Dr Nicholas Gruen is head of the Australian government's Government 2.0 Taskforce, which is in the final stages of a public consultation process. Dr Gruen is due to report his recommendations and findings by December 31. So what are his priorities and how does he answer the sceptics -- not about his taskforce, but about the way government will respond to his findings?
Also, Professor Graeme Turner and why he believes there's been a loss of perspective in the rush to celebrate the democratic potential of Web 2.0.
Listen to or download an extended interview with Dr Nicholas Gruen, chair of the Australian government's Government 2.0 Taskforce.
Lindsay Tanner: Information technologies are transforming the way that governments do business all around the world. They're opening up new possibilities for government to improve transparency, accountability and efficiency of government. In particular, Web 2.0 technologies are delivering new opportunities that governments in many countries are just starting to exploit, and it's really crucial that in Australia we are up there among the leading countries making use of these new opportunities.
Antony Funnell: That's federal finance minister Lindsay Tanner, a few months ago, launching what he's called is Government 2.0 Taskforce. The Taskforce has been holding public seminars around the country and this week they'll finish that stage of their work with a final event in Townsville.
After that, they'll then begin writing a report on the ways in which the Australian government can use the internet and social media to better engage with the public and further open up the process of government. In a few minutes we'll hear from the head of the Taskforce, Dr Nicholas Gruen.
Hello, Antony Funnell here and welcome to Future Tense. Now the two main political figures leading the push for what's often called e-government are Lindsay Tanner, whom we spoke to back in February, and also Labor backbencher Kate Lundy.
While Mr Tanner has his taskforce, Senator Lundy has just conducted a series of Public Sphere events where various interested parties have come together to talk about government and Web 2.0 enabled participation. The ABC's Ryan Egan went along to the last such event to gauge the mood.
Ryan Egan: Are you surprised that there's people from the government trying to bring in people from, say, social media experts, people interested in mobile and all these other spaces, creative industries together to talk about this stuff and how it relates to government policy?
Public Sphere delegate 1: Yes and no. I'm not surprised that they brought in some of those parties. I'm a little surprised and pleased they brought in some social media people, and I'm pleased to see the government being proactive. I mean that's what it's all about. When we've had -- I don't know if I can say this -- 20 years of wilderness, and what I'd really like to see the focus on is -- some of these issues discussed today have been discussed from a long, long time under a different regime, and I think it will be very valuable to actually focus on what are the issues stopping any of those previously raised points actually being brought to fruition.
Public Sphere delegate 2: In terms of sort of big picture stuff about public sphere, I think this is just so exciting. The fact that we actually have this dialogue now that we have ministers such as Carr and Conroy keen to hear the results of this kind of dialogue. You can say with the public, but really more with industry and practitioners who are switched on to this, so it's not just Joe Public as in you know, 'I want to have my say', it's actual consultation, and I think that's what's really interesting here.
Ryan Egan: Finally, what's your impression of these Public Spheres, the events themselves, in terms of the way they use new technology, they use social media to bring in people who may not otherwise be able to make the physical events, but also who may not have otherwise contributed their thoughts before?
Public Sphere delegate 3: Well this is the first one I've attended in person. I have attended virtually through other means before. But today has been a fantastic experience. The technology's not necessarily beeen as stable as it could be, but the camaraderie and the discussion continues, and I think it's really important to explore these things, and it's fantastic that someone's stepping out and doing it. The fact that it'll be available for others to view and read is wonderful.
Antony Funnell: Voices there from the last Public Sphere event held by Senator Kate Lundy. And if you're interested, Ryan Egan from Radio Australia will have an interview with the senator on his TechStream program tomorrow. There's a link on our website.
So, enthusiasm for the Public Sphere events, but what about the Government's 2.0 Taskforce?
Well the general feeling we've detected among those with a passion for online developments, is one of caution. Caution, not because of the make-up of the Taskforce, but because of what they see as the Rudd government's record of not following through on big initiatives.
Among the sceptical is technology and political blogger Stilgherrian.
Stilgherrian: There's enthusiasm building in the Government 2.0 sector. There are a lot of enthusiastic people starting to have meetings, starting to work on Senator Kate Lundy's work at the federal level, and Labor MLC Penny Sharp in New South Wales, and other people around the country, are starting to kick off.
There are going to be expectations that there'll be something really significant to put on the table by Christmas, and yet it's all uncertain. The uncertainties in all this are incredible. We're expecting this group of people to essentially solve all of the problems of Government 2.0 and have this grand road map in just a few months. It's an enormous bullet point list of stuff that they've got to achieve. And now that people are starting to look at it, they're realising we're only at the very early stages of people starting to agree on what the questions might mean, let alone what the answers might look at. And my gut feeling is people are starting to be a bit hesitant about 'Hey, are we actually going to get something of value at the end of this, or is it just another of the Rudd government's talkfests to make it look like we've got something happening but there's no real end result? I mean the Australia 2020 Summit, did we ever get anything really concrete out of that?
Duncan Riley: Look, what they're doing with Government 2.0 is positive. Nicholas Gruen is the right guy for the job, but we hear a lot of rhetoric from the government about how it wants to embrace online and open itself up. But two years down the path and what do we have to show for it?
Antony Funnell: Duncan Riley was another of our guests from last week's program who we quizzed about the Government 2.0 Taskforce while we had the opportunity, and as you can hear, he's also rather sceptical about the issue of government follow-through.
Duncan Riley: Look in saying that Nicholas is the right person for the job, I'm not saying he wasn't stuck, but based on the guidelines and what will happen afterwards, he can only deal with what he was handed. He's very highly thought of in many, many circles, I think given what he has to work with, he's doing a very good job.
That said, the scale of the investigation is far too broad. There's absolutely no commitment from government at all to actually implement the recommendations of the Taskforce, and I think we'll get to the stage where in six months time or twelve months time, I'll be sitting here in the studio again and we'll still be talking about the pipe dreams of the Australian government when it comes to implementing really basic 2.0 principles, and ideas, which certainly our contemporaries in the United States, the United Kingdom, even places like Uzbekistan, I mean they do open blogging now. I could actually rattle off a list of Third World countries or Second World countries which are doing a better job online than the Australian government is. So I'm disappointed. I'm hopeful, but I could be wrong, and I really do hope that I'm wrong, because the Australian government does need to move in this area. But I'm not very hopeful.
So, on that provocative note, let's now go to the head of the Government 2.0 Taskforce Nicholas Gruen for his response to the scepticism.
Nicholas Gruen: Well my response, I suppose my basic response is a kind of straight bat response which is 'Well, that's clearly up to the government what they decide to do', but I think I can give your sceptic a little more comfort than that. And the reason is that the recommendations themselves are not the most important thing here. I've been involved in about eight government inquiries in my life, and usually the recommendations are what really matters.
Now something strange happened in this inquiry, which is that we put out a sort of a -- you know, at a very high level, in a sort of in-principle sense -- we put out the recommendations, if you like, the answers, in our Issues paper right at the start. We know what we have to do, and that is to take the situation that we're in now, where government information is secret, unless a decision is made to release it, and basically reverse that, so that government information is in principle, open, accessible, available, unless there's some good reason for that not to be the case.
Now the government has in some senses signed on to that principle. It's clearly indicated that it's keen on that principle in appointing us, but it's also been co-author of a set of oeCD principles which we reproduced in our Issues paper, which say that.
The hard part is actually getting it to happen. Now some of that will involve recommendations of ours, you know, there are various road blocks, large and small, in the policy area: the way we administer copyright is one such area, there are various others. But really a great deal of this agenda is actually about setting examples, giving people the ability to fail, to try things and for them not to be successful, so that some of the things they do try will be successful. And that's really a cultural agenda as much as a policy agenda. So a large part of our work is to orchestrate the sort of natural enthusiasm that a lot of people have, to put up some competitions, to get some demonstrations going, and that's how we're going about our work.
Antony Funnell: So am I right in saying that this is as much, or you see this Taskforce and its work being as much about educating the government about the sort of cultural change that is needed, as it is about actually informing the public about change?
Nicholas Gruen: Yes, because the government isn't sort of just Kevin Rudd and Lindsay Tanner and those people, it is hundreds of thousands of public servants, and of course it's also the citizenry. One of the things that the internet and what is called Web 2 now makes possible, is a much higher level of collaboration between some sort of central organisation like a large business and its customers, or government and its citizens, and I mean that's one of the things that's going on around the world. People are, to quote the song, doing it for themselves, in all sorts of ways, and it's really tremendously exciting.
Nicholas Gruen: I have to say that is a challenge, yes.
Antony Funnell: But that's likely to be one of the central issues as well, not just cultural change in the government, but also educating the public service that this sort of change is possible and desirable, is that correct?
Nicholas Gruen: Yes, absolutely, and the way you educate the public service is not -- I mean there are lots of things that can be done in terms of the apparatus, there's currently a bunch of interim, I think it's called an 'interim protocol on online engagement for Public Servants', that the Australian Public Service Commission has put out those guidelines. We think those guidelines could be improved, and so does the APSC because they call them 'interim'. So that's the sort of nuts and bolts of policy, but it's really not the story.
The story is what you do when somebody in government, may be fairly junior, maybe not particular junior, starts blogging, they try and do it in a way that's consistent with the various codes of conduct, they put up on a blog all sorts of information about -- do the sorts of things that blogs are so good at, which is sort of answer people's questions, open up a channel for people to say, Yes, have you seen this link? and Look what they're doing in Turkey, or Italy or England or whatever. And let's say that person acquires a certain amount of cachet from this blog, and various senior managers or middle-managers get their noses out of joint. You can see that that blog might be tremendously useful, but in the management culture -- and I'm not just talking about the Public Service, this is typical of large companies generally, large organisations -- these kinds of things are difficult.
Antony Funnell: That's an enormous task, though, isn't it, to put together if you like, an arsenal of examples and of suggestions and recommendations that can be then used by people like Lindsay Tanner the finance minister, to try and change this culture. And given that you've got a finite time for the duration of this Taskforce, that it will be all over at the end of this year, have you had enough time and is your scope simply too broad?
Nicholas Gruen: Well the answers to that are No and Yes. In other words, No, we haven't had enough time, and our scope is too broad. But I'm not against either of those things, because this is an ongoing agenda. This agenda won't be over in five years time; it's a large cultural agenda and you know, it's great that the government is trying to move on it. If people think that we're going to issue the last word on this, and that, you know, within six months of our having issued the report, that it will be mostly done, well I'm sorry. I'm ambitious, but they're mistaken, this will take a long time.
Antony Funnell: Nicholas Gruen, chair of the Government 2.0 Taskforce, thank you very much.
Antony Funnell: And an extended version of that interview is available online.
Out of every one hundred people online, only one per cent become involved in creating content, while another 10 per cent engage in some form of online interaction. That is, asking questions or making suggestions for change.
But the overwhelming majority of us, around 89 per cent, in the words of Chauncey Gardiner, just like to watch.
Antony Funnell: Now the one per cent rule isn't just a bit of fun. It's a principle which many online innovators and developers take notice of.
So if it's correct, what does that mean for e-government or Government 2.0?
Does it mean that no matter what governments or organisations do to promote such concepts, the cold reality is that only a minority of citizens will ever really be interested?
And in a country the size of Australia, are there enough interested people to keep the pressure on government to follow through with change?
I put that last question to futurist and online entrepreneur Ross Dawson.
Ross Dawson: I think that there is a growing interest in that, and I think it is very different in different countries and in different demographics, but absolutely people's interest is growing in participating and having a voice and being able to impact smaller things in the environment in which they live, as well as larger things such as the political parties in power. And I think that trend will accentuate over time, as people get more used to the ideas and the tools provided by participation.
Antony Funnell: Ross Dawson there.
Jeffrey Cole is the director of the Centre for Digital Future at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication.
Dr Cole's Centre has been tracking online trends for the past nine years, both in the United States and further abroad.
He was in Melbourne last week at the invitation of the ARC's Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation based at Swinburne University. So let's hear his perspective on all of this.
Jeffrey Cole: Well we saw even before the internet, we saw Orwell was wrong in 1984. Orwell argued that media was going to be the tool of Big Brother, and what media has done has been to put great power in the hands of individuals. We saw that in Iran, after the contested election when people got into the streets and organised and communicated through Twitter, through social networks, but certainly we've seen lots of examples where governments have been overthrown because of technology. It was true in Spain after the bombing of Madrid when Spain initially lied to its citizens and told them the bombing had occurred from the Basque separatists, ETA, and instead they used these devices to communicate that the government was lying and overthrew the government. We've seen lots of examples of government change, it's not a surprise that in Iran, in Myanmar, when demonstrations occur the government gets threatened, what's the first thing they do? Now they cut internet connections.
So we know the power in dissent, the power in giving power into the hands of individuals. Barack Obama took social networking and the ability to communicate with supporters to a new level, and actually included them in his campaign, raised more -- the amazing thing about Obama is he raised more money than any candidate who ever ran for office, but more compelling, he did it with small donations from vast numbers of people. So Obama rewrote the rules to the point where the Republican Party was just scared beyond belief, because they don't really understand these techniques. I can assure you there was more education of social networking going on in America among Republicans than anything we've ever seen, and they're going to come back with a vengeance. We'll see if they understand it truly. But the social networking, Obama being the most significant major candidate, really has changed politics, and every piece of it.
Antony Funnell: So does your research indicate that there is a growing understanding within societies of the usefulness of the internet and social media for the political process, for keeping things honest?
Jeffrey Cole: In America, and I don't think it's a question we ask in Australia, but in America, we see now that two-thirds of internet users feel they're gaining political power through the web, not just knowledge, but actually gaining power. The ability to influence or have some role. Now those numbers are always highest after an election. They'll go down a little bit in between elections, but it really has become a device that has changed the entire political process.
Antony Funnell: Jeffrey Cole, with quite an amazing statistic there. But does that really tell us much about the willingness of ordinary people, ordinary citizens, to use Web 2.0 applications to meaningfully engage in the political process?
After all, that two-thirds figure only applies to people who are already internet users.
I think it's fair to say that all of our guests on today's program so far believe they will. But our next guest has significant doubts.
Professor Graeme Turner is the director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland. He's by no means a Luddite when it comes to the benefits of new media, but he believes there's been a loss of perspective in the rush to celebrate the democratic potential of Web 2.0.
Graeme Turner: I think what happen is that people who are watching what's happening in the expansion of consumer choice and the multiplication of formats of delivery of media, there's a kind of excitement that moves away from looking at what's actually happening at the moment to immediately predicting the future. Most of these people have got no credentials to predict the future, you know, the people who work in media or cultural studies or technology studies or whatever. And I guess what happens is there's a kind of aspirational rhetoric that gets built up, and people lose the distinction between what they hope will happen and what actually might happen in terms of judging from the evidence that's out there.
So for instance, you'll have somebody say that the net is outstripping television as a medium. Well I can't think of a single way in which you would want to demonstrate that, where you have to say that's simply not true. It's a rhetorical claim to point to the importance of this admittedly interesting new development, but it just loses touch with reality.
Antony Funnell: And in terms of Web 2.0's influence on the democratic process, and people's participation in the democratic process, you're saying that's also vastly overstated?
Graeme Turner: I think that an awful lot of this rhetoric comes from the US, from people who are in very privileged positions, have access to the web and are able to use it, and they're used to be heard. Most of the people we hear from didn't gain their voices through the internet; they had voices already as columnists in the newspapers or as journalists, or whatever. And so there's a sense that they've expanded the reach that they have.
But the idea that this is an absolutely democratic movement where you're actually going to see everybody, the whole of a democracy utter their thoughts via the web and be listened to (and that's the crucial one; you know, it's one thing to say something, it's another thing to be heard), I think that's just unrealistic. You know, when you look at who is on the net and who is able to speak and who is listening, it's a pretty small fraction, and if you look globally, I think there's a real danger that accounts of changes to the democratic function of the media emanate from a kind of Anglo-American centre, and what they do is normatise the idea of western affluence. It ignores that the rest of the world is without access to a telephone, let alone a computer.
Antony Funnell: You're very interested in user-generated content. I did an interview last year with Henry Jenkins from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had been looking at YouTube, at the service YouTube, and one of his findings was that far from being broad in terms of the sort of people who put content up on YouTube, that user-generated content on YouTube was really very much from young white males. That fits in very much with what you're saying here doesn't it?
Graeme Turner: Yes well that's certainly what the research is telling us, and they're usually young white males in America, and so it's a pretty narrow demographic. There's actually a very interesting book written by Matthew Hindman called The Myth of Digital Democracy, and he doesn't look at YouTube but he looks at the demographic of blogging, and sees who does the blogging and who produces the material, and he finds it's pretty much the kind of thing that Henry Jenkins is talking about. He finds that it's a geeky end of the young white American market who produces this material and gets excited about it, and often they're the people who have access to the media and they're the people who get interviewed about these future developments.
So it's got a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy feel about it from time to time, that you do want to stand back and say and say Whoa, hang on, we're not looking at massive shifts across the world yet, and there's no reason to think that the content that you're going to generate in your living room is going to rival the content that Hollywood produces industrially.
Antony Funnell: You point out in your chapter that even in the United States television is on the rise, viewing of television has been on the rise for a couple of years now, despite I suppose what most of us would think from hearing the argument about traditional media versus new media. You would assume that television was very much on a steep decline.
Graeme Turner: Yes, it's complicated, because broadcast television is on decline in the US. Less than half the US audience now watch broadcast television. But they do watch cable, and the massive increase, it's something like 40% in the last six months or so, the massive increase is in time-shifted television. People are buying DVRs and they're able to time-shift, so they're still watching television, they're just not watching it when it's programmed. So what's probably happening is that we're moving away from television as a menu of legislated choices, it's becoming customised and personalised, and so our mode of consumption is becoming more customised and personalised. That doesn't necessarily translate to a democratic politics, you know, there's a long way to go to that, and it doesn't necessarily translate to the producers of television being located in living rooms, rather than in production studios.
Antony Funnell: OK. Now I'm going to criticise my own profession here, but I guess we could expect that many journalists might get carried away with what you call this digital optimism, and perhaps as you say, you know, commentators who are involved with social media who perhaps have a vested interested. But you're also very highly critical, as you mentioned earlier, of academics, people in, say, media studies. What's in it for them? Why have they put aside their scepticism, their natural scepticism, their natural academic interest and pursued this digital optimism?
Graeme Turner: That's a little harder to answer. I mean I can only guess really. I think that academic views on new media have really been at the cutting edge of any view about new media, and I think the kind of traditional difference between media industries and the academy has tended to collapse I suppose. So that suddenly people who used to be told by the media 'We don't want your point of view, we're not interested because it's too academic', are actually being approached by the media and being asked for their point of view.
So you actually have a very strange alignment between the kind of media studies academic community and the media community, which have always had differences of opinion and differences of interest. I think that's changed, so there's a bit of an alignment between those two sectors, and both of them want to see new media become this democratic Utopia for different reasons. I mean one sector wants to do that because they think they can make money out of it, but the other wants it because of a kind of idealism about what the media can be, a criticism of what the media is now and the sense that the new media provide opportunities that didn't exist before to make the media more democratic in terms of how it's produced and how it's consumed.
Antony Funnell: One of the things that interests me in the chapter from your forthcoming book is that you say that in the US at least, there is a liberal bias in the blogosphere, which you say probably maximises the likely socio-political benefits and minimises the possible deficits. Could I get you to explain on that a little bit more?
Graeme Turner: What I was talking about there is that the blogosphere isn't one particular political spectrum. I mean there's a kind of assumption that the blogosphere is going to be left and critical. Well, it depends where you go. In the UK the blogosphere tends to be dominated by conservatives, in the US by liberals. And so the argument I suppose is that the fact that you're getting this kind of liberal, critical and pro-democratic bias in the blogosphere makes it productive. I think you look at the full context in the US, you've got to include an incredibly right-wing talk-radiosphere, running against the blogosphere, so I suppose you can argue that there's a political benefit from having a larger number of voices on the left than there used to be, getting the larger audience than they used to get.
Antony Funnell: Graeme Turner, from the University of Queensland. And on our website you'll find details of a seminar he's presenting next month on Digital Optimism. And his forthcoming book will be out in 2010.
Now before I depart, I should also mention that we've put the extended version of our interview with Jeffrey Cole online. In it, Mr Cole talks about his Centre's research into media trends, user-generated content and much, much more. That's a special feature online at our website.
Thanks as always to my co-producer, Andrew Davies and to Peter McMurray for our technical assistance.
Graeme Turner's seminar at the University of Queensland.


Apple continues to dominate the worldwide tablet market, but the real story is the rapid rise of Amazon's Kindle Fire.
New data from research firm IHS iSuppli shows the Kindle Fire made an impressive debut in the fourth quarter of 2011. Amazon shipped 3.9 million units of its new color tablet, enough to grab 14.3 percent of the global market and surpass Samsung Electronics, which sells the Galaxy Tab series of slates.
Apple's share of the tablet space fell to 57 percent in the fourth quarter--down from 64 percent in Q3--but Cupertino still rules the roost by a wide margin. Apple shipped 15.4 million iPad and iPad 2 units in the fourth quarter, nearly four times the number of Kindle Fires shipped.
Despite the Fire's sizzling debut, it's unclear whether Amazon's tablet strategy--which at the present time means selling the $199 Fire at a small loss--will work in the long run.
IHS researcher Rhoda Alexander said in a statement that "the long-term viability of the (Fire) will hinge on the success of Amazon's business gamble, which depends on tablet sales driving substantial new online merchandise sales at Amazon.com in order to attain profitability."
The iPad's biggest competitor in the fourth quarter wasn't the Kindle Fire, but rather Apple's own iPhone 4S, iSuppli says.
"The rollout of the iPhone 4S in October generated intense competition for Apple purchasers' disposable income, doing more to limit iPad shipment growth than competition from the Kindle Fire and other media tablets," said Alexander.
While that may be true, there's little doubt that Apple hears Amazon's footsteps. When a competitor grabs 14 percent of a market you own--and does so in a single quarter--you're bound to take notice.
The Kindle Fire's success lends credence to recent rumors that Apple is testing an 8-inch "iPad Mini," a smaller slate that reportedly would offer features similar to Amazon's 7-inch color tablet. Apple officials, however, haven't decided whether to begin production of the device, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Another possibility, one I floated in early December, is that Apple will continue to sell the iPad 2 once the iPad 3 arrives, albeit at a reduced price to compete with smaller tablets in the $200 to $250 range, including the Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Color and Nook Tablet.


You never know, it could happen. This year it won’t happen, but we’ll see. I think James Franco has already made a series of Freaks and Geeks and hasn’t told us yet.
Judd Apatow's comments (per The Wrap) are both good and bad for fans of the show. Apatow not ruling out the possibility of a reunion someday gives us reason to be optimistic, and dropping the news in January that 2016 won’t be the year for a reunion can keep us from wondering about the possibilities. Still, word that a reunion won’t be anytime soon is a bummer. We can at least count on the fact that Apatow would certainly be willing to bring the cast back for another go.
Although he's (assumedly) joking about the Franco thing, if any actor were capable of putting together a reunion without actually telling anybody else involved in the original, it would be James Franco. Franco played stoner heartthrob Daniel Desario during the single season of Freaks and Geeks; unlike many other film stars who got their starts young on TV, Franco loves to talk about his past show. His AOL web series Making A Scene even featured a musical mashup between Freaks and Geeks and Saved by the Bell, because of course it did.
Judd Apatow and James Franco aren’t the only Freaks and Geeks alums still harboring a certain degree of resentment about the cancellation. Despite his success on the big screen, Seth Rogen didn’t hesitate to have words with the executive behind the end of Freaks when the opportunity arose. He’s been a busy guy, but we can probably count on him being willing to bring Ken Miller back for a reunion.
The whole cast has been pretty busy in the years since the cancellation. For those of us who didn’t discover Freaks and Geeks until the series hit Netflix, the season is practically a treasure trove of actors who would make it big. The regulars included Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, Martin Star, Busy Philipps, and John Francis Daley in addition to Franco and Rogen.
We may not have gotten a second season back when Freaks and Geeks was still on the air, but the idea of a reunion at some point in the future is awfully appealing. Judd Apatow’s resounding “maybe” could be much worse. In the meantime, we can always re-watch the original a few more times.


Former CIA officer Buck Sexton wrote an opinion piece at The Hill that asked, “Is President Trump paranoid or is the Deep State out to get him?” Sexton, a conservative radio host, characterized the president’s performance at his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as “less-than-stellar,” but questioned the basis of much of the resulting controversy, which has been driven by Democrats and former members of the Obama administration.
Is John Brennan monetizing his security clearance? Is John Brennan making millions of dollars divulging secrets to the mainstream media with his attacks on @realDonaldTrump ?
Brennan is currently a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
Signaling Republican criticism of Brennan, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said on Sunday that it is “extremely disturbing“ to see Brennan and Comey “express the kind of extreme bias that they’ve shown now.” Goodlatte is calling for Brennan to testify on Capitol Hill.


WASHINGTON — Matthew G. Whitaker, the nation’s new acting attorney general, repeatedly chided presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in public statements during 2016 while he was speaking for a group that is barred by its tax-exempt status from supporting or opposing political candidates during a campaign.
Before coming to the Justice Department in 2017, Whitaker was president and executive or of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a charitable organization that styles itself as nonpartisan government watchdog promoting ethics and transparency. The tax-exempt group — known by its initials, FACT — is supposed to serve the public interest under Section 501c3 of the U.S. tax code, without directly or even indirectly supporting or opposing specific candidates for office.
Yet the group has engaged in one partisan pronouncement after another, mostly directed at Democrats. During the last presidential race, Whitaker argued in July 2016 newspaper opinion pieces that Clinton should be prosecuted for her handling of her private email server — a favourite talking point of Donald Trump. The opinion pieces identified Whitaker as FACT’s leader.
In September 2016, Whitaker argued that Clinton had acted shamelessly by appointing her charity’s donors to boards of the State Department when she was secretary of state.
“I don’t think anybody in the history of our country that served in the administration has been this bold in their private fundraising and their sort of giving favours,” he said in a radio interview posted on YouTube by his group.
Daniel Borochoff, president of CharityWatch, a Chicago-based group that monitors the non-profit world, said that statement appears to violate the IRS ban on engagement for or against a particular political candidate. “It’s highly critical of a candidate, and he ought not to be doing that, because it’s a political partisan comment,” he said.
Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, left FACT in October 2017 to become Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ chief of staff. He was named this week by President Trump to take over at least temporarily for Sessions, who resigned at Trump’s request.
In 2015 and 2016, Whitaker earned a total of $654,000 from FACT — 30 per cent of its entire spending of $2.2 million over that two-year span. His 2016 salary was $402,000; the average CEO or executive director at 380 advocacy or education charities in that year made a salary of $173,099, according to Matthew J. Viola, a vice-president at Charity Navigator.
Borochoff suggested that Whitaker’s board of directors at FACT didn’t appear to be independent enough to apply the brakes on his campaign partisanship. Whitaker appeared to exert tight control over a three-person board of directors that included just one unsalaried member, according to the group’s IRS filings in 2015-16.
Whitaker’s foundation was initially formed and then primarily supported with funds from another organization called Donor’s Trust. That group is a non-profit built to give conservative and libertarian philanthropists “any level of privacy they want,” according to its marketing materials.
In 2014, FACT’s only source of funds was Donor’s Trust, according to IRS filings. In 2015, funds from Donor’s Trust accounted for all but $191 of FACT’s $500,191 in revenue. In 2016, Donor’s Trust provided $800,000 of FACT’s revenues of $1,350,265.
America Rising LLC formed in Delaware in 2002 and was first registered to do business in Virginia in 2016, but its registration was cancelled in May 2018 for failing to pay its annual registration fee, according to Katha Treanor, a spokeswoman for the State Corporation Commission. America Rising LLC did not respond to queries from The Associated Press.


In an effort to keep young female players coming back to its game, Fuel Entertainment has launched virtual boys (including boyfriends) in its online virtual world Spark City World. The free-to-play browser game allows girls to shop in virtual stores, customizing their avatars with new clothing and makeup, and decorating their apartment with new furniture, flooring or wallpaper.
The boys in Spark City World are all non-playable characters (NPCs), and are found at random throughout the world. Players can interact with them and form friendships via conversations, learning the boys’ likes and dislikes, birthdays and more. These girls can enter light relationships with the boys by developing crushes on them, going out on dates, giving them gifts and even breaking up with them when they’re ready to move on.
At launch, boys appear in four personality types: jock, hipster, skater and pop star, but there’s always the possibility for more to be added as the feature grows.
Spark City World will come to mobile in 2014, allowing players to take the game with them wherever they go. Spark City World is now available to play for free, but does allow players to purchase VIP Membership and currency packages starting at $5.95. These VIP Memberships unlock private / VIP areas, special events, and access to purchasing every item in the game’s stores.


Disgruntled supporters of a losing candidate in Solomon Islands are reported to have thrown stones and damaged a counting station in Temotu province.
It is the first account of trouble in the general election held earlier this week, Radio New Zealand International reports.
Reports from Temotu suggest the supporters involved were those of high-profile politician and Our Party member Patteson Oti.
Police will not confirm this, but say supporters of a losing candidate allegedly threw stones, damaged a building and looted the shop of the winning candidate after the unofficial result was announced in the provincial capital Lata about 3am on Friday.
Police say the situation is now under control and they are sending out reinforcements.
Security remains tight at polling stations in Honiara, with police and observers to witness the counting.
Other well-known politicians to have been ousted are Francis Billy Hilly, the finance minister and National Party leader who lost the Rannogga/Simbo constituency to Charles Sigoto.
Also out is deputy Speaker Clement Kengava, who lost North West Choiseul to Connelly Sadakabatu.
However, many familiar faces have been returned, including Manasseh Sogavare, Snyder Rini, Matthew Wale, Toswell Kaua, Seth Gukuna and Job Dudley Tausinga.


AD is an application to delete unnecessary and reoccurring files, such as your internet browser's cache files, which in turn may litter your hard disk. Obviously you may delete any files/folders you wish e.g. redundant log files or whatever... A good example are also the .vcf files that come with email.


What begins as yet another humdrum teen film slowly morphs into an empowering, passionate coming out story. While toting a flat, ultimately unlikeable cast of characters and an almost too perfect protagonist, “Love, Simon” manages to deliver an impactful message throughout its final act, cementing itself as one of the best book adaptations in a long time.
Despite the high praise, this film is far from perfect or even great. Most of the acting is a bit too cheesy and over dramatic, and there is little underlying personality within the film. A chord is finally struck, however, once Simon’s inner demons take center stage, forcing him to reveal his secret before he’s ready.
Based on the award-winning novel “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda,” “Love, Simon” follows Simon Spear, a typical awkward high school senior with a pretty decent life. His parents are successful in their fields, and his sister is an aspiring chef. Simon gets coffee for his friends before scooping them up in his car, and they jam to ’90s songs on the way to school. He just has one huge secret: He is gay.
When there’s a post about there being a closeted gay guy at his school, Simon immediately begins an email chain with the mysterious Blue. However, their romance is shaken when the emails are found, and Simon will do anything for his secret to not be revealed to the entire student body.
Being a film based on a young-adult novel, “Love, Simon” falls victim to the curse that most adaptations face. Namely, the storyline feels overdone and otherwise uninteresting simply because it is a rushed cluttering of its source material. As such, each character is doomed to be flat because of the limited time given to portray the complex, fleshed out characters from the novel. Even Simon suffers from seeming gruelingly boring in his almost perfect life rather than a constantly tortured closeted boy like in the novel.
Departing from comparisons to the novel, each non-original character in “Love, Simon” also feels heavily orchestrated and dreadfully boring. On multiple occasions, the writers attempt to get the audience to care about Simon’s friends, but each one of them offers very little to the overall plot and does nothing in terms of development. The film also fails as a high school narrative because of its tame nature and simple, one-dimensional teenagers. Put simply, to successfully build a story centered around high school students, there needs to be a heavier focus on the struggles and anxieties of teenagers rather than parties and football games.
The fact that the film attempted to follow faithfully to the novel also keeps the film from telling an interesting, new story. “Simon vs.” has won awards because of its fantastic story, but this film could have built on that narrative and taken audiences into deeper, more emotional places that the novel could not reach. For those who had the pleasure of reading the novel before seeing the film, the story feels as if it simply drags and only gets interesting until the final act. This film may have worked better as a short Netflix series about the harsh reality of being gay in high school rather than the upbeat narrative the novel and film portray.
There is one important theme than can be interpreted from the characterization of Simon and his loved ones. Both the film and novel demonstrate that not every closeted gay student comes from a broken home or is in danger of being shunned and discarded because of his or her sexual orientation. As Simon mentions, he is well aware that his family will truly accept who he is, but he simply does not want his normal, stable life to change because of his secret. This film does an incredible job of not making the main character an anti-social, disturbed basket case. Instead, he is portrayed as a boy who just wants to live an openly gay life.
Despite being kept out of his head, Simon is handled relatively well once the world surrounding him has been established. Once his email thread falls into the wrong hands, Simon’s selfish colors finally show. The writers do an excellent job of displaying an almost crazed Simon who is willing to smash lives apart and go against his own morals to protect his secret. As one may guess, Simon ultimately redeems himself in the end and becomes one-half of one of the most talked about relationships in young-adult history.
The humor in this film is also a delightful highlight and made trudging through the drab narrative bearable. There are multiple hilarious moments throughout the film that only add to the charm and characterization of certain characters. To name just few, Simon’s relatable text to his mom telling her to pick him up because kids at the school dance are drinking alcohol was fantastic. Also, Bram’s post-precedency Barack Obama Halloween costume was an excellent addition to his character.
“Love, Simon” definitely manages to draw tears and shine with its last dying breath. Once Simon is forced to come out as gay, the entire tone of the film shifts from a cheerful story about a boy in love to a devastating narrative about discrimination, the loss of relationships and hate crimes against gays.
Never has there been a film that’s affected me quite like this when the credits rolled. In its final 40 minutes, “Love, Simon” managed to evoke so many emotions that other films never came close to touching. As a massive activist for the LGBT community, “Love, Simon” struck a nerve with its scenes of brutal bullying of gays and the painfully accurate portrayals of being a gay high school student. As I cried multiple times throughout the final act, several other audience members could not contain their sniffles. Despite its minor gripes, the themes of acceptance and pride in one’s sexuality make “Love, Simon” a must-see film.
“Love, Simon” is out now in theaters.


Curfews, sports, and understanding kids’ brain chemistry have all helped dramatically curb substance abuse in the country.
It’s a little before 3 p.m. on a sunny Friday afternoon and Laugardalur Park, near central Reykjavik, looks practically deserted. There’s an occasional adult with a stroller, but the park’s surrounded by apartment blocks and houses, and school’s out—so where are all the kids?
Measuring Pain: How Much Does it Hurt?
A couple of minutes ago, we passed two halls dedicated to badminton and ping pong. Here in the park, there’s also an athletics track, a geothermally heated swimming pool and—at last—some visible kids, excitedly playing football on an artificial pitch.
Young people aren’t hanging out in the park right now, Gudberg explains, because they’re in after-school classes in these facilities, or in clubs for music, dance, or art. Or they might be on outings with their parents.
Today, Iceland tops the European table for the cleanest-living teens. The percentage of 15- and 16-year-olds who had been drunk in the previous month plummeted from 42 percent in 1998 to 5 percent in 2016. The percentage who have ever used cannabis is down from 17 percent to 7 percent. Those smoking cigarettes every day fell from 23 percent to just 3 percent.
Milkman’s doctoral dissertation concluded that people would choose either heroin or amphetamines depending on how they liked to deal with stress. Heroin users wanted to numb themselves; amphetamine users wanted to actively confront it. After this work was published, he was among a group of researchers drafted by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse to answer questions such as: why do people start using drugs? Why do they continue? When do they reach a threshold to abuse? When do they stop? And when do they relapse?
At Metropolitan State College of Denver, Milkman was instrumental in developing the idea that people were getting addicted to changes in brain chemistry. Kids who were “active confronters” were after a rush—they’d get it by stealing hubcaps and radios and later cars, or through stimulant drugs. Alcohol also alters brain chemistry, of course. It’s a sedative but it sedates the brain’s control first, which can remove inhibitions and, in limited doses, reduce anxiety.
At the same time, the recruits got life-skills training, which focused on improving their thoughts about themselves and their lives, and the way they interacted with other people. “The main principle was that drug education doesn’t work because nobody pays attention to it. What is needed are the life skills to act on that information,” Milkman says. Kids were told it was a three-month program. Some stayed five years.
Milkman started coming regularly to Iceland and giving talks. These talks, and Tindar, attracted the attention of a young researcher at the University of Iceland, called Inga Dóra Sigfúsdóttir. She wondered: what if you could use healthy alternatives to drugs and alcohol as part of a program not to treat kids with problems, but to stop kids drinking or taking drugs in the first place?
Have you ever tried alcohol? If so, when did you last have a drink? Have you ever been drunk? Have you tried cigarettes? If so, how often do you smoke? How much time to you spend with your parents? Do you have a close relationship with your parents? What kind of activities do you take part in?
The results of these surveys were alarming. Nationally, almost 25 percent were smoking every day, over 40 percent had got drunk in the past month. But when the team drilled right down into the data, they could identify precisely which schools had the worst problems—and which had the least. Their analysis revealed clear differences between the lives of kids who took up drinking, smoking and other drugs, and those who didn’t. A few factors emerged as strongly protective: participation in organized activities—especially sport—three or four times a week, total time spent with parents during the week, feeling cared about at school, and not being outdoors in the late evenings.
Laws were changed. It became illegal to buy tobacco under the age of 18 and alcohol under the age of 20, and tobacco and alcohol advertising was banned. Links between parents and school were strengthened through parental organizations which by law had to be established in every school, along with school councils with parent representatives. Parents were encouraged to attend talks on the importance of spending a quantity of time with their children rather than occasional “quality time”, on talking to their kids about their lives, on knowing who their kids were friends with, and on keeping their children home in the evenings.
A law was also passed prohibiting children aged between 13 and 16 from being outside after 10 p.m. in winter and midnight in summer. It’s still in effect today.
Home and School, the national umbrella body for parental organizations, introduced agreements for parents to sign. The content varies depending on the age group, and individual organizations can decide what they want to include. For kids aged 13 and up, parents can pledge to follow all the recommendations, and also, for example, not to allow their kids to have unsupervised parties, not to buy alcohol for minors, and to keep an eye on the wellbeing of other children.
State funding was increased for organized sport, music, art, dance and other clubs, to give kids alternative ways to feel part of a group, and to feel good, rather than through using alcohol and drugs, and kids from low-income families received help to take part. In Reykjavik, for instance, where more than a third of the country’s population lives, a Leisure Card gives families 35,000 krona (£250) per year per child to pay for recreational activities.
Between 1997 and 2012, the percentage of kids aged 15 and 16 who reported often or almost always spending time with their parents on weekdays doubled—from 23 percent to 46 percent—and the percentage who participated in organized sports at least four times a week increased from 24 percent to 42 percent. Meanwhile, cigarette smoking, drinking and cannabis use in this age group plummeted.
Participation in Youth in Europe is at a municipal level rather than being led by national governments. In the first year, there were eight municipalities. To date, 35 have taken part, across 17 countries, varying from some areas where just a few schools take part to Tarragona in Spain, where 4,200 15-year-olds are involved. The method is always the same: Jón and his team talk to local officials and devise a questionnaire with the same core questions as those used in Iceland plus any locally tailored extras. For example, online gambling has recently emerged as a big problem in a few areas, and local officials want to know if it’s linked to other risky behavior.
The team has analyzed 99,000 questionnaires from places as far afield as the Faroe Islands, Malta and Romania—as well as South Korea and, very recently, Nairobi and Guinea-Bissau. Broadly, the results show that when it comes to teen substance use, the same protective and risk factors identified in Iceland apply everywhere. There are some differences: in one location (in a country “on the Baltic Sea”), participation in organized sport actually emerged as a risk factor. Further investigation revealed that this was because young ex-military men who were keen on muscle-building drugs, drinking and smoking were running the clubs. Here, then, was a well-defined, immediate, local problem that could be addressed.
While Jón and his team offer advice and information on what has been found to work in Iceland, it’s up to individual communities to decide what to do in the light of their results. Occasionally, they do nothing. One predominantly Muslim country, which he prefers not to identify, rejected the data because it revealed an unpalatable level of alcohol consumption. In other cities—such as the origin of Jón’s “crisis call”—there is an openness to the data and there is money, but he has observed that it can be much more difficult to secure and maintain funding for health prevention strategies than for treatments.
Across Europe, rates of teen alcohol and drug use have generally improved over the past 20 years, though nowhere as dramatically as in Iceland, and the reasons for improvements are not necessarily linked to strategies that foster teen wellbeing. In the U.K., for example, the fact that teens are now spending more time at home interacting online rather than in person could be one of the major reasons for the drop in alcohol consumption.
But Kaunas, in Lithuania, is one example of what can happen through active intervention. Since 2006, the city has administered the questionnaires five times, and schools, parents, healthcare organizations, churches, the police and social services have come together to try to improve kids’ wellbeing and curb substance use. For instance, parents get eight or nine free parenting sessions each year, and a new program provides extra funding for public institutions and NGOs working in mental health promotion and stress management. In 2015, the city started offering free sports activities on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and there are plans to introduce a free ride service for low-income families, to help kids who don’t live close to the facilities to attend.
Between 2006 and 2014, the number of 15- and 16-year-olds in Kaunas who reported getting drunk in the past 30 days fell by about a quarter, and daily smoking fell by more than 30 percent.
Jón and Birgir may be exceptionally keen on football, and talented (Jón has been offered a soccer scholarship to the Metropolitan State University of Denver, and a few weeks after we meet, Birgir is selected to play for the under-17 national team). But could the significant rise in the percentage of kids who take part in organized sport four or more times a week be bringing benefits beyond raising healthier children?
Could it, for instance, have anything to do with Iceland’s crushing defeat of England in the Euro 2016 football championship? When asked, Inga Dóra Sigfúsdóttir, who was voted Woman of the Year in Iceland in 2016, smiles: “There is also the success in music, like Of Monsters and Men [an indie folk-pop group from Reykjavik]. These are young people who have been pushed into organized work. Some people have thanked me,” she says, with a wink.
When it comes down to it, the messages—if not necessarily the methods—are straightforward. And when he looks at the results, Harvey Milkman thinks of his own country, the US. Could the Youth in Iceland model work there, too?
Three-hundred-and-twenty-five million people versus 330,000. Thirty-three thousand gangs versus virtually none. Around 1.3 million homeless young people versus a handful.
Clearly, the U.S. has challenges that Iceland does not. But the data from other parts of Europe, including cities such as Bucharest with major social problems and relative poverty, shows that the Icelandic model can work in very different cultures, Milkman argues. And the need in the U.S. is high: underage drinking accounts for about 11 percent of all alcohol consumed nationwide, and excessive drinking causes more than 4,300 deaths among under-21 year olds every year.
A national program along the lines of Youth in Iceland is unlikely to be introduced in the US, however. One major obstacle is that while in Iceland there is long-term commitment to the national project, community health programs in the U.S. are usually funded by short-term grants.
He thinks that is because you can’t prescribe a generic model to every community because they don’t all have the same resources. Any move towards giving kids in the U.S. the opportunities to participate in the kinds of activities now common in Iceland, and so helping them to stay away from alcohol and other drugs, will depend on building on what already exists. “You have to rely on the resources of the community,” he says.
Short-termism also impedes effective prevention strategies in the U.K., says Michael O’Toole, CEO of Mentor, a charity that works to reduce alcohol and drug misuse in children and young people. Here, too, there is no national coordinated alcohol and drug prevention program. It’s generally left to local authorities or to schools, which can often mean kids are simply given information about the dangers of drugs and alcohol—a strategy that, he agrees, evidence shows does not work.
But not all the strategies would be acceptable in the U.K.—the child curfews being one, parental walks around neighborhoods to identify children breaking the rules perhaps another. And a trial run by Mentor in Brighton that involved inviting parents into schools for workshops found that it was difficult to get them engaged.
In Iceland, the relationship between people and the state has allowed an effective national program to cut the rates of teenagers smoking and drinking to excess—and, in the process, brought families closer and helped kids to become healthier in all kinds of ways. Will no other country decide that these benefits are worth the costs?
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Emma Young is a writer based in Sydney, Australia. Her work has appeared in New Scientist, The Guardian, and Sydney Morning Herald. She is the author of Sane.


Microsoft's "I'm a PC" advertising campaign was created on a Mac and the celebrity spruikers brought in by the software giant are all professed Apple fans, it has been revealed.
Hidden information contained in images from the ads published on Microsoft's website show they were created on Macs, a Flickr user revealed in a published screen shot.
Microsoft responded by quickly scrubbing the hidden "metadata" information from the images.
It issued a statement saying: "As is common in almost all campaign workflow, agencies and production houses use a wide variety of software and hardware to create, edit and distribute content, including both Macs and PCs."
The revelation is ironic because the ads are part of a broader $300 million campaign designed to spruce up Windows Vista's image and tout the PC's advantages over the Mac.
Microsoft has already run two ad spots featuring Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld awkwardly meeting in a discount shoe shop and attempting to reconnect with real people by moving in with a normal family.
But even though a third ad featuring Seinfeld was filmed, Microsoft dumped the comic last week in favour of new ads featuring more current celebrities such as actress Eva Longoria, singer Pharrell Williams and even author Deepak Chopra declaring "I'm a PC".
But all three are Mac fans, Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag revealed. Longoria owns a MacBook and Williams carries an iPhone encased in gold, while Chopra, in a column on nuclear weapons published in the Huffington Post, said it was "good to sell more iPods" as they were "entertaining and harmless".
Seinfeld used a Mac in the apartment he lived in on his namesake show and has even appeared in an old Apple "think different" ad.
The Seinfeld ads didn't mention Microsoft's products but now the focus has shifted to Windows Vista in a second wave of the campaign dubbed "I'm a PC".
The new ads are a direct attack on Apple's "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads, which portray the Mac as cool and intuitive and the PC as boring and clunky.
Microsoft has ignored Apple's ads at its peril, allowing the Mac maker to own the narrative and frame the PC's image. Now the company is looking to use Apple's stereotype to its advantage.
The ads will seek to counter Apple's elitist Mac user vibe by including a slew of everyday PC users, such as scientists and teachers, espousing the virtues of their platform of choice. In one spot a diver appears in a cage surrounded by sharks holding up a sign saying "I'm a PC".
Microsoft is encouraging people to "tell us what kind of PC you are" by submitting their own videos to its website centring on the "I'm a PC" theme.
The company will choose some to display on the big screen in New York's Times Square and in its online advertising.


It’s time to get excited, Mac fans. As reported by 9to5Mac, oft-accurate Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities is back with another report on Apple’s ambitions for 2018. In addition to the new iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches we all know are coming, Kuo says, Apple is reportedly planning to update one of the most beloved and forgotten members of the Mac lineup: the Mac mini.
The last time we got a new Mac mini way back in October 2014, Apple delivered a new chip, lower price, and less user upgradability, but it was arguably more of an obligatory refresh than a gotta-have-it upgrade. And since then, the Mac mini hasn’t gotten an ounce of love from Apple.
But all that could change in this year. While Kuo doesn’t offer any specifics about the predicted Mac mini refresh, the mere fact that it was mentioned in his report is cause for celebration. Other than a random e-mail Tim Cook sent to an Apple fan late last year declaring his love for the Mac mini and calling it “an important part of our product line going forward,” there hasn’t been any news or rumours about it for some time.
In addition with the tiny tower, Kuo also expects Apple to unveil a new low-priced notebook that may or may not be an updated MacBook Air, as well as an iMac with “significant display-performance upgrades”. Considering the iMac already packs retina 4K and 5K displays, there doesn’t seem to be too much more Apple could add to significantly enhance it, other than Dolby Vision and HDR. So does that mean we’ll be getting an OLED iMac in the future? Time will tell.
The rest of Apple’s Mac updates appear to be standard refreshes, with the MacBook and MacBook Pro reportedly due for new processors before the year is up.
The Mac mini was once the coolest member of Apple’s lineup, but that was before it was treated like a second-class citizen. The last Mac mini update was so far back that Apple Watch wasn’t even shipping yet, so rumours of an update count as the biggest news since the iPhone 6. We just hope that it’s more than just a processor refresh.


ST. LOUIS — Once in awhile, in my role as a movie critic, other grand opportunities present themselves and my fortuitous meeting with “Pawn Sacrifice’s” producer at an industry cocktail party rates as one such opportunity.
The St. Louis Chess Club, located in the city’s Central West End, sponsored the party Sept. 3, prior to the St. Louis red carpet premier of the movie “Pawn Sacrifice” starring Tobey Maguire, as American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer.
The film is about chess Grand Master Bobby Fischer’s triumphant win over Russian Boris Spassky at the 1972 World Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland. The film’s producer, Gail Katz, was present at the party to promote the film.
I asked if I could have a couple of minutes to talk with Katz. I was delighted that I had her all to myself for almost a half hour. When she walked in the room, she had the attention of every woman present. She was tall and thin, with long hair peppered with gray, and looked very elegant in a chic black cocktail dress trimmed in black leather.
Katz has a BA in economics from the University of California Berkeley and a MBA from the Yale School of Management. I asked how she ever got involved in the film industry. She said that she thought she might end up working on Wall Street but that she was raised in Beverly Hills and worked at a studio one summer while in college.
She got “hooked on film,” she said.
Katz heads Gail Katz Productions. She has worked at New World Pictures, where she was Vice President of Finance, then Vice President of Production. After leaving New World, Katz began producing films, starting with “Shattered.” She partnered with director Wolfgang Petersen throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, together the two directed/produced many films.
She has served as CEO of Radiant Productions, and as a founder of Red Cliff Productions. She was an executive producer on the ABC drama/comedy “Cashmere Mafia,” which Gail Katz Productions produced. Currently, Katz is an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
As a producer, Katz is responsible for everything from conceiving or finding the idea; securing financing; hiring writers, actors, directors, staff and crews; marketing; and distribution.
I asked how she came up with the idea for “Pawn Sacrifice.” She said that in 1972 she worked at her father’s café in Los Angeles and on the way home every night they turned on the radio to hear how Bobby Fischer did that day.
She pitched the idea to two writers who were on board immediately. They came up with the storyline, she recalled.
Tobey Maguire was always her first choice to play Bobby. She thinks he even looks like Bobby Fischer. Liev Schreiber, who plays Boris Spassky, also bears a strong resemblance to Spassky.
Katz hired David Fincher to direct but Fincher had so many commitments that the start of filming kept getting put off, she said. After two years, Fincher graciously bowed out so Katz could hire Edward Zwick to direct.
Katz said that the art director and costume designer did an awesome job of recreating the 1960s. She said that Bobby Fischer was a fanatic about his attire and that, at the time, most chess players weren’t concerned about their manner of dress yet Bobby thought that it was important to dress well to represent the game.
The film was shot in Montreal, Canada; New York City; Santa Monica, Calif.; and, Reykjavik, Iceland. From Katz’s initial idea to the St. Louis premier, it took 11 years of hard work to create and then get “Pawn Sacrifice” to the public.
I was very impressed with Ms. Katz. She is an amazing talent who has brought us not only “Pawn Sacrifice” but also “Airforce One” starring Harrison Ford; “Outbreak” starring Dustin Hoffman; “In the Line of Fire” with Clint Eastwood; “A Perfect Storm” with George Clooney, and many more. I can’t wait to see what Gail Katz is going to bring us next.


With little U.S. economic or corporate news on the docket Monday, investors kept an eye on the rest of the world to get a sense of where the market is headed.
The Dow trimmed a loss of over 100 points earlier in the day, but still ended slightly in the red. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished flat.
The Dow and S&P 500 are near all-time highs as investors celebrated the five year anniversary of the current bull market.
But the Nasdaq is not back to all-time highs yet.
In fact, Monday is the 14-year anniversary of the tech-heavy index hitting its peak of above 5,130.
Still, the Nasdaq is now only about 15.5% below its dot-com boom record, thanks to a nearly 40% jump last year and strong start to 2014.
European markets closed mostly in the red. And Asian markets ended significantly lower after China trade data and revised Japanese GDP numbers came in weaker than expected.
Boeing (BA) shares fell after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777, disappeared Saturday in mysterious circumstances en route to Beijing. The company also announced late Friday that "hairline cracks" had been found on some of its Dreamliner 787 jets still in production.
But one trader on StockTwits thought the stock's dip might be short-lived.
"$BA I wonder if BA jumps right back up after all this bad news," said bluegill1972. "I'm thinking this might be a buy soon."
Tension in Ukraine created volatility in global markets early last week. But investors have been breathing a sigh of relief the past few days as the crisis seems to be abating.
"As long as there's no feeling that an escalation into a wider conflict is imminent, the markets may remain calm," said Wasif Latif of USAA Investments in a note to clients Monday morning.
In other corporate news, Chiquita Brands (CQB) rallied more than 10% after the company said it was buying Ireland's Fyffes for about $526 million to create the world's leading banana company.
Shares of 3-D printer maker DDD Systems (DDD) plunged 5% after a report over the weekend claimed that investors may be overpaying for 3-D printing stocks. The stock is down around 30% this year after a huge run in 2013.
But StockTwits user johnnyquest felt that the report was "shortsighted" and that 3-D printing technology will continue to grow. "$DDD The law of accelerating returns will prevail in 3d printing. We'll be printing our wardrobes soon," he said.
LowRiskTrader echoed that sentiment. "$DDD ...Every sell off is a reason to buy," he said.
Shares of eBay (EBAY), a member of CNNMoney's Tech 30 Index, slumped after Carl Icahn stepped up his campaign against the company's management.
In a letter Monday, the activist investor attacked John Donahue, the company's CEO, for failing to supervise his firm's board for alleged conflicts of interest related to their financial stakes in companies that Icahn believes are eBay competitors. eBay responded by defending Donahue's record. Icahn wants eBay to spin off its PayPal unit.
"$EBAY board. When will you guys learn. Mr. Icahn always gets his way," quipped tonytan0 on StockTwits.


press release: Join us for a taste of Morocco dinner at the Center on Tuesday, March 20, featuring Bunky's Catering, Teresa Pullar-Quabel. The 3-course menu will feature some of the Bunky’s well-known favorites — planned, prepped and served by Teresa and GCC teens. Vegetarian and children’s options available.
This pop-up dinner supports the Goodman Community Center's TEENworks teen employment program.
Questions? Contact Eva Ballering, Catering Coordinator at eva@goodmancenter.org or 608.204.8050.


The musical “Moses and the Burning Within” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Feb. 17 and at 4 p.m. Feb. 18 at Church of Notre Dame, 2325 Highland Road. The show tells the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Eqypt. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. The shows are dedicated to the memory of Monsignor Edward Zeitler, former Notre Dame pastor, who died in 2017. For ticket and program ad information, call Gretchen Wagner at 724-981-5566.
February 3, 2018 11:39 a.m.
January 27, 2014 9:30 a.m.


Jan 31 (Reuters) - Shares in Tesla Inc fell nearly 4 percent on Thursday as Wall Street analysts following up on its fourth-quarter results questioned underlying demand for its crucial Model 3 sedan and the electric car maker’s ability to make inroads in China.
Tesla reported quarterly profit below analysts’ expectations on Wednesday and surprised investors by announcing that Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja, 56, would leave and handover the reins to 34-year-old Zach Kirkhorn, its vice president of finance.
JPMorgan analysts were among those warning that Ahuja’s leaving deprived the company of long automotive industry experience and relative stability in a company which has seen a steady stream of senior staff come and go since 2016.
Still, the fall in Tesla shares was less than that suggested by initial pricing after Wednesday’s results and also far smaller than some of the swings in one of the past year’s most volatile Wall Street stocks.
The company, which is striving to stabilize production and deliver consistent profit, ended the quarter with $4.3 billion in cash and said it had “sufficient cash on hand” to pay a $920 million convertible bond maturing in March.
Of the 31 brokerages covering Tesla, 10 have a “buy” or higher rating, 10 “hold” and 11 have a “sell” or lower rating and their median price target is 327.50.
Only four changed their price targets on the stock on Thursday, with two raises and two cuts. Wedbush cut its price target by $50 to $390.
While Tesla is pumping money into a Shanghai factory, which it hopes to bring on line around the end of this year with a target of producing 500,000 vehicles a year, several analysts questioned whether that investment will pay off.


AURORA, Colo. -- Aurora police are searching for a man who they say has robbed at least six convenience stores at gun point in recent weeks.
The suspect is described as a black man in his late 20s. Police said he is about 5 foot 11 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds.
Surveillance photos from Aurora police show the robberies in progress - one photo even shows the suspect holding a person in front of him with his gun over their shoulder.
Aurora police have not released any information on where the robberies took place.
Anyone with information is asked to call Aurora police at 303-739-1833 or Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-921-7867.


The 2008 Flagler County Cracker Day was a huge success with an estimated 3,000 people coming out to the Flagler County Fairgrounds for a day of Florida fun and food. The Flagler County Cattlemen's Association presented the event.
For the first time the event was not dedicated to one person who has helped to make the day a success. It was dedicated to "All those who so willingly gave of their time and effort to help make our annual Cracker Day a success."
Brenda Boyd, the secretary of the rodeo, said there was an increase in the number of people participating.
"We had a ton of kids and that was good, " she said. "There were a lot of new people."


In this week's CNET Prizefight, we pit the Motorola Xoom against the Apple iPad 2 to see which tablet is most worthy of your time.
We know this will only end in nasty, partisan comments, but we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't put the Motorola Xoom and Apple iPad 2 in the ring for an official CNET Prizefight.
Out of the gate, you guys can probably guess my feelings on these two tablets. I wrote CNET's rated reviews for both devices, and although I was optimistic enough about the Xoom to nominate it for CNET's Best of CES, the iPad 2 ultimately received my Editors' Choice.
The wild cards in this Prizefight are the other two judges. Eric Franklin reviews tablets and monitors for CNET, and directs the CNET Labs product testing for the San Francisco office. Brian Tong, as most of you know, is the man behind CNET's Apple Byte podcast, where he dishes Apple news, praise, and criticism every week.
So without further ado, let's put the gloves on and see which of these tablets we think deserves to leave the ring a champion. Continue to CNET's iPad 2 vs. Motorola Xoom Prizefight.


There’s no vouching for the quality of image you’ll get from this thing, but £29.99 for a TV tuner card is pretty impressive. AverMedia is the company responsible, its TV GO 007 Plus card provides TV, video capture and video conferencing. It also comes with 16-channel preview, TV programme scheduler, Channel Groups and a Lockout option for adding parental controls. It’s an analogue tuner and supports NTSC, PAL and SECAM. It will record TV or Video into MPEG 1, 2 and 4 formats so you can plug in a video camera and convert video to digital formats.


The EPA is required by the Clean Air Act to review and, if necessary, update its standards every five years to keep up with the latest science and research. The agency was required to finish its current review in March, five years after the previous analysis, but has not yet finalized its evaluation.
Current standards are based on data from 2006.
"So we're now looking at science that is seven years old," Nolen said. "Most of us would not be happy if our doctors stopped looking at the science seven years ago and said, 'This is how you're going to be treated.' So this is the reason for the same requirement that they keep up and take a look at the current research."
Health and environmental groups want the EPA to impose stricter standards for ozone, a greenhouse gas.
Tougher standards could prevent up to 12,000 premature deaths per year, according to an analysis by the EPA, but industry groups warn they could cost businesses up to $1 trillion.
Protecting lives and health should come first, the organizations argue. They cite a 2001 Supreme Court decision that ruled the EPA should set air quality standards based on health, not costs, though economic impacts should be considered in the standards' implementation.
"EPA is continuing to work with its independent scientific advisors on the ongoing review of the ozone standard to determine whether a revision is appropriate based on the extensive body of research that will inform EPA's decision," the agency said in a statement. "The agency is following its normal open and transparent review process that allows for extensive public comment."
The agency plans to release documents on its review in December and a group of independent science advisors are scheduled to meet to discuss the standards in March.
The four groups filing the lawsuit are the American Lung Association, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club. The law firm Earthjustice is handling the case.
The EPA tried to update ozone standards during President Obama's first term, but in a blow to environmentalists, the White House shelved that regulation in 2011 to perform a full review this year.


Fast food franchise Burger King is to return to Hartlepool after plans for a new drive-thru were given the green light.
Proposals were submitted to Hartlepool Borough Council last year to build the restaurant at Teesbay Retail Park off Brenda Road.
The application, from Chase Property Developments Limited, stated the site would be open from 5am to midnight seven days a week and create 50 jobs.
Planning documents stated an estimated £2.5million would be invested into the construction of the site.
Four supporting comments were submitted backing the plans while one objection was submitted.
The plans have now been given the go-ahead by council planning bosses, with a report from senior planning officer Laura Chambers stating the proposal is acceptable for the area.
It said: “The proposed development will occupy a prominent position within the street scene given its proximity to the entrance of the retail park.
“The proposals are of a high quality design, in keeping the character and appearance of the wider site, and are therefore acceptable in visual amenity terms.
The application is the latest development on the retail park after a Lidl store and a new drive-thru Starbucks opened recently.
Other businesses on the retail park include B&M, The Range, Halfords, Aldi, Iceland and Carpet Right, with more expected to join them in the coming years.
A design and access and planning statement on behalf of the applicant said there is a need for such a site in the area.
They said: “The client has identified the need for the development of a drive-through Burger King within the retail park in close proximity to the entrance roundabout.
“It is not uncommon for drive-through outlets to operate in the late hours of the day.
“Due to the close proximity of Teesbay Retail Park to an A-class road – A689 a drive through would make a good rest stop for drivers on a long journey.
The new store will mark a return of the franchise to Hartlepool since a restaurant at the Anchor Retail Park closed in 2015.
The majority of residents who responded to the planning application supported the plans for a new unit to open.
However one raised concerns the store could end up closing, as the previous outlet in the town did.


Tangelo Park resident Larry Brown, who was representing the Federation of Manatee County Community Associations, was concerned with talk about raising user fees for county services.
“We’re in a budget crunch,” Brown told the commissioners after listening to them discuss Hunzeker’s spending plan for 2009-10.
He said he is a retiree living solely on Social Security and not being able to afford to use the county facilities because the costs keep going up.
Hunzeker provided the commission its first look at the budget numbers Monday.
In what he called a “30,000-foot view,” the general overview of the 2009-10 budget was broken down into about 150 separate funds.
Hunzeker and Jim Seuffert, director of the county financial management department, reviewed each of those funds for the commissioners.
One of the largest is the general operating fund, which showed an expected revenue of about $217.5 million for 2009-10.
That is $13.3 million less than this year, mostly because property tax revenues are expected to be down about 6.8 percent, or about $11.5 million.
This shortfall, added to revenue reductions in other funds, forced the county administrator to find about $33 million in spending cuts or revenue increases.
Some cuts came from the reduction of about 100 employee positions through layoffs and early retirement, or elimination of vacant jobs.
The increase in user fees for various county services were proposed in order to reduce the amount of subsidies now used to operate them.
The commissioners took notes and asked questions for clarification, but in general understood government would have to be pared back.
The commission will meet with the constitutional officers, such as Sheriff Brad Steube and Clerk of the Court Chips Shore, to review their budgets at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the Manatee Room of the Manatee County Administration Center.


“To let some kids that are quite immature and irresponsible think they can be flippant about things and say things just because they are in a crowd … to ruin what so many people have spent so many years building, that’s sad to me,” Tracz told the Collegian.
Administration had previously discussed stopping the band mid-performance if fans started the chant, Tracz told the Collegian. He then received a message from the president’s office and K-State Athletics to stop the band if he heard the chant.
After the game, band member Marissa Grace Sullivan posted a letter on Facebook to express her frustrations with K-State students.
Sullivan’s post has received over 150 shares.
According to the K-State marching band’s history, the tradition dates to 1968 when the “Wabash Cannonball” was the only piece of sheet music to survive a building fire.
“Since then the Wabash Cannonball has come to represent the survival of the underdog in the hearts and minds of all true K-State fans, and has earned a secure place in the KSUMB’s history and traditions,” the K-State band website states.


DMX was arrested early Friday morning on a DUI charge in South Carolina,TMZ reports.
The rapper was picked up by highway patrol at 3 a.m. and taken to Greenville County Detention Center. He was released an hour later.
This is only the latest of more than a dozen arrests DMX has amassed over the years. His last arrest was in February when he was arrested for driving without a license. In 2011, he was arrested for driving with a suspended license, reckless driving and speeding after he was recorded driving at 102 miles per hour.


The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant (CCNPP) is a nuclear power plant located on the western shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, Calvert County, Maryland.
The plant is one of the largest employers in Calvert County, Maryland. The company pays a significant amount in taxes and fees to Calvert County to the extent that the local government rarely suffers budget issues -- especially in contrast to surrounding counties.
The plant has two 2700 megawatt thermal (MWth) Combustion Engineering Generation II, two loop pressurized water reactors. Each generating plant (CCNPP 1&2) produces approximately 850 megawatt electrical (MWe) net or 900 MWe gross. Each plant's electrical load consume approximately 50 MWe. These are saturated steam plants (non-superheated) and are approximately 33% efficient (ratio of 900 MWe gross/2700 MWth core). Only the exhaust of the single High Pressure Main Turbine is slightly superheated by a two stage reheater before delivering the superheated steam in parallel to the three Low Pressure Turbines. Unit 1 uses a General Electric designed main turbine and generator. Unit 2 uses a Westinghouse designed main turbine and generator. Almost two thirds of the heat produced by the reactor is returned to the bay which is its heat-sink for cooling.
In 2000, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the license of the plant for 20 additional years, making Calvert Cliffs the first nuclear plant in the United States to receive such an extension. President George W. Bush visited the plant in June 2005, the first time a president had visited a nuclear power plant in nearly three decades.
Constellation Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE: CEG), owner of Calvert Cliffs, announced it would like to build a new advanced US-Evolutionary Power Reactor (US-EPR) at this site using the services of UniStar Nuclear Energy. UniStar Nuclear Energy, a Delaware limited liability company, is jointly owned by Constellation Energy (CEG) and Electicite de France (EdF), the builder and supplier of nuclear power plants in Europe. This proposed single nuclear unit will produce approximately twice the energy of each individual existing plant.
An environmental report, the first principle component of a Combined Construction and Operating License application to build the UniStar EPR, was submitted to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by UniStar on 13 July 2007. The other main component would be a safety analysis.
On July 31, 2007 Constellation Energy filed an application to the NRC to review its plans to build a new nuclear power plant, Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant 3 (CCNPP 3) based on the AREVA U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor (US-EPR), Generation III+, four loop pressurized water reactor. This is the first application made in the US in almost 30 years. The CCNPP 3 reactor will be rated at 4590 MW thermal/1710 MW electrical gross. Plant loads will be approximately 110 Mwe, thus the net generation is 1600 MWe net. Plant thermal efficiency will be approximately 36% (ratio of 1710 MWe to 4590 MWth).
The plant will be located south of the existing CCNPP 1&2 and will be set back from the shoreline. Although only a single unit, its power plant footprint will be almost 2 times the size of the twin units CCNPP 1&2. It will have a closed-loop cooling system using a single hybrid mechanical draft cooling tower. It will incorporate plume abatement (no visible water vapor plume). Units 1&2 use an open-cycle heat dissipation system (no cooling towers). Two thirds of the heat produced by the Unit 3 reactor will be released to the atmosphere via the cooling tower. This also is a saturated steam plant with a Main Steam Turbine (one high pressure turbine in tandem with three low pressure turbines) and a Main Generator design similar to Unit 1 & 2. ALSTOM will supply the Main Steam Turbine and Main Generator.
Units 1 and 2 and their support facilities use a well water system for their potable water supply. It consists of five wells that pump water from the second highest aquifer, the Aquia Aquifer, at the minus 400-500 foot below sea level elevation. The State of Maryland limits daily usage for these five wells to 450,000 gallons per day (gpd). Actual daily usage averages 225,000 gpd.
Unique to Unit 3 will be a desalination plant to produce potable water using reverse osmosis. The desalination plant will produce up to 1,250,000 gallon of potable water per day for Unit 3 and supporting facilities with total dissolved solids (TDS) less than 400 parts per million (ppm). The source for the desalination plant will be the brackish bay water from the makeup supply to the circulating water system. The TDS for the brackish bay water runs 10,000-15,000 ppm. The potable water will be distributed as makeup water for the demineralized water system, miscellaneous potable water services, fire protection and source water for the four ultimate heatsink cooling towers used during normal shutdown and power operation.
On November 13, 2007, Unistar Nuclear Energy and UniStar Nuclear Operations, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UniStar Nuclear Operations, filed an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity with the Maryland Public Service Commission for authority to construct CCNPP 3. This application, which is being considered in Case Number 9127, includes a schedule showing plant construction being completed in July 2015 and commercial operation in December 2015.
On January 29, 2008, Constellation Energy announced that its partial construction and operating license (COL) for the proposed Unit 3 has been docketed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This means that the NRC has determined the application is technically correct and ready for detailed review. Constellation announced it may begin ground breaking prior to the applications final approval by the NRC provided a federal loan guarantee by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is assured. A final decision by Constellation to start construction will not take place for 12-18 months or mid-2009.
After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the visitor's center was closed to the public. Since that time, VIP visits to the facility typically restrict the media from attending, such as during a visit by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin on Dec. 3, 2007.
Evacuation sirens are located in Calvert and St. Mary's counties. One key evacuation route is down MD Route 4 and across the two-lane Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge into St. Mary's County. Some skeptics doubt the critical evacuation area can cleared in the time specified by the operator and local governments.
MidAmerican is a component of Berkshire Hathaway, a holding company founded and managed by the infamous Warren Buffet.
On Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008, Electricite de France SA -- France's state-owned power company -- bid $4.5 billion for just a portion of Constellation's business -- the nuclear plants. This bid is only $200 million less than MidAmerican's bid for the entire company.
Unit 1 went into commercial service in 1975 and Unit 2 in 1977. The total cost of the two units was approximately 766 million USD.
The estimated cost of the new proposed unit will be around 4 billion USD. It is estimated that it will take 8 years to place the unit into service.
Unit 1 had its two steam generators replaced in 2002.
Unit 2 had its two steam generators replaced in 2003.
Unit 1 had its reactor vessel closure head replaced in 2006.
Unit 2 had its reactor vessel closure head replaced in 2007.
The water around the plant is a very popular place for anglers. Unit 1&2 each takes in bay water (from the fenced-in area) to cool its steam driven turbine condensers plus other bay water cooled primary and secondary system heat exchangers. The bay water is pumped out at a nominal flow rate of 1.2 million gallons per minute (75,000 L/s) per unit (Unit 1 and 2) for each steam turbine condenser. The water is returned to the bay being no more than 12 °F (6.7 °C) warmer than the bay water. Unlike many other nuclear power plants, Calvert Cliffs did not have to utilize water cooling towers to return the hot water to its original temperature, structures which are often associated with nuclear power plants. The warmer water encourages faster growth (relative to the surrounding area) of the small shellfish, plankton, and others at the base of the food chain. These attract the larger fish which are in turn sought after by the anglers. However, as the water comes out very quickly and creates a sort of artificial rip current, it can be a dangerous place to fish.
CCNPP 3 will only need about 10% of the bay cooling water volume needed for Unit 1 and 2 combined. The increase in fish and shellfish impingement and entrainment will be less than 3.5% over Unit 1 and 2 existing conditions.
↑ "NRC: First part of first COL application in". World Nuclear News (2007-07-26). Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
↑ "EPR: the first generation III+ reactor currently under construction". AREVA NP (2008-01-04). Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
↑ "EPR: Generation III+ Performance Fact Sheet". AREVA NP (2008-01-04). Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
↑ Pelton, Tom (2007-12-25). "Nuclear power has new shape". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
"Case Number: 9127 IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION OF UNISTAR NUCLEAR ENERGY, LLC AND UNISTAR NUCLEAR OPERATING SERVICES, LLC FOR A CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY TO CONSTRUCT A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT AT CALVERT CLIFFS IN CALVERT COUNTY, MARYLAND". Maryland Public Service Commission (2007-11-13). Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
This page was last edited on 15 December 2008, at 20:58.


Aon plc has activated the Aon Ebola Response Task Force, a team comprised of risk and health professionals worldwide, to monitor the current Ebola outbreak and provide guidance to clients directly and through its newly created Aon Ebola Response Room.
Aon’s Ebola Response Room is a platform that includes documents such as Ebola-related travel exposures from Aon’s WorldAware Solutions, crisis communication checklists, and environmental exposures of health care workers, among other materials. It provides insight on the Ebola situation, specifically as it relates to Ebola-related risk exposures, duty of care and human capital concerns. It will be continually updated as the Ebola situation develops. The site does not address epidemiologic or medical concerns related to Ebola.
While the Ebola Response Task Force is coordinating closely with leaders of various industries, including aviation, hospitality, public entity and higher education, among others, the risks faced by the health care industry are top of mind.