playing my husband, did you know that?" What kind of person would want to be (or be married to) Bobby Axelrod? Even Lewis' co-star Paul Giamatti gets yelled at by adoring Bobby fans. Giamatti plays U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades, who is willing to do anything to put Axe behind bars. He's a terrible person, too, but he's at least nominally on the side of justice. And Paul Giamatti is just an actor, not an actual evil attorney. But that didn't stop one overzealous Billions fan from screaming at him about how horrible Chuck was being to Bobby. "And he was dead serious," says Giamatti. "His wife was mortified." Billions Is Changing the Hearts and Minds of Middle-Aged Republicans Lewis says that every hedge fund billionaire thinks they're Bobby Axelrod (and there's some truth to that; he's an amalgam of the stories and character traits of a bunch of different very rich guys). "I say 'are you watching the show? Do you know what Bobby Axelrod does?'" he says with a bemused grin. "Is that something you want to say in public?" Giamatti concurs. The deliciously despicable saga of Chuck Rhoades and Bobby Axelrod returns for Season 3 on Showtime Sunday, March 25 at 10/9c. (Full disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS, Showtime's parent company.)

Republicans are getting to the rock-bottom of it. They have defended President Trump throughout the public impeachment hearings by arguing his gangster efforts to force a Ukrainian investigation into its (imagined) interference in the 2016 election were actually completely legitimate. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has made this point repeatedly, assailing Democrats for their alleged collaboration with Ukrainian election interference efforts and asking, as he did during former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch's testimony, "what is the full extent of Ukraine's election meddling against the Trump campaign?" If you're unfamiliar with the paranoid depths of the right-wing media universe, this kind of talk probably puzzled you. But make no mistake: The Ukraine fantasies peddled by House Republicans are nothing less than a concerted attempt to do what the GOP has done with all of Trump's misconduct since the beginning of his presidency — to use a combination of denial and redirection to foment skepticism and doubt about the underlying charges. In this case, the Ukraine meddling red herring is used to justify Trump's obstructive acts and his attempts to extort the Ukrainian government into opening an investigation in exchange for military aid and a White House visit. And if Democrats don't begin a major effort to dismantle this nonsense in public, they may very well lose the battle for public opinion in the same way they allowed themselves to get outfoxed with the Mueller probe. When referencing the Ukraine ideas, Democrats have called them "discredited" and "debunked" over and over again, which of course they are. But referring to them as such does nothing to prove it to voters who don't read Vox explainers and Washington Post investigative reports. To the kind of "pox on both houses" voters whose mood swings might determine the outcome of the 2020 election, all they hear is people from two parties they hate yelling at one another and accusing each other of the exact same things. One important reason Democrats must be better prepared to fend off Ukraine-related conspiracy mongering is that Attorney General Barr is preparing some kind of ginned-up report that will line up neatly with Republican efforts in the hearings to pin 2016 election interference on Ukraine. It will suck all of the oxygen out of the proceedings for days or even weeks. Earlier this year, Barr tasked U.S. Attorney John Durham with investigating the origins of the various Trump-Russia investigations in 2016, which culminated in the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in 2017. The Department of Justice recently revealed, ominously, that this was now a criminal probe. Barr himself has been jet-setting around the world looking for confirmatory evidence. What's it all about? There are two Ukraine-related conspiracy theories, which are likely to converge in the coming weeks as GOP efforts to save Trump accelerate. The first involves the infamous Russian hacking of the DNC in the spring of 2016, which led to months of leaked emails disseminated via Wikileaks, whose release was often timed to inflict maximum damage on the Clinton campaign. In his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, Trump asked him about "Crowdstrike" and the "server." This references a truly insane, far-right fantasy that in fact it was Ukraine, in collaboration with the Clinton campaign, that hacked the DNC and then blamed it on Russia to make the Trump campaign look guilty. In this make-believe world, Crowdstrike cofounder Dmitri Alperovitch is a Ukrainian (he is actually an American citizen who serves as a fellow on the august Atlantic Council) who absconded back to his country with the server, and the FBI had to take their word for it that Russia was culpable. Back on Earth-1, on the other hand, Crowdstrike provided the FBI with all of its forensic data, no serious person disputes that Russia was responsible for the hacking, and there is no single "server" which can be physically transported to Kiev. The Crowdstrike lunacy has not yet been affirmatively advanced by Republicans in these hearings, although no one should be surprised if it is. But the idea that Ukraine was responsible for triggering the FBI's counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign has now gone mainstream. The story goes like this: Corrupt Ukrainians fabricated a "black ledger" implicating former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort in various forms of corruption when he was a key advisor to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian stooge, so that the Trump campaign's May 2016 hiring of Manafort as campaign manager would look especially suspicious. In this telling, the incident in which Trump campaign staffer George Papadopoulos bragged to an Australian diplomat about how Russia had stolen dirt on Clinton was actually a CIA set-up. The conspiracy theory then alleges that at the same time, Ukrainian embassy officials were working with a consultant named Alexandra Chalupa (who held a minor post with the DNC) to channel incriminating information about Trump and Manafort to reporters and intelligence agencies. CIA Director John Brennan then supposedly manipulated this information and baited the FBI into opening its investigation. (This is why House Republicans put Chalupa on a list of witnesses they wanted to testify.) The Clinton campaign, meanwhile, was using a firm called Fusion GPS, which paid former British spy Christopher Steele to produce a lurid dossier about Trump. (Though of course it wasn't released and was only made public by Buzzfeed after the election.) The FBI, supposedly at Brennan's behest, then improperly used information gleaned from Ukrainians via Chalupa and Steele to trigger its counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign. (There's more, of course, but this is an article, not a book.) To simplify for those who are still with me: Corrupt U.S. intelligence officials glommed onto false allegations pushed at them by Ukrainians terrified of a Trump administration and used them to launch years of phony investigations against both candidate and President Trump. The Mueller report, so this story goes, proved that this was all a hoax from the get-go, and now President Trump and Attorney General Barr just want to get to the truth about what really happened. It should almost go without saying that this is all nonsense, the product of shut-ins decorating large poster boards with paranoid speculation and unsubstantiated rumors and then laundering it all through various luminaries in the right-wing media cocoon. None of it makes any real sense. To have worked, it had to have involved former CIA director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The number of conspirators must have run into the hundreds, many of whom would have been career public servants (as opposed to political appointees) in the intelligence agencies and the FBI. Yet none of them are talking? Second, if the FBI was part of a plot to destroy then-candidate Trump, why did FBI Director James Comey then go out of his way to assail Clinton as "extremely careless" in his June 5, 2016, press conference and then theatrically announce that he was looking at new emails just days before the presidential election, a maneuver that may have led directly to her loss? Third, why would the Clinton campaign have conspired with Ukraine against itself to release a long series of damaging or distracting emails from people like John Podesta? Lastly, in the closing days of the campaign, when the polls had tightened and there was a very real possibility of Trump winning the election, why didn't any of the conspirators do more to release this information to the media? Why would the conspirators bury their own conspiracy? The problem for Democrats is that these questions don't immediately come to mind for most people. Americans, most of whom who have not read the 448-page Mueller Report and are only dimly aware of the many troubling details about the Trump campaign's efforts to work with Russian hackers to subvert the 2016 election, watched Democrats simply walk away and turn off the lights after Mueller's July 24 testimony before Congress, seemingly resigned to the president's triumphant efforts to obstruct justice. Now Democrats have to contend with this Republican counternarrative, which if not pushed back on aggressively, will appear just as credible to the modestly informed. It might sound equally bonkers, but Democrats should think about tackling it all head-on, perhaps by calling in a leading Ukraine conspiracy advocate like Sean Hannity to testify before Congress, followed by witnesses like Brennan who can then dismantle it all piece by piece. There is no way that Hannity or anyone else would be able to hold it together through hours of interrogation by Daniel Goldman, who capably led some of the questioning for House Democrats in last week's hearings. Give Republicans their wish and bring in Chalupa, who is desperate to testify. Bring in Alperovitch. If they really want to stop the news cycle and force everyone to watch, bring in former President Obama himself. Take a week, and blow the whole kooky theory to pieces. Remember: This is all one story. The Trump-Giuliani Ukraine caper was partly about screwing with the 2020 election, but it was also about fabricating evidence to support the administration's nutso counter-narrative that the real villains in 2016 weren't the Russians but rather Ukrainians and Obama administration officials from the "deep state" working together to smear Our Great President. The behavior that led to these impeachment hearings is part of a maximalist plot to completely exonerate both Russia and the president of any wrongdoing, all driven by Trump's thin-skinned obsession with legitimacy, and his administration's barely-concealed hunger to engage in further abuses of power. If they get away with this, they can get away with anything, and they know it. That's why Democrats need to take the time to get this story right, and convince the public that there is nothing to the GOP's Ukraine fever dreams but sweaty sheets and bad faith. Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.

Den 24 mars larmades polis och räddningstjänst om att en bil brann på en väg söder om Ödeshög i Östergötland. När räddningstjänsten kom till platsen hittades en kropp i bilvraket. – I nuläget finns ingenting som tyder på att det skulle kunna vara någon annan, säger Henrik Sundin, utredare vid polisen i region öst och fortsätter: – Det finns ingenting som tyder på att brott är begånget. Helt säkra kan vi naturligtvis inte vara, men vi har fått information som gör att vi i nuläget inte misstänker något brott, säger han. Oklara omständigheter Omständigheterna kring det misstänkta dödsfallet är fortfarande oklara. Bilen som hittades utbränd ägs av en anhörig till Alexander Bengtsson. En bil som enligt polisen vid tidpunkten också nyttjades av Uppsalapolitikern. Kroppen är formellt inte identifierad, men enligt Polisen i region Öst informerades Alexander Bengtssons anhöriga om de preliminära resultaten från Rättsmedicinalverket på torsdagen. En komplett identifiering av kroppen kan komma att ta ytterligare flera veckor. Tre fall av misstänkt falsk larm Alexander Bengtsson har tidigare uppgivit till SVT Nyheter Uppsala att han mottagit uppemot 50 hot av olika karaktär. Bland annat att han utsattes för en knivattack i sitt hem den 9 mars i år. Men idag meddelade Åklagarmyndigheten att Alexander Bengtsson den 23 mars, delgavs misstanke om brott, gällande tre fall av misstänkt falsk larm. Flera av dem ska ha varit mordhot. – Det pågår en utredning, säger vice chefsåklagaren vid Åklagarmyndigheten Magnus Berggren och fortsätter: – Alexander Bengtsson har uppgett att han under en lång tid mottagit hot av olika karaktär – redan innan den misstänkta knivattacken. Efter det att vi hade samlat ihop en stor volym bevismaterial efter knivattacken fanns det detaljer i tre av de anmälda hoten som pekade åt olika håll. Då valde vi att dra igång en utredning kring falsklarm i de tre fallen. Hur menar du? – Vissa uppgifter pekade åt ett håll. Andra åt ett annat. Det är viktigt att understryka att vi i dagsläget inte vet vilka uppgifter som var rätt eller fel, säger Magnus Berggren. Alexander Bengtsson delgavs misstanke om brott gällande falsk larm den 23 mars. Han befaras ha omkommit den 24 mars. Vad sa han vid tillfället av delgivelsen då? – Han nekade till brott. Utsatts för hot Alexander Bengtsson är moderat politiker med förtroendeuppdrag i det kommunala bostadsbolaget Uppsalahem. Han har profilerat sig som en förkämpe mot rasism och homofobi. Så sent som för några dagar före bilbranden deltog Bengtsson i SVT:s Gomorron, och berättade om de många hot han har fått ta emot på grund av sitt politiska engagemang.

Die Bundesregierung will Tausende Asylbewerber nach Afghanistan abschieben. Einige von ihnen bezichtigen sich deshalb nun selbst als Terroristen – und bringen damit bizarrerweise die Justiz in Schwierigkeiten. Anzeige Am Mittwochabend hob die erste Maschine am Frankfurter Flughafen ab. Ihr Ziel: Kabul. An Bord waren 34 abgelehnte Asylbewerber aus Afghanistan. Nach dem Willen der Bundesregierung markiert der Flug den Beginn einer Massenabschiebung. Bis zu 12.500 Afghanen sollen bald schon in ihre Heimat zurückgebracht werden. Anfang Oktober hatte die Europäische Union (EU) mit der afghanischen Regierung ein Abkommen unterzeichnet, das im Gegenzug für ein milliardenschweres Hilfspaket die leichtere Abschiebung von Flüchtlingen ermöglicht. Bundesweit kam es in den vergangenen Tagen zu Demonstrationen gegen die geplanten Rückführungen an den Hindukusch. Afghanistan, so die Gegner der Abschiebungspolitik, sei alles andere als ein sicheres Herkunftsland. Immerhin starben dort laut UN seit 2009 rund 23.000 Zivilisten durch Krieg und Terroranschläge. Erste Sammelabschiebung nach Afghanistan Unter massiven Protesten von Pro Asyl hob Mittwoch erstmals ein Flugzeug mit rund 50 abgelehnten Asylbewerbern Richtung Kabul ab. In einem Fall mussten die Behörden aber eine Ausnahme machen. Quelle: Die Welt/Achim Unser Trotz der Proteste werden Rückführungen von Flüchtlingen aus Deutschland nach Afghanistan wohl weitergehen. Einige afghanische Asylbewerber greifen daher nach Informationen der „Welt“ neuerdings zu einem kuriosen Trick: Sie bezichtigen sich selbst, Taliban-Kämpfer zu sein. Das wiederum stellt deutsche Behörden vor einige Probleme. Paragraf 129 des Strafgesetzbuches als Hoffnungsanker Anzeige Die islamistische Taliban-Bewegung ist in der Bundesrepublik als ausländische Terrororganisation verboten. Ihre Mitglieder werden nach Paragraf 129 a und Paragraf 129 b Strafgesetzbuch von der Bundesanwaltschaft in Karlsruhe verfolgt. Wer sich den Taliban angeschlossen hat, muss mit einer Gefängnisstrafe von bis zu zehn Jahren rechnen. Einige Afghanen scheinen dies bereitwillig und vielleicht sogar gezielt in Kauf zu nehmen. Sie behaupten beispielsweise in Asylgesprächen mit den Mitarbeitern des Bundesamts für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF), in Afghanistan für die Taliban gekämpft zu haben – oder dazu gezwungen worden zu sein. Die bizarre Folge: Im schlimmsten Fall werden die Flüchtlinge festgenommen und verurteilt – aber eben nicht abgeschoben. „Der Sachverhalt ist dem Bundesinnenministerium bekannt“, berichtete eine Sprecherin des Ministeriums auf Anfrage. Asylsuchende würden in der Tat behaupten, sie selbst oder ihre Familienmitglieder hätten in Afghanistan die Taliban unterstützt oder seien zur Zusammenarbeit mit diesen gezwungen worden. „Diese Behauptungen können zur Einleitung eines Ermittlungsverfahrens des Generalbundesanwalts wegen des Verdachts der Mitgliedschaft in einer terroristischen Vereinigung im Ausland führen“, hieß es weiter. Die Sicherheitsbehörden würden die Fälle sehr ernst nehmen und entsprechend verfolgen. Am Ende kommt es meist gar nicht zu einer Anklage Anzeige Wie die „Welt“ aus Sicherheitskreisen erfuhr, stieg die Zahl dieser terroristischen Selbstbezichtigungen unter Afghanen in den vergangenen Wochen deutlich an. Sowohl die Landeskriminalämter (LKA) als auch das Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) bekommen gehäuft Meldungen von selbst ernannten Taliban-Kämpfern. Hinreichende Belege für eine Mitgliedschaft bei der Terrorgruppe gab es allerdings bislang nur in wenigen Fällen, heißt es vonseiten der Ermittler. Seit Oktober ließ die Bundesanwaltschaft drei Afghanen festnehmen, bei denen es sich um ehemalige Taliban-Kämpfer handeln soll. Wajid S., 19, Abdullah S. K., 17, und Hekmat T., 20, stehen im Verdacht, bei den Taliban eine terroristische Ausbildung an Schusswaffen erhalten zu haben. Zwei Verdächtige sollen zudem an Angriffen auf afghanische Sicherheitskräfte beteiligt gewesen sein. Die Männer sitzen derzeit in Untersuchungshaft. Ob es in den Fällen auch tatsächlich zu Anklagen kommen wird, ist noch unklar. Gerichtsfeste Belege für Terroraktivitäten werden deutsche Ermittler kaum erhalten, heißt es in Sicherheitskreisen. Auch weil die Zusammenarbeit mit den afghanischen Behörden in diesem Bereich eher schlecht als recht funktioniert. Die Ermittlungsverfahren gegen die angeblichen Taliban werden also womöglich ergebnislos eingestellt. Abgeschoben werden die Afghanen jedoch trotzdem nicht. Sie könnten darauf verweisen, dass ihnen in der Heimat Folter oder gar die Todesstrafe droht – und das wiederum wäre ein Asylgrund.

Wes Brown made a goal-scoring return for Sunderland against Tottenham © Getty Images Enlarge Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio has revealed defender Wes Brown turned down a pay-off from the club as he wanted to continue his career at the Stadium of Light. Brown, 33, joined Sunderland from Manchester United in 2011 but has suffered with injuries that have reduced him to just 20 appearances in two seasons, with his last competitive game for the Black Cats coming in January 2012. That led to an offer to terminate his contract, but the former England defender made a goal-scoring return in Wednesday's 3-1 friendly victory over Tottenham and Di Canio has been impressed by his determination. "The club had a conservation with him, but with his strong character, he [Brown] said: 'I feel a footballer, I want to stay here and prove it'," Di Canio told the Sunderland Echo. "Because I'm an intelligent manager, I didn't have any preclusion to anyone doing that. "He was the perfect professional to have in a squad and what a player. He hasn't stopped for one minute in a training session. My pre-season is very tough, but he hasn't had any problems." © ESPN Sports Media Ltd

Posted by OrdainWomen on Oct 12, 2016 in Blog | Lorie Winder Stromberg serves on the Ordain Women executive board as chair of the Long-term Planning Committee. [This is part 2 of a two-part series. Please follow this link to read part 1.] Before Elder Oaks’ April 2014 priesthood session talk, some Church leaders seemed to be ditching the “men have priesthood; women have motherhood” parallel, which is good news. The bad news is that some are substituting equally absurd parallels, such as “men have priesthood; women have influence”—whatever that means. Elder Oaks didn’t mention motherhood with a capital “M,” but he spoke about women’s ability to create new life as a counterpoint to men having priesthood. This, of course, is problematic. It ignores men’s contribution to the creation of life and the fact that there’s very little creativity in incubating. Most mammals are capable of it. Creativity comes in parenting, which both men and women optimally share. Even Sherri Dew suggests there are problems with the priesthood/motherhood equation. Though there are a few holdouts, I’m hoping using motherhood to justify an all-male priesthood is on the wane. Unfortunately, separate but equal, complementarian rhetoric still holds sway. As President Burton noted in a video that was released on April 5, 2013, soon after Ordain Women launched its website, men and women “have different complementary roles and are happy with that. Equality is an interesting term. It doesn’t always mean sameness, but we are of equal value …” While it’s true that equality isn’t about sameness, it is about equal access and opportunity. Finally, priesthood blessings, power, authority, office, and keys are being parsed and distinctions drawn in ways still shy of ordination but that attempt to be more inclusive of women. Late 20th century Church discourse responded to the women’s movement primarily by asserting that both men and women enjoyed the blessings of the priesthood. Such attempts spawned rhetoric that occasionally bordered on the absurd. For example, Elder Bruce C. Hafen, speaking at the BYU Women’s Conference in 1985, attempted to diffuse cries of gender inequity with the following: “The one [and, we are to assume, only] category of blessing in which the role of women is not the same as that of men holding the priesthood is that of administering the gospel and governing all things.” A mere trifle. More recently, leaders have asserted that women can access both the blessings and the power of the priesthood. In the April 2013 video interview with the general women auxiliary presidents released a few weeks after the launch of the Ordain Women website, President Burton said: “I don’t think women are after the authority; I think they’re after the blessings and are happy that they can access the blessings and power of the priesthood. There are a few that would like both. But most of the women, I think, in the Church are happy to have all the blessings.” In her review of Dew’s book, Valerie Hudson wrote: “Dew’s greatest contribution in this book … is her assertion that endowed women possess Godly power, or priesthood power. (103) She [Dew] begins with a statement by … Ballard that in the temple, both men and women are ‘endowed with the same power, which by definition is priesthood power.’ (105) [This was reiterated in Elder Dallin Oak’s April 2014 priesthood session talk.] Dew goes on to state that once endowed, a woman has ‘direct access to priesthood power for her own life and responsibilities.’ (114) … Priesthood power . . . is the power of God Himself available to men and women alike . . . who have been endowed in the house of the Lord (122) . . . men and women who are endowed in the house of the Lord have been given a gift of power, and they have been given a gift of knowledge to know how to access and use that power.’”(125) “This,” says Hudson, “is really a very remarkable assertion. The formula has always been that women are the beneficiaries of priesthood power, and so only ‘share’ it vicariously by being married to a man. … But Dew is plainly saying that endowed women have been given priesthood power in the temple, which power they can use to benefit others. In other words, for the first time it is being articulated that women are not simply passive recipients of divine power that has been coded male, but are able to hold and use divine power as agents without a male intermediary. As Dew puts it, ‘Both men and women would have full access to this [heavenly] power, though in different ways.’” (74) “Dew continues: ‘[W]omen, unlike men, are not required to be ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood in order to enter the house of the Lord, though the ordinances performed there are all priesthood ordinances. Neither are women required to be ordained to the priesthood to serve as leaders in the Lord’s Church. Why is that the case?’ (109) “Now, that’s an interesting question to pose, isn’t it?” asks Hudson. “It’s a question that … is apparently a bridge too far for Dew and she does not answer it in her book.” Increasingly, a distinction is being made between the authority and the power of the priesthood. Authority and power traditionally have been associated with office and, thus, available only to men. Power now seems to be available to all and is conditioned on righteousness. This is being said over and over again, although it’s not well developed. In his April 2014 priesthood session talk, Elder Oaks went further and asserted that women not only enjoy the blessings and the power of the priesthood, they also exercise its authority in their callings. In the institutional Church, “priesthood authority is governed by priesthood holders who hold priesthood keys, and … all that is done under the direction of those priesthood keys is done with priesthood authority.” While women do not currently hold priesthood keys and office, Elder Oaks asserted that both women and men are recognized as having “the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings.” He continued: “We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be?” asked Elder Oaks. “When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an officer or teacher in a Church organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood. Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.” Again, as with the power of the priesthood, we are still left scratching our heads and wondering what it means for women to exercise the authority of the priesthood in their callings. Can a Relief Society president, for example, bless the women over whom she presides by the authority of the holy priesthood, which she exercises by virtue of her calling? Obviously, we still have work to do, but it’s clear that the question of women’s ordination isn’t going away. Note: This post is taken from my 2014 Sunstone Symposium presentation. It can be accessed with complete references in the Afterword of my essay “The Birth of Ordain Women: The Personal Becomes Political,” in Voices for Equality: Ordain Women and Resurgent Mormon Feminism, (Draper, UT: Greg Kofford Books), 3-26.

I tweeted a thank you to the guys over at Seq recently because Seq was instrumental in finding and eliminating a very difficult issue we came across. But technology choice alone isn’t enough, so I’ve decided to blog about some of the logging practices we tend to follow as a rule, and some specific practices that we used in a particularly complex application we’ve been developing over the last couple of months. Logging best practices and @getseq_net have been an absolute god-send for tracking down tricky problems. Much love. pic.twitter.com/6fubnhSnOo — Tommy Long (@Smudge202) January 4, 2017 Contents Foreword This is going to be a lengthy post, and several of the practices shown are circumstantial, subjective, situational, and so forth. Add these practices to your developer toolbelt, and decide for yourself when they best fit your needs. The system we’ve been working on is a series of commercial applications subject to standard IP clauses, so I’ve included as much code as I can in this post. Wherever possible the code is sans abstraction and obfuscation, but I won’t be able to provide the applications themselves as samples. The code is primarily contained within 15 .Net Core libraries targeting the full .Net Framework (4.5.2) due to dependency requirements. 4 of those libraries are what we call application hosts, containing no business logic, designed to host a selection of the libraries as a .Net Core Console Application which can be deployed inside Docker containers, as a Windows Service, or in Azure. (This is a practice that our company tends to follow and has a collection of composition helpers for so that the applications can be ran anywhere, leaving deployment considerations to our IT department.) In addition to the above, we have a considerable amount of heritage code in other solutions which is NuGet packaged and deployed by TFS/Octopus, which is then pulled down by one of our microservices at runtime and installed/executed within a separate AppDomain . As you might imagine, with this many moving parts, logging is essential. Service (Collection) Extensions Our company has adopted the IServiceCollection extension method approach of building up our composition roots. That is, our application host will contain code similar to the following: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection ; public static int Main ( string [] args ) { var services = new ServiceCollection () . AddServicesFromOurClassLibrary (); services . BuildServiceProvider () . GetRequiredService < SomeService >() . Run (); } NB: Extremely simplified for sake of brevity. In turn, our class libraries expose their services as follows: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection ; using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Extensions ; public static IServiceCollection AddServicesFromOurClassLibrary ( this IServiceCollection services ) { services . TryAddSingleton < Foo , Bar >(); return services ; } Whilst it’s up to you how you manage the composition of your application, this is based on the practice used by ASP.Net Core and is the assumption throughout the rest of this article. Abstractions First and foremost, let’s get our abstractions installed. All of our class libraries depend upon the Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions NuGet Package. The package is lightweight as you would expect of any series of abstractions. Whilst there are other abstractions available, some of which we inevitably need to integrate with through façades, I’ve found this one of the most well adopted logging abstractions, especially given the recent flurry of activity surrounding .Net Core. Once installed, don’t forget to add services.AddLogging() to your service extensions. After which, any class can rely upon ILogger<TCategory> as a dependency, giving us an easy to use logging abstraction. NB: This step alone will not output any logs. Sinks (Basic) With the above in place, your application hosts become responsible for hooking up log outputs/sinks so that you’re logs actually go somewhere. I recommend the following as a bare minimum: Personally, I prefer to swap out the Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console for the following, which will give me coloured console output: By adding the Serilog.Extensions.Logging package, you open up your application to dozens of high quality outputs via Serilog Sinks. For example, if you’re working on an application that does not have a Console, such as a Windows service, you might consider adding: We can now adapt the application host code shown above to something like: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection ; using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging ; using Serilog ; using Serilog.Events ; public static int Main ( string [] args ) { var services = new ServiceCollection () . AddServicesFromOurClassLibrary (); var provider = services . BuildServiceProvider (); var loggerFactory = provider . GetRequiredService < ILoggerFactory >(); loggerFactory . AddDebug ( LogLevel . Trace ); var serilogConfiguration = new LoggerConfiguration () . MinimumLevel . Is ( LogEventLevel . Verbose ) . WriteTo . RollingFile ( "my-app-{Date}.log" ); if ( Environment . UserInteractive ) serilogConfiguration . WriteTo . LiterateConsole (); Log . Logger = serilogConfiguration . CreateLogger (); AppDomain . CurrentDomain . DomainUnload += ( o , e ) => Log . CloseAndFlush (); loggerFactory . AddSerilog (); provider . GetRequiredService < SomeService >() . Run (); } With the updated code, we get log messages pushed out to Visual Studio output window, a rolling file adjacent the exe, and if available, we will also get nicely coloured logs in a console window. NB: The Environment.UserInteractive check may not be necessary for you, but we follow this practice to ensure we don’t attempt to output to a console when, for example, the application is running as a Windows Service. What to Log Now we know how to output logs, the next and most important question: What should I be logging? There is no simple answer to this, no rules that should be followed; the subject of logging will always be subjective. In my opinion though, there are 5 key components to useful logging… Exceptions The first and most obvious thing to log is your exceptions. However, simply wrapping everything in a try / catch > log would be pretty wasteful and probably not as useful as you might think. I don’t want to dwell on exception management for too long, but I will mention a few things. For starts, if you are in the habit of throwing exceptions for non exceptional circumstances, such as failed user input validation, you should stop doing this. If you were throwing an exception to produce log output, you now have an alternative. If you were throwing an exception to produce a different execution flow, this is called exception logic and is typically considered a bad practice. Next up, don’t be afraid to allow exceptions to bubble up to a location that may have much more context regarding the current operation. Here’s a somewhat abstract example that hopefully demonstrates this point: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 public async Task DisableUser ( Guid userId ) { try { var user = await _data . GetUserAsync ( userId ); // continue to disable user } catch ( DatabaseException dex ) { _logger . LogError ( 0 , dex , "Unable to disable user '{UserID}'" , userId . ToString ( "N" )); throw new DisableUserException ( userId , dex ); } } In the above snippet, whilst my _data implementation could independently log the DatabaseException , I’ve decided the additional context available in the consumer would be better. I can therefore omit logging and even omit the try / catch in the data implementation (not shown here), and output the logs in the data consumer alongside information that we were attempting to disable a user when this exception occurred. NB: For those wondering why I haven’t simply re-thrown the original exception after logging the output, this is a practice I try to follow. The DatabaseException is an implementation detail of the class shown. I don’t want consumers of this class to catch (DatabaseException) , nor have to catch (Exception) . The DisableUserException or something slightly more generic if preferred, allows the consumer to maintain cohesion and not depend upon this class’ dependencies directly. Decisions This is a lot trickier than logging exceptions, because you’ll need to decide what decisions are important to you. Everytime you write an if or switch statement, you probably branch the execution flow. Therefore, each time you find yourself writing an if / switch , consider whether it would be useful to output a trace message explaining such. Whilst I believe this is good advice to follow, I can’t really provide examples; each case will be unique. I certainly don’t believe it necessary to output every decision made, but the odd Trace / Debug / Verbose log entry can be crucial in tracking down problems, especially if the issue arises in other environments that you’re not actively debugging. State Don’t forget to include useful state information in your log outputs. Yes, you can output the full stack trace for a particular exception, but how much easier would it be in replicating an exception if you also have the Customer ID, Order ID, etc. that was being processed at the time? In addition to this, if you’ve followed my advice and added Serilog integration, you also gain access to Enrichers. For example, I can add the following NuGet packages: With these packages installed, I can update our application host to Enrich the the serilog configuration as shown here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 var serilogConfiguration = new LoggerConfiguration () . Enrich . FromLogContext () . Enrich . WithMachineName () . Enrich . WithEnvironmentUserName () . Enrich . WithProcessId () . Enrich . WithThreadId () . MinimumLevel . Is ( LogEventLevel . Verbose ) . WriteTo . RollingFile ( "my-app-{Date}.log" ); Whilst this enrichment won’t be particularly useful to the sinks so far mentioned, it can provide considerable value when combined with the recommendations in the Advanced Sinks section towards the end of this article. Correlation Nowadays, it’s common to be working with applications that are, in some fashion, able to process concurrent requests. When we’re writing code that handles a web request in an ASP.Net Website for example, we can often just think about that one request and not worry about how the framework might be managing multiple of these requests at the same time. However, this concurrency can have a profound effect on logging: Request 1 ----> Logs Foo A -------------------------------------> Logs Bar F ---> Request 2 -------> Logs Foo B -------------------------------> Logs Bar E ---> Request 3 ----------> Logs Foo C -------------------------> Logs Bar D ---> We simply cannot predict or rely upon even identical concurrent requests executing in the same order. In the above, although request 3 starts last, it finishes first. Why is this important? Consider your log output: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Foo A Foo B Foo C Bar D Bar E Bar F Without correlation, we have no idea that Foo A corresponds with Bar F and Foo B with Bar E , etc. This is usually very simple to resolve by adding a little bit more context: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Request 1 Foo A Request 2 Foo B Request 3 Foo C Request 3 Bar D Request 2 Bar E Request 1 Bar F Now it’s much more clear which Foo and Bar messages belong together. It may seem like common sense now, but it’s all too easy to forget about correlation! Performance The final subject for consideration are performance metrics. If you’re going to do this, I recommend doing so somewhat scarecly. For example, we log the time an overall request takes, which may involve any number of execution flows and thousands of lines of code, so provides only a very high level metric for the overall system performance. I don’t recommend using logging for lower level performance monitoring. For more intricate performance monitoring, consider using Benchmark.Net to test smaller pieces of code in isolation, and/or outputting metrics using ETW. The point being, logging can be useful for highlighting an area that you should more thoroughly investigate, but the output should also be taken with a pinch of salt. What Level to Log There are only a couple pieces of advice I can give you on this subject. Log Levels The first is to make sure you understand the order of the log levels in the frameworks you choose to use. For example, at one stage, the Microsoft Logging Abstractions used the following levels: Debug Verbose Information Warning Error Critical However, this was changed, so the current Microsoft logging levels are as follows: Trace Debug Information Warning Error Critical Whether you agree with the order of these levels or not, it is important to be aware of it. Similarly, the Serilog logging levels are: Verbose Debug Information Warning Error Fatal As you can see, the updated Microsoft logging levels do map better to the Serilog levels, though they’re not identical. These log levels are typically used to filter your log outputs. For example, in local development and test environments, you may choose you want to output all of the logs, so you’ll set the Minimum log level in your application hosts to the lowest level available. However, in later stages of your deployment cycle you may choose to reduce the log spam of high throughput environments so that Production for example, may output only Warning and above. Also make sure you’re aware what the default levels are of your logging frameworks, i.e. when no minimum level is configured or specified, what level will your framework use by default. For both Microsoft and Serilog, this tends to be Information . Log Spam As alluded to in the previous section, log spam can be an issue. When writing new functionality I tend to add a lot of logging at Trace and Debug levels, knowing that running the code in a production environment would very quickly consume disk space and generally overload my sinks. Whilst testing, I’ll then try to decide which of my log entries have proven to be the most useful in either tracking down issues with the code, or in confirming that the code has worked as intended. Anything I deem to be less useful can either be changed to a lower log level, or removed completely if it provides no value. In contrast, any log messages that prove to be crucial can have their log levels promoted. Make sure you test your log entries when you test your code! The last thing you want is to start outputting millions of log entries per second when your code hits production, bringing the application to a standstill or masking real problems! Practices This next section will walk through some additional handy tips and tricks, some applicable to all situations whilst others are specific to the examples given. As per the foreword, you need to decide for yourself when these tips apply to your situation. Interpolation One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen since the release of C#6 is people interpolating all of their strings. Don’t do this for logs! When using a proper logging framework, the string.Format style signatures will often store the arguments separately or display them differently. For example: 1 2 3 4 5 var messageType = "Interpolated" ; _logger . LogInformation ( $"This is an ' { messageType } ' log entry." ); messageType = "Classic" ; _logger . LogInformation ( "This is an '{messageType}' log entry." , messageType ); The above will output to the Console (via Serilog.Sinks.Literate ) as follows: Notice that the interpolated entry has no highlighting. That’s because it’s simply considered a part of the text, whereas the classic entry can be coloured, can be stored into queryable database columns, etc. This is because the parameters are available to the logger instead of being “burned in” at runtime, prior to reaching the logger. If you’ve ever had to regex through log files to find the lines you want, you’ll know exactly what I mean here. Disposable Tracking At last we finally reach the subject that drove this blog post. The application we’ve been working on was working perfectly in development and lower stages of our deployment cycle. However, when we put the application through load testing it completely fell apart. Thanks to our application of the above logging practices, not to mention the advanced sink tips below, it was immediately obvious that we were not managing our disposable connections correctly. This particular issue is often very easy to find because most usages of IDisposable objects will be in a using statement. Given the right Roslyn analysers, you can simply check the Warnings page in VS and find the problem. However, the complexity of our application and the necessity to integrate with legacy code meant that in places we couldn’t simply wrap using statements around everything. For example, we use the IServiceScopeFactory to instantiate parts of the legacy code and rely on the Microsoft Dependency Injection container to track our transient disposables and tear them down for us when we Dispose the scope. So, we needed a smarter way to track our connections, whilst the code that consumed said connections were essentially a black box to us given it could have been anywhere in millions of lines of heritage code. Thanks to our aforementioned service collection extensions practice, the first step was simply to append a diagnostics connection factory to the IServiceCollection : 1 2 3 4 services . AddSingleton < DiagnosticsConnectionFactory >(); services . AddSingleton ( provider => provider . GetRequiredService < DiagnosticsConnectionFactory >() . CreateConnection ()); The next step was to start logging when a connection was allocated, to what class the connection was allocated to, and of course, when that class released the connection. I’ve reduced the actual code used which also entailed pooling / throttling for sake of brevity, but the following should give you an idea of how it works: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 public class DiagnosticsConnectionFactory { // this is the connection provider that was originally // used before we added this diagnostics provider. private readonly OriginalConnectionProvider _originalProvider ; private readonly ILogger _logger ; public DiagnosticsConnectionFactory ( OriginalConnectionProvider originalProvider , ILogger < DiagnosticsConnectionFactory > logger ) { _originalProvider = originalProvider ; _logger = logger ; } public IDbConnection CreateConnection () { // the int provided to the StackFrame constructor determines how many frames // to skip up the stack. Zero would point to this method, each number greater // to further up the stack. We found it most useful to move two frames up the // stack because one frame would typically simply point us to the ctor of an // entity framework context. What we actually wanted to see was the consumer // of said context. Tweak this number or do something more intelligent as // you deem fit. var stackFrame = new System . Diagnostics . StackFrame ( 2 ); var allocateeMethod = stackFrame . GetMethod (); var allocatee = $" { allocateeMethod . DeclaringType ?. Name ?? "Unknown" } . { allocateeMethod . Name } " ; var connection = new DiagnosticsDbConnection ( _originalProvider . CreateConnection , DeallocateConnection , allocatee ); _logger . LogDebug ( "Database connection '{ConnectionID}' allocated to '{Allocatee}'. (Stack: '{StackFrame}')" , connection . Id , connection . Allocatee , stackFrame ); return connection ; } private void DeallocateConnection ( DiagnosticsDbConnection connection ) { connection . DisposeUnderlyingConnection (); _logger . LogDebug ( "Database connection '{ConnectionID}' that was allocated to '{Allocatee}' has been released." , connection . Id , connection . Allocatee ); } [ DebuggerDisplay ( "Connection {" + nameof ( Id ) + "}" )] private class DiagnosticsDbConnection : IDbConnection { private readonly Lazy < DbConnection > _connection ; private readonly Action < DiagnosticsDbConnection > _deallocate ; public string Id { get ; } public string Allocatee { get ; } public DiagnosticsDbConnection ( Func < DbConnection > connection , Action < DiagnosticsDbConnection > deallocate , string allocatee ) { Id = Guid . NewGuid (). ToString ( "N" ); _connection = new Lazy < DbConnection >( connection ); _deallocate = deallocate ; Allocatee = allocatee ; } // this is the crucial element, when the consumer attempts to Dispose // the connection, it will actually just pass control back to our // connection provider. public void Dispose () => _deallocate ( this ); // whether you're pooling or not, you still need the ability to // dispose the actual connection. internal void DisposeUnderlyingConnection () => _connection . Value . Dispose (); // the rest of this class contains what is hopefully an // obvious pass-through of all IDbConnection members. // for example: public ConnectionState State => _connection . Value . State ; } } Whilst the above isn’t a practice that we will follow often, and certainly isn’t something I would want to deploy to Production, it very quickly highlighted our connection problems to us when we used this implementation under load. Sinks (Advanced) So, you’re armed with pretty much all the advice I can justify putting into this blog post at least. What else is there? So, so much more. If nothing else, before you leave, check out some of the very cool stuff you can do with some slightly more advanced sinks. Seq Despite following Nicholas Bulmhardt on twitter for quite some time, I only recently became aware of Seq. I’ve been waiting for our IT department to setup an ELK instance for me, so decided to see if there were any simple alternatives I could get on with myself. Having spent less than a minute installing Seq to my local machine, I went ahead and added the Serilog.Sinks.Seq package and the single line of code required to enable it: 1 serilogConfiguration . WriteTo . Seq ( "http://localhost:5341" ); I should point out, this blog post isn’t in anyway affiliated or sponsored by Seq, but I can’t praise it enough. It was so simple, and made our logs so accessible. With the above in place, you can jump into your Seq web portal and watch the logs live, filter events, write queries, and so much more. The documentation is very thorough and easy to follow, the web interface easy to use, and the value added is immense. It does have a cost, but the guys at Seq were very helpful (actually extended our trial period for us whilst we waited for Finance to get the PO sorted). My only gripe is, whilst the web portal is incredibly RESTful, generating URL’s for your queries and filters, the same does not appear to be true when you enable the live update. You’ll find yourself enabling the live feed constantly because everytime you expand a log entry or make a change, the page (correctly) disables the live update so the log entry you’re working with doesn’t scroll off the page. It would be great however to have a query value for this in the URL so that we can, for example, put the logs on an information radiator without having to configure an automatic refresh, or simply bookmark the feed with updates enabled. One other feature that is definitely worth mentioning and enabling. Follow the guidance shown here to enable Dynamic Level Control. Once done, you can control the Minimum Log Levels we discussed earlier, at runtime, which again can prove immensely useful. Being able to temporarily change your Production environment from Information to Debug log levels while you’re trying to track down a difficult to reproduce issue is an awesome piece of functionality to have at your disposal, especially given how very simple it is to set up. Summary As has been mentioned throughout this article, logging practices are mostly opinion and conjecture. I hope people find some of the information here useful, but don’t take it for gospel. Look around for other blogs and articles on logging (feel free to drop a comment below if you have a post you think I should link). For example, although it’s not mentioned here, our systems also make considerable use of Application Insights, Google Analytics, and so forth. Make sure you understand how your log frameworks and tooling work, and be sure to test your logging the same way you would test any piece of functionality you add to your code. Try to separate log output configuration from the code that actually produces log output, usually through use of abstractions. Finally, try not to re-invent the wheel with custom logging. There are simply too many high quality options out there to be wasting time and money homebrewing.

That's why she seemed so familiar, she looks like her and has a computer backpack just like Velma could pull a large computer out of no where. The only part I figured out is she's voiced by the same voice actress who did Rika in Digimon.

C++ unit testing with Qt Test – part 2 – advanced testing This tutorial explores more advanced topics in C++ unit testing with Qt Test. A working example is discussed and analysed in detail. Full qmake project and C++ source code are provided. More C++ unit testing with Qt Test In this tutorial I am going to introduce more advanced features of Qt Test, the Qt framework for C++ unit testing. In particular I will explain how to handle a project with multiple unit tests and how to implement data driven testing. I will also give examples of more testing macros and I will show you the integration offered by Qt Creator. This is the second post of a series dedicated to Qt Test. The posts of this series are: I recommend to read the previous posts of the series, in particular the first part of C++ unit testing with Qt Test, to fully understand new concepts I will introduce here. Creating a better project Last time I showed how to create an unit test project using the “Auto Test Project” template. Another (slightly more advanced) option to do the same is the “Qt Unit Test” template: This wizard will allow you to chose which Qt modules you want to include in the project and will offer more options in the Details section. As seen in the first tutorial, the Qt Test philosophy is that every test case is an independent executable. In real projects you usually have hundreds or even thousands of different unit tests and running them all manually is definitely not an option. The best way to run and manage them is creating a “parent” project. The right choice in this case is the “Subdirs Project” template, which is listed in the “Other Project” group of the “New Project” dialog. After creating the project you will get back to the templates dialog to create a first project to include. You can cancel that and proceed to add your existing projects. In the end you will get something like this: For this tutorial I extended the TestCalculator unit test project and I created a new one called TestIntBitset. The new project tests a simplified bitset implementation. Once again, the code to test (the IntBitset class) is included in the unit test project for simplicity. Data driven testing An advanced feature of Qt Test is data driven testing. The idea is to separate tests and data to avoid to have a long list of similar QVERIFY or QCOMPARE macros and to replicate all the code needed to initialise a test. To provide data to a test function you have to create another private slot with the same name of the function and add the “_data” suffix. For example the data function for testDiff() is testDiff_data(). Implementing a data function is a bit like inserting data into a database. First you define your data like if you were defining a table: void TestCalculator::testDiff_data() { QTest::addColumn<int>("a"); QTest::addColumn<int>("b"); QTest::addColumn<int>("result"); Then you add rows of values: QTest::newRow("all 0") << 0 << 0 << 0; QTest::newRow("same number") << 10 << 10 << 0; // ... more data ... } Each row contains a name and a list of values. You can imagine that the previous code is converted to something like the following table: INDEX NAME a b result 0 “all 0” 0 0 0 1 “same number” 10 10 0 Once we have defined the data function we can write the test function which is divided in 2 parts. The fist part retrieves the data: void TestCalculator::testDiff() { // retrieve data QFETCH(int, a); QFETCH(int, b); QFETCH(int, result); // set value mCalc.SetA(a); mCalc.SetB(b); The second part uses the data to perform checks: // test QCOMPARE(mCalc.Diff(), result); } Without a data driven approach we should have repeated the instructions to set the values and the QCOMPARE check many times. When a data driven test is executed the test function is called once per set of data and the log message looks like this: PASS : TestCalculator::testDiff(all 0) PASS : TestCalculator::testDiff(same number) ... more lines ... As you can notice the name of the data row is reported in the log to help you differentiate the cases. Other useful macros Qt Test offers few extra macros to help you handling different situations in your unit tests. Failing a test One of these macros is QFAIL, which makes the current test fail. It can be used when you know that something will make the test fail. In that case there’s no point in wasting time executing the test, you can just fail and move on. void TestIntBitset::initTestCase() { if(sizeof(int) != 4) QFAIL("Int size is not 4 on this platform."); } In my example project I used QFAIL in the initTestCase and cleanupTestCase functions, which are special functions executed before and after the test functions are executed. When initTestCase fails none of the tests in the test case is executed. Failing a single check In case you know that a particular QVERIFY or QCOMPARE is going to fail, but you still want to continue executing the test, you can precede a check with the macro QEXPECT_FAIL: void TestIntBitset::testSetOff() { mBS.setAllOn(); unsigned int bitsOff = 0; mBS.setBitOff(BITS_IN_BYTE * bitsOff++); mBS.setBitOff(BITS_IN_BYTE * bitsOff++); QEXPECT_FAIL("", "isAnyOff not implemented yet", Continue); QVERIFY(mBS.isAnyOff()); // ... more test code ... } Its first parameter identifies a row of data when doing data driven testing, but it can be set to an empty string during normal testing. The second one is a log message and the third one lets you decide if you want to Continue or Abort the test on failure. When running the previous test the output log will show something like this: XFAIL : TestIntBitset::testSetOff() isAnyOff not implemented yet Loc: [../../UnitTests/TestIntBitset/TestIntBitset.cpp(67)] Skipping a test void TestIntBitset::testOperators() { QSKIP("Operators have not been implemented yet..."); } No code after QSKIP will be executed, but the code before will, so if any check there fails the test will be considered failed. Running a skipped test will show the following text in the logs: SKIP : TestIntBitset::testOperators() Operators have not been implemented yet... Loc: [../../UnitTests/TestIntBitset/TestIntBitset.cpp(28)] Deciding when using QFAIL and when using QSKIP can be debatable sometimes. In general there is not a precise rule and it’s all about your design choices. Personally I tend to use QFAIL when I know in advance that something is going to fail and I want to highlight that, whereas QSKIP when it doesn’t matter executing a test or part of it. Warning messages If you want to print a warning message in the tests log you can use QWARN. This macro can be useful when you want to notify that something is not going as expected in a test. void TestIntBitset::testSetOff() { mBS.setAllOn(); unsigned int bitsOff = 0; mBS.setBitOff(BITS_IN_BYTE * bitsOff++); // ... more test code ... // this test will trigger a warning if((BITS_IN_BYTE * bitsOff) < BITS_IN_INT) QVERIFY(!mBS.isBitOff(BITS_IN_BYTE * bitsOff)); else QWARN("trying to verify bit out of set bounds"); // ... more test code ... } In this case the QVERIFY check will fail because input data is somehow wrong. It would be unfair to fail the test because of a possible bug in the local code, but this situation needs to be highlighted. A warning is a good way to achieve that. When running a test containing a warning, the output log will show something like this: WARNING: TestIntBitset::testSetOff() trying to verify value out of set bounds Loc: [../../UnitTests/TestIntBitset/TestIntBitset.cpp(75)] The warning message will always have a message and will show where the warning was issued. Qt Creator integration Not surprisingly, Qt Creator offers an excellent integration with Qt Test. One of the panels in the left sidebar is called “Tests” and it shows all the unit test found in your container project. Using this panel you can disable some tests, run them all or run only a specific one. When doing data driven testing, you can also select which data sets are enabled. All this is extremely useful in a real project where you can have hundreds or even thousands of unit tests and you need to check/debug only one/few. When running the unit test from the Tests panel the results are shown in the Test Results panel that you can also open with ALT-8. This panel will show clearly which tests passed and which not, but it will also show other useful information, especially in case of failure. In particular you click on results to jump to any fail or warning in the code. Furthermore, the panel lets you filter what events you want to see in the log, so for example you can check only fails or warnings. The 2 panels combined make a great addition to Qt Creator and Qt Test and offer a very powerful tool for free. Source code The full source code of this tutorial is available on GitHub and released under the Unlicense license. In this case you will find 3 qmake projects, but you only need to load the top level one (UnitTests.pro) to build. References To know more about Qt Test you can check out the latest documentation of the QTest namespace. If you want to learn more about Qt have a look at the other Qt tutorials I posted. Conclusion The features discussed in this tutorial make Qt Test a more usable and complete framework than the one introduced in the first part of this series. In particular the integration with Qt Creator is extremely useful and effective. Data driven testing can also be very powerful to reduce testing code and to test different cases very easily. Things will get even more interesting when I will discuss GUI testing in the next tutorial, so stay tuned for more. In case you need help to handle your C++ unit tests with Qt Test feel free to contact me. Stay connected Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog newsletter to get notified of future posts. You can also get updates following me on Github, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The man ordered his food but was upset that his meal "cost too much." He drove from the drive-thru but stopped his car in front of the store. The police report said the employees were in the lobby when the man entered the restaurant.

Starting this spring, five corporate giants — Anthem, Cigna, CVS Health, Humana and UnitedHealth Group — will control health insurance and pharmacy benefits for more than 125 million Americans. Why it matters: Most of this happened through rapid consolidation, and now the pressure is on these companies to prove they can better control both medical and drug spending with everything under the same roof. Driving the news: Anthem has been working for over a year to create its own pharmacy benefit manager, called IngenioRx, so it could sever ties with Express Scripts. Anthem's new prescription drug negotiator is now ready to go live by March, 10 months ahead of schedule, the company said Wednesday. This is the new landscape. These 5 companies will handle both drug and medical bills for millions of people across Medicare, Medicaid and employer-based insurance. UnitedHealth Group is the largest entity combining health insurance and pharmacy benefits, with UnitedHealthcare and OptumRx (a PBM that got significantly bigger after it absorbed Catamaran in 2015). CVS acquired Aetna to pair with its existing PBM, Caremark. Cigna now owns Express Scripts. Anthem will be moving millions of people onto IngenioRx this year. Humana also has its own PBM, and it's the fourth-largest by prescription volume. It's worth noting that several Blue Cross Blue Shield companies also own a PBM, Prime Therapeutics. What they're saying: PBMs "don't need to be independent entities with their own profit margins ... that adds costs," former Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said in 2017. Some research says combining health care services and prescriptions under one benefit (not necessarily one common owner) could save money, if the insurer helps people manage their diseases. But insurers and PBMs have lived under the same roof before, and these companies have been doing the same work while U.S. health care spending has continued to rise. Reality check: These companies would not have pursued merging medical and drug plan offerings if they didn't think there was a lot of money to retain.

What would happen if Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman faced off against the villainous likes of Freddy Krueger and Jason? That’s exactly the plot the folks from Stryder HD and Adeel of Steel cooked up in their mashup trailer Justice League vs Monsters. The trailer takes scenes from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and combines them with clips from Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and a whole slew of other horror movies. The result is a new take on the recent DC film that will leave fans longing for more. Check out the epic mashup trailer below! [ H/T YouTube / Stryder HD ]

SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) – A Bay Area rabbi is helping his Jewish community celebrate Passover while social distancing from home. Rabbi Mendel Weinfeld of the Chabad House-Almaden Valley and his wife, Mussi, are creating “Seder to-go” boxes. Like many other goods, local grocery stores have been running out of kosher foods typically eaten during Passover. The Weinfelds are now making sure many families have what they need to have a proper Seder at home. “Normally at this time we have thousands of people around the Bay Area that come, tens of thousands of people, celebrate Passover,” Weinfeld said. “Today it’s going to be hard, and we’re forced to be at home but that’s not going to stop us and we’re all going to be leaders in our own homes.” The Chabad of San Francisco is also offering Seder to-go boxes. They still had dozens left for purchase as of Monday night.

You know how it is. You're a power user, an alpha nerd. You just aren't happy without multiple screens - a puny one-screen desktop isn't enough for the multiple video feeds, apps and so forth that are essential to your working life. But that's too bad, because you are also a deadly US Navy SEAL supertrooper. Your video feeds aren't CNN - well, maybe some of them are actually - they're live video from surveillance drones prowling overhead, or from robothopter bat-bugs you have sent into the bad guys' stronghold. You're normally working up to your chest in the snows of the Hindu Kush or the stinking mud of the Euphrates delta, generally resting your ruggedised laptop on the dead body of a terrorist you have just killed in total silence with no more than a piece of string, using a little known Oriental grappling technique. So no multiple screens for you - or at least, not until now. Because now the era of the waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, dual screen laptop has dawned. The machine in this case is a ruggedised version of the G400 dual-screen machine from Alaskan startup gScreen, which says the G400 is "the first true dual-screen laptop with identical 15-inch LED backlit displays", though others might dispute that. The G400 isn't actually on sale yet - customers can reserve one from the 25th. Meanwhile, however, certain privileged customers are jumping the queue. Last week, Naval Special Warfare Group 2 based at Little Creek, Virginia issued a notice of intent to award a small-biz set aside contract for "Titan M1 Dual screen Laptop Workstations". The gScreen corporate blog confirms that "this product is being built specifically to specs requested by the US NAVY for extreme environments". Apart from dual displays, the frogman-commando IT types will get an Intel CORE 2 Quad QX9300 processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive and standard MIL-STD 810F ruggedisation. The SEALs have also specified dual GeForce 8600M graphics cards, Blu-Ray drive, Gigabit networking, WiFi and Bluetooth. It seems they're no fans of Vista - the machines are to come with Windows XP Pro. It does occur that machines of this sort would also be capable of other than strictly work-related tasks. ®

Earlier this morning, we reported that other sources had said FC Utrecht midfilder Gianluca Nijholt was currently on trial with the Chicago Fire. After reaching out to Nijholt's agent Bart Baving, we received this response (it has been cleaned up slightly as it doesn't appear English is Baving's first language, but the full context remains): "Spoke with Frank Klopas yesterday; Frank was very positive and wants to have him with the team. But I have to negotiate with (Chicago Fire Vice President of Soccer Operations) Guillermo (Petrei) first about the numbers...both parties are interested in working with each other." The Fire potentially picked up an international slot yesterday when Colombian side Millonarios reported that Fire midfielder Rafael Robayo would rejoin his old club. Datos Millionarios also reported there was a transfer fee involved. There is no word as to whether Nijholt would recognized as a designated player. The article that was referenced this morning indicated Nijholt could be moved on a free transfer, which makes the chance of him taking up a DP spot less likely. When reached by Hot Time in Old Town, a Fire spokesperson said they had no comment on Nijholt at this time. Here are some highlights of the Fire's potential next signing: Gianluca Nijholt Highlights (via baradona73)

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! 8D!!!! *FANGASM* Oh, this is great, this is wonderful, this is amazing! When I saw this in my inbox, I thought to myself, "Ah Sweet! He drew Vinyl! Kinda ironic since he and I were talking about Vinyl..." Then I clicked on it, saw it was AMAZINGLY AWESOME, and on top of that, it was for me, pffft, I exploded with happiness. I LOVE the atmosphere, and the lighting is very appealing. I also like Vinyl's pose, and the fact that you did Vinyl's shades like separate shades, it looks VERY cool. I admit that the dot in the middle instead of a proper connection is a bit odd, but I still like it C: This is now my PSP's, PS3's and laptop's wallpaper, I seriously love this, thanks a million man.

The UK Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is considering introducing a new A’level course (in Britain, A’level is the exam that is taken at the end of high school) called “Use of Mathematics”. As one might expect, this idea has not met with universal approval, and there is now a campaign to stop the idea in its tracks. (I should warn you that the preceding link is to a Word file rather than to a web page.) The General Secretary of the National Association of Headteachers has this to say to the campaigners: They should get down from their ivory towers. They should be out in the world where young people live and exist and they should be appreciative that young people have great skills in the use of technology and we have to latch on to that. We cannot continue teaching an out dated 19th century curriculum. This is simply turning many children off education because it is completely not relevant to them at all. Some sample papers for the new course have been made available, so let’s have a look at the up-to-date 21st-century curriculum that will enthuse a new generation of British schoolchildren. I’ll concentrate on one or two questions but if you want to see more, then the sample papers can be found at the bottom of this page. (Update: unfortunately, these sample papers have been taken down. I can’t help wondering why. Further update: at least some sample papers are now available at the bottom of this page.) Before I discuss any of the actual questions, let’s imagine that we are sitting in a committee trying to devise a use-of-maths syllabus. What could be on it? Perhaps the most obvious place where mathematics is used is science, but that kind of use of mathematics is covered in mechanics questions and also in physics. Another place is statistics, but that too is on the existing mathematics syllabus. To help us, let us remember that we are looking for something that is relevant to schoolchildren. One might think that statistics was pretty relevant, but we had better suppress that thought and look for something else. Here is an idea. Many children will one day find themselves taking out a mortgage. Perhaps we could devise a question that will help them think about how mortgages work. I’m not saying in advance that this will turn out to be a good idea, but let us at least try. For later reference, I want to discuss an obvious problem about repayment mortgages and to do so in some detail. Suppose for simplicity that the interest rate for an interest-only mortgage would be 5% and that this rate never changes. If I take out a repayment mortgage of £50,000 and pay £500 a month, then roughly how long will it take me to pay off the mortgage? Let me answer that in a way that comes naturally to me, and, I’m guessing, to most mathematicians. To start with, I would replace a discrete problem (payments once a month) by a continuous one (money leaking out of my bank account at a constant rate). Next, I would forget the numerical values, which obscure what is going on (for instance, they make it harder to keep track of units) and rephrase the problem like this: at time I take out a loan of , and thereafter the amount I owe, changes in two ways. On the one hand there is a constant-rate decrease of (because of my repayments) but superimposed on this is an increase (the interest I have to pay) that is proportional to the current amount I owe, which we can denote by . In other words, satisfies the differential equation . We can solve this by turning it upside down and getting , which we can solve easily since all we have to do is integrate with respect to . From this we get . Rearranging, we find that , so that . When this is supposed to give us . From that it follows that , so . Therefore, the amount of time it will take until is the value of such that , or , or . From this expression we can see that I will never pay off the mortgage unless , though in fact it is more sensible to deduce that from the differential equation: if then will not decrease. (This is telling us the rate at which repayments must be made in order to keep up with interest payments.) Also, if we know a little about the shape of the exponential function, we can see that if is negative, then will decrease rather slowly at first and much more quickly later on. This is a well-known phenomenon with repayment mortgages: initially most of the repayments are interest repayments (because the amount owing is large so the interest is large) but later on they are mostly capital repayments (because now the amount owing is small so the interest is small). Of course, there is one final stage, which is to plug in some numbers. I won’t do it completely here, but I will point out that at least some thought is required if we want to work out what value of corresponds to an interest rate of 5% and what value of corresponds to a monthly repayment of £500. If we measure in years, then we need to choose such that and we should take to be 6000. We are given that , and a reasonable approximation for is 0.05 (since for small ), so the time taken will be around , where . So which is slightly under 2, so we get a bit less than , and could get a better estimate with the help of a calculator (which is not just allowed but actually required in the use-of-maths exam). Now what skills did I need in order to do that calculation? (Apologies if I’ve made a mistake in it — I have not checked it carefully.) There were basically two. The first was to transform the original real-world problem into a purely mathematical one. The second was to solve the mathematics problem, which involved solving a fairly simple differential equation and then doing some routine algebraic manipulations. I would guess that an average A’level student would find the first task quite hard, because it involves a bit of thought: it seems that most of the A’level syllabus nowadays consists of learning to do certain algorithmic tasks such as differentiating compositions of basic functions, and not much is devoted to solving problems or to solving the kind of modelling problem that constituted the first stage of the above calculation. But perhaps this is where the use-of-maths A’level would come into its own. One could do a bit less of the pure stuff, but by way of compensation one would learn how to take a real-world problem, transform it into mathematics, and solve the mathematics. I’m not sure I like that idea, but it could perhaps be justified, so let us now have a look at some questions in the sample papers. Candidates are to be given something called a “data sheet”, which you might think consisted of tables of data that you then had to use your modelling skills to analyse and comment on mathematically. But actually the name “data sheet” is rather misleading: it’s more like a couple of pages with a few mathematical concepts explained. I think the idea is that the data sheet explains the mathematical principles and then your job as candidate is to use the principles. For the question I want to talk about, which is number 2 on this paper, the data sheet is called “Waves as models”. I’ll let you read that if you want, but here’s the question. 2. The article states that, for the case of the simple pendulum, the angle, , that the string makes with the vertical, seconds after release, can be modelled by a function such as . (a) What does this model suggest for the angle that the string makes with the vertical when it is first released? (b) For this model, show that . Ah, so my guess was wrong. You aren’t asked to model anything. Instead, you are given the model! (The equivalent for my mortgage question would be to be told what the formula was for the amount owing at time and to be asked to draw various conclusions from the formula.) So what exactly are the skills you need to solve the above question? Again, there are two. The first is the ability to solve what in the US are called word problems: this means that instead of being asked to solve something like you are given an equivalent wordy problem such as “I have some apples in a bag, put two more in, count them, and find that I have five; how many did I have originally?” When you get used to these, they are rather easy: you just cut out all those stupid words and leave the maths. (However, interestingly, they were found very difficult when I taught them in the US. I was a PhD student at the time and the course was College Algebra 1021 at Lousiana State University, taken by people who would typically not go on to major in mathematics.) What do we have to do for part (a) above? Well, the underlying maths problem is very simple indeed: what is when ? To get to that problem, we had to interpret “when it is first released” as “at ” and we had to interpret “the angle that the string makes with the vertical” as . The second of these tasks is trivial, since the question has just said that that is what is, and the first is, well, not very challenging. On to the second part. It’s telling us to differentiate twice, but it just about qualifies as a word problem because it starts “For this model”. Luckily, we can turn this “word problem” into maths by simply ignoring the words “For this model”. The setter of this question seems to have a touching belief that if the word “model” is splashed around a bit, then candidates are learning how to use mathematics. But they are doing nothing of the kind. They are learning how to solve word problems, and very easy ones at that. (For extreme examples of questions where the word model is used a lot, but plays absolutely no role in the questions, see the Calculus sample paper.) And the irony of it is that you learn how to do word problems in a conventional A’level syllabus, and you learn more mathematics in the process. Even worse, the problems in the use-of-maths sample papers aren’t real word problems: in a word problem you normally have to say something like, “Let’s represent this quantity by $x$.” Even that step seems to be regarded as too challenging on these papers. There are in fact some questions about interest rates and the like on another paper, but the “data sheet” gives you formulae for everything, so that all you are required to do is take the values given to you in the question and plug them into the formula. (The data sheet, by the way, is made available before the exam.) Let’s just think for a moment about whether this is likely to be a valuable life skill. Suppose, for instance, that you have a choice of two long-term savings accounts. One of them has a higher interest rate, but the other one has a bonus if you keep your money in for five years. Luckily you took use-of-maths A’level a few years ago, so you should be in a good position to decide which one to go for. Ah, but you’ve lost your data sheet, and in any case the data sheet didn’t tell you a formula for the amount you end up with when there is a bonus involved. What can you do? There isn’t an obvious internet search: the problem is that you have to think a bit, and unfortunately what you’ve been trained to do is plug numbers into formulae that are just given to you. There are so many ironies to this. Those who propose the use-of-maths A’level will no doubt say that it is not a dumbing down of mathematics A’level (with its out-of-date nineteenth-century syllabus) but rather an equally rigorous exam that tests different skills. They will also say that the syllabus is more interesting and relevant. But it is blindingly obvious from the sample papers that it is not testing different skills (except perhaps the skill of understanding what the data sheets, which unfortunately don’t seem to be available in real life, are on about), and is deeply boring, and not even all that relevant to the people who are actually taking the exam, who should be enjoying their last few years of not having to think about mortgages, income tax returns and the like. (Does anyone seriously think that teenagers will be filled with enthusiasm by personal finance, when for adults, who are directly affected by it, it is an awful chore?) A conventional A’level student will do plenty of word problems and more mathematics, and will also solve modelling problems when they do statistics and mechanics. Who will end up better at solving mathematical problems that arise in the real world? You do the math. Share this: Twitter Facebook Like this: Like Loading... Related

Story highlights The report comes after Sessions moved to expand the program in July The IG called on Tennessee to "remedy" the prohibited six-figure food expenses Washington (CNN) Tennessee law enforcement misused funds from a program involving seized assets, spending more than $110,000 on catering, a government watchdog report released Thursday found. The report from the Inspector General for the Department of Justice came weeks after Attorney General Jeff Sessions moved to allow the asset forfeiture program to grow, which former Attorney General Eric Holder scaled back in 2015. Law enforcement seizes property routinely under the suspicion it is obtained from or for illegal activity. Through the Department of Justice's equitable sharing program, the Justice Department's law enforcement partners can request and spend funds from the seizures for law enforcement purposes. The report noted law enforcement cannot use the funds for bayonets, weaponized aircraft or food purchases, among other things. The inspector general report released on Thursday said it had "identified several areas of improvement" with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security's use of the program. Namely, the report took issue with $112,614 in funds spent on food with just over $110,000 spent on catering from March 2014-March 2016 based on funds from the program. Read More

FILE PHOTO - A man walks near a banner of ride-sharing app Uber during a news conference in Cairo, Egypt, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lena Masri CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt’s top administrative court on Saturday lifted a ban on operations by ride-hailing companies Uber and Careem, which have faced fierce opposition from traditional taxi drivers, a judicial source and lawyer said. A lower administrative court withdrew the permits of U.S.-based Uber and its main rival, Dubai-based Careem, in March 2018 after 42 taxi drivers filed suit, arguing the apps were illegally using private cars as taxis and were registered as a call center and an internet company, respectively. In April last year, however, the Cairo Court of Urgent Matters said the ruling should be suspended and the two firms should be allowed to continue operating until a final decision was made by the Highest Administrative Court, which accepted the companies’ appeal on Saturday. Uber has faced repeated regulatory and legal setbacks around the world due to opposition from traditional taxi services. It has been forced to quit several countries, including Denmark and Hungary. The company has said Egypt is its largest market in the Middle East, with 157,000 drivers in 2017 and four million users since its launch there in 2014. Last week, Uber reached an agreement with the Egyptian Tax Authority to pay value-added tax (VAT), which Careem said it had been paying since March 2018.

Russell Crowe got Hugh Jackman the Wolverine part in ‘X-Men’, after turning it down himself. In an interview with Australian radio station Triple M 104.9FM., Jackman said: "Bryan Singer asked Rusty [we assume Crowe] to do Wolverine, and he said, 'Nah mate I've just done 'Gladiator', it's not for me but you should look at this guy...' " Luckily he was talking about Jackman, whose portrayal of the clawed mutant was a big hit with movie fans. He’s since appeared as the character a further three times, with a second X-Men spin-off flick ‘The Wolverine’ due out July 2013. Hugh is apparently great friends with Russell and says he has learned a lot from his mate. He said: "He's a great guy in every way, I have so much time for him and to watch him work, everyone says he is a great actor, when you actually get to work with someone like that... He's that good when it matters, in that moment, in that close up tough moment, you just sit back and watch you know someone's got that confidence and is going to deliver. I learnt a lot from him."

New artwork believed to be from the elusive Banksy appeared overnight on a wall near where climate change activists spent the last two weeks protesting in London. The street art – which was first noticed by people Thursday night – purportedly shows a child clutching a sign of the Extinction Rebellion emblem while planting a small flower with the words “From this Moment Despair Ends and Tactics Begin.” It comes on the day that Extinction Rebellion backed up their protests which snarled traffic in the British capital for nearly two weeks. CLIMATE ACTIVISTS GLUE THEMSELVES TO LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE ON ‘LAST DAY’ OF PROTESTS A Bansky collector and expert told The Guardian he believes the mural on Marble Arch is an authentic piece by the Bristol street artist. John Brandler, who owns a dozen pieces by Banksy, said he believes it’s an original because of its execution and theme. “I’m convinced about the one in London for two reasons: it’s a topic that he would support, and it’s a continuation of the Port Talbot piece that appeared in December 2018,” he said. “The name in the corner is not important, the signature is the work. And this is a Banksy. It’s a wonderful statement and beautiful piece.” A spokesperson for Westminster council told The Guardian that they are investigating the authenticity of the art piece. Banksy has not confirmed the authenticity. Extinction Rebellion – self-described “rebels” – have recently made headlines for snarling traffic and public transit in London through a series of blockades. They ended their 10-day outlandish demonstrations on Thursday but not before several members glued themselves to the London Stock Exchange building. Calvin Benson, 48, a supporter of the climate change activist group, told Sky News that the artwork “represents the will of the people that were here and the people of the nation.” TOPLESS CLIMATE CHANGE PROTESTERS ARRESTED AFTER INTERRUPTING BREXIT DEBATE IN BRITISH PARLIAMENT Bansky, who has never disclosed his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has since become one of the world’s best-known artists. His mischievous and often satirical images include two policemen kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with a sign bearing the words, “Laugh now, but one day I’ll be in charge.” His artwork titled “Girl With Balloon” – one of his best-known works – was sold on auction for $1.4 million last October just before it self-destructed. Videos from inside the Sotheby’s in London show the painting partially running through a shredder embedded in the frame and emerging from the bottom as strips. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP A video on Banksy’s website after the incident appeared to imply that the painting’s partial shredding was supposed to have been complete. “In rehearsals, it worked every time…” the video notes at the end.

by I mentioned during my Mac Minute in Julie’s podcast interview with Jack de Golia that I recently put together a temporary sound booth that can be easily moved from location to location. (We sold our house, and are doing a series of house-sitting gigs while we look for a new home. The setup is pretty simple. As a frame I’m using a set of “light panels” that were designed for holding fabric scrims for photography. These are nothing more than shock-corded pvc pipes arranged in 4×8 foot panels. You can do the same thing with pvc pipe and corner connectors from your local hardware store. If you don’t glue all of the pipe sections into the connectors, you can still disassemble the frames for easy storage. Across the top of the structure I’ve got two 3×3 foot frames, again from the light panel collection. Note that with two of the light panels I got supporting legs, which you see at the bottom of the image. If you use stiffer pvc pipe, maybe 3/4-inch size, you probably won’t need the extra bracing support. For additional rigidity I used velcro wraps and pipe clamps to hold the three vertical frames together. I also have velcro wraps holding the two 3×3-foot frames across the top of the structure. The sound absorption is handled by two layers of moving blankets. I’ve got three heavy quilted moving blankets (green/blue in the photos) and four lighter blankets from Harbor Freight. The blankets are held onto the frame using the large clamps shown in the image above. I hung the heavier moving blankets inside the frame, and the lighter (black) blankets outside the frame. This gives a little airspace between the two blanket layers to further absorb and “deaden” the sound. The booth looks a little funky, but the “boomy” sound from the room I’ve used it in so far is nicely reduced. I didn’t rig any light arrangement, so I’ve been using the booth with one of the top layers hung slightly over the front. But I don’t have a blanket extending all the way to the floor as a “door.” The computer equipment is on the table next to the booth. I have to start a file recording and then walk into the booth, but that hasn’t been much of a hassle (except when I recorded a five-minute audiobook audition and realized I’d forgotten to push “Record”). With the booth completed, I used a heavy-duty photographic tripod to mount a Harlan Hogan Porta-Pro Plus box for my “stand-up mic” (a shotgun), and brought the “sit-down” mic arm in through a gap in the blankets. A book stand holds copy or the iPad I’ve been using for scripts, and a music stool completes the setup. If you’ve been wanting a booth, but aren’t ready to build something permanent, but your spouse would like to have you and your equipment out of the walk-in closet, consider building your own temporary booth. Since I had the frames on hand, I haven’t priced doing something like this at the hardware store. But I’m going to guess that you could put something similar together for around $100, including the pipe, connectors, and moving blankets.

Son muchas las elucubraciones que hay en torno al 'caos Nóos' y la posible condena a Iñaki Urdangarin. El ex duque consorte de Palma podría elegir el penal en el que pasar su condena en función de su cercanía con la familia o de la posiblidad de tener un tratamiento más favorable. ¿A qué cárcel irá? ¿Tendrá privilegios? ¿En qué grado ingresará? ¿Quién tiene la decisión final sobre el penal? Las dudas son muchas, aunque lo cierto es que hay pocas variables en manos del marido de la Infanta. Sobre el centro penitenciario, los expertos barajan bastantes posibilidades. En el caso de que no se entregue voluntariamente, lo lógico sería que ingresara en la provincia donde realiza su vida familiar y que menos desocialice. Por otro lado, si se entregara antes del plazo para entrar en prisión podría elegir a qué cárcel ir a cumplir su condena. "Normalmente, si entras voluntariamente, puedes elegir a qué cárcel ir", dice Joan Josep Queralt, catedrático de Derecho Penal en Barcelona. El penal de Guadalajara, con pocos presos, muchos de ellos policías; el de Álava, por estar cerca de su familia o uno donde sus abogados puedan asegurarle un trato más favorable son las opciones. Pero, ¿podrá tener privilegios? "Urdangarin ni siquiera es miembro de la familia Real, así que no puede tener ningún tipo de privilegio, será un preso como todos", señala Queralt, que además añade que "ni siquiera la familia Real tendría privilegios". Aunque puede que sus abogados consigan que se mantenga en un módulo de respeto. Así, el módulo funciona de forma completamente independiente respecto al resto de la prisión. Dispone de una galería, tiene su propio economato y cuenta con biblioteca, comedor y patio. Los internos de esa parte no tienen ningún tipo de contacto con los demás. Esto se puso en marcha en 2001 en la prisión de Mansilla de las Mulas, en León, con el objetivo de conseguir un clima de convivencia homologable en cuanto a normas, valores, hábitos y formas de interacción al de cualquier colectivo social normalizado. Actualmente, todas las prisiones españolas cuentan con este tipo de regímenes. Tercer grado "Esto un módulo de seguridad para gente relevante. Por ejemplo, el comisario Villarejo, por ser policía, no está con los demás presos, pero esto no está obligado por la ley. Si Urdangarin necesita esto o no lo determina el director de la cárcel en función de si hay algo que ponga en peligro la seguridad del preso", concreta el catedrático que añade que "si entra en la cárcel, pese a todo, va a ser el preso más escrutado del mundo". En cuanto al grado con el que ingresaría en prisión, Queralt lo deja claro: "En primer grado, como todo el mundo, y si es una pena de menos de cinco años probablemente pasará rápido al tercer grado con libertad condicional por la reforma que hizo el PP en 2003".

The independence day of Machines from Metalfoes. 4th Baya CS, Domestic Tournament, 07/03/2016, 88 Players —————————————————————- 1st Place: Qliphort —————————————————————-2nd Place: D/D—————————————————————-3rd place: Speedroid Phantom Abyss—————————————————————-4th Place: D/DG-Project Card Fight Kokuraminami Shop, Local Tournament, 07/03/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: ABCCard Kingdom Tokushima Local Tournament, 06/25/2016, 8 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: Symphonic ABC1st Orange CS, Domestic Tournament, 07/02/2016, 102 Players (34 Teams)—————————————————————-1st Place, Player A: D/D—————————————————————-1st Place, Player B: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-1st Place, Player C: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player A: Speedroid Phantom Abyss—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player B: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player C: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player A: Metalphose—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player B: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player C: ABC—————————————————————-4th Place, Player A: Symphonic ABC—————————————————————-4th Place, Player B: D/D—————————————————————-4th Place, Player C: Monarch14th Duelist King Hobby Stage CS, Domestic Tournament, 07/03/2016, 72 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place: Quickdraw Junk Doppel—————————————————————-3rd Place: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-4th Place: D/D—————————————————————-5th Place: ABC—————————————————————-6th Place: Lightsworn Shiranui—————————————————————-7th Place: Monarch—————————————————————-8th Place: D/D 133rd Alann Cup, Domestic Tournament, 07/02/2016, 37 Players —————————————————————- 1st Place: Blue-Eyes —————————————————————-2nd Place: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place: ABC—————————————————————-4th Place: Metalphose1st JGP Iwate, Domestic Tournament, 07/02/2016, 89 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: D/D—————————————————————-2nd Place: ABC—————————————————————-4th Place: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-5th Place: D/D—————————————————————-6th Place: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-7th Place: D/D—————————————————————-8th Place: Speedroid Phantom Abyss3rd Rikuzen CS, Domestic Tournament, 06/26/2016, 66 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: Metalphose—————————————————————-2nd Place: D/D—————————————————————-3rd Place: D/D—————————————————————-4th Place: Speedroid Metalphose—————————————————————-5th place: Deskbot—————————————————————-6th Place: ABC—————————————————————-7th Place: D/D—————————————————————-8th Place: D/D—————————————————————-9th Place: D/D—————————————————————-10th Place: ABC—————————————————————-11th Place: Metalphose—————————————————————-12th Place: ABC—————————————————————-13th Place: ABC—————————————————————-14th Place: Speedroid Metalphose—————————————————————-15th Place: D/D—————————————————————-16th Place: Metalphose2nd Hakata with Hatti CS, Domestic Tournament, 06/25/2016, 96 Players (32 Teams)—————————————————————-1st Place, Player A: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-1st Place, Player B: Metalphose—————————————————————-1st Place, Player C: Speedroid Phantom Abyss—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player A: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player B: Metalphose—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player C: Deskbot—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player A: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player B: DARK Alive—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player C: ABC8th University Circle Duel Tournament, Domestic Tournament, 06/25/2016—————————————————————-1st Place, Player A: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-1st Place, Player B: D/D—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player A: ???—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player B: MetalphoseBattle City Super League, Local Tournament, 06/26/2016, 44 Players (China)—————————————————————-1st Place: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-3rd Place: Metalphose—————————————————————-4th Place: Artifact HERO—————————————————————-5th Place: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-6th Place: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-7th Place: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-8th Place: Speedroid Phantom AbyssCard Strike, Local Tournament, 06/25/2016, 15 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: ABCGameshop VITA Kurume Shop, Local Tournament, 06/25/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: ABCSaisai Shop, Local Tournament, 06/26/2016, 9 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: ABC

The week you spend in Japan will certainly be memorable!!! Get a taste of the foreign travel offered by printed guidebooks. Enjoy a tour around Japan from the comfort of your own home! As the game’s protagonist, you’ll travel to famous Japanese sightseeing spots in the company of a pair of beautiful young sisters. The girls will describe the spots, take you out to dinner, and grow closer to you throughout your travels. The thrill of taking a trip through Japan with pretty girls is the experience offered by this “Guide Game” – a guidebook in game format! Beautiful Tour Guides!! Famous Japanese Sightseeing Spots!! Delicious Japanese Dishes!!

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, March 7 (UPI) -- Officials in the Russian city of St. Petersburg said street cleaners discovered a baby African crocodile at a construction site. Workers at a St. Petersburg public utility office said the street cleaners discovered the croc, which measures about 20 inches long and is an estimated four days old, at a construction site and brought it to the office, where it was placed in an aquarium and given fresh beef to eat, RIA Novosti reported Friday. The utility office workers said they asked the St. Petersburg Zoo to take custody of the reptile, but zoo officials said they do not have the resources to care for an African crocodile, which can grow up to 16 feet long. Officials said they do not know how the baby crocodile ended up at the construction site.

No one wants open borders, right? Well, not exactly — and this USA Today column provides evidence that it’s not entirely easy to pigeonhole its support. Jeffrey Miron, director of economic studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, argues that the ills of illegal immigration can all be solved by simply eliminating border enforcement altogether: The solution to America’s immigration problems is open borders, under which the United States imposes no immigration restrictions at all. If the U.S. adopts this policy, the benefits will far outweigh the costs. Illegal immigration will disappear, by definition. Much commentary on immigration — Trump and fellow travelers aside — suggests that legal immigration is good and that illegal immigration is bad. So, legalize all immigration. Government will then have no need to define or interpret rules about asylum, economic hardship, family reunification, family separation, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and so on. When all immigration is legal, these issues are irrelevant. This position doesn’t exactly come out of left field, pardon the pun, for libertarians at Cato or in other places. They tend to see most issues in terms of markets and economic outcomes. Most of Miron’s argument follows that pattern, albeit in ambiguous broad strokes that never get much support. For instance, Miron argues that open borders would “plausibly” generate more higher-skilled immigration, on the tenuous idea that backups in H-B visas indicate a throttled demand. It might boost skilled immigration somewhat, but an open border on the south would likely incentivize many more to flood the border to escape the poverty and violence in Mexico and Central America, too. The drug cartels operating in those regions would be the first to take advantage of open borders too, an obvious point that Miron never bothers to address. Instead, he argues that the elimination of border enforcement would incentivize everyone to obey the law, “because they have shown respect for the law by not immigrating illegally.” If there’s no law to respect for immigration, how exactly does crossing the border show respect for it? Speaking of the law, Miron says it’s not worth even screening for terrorists: Terrorists could well enter via open borders, but they do so now illicitly. Little evidence suggests that our immigration restrictions prevent terrorist attacks. Actually, we do know that a lack of enforcement on tourist and business visas allowed some of the 9/11 terrorists to remain in the US while they plotted the murder of thousands. A lack of enforcement on student visas allowed at least one of the people charged as an accessory to the Boston Marathon bombing to stay in place. But this argument is nonsensical in two ways. First, how do we know that some turned away for security reasons weren’t intending on terrorism? How do you prove that negative? Mostly, though, the argument that terrorists can enter illicitly is no more an argument for an end to enforcement than would be an argument to stop enforcing speed limits because people tend to break them, or to stop responding to domestic violence complaints because it doesn’t stop people from reoffending. Miron’s argument takes a sneering turn when he dismisses the impact on American culture. In essence, he wonders why we bother saving it at all, emphasis mine: U.S. culture will not change dramatically. America’s immigrants have a long history of assimilation, and most have at least some affinity for American values. Indeed, the world is already more “Americanized” than ever. Even if values and culture change, so what? That happens in free societies. Who says America’s current values — some of them deeply evil — are the right ones? Yikes. Maybe this is a winning argument in think-tank circles, but most Americans like their culture and the shared values we have, among them the rule of law. One doesn’t have to believe a culture is perfect to value it, after all, and at least our system of governance allows for those values to get debated and changed through the difficult but liberating process of self-governance. In that one sentence, Miron affirms what most people believe about the intent of the open-borders project — to fundamentally transform America into something very, very different. Besides, which values does Miron want replaced, and by what? If Miron’s selling open borders on the basis of replacing current American values, that’s a legit question — and one has to wonder why a Cato Institute scholar seems so sanguine about importing the cultural values of those most likely to freely flow into the country, even apart from the obvious issues like drug cartels and multinational gangs. There aren’t many libertarian bastions to our south, or for that matter to our east, west, or north either. His theory in practice would result in a field day for Democratic Socialists, for instance, but libertarians might regret the outcome of this policy, especially those concerned about “deeply evil” American values from a libertarian point of view. Can we recalculate our immigration policy to make it more consistent, effective, and supportive of the rule of law? Of course we can, but the US already has one of the more generous immigration policies in the world, to our credit. However, most people want that generosity to be accessed properly within the law, as our previous election demonstrated — and most Americans are getting pretty tired of hearing about how their values are “deeply evil” in the context of people demanding to participate in them.

Alfredo Romano is the first to admit a soul-crushing process that careens dangerously close to failure and burns years off your life can sometimes have a happy ending. At least that’s his conclusion after overcoming one obstacle after another, in a journey at times resembling the Labours of Hercules, to build a new community in Toronto’s old Junction Triangle. “I’m the first to admit we achieved a better result from all the years of hard negotiating,” says Mr. Romano, president of Castlepoint Numa, a Toronto real estate developer which also has large holdings on the city’s waterfront. When it’s complete, Castlepoint’s eight-acre site, called Lower JCT, is expected to be a vibrant, mixed-use community with 1.1 million square feet of office, retail, residential and cultural space. There will be a total of seven buildings, 32 townhomes, parks, affordable housing, a daycare and bike paths – all contained on a parcel of former industrial land sandwiched between GO train tracks and within walking distance of two subway stations and streetcar lines in the west-end Bloor Street-Dundas Street corridor. Lower JCT is a joint venture between Castlepoint and Toronto-based private equity firm Greybrook Realty Partners, which has placed more than $1-billion of investments over the past several years, mainly in Toronto and Miami. Equitable Bank is providing construction financing for the first two phases of Lower JCT. The Lower JCT project is located west of Toronto's core in the Bloor Street-Dundas Street corridor. (Erik Heinrich/The Globe and Mail) The Tower Automotive Building, a 10-storey heritage structure erected in 1919, will remain the neighbourhood’s signature motif and tallest building. It will be anchored by the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA), which is relocating here at the end of the year into the first five floors (50,000 square feet) from a much smaller space on Queen Street West. Mr. Romano envisages that a large number of his commercial tenants will be companies in the arts and digital media, drawn by the pull of MOCA. “I would like to say this was all inspired by a grand design, but that wasn’t the case,” says Mr. Romano, whose own career in real estate can be summed up with exactly the same words. After finishing his master degree in history and theology at Harvard, Mr. Romano was accepted at McMaster University in Hamilton to complete a multidisciplinary PhD in 1985. He never started because he had a life-changing epiphany while filing his tax return. He counted five T4 slips from as many teaching institutions, with no full-time position as a professor in sight. So at 31, Mr. Romano took a job on Bay Street and soon started Castlepoint with his cousin, Mario Romano. By 2008, Castlepoint was a successful developer but on the losing end of a bid to construct film studios in the Port Lands on Toronto’s eastern waterfront. It rebounded by buying the Junction property in the west end with plans to build rival studios. However, the Port Lands were soon in financial distress, so Castlepoint partnered with Paul Bronfman (whose Montreal family is famous for creating the Seagram liquor brand) and ROI Capital to buy out the owners. Today Pinewood Toronto Studios is a Hollywood-calibre facility with 10 sound stages and special effects capabilities. The Tower Automotive Building, a 10-storey heritage structure erected in 1919, has been renamed Auto BLDG and will remain the signature motif of the site. (Erik Heinrich/The Globe and Mail) With the Port Lands once again in play, Castlepoint had to find an alternate plan for its South Junction ambitions, and in 2011 submitted a blueprint to the City of Toronto. Nestlé Canada immediately objected to residential housing being built close to its chocolate factory on nearby Sterling Road. The city’s planning staff agreed and Castlepoint’s proposal was quashed almost as quickly as it had been unveiled. “We were in a pitched battle with Nestlé over the future direction of the area,” Mr. Romano remembers. “It got nasty.” Resident groups supported the idea of revitalizing a desolate brownfield site that had been home to an Alcan aluminum factory for about 80 years, but certain conditions had to be met. At least a dozen meetings with stakeholders followed. Finally Castlepoint took its plan for the South Junction to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), which has the power to overrule municipalities in development matters. All the stakeholders, including Nestlé, sat down at the same table and hashed out their differences. The key sticking points centred around the Tower Automotive Building. The city insisted no structure on the site exceed its height, and Nestlé wanted it rezoned to commercial from residential. Castlepoint conceded both points. “The Automotive Building is an iconic structure and we’ve restored it to the highest standards,” says Mr. Romano. “With so much character it’s important that it maintain its prominence. That’s the smart approach.”

Kim Kardashian will give a talk of the objectification of women in the media. The selfie queen herself, 34, who recently ‘wrote’ a book detailing her life in selfies, will speak at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California, later this month. Kardashian, worth a reported $45 million as of last year, is perhaps uniquely placed to discuss the media’s attitude and portrayal of the female form. Billed as “the first lady of #fame,” Kardashian will also give her opinion on new book Selfish, the Kardashian and Jenner clan and the “business of millennial culture”. Still, hearing Mrs Kardashian West – currently expecting her second child with husband Kanye West – speak does not come cheap. In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Show all 11 1 /11 In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim and Kanye star in Balmain's spring/summer 2015 campaign copyright: Mario Sorrenti/Balmain In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian's February Love magazine cover LOVE In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian on the cover of Paper magazine In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian's canvas and leather Hermes tote with baby North's drawings on iy Rex Features In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West and Baby North West at Givenchy SS15 Getty In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West on the front row of the Balmain fashion show in Paris, September 2014 In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian and Kanye West front row at Lanvin SS15 Getty In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion The cover of 'Selfish' by Kim Kardashian Getty In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Olivier Rousteing with Kim Kardashian, flanked by models wearing autumn/winter 2014 Balmain Getty Images In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim marries Kanye in a custom dress created by Riccardo Tisci In Pictures: Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian West in fashion Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in the video for 'Bound 2' shot by renowned photographer Nick Knight Ticket prices for the 30 June event range from $300 for the VIP Party (including a copy of her book and the chance to have it signed, along with a cocktail reception) to the lesser $150 – perks include a chance to get your book signed, but no cocktails.

The European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) published a report this July that concluded that centralised digital currencies could be the answer to the lack of any real competition in the crypto arena. According to the report, central bank-issued digital currencies (CBDC) also have the potential to be used as an alternative to fiat currencies. In a previous article on Crypthor, we discussed the rise of cryptocurrencies and their lack of regulation. As such, the aim of the EU Central Bank (ECB) is to have a regulated, centralised currency that it can use for trade. The main theme of the report was that ECB issued digital currencies have the potential to create a more stable financial system. Factors based on the law of supply and demand as well as the dependence on goods and foreign currencies, create the volatility of current cryptocurrencies. Therefore, not being backed by any monetary authority, they are not a viable alternative to any fiat currency. The centralised nature of ECB issued digital currencies, however, backed by a trusted central party, has the potential to complement or substitute the current banking infrastructure and pave the way to a more stable financial system. In the European financial context, the report also highlighted how the financial technology (Fintech) behind cryptocurrencies can be a disruptive and innovative service provider. It described how Fintech provides lower cross-border barriers and facilitates financial services between EU states by providing financing and investment alternatives to European businesses and private individuals. Moreover, cryptocurrencies and Fintech can contribute to EU objectives like the Digital Single Market and the Capital Markets Union. These innovations have the potential to bring benefits like cost reduction, better efficiency, improved transparency and ultimately contribute to the goal of financial inclusion in the European market. The Eurozone market, therefore, is a uniquely crucial region for crypto markets, as events that affect one country can greatly affect the rest in terms of trade. As such, digital currency traders and investors will do well to keep an eye on world events that can impact their trade and affect the already volatile crypto markets. The Economic Calendar on FXCM shows trends and volatility within the EU, with the current consumer price index showing a bullish reading for the Euro. It also notes European Central Bank (ECB) policies and how they have the potential to influence currencies in the Eurozone. This gives crypto traders and investors a tool for analysis of market. The ECON report also mentions that CBDCs will have an impact in the Eurozone by reshaping the current competition level in the cryptocurrency market. It defined competition as inter-cryptocurrency, between digital coins and intra-cryptocurrency, and between service providers like wallets, exchanges and payment providers. This competition has the potential to create asymmetric effects, including barriers, formation of cartels and collusive agreements. It can also lead to situations where service providers could create incongruent policies that could keep other competitors out of the market, leading to an unfair system. The ECB believes that CBDCs will be able to resolve these issues. Now, with new EU directives for the Eurozone that came in mid-July, which set stricter rules for digital currencies in order to protect against terrorist financing and money laundering, it seems an opportune time for the ECB to forge forward with its CBDC. Coin Telegraph remarks that the closed cryptocurrency systems require a supervisory authority, and are based on a bilateral settlement with trusted party, unlike decentralized digital currencies which are not regulated. By adopting a digital currency, the ECB, according to the report, embraced the disruptive change that has the potential to avoid the recurrent instability of the current banking system.

Hello, everyone. Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile (PUBGM) by Tencent Games got 0.9.0 update today for its mobile app on both Android and iOS platforms. In this article I will go in detail about the new PUBG Mobile 0.9.0 Update Night Mode, QBU Sniper, Updated major Patch Notes and here is how to download it. Here is the tentative Live Countdown to this major update. Subscribe to our Reddit community for more Updates. PUBG MOBILE LIVE COUNTDOWN TO 0.9.0 UPDATE Official Version is now available on Play Store and App Store Status = Released, Check your app updates. Download here: Apple App Store Link. Google Play Store Link. This Update includes the famous Night Mode in Erangel randomly, new guns, vehicles, new mode (competitive) and new in game improvements, major Bug fixes. Released today PUBG Mobile 0.9.0 version. Watch official teaser below: A sad news is Beryl M762 won’t be there in this update but it would be there in 0.10.0, now instead a QBU Sniper would be there in Sanhok map which will replace Mini 14. The 0.9.0 update is not live for anyone who will be asking. This type of maintenance is a preliminary process to get ready for the update on the 25th. Here is detailed Link/Source to the official Google Document from Tencent for overview skeptics of this update. All of the data in it belongs to the Tencent Games, here it is just for informational purposes as per fair use. The update mainly consists of New Weather, Map Improvements, Festival Effects, Matchmaking Improvements, Enemy/friend Spectator Mode, new Ingame-Purchases, Crew Challenges, changes in Custom Rooms, Character Action Improvements, New settings; Improvements, Projectile Improvements, Bug Fixes.

Mono/poly relationships, i.e., a relationship between a partner who is monogamous and one who is polyamorous, are notoriously difficult. Traditional poly blogger wisdom points the finger at both parties having to compromise and feeling somewhat shortchanged. The difference between the relationship structures is to blame for the trouble, they write. But I think it’s even simpler than that. I think the problem isn’t poly, mono, or some clash of cross-purposes. The problem lies with toxic monogamy culture. Toxic monogamy is basically the worst. Monogamy in and of itself has so many good qualities. Sexual exclusivity in particular has a large upside. When practiced perfectly (although not always the case, even when it’s meant to be), it carries a lower STI risk. I’ve previously written that I could easily be sexually monogamous, if I could still have emotional connections with more than one person. However, many people in long-term monogamous relationships become emotionally and socially isolated in a profound way. This is because a number of socially connected behaviors are perceived as infidelities. Toxic monogamy culturally trains us to be on high alert to detect cheating in our own relationships — and the ones of those around us. This makes us overly sensitive to prosocial acts that could signal something insidious lurking beneath the surface. Notably, I recall a conversation I overheard between people who agreed that posting pictures with members of the opposite sex on Facebook was in fact cheating on your significant other. Even setting aside the fact that I’m not straight, this idea perplexed me. As Noah Brand writes: Hegemonic heterosexuality is the model for straight relationships that carries as many damaging, ridiculous, impossible assumptions and requirements as does hegemonic masculinity. Shall we list a few? Relationships are about finding The One you’ll spend the rest of your life with. Naturally, a jealous and possessive form of monogamy is a strict requirement. It is necessary to hate all of one’s exes, because they were not The One, and one must also be jealous of all one’s partner’s exes, because they touched your property before you even got there. It’s not that mono/poly is unworkable. It’s that the beliefs that accompany toxic monogamy will consistently torture a person in a polyamorous environment. How to proceed given this? Challenge the underlying assumptions of toxic monogamy: Affection is zero sum. When you care for someone, that leaves less caring to give to others. One person must meet every possible emotional and social need that we have. We must do whatever is needed to protect The Relationship — a simultaneously fragile and all-important entity. If this involves complete isolation, then so be it. If a love is true and valid, we will never, ever be attracted to anyone else. Ever. If the intensity of that love changes, there is something wrong. If we are attracted to someone else, this means that our love isn’t true. Or we’re a horrible person. Or both. Probably both. Jealousy is the best indicator of love. Commitment is chiefly about exclusivity and forsaking all others (and not followthrough). How much your romantic partner values you should be a large part of your self-worth. Even poly folks can struggle with some of this. These beliefs linger as nagging doubts. Even though we have actively rejected monogamy as a relationship style, we were raised in the same world. Toxic monogamy was modeled for us over and over again (through media, the relationships of others, etc). Whether you’re poly, mono, or poly/mono, one thing is true: Toxic monogamy is terrible for you. Counter to what one might think, acting as though love is scarce is an easy way to lose it. Worrying you’ll lose someone can drive them away. At the very least it can drive a wedge between you. * Note: “Toxic monogamy culture” is a phrase that refers to a specific kind of socially isolated, maladaptive monogamy. “Toxic” is a modifier. Much in the same way that one can decry “abusive relationships” and not be a fan of them — while not thinking or asserting that all relationships are abusive, referring to “toxic monogamy culture” doesn’t mean that all monogamy is toxic. That’s an absurd notion. * Fiction by Page Turner: Psychic City, a slipstream mystery Non-Fiction: Dealing with Difficult Metamours A Geek’s Guide to Unicorn Ranching Poly Land: My Brutally Honest Adventures in Polyamory

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon | Pool photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Sturgeon aims for ‘coalition’ to stop May’s Brexit deal Scotland’s first minister holds talks with Jeremy Corbyn and targets multiparty alliance. LONDON — Pro-EU Conservative MPs can be part of a cross-party "coalition" against Theresa May's Brexit deal, and against a no-deal exit, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Tuesday. Sturgeon was speaking in Westminster following talks with Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the U.K.'s opposition Labour party. Sturgeon, whose Scottish National Party is the third largest party in the House of Commons, said those opposed to the binary choice of May's deal or no deal should unite behind a single alternative strategy — and that Conservative MPs "have a role to play" in the interests of "building a coalition" in Westminster. “The next stage of these discussions has to then look at what option can the opposition coalesce around," Sturgeon said, adding that options included a second referendum, a permanent customs union and single market arrangement. May's government has said that the only options available to MPs when they vote — most likely before Christmas — on her deal, is the existing agreement or no deal. Labour has said that if MPs reject May's deal then a no-deal exit must be prevented, and say they want a general election. While not ruling out a second referendum, Labour has prioritized a motion of no confidence in the government that could topple May's government and force an election. Sturgeon is in favor of another referendum that could reverse Brexit altogether. When asked about the possibility of a confidence motion, she said it was "important now ... that we focus on where we can build majorities." In an apparent acknowledgement that the Conservative rebels required to give opposition parties a majority in parliament would not vote against their own government in a confidence motion, she added: "We can all table different things but if they get voted down because we haven’t done the work to build the majority behind them it’s not going to take us very far." Sturgeon, who is meeting May herself on Tuesday evening, said that she had held a "worthwhile" discussion with Corbyn. The two sides had agreed to stay in close dialogue, she said, with their Brexit spokespeople, Keir Starmer and Stephen Gethins, speaking on an "ongoing basis." "The option that would stop Brexit is another vote and Labour’s official position is not for that at the moment, but hopefully over the course of the next few weeks as these discussions develop we’ll see movement on all sorts of positions," she said. A Labour party spokesperson said that talks had been "constructive." "They discussed their common opposition to Theresa May’s botched Brexit deal and determination to work across parliament to prevent a disastrous no deal outcome," the spokesperson said.