There are many fundamental problems with evolutionary theory. Origin-of-life studies have dramatically failed. Incredibly complex biological designs, both morphological and molecular, arose abruptly with far too little time to have evolved. The concept of punctuated equilibrium is descriptive, not explanatory. The Cambrian explosion is not explained by evolution and, in general, evolutionary mechanisms are inadequate to explain the emergence of new traits, body plans, and new physiologies. Even a single gene is beyond the reach of evolutionary mechanisms.
In fact, the complexity and sophistication of life cannot originate from non-biological matter under any scenario, over any expanse of space and time, however vast. On the other hand, the archenemy of evolutionary theory, Lamarckian inheritance, in its variety of forms, is well established.
As noted here already (“With New Theory of the Cambrian Explosion, Scientists Reach (Literally) for the Stars”), these scientific observations are laid out in a new peer-reviewed, scientific paper arguing for panspermia.
The requirement now, on the basis of orthodox abiogenic thinking, is that an essentially instantaneous transformation of non-living organic matter to bacterial life occurs, an assumption we consider strains credibility of Earth-bound abiogenesis beyond the limit.
All laboratory experiments have ended in “dismal failure.” The information hurdle is of “superastronomical proportions” and simply could not have been overcome without a miracle.
The transformation of an ensemble of appropriately chosen biological monomers (e.g. amino acids, nucleotides) into a primitive living cell capable of further evolution appears to require overcoming an information hurdle of superastronomical proportions, an event that could not have happened within the time frame of the Earth except, we believe, as a miracle. All laboratory experiments attempting to simulate such an event have so far led to dismal failure.
Before the extensive sequencing of DNA became available it would have been reasonable to speculate that random copying errors in a gene sequence could, over time, lead to the emergence of new traits, body plans and new physiologies that could explain the whole of evolution. However the data we have reviewed here challenge this point of view. It suggests that the Cambrian Explosion of multicellular life that occurred 0.54 billion years ago led to a sudden emergence of essentially all the genes that subsequently came to be rearranged into an exceedingly wide range of multi-celled life forms — Tardigrades, the Squid, Octopus, fruit flies, humans — to name but a few.
As one of the authors writes, “the complexity and sophistication of life cannot originate (from non-biological) matter under any scenario, over any expanse of space and time, however vast.” As an example, consider the octopus.
Its large brain and sophisticated nervous system, camera-like eyes, flexible bodies, instantaneous camouflage via the ability to switch colour and shape are just a few of the striking features that appear suddenly on the evolutionary scene. The transformative genes leading from the consensus ancestral Nautilus (e.g., Nautilus pompilius) to the common Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) to Squid (Loligo vulgaris) to the common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) are not easily to be found in any pre-existing life form.
These data demonstrate extensive evolutionary conserved adenosine to inosine (A-to-I) mRNA editing sites in almost every single protein-coding gene in the behaviorally complex coleoid Cephalopods (Octopus in particular), but not in nautilus. This enormous qualitative difference in Cephalopod protein recoding A-to-I mRNA editing compared to nautilus and other invertebrate and vertebrate animals is striking. Thus in transcriptome-wide screens only 1–3% of Drosophila and human protein coding mRNAs harbour an A-to-I recoding site; and there only about 25 human mRNA messages which contain a conserved A-to-I recoding site across mammals. In Drosophila lineages there are about 65 conserved A-sites in protein coding genes and only a few identified in C. elegans which support the hypothesis that A-to-I RNA editing recoding is mostly either neutral, detrimental, or rarely adaptive. Yet in Squid and particularly Octopus it is the norm, with almost every protein coding gene having an evolutionary conserved A-to-I mRNA editing site isoform, resulting in a nonsynonymous amino acid change. This is a virtual qualitative jump in molecular genetic strategy in a supposed smooth and incremental evolutionary lineage — a type of sudden “great leap forward”. Unless all the new genes expressed in the squid/octopus lineages arose from simple mutations of existing genes in either the squid or in other organisms sharing the same habitat, there is surely no way by which this large qualitative transition in A-to-I mRNA editing can be explained by conventional neo-Darwinian processes, even if horizontal gene transfer is allowed.
In the 20th century, Lamarckian inheritance was anathema for evolutionists. Careers were ruined and every evolutionist knew the inheritance of acquired characteristics sat right alongside the flat earth and geocentrism in the history of ideas. The damning of Lamarck, however, was driven by dogma rather than data, and today the evidence has finally overcome evolutionary theory.
Indeed there is much contemporary discussion, observations and critical analysis consistent with this position led by Corrado Spadafora, Yongsheng Liu, Denis Noble, John Mattick and others, that developments such as Lamarckian Inheritance processes (both direct DNA modifications and indirect, viz. epigenetic, transmissions) in evolutionary biology and adjacent fields now necessitate a complete revision of the standard neo-Darwinian theory of evolution or “New Synthesis ” that emerged from the 1930s and 1940s.
There is, of course, nothing new in this paper. We have discussed these, and many, many other refutations of evolutionary theory. Yet the paper is significant because it appears in a peer-reviewed journal. Science is, if anything, conservative. It doesn’t exactly “follow the data,” at least until it becomes OK to do so. There are careers and reputations at stake.
Photo: Red Sea Octopus, by prilfish, via Flickr.


An early solution to the insurgency problem in Manipur is difficult given its complexity due to the multiplicity of militant groups and their different sets of demands, a senior Army officer has said.
There are around 30 insurgent outfits, many of them splinter groups with different secessionist demands, while Naga groups, including the NSCN(I-M) and proscribed NSCN(K) are seeking 'Nagalim' or greater Nagaland, said Major General V K Mishra, GOC of 57 Mountain Division, involved in anti-insurgency operations in the state.
These apart, 16 Kuki organisations are seeking a separate state for themselves and eight groups of the United People's Front, which is demanding a separate hill state within the territory of Manipur.
"The presence of so many groups adds to the complexity. You may reach out, but to whom?" the Army official said, talking to visiting journalists recently.
"Given the complexity of the problem, it may take longer to achieve a solution," he said.
"There are four major constituents in the problems affecting the state-- insurgency, ethnic issues, criminal activities and drugs," Mishra said.
He said the Army and other security forces, including the Assam Rifles, are doing their best to weed out insurgency from the state.
"Our attempt is to remove this fear among people," he said when asked about people being afraid to complain on receiving extortion calls from the insurgents.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has invited the insurgent groups for talks but the major outfits are yet to respond, a state government official said.
Some of the minor groups have expressed willingness to sit for talks, but there has not been much response from the bigger ones, he said.
Stating that the hills and valley were divided, Singh said the state government has taken initiative to close this gap.
"Earlier, MLAs from the valley could not go to the hills, but I asked them to go to the hills. There must be trust," he said.
United National Liberation Front (UNLF) was the first militant outfit to be founded in the valley areas with separatist goals and is at present one of the most active in the state.
The other major separatist outfits are People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and People Liberation Army (PLA).
While KYKL seeks a perfect Manipuri society, the Kuki Revolutionary Army seeks a separate state for the Kuki tribe.
There are several other smaller outfits and groups with different objectives active in the north-eastern state.
Added to this is the divide between the hill people and the dwellers in the valley.
The Kuki militant outfits signed a Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the government in 2008 and around 1,800 cadres of these groups are housed in 13 SoO camps.
"The geography and location of Manipur itself have lot of implications," Maj Gen Mishra said.
The state has an area of 22,000 square km, of which 1,843 km are valley area situated at the centre, while the rest are hills surrounding the valley.
Nearly 60 per cent of the population of the state live in the valley area, while the rest are spread in the sparsely populated hills.
Of those living in the valley, over 66 per cent belong to the Meitei ethnic group.
The hills are inhabited mainly by different Naga and Kuki tribes.
On October 31, Universal Friendship Organisation (UFO) held a rally in Imphal for unity and territorial integrity of Manipur, while Naga organisations held a blockade in the hills on the same day in opposition.
Economic blockades by different organisations have also affected the state over time.
The Naga Council had resorted to a 139-day economic blockade of two national highways NH102 and NH37 from November 1, 2016. It ended on March 19, 2017.


Fuel prices have been declining since Thursday. In the last five days petrol prices are down by Rs 1.38 paise while diesel is lower by Rs 81 paise.
However, consumers in Delhi won't be able to avail the benefit of lower fuel prices as petrol pumps and CNG stations are on strike in the capital today.
Petrol, diesel prices dropped for the fifth straight day on Monday on softening global crude oil prices, bringing relief to the consumer who have been reeling under high fuel prices since last two months.
Petrol prices were slashed by 30 paise to Rs 81.34 per litre in Delhi, while diesel prices were cut 27 paise to Rs 74.92 per litre. In Mumbai, petrol got a price cut of 30 paise to retail at Rs 86.91 per litre, while diesel is being sold at Rs 78.54 per litre after a 28 paise cut.
Fuel prices have been declining since Thursday. In the last five days petrol prices are down by Rs 1.38 paise while diesel is lower by Rs 81 paise.
However, consumers in Delhi won't be able to avail the benefit of lower fuel prices as petrol pumps and CNG stations are on strike in the capital today. There are about 400 petrol pumps in Delhi which also have linked CNG stations. The fuel stations will remain shut till 5 am tomorrow. They are protesting against Delhi government's refusal to reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) on diesel and petrol.
Prior to Thursday's cut in rates, diesel price had risen by Rs 2.74 per litre since October 5 to more than wipe away the excise duty cut and oil firm subsidy. Petrol price had during this period risen by Rs 1.33 a litre.
Before the October 5 price cut, petrol in Delhi had hit an all-time high of Rs 84 per litre and diesel was at record Rs 75.45. This came down to Rs 81.50 per litre for petrol and Rs 72.95 in case of diesel.
In Mumbai, petrol had hit a peak of Rs 91.34 hit on October 4 and diesel was sold at a record high of Rs 80.10.


DETROIT (AP) — Scientists hired by the auto industry have determined that multiple factors — including moisture and high humidity — can cause some Takata air bags to inflate with too much force and hurl shrapnel at drivers and passengers.
The Independent Testing Coalition, which has been investigating the cause for the past year, announced its findings Tuesday afternoon.
Air bags made by Japan's Takata Corp. have caused at least 10 deaths and 139 injuries worldwide. Takata uses the chemical ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion and inflate the air bags in a crash.
The Virginia rocket science company Orbital ATK, which was hired by the coalition, determined that three factors, working together, can cause the air bags to explode with too much force. Using "phase-stabilized" ammonium nitrate without a moisture-absorbing substance — as Takata does — increases the risk of an explosion after long-term exposure to high temperatures and moisture. Orbital ATK also found that Takata's inflator assembly doesn't adequately prevent moisture from intruding in very humid conditions.
The coalition said its findings apply to around 23 million of the 28 million Takata air bag inflators that have been recalled by the U.S. government. All of those air bags use phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate without a drying agent.
The cause of the problem has eluded investigators for more than a decade. Takata has given multiple explanations, including quality control problems at manufacturing facilities and exposure of the air bags to high humidity.
Frustrated by the numerous explanations and the slow pace of the investigation, 10 of Takata's customers — Toyota, BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Subaru — formed the Independent Testing Coalition and hired Orbital ATK in February of last year. The company makes rocket propulsion systems, small arms ammunition, warhead fuses and missile controls.
In a statement Tuesday, Takata said the coalition's results are consistent with its own testing. Takata said age and long-term exposure to heat and high humidity appear to be significant factors in cases where inflators have malfunctioned. The company said it is cooperating with the coalition and the U.S. government.
David Kelly, a former acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the coalition's project manager, said the next phase of the investigation will focus on the performance of all of the inflators that are being used as replacement parts in ongoing recalls of Takata air bags. He said owners whose vehicles have been recalled should continue to get their air bags replaced while the investigation continues.
The faulty inflators are used in both driver and passenger-side air bags. Globally, about 50 million inflators are subject to recall. U.S. safety investigators have said that the number of recalls is certain to grow as more tests are done.
Analysts say there could be 50 million or more Takata inflators in U.S. cars and trucks that haven't been recalled yet. Takata must prove to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the inflators are safe or all of them will be recalled starting in 2018.


As I noted in my Mail on Sunday column on 30th April 2017, I recently sent a series of questions to the Foreign office about their apparent confidence that Syria's government are responsible for the recent alleged poison gas attacks in that country.
The responses I received were, in my view, unresponsive and unsatisfactory. But I cannot publish them because of rules on such matters,which in general I support and to which I had willingly agreed in advance, and because the FO declined to waive those rules when I asked them to do so.
Where and when did they do this?
What assurances did they have of the provenance of the samples?
Who controlled the custody chain, and vouched for it?
How did they know that the samples were at no stage handled by persons with a propaganda interest in a certain outcome?
Were they at any stage under the control of Tahrir al-Sham, formerly Jabhat Fateh Al Sham (previously the Jabhat Al-Nusra), or any other part of that faction?
If not, how did they leave Syria?
Under whose custody were they between Khan Sheikhoun and the Syrian border?
Eyewitness reports (cited in evidence by the Foreign Secretary) speak of ‘clouds of smoke’ (Independent 05/04/2017) and say ‘We could smell it from 500 metres away.’(Guardian 07/04/2017) and ‘The smell reached us here in the centre; it smelled like rotten food.’ (Daily Telegraph 06/04/2017).
Sarin is odourless and invisible. Videos of the attack also show responders without protective clothing, handling victims, which would be highly dangerous in dealing with victims of sarin. Does the Foreign Secretary have any view on the apparent contradiction here?
The UK, the US and all our key allies are of one mind: we believe that this was highly likely to be an attack by Assad, on his own people, using poison gas weapons that were banned almost 100 years ago, under the 1925 Geneva protocol. In view of this horrific evidence, the world last week once again had a choice, just as we did after the gas attack at Ghouta in 2013.
‘Highly likely’ is well short of a declaration that the matter is in fact proven. Yet the United Kingdom has endorsed a missile attack on a sovereign country by the United States, the pretext or reason for which was given as the alleged gas attack, which the Foreign secretary himself categorises not as proven fact but as ‘highly likely’, allegedly by the Assad government on Khan Sheikhoun. What is the status of this attack under international law? Under which part of the UN charter is it lawful? If it *is* lawful in the case of such an action being proven, then is a belief that the alleged action by the Syrian state is ‘highly likely’ sufficient?
Who, if anybody, does the Foreign Secretary say is responsible for the Ghouta attack? On what basis does he say this?
The USA has by now made it pretty obvious, in both words and (illegal) actions, that it intends to forcibly hand all or most of Syria over to al-Nusra (or whatever al-Qaeda forces in Syria happens to be calling themselves this month) and its IS allies.
In other words, a repeat of Libya ... though probably even worse.
Now, since there is a general election, would the present UK Prime Minister care to explain to the British electorate why UK forces, propagandists and suppliers are actively assisting known and murderously sectarian terrorist groups in Syria, as well as the Saudis in their brutal destruction of Yemen?
Or is she afraid that if reasonably well informed, any decent voters would become horrified enough to reject her regime?
Silly British pretending you actually have a foreign policy. Haven't you realized by now you just do what the Americans do however stupid and unsupported by the facts.
***PH asks : Oh, come now. Surely we do what the Saudis tell us to do as well?
Yes, but I don't think the news presenters' wish to tell 'stories' is a good thing. Let them report news, whether they can find their story in it or not.
I was hearing commentators on CNN yesterday saying that Mr Trump's staff must separate him from Twitter so that consistent stories emerge from the White House. I disagree, and hope they don't succeed. I prefer to have the window into his mind which the president has chosen to give us on Twitter. The view into his cranium may be surprising - definitely more than one bat species has found a home there - but I don't want journalists standing in the way.
I think that, if she had been given glimpses of the future, she might have meant our modern preoccupation with histories (or, as many of them are nowadays called "news") and their eventual apotheosis as "History", much as the sciences seem now to have become "Science".
Incidentally, some news media now openly refer to the news which they are offering for our consumption as "stories" - the original meaning, after all, of "histories". A step forward perhaps.
*** According to the Government, both attacks were carried out by Assad's forces.
UN investigation concluded that the 2013 attack could not have been by government forces, and was almost certainly by the terrorist side (the limited-range projectiles had to have been fired from within an area totally controlled by jihadists).
Regarding smell or not of Sarin, it would seem that quality of both mix and storage have to be taken into consideration.
Incidentally, when the State's old chemical stock was removed from Syria by international inspectors, not all depots could be cleared -- only those within government controlled territory. Two were within terrorist-held areas and could not be accessed. So whatever was there is still in the possession of terrorist militias.
The terrorist side has enqaged in chemical and gas warfare; in east Aleppo firing what literally were 'barrel bombs' of the stuff from large-bore mortars into civilian areas of west Aleppo -- but western establishment politicians were as "couldn't care less" about that as they have been about a subsequent massacre by jihadists of children lured from a population-transfer bus convoy.
I have no idea whether the events you.predict will come to pass.
I do know, however, that you have made no attempt to answer the point I made and to provide details of the unidentified foreign TV channel and of the work of fiction which it is purported to be concocting in order to discredit the Syrian government.
I agree with you, Mr Hitchens, that the Government's assertion that it is 'highly likely' that the Syrian regime is responsible for the recent chemical weapons attack is unsatisfactory.
It seems obvious that the Government does not have the degree of proof that would enable it to make a categorical statement that Assad's forces were responsible.
On the matter of the chemicals used in the latest attack apparently being odorous, I would point out that the attack of August 2013 appears to have been carried out using odourless chemicals.
According to the Government, both attacks were carried out by Assad's forces.
If the latest attack really was made by rebel forces, using Sarin mixed with an odorous chemical, then it would seem that rebel forces could not have carried out the attack of August 2013.
*** "Seen reports that one particular foreign TV channel has indeed been concocting just such a work of fiction".
Just wait and see; it probably won't take long. Bear in mind that as things stand there will soon be a decisive battle at Deir Ezzor, against IS and al-Nusra/AQ.
The USA and its UK puppets would ideally prefer to have a new and dramatic propaganda excuse for further invasion of Syria using an army that's been assembled on the Jordanian side of the border; possibly some direct US presence alongside jihadists they've been training there -- or at least initially for air and missile strikes against Syrian government forces thus weakening the anti-terrorist side in the aforementioned battle (even if such strikes are in other areas).
There has been massive investment by the US/UK regimes, in propaganda-generators for deployment against Syria... and that funding certainly wasn't motivated by altruism.
Yes, after posting my comment I tried to read a little more about sarin and found the same thing said (regarding the presence of odor as an indicator of 'cowboy' production methods or a lack of purity) in several places. Probably I should have read more prior to posting my comment. It is also worth noting that aforementioned the English version of book on Aum by Murakami was greatly abridged (something I only learned a few months ago, having first read it ten years prior), so there may well have been an explanation of this in the original Japanese.
I remember, when I was at school, being puzzled that there was a subject called "history" and I couldn't quite see much of a purpose for it, when compared, for example, with obviously useful subjects like mathematics or woodwork. In any case, I thought, it only seemed to be very local history that most people were interested in.
The intervening decades have done little or nothing to alter that initial bewilderment which I felt as a young boy.
Details of things like the French Revolution or the Unification of Italy are more likely, it seems to me, to be interesting to French people and Italians respectively but they - and many other similar events - seemed to be invested by my school with a kind of universal importance, which I couldn't quite fathom.
Not, of course, that I have anything against histories in themselves, especially in the hands of eloquent historians like David Starkey, but they must surely always remain simply "stories", as their name indicates, and most people are entertained by talented story-tellers.
The question of whether they are to be believed true or disbelieved, however, is a different matter and one so confused and complicated - especially in our age of 24/7 electronic gossip - that perhaps the most sensible reaction to 'news' whose authenticity you can't personally warrant might well be simply "Aye, I hear ye, I hear ye!"
"Seen reports that one particular foreign TV channel has indeed been concocting just such a work of fiction".
Further and better particulars, please, Mr Morrison.
Peter, Thank you for publishing your questions to the Foreign Office. I can't think of a good reason why they can't answer straightforward questions. That the FO won't answer your questions properly (with maybe a few details omitted for security reasons) suggests they would prefer you, and your readers, to be kept in the dark as we head for another war in the Middle East.
ps sorry if you've received this comment more than once - internet problems.
***PH writes: Thank you. There were no security issues. All the questiosnw ere based on statements of supposed knowledge already made by the British government, and the main problem with intelligence is that you reveal you know things that you don't want the enemy to know you know. The other main problem is that you accidentally reveal your precise sources, that you have cracked a code or have an agent in place.. The highest security classifications do not give access to more information, but to more information about the *source*. Nothing that I asked threatened any such risk.
The fact, as I knew when I asked my questions, is that the FCO simply doesn not know what it claims to know, and has suppressed quite legitimate doubts about sources, custody chains and evidence to reach a political conclusion. When i first planned to post about this, I thought it only fair to publish, if possible, the actual responses, rather than asking my readers ton trust my conclusion that they were evasive unresponsive and worthless(I told the FCO that this is what i thought of them, and asked them to do better. They declined to alter or supplement them in any way).
And so I sought their permission to do so. I don't find the procedure under which civil servants brief unattributably to be at all sinister or even interesting. Such people, who are the servants of Ministers, feel they can speak more freely if they know the questioner understands that he must not name or otherwise identify them. I have often benefited from this arrangement. On this occasion the FCO's answers are unusually dull and evasive. I could prove this if I published them. Their refusal to let me publish actually made my task easier. I could just say what i liked about what they had said.
But I was immediately confronted with loads of people imagining that these answers, if published, would contain fascinating secrets which were being withheld from them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Is the british governments aim still the deposing of the Syrian government ? regardless of the collateral damage done to Syria and the region in general .
I confess to my limitations as a strategic thinker .
Syria may not be perfect , it seemed stable up to the start of the uprising , ISIS or Al Queda did not seem to be operating in Syria . They and other extremist groups seem to be operating there now , our governments have used up their credibility in previous actions . Normal people are unwilling to accept their governments decisions . What a mess , Mr Blair should shut up , his responsibility for the current mess us clear . He has queered the pitch , muddied the water . please excuse my ramblings .
Mr Hitchens, I think you're being a little unfair. I certainly grasped your point about the FO replies, I just wondered if FoI was any use at all and you seem to imply it mostly isn't which is no less than I expected.
The question seems to be: 'How do we get any information out of a government department when a decision has already been taken regardless of truth and logic?'.
The answer is, we don't.
From what I've read, that could be characteristic of lower quality or adulterated -- consistent with "DIY" preparation efforts rather than the higher quality munitions any State army would be likely to have, if they had them at all. It has already been found that such chemicals as are needed to wage chemical or gas warfare were being supplied (from Turkey) to the jihadists. Mass-media and politicians in Europe or the USA seem strangely un-bothered that terrorist groups (some allegedly "moderate") in Syria have actually been using such weapons.
Seen reports that one particular foreign TV channel has indeed been concocting just such a work of fiction, with location filming done in an area controlled by jihadists. Don't know whether the intention is to transmit it as alleged 'fact' or as a propagandist drama to generate confusion (or worse).
Would the questions have been better asked under the Freedom of Information act? Surely then journalistic understandings would not have applied. Or are such questions exempted from the act?
***PH: Lots of things turn out to be exempt, not least the entire BBC. But in any case FoI takes weeks or months (during which bombing can begin) , and I have never yet received a n answer of any value through this method. Why not just grasp my actual point, that the FO cannot answer these questions and has made it easier for me to say so by refusing to let me publish their wearisome, tedious, unresponsive non-answers. How many times do I have to repeat that , if you could see the answers, you'd be bored and disappointed by them? Please will people stop obsessing over a side issue.
"United Nations investigators received testimonies from Syrian eyewitnesses regarding another attempt by Al Qaeda-affiliated jihadists and their “rescue” teams to stage a chlorine attack in the town of Al-Tamanah on the night of April 29–30, 2014, and then spread word of the bogus attack through social media."
So Assad hands over his chemical weapons to the OPCW and allows them to conduct their investigations. The Al-Qaeda affiliated rebels, on the other hand, attack the OPCW, spread lies about gas attacks and loot the homes of civilians. Conclusion: “It was Assad’s gas!” Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
I am afraid, though, that I still do not understand what point you are trying to make. The contemporaneity of the 9/11 arracks and the military exercise known as Vigilant Guardian does not even amount to a coincidence, as this describes a remarkable concurrence of events. There is simply nothing remarkable about the synchronism of these two occurrences.
I may, of course, be missing something here and if you can explain how the one event could have affected the other, I shall happily consider your explanation.
Comment from Bennyboy72 should have been attributed to Bennyboy71; another year (hopefully) to go.
There is a video on YouTube with a short interview with Peter Ford, a former ambassador to Syria, who has serious doubts about the accepted story.
News today that the Astana talks (Russia, Syria, Iran, Turkey and "moderate rebels") have agreed "safe zones" for certain areas of Syria. Apparently the "moderate" rebels are not happy!
Do I sense an imminent false flag attack attributed to the "vicious Assad" regime aimed at derailing peaceful efforts? Any bets?
I imagine Mr Hitchens, despite his great experence and talents, and deserving of respect and truth, was nevertheless treated as many are when questioning authority these days: most of the questions put are ignored; and fanciful and often illogical conclusions are drawn from the premises stated. Whether it is civil servants, ministers or corporations (including the BBC), they hide their nonsense and evasion in plain sight.
Also, there's an interesting BBC News article called "Syria 'chemical attack': What can forensics tell us?" by Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert (6 April 2017) - if PH is interested and has not already seen it. It is far from complete, as it completely ignores real world issues, such as the vital issue of custody chains.
Thank for the information. Although I am not knowledgeable in this matter, I tried to understand the French report. But it seems that this report is too much based on their assertion of the 2013 CW attack was done by Assad regime.
Moreover, Mr Hitchens’s questions above could be send to them in France, too - though I am afraid that their answers would be the similar ones of the UK.


78, of Honolulu, Hawaii, died in Honolulu on December 14, 2017. He was born in Honolulu. Visitation: 10:30 a.m.; Services: 11:30 a.m. on Friday, January 5, 2018 at Borthwick Mortuary, Maunakea Chapel. Burial: 3:00 p.m. at Hawaiian Memorial Park Cemetery.


EASTENDERS star Rita Simons is set to Walford for the West End after landing a role in hit stage show Legally Blonde.
The actress has filmed her last scenes as Roxy Mitchell and is now preparing to join the cast of the musical based on Reese Witherspoon's 2001 film.
The Sun recently revealed EastEnders bosses plan to kill off both Roxy and her sister Ronnie, played by Samantha Womack, during a New Year's Eve special.
The pair are both believed to have filmed their final scenes for the soap, and Rita, 39, has now landed her first post-EastEnders role.
She is set to star in a touring production of popular stage show Legally Blonde, playing nail technician Paulette.
The role was made famous by Jennifer Coolidge in the 2001 movie, which starred Reese as a promising young law student.
Rita's show will kick off in Bromley in late 2017 and will tour the UK taking in cities such as High Wycombe, Bristol and Woking.
The tour is set to end in April, 2018.
Stage regular Sheridan Smith previously starred as Elle Woods in a West End production of Legally Blonde.
EastEnders’ Belinda Peacock makes shock exit from Walford – but has she forgot to tell Masood?
WHERE'S DEL BOY AND RODNEY?
"Having joined the show in 2007, Rita immediately won the hearts of the audience in the role of Roxy Mitchell and between her and Samantha Womack they created one of the most iconic duos EastEnders has ever seen.
"Alongside Samantha, Rita was recently offered to take part in the same big storyline that will see the Mitchell sisters depart Walford, but we will not be releasing any further details at this time. We wish Rita all the best for the future."


I haven't posted anything since the "Santo statue game" on August 10th. I've been busy, distracted, bored, uninspired. Not even the surreal (or possibly just not real) departure of Carlos Zambrano wasn't enough. When it seemed long past the time to post something, I always found something else to do and couldn't figure out why.
But then on Friday came the news that, at long last, Jim Hendry would be leaving his job at Cubs GM. Finally, I had an excuse for more than a week of haiku silence. Obviously, the continued presence of Jim Hendry made it impossible for me to compose anything in haiku about the Cubs.
I suspect Hendry's going to be a scapegoat for the Ricketts moving into the offseason - Tim McGinnis of Obstructed View predicted it on his old Aisle 424 blog near the end of the 2010 season, and others agree - so why shouldn't he be my scapegoat, too?
He was reportedly fired almost a month ago, but Ricketts had Hendry stick around until the trade deadline passed and minor league draft picks were signed. And Hendry says he didn't pursue any trades because he thought that was a job for the next guy. The strange way in which this dismissal was handles could indicate, as Mike Imrem suggests in the Daily Herald, that the Cubs owner is in over his head.
I know lots of Cubs fans who, like me, believed that Ricketts's faith in Hendry was a mistake and are happy to see him go. But Ricketts shouldn't try to convince us - like he tried to convince us that the team's only problem earlier this year was a rash of injuries - that a new GM alone is going to fix the team.
Trading Fukudome while we could still get something in return was a good start. Holding the line and letting Zambrano loose would be a good second step. And, as Phil Rogers writes in the Tribune, it would be great to if Ricketts would show Crane Kenney the door.
Hopefully, the next GM will continue with more change we can believe in.
Haikus should be restricted to teams with one or more Japanese players.


PR Newswire now claims copyright on press releases distributed through the Cision and PR Newswire system.
Their pitch: “Share your brand’s story around the world,” but that’s where it ends. When eTN, as a media outlet for travel and tourism news, tried to publish a release distributed to journalists by PR Newswire, they were told the release must be removed immediately. In addition, PR Newswire threatened eTurboNews with their legal counsel claiming copyright of releases from PR Newswire or Cision circulates on behalf of clients.
[company name removed] is understandably upset that the release is posted on your site, tagged with Travel & Tourism Industry release: at the start of the text.
Please completely remove the posting from your site as soon as possible, and confirm when complete.
Additionally, I am unable to find a licensing agreement between PR Newswire and eTN, or any other associated websites. If you do have a licensing agreement in which PR Newswire has licensed your sites to publish our content, please send a copy to me as soon as possible.
If you do not have a licensing agreement, we request that you remove all PR Newswire content from all of your sites. If I should have our Counsel send an official request, please let me know to whom it should be resent.
eTN Publisher Juergen Steinmetz said: “It appears PR Newswire is not only charging a steep amount of money from companies wanting their releases circulated through their system to journalists but also is now trying to license this content as their copyrighted material. eTN receives more than 2,000 story ideas on a daily basis, we don’t rely on PR Newswire for content, and for sure we won’t pay them a licensing fee for a ‘privilege’ to publish such content.
“I urge everyone using PR Newswire services to take a look at this article explaining their modus of operatio n and misleading reports: http://buzz.travel/prn/ .
“PR Newswire is now directly competing with publications. This will result in a drastic drop in pick-ups. They are obviously upset with the attention eTN has gotten for our stories’ visibility way ahead of PR Newswire when it comes to our industry segment.
Therefore, in the future, if you would like eTurboNews to consider your press releases for publication, you will need to send it to us directly: For more information, visit: www.buzz.travel .
Stakeholders of the Nepal Travel & Tourism industry received some great news from the Nepal Tourism Board today. Exponential growth has been observed in the international visitor arrivals to Nepal in the month of July 2018. A total of 73,285 international tourists visited Nepal, a strong growth of 73.5 % as compared to the arrival figures of July 2017.


Talks for peaceful surrender of Bani Walid fail as reports say Gaddafi is heading further south.
Libya's National Transitional Council fighters are preparing for an imminent attack on Bani Walid, a stronghold of the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, as efforts for a peaceful resolution to the standoff seem to have failed.
During prolonged negotiations on Tuesday, the NTC tried to convince representatives from Bani Walid, about 150km southeast of the capital Tripoli, that there would be no retributions if the the town surrendered peacefully.
But the representatives, upon returning to the town to deliver the message, were fired at and forced to retreat to NTC territory.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi has probably left Bani Walid and is heading further south with the help of loyalist tribes towards Chad or Niger, a senior NTC military official told Reuters news agency late on Tuesday.
Hisham Buhagiar, who is coordinating efforts to find the former Libyan leader, said reports indicate he may have been in the region of the southern Libyan village of Ghwat, some 950km south of Tripoli and 300km north of the border with Niger, three days ago.
"He's out of Bani Walid I think. The last tracks, he was in the Ghwat area. People saw the cars going in that direction .... We have it from many sources that he's trying to go further south, towards Chad or Niger," Buhagiar said in an interview.
Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting from north of Bani Walid, said the situation seemed bleak and an attack seemed imminent.
"The five Bani Walid representatives went back with the assurances from NTC, but as they approached the city, they were fired upon. They quickly came back to the rebel territory to take shelter for the night," she said.
"We have talked to commanders and people here. They believe two of Gaddafi sons are still in the city, thats why no negotations work here."
Libyan fighters have surrounded the town and given remnants of Gaddafi forces two deadlines to surrender. Both the deadlines have passed.
Thousands of NTC fighters have been camping outside Bani Walid. They have also built a field hospital and deployed 10 volunteer doctors to prepare for the possibility of a fight.
Also on Tuesday, a large convoy of about 250 armoured vehicles carrying Gaddafi loyalists crossed into neighbouring Niger, raising fresh speculations over the toppled Libyan leader's whereabouts.
Gaddafi or his sons were not spotted in the convoy that reportedly carried gold and cash and was escorted by Niger troops.
The convoy included officers from Libya's southern army battalions and pro-Gaddafi Tuareg fighters and is likely to have crossed from Libya into Algeria before entering Niger, sources said.
Niger's minister of internal affairs, Abdou Labo, however, denied that a Libyan convoy had entered his country. But he confirmed that Niger had given asylum to Gaddafi's internal security chief Abdullah Mansoor on humanitarian grounds.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Tripoli, said information about the specifics of the convoy were contradictory, but it was certain that a convoy had crossed.
"What is significant is that none of the reports we have heard so far says anything about sighting of Gaddafi and his sons in the convoy."
The US state department in a statement called on Niger to detain the Gaddafi loyalists who have entered the country.
A French military source said he had been told the commander of Libya's southern forces, General Ali Khana, may also be in Niger, not far from the Libyan border.
Burkina Faso, a former recipient of large amounts of Libyan aid, had reportedly offered Gaddafi exile about two weeks ago but has also recognised the National Transititional Council (NTC) as Libya's government.
On Tuesday, however, Burkina Faso's government said it had not received a request for exile from Gaddafi and the ousted leader was not expected in the West African state.
"Gaddafi in not in Burkina Faso and we have not been approached for any exile demand. Burkina (Faso) has not been informed of Gaddafi's arrival. We are not expecting him," Communications Minister Alain Edouard Traore said on state television.
Meanwhile, the NTC said that Khaled Kaim, Gaddafi's deputy foreign minister, has been captured.


Tasmania Now live blog April 22 Apr 18, 2019 Bringing you news and updates from Hobart and around the state.
Tasmania Now live blog April 18 Apr 18, 2019 Bringing you news and updates from Hobart and around the state.
Tasmania Now live blog April 17 Apr 17, 2019 Bringing you news and updates from Hobart and around the state.
Tasmania Now live blog April 16 Apr 17, 2019 Bringing you news and updates from Hobart and around the state.
Tasmania Now blog April 15 Apr 15, 2019 This is the Tasmania Now daily blog, bringing you updates from Hobart and across the state.
Politics Live: Bill Shorten delivers his budget reply speech Apr 5, 2019 Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will soon deliver his budget reply speech, which is expected to outline bigger tax cuts to low-income earners and serve as Labor's unofficial campaign launch.
The Matildas v US Women's National Soccer Team live blog Apr 5, 2019 The Matildas take on the US Women's National Soccer Team in Denver, Colorado.
Budget 2019, live blog Apr 2, 2019 ABC News' live blog of Budget Day 2019.
TEST Hobart live Apr 15, 2019 Your daily guide to what's happening in Hobart - news, traffic, weather and more.
Australian charged over Christchurch terror attack remanded in custody Mar 16, 2019 Follow the ABC News live blog as Brenton Tarrant faces court and is remanded in custody after 49 people were killed in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch.
Christchurch mosque shootings leave dozens dead Mar 16, 2019 New Zealand police confirm they are responding to a "critical incident" in central Christchurch, with witnesses reporting multiple injuries.
NSW election live Mar 24, 2019 Follow all the live results of the NSW election.
The Matildas look to seal the inaugural Cup of Nations title against Argentina in Melbourne Mar 7, 2019 The Matildas can claim the inaugural Cup of Nations title with a victory over Argentina at Melbourne's AAMI Park, in the Matildas final game on home soil before the World Cup. Follow all the action in our live blog.
Politics Live: Will Derryn Hinch scuttle the medical evacuation bill for asylum seekers? Feb 22, 2019 The Government may have suffered a historic defeat in the House of Representatives yesterday, but this bill has still got to get through the Senate. A man who once supported this bill, Derryn Hinch, now isn't so sure about it.
Super Bowl LIII, New England Patriots v Los Angeles Rams, live blog Feb 4, 2019 Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are looking for a sixth NFL title as they face the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta. Follow all the action in our live blog.
Australia v Sri Lanka, second Test in Canberra, day one live blog Feb 1, 2019 Canberra hosts its first-ever Test match, as an unchanged Australian line-up looks to wrap up a series win against a much-changed Sri Lanka side at Manuka Oval. Follow all the day one action in our live blog.
Rafael Nadal takes on Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open men's singles final, live blog Jan 27, 2019 - 5:30 PM EST Two of the greatest tennis players of this, or any other generation face off once more in a grand slam final as Rafael Nadal takes on Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open. Follow all the action from the men's singles final in our live blog.
We're counting down the triple j Hottest 100 Jan 28, 2019 Follow along as we find out what will named the number one song.
Naomi Osaka v Petra Kvitova, Australian Open women's singles final, live blog Jan 26, 2019 - 5:31 PM EST Naomi Osaka or Petra Kvitova — who will win the women's singles crown at the Australian Open, and take over as world number one? Follow all the action from Rod Laver Arena in our live blog.
Australia v Sri Lanka, first Test in Brisbane, day three live blog Jan 26, 2019 Some good bowling by Suranga Lakmal on day two kept Sri Lanka in the game, but Pat Cummins ended the day with a breakthrough for Australia. Can the tourists dig in and avoid trouble on day three at the Gabba? Follow all the action in our live blog.
Australia v Sri Lanka, first Test in Brisbane, day two live blog Jan 25, 2019 Australia's bowlers got on top on day one at the Gabba, now it's the turn of the batsmen to try to push the total well past Sri Lanka's 144 and take control of the first Test. Follow all the action in our live blog.
Australia v Sri Lanka, first Test in Brisbane, day one live blog Jan 24, 2019 It's been a tough summer so far for Australian cricket — can Tim Paine's men turn things around against Sri Lanka in a day/night first Test at the Gabba? Follow all the day one action in our live blog.
Ash Barty takes on Petra Kvitova in Australian Open women's singles quarter-final, live blog Jan 22, 2019 - 5:24 PM EST A place in the Australian Open semi-finals is up for grabs as crowd favourite Ash Barty faces Petra Kvitova at Melbourne Park. Follow the action in our live blog.
Australia v Uzbekistan: Asian Cup round of 16 Jan 21, 2019 - 11:07 PM EST The Socceroos face Uzbekistan in a do-or-die round of 16 match at the Asian Cup.
Live: Socceroos take on Syria in the Asian Cup Jan 15, 2019 - 10:25 PM EST Follow all the action as the Socceroos take on Syria in a crucial group game at the 2019 Asian Cup in the UAE.
Live blog: Socceroos face off against Palestine in crunch Asian Cup clash Jan 12, 2019 Australia will be looking for a win against Palestine to make up for its opening defeat against Jordan and get its Asian Cup campaign back on track. Follow the action live.
Australia v India, day five of fourth Test from the SCG, live blog Jan 7, 2019 The Australians must bat day five out at the SCG to deny India a win in the fourth Test, as the tourists are guaranteed a first-ever series victory on Australian soil. Follow our live blog as the day unfolds.
Live: Socceroos v Jordan in the Asian Cup Jan 7, 2019 Australia's Asian Cup campaign kicks off as the Socceroos take on Jordan in the first group-stage match. Follow all the action in our live blog.
Australia v India, Fourth Test, day one live blog Jan 3, 2019 Fresh off a first-ever Boxing Day Test win at the MCG, the Indian team is eyeing another bit of history — a breakthrough series win in Australia after 70 years of trying. Can Tim Paine and his side stop them at the SCG? Follow live.
Boxing Day Test, Australia v India day four live blog Dec 29, 2018 Can Pat Cummins reproduce his supreme spell to blast out the Indian tail on the fourth morning of the Boxing Day Test, or will the tourists put the game beyond Australia with more runs at the MCG? Follow live.
Boxing Day Test, Australia v India day three live blog Dec 28, 2018 Australia needs to bat long and accumulate runs at a solid rate to grab the momentum back from India after a tough two days at the MCG in the Boxing Day Test. Can the openers get off to a strong start? Follow live.
Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race live blog - the 74th edition of the blue water classic Dec 26, 2018 Can Comanche go back-to-back for line honours or will Wild Oats XI have revenge for last year's controversial conclusion to the Sydney to Hobart? Follow day one of the great blue water classic in our live blog.
Australia v India: Second Test at Perth Stadium - day four Dec 17, 2018 ABC News Sport's live blog of day four of the second Test between Australia and India at Perth Stadium.
Australia v India: Second Test at Perth Stadium - day three Dec 16, 2018 ABC News Sport's live blog of the third day of the second Test between Australia and India at Perth Stadium.
Australia v India: Second Test, day two at Perth Stadium Dec 15, 2018 Follow all the action as Australia takes on India in the second Test in Perth.
Australia v India: Second Test, day one at Perth Stadium Dec 14, 2018 Follow all the action live from Perth Stadium as India and Australia battle it out in the second of four Test matches.
Australia v India day two of the first Test Dec 7, 2018 ABC News Digital's live blog of day two of the first Test between Australia and India at the Adelaide Oval.
Politics Live: Morrison Government faces prospect of history loss in Parliament Dec 6, 2018 The Prime Minister has vowed to do everything possible to avoid defeat on a bill that will get more refugees off Manus Island and Nauru. The final sitting days of 2018 has turning into a battle of parliamentary processes and a personal attacks from Scott Morrison.
Australia v India: First Test, day one at the Adelaide Oval Dec 6, 2018 Follow all the action as Australia takes on India in the first Test in Adelaide.
Police incident on Coronation Drive, Brisbane Dec 3, 2018 Police are responding to an incident that has seen Coronation Drive in the Brisbane suburb of Auchenflower closed.
Jeff Horn vs Anthony Mundine live blog Dec 1, 2018 Jeff Horn and Anthony Mundine face off in a middleweight boxing bout at Brisbane's Lang Park.
Advanced Post Jun 7, 2016 ABC reporter David Taylor is at Collaroy, where the high tide has peaked:A larger high tide is expected tonight at 10:00pm.


India's demand for dropping of all charges against its former Deputy Consular General in New York Devyani Khobragade will come for discussion during the proposed Indo-US dialogue to resolve the issues arising out of her arrest in the US, the government said today.
"India and the US have agreed to initiate a dialogue to resolve the issues arising out of the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York in December 2013, including India's demand for the dropping of all charges against the diplomat, and to address all aspects related to diplomatic privileges and immunities in each other's countries in a mutually acceptable manner," Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed said in the Rajya Sabha.
A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragde was arrested on charges of visa fraud and subsequently stripped-searched. She was later released on a bail of USD 250,000.Replying to a written question, Ahamed also said while India has serious concerns about the arrest and treatment of its diplomat, it also recognises that India and the US have a multi-faceted strategic partnership.
The two countries do not see this as a "single issue" relationship and continue to implement other programmes of bilateral cooperation, he said. Replying to another question, he said MEA has received a complaint from one Aparna Srivastava alleging forced termination of employment from her post as Political Specialist at the US Embassy in New Delhi in October 2012.
"In accordance with existing international laws and practices, Ministry of External Affairs has asked the US Embassy in New Delhi to undertake an urgent investigation into the allegations made by Srivastava," Ahamed said.
Srivastava has alleged that she was victimised by the US Embassy for her independent views on the reporting of the human rights situation in India.


In his book Slowly Down the Ganges, Eric Newby reveals that the sacred river is known as “the pure, the eternal, the creator of happiness”. And never more so than when it flows past Varanasi, I thought, as our river ship, Rajmahal slipped under the vast ironwork bridge, the Malviya, which spans the Ganges at the self-proclaimed oldest living city in the world.
Twenty years ago I had rumbled over the bridge on a second-class sleeper train hauled by two hulking diesel engines. This time I was arriving in finer style and in time to see the setting sun turn the Ganges into a sheen of burnished copper.
On the bathing ghats that rise in steep steps from the river’s edge, dewy-eyed gap-year travellers mingled with naked sadhus, their bodies caked in grey ash, and hordes of Hindu faithful as all waited for darkness to fall and the nightly Ganga Aarti ceremony to begin.
Before boarding Rajmahal at Patna for its inaugural sailing, I had spent three exhilarating days in the pressure cooker that is modern-day Kolkata. So, in a sense, my journey took me from the heart of the Raj to the very soul of India. In Kolkata, Basu, my guide, led me on a walking tour of Raj Bhavan, the official residence of the governor of West Bengal and the former seat of British imperial power.
Built in the early 19th century under Marquess Wellesley, the impressive, white, multi-winged building sprawls across 27 acres. It was designed along the lines of Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, the ancestral house of Lord Curzon, who later lived here as the viceroy and governor-general.
At the Writers’ Building nearby, which originally served as the office for writers of the British East India Company, an army of British bureaucrats ruled large areas of India with strokes of their pens. The city’s Victoria Memorial was built by Lord Curzon to rival the Taj Mahal and to show the world that anything the Mughals could do the Raj could do better. That aim failed, of course, but it’s impressive none the less and houses a museum that tells the city’s fascinating story from before the days of Major-General Robert Clive (also of the East India Company).
At the Mallick Ghat Flower Market we meandered through alleyways crammed with hundreds of flower sellers, the air thick with the sweet, cloying fragrance of blooms. And in the back streets of the Kumartuli district we saw artisans fashioning idols out of straw plastered with mud scraped from the banks of the Hooghly river. Once dry, the idols represented towering standing figures of the goddess Durga, the elephant-headed Ganesh and a pantheon of other Hindu gods, which loomed over us.
Life on board Rajmahal and the mighty Ganges could not have offered more of a contrast. For many, “cruising” conjures up the image of ticking off a number of Mediterranean ports or Caribbean islands from a floating hotel. Rest assured, the colonial-style Rajmahal, with its 22 air-conditioned cabins, small spa, saloon, elegant dining room and spacious sun deck, could not be further from that. Anglo-Indian operator Assam Bengal Navigation is run by two families whose personal touches are ubiquitous. The owners prefer to recruit and train all their staff locally, which meant we were looked after by people who took an obvious sense of pride in making sure that we wanted for nothing.
Life on board settled into an easy ebb and flow of lazy days on the sun deck watching river life float by, sipping cooling drinks and swapping stories of India with fellow passengers, who included a BBC documentary maker and many who had travelled the country’s rivers before with the Assam Bengal Navigation company.
We ate well. Freshly prepared Indian specialities were the order of the day, and a buffet at both lunch and dinner always provided a choice of dishes accompanied by some surprisingly drinkable Indian wines.
Each day there was a morning or afternoon excursion. This entailed disembarking on to a small boat that ferried us to landing stages or natural harbours scoured out of the bank by the mighty river, where two air-conditioned minibuses were always waiting to whisk us away into the interior.
At Sasaram we visited the imposing fortress-like tomb of the Pathan emperor Sher Shah Suri, who defeated the Mughals in the 1540s. At Buxar, our guide gave us a blow-by-blow account of the battle that laid the foundations of British rule in India, while at Chunar the inscriptions we read on the gravestones at the British cemetery told a less glorious story of the troops’ fate. Many died when they were terribly young, taken by disease.
We visited vast Mughal mausoleums, Raj memorials, palaces and mosques – Chunar Fort, Lord Cornwallis’s tomb at Ghazipur, Jaunpur Fort and Atala Mosque among them.
More remarkable than the sites themselves was the privacy we were afforded. At each one we found we were the only foreign visitors. Occasionally we shared the sites with parties of local schoolchildren, but otherwise we had them to ourselves. How often can you say that about India?
Twice we visited local villages where farmers stopped tilling their fields to invite us into their homes, and at a fishing village we watched the fishermen land and sort that day’s catch. We also peeked in at the local school, much to the delight and surprise of the children. We joined worshippers on the bank at dusk to offer puja, prayers symbolised by fluttering flames from lamps that we floated on the surface of the river.
We clambered aboard cycle rickshaws and were soon part of the flotsam of Indian street life as our rickshaw wallahs played chicken with the waves of oncoming lorries, cars, taxis and bullock carts. We toured a pottery factory and witnessed how traditional craft skills still held sway over mechanisation in parts of India. And everywhere we went, warmth and greetings were extended to us, but never hands.
These excursions still left plenty of time to recharge aboard Rajmahal and soak up life on the river as we steadily made our way towards Varanasi. In its lower reaches the Ganges is vast, stretching from horizon to horizon, an ocean of muddy, swirling water the colour of a cup of chai in need of an extra splash of milk. The steady throb of Rajmahal’s engines was often all that could be heard amid the watery stillness, punctuated by the occasional plop as a Gangetic dolphin broke the surface.
At Varanasi we anchored across from the imposing Ramnagar Fort. That night our cruise manager had organised grandstand seats for us at the Ganga Aarti ceremony, which takes place every evening at the Dashashwamedh ghat. In front of a vast crowd, bearded pandits, dressed in saffron robes and looking more like Bollywood heart-throbs than Sanskrit scholars, twirled lanterns of fire choreographed to the chanting of hymns and the clashing of cymbals, the air thick with incense and the smell of burning sandalwood.
At dawn next day we were gently rowed along the ghats. Worshippers lowered themselves into the sacred waters of the Ganges as the sun rose and temple bells rang out, echoing across the river to where Rajmahal lay at anchor, bathed in the early morning light.
Most river cruises are subject to the whims of tide – Rajmahal is no exception. The boat can sail to Varanasi only at certain times of the year, making the journey even more of a rare experience.
While he and his cameraman beetled off in search of another sound bite, I reflected that, should I make a return trip to Varanasi, one thing is for certain: I won’t be taking the train again.
Western & Oriental (020 7666 1234; westernoriental.com) offers a 12-day cruise and stay holiday to India, including a week’s cruise on the ABN Rajmahal from Patna to Varanasi from £2,499 per person, including all meals on board, three nights’ b&b at the Lalit Great Eastern hotel in Kolkata ahead of the cruise and one night at the Crowne Plaza in Gurgaon. Includes return flight and private transfers.
What to pack: mosquito repellent, a sun hat and light and loose cotton clothing. Smart casual for dinner.
Best time to go: sailings to Varanasi from Patna are weather-dependent. July, August and September are the best months to travel, when India is at its lushest. This is the monsoon season, so expect the occasional rainy day.
Visa: entry visa required – apply early (indianvisaonline.gov.in).
What to read: Slowly Down the Ganges by Eric Newby, £4.79 (Kindle edition).
What to watch: Channel 4’s new drama Indian Summers starts on Sunday.


CHESTER – Volunteers from the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Chester real estate office took part in a Habitat for Humanity build as part of the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Cares Day event.
“We helped build a house for Habitat for Humanity and had a great time giving back to the community,” said John Varriano, branch vice president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Chester.
When the Coldwell Banker volunteers arrived in the morning, the home was lacking sheathing on all sides, including the roof. When they finished, the sides, rear and the roof were all covered in sheathing. They even started to shingle, said Varriano.
“I am grateful to the Chester office for giving back to the local community. Affiliated Coldwell Banker agents show such generosity all year, and the Coldwell Banker Cares Day event is a chance to make a large, positive impact on a statewide level,” said Hal Maxwell, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New Jersey and Rockland County, N.Y.
All 52 Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New Jersey and Rockland County, N.Y. real estate offices gave back to local communities via charitable efforts as part of the fifth annual Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Cares Day event. Each office selected a Cares Day service project.
Since its inception in 2005, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Cares has given more than $1 million to charities supporting local communities, along with countless volunteer hours donated by affiliated sales associates, managers and staff. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Cares’ primary purpose is to provide financial assistance to charitable organizations where Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage has a presence. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Cares is a chapter of the Realogy Charitable Foundation, Inc.
Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New Jersey and Rockland County, N.Y. are independent contractor sales associates and are not employees of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New Jersey and Rockland County, N.Y.


A future version of Google Chrome may make it a cinch to clean up messy settings cast into chaos by malware (or your own misguided hands).
Digging deep into the latest build of Chromium—the open source browser that serves as the wellspring of new Chrome additions—evangelist François Beaufort discovered the Chrome team added the ability to return aspects of the browser to their default states.
After you enable the chrome://flags/#enable-reset-profile-settings flag in Chromium, you'll find a bevy of new reset options in the browser's Settings menu, as you can see in the screenshot above. Expect to see the feature pop up in Chrome proper somewhere down the line.
When it does land in Chrome, it'll be lagging behind the times a bit, as Internet Explorer and Firefox both already offer default restoration options of some kind. That said, Chromium's new options already outshine the competition, largely thanks to their granularity.
Chromium's new features prevent the need to raze everything to the ground if Bad Things Happen to a single aspect of your browser. For example, if a rogue Gmail extension borks your browser, you'll be able to reset just your extensions and leave your homepage and content settings alone. Plus, Chromium's profile settings bring all the default restoration options together in a single, easy-to-find menu. Win-win!
Google is constantly iterating Chromium and Chrome alike. Chrome 27 hit release status just the other day, bringing along speed improvements and the ability to bark search queries at your browser. The very next day, Chrome 28 hit beta stage.
Here's hoping we'll see these default restoration options hit Chrome proper before long. Between tools like this and the refresh and reset tools hidden in Windows 8, cleaning up your computing mess has never been easier.


The Taliban have control over 10 percent of Afghanistan's population and the insurgent group is battling with the Afghan government for control of at least another 20 percent, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Friday. He described a tough fight that is coming at the cost of many Afghan casualties.
Army Gen. John Nicholson said many of the Afghan deaths are in battles over checkpoints, where there are often a small number of forces who are poorly led, ill-equipped and not well trained. He said over the next year the U.S.-led coalition will work to help the Afghans expand their control in the country and beef up their ability to sustain the fight.
At the same time, he said, there are up to 1,300 Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, mainly in the east, and they receive money, command-and-control guidance and communications support from Islamic State leaders in Syria.
U.S. and Afghan military operations have targeted the group, killing many leaders and members, so he said they are in fewer Afghan districts now than they were months ago. Nicholson said the fighting has pushed them down into the mountains of southern Nangarhar and they are primarily in three to four districts, compared with the 10 districts they held last year.
On Thursday, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the Afghanistan fight as a stalemate, after 15 years of war. And he told a Senate committee that the Afghan government controlled about 70 percent of the country.
On Friday, Nicholson provided more details, and acknowledged there is an "equilibrium" between the government and the enemy.
"This is a positive in the sense of the majority of the population's under control of the government forces, and this is primarily the population centers and so on. And then the enemy is primarily in more rural areas that have less impact on the future of the country," Nicholson said during a Pentagon press conference. "It's something we're concerned about, but it is something that we're addressing with the Afghans and hoping to help them move forward next year."
Asked about the Islamic State in Afghanistan, Nicholson said that military operations have cut the size of the group by about 25 percent this year and killed about a dozen leaders. He said they are still largely located in Nangarhar and are mainly previous members of the Pakistan Taliban who switched allegiances to the Islamic State group.
While there has been financial support and leadership guidance from the main group in Syria, he said "we haven't seen any large-scale convergence" and there haven't been insurgents coming into Afghanistan from Syria.
There are currently about 14,000 U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, including 9,800 American forces. The number of U.S. troops will drop to 8,400 by the end of the year, based on President Barack Obama's decision in July.
Nicholson said that as part of the drawdown, the U.S. will shift some forces to other areas in the Middle East, and then focus more U.S. effort on advising Afghan troops in the east and south.


THREE people, including a village chairman have been taken to court for allegedly conspiring to forge citizenship certificates to non-nationals, the Kagera Regional Immigration Officer (RIO), Mr Pendo Buteng'e has disclosed.
He named the accused before Bukoba Resident Magistrate, Samuel Maweda, as Tumaini Francis (24), a University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) student as the first accused, second Peace Francis (22) who is a Mwenge University (Moshi) student, and the Rwagati Village Chairman, Joseph Kinyonyi (51) all booked in Criminal Case No 63/2019.
The Prosecutor from Immigration, Hamza Sanga alleged that in the first offence, both Tumaini Francis and Peace Francis, unlawfully and jointly lived in the United Republic of Tanzania without processing residential permits.
In the second count, third accused Kinyoyi was charged separately for false declaration on citizenship of the duo.
According to Mr Sanga, the accused (Kinyonyi), who is the village Chairman, facilitated in endorsing an affidavit purporting that Tumaini and Peace were Tanzanians, knowing well that they were not.
He also told the court that Kinyonyi, with two other people not before the court, facilitated in signing the affidavit forms for Tumaini and Peace as Tanzanians, to enable them to secure loans from the Higher Education Students' Loans Board (HESLB) meant only for the nationals.
"However, with close scrutiny it was later established that both Tumaini and Peace were Rwandese and their mother was identified as Marie Msabima, who works with Christian Aid Foundation, and was issued with a resident permit that expires in 2020," he said.


You know when you look at your shadow and realize it's a dead ringer for a pop star? That hasn't happened to you? Oh.
Well, it happened to Leilani on Sunday afternoon after a photo of her shadow's uncanny resemblance to Rihanna's profile went viral on Twitter.
"[Throwback] to when I was high and noticed my shadow looked like Rihanna," Leilani tweeted, including a screenshot from Snapchat that lo and behold, features a Rihanna-looking shadow.
If you look at a profile of RiRi it's hard to miss her likeness in Leilani's shadow.
Need more proof? Here's a side by side comparison.
But as someone pointed out, maybe this is all just a distraction from the fact that Rihanna looks like her shadow—not the other way around.
Stay woke, everyone. Stay woke.


Ashlee Simpson and Evan Ross discuss their musical collaboration, their new reality show and what Evan's mom Diana is really like.
Simpson is now in a very different place. It’s been 10 years since she released new music, and nearly eight years since her most recent television series, Melrose Place, ended. Since then, she has effectively disappeared from the public eye to focus on her family. It would be completely understandable if she was hesitant to open up again. But now she’s returning to reality TV — this time with her husband, and new musical collaborator, Evan Ross by her side on their new series Ashlee and Evan.
At 33, Simpson is nearly unrecognizable from her early days on The Ashlee Simpson Show. The brunette with spiked bangs, choppy layers and green Converse has evolved into a bohemian blonde with an affinity for large hats — something she shares with Ross. When they meet with Rolling Stone at New York’s Bowery Hotel, they’re sporting almost identical headwear, despite the lobby’s dim lighting.
Starring in a reality TV show is a big change for Simpson and Ross, who have remained notoriously private since they wed in 2014. “I think in a lot of senses we still are very private,” explains Ross. “I think that with this show, you give up a lot of privacy to let people on this journey with us.” But Simpson, who had already experienced the ups and downs of reality TV, had prepared Ross for what was to come before they started. “I was like, ‘OK, babe, we have to open our hearts and just do this because if you do it, you have to be there and open yourself and open the door,’” explains Simpson.
The combination of Simpson’s sultry, raspy tone and Ross’ soulful vocals works; their songs are balanced and genre-fluid. Their material includes “I Do,” an acoustic, country-folk-inspired track; “Paris,” a seductive R&B cut that takes cues from the Badu-Q-Tip era; and the bluesy “I Want You.” The couple also recruited bassist Verdine White from Earth, Wind & Fire to play on six of their album’s tracks. “There wasn’t a limit on [whether or not] it’s pop or it’s soul,” explains Simpson. “I feel like there was a discovery of what our sound was together.” Ross’ mother is also a part of their album. “She did a song [for us] called ‘Whole Lot of Love,’ and she came up with the melody,” says Ross.” Ross’ mother also wanted the couple to do this album for a while. “She loves the way we sound together,” adds Ross.


ST. JAMES - For more than two dozen players who will play in this weekend's St. James Invitational Tournament, the dream of continuing their career at a Division I college is not really a dream at all. It's reality.
These are the players who will likely create the most excitement and stir the most emotion in the crowd. These are the players that draw the huge crowds to this tournament every year.
But it's the other players on the eight participating teams who could change the complexion of the tournament. These "unknown" players are being called upon to play against some of the best high school players in the country. And most, like Pete Webb of St. James, are ready to accept the challenge.
Webb, a senior forward for the Saints, says that he no longer thinks of the opposing player as anything other than the opponent.
"When I was younger, it really affected me, the fact that we were playing against those guys," said Webb, a three-year varsity player. "Now that I've been here a couple of years and we see it all the time, I've gotten used to it. I know what to expect when I go out there."
The Saints play the first game of this year's tournament, facing Oak Hill today at 4 p.m. The Warriors were ranked among the nation's best early in the season and might be looking past the host team to a possible second-round meeting with Mount Zion of Durham, N.C., currently ranked No. 2 by USA Today.
"(Oak Hill) has a lot of good players," Webb said. "And if they can put that in the back of your mind, they'll do like they do to every other team and beat you bad.
"It helps that we played them earlier in the season," Webb said. "We were scared the first time we played. But now, we know what they are going to come with, and we think we are ready."
"We don't have the talent or depth that Oak Hill has, but our game plan should let us stick around with them," said St. James coach Wayne Ridenour. "Hey, Princeton beat UCLA in the NCAA last year, so why not us?"
As for Webb, he's planning to attend a Division I school in the fall. But his focus will be on academics, not the basketball court. He said he hopes to go either Penn State or the University of North Carolina.
Still, the dream lingers. Like a professional athlete nearing the end of his career, Webb has not given in completely.
"I wouldn't mind after a while, being there a couple of years, trying to walk on (to the basketball team)," Webb said. "I've dreamed about that."


LG is live streaming the launch of its latest flagship smartphone, the LG G2 and you can watch it right here on Pocket-lint in the comfort of your office or home without lifting a finger or having to wade through a live blog of someone trying to type faster than men can speak.
The event kicks off at 4pm UK time and should shed lots more light on the new device, not that we haven't seen much of it already through leaks official and unofficial.
So far what we know is that the new device will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, come with a volume rocker on the back along with a 13-megapixel camera. Other specs are expected to include a 5.2-inch 1080p display with a relatively thin bezel and no hardware buttons on the front.
LG have themselves confirmed there will be a quick view case for the device, letting you see only key information and that the Vienna Boy's Choir has recorded a load of ringtones for the phone.
The event kicks off at 4pm UK time, 11am New York time, and 8am in San Francisco. Pocket-lint is in New York and we plan to bring you hands-on and other news as it happens.


Fifteen years have passed, and while the iPod had an amazing run, the jacket didn’t. There have been other attempts at making “smart clothing,” but the concept never took off with consumers. Was the idea just way too ahead of its time?
There have been other attempts at making “smart clothing,” but the concept never took off with consumers.
Google thinks now is the right moment to revisit the concept, apparently, with the Levi’s Commuter Trucker Jacket with Jacquard by Google, a collaboration between the iconic denim maker and tech giant. The name is a mouthful, but it refers to a research project, Jacquard (named after a fabric made on a loom), that was born out of of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects division. Unlike what we can now consider a glorified iPod remote that Burton and Apple made, the Levi’s jacket connects wirelessly with an iOS or Android phone and uses gesture-based controls and haptic feedback to perform a variety of smartphone functions, from navigation to, yes, controlling your music.
Is this the connected jacket the world’s been waiting for? Well, we may need to wait a bit longer, as the capabilities may seem a little limited at the moment. But, Jacquard technology and the Levi’s Commuter Trucker Jacket are more of a technical showcase of what’s possible when you weave technology with clothing — and the result is undeniably exciting.
The cuff on the left arm is woven with a conductive fiber, as well as a special-grade polyester that allows it to act as a touch sensor; the rest of the jacket is traditional Levi’s cotton-based denim. You can feel a slight difference in material when you touch the denim part of the jacket, and then touch the cuff. It’s not easily noticeable, though, which is important to maintaining a traditional look.
The touch sensor physically connects with the Jacquard tag, which you snap into place. The tag is quite large because it houses a lot of necessary components, such as a haptic motor, the LED, a motion sensor, Bluetooth, as well as the battery to keep it all alive. Once it’s all connected and paired to your smartphone via the Jacquard app — a quick and easy setup process — you can use a handful of touch gestures on the cuff to control actions on your smartphone (more about the gestures below).
The tag has a battery, so yes, that means you technically have to charge your jacket. It’s an easy process, as all you have to do is take the Jacquard Tag off the jacket and plug it into a USB-A port, like the one in your laptop or desktop computer, or most power adapters. Charging it up to full doesn’t take more than an hour, and the jacket is able to stay powered for up to two weeks — more if you don’t wear it daily. The motion sensor detects when it’s not being worn, and it puts the tag in a low-power state to save battery.
The jacket isn’t meant to replace your smartphone, Ivan Poupyrev, director of engineering at Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) division, told Digital Trends. Instead, Poupyrev thinks it’s the “next frontier in connectivity,” which will take place in the physical world with the things we wear.
Think of it like a smartwatch. We wear watches so it’s easy to tell the time, and as a fashion statement. Any additional smarts, such as notification alerts, are largely present to accent our connected experience. With the Jacquard Commuter Jacket, you can do things like control music playback, ask for the next direction (and the ETA) while using a navigation app, find your phone, and more — helpful functions that are seamlessly embedded into our clothing so we don’t need to disrupt our attention by pulling out a smartphone.
These functions are controlled by three gestures using the cuff on the jacket: Brush in (swiping on the tag toward you), double tap, and brush out (swiping on the tag away from you). You can assign one ability to each gesture, which means you’ll have to choose carefully — or you can open the app and change your configurations each time to tailor the experience to your outing.
Having used the jacket for several months, I’ve predominantly used it to control music playback (with earbuds plugged into my smartphone). A double tap on the cuff tells me what song is playing, a brush in pauses the music, and a brush out plays the next track. The gestures work perfectly, and it doesn’t feel awkward or strange to use them. The only downside is that I often have to open the music app (or make sure it’s open in the background) for these gestures to start playing anything. There are also a few times when the jacket’s cuff registered my accidental swipes, but I’ve only noticed this happening when taking off the jacket.
The other abilities are certainly handy, especially the navigation-specific ones when you’re commuting. Use a gesture to find the estimated time of arrival to your destination, or what the next direction is on your route. Imagine driving or biking and not having to at a screen and take your attention away from the road.
The biggest problem is that you can only set three abilities at once, as I wound up losing a desire to change my configurations each time I donned the jacket. Poupyrev said the Jacquard team originally thought of adding “sets” you could cycle through. So for example, you could cycle through to your commuting “set” of gestures on your way back from work, and then maybe swap to your music set to control playback. They ended up not going with this method, as they found people often forgot what set they were currently using. I ended up sticking with my music control configuration all the time, but I’d prefer cycling through sets to access various abilities on the go. I’m crossing my fingers for this feature to come in a future update. Or, Google could embed a tiny display or Indicator LEDs in the next version — if there’s a second version.
Controlling music and navigation with simple gestures may sound unimpressive, but it’s genuinely helpful.
Aside from the limited number of abilities you can set, the other issue is charging the tag. It’s easy to do, but I’ve occasionally run into the problem of realizing the tag is dead right as I’m about to head out. At that point, I just resign to wearing it as a traditional jacket, and charge the tag while I’m away. It’d be nice if we didn’t need to charge the jacket at all — say, if it charged itself through kinetic or solar energy — but that all might be a stretch. A simple solution is to stash a small USB portable battery in one of the pockets.
Controlling music and navigation with simple gestures may sound unimpressive, but it’s genuinely helpful. It allows you to not think as much about menial tasks, and helps you keep going without missing a beat. That’s the goal of wearable technology, at least according to Google. The Jacquard Commuter Jacket succeeds in that regard.
How does the jacket look and fit? The Levi’s Commuter Trucker doesn’t look much different from other commuter jackets from the denim brand. Our review unit (size large) fits well, with ample room for pockets, as well as subtle reflective tags on the back to alert drivers in case you are biking.
The cuff is what gives the jacket away, specifically when the tag is attached. Google said it’s likely this will get miniaturized as the technology gets better, and we can’t wait for the tag to blend in more with future products. Why? Because the tag resembles the theft-prevention security tags that retail stores attach to clothing, people constantly asked me if I stole the jacket (luckily, it has not embarrassingly triggered any security sensors at shops).
Fortunately, one comment I seem to always get is, “That looks good on you.” That’s a great compliment because it means it’s stylish, and it won’t make you look like a geek.
It’s the perfect lightweight jacket for the spring season. Though we did the bulk of our testing during the winter, and the jacket still managed to work as an extra layer under or over other clothing.
The Levi’s Commuter Jacket with Jacquard technology will set you back $350, and it’s available now for women and men. The dumb version of the jacket — without Jacquard — costs about $150.
It’s pricey, yes, but this is largely an early-adopter product. It’s the first version of the technology available, and we’ll likely see this Jacquard technology expand into other types of clothing at hopefully lower prices. If anything happens to the technology over time, at least you’ll still look fabulous.


conducting executions privately, and declared that capital punishment was a scientific method of removing anti-social elements. The debate was adjourned. In spite of the fact that the present French Government are mostly opposed to capital punishment, and that there has not been an execution in Paris for about ten years, public opinion is evidently inclined to insist upon the exaction of the supreme penalty. It is a pity that the statistics of crime in France are always so misleading owing to the arbitrary classification of murders. Crimes passionnels, for instance, are not regarded as what we call murders, and M. Reinach relied for his optimism chiefly on the distinctions between assassinate and meurtres. When the two are combined it certainly cannot be said that murder in France is decreasing.


Zoned residential approved for full service photography business. Nice showroom, lots of light, offices, large staging area, dark room with two deep sinks and cabinetry. The second floor features more offices and full bath. 200 amp service for lighting techniques, finished attic. Conveniently located to highways, schools, restaurants and all houses of worship. Sold as is, where is, how is. All information provided in good faith without warranty.


He was hailed as Walmart Inc.’s online guru, the guy who would drag the lumbering giant into the digital-commerce era and put Amazon in its place.
But 18 months after selling his startup to the world’s largest retailer, Marc Lore is finding those expectations awfully hard to meet. It’s not that investors and analysts are giving up on him as much as it’s a realization that the task at hand is daunting and growing harder by the day — and that Lore has little margin for error.
Walmart’s online sales over the critical holiday period grew at less than half the rate of previous quarters, while investments Lore is making to enhance the e-commerce business dented profitability. The results sent shares tumbling and prompted a report, which Lore denied, that he was considering stepping down.
They also renewed concerns that Walmart — saddled with thousands of stores, more than 2 million employees and legions of lower-income shoppers — can keep pace as more retail spending shifts to the web.
Walmart said earlier this week that an inventory snafu played a small factor in the sluggish revenue and called it a learning experience. A spokesperson said the company wouldn’t comment beyond its discussion with analysts on Tuesday.
Walmart plunked down an extraordinary $3.3 billion (U.S.) for Lore’s e-commerce company Jet.com in 2016. He was soon running all of Walmart’s U.S. online efforts and given the task of building a robust competitor to Amazon.
His first steps were wild successes. He scrapped a free-shipping program that competed with Amazon’s Prime membership and replaced it with free two-day deliveries for orders of at least $35. He offered discounts on more than a million online-only items that customers then pick up at stores, which pleased store managers as it generated additional visits.
Online sales soared by more than 60 per cent, buoyed by the acquisitions of startups including men’s clothier Bonobos. That was double the pace of rivals such as Target and Best Buy. Investors were pleased, propelling Walmart shares to one of the best performances in the Dow Jones index in 2017.
Lore, who battled Amazon while running his previous startup, Quidsi, was hailed as a game-changer who transformed Walmart into “a viable No. 2 in e-commerce,” according to UBS analyst Michael Lasser.
But the first crack came over the holidays. An influx of gift orders overwhelmed Walmart’s supply chain, leaving no room for everyday items. Sales rose 23 per cent, a slower pace than both Amazon and Target over the same period.
Walmart maintained that its online sales growth for the current year would come in at 40 per cent.
But some experts weren’t convinced. “I still can’t articulate why I would shop at Walmart.com instead of Amazon,” said Venky Harinarayan, who sold his startup Kosmix to Walmart in 2011 and is now a partner at venture-capital firm Milliways Ventures.
Lore needs to move fast to silence the doubters and regain momentum. His challenge is to coax Walmart’s legions of in-store shoppers to buy online as well: Those that do spend nearly twice as much and typically purchase more profitable items.
Looking to go beyond items such as toilet paper and dog food, Lore is focusing this year on home-decor and apparel, part of a strategy to lure more premium vendors. On Thursday, Walmart unveiled an enhanced site for home furnishings, featuring design tips and curated collections.
Lore is also counting on grocery to draw customers away from Amazon. More than 1,100 of Walmart stores already offer curbside pickup of online grocery orders and that should double this year.
“It is every retailer’s dream to have customers think about their brand every week and that is what Walmart has with grocery,” Brendan Witcher, an analyst at Forrester Research, said.
Lore also wants to goose sales by migrating the best-loved feature of his former startup over to the mothership. Jet’s smart-cart shopping basket rewarded customers with discounts of a few cents per product if they bought more items at one time. Web orders of just one or two items are usually unprofitable for Walmart.
It won’t be easy persuading Walmart’s penny-pinching clientele to splurge. And, of course, Lore’s still playing catch-up to nemesis Jeff Bezos and Amazon, whose endless aisles captured about half of online spending growth during the holidays, according to Bain & Co.
Amazon paid $13.7 billion last summer for Whole Foods Markets to crack into the grocery business, which accounts for more than half of Walmart’s sales. It’s also beefed up its fashion site, and is now the second-most-visited apparel destination, after Walmart.
Lore promised investors that 2017 would represent the peak of losses in the dot-com business, but CEO Doug McMillon said Tuesday it’s possible that it could lose even more money this year. That could dent Lore’s credibility and test the patience of investors including Walmart’s biggest, the founding Walton family.


Like a veteran door-to-door salesman, Ronald Reagan is a huckster, only instead of vacuum cleaners, he peddles fear--so successfully that he is now president of the United States.
Like a veteran door-to-door salesman, Ronald Reagan is a huckster, only instead of vacuum cleaners, he peddles fear–so successfully that he is now president of the United States.
Reagan’s campaign sounded political tocsins from the past beyond F.D.R.’s budget-balancing pledge. There were echoes of John Kennedy’s promise to “get America mov-ing again” in Reagan’s vow to put the nation back to work (paradoxically, the laissez-faire conservative was perceived as the activist), as well as hints of the twinkling uncle-hood of Ike. No matter that Reagan’s chief and only public economic prescription for achieving recovery was the Kemp-Roth plan–which he had gradually abandoned. Etched in our memory will be the victorious Alfonse D’Amato, who is perhaps (if you will excuse a little New York chauvinism) the most dismal of the new class of freshman Senators, elucidating on election night the Reagan vision: “inculcating a desire to do for yourself and unshackling initiative and, uh, people don’t want some big guy telling them how to run their business.” It was as clear a statement of the Reagan program as we have heard. Oh yes, he does advocate tax holidays for businesses that relocate in ghetto areas. This, coupled with his “two-tier” minimum wage, would put blacks and other minorities back to work, his brain trust promises. That is Reagan’s Third World policy in a nutshell: a tax giveaway to business coupled with a cheap and grateful labor force in heavily policed ghettos.
Inflation, the analysts said, was the $64,000 issue with the voters; yet before the elec-tion Time was reporting that Reagan had been “unable to convince a large number of voters that his approach would be much more successful than Carter’s.” True, the Reagan mantra that “Government causes inflation and government can end it” probably had a superficial appeal–but it tapped visceral anti-Washington sentiments more than it did the voters’ belief that balancing the budget and eliminating “fraud and waste” were the cures for inflation.
But again, the voters cared little about Reagan’s programs. In foreign affairs he was perceived fuzzily as a strong, consistent leader who would somehow stand up to the Russians and prevent the Irans of this world from ever humiliating the United States again. This adds up more to a reflexive neo-isolationism–“make the world go away,” as Eddy Arnold used to sing–than a vote for any sort of foreign policy. The eleventh-hour revival of the “hostage drama”–our national Passion play–stirred dormant emo-tions of self-pity (“Let our people go”) and truculence (“Nuke the Ayatollah”). A majority of voters would prefer a SALT II treaty, though Reagan was against it. A majority would also prefer stronger defenses, but could one deduce from that–as the fundamentalists so easily deduce it from Scripture–that Americans want an accelerated buildup of the MX, a B-1 bomber, a neutron bomb and an arms race with Russia? Indeed, the pollsters–if they can be believed–found considerable disparities between what a majority of Americans support and what Ronald Reagan said he would do. On E.R.A., Social Security, national health insurance, most Americans favor what Reagan opposes.
Perhaps the pollsters who found that a majority believed that Reagan was the candidate most likely to “make America feel good about itself again” put their finger on the only truly positive emotion behind the large vote for Reagan. Reagan stands for a simpler bygone America redolent of small-town virtues, solid family ties, free from troublesome feminists and gay activists, the family Bible on the TV set, Jerry FaIwell on the screen. This year the Moral Majority replaced Nixon’s silent majority of 1972. Neither really exist, of course, but a politician must sound themes that make people feel good about themselves.
Now, for a time, America can feel good about itself again. Reagan is the man from the land of the happy ending. Prosperity is, after all, just around the corner; the Russians will shrink to human size; the birds will sing and the children play without fear in our streets and on the grounds of American embassies all over the world; the avatar of the American dream has descended in the personhood of Ronald Reagan, whose sound remedy for unemployment is “get a job”–as he did when he became a sports announcer and the golden portals of Hollywood opened up to him. America will be the shining “city upon a hill,” Reagan’s crib from a sermon by John Winthrop in 1630 on board the ship Arbella bound for the New World.
At the close of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway stands and con-templates Long Island, “a fresh, green breast of the new world,” through the eyes of the first Dutch sailors, the last time a vision was provided “commensurate to man’s capacity to wonder.” Then he thinks of Gatsby, who believed in the green light and was “borne back ceaselessly into the past.” In The Crack-Up Fitzgerald also wrote: “It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.” America has found its past again; the sadness will come.