NEW YORK The release of Guns n’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy has been a punch line for about 17 years. Axl Rose’s erratic behavior, as well as his penchant for rock perfection, has served as a smile-inducing subplot for music fans for nearly two decades. Now thanks in part to Dr Pepper’s poor judgment, he’s got the No. 3 album in America, per Billboard.com.
Here’s the quick back-story: While former Guns n’ Roses guitarist Slash went on to continue his rule as a rock god with Velvet Revolver, Rose cemented his reputation as a rock clown. Whether it was his refusal to release Chinese Democracy or his incompatibility with band mates including someone named Buckethead (because he wears a bucket on his head), the entire project had become a running joke.
In fact, the belief among many was that Rose was so crazy that he would never release the album at all. Dr Pepper obviously shared this belief. In March it sent out a snarky press release in which a spokesperson, named Jaxie Alt, said: Dr Pepper “fully understands that sometimes you have to make it through the jungle before you get it right.” It offered a free can of soda to everyone in America but estranged guitarists Slash and Buckethead, should the album actually be released this year.
The whole episode generated about a week’s worth of ha-ha buzz and then went away. Until last month, when, lo and behold, the album actually came out. Clearly, the executives at the beverage company couldn’t have been happy because everyone knows they didn’t expect Rose to actually release the record.
But, they made good in a pinch–sort of. They offered the free soda to anyone willing to jump through a series of hoops including crashed Web servers and toll-free phone calls. People were pretty upset by the process, but Dr Pepper did extend the offer an extra 24 hours because of the glitches caused by overwhelming demand for its product. All in all, they came off looking pretty dumb.
Whether Dr Pepper obliges or not remains to be seen. However, the fact is this gag-gone-bad has helped keep Rose’s record release front and center in a lot of news outlets that really wouldn’t have cared otherwise.
If anything, Rose should be running a full-page “thank you” letter to Dr Pepper for helping add another dimension of publicity to his long-awaited release. Then he should get Buckethead that Dr Pepper he promised.


Exelon Corp., the second-biggest U.S. utility owner, may abandon three power plants near Boston unless creditors agree to waive terms that would put the projects in default Friday for failing to be completed on time.
Because of contractor delays, the plants will not be finished by the deadline set in credit agreements, Chief Financial Officer Robert Shapard said at a Deutsche Bank AG investor conference in New York.
Exelon wants 19 lenders to extend the deadline or waive defaults so the utility owner does not risk investing more money only to have the units seized, he said.
The three plants' debt is guaranteed by the projects, not by Exelon, Shapard said. Two of the plants have begun generating power, and a third is being tested.
The unit building the plants has $1.1 billion outstanding on a $1.25 billion credit line, Exelon said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
"We could walk away from this project," Shapard said. "In the financing agreement, there is a walk-away payment, less than $50 million we'd have to contribute on the way out the door."
Shares of Chicago-based Exelon, the biggest U.S. nuclear power generator, fell 23 cents to $58.61 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock still has risen 11 percent this year.
The three Boston-area plants would generate enough power for 1.9 million average U.S. homes and are being built by Raytheon Co.
Exelon took full ownership of the projects with its Nov. 1 purchase of the half of Sithe New England Holdings LLC it did not already own.
Sithe had hired Raytheon to build the plants. Raytheon then sold its power-plant construction business to Boise, Idaho-based Washington Group International Inc., which quit work on the projects in 2001 before seeking bankruptcy protection. Raytheon got the contracts back and has not completed work on any of the three plants, Shapard said.


VINCENT KOMPANY and Rio Ferdinand last night led the support for AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng, who yesterday walked off the field in protest at racist abuse during a friendly in Italy.
Ghanaian Boateng, 25, who had spells in England with both Tottenham and Portsmouth, was followed by his team-mates and the match was abandoned. The game against Pro Patria – who are in Italy’s fourth tier – was being played in Busto Arsizio, a town north of Milan.
The flashpoint came in the 26th minute when Boateng, above, picked up the ball and smashed it towards the stand behind him.
He tore off his shirt and walked from the field. On his way, he applauded the other sections of the crowd, who then appeared to react angrily towards the corner of the ground from which the chants came.
Boateng said on twitter: “Shame that these things still happen?... ?Stop Racism for ever”. Support came from around the world.
Pro Patria’s Dario Alberto Polverini attempted to talk to Boateng as he departed but the midfielder carried on walking and the rest of the players and officials followed him off the pitch.
It was quickly established that play would not restart.
Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said: “We are disappointed and saddened by what has happened.


30 plays in 60 minutes!
“30 Neo Futurist Plays From Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes)” will be performed by these lively folks starting Friday night at the Kathleen Howland Theatre at 324 Cleveland Ave. NW. A hit attraction in Chicago, the 30 satiric and poignant plays are performed in random order in (hopefully) an hour, with audience participation. Performances are at 8 p.m. today and Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Thursday. Admission is $5 plus the roll of a dice.


Over half of all companies doing business in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors have experienced data breaches that potentially exposed their intellectual property or customer information, a new research report shows.
According to the report, published by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, not only have many technology providers been hit with the same sorts of data losses that have recently plagued other industries, but a large number of the firms have also failed to make sufficient investments in security technologies aimed at preventing future incidents.
Deloitte researchers said that security has long been "neglected" by technology, media and telecommunications companies despite their dependence on digital information to run their businesses.
The consulting company surveyed executives at 150 such companies and found that even in the face of public embarrassment, financial losses and potential litigation linked to data breaches, many of the businesses have yet to make necessary investments to more adequately protect their information.
According to the report, more than 50 percent of the companies surveyed admitted to having a data loss within the last 12 months, with roughly one-third of those incidents directly resulting in financial losses.
Half of the companies reporting data breaches said the incidents involved internal attacks or policy violations.
Of the firms surveyed, only 4 percent said their employers are doing enough to address the issue, and just 20 percent of respondents said that they feel confident that their companies' intellectual property is being sufficiently safeguarded.
Some 24 percent of interviewees said that the security tools they have installed are being used effectively.
While phishing schemes continue to pose a major threat to companies' customer information and brand reputations, only 18 percent of those executives surveyed said that their firms have employed technologies aimed at preventing the attacks.
Deloitte said that 37 percent of the companies it interviewed have provided additional security training to their employees within the last 12 months.
At the heart of the issue, the report said, is companies' reluctance to increase their spending on new security measures.
While 74 percent of survey respondents said that they expect to spend more time and money on improving security in 2006, the average budget increase among those companies was only 9 percent.
Fewer than 15 percent of those increasing their security budgets planned to do so by over 20 percent, Deloitte said.


Can’t wait to meet the new Doctor? You’re in luck, because the BBC has released a scene from tonight’s Doctor Who Christmas special, in which Peter Capaldi’s Time Lord regenerates into new lead Jodie Whittaker.
In the video, the Twelfth Doctor waxes poetic around the TARDIS — “Well, I suppose one more lifetime won’t kill anyone… well, except me,” he says — before transforming into the franchise’s first female Doctor. But there’s nary a moment to appreciate the wonder before Whittaker’s character finds herself in trouble.
In addition to bidding goodbye to Capaldi, the installment is also showrunner Steven Moffat’s swan song. Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch) will take the reins beginning with next season.
The special, titled “Twice Upon a Time,” airs tonight at 9/8c on BBC America. It will be followed by the retrospective Doctor Who: Farewell to Peter Capaldi.
Press PLAY above to watch the video, then hit the comments your thoughts on Whittaker’s debut.


As the largest annual single-night fundraiser in the world, Charity Preview has raised more than $111 million, including Friday night's $5.2 million, for Southeast Michigan children's charities since the Detroit Auto Dealers Association established the gala 41 years ago.
The North American Car of the Year - the Chevrolet Bolt EV - is on display during the 2017 North American International Auto Show Charity Preview on Jan. 13 at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Tara Aldea of St. Clair Shores gets comfortable in a Chevrolet Camaro during the 2017 North American International Auto Show Charity Preview on Jan. 13 at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Showgoers take photos with the Cadillac Escala Concept on , Jan. 13 during the Charity Preview at the 2017 North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit.
General Motors Co. Chairman and CEO Mary Barra (left) is interviewed by WXYZ-TV's Alicia Smith in front of the North American Car of the Year - the Chevrolet Bolt EV - on Jan. 13, during the Charity Preview at the 2017 North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Charity Preview 2017: Guests rub elbows with automotive executives and business leaders and check out the cars on Jan. 13 — the night before the opening of the North American International Show at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Recently retired TV anchor Carmen Harlan and Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. — whose children are married to each other — enjoy the Charity Preview at Cobo Center on Jan. 13.
Guests at the Charity Preview on Jan. 13 try out a driving simulator. Nearly 13,000 attended the annual fundraiser that kicks off the North American International Show at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Charity Preview 2017: Guests rub elbows with automotive executives, business leaders and others on Jan. 13 — the night before the opening of the North American International Show at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Bill Ford Jr. stops for a photo with a guest at the 2017 Charity Preview on Jan. 13 — the night before the opening of the North American International Show at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Carmen Harlan and Bill Ford Jr. gather their families during the 2017 Charity Preview for the North American International Auto Show on Jan. 13.
Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and his wife, Lisa, enjoy the 2017 Charity Preview 2017 on Jan. 13 — the night before the opening of the North American International Show at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Nearly 13,000 people turned out Jan. 13 for the 2017 Charity Preview at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Scenes from the 2017 North American International Auto Show Charity Preview on Jan. 13 at Cobo Center in Detroit.
IndyCar Series driver Helio Castroneves made the rounds at the 2017 North American International Auto Show Charity Preview on Jan. 13 at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Nearly 13,000 tickets were sold for what is billed as the world's largest annual single-night fundraiser. Automotive and other business executives, celebrities and those who wanted to see and be seen turned out Friday night at Cobo Center for the kickoff of the North American International Auto Show, which opens to the public today.
Showgoers were also treated to a performance by the legendary Beach Boys, who crooned crowd-pleasing songs about cars and love.
The Charity Preview raised nearly $5.2 million Friday night, bringing the total to more than $111 million for Southeast Michigan children's charities since the Detroit Auto Dealers Association established the gala 41 years ago, show organizers said in a news release.
The show opens at 9 a.m. today and continues through Jan. 22. Ticket prices and general show information, including transportation and parking can be found at naias.com.


SAVANNAH - About 32 workers were busy constructing the new arched bridge along the Diamond Causeway in Savannah to Skidaway Island Thursday after about a six-month delay.
About 80 feet above the shimmering surface of the intracoastal waterway, workers on the main span installed rebar to prepare the structure to be covered in concrete.
Work resumed early last week after coming to a halt in early August when it was discovered that some girders put in place did not meet design requirements.
United Contractors project manager Donald Anderson said the major issues have been resolved, and the bridge is expected to be open to traffic in June.
The bridge initially was scheduled to be open to traffic by Nov. 30, and the contractor has been paying $1,000 a day in damages since then for failing to meet the deadline.
To address some of the issues, revisions had to be made to the original plans, including the use of lightweight concrete in some areas and a change of the span's profile.
The approved changes will not impact the quality of the bridge, and it will maintain its original design speed of 55 mph, said Jill Nagel, department of transportation spokeswoman.
The $22.5 million arched bridge is being built to replace the causeway's 40-year-old drawbridge, which breaks down and is difficult to repair. Ground was broken for the project in the summer of 2010.
Shari Haldeman, general manager of Skidaway's The Landings Association, said the sooner residents no longer have to navigate through a construction zone, the better.
"We're delighted to see it get back on track," she said.


A man walks through an area damaged by severe weather in the Wednesday storm in Oklahoma City, Thursday, May 7, 2015.
Oklahoma City endured an approximately eight-hour nonstop onslaught of severe thunderstorms on Wednesday into early Thursday morning, leaving the metropolitan area strewn with debris and impassable roadways.
As tornadoes descended upon the city's southern suburbs on Wednesday night, a woman in the 16500 block of South Midwest Boulevard entered her storm shelter, as instructed by meteorologists.
However, she did not emerge alive. What's remarkable is that she was killed by flooding, not a tornado, according to KFOR-TV and the Oklahoma City Police Department.
In multiple instances, underground storm shelters — which provide vital protection against powerful tornadoes that frequently target this city in the heart of Tornado Alley — were forced from the ground by the storms late Wednesday and early Thursday.
The amount of rainfall was unprecedented for any day in May and exceeded the average monthly total. The flash flooding prompted the National Weather Service forecast office in Norman, Oklahoma to issue its first-ever "flash flood emergency" for the city, calling attention to the threat to lives and property on Wednesday night.
While Oklahoma City is no stranger to deadly tornadoes, drowning in a storm shelter is a rarity even for this city. According to Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist for the Weather Service in Oklahoma City, there is only one other such death in his office's database. That one occurred in August 2007, when the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin were passing through.
The entry in the database reads simply: "While seeking shelter from the severe weather, an elderly lady drowned while in her storm shelter."
It doesn't typically rain this much in Oklahoma City, but clearly the two deaths since 2007 point to a flood-related vulnerability in storm shelter designs that could make people more hesitant to go into underground shelters the next time a warning is issued. This could increase the number of tornado deaths and injuries.
Graph showing rainfall in Oklahoma City through the end of May 6, 2012, compared with other years.
With 7.10 inches of rain, May 6 was the third-wettest day of any calendar day on record (for any month) stretching back to 1891.
To put the staggering rainfall total in further perspective, Climate Central found that the 7.10-inch rainfall total was 71.4% of the typical rainfall that Oklahoma City would receive for the year to date.
Over the long-term, the frequency and severity of heavy precipitation events like the one on Wednesday are increasing in the U.S. due in part to manmade global warming, with the fastest increases occurring in the Northeast and Midwest.
Underground shelters can be redesigned to be more flood-resistant, but the bottom line is you're always safer in a storm shelter, except in a flash flood, in which case you should head for higher ground.


As markets here continued to tumble, negotiators for South Korea and the International Monetary Fund worked overnight Monday to hammer out details of the terms for a massive financial bailout package for the country's troubled economy. The rescue plan will require Seoul to liquidate overextended financial companies, known here as merchant banks, and sharply lower its economic growth target for next year, state-owned television reported today.
Struggling to shore up its ailing economy, South Korea suspended five more shaky finance companies and announced measures to induce foreign investment. "The government expects that the measures will help ease spreading concern in the financial market," Finance Minister Lim Chang Yuel said. But analysts said the measures, expected for days, may fall short of expectations.
A South Korean civic organization's blacklist of 164 candidates in April elections has spurred a legal and political showdown that analysts say could fundamentally alter the face of this country's young democracy. When U.S. nonprofit groups cite candidates they dislike, few take notice. But a citizens movement launched here this month to expand voter oversight, fight corruption and, in effect, "throw the bums out" has rudely awakened the cozy world of South Korean politics.


The Supreme Court on December 12 adjourned the hearing of an appeal filed by Malayalam actor Dileep, who is a key accused in hatching the conspiracy of the abduction and assault of the actress in 2017, seeking visuals of the alleged sexual assault on an actress, to January 23, 2019.
Dileep has approached the SC seeking access to the memory card containing visual evidence of the crime. In his plea, Dileep claimed that he has the right to access the images, considered to be the crucial evidence in the case.
The key accused had alleged that these images have been doctored ‘to trap’ him.
The top court added that the trial court will not frame charges against the actor till it decides the issue.
Dileep’s plea was moved in top court by Ranjeeta Rohatgi, former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s junior.
In defense of his client’s plea, Ranjeeta Rohatgi had told the court that Dileep was not named in the original charge sheet and he was framed by the alleged victim as an afterthought, due to enmity.
Rohatgi further added that Dileep has the right to obtain the clip.


Most of the growth came from retirees moving to the community located northwest of Orlando, and 99 percent of the migration was from people who already live in the United States, according to the Census figures.
Kelly, who moved to the area in 1988, remembers when the area didn’t even have a stop light, most people found jobs in other communities miles away and agriculture dominated the area. Now, the community has major chain restaurants, a hospital and locals can find work nearby. The area also has plenty of stoplights now for cars and golf carts, which are a dominant form of transportation in the golf-course saturated The Villages.
Two other Florida metro areas were among the 10 fastest-growing cities in the United States in the past year. Cape Coral-Fort Myers had a growth rate of 3.3 percent, and Punta Gorda grew by 2.8 percent.
More than an eighth of the growth from migration in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area came from outside the United States, and the rest came from domestic migration. The metro area now stands at 702,000 residents.
Ninety-five percent of the migration growth in Punta Gorda in the past year came from domestic residents, and the rest came from people living outside the United States. Its population now stands at 173,000 residents.
Two Florida metro areas had among the nation’s the largest population gains in pure numbers, not rates. South Florida grew by more than 75,000 residents, and metro Orlando gained an extra 60,000 residents. They were respectfully the 7th and 10th biggest gains in the nation. In Orlando, more than a third of the migration growth came from outside the United States. In South Florida, all the migration growth came from outside the United States since the metro area actually lost U.S.-born residents.
Census figures show that South Florida surpassed 6 million residents for the first time. It’s the nation’s eighth biggest metro area.
Nancy Stroud, a Boca Raton lawyer whose practice focuses on land use, said the milestone strengthens the need for smart growth and protections for the environment in South Florida.
“That means better funding and respect for the value of planning and regulation, including from the state level,” Stroud said.


Any of us, he said, can affect a certain kind of religiosity without sincerity; any of us can be tempted to put on the trappings of faith without the interior disposition. Any of us can be tempted to give the appearance of love when, in truth, we do not love.
Real faith grows when we have the humility and the honesty to profess what we really believe, to speak what we really know, and to stand before God and one another as we really are.
Jesus transforms us, Newman taught, when we come before him as we are.
That lesson resonates with many Catholics this year. The past six months have proven difficult. The Church faces a crisis that does not need ongoing enumeration. But it is a crisis in which sincerity has come into question, in which trust has been eroded, and in which many Catholics are no longer certain who they can believe and what they can trust.
And, for at least some Catholics, it has occasioned a crisis of faith itself.
Advent is the spiritual remedy to that crisis.
Christ came into the world because sin is real and because he sets us free from sin. This Advent, we need to remember that.
“In coming among us, he brought us and continues to offer us the gift of his love and his salvation,” Benedict said.
That we are marred by sin should be no surprise. Advent reminds us that sin is defeated in the Messiah who came into the world at Christmas and who will come again.
In fact, the trying afflictions of the present moment are exactly why Jesus has come: because sin exists in the world, even among members of the Church. It is Christ in whom we can place our trust — because Christ is the one who came into the world to defeat sin and death through his own passion.
Advent also reminds us that the Church, the Body of Christ, is human and divine, just as Christ himself is; that the holiness of the Church does not depend on the holiness of her members or ministers; that even as she must follow a path of penance and renewal, she is more than what we can see and especially more than the headlines of recent months.
There is a danger, amid the scandal of the moment, that we might reduce our vision of the Church to the sociological, that we might see only the scandal and not the grace. Christ is present to us in and through his Church — even if actions undertaken in the Church’s own name, set amid the disordering chaos of sin, are the source of our pain, or even of our despair. That is the scandalous proposition of the Gospel.
Advent reminds us that the Church is Christ’s Mystical Body and that even as her fallen humanity is on full display, she is nonetheless the sacrament of our salvation. The Church, the Body of Christ, is a source of grace, even as she is in need of grace.
Jesus has come into the world, and he is coming again. He is present, even in our great difficulty. He loves as we are, and he wishes to transform us. Advent is here.


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Nice acre lot in Citrus Springs. Seller financing possible with $7500 down.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is working together with Saudi Arabia to unify the Syrian opposition, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying on Friday.
Lavrov was speaking at a meeting with United Nations special envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, who is visiting Moscow.
De Mistura said a new Syrian constitution will be one of the main items on the agenda for UN-sponsored talks in Geneva next week between opposing sides in the Syria conflict, RIA reported.


PESHAWAR: Pakistan Junior Squash team left for Toronto to participate in Canadian Junior Open and US Junior Open starting from December 8.
Pakistani squad consists of Khushal Riaz, Bilal Khan, Rashid Dault and coach Wazir Khan. They will participate in under 17 Junior Squash Tournament until December 11. Riaz Khan, a student of the Edwardes Collage Peshawar, will also participate in US Under-17 category in Boston.
Riaz is Pakistan number two in his age players, while in Canadian 64-player ranking he is number 10 and in US Junior Open Squash Championship, out of 128 players he is ranked 20th.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2018.


AMD has just released a new ATI Catalyst 8.5 driver for Radeon graphics cards - we check out performance under XP and Vista.
We're not far away from going 'out with the old and in with the new' as the launch of the 4k series of AMD graphics card close in upon us. This month, looking through the release notes for the latest incarnation of Catalyst drivers we see that a few performance increases have been promised.
Maybe AMD are hard at work on the 4k series of cards and have figured out how to extract some more power out of the aging 3k ones in the process.
We'll see if these performance increases translate to any of the games we use.


She shot to fame playing the hot-blooded Colombian wife of Ed O'Neill on ABC's hit Modern Family and just received the SAG Award along with the rest of the show's cast for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Here are five things you probably don't know about scene stealer Sofia Vergara!
1. Was discovered as a teen in her hometown in Colombia when someone casting a Pepsi commercial spotted her in a bikini walking on a beach.
2. Before her acting took off, she attended school to become a dentist.
3.Says her regular food splurge is cake -- all kinds of it. "I love it," she told Shape magazine. "Vanilla cake, angel food cake, chocolate cake. For me and my son, buying cake at the grocery store is like buying milk. We always have it in the house."
4. At one point considered getting breast-reduction surgery, but says her mother talked her out of it, saying: "God is going to punish you if you cut them."
5. Made a full recovery from thyroid cancer after a diagnosis in 2000.


An article about school violence has been circulating through e-mail for several weeks and has caused quite a buzz in the African-American community online.
In "School Shootings and White Denial," Tim Wise asserts that whites have ignored problems of dysfunction and violence in their own communities for years. Yet after each school shooting, there is an echo of the same refrain: "Things like this just don't happen here."
The article, published in AlterNet.org, asserts that whites have been "lulled into a false sense of security." This, despite the high-profile shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado – as well as others in Kentucky, Oregon and, most recently, two in California.
"We ignore the warning signs, because in our minds the warning signs don't live in our neighborhood, but across town, in that place where we lock our car doors on the rare occasion we have to drive there," Wise writes.
A follow-up piece by Akilah Monifa points out that this opinion is something that people of color have been "quietly thinking and surreptitiously discussing for years." Yet, the original article was written by a white man.
Sadly, the second school shooting at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California – a predominantly white school – seems to underscore Wise's point.
Layoffs in distance learning: ECollege, a distance education learning company, announced last week that it will lay off 35 of its 330 employees.
ECollege supplies software, marketing and technical support to schools that want to provide online courses to their students.
The company recently lowered its earnings forecast for the first quarter and expects to lose up to $5.5 million, on revenue of up to $4.2 million, the Associated Press reported.
CEO Oakleigh Thorne said that eCollege has attracted fewer customers because some schools are designing their own online courses.
Online or else: This fall, the University of Dayton will require all prospective students to submit an online application.
The Catholic university is the second school in the country to ditch paper applications. West Virginia Wesleyan College was the first to do so last year.
"With this step, Dayton is again establishing a precedent that will soon become common practice," Richard Hesel, principal of Art & Science Group, said in a statement. "For all intents and purposes, the paper application will disappear within five years. Dayton is just several giant steps ahead of the inevitable."
Incoming students are also invited to meet their roommates in advance in an online "virtual residence hall." The school is also installing a wireless network.
Ed-Sec visits San Francisco: On Tuesday, Secretary of Education Rod Paige will be in San Francisco for Sun Microsystems' Worldwide Education & Research conference. Paige will be speaking about Bush's education plan, "No Child Left Behind."
Former Secretary of Education, Lamar Alexander, will also speak at the conference.


Ireland's men's hopes of a series win over Spain were dashed as they were beaten 5-2 in the third and final clash between the teams in Santander.
The Irish had regrouped from Tuesday's 2-1 defeat by Spain to earn a 3-2 victory over the hosts in Thursday's clash in Santander.
Ronan Gormley put Ireland ahead but the hosts recovered to take a 3-1 lead by the interval.
Spain extended their lead to 5-1 before Conor Harte pulled a goal back.
On Thursday, the Irish fought back from a goal down on two occasions to win with Conor Harte, Drew Carlisle and David Carson on target.
David Harte made a great save in the closing seconds to ensure the win.
Coach Paul Revington guided the Irish in Spain and he will step down in July after the end of the Celtic Cup and further Tests against South Africa and Belgium.
Several experienced players are missing part or all of the itinerary.


Sniper Azad Cudi fought with the Kurdish forces against ISIS and claims he killed hundreds of the jihadis as he helped to stem their advance in his new book.
A sniper who fought with the Kurdish forces against ISIS has claimed he killed hundreds of the jihadis as he helped to stem their advance.
Azad Cudi traveled to Syria in 2013 to fight with the YPG forces after they came into conflict with ISIS following the outbreak of civil war in the country.
The 34-year-old has now written a book giving his account of how the Kurdish forces’ snipers held the bloodthirsty terrorists at bay against impossible odds.
‘Long Shot: The Inside Story of the Snipers Who Broke ISIS’ focuses on the battle for the town Kobani, in northern Syria.
Cudi originally went to Syria to help as a social worker but soon volunteered to fight with the YPG.
In an extract released by his publisher, he writes that around 12,000 ISIS fighters attacked Kobani in 2014 and were faced by just 2,500 men and women of the YPG.
The YPG are renowned for having mixed male and female units with women equal status when it comes to combat.
ISIS were equipped with artillery, mortars, tanks and heavy machine guns, writes Cudi.
They also had mobile battle kitchens and surgeries, even social media managers and investment specialists to manage their trade in pillaged oil and artifacts, writes Cudi.
“We lacked the most basic equipment, right down to binoculars and radios, ate whatever we found in the kitchens of abandoned houses and armed ourselves with forty-year-old Kalashnikovs and a few boxes of ammunition.
“If surviving these odds was already a figurative long shot, our meagre tools ensured it would also require literal ones.
Cudi claims to have personally killed 250 ISIS fighters while a fellow sniper shot dead as many as 500.


CARSON, Los Angeles County -- If falling behind 21-0 in the first quarter wasn't difficult enough to overcome, try adding four turnovers - against a 15-0 team.
Despite it all, Sacred Heart Prep-Atherton's football team put itself in a position to win the CIF State Division III Bowl game Saturday against Corona del Mar-Newport Beach at the StubHub Center.
But ultimately, as coach Pete Lavorato said after a 27-15 defeat, "We just couldn't quite get it done."
"It was frustrating," he said. "We'd get down near the end zone and something would happen, whether a penalty or turnover or something. ... As I told the kids afterward, some things don't go your way. That said, they played better than we did. They deserved to win."
Corona del Mar got 128 yards rushing from Cole Martin, two first-quarter touchdown passes by Luke Napolitano and a 58-yard interception return for a score by Barrett Barbato.
The Gators (13-2) got their scoring on an interception return by linebacker Andrew Robinson and a scintillating run by Ben Burr-Kirven in the second quarter to close to 21-15 by halftime.
Sacred Heart Prep junior Ben Burr-Kirven - who had his team's lone offensive TD - is tackled by Parker Chase.
But three second-half fumbles and a key illegal shift penalty in the red zone did in the Central Coast Section and Northern California champs.
All this occurred a week after the Gators played a nearly perfect game in a 42-7 win over El Cerrito.
"We haven't turned the ball over much all season," Lavorato said. "What are you going to do? The kids never quit and showed great effort and resiliency."
Corona del Mar coach Scott Meyer said he wasn't surprised by the comeback.
"That's a championship team," he said of SHP. "We were never comfortable with that lead. We knew they had a lot of fight."
The Sea Kings scored first on a 6-yard pass from Napolitano to Bo St. Geme, then made it 14-0 on Napolitano's 5-yard pass to H-back Connor Sage. The Gators' nightmare start was finished off when Mason Randall's pass was intercepted by Barbato, who zipped down the SHP sideline.
The Gators got that score back when a Napolitano pass slipped through the hands of a receiver into the mitts of Robinson, who returned it 37 yards for a TD. After Corona del Mar jumped offside on the extra point, SHP sent out its offense and Burr-Kirven leaped in to make it 21-8. Burr-Kirven, who rushed for 161 yards and four scores against El Cerrito, was just getting started. He got some running room around the left edge, made two sensational moves and sprinted the final 25 yards untouched to complete a 47-yard TD run.
Burr-Kirven finished with 77 yards rushing, 16 tackles and a forced fumble.
"We saw him on film and he jumped out on us," Meyer said of Burr-Kirven. "We knew he was special, and he definitely showed that he's one of the best players we've faced."
In the Division II final, Chaminade-West Hills (Los Angeles County) defeated Enterprise-Redding 41-9.


March 28, 2015 kclark, Wellington, westpbc.
WELLINGTON — In his closing comments at this week’s Village Council meeting, Councilman Matt Willhite brought up the village’s garbage and recycling contract that’s out for bid.
Apparently referencing a Palm Beach Post report this month, Willhite said council members, including himself, acted in an “appropriate” manner when they decided to change bidding rules in February to allow Southern Waste Systems to vie for the village’s trash contract, worth in excess of $30 million.
He asserted again that a second company benefited from the council’s decision to alter the bid requirements but, as The Post previously reported on this blog, it’s unclear whether the rule change was a factor in FCC SA’s interest.


Rich Tosches has kept tabs on our biggest stories, like homeless camping.
Dammit to hell, Rich Tosches. Why have you put me in this position, doing your dirty work for you?
How is it that I have to inform your readers this way about your departure as a columnist for the Independent?
What will it take to change the circumstances, erase the chalkboard, call this whole deal an April Fool's joke (since April 1 is your birthday), and start over once again with another clean slate?
We know that answer. It's too late to turn back. So here goes.
Richard M. Tosches, who came to this town 21 years ago looking for a good place to raise his kids — Los Angeles wasn't, though writing columns and features at the L.A. Times was a good gig — probably has written his last regular column for a Colorado Springs newspaper.
"Ranger Rich" actually wrote that final piece for the Indy's Jan. 15 issue, giving no hint that it might be his swan song. He took some shots at his latest favorite target, Mayor Steve Bach, ending this way: "I sincerely hope he isn't mad at me for occasionally making fun of him. Although I'm looking out my window right now and see thousands of orange highway cones and dozens of massive concrete barriers blocking my driveway. What the heck is the Chris Christie Construction Company?"
Making us laugh, right to the end.
But soon after that came the final unraveling. He'd already talked about losing his passion. "It's just not as fun anymore," he said.
Longtime readers knew about Rich's dad, Nick Tosches, an old-school, small-town newspaper editor in Massachusetts. In recent years, Rich used his columns to lament Nick's slow, tortured slide into dementia. What you didn't know was how many times Rich and his wife, Susie Burghart, dropped everything to fly back to New England and deal with all that.
After Nick passed away in early February, Rich gave the eulogy, saying farewell to his father before family and friends.
Rich came home from that and eventually decided he was ready to end this chapter as well. He considered doing a goodbye column, then figured what the heck. I'm guessing he didn't want to say anything he might regret. But even more, it wouldn't be funny. Even sad funny.
So here we are. I volunteered to deliver Rich's Indy eulogy, because he deserves it. For more than two decades, nobody in the Colorado Springs media has made more people laugh, more people angry and more people offended. Readers have loved his sharp-edged wit, his total lack of reverence, his zest for taking on public officials and butchering sacred cattle, his willingness to laugh at himself.
As a fellow columnist, I valued him more. I've long believed the best columnists, who build and maintain their audience over the long term, literally shape a newspaper's personality and its relationship with readers. They also bring those readers back, time after time, looking for more.
For years, Rich used his pulpit in the Gazette to drive the community nuts. He targeted mayors, The Broadmoor, the military, Focus on the Family, Ted Haggard and others, with no holds barred. When the Gazette finally decided to stop tolerating him, he quickly jumped ship and worked for the Rocky Mountain News, then later the Denver Post. But he still was living here, and his cheeky, limit-stretching style made him a perfect match for the Independent, first from April 2004 to June 2005, then again starting in October 2007.
He never has let up on elected officials, while entertaining readers with his escapades to the zoo, reuniting with friends and so much more. He also relished making himself look silly, which he could do with ease.
We could go on and on, especially with our shared experiences. We spent nearly a month together in a house with others covering the Summer Olympics in 1996, but we agreed long ago that what happened in Atlanta should stay in Atlanta. We also sat beside each other for a year (1999-2000) at the Gazette; for me, it was like sitting next to Robin Williams, as he constantly tried out his jokes on me first. And then, for most of his final Indy stint, we continually bounced ideas off each other until the best ones stuck.
Right now, he's enjoying every opportunity to watch his youngest son's senior season playing baseball for Regis University in Denver.
Something tells me that he still might be willing to sneak back onto these pages at some point in the future, if only for old times' sake. But then again, maybe not.
"Not unless it's fun again," he'd probably say. I wanted him to talk more for this piece, but he refused, saying simply, "Just have fun."
Sorry, Rich. Saying goodbye to your writing could never be fun, and that goes for the many thousands of your Indy readers as well.
We'll keep trying to bring you back, like it or not.


Today is the shortest day of 2018 but for the night owls tonight will be the longest night of the year.
These photos were taken this morning (June 21) under a clear sky and bright Milkyway on my compulsory half hour logbook break from 5 to 5:30am at the Hills Creek Rest Area near Oturehua on the Ida Valley.
I have been working nightshift for the ODT for many years (30 this year) so have long had an interest in capturing the night sky on camera. For the last 5 years I have developed my skills with no formal training and have enjoyed the long winter nights and clear southern skies.
You can see the Southern Cross and Pointers obove and to the left of the truck.


Rihanna backstage of day 3 of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field on April 15, 2012 in Indio, California.
Dropping in on the UK's Capital XTRA over the weekend after a London performance, Ne-Yo shared some exciting info about Rihanna's upcoming eighth album, her first release since 2012's Unapologetic.
Ne-Yo's not the only one teasing, either. Rihanna recently started getting people hyped for the album on her Twitter.


Liam Neeson’s son Michael Richardson has landed a major TV role.
Michael, 23, has joined a new TV project called The Two Wolves, and will star opposite British acting heavyweights Sir Derek Jacobi and Frances Barber.
The young actor was spotted filming a scene where he arrives at a stately home on a vintage scooter, and embraces his mum, played by Barber.
He also filmed scenes with Jacobi’s character before shooting with Scott Wright by a private jet at Durham Tees Airport.
An onlooker said he was ‘totally at ease’ on set, looking every bit the natural his dad Liam is.
The Two Wolves is about two brothers who are at war with each other over their father’s inheritance.
Including flashback to Ancient Rome, it has been likened to Game Of Thrones.
The drama is set to air in 2019.
Ahead of launching his acting career, Michael changed his surname to Richardson, in favour of his late mother who died when he was just 14-years-old.
Natasha Richardson died from a head injury in a skiing accident in 2009.
Michael crowd-funded and starred in an online film series called On Our Way, and one episode sees him play a man struggling to come to terms with the death of his mother.


What does it mean to be human? A group of Brooklyn filmmakers travel the globe searching for the answer.
A Long Island Student in Egypt discusses the protests.


Image caption Thathas ag amas air a' choille air cùl baile Loch Charrann a leasachadh a chum maith na coimhearsnachd.
Fhuair Bunaid Choimhearsnachd Ghriomasaigh taic-mhaoineachaidh de cha-mhòr £140,000 bho Stòras an Fhearainn airson seann eaglais san eilean a leasachadh mar ionad coimhearsnachd.
'S ann leis an Eaglais Shaoir a bha an togalach ann an Scoitbheinn bho thùs.
Tha e air a' mhargaidh an dèidh a leasachadh mar thaigh.
Tha a' Chomhairle Coimhearsnachd an dùil a leasachadh mar oifis phuist, cafaidh agus àite cruinneachaidh.
Dheadh fearann mun cuairt air cuideachd a roinn ann an liosan do mhuinntir an àite.
Bhiodh cuideachd àite còmhdaichte ann airson margaidh far an gabhadh stuth a reic.
Air Tìr Mòr, fhuair Buidheann Coille agus Dualchais a' Chlachain air taobh siar Rois, cha-mhòr £150,000 airson Coille a' Chlachain, air cùl baile Loch Carrann, a cheannach.
Tha iad ag amas air grunn leasachaidhean a dhèanamh, airson maith eaconamaich, shòisealta agus àrainneachail na coimhearsnachd.
Am measg nam pròiseactan sin, tha croitean coille a chruthachadh, agus taigheadas air prìs reusanta a stèidheachadh do mhuinntir na coimhearsnachd.


Pay-TV service Dish has agreed to a new long-term carriage agreement with Univision, returning the Spanish-language programmer’s channels to 12.3 million subscribers after a nine-month blackout.
The deal announced Tuesday ends a standoff that began June 30 and became a major factor in recent steep subscriber losses for Dish.
Univision’s channels will also be returned to Dish’s Sling TV streaming video services, which were also affected by the blackout.
Terms of the new agreement — which restored the channels to customers Tuesday — were not disclosed. But pending litigation between the two companies was settled as part of the pact.
The blackout affected Univision-owned broadcast stations, including two in Los Angeles: KMEX-TV Channel 34 and UniMás station KFTR-TV Channel 46.
Cable channels Galavisión, Tlnovelas and FOROtv were also included in the outage. Sling TV customers also lost access to those channels as well as Univision’s sports channel.
Univision has been seeking higher fees to bring its channels closer to those charged by English-language networks, such as ABC, NBC and CBS.
Like other pay-TV providers, Dish has taken a hard line on raising the carriage fees it pays for programming as the costs are passed on to consumers who have become more sensitive to rate increases. The Englewood, Colo., company has also cited the declining popularity of Univision’s programming in the dispute.
But Dish executives acknowledged in a conference call to stock analysts last year that dropping the New York-based Univision channels probably accounted for half of the 367,000 subscribers it lost in the third quarter of 2018.
Dish saw further subscriber losses in the fourth quarter, when it dropped AT&T’s premium cable channel HBO over a fee dispute. HBO remains off Dish even as the much-anticipated final season of “Game of Thrones” approaches April 14.
Disputes over so-called carriage fees have become increasingly common in the shifting television industry.
This week, AT&T Inc. and Viacom Inc. reached a new distribution agreement, averting a blackout of Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and other channels on AT&T’s DirecTV service.
AT&T had demanded a reduction in the carriage fees charged by Viacom. The Dallas telecommunications company, which is heavily in debt, has been paying Viacom about $1 billion a year for the rights to distribute the channels.
A blackout would have deprived viewers of such popular shows as “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” and “South Park” on Comedy Central; “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Paw Patrol” on Nickelodeon; and “Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood” on VH1.


Counties that have seen the largest spike in sales represent some of the most affordable markets in either metro.
Year-over-year home price appreciation in D.C. proper will be around 5 percent.
Later recovering counties should attract more first-time buyers.
In the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore metros, single-family housing conditions in 2016 should closely mirror last year. This means DC and Baltimore home sales activity should continue to increase. Home values are expected to increase slightly in DC and remain relatively flat in Baltimore, according to Andrew Strauch, vice president of product innovation and marketing for online real estate service MRIS.
How much home can millennials afford in DC?


Ashlie Layman and Brielle Jungblut have been friends for about seven years. They've played basketball and softball together at Thomas Heyward and have developed a rapport.
So it's no surprise that they each believe this season's girls basketball team is good enough to win a SCISA Class AA state championship.
"We'd be disappointed in ourselves if we didn't," Layman said. "We really think we should go far."
"We are a really good team," Jungblut said.
The Rebels are confident because they return eight players from last season's team, which went 11-11 and lost in the first round of the Class AAA state playoffs. The playoff appearance was the school's first since 2006.
Since the team did not lose any players to graduation and has moved down in class, the Rebels began the season with high expectations, which is fine with them.
"If we are all playing our best game we can beat anybody," Jamie Malphrus said.
Malphrus, a 5-foot-10 sophomore forward, helped Thomas Heyward get off to a 5-1 start. She was the most valuable player of the Coca-Cola Classic and through the first four games she averaged 9.8 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per game. Malphrus scored six points in Saturday's Warhawk Classic 38-37 championship-game win against Holy Hill.
Malphrus isn't a year-round softball player like Layman or Jungblut, but she kept herself in shape during the off-season by running.
Last week Layman and Jungblut praised Malphrus' hot start and noted they expect all their teammates to contribute.
Layman, a junior, was second on the team in rebounding (6.5 per game), Kayla Canavan was second in scoring (8.0 ppg), and Jungblut was first in steals (6.0 spg). Caitlyn Cooler and Canavan were among last season's top scorers.
"There's always one person who has their (top) games," Layman said.
"We don't need to depend on one person," Malphrus said.
Even though the team is confident, it thinks it plays its best when it takes an early lead. A very early lead.
"Once we make the first shot of a game, our heads are just in it," Layman said.
Jungblut said the first score is important because it instantly ignites the team and gives it "an adrenaline rush."
For Layman, basketball season gives her a little break from travel softball. She's been a nonstop softball player since she was 12, so she said she's used to going from sports season to sports season (she also plays for the school's volleyball team).
Layman's travel softball team doesn't compete again until February, so she's completely devoted to basketball.
"I am more focused on basketball," she said. "Now it's just basketball.
Thomas Heyward's region season begins in January and that's when the Rebels expect to play their best. That's also when they'll begin to work toward a high seed in the state playoffs.
The Rebels acknowledge they feel some pressure to do well because they want to meet the expectations of others.
"There's that pressure of we don't want to let people down," Malphrus said.
The Rebels were ranked third in the state last week according to a www.sc.prepcountry.com poll.
Maybe the team isn't overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed because they expect the same next year.
Thomas Heyward has five juniors and four sophomores but no seniors. They already know next year's senior class will be expected to do just as well or better than this year.
Jungblut, a sophomore, said she and Layman have already talked about how sad next year's going to be because the seniors will graduate.
Layman said a good thing about this year is knowing the team won't lose any seniors so "you don't have to be sad at the end."
"Next year they'll be even bigger expectations," Layman said.


The next time you think about passing your preschooler a smartphone or tablet at the dinner table to keep them entertained, you might want to think twice.
A new study out of the University of Alberta has found that by the age of 5, children who spent two hours or more looking at a screen each day were 7.7 times more likely to meet the criteria for a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when compared to children who spent 30 minutes or less each day on a screen.
The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends limiting screen use to a maximum of one hour a day of high-quality programming for preschool children ages 2 to 5, and encourages parents to watch with their children and guide them through the experience.
The current study was conducted by gathering information from parents about their children’s screen time during their 3- and 5-year follow-ups. The research team also collected comprehensive behavioral assessments at the 5-year visit.
The researchers found that children with reported screen time in excess of two hours a day were more likely to exhibit behavioral problems by the time they turned 5, particularly poorer attention. Conversely, children who spent two hours or more each week participating in a form of structured physical activity were less likely to experience mental health issues.
Although the study could not establish a clear cause-and-effect relationship between the two, it suggests that a child’s preschool years may be a vital time for providing proper guidance on screen time limits.
Mandhane said that next, his team plans to take a closer look at how the content on children’s screens as well as the time of day in which they use devices influences their behavior.
Take advantage of built-in apps to monitor screen time exposure.
Mandhane pointed out that parents can either turn off the device themselves or set the device to automatically turn off when kids have reached their daily limit.
It’s best to avoid screens at least one hour before bed, Mandhane said.
Enrolling children in a baseball, soccer or hockey league, or even gymnastics, provides a structured form of physical activity outside of school that helps promote an active lifestyle, Mandhane said, adding that it might also improve their focus and allow them to get better, longer sleep.


2017 was a big year for Tamika Mallory.
A lifelong social justice activist, she also happens to be one of the four women who created the Facebook event which would eventually become the epic Women's March and later evolve into a movement in and of itself. In June, Mallory took the stage at the BET Awards to receive the Shine a Light Award for her fearlessness, and presenter Solange Knowles praised her for all the work that she's done in drawing attention to essential causes and for raising the voices of women of color around the world.
But Mallory is just getting started. Her next project, #NRA2DOJ, will take her to Washington on July 14 to protest the NRA. The effort is a direct response to a viral — and frankly, despicable — marketing campaign from the gun rights advocacy group, but gun control has been an issue close to Mallory's heart for a long time. She's been active in changing the policy and discussion around guns since the death of her son's father by shooting in 2001, and this new project seeks to bring even more national attention to an issue which has reached a crisis point.
Mallory took some time out of her busy schedule on July 7 to speak with POPSUGAR about the new initiative, her history with activism, and why it is that gun control should be front and center for all feminists.
POPSUGAR: Let's talk about #NRA2DOJ and the origins of that, what you see coming after the actual march and how it connects back to Women's March generally.
Tamika Mallory: I think the Women's March has taken the position that we are going to — along with partners and many voices — ensure that in this time people feel that they have a place to go to get organized, to really push back against so many things that are concerning everyone. And we want to sort of be a hub, a space particularly for new activists, people who have not been engaged in the movement in the past and are looking for avenues, sort of ways to get involved. And then we saw the ad.
We believe that we have a moral responsibility to speak out against any threat to people of color and protesters, people who are exercising their First Amendment right to protest. The NRA will be the first to say to cite the Second Amendment as a right of every citizen, but the First Amendment is also a right. They are touting themselves on their website as being one of the oldest civil rights organizations — in the spirit of what it means to be a civil rights organization, we ask the question "What are you doing to protect and defend black and brown lives?"
With women of color really helping to lead and hear the efforts of Women's March, what better group of people to really sound the alarm? We do not believe — and I think that this is really, really, really important — we are in no way claiming to be the group that has the answers or to be the most prominent organization. We are saying that we will add our voices and our resources to organizations that have existed before us, organizations that have come after us. Because we want to work in communities; we want to be unified with the movement in general and what this resistance looks like from a unified standpoint.
There are many gun violence organizations that work to end gun violence and to address the issues of gun violence in urban communities in pockets across this country, and we want to support them. We want this fight that we have taken on with the NRA to be in support of those organizations. I say that because the NRA is directly in the way of getting things like a responsible and sensible gun legislation passed in this country. They have been blocking that.
And therefore the blood of children in Chicago is on their hands, because those guns — that are not being made or manufactured in the Chicago area — are getting into the hands of young people. Because people are purchasing guns without having any necessary background checks in different states, traveling over state lines. And those guns are making it into the hands of people who are living in situations that many of us cannot even understand. This is not just about the advertisements. It is about the fact that the ad represents the war against people of color that exists in this country, and they basically have given license to people to continue to kill us and for us to continue to have the use of weapons to kill ourselves.
"I think that young women need to know that gun violence is not, in any way, isolated to men."
PS: What would you say to the young women who read POPSUGAR to help them understand how important this issue is?
TM: Well, I think what a young woman needs to understand is that our lives are in danger — everything from domestic violence to violence that may be happening in your community. When people have access to guns and they are receiving messaging from the organization that represents them as a gun owner telling them that [people] do not have the right to protest, they don't have the right to speak against any particular views that they don't necessarily agree with, your life will be in danger.
The NRA's rhetoric allows for more incidents to happen. And we cannot sit by and watch that happen. I think that young women need to know that gun violence is not, in any way, isolated to men. It can happen to you — and it has. We've seen domestic violence incidents over the years where people who are mentally troubled are allowed access to guns and have taken the lives of young women and children, families. This is an issue that concerns us all.
PS: I know your parents were founding members of National Action Network and that you started there at an early age. I'd love to hear a little bit about what that was like.
TM: Being a part of National Action Network when I was a small kid wasn't necessarily something that I considered to be cool at the time. That's the honest truth. You know, I was a young kid and going to protests and having to read all of the books and sort of being around the movement wasn't necessarily bowling and hanging out. (laughter) I'm just laughing because I'm thinking about my mom. If she was on the phone she would say say, "Yeah, you hated it," but you know, I was a young kid who really wanted to just do things that I was thought was sort of like a normal kid's life, and for me growing up in the movement, we were always engaged in some type of community activity. So I was never a kid who didn't have an understanding of how important it was to be a part of uplifting other people and working within my community.
PS: So what led you to join and ultimately work your way up there?
TM: As I got older and other young people were in the same situation that I was in, they had no choice but to be at rallies and to be involved and, you know, there were types of us activists — we found a way to make our work fun. We started to find ways to bring sort of youthfulness to the activism world, and we grew together as a family. But it was still me following in my parents' footsteps, being a part of the movement because they wanted me to be there. And it wasn't until my son's father was killed — when my son was 2 years old and his father was shot and killed — that the movement sort of became my own. I began to own what it meant to be an activist and to be involved in the movement.
PS: Correct me if I'm wrong on this — you left there to work for Joe Biden and Bill de Blasio?
TM: I think it was immediately following the Newtown shooting. The vice president started a task force to look at the nationwide crisis of gun violence, and I served on the task force as a representative for the National Action Network in my role as executive director. Our position at the time, or the perspective that I was bringing at the time, is that gun violence isn't just mass shootings — it is also shootings that are happening every day in communities, particularly in places like Chicago and Brooklyn and other urban markets across the country. So we wanted to bring that perspective to the task force and we did. It wasn't something that we did for long, you know, it was a few meetings that took place to try and talk about all the different factors of the issue and how to address gun violence. Let me put it this way: they were a few meetings to discuss how we have to approach the issue of gun violence from many different perspectives, and that is definitely the part I was involved in.
As it relates to Mayor de Blasio, I served on his transition team, specifically around criminal justice, looking at his appointees for criminal-justice-related departments in the city and also for different law enforcement agencies, the fire department — all of that was covered underneath the committee that I worked on. I have supported Mayor de Blasio — when he was running for office, I was a big supporter for him, raised money for him from young professionals, and had been a doorknocker for him.
PS: I have to ask, on a different topic: is there anything you'd like to say about Linda Sarsour's comments that the protests against Donald Trump should be a sort of jihad against the president?
TM: The only thing I have to say is that if anyone listens to the full speech and reads everything that she said, they would know that there was nothing in her speech that she said that calls for violence or harm, physical harm, to be done to anyone. And that's just the truth.
I think that some people want to say that her words are being taken out of context. I wouldn't say that her words are being taken out of context. I would say that she is purposely being demonized. It was happening before the Women's March, but it really started after the Women's March, that people have been trying to use her words against her. I hope that folks understand that just like the NRA, when the response is to create a new video and to put my face in a new video, these people are trying to expose us, and we could get hurt.
Now, we have decided that we are prepared to lay our lives down for what we believe in. We have decided that. At the same time, the question has to be "Is it worth it to other people, that one of us may be harmed because you are so tied to the idea that the rest of us don't have the right to disagree with you?" Our families also become targets when people expose us in that way. The NRA uses the language that we, as protesters, are violent, yet we are constantly dealing with the violence being inflicted upon us.


J J Shobha displayed admirable grit as she battled a ligament injury to finish the gruelling women's heptathlon in 11th place at the Olympic Games in Athens on Saturday.
The Indian athlete carried on despite pain in her left knee to aggregate 6172 points. Compatriot Soma Biswas logged 5965 points and finished 24th.
The gold went to Carolina Kuft of Sweden, who got 6952 points, while Lithuanian Austra Skujyte (6435) clinched the silver, and Great Britian's Kelly Sotherton (6424) claimed the bronze.
Shobha came up with a very creditable performance, recording her personal best in four of the seven events as she finished eleventh in a field having 34 competitors.
Shobha's effort was just 39 points short of her National record of 6211 points, set at the tenth Federation Cup Athletics Championships in New Delhi in March this year.
What made her effort even more creditable was her gritty run in the final 800m event in spite of suffering an injury in the javelin throw, the penultimate event.
In fact, Shobha got off to a poor start in the race and was lagging in seventh place before she powered her way through to the third spot to finish in 2:17.28 and gain 861 points.
Shobha had collected 5311 points going into the final event and needed 901 in the 800m to break her own National record, but the injury put paid to any such hopes. She had to be stretchered off the field after the race.
Shobha, who finished 20th after four events on Friday, rose up the standings t the 12th spot after the day's first event - the long jump - and went a rung higher following another good performance in javelin, when tragedy struck.
As she hurled the spear to a distance of 44.36 metres in her first effort to record her personal best, the Karnataka girl was seen writhing in pain and could not take any further part in the event, raising fears that she would not be able to take part in the concluding 800m.
Biswas also shone in the 800m, the closing event of the two-day competition, to achieve a personal best timing of 2 minutes, 12.27 seconds and came first in heat one.
The 26-year-old eclipsed her previous best timing of two minutes, 13.20 seconds recorded at the inter-state meet in Chennai last month to obtain 932 points.
Earlier in the day, Biswas cleared 5.92m in the long jump to cull 825 points.
Shobha leapt 6.36m in long jump to take the second place in her heat and earned 962 points.
Biswas finished sixth in her group in javelin with a throw of 44.84m while Shobha was placed ninth with an attempt of 44.36m.
The table below gives the performance of the two Indians in the seven events of the heptathlon, listed in reverse chronological order.
Note: PB stands for Personal Best, =PB stands for equals Personal Best.


Two years ago, I appeared in a TV report by Al Jazeera's China correspondent Melissa Chan about the "ghost city" of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, which illustrated — in extreme form — my somewhat eccentric hypothesis that the Chinese real estate market was being driven by the willingness of investors to buy and hold empty villas and condos indefinitely as a "store of value," like gold, an unproductive but supposedly safe place to stash their cash. Her report inspired a steady stream of journalists to make the pilgrimage out to Ordos, and helped turn my "store of value" explanation into a stock part of the discussion about China's ongoing real estate boom.
Last week, Melissa returned to Ordos to see what, if anything, had changed, and asked me to comment and help make sense of what she had seen. You can watch the segment by clicking here. Suffice it to say, Ordos remains largely empty, and construction continues — although there's a growing nervousness about how long it can last. As I've frequently said, demand in China for real estate as an unproductive "store of value" may be extremely persistent, but that doesn't mean it's sustainable. And the longer it persists, the more worrisome the overhang becomes.
After you're done with that, check out this recent TV report by Steve Engle at Bloomberg, about the debt-funded building binge that's taken place in just one relatively obscure city in Hunan. Note the guy being interviewed about halfway through who talks about all the high-rise condos that have been built and what the occupancy rates are. Steve's segment is actually a companion to a Bloomberg investigative piece about local government debt that I've mentioned before as a must-read.
Reporter: Despite obvious problems, the malls owners plan to expand.
Mall Manager: We've been trying hard to make money, and we're actually heading towards that direction. We still have some 200,000 square meters soon to be developed. I think we'll balance out as soon as those 200,000 square meters are open.
Ah yes, we're losing money on each unit we sell - but we'll make it up on volume! The solution, as always, is to keep building.


BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Nov. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Two vapers from California and Alabama have sued JUUL over injuries to their lungs caused by the JUUL e-cigarette. The two Plaintiffs, Timothy Malaney and Brendan Gorman, allege that they were deceived by JUUL about the risks of addiction and permanent harm from the JUUL nicotine vape, and that their injuries were caused by that deceit.
The Plaintiffs seek compensation and medical monitoring for a national class of vapers suffering similar injuries. Their suit, the first of its kind in the country, was filed in Los Angeles on October 26th.
Attorney Francois M. Blaudeau, MD, JD, who heads the Southern Institute for Medical & Legal Affairs, represents the Plaintiffs, together with Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC partner Lew Garrison. The Plaintiffs' Los Angeles attorney is Steven Ritcheson of Insight PLC.
The Plaintiffs claim that JUUL failed to investigate and/or warn of the potential negative health consequences of its e-cigarette. The company knew or should have known that chemicals and nicotine from the JUUL vape can cause a severe hypersensitivity reaction in the lungs, producing pneumonia and requiring hospitalization in otherwise healthy teenagers and young adults. Additionally, daily JUUL use can lead to restrictive airway disease and permanent lung injury. In patients who never smoked, or only occasionally smoked, the nicotine "hit" of JUUL can lead to nicotine addiction and behavioral dependency.
The suit asks for medical monitoring, because damage from vaping can be assessed by advanced pulmonary function testing and bronchoscopy which identify young adults at risk for long-term injury.
The Plaintiffs demand that JUUL establish a fund to medically monitor all JUUL users within the United States. That will allow the medical community, the FDA, and the world to fully understand the negative health consequences of this vaping epidemic.
Vaping and vape products have become a global phenomenon with the United States vaping market expected to exceed 5.5 billion dollars in 2018. JUUL is expected to capture 70% of this market. Recently, medical research into vaping has begun to catch up with the industry, with new medical literature being released every day illustrating the negative health effects of e-cigarettes.
While vaping was believed to be a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes, the new studies being released paint a much different picture. Not only is JUUL use found to have similar health consequences to traditional cigarette smoking, it also carries with it risks of distinct and permanent injuries not seen in regular tobacco smokers. These facts indicate that JUUL falsely advertises its product as a trendy, fun and safe alternative to traditional cigarettes.
If you or a loved one have used JUUL, we would like to talk to you. Please contact the JUUL Litigation Hotline at ph. 855-347-8590.
The lawsuit is Malaney et al. v JUUL Labs, Inc. et al., Superior Court of the State of California (Los Angeles County), No. 18 ST CV 02948.
Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC, is a national law firm, and our attorneys work for persons injured by defective products. The Southern Institute for Medical & Legal Affairs is a leader in representing patients and consumers hurt by bad drugs and dangerous devices. To determine if you should file suit, consult one of our qualified lawyers as soon as possible to understand your options. We do not charge any fees upfront. In fact, we will only charge attorney's fees if we obtain compensation for you. Call us today at ph. 855-347-8590 or visit https://hgdlawfirm.com/?s=JUUL.


Mujahid Yusof Rawa, the minister in charge of religious affairs, has carefully cultivated an image of himself as an open-minded political moderate and reformer, someone who stands apart from the rest of the extremist crowd.
Of late, however, his pronouncements and actions have led many to wonder just how deep his commitment to reform and moderation is.
His reaction to the recent International Women’s Day rally is a case in point. While he had nothing much to say about many of the legitimate issues concerning women’s rights that were raised, he expressed shock over the presence of members of the LGBT community who were also there to press for their rights.
Admittedly, the LGBT issue is controversial in Malaysia but to suggest that they were “abusing the democratic space” was simply outrageous. Clearly, he does not understand that in a democracy, everyone, including the LGBT community, has a right to be heard.
And now we have the police investigating the organisers of the rally under the Sedition Act.
Harassing women fighting for their rights is common enough in a Salafi state like Saudi Arabia. That it should happen in a secular democracy like Malaysia is cause for concern.
In the short span of a few months, Mujahid’s journey as a minister in Malaysia Baru has taken him from standing alongside a transgender activist and pleading with the public not to discriminate against the LGBT community, to open hostility against them.
He has gone from championing human rights to calling for greater restrictions on our democratic space. And he has shifted from insisting that Jakim and other Islamic agencies should be reformed to empowering them yet further.
Indeed, he is now defending Jakim’s excessive RM810 million budget as reasonable and justified.
Instead of moderating the worst excesses of agencies like Jakim, which he said was one of his priorities, he is allowing them to slowly radicalise his political views.
No surprise then that Mujahid met recently with the infamous Salafist preacher Zakir Naik, a fugitive wanted abroad for terrorism-related and money laundering offences and who remains blacklisted by several countries.
After the meeting, Mujahid shocked many Malaysians by declaring Naik, who he once criticised for demeaning other faiths, as “an inspiration”.
How Mujahid can bestow his admiration on the same man who, convinced that Umno would win re-election, argued that it is better for Muslims to support a corrupt Muslim regime than an honest one that includes non-Muslims is also inexplicable.
Of course, as soon as Umno lost power, Naik rushed over to kiss Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s hand and ingratiate himself with the new government.
His confidence in the absolute gullibility of Malaysia’s ruling elites was clearly not misplaced. Heroes, it seems, come quite cheaply in Malaysia.
Mujahid has since tried to justify his meeting as an attempt to educate Naik about the country’s Islamic administration. Few will be fooled by such a facile explanation.
Now that Mujahid has anointed Naik as a worthy role model, in effect Malaysia Baru’s new inspirer-in-chief, every ceramah door in the country will be open to him and his extremist teachings.
Don’t be surprised if Naik soon emerges as the most influential Islamic voice in the nation; quite a coup for a fugitive but what a setback for national unity!
But let’s face it: when it comes to Muslim radicals, the ruling elites seem to have tunnel vision. Even the police seem to go out of their way to avoid confronting the ugly reality that Malaysia is far too tolerant of extremism.
In explaining the increasing number of terrorists who use Malaysia as a base, for example, the police chief suggested that it was due to the fact that Malaysia has good air links with the rest of the world, as if somehow Malaysia is the only well-connected country in the region.
The fact is terrorists choose Malaysia as their base of operations because they know that the religious culture here is more accommodating and supportive. Extremists only have to don the right religious garb and speak the same Ketuanan Melayu language and they are in.
Naik should have been kicked out of the country the moment Pakatan Harapan came to power. That he remains here – despite his fugitive status, his unsavoury background, his alleged links to terrorists, his taunting of religious minorities and his disgraceful support for the former regime – is just another indication of the misplaced priorities of Malaysia’s political elites.
Whatever it is, it’s a sad day for Malaysia when Mujahid, someone we were all hoping would help moderate the trend towards religious extremism in our nation, draws inspiration from the likes of Naik.
It really makes you wonder what lurks behind the reformist façade of some of these PH leaders.


The demand for electric vehicles (EVs) in Norway — which accounted for nearly one-third of all new cars sold in the country in 2018 — has exceeded their supply, with some consumers having to wait until 2020 or beyond to get their EV of choice. Prices for used models of the most popular EVs are also seeing an uptick.
Why it matters: In a 2016 study, only 4% of Norwegian EV owners indicated that they might go back to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) in the future. The experience seems to prove what was observed in the case of the transition to smartphones: Once users adjust to newer technology — even at significantly higher costs — they don’t want to go back.
Background: Because renewable energy already accounts for an 98% of its electricity mix, Norway has tried to decarbonize further by focusing on other sectors, including road transportation, which produces about 17% of the country's carbon emissions.
Efforts started in the '90s with incentives for zero-emission vehicles in the form of tax breaks, parking-related subsidies, access to public transport lanes, toll roads, and ferries. EVs started to make greater inroads into the Norwegian market in 2012–2013, when larger EVs with longer driving ranges were introduced, thereby addressing consumers’ range-anxiety concerns. The introduction of Tesla’s Model S in particular switched things to a different gear.
A key enabler was Norway’s very high standard taxes for ICEVs, ranging from approximately 20% to 40% depending on the weight of the car and estimated emissions. The various subsidies stacked together along with this avoided tax chipped away at the incremental cost of an EV compared to a conventional ICEV.
The development of a public charging infrastructure further allayed the range anxiety of consumers.
The bottom line: The Norwegian experience with EVs seems to indicate four key takeaways: EVs become the preferred choice of most consumers once they try them; range anxiety can be addressed; the electricity grid was able to absorb the additional demand for electricity in the short run; and perhaps most important, temporary subsidies and incentives can kickstart the adoption of new green technology.
Magnus Korpaas is a professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Apurba Sakti is a research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors.


GARY BREEN has been voted Coventry City?s Player of the Season.
The Irish international centre-half won the prestigious award - as voted for by the fans - at the club?s presentation evening last night.
Breen, who has become a key member of the Sky Blues? back line, has also been voted Player of the Year by City?s London Supporters? Club.
Teenage goalkeeper Chris Kirkland, meanwhile, scooped the Players? Player of the Year award and the accolade of Most Improved Player after making such an outstanding impact in the first team, including displacing Magnus Hedman.
Goal of the Season went to John Hartson for his header against Sunderland at Highfield Road last month and the top goalscorer award is yet to be decided with the last game of the season left to play.
Craig Bellamy is currently leading the race for the prize with eight goals to his name with Moustapha Hadji close behind with seven and Hartson following up with six.
Manager Gordon Strachan endorsed the fans? vote for Player of the Season, revealing that Breen was one of only five players from his entire squad that could say they had achieved something positive on a personal level this season.
?I made a statement to the players on Friday about the overall season we have had and told them that I thought four or five of them, to a certain extent at least, could say they had done better this year in terms of improving their ability or standing in the game, and Gary Breen was one of them.?
The London Supporters? Club award will be presented to Breen at Saturday?s game with Bradford City. The award is voted for on a game by game basis throughout the season, covering 43 league and cup matches and 2,688 vote were cast for 23 players.
Second place went to David Thompson and Chris Kirkland was third, but Breen joins an eminent list of previous winners including, among others, Gary McAllister, Dion Dublin, Steve Ogrizovic and Tommy Hutchison.


Although Wells Fargo is an excellent company, Berkshire Hathaway might be the best long-term stock to add to your portfolio.
Don't get me wrong -- Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) is one of the best-run banks in the world and still has strong potential for growth. The bank is more profitable than the rest of the big four and has done a much better job of managing risk. However, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) (NYSE:BRK-B) is arguably the best stock to buy for the long run, and would make a smart addition to anyone's long-term portfolio.
In addition to the fact that these are all great businesses, Berkshire's collection of subsidiaries gives it several competitive advantages. An obvious advantage is diversification -- just because one or two of Berkshire's businesses experience tough times doesn't mean the others will be in the same predicament. Plus, many of Berkshire's businesses are recession-resistant. If the economy were to fall into recession, businesses like Pampered Chef would likely see revenue drop. However, businesses like Geico and Berkshire Hathaway Energy would do just fine.
Another advantage is financial flexibility. Since these businesses are part of the same company, Berkshire can choose to use their profits wherever they're needed. For example, if Duracell produces a higher profit than it needs to reinvest in its business, Berkshire can choose to use the money to help expand NetJets. Or, it can set profits from its businesses aside for future acquisitions or stock purchases. Buffett likes to have an 11-figure cash reserve at all times, and these subsidiaries create 61 sources that can potentially fuel this stockpile.
And last but not least, one of Berkshire's largest stock positions is Warren Buffett's favorite bank: Wells Fargo. Berkshire has been building a position in Wells Fargo for some time now, beginning with a $290 million investment in 1990. Now, Berkshire owns a stake in the bank worth $24.5 billion as of the company's latest SEC filings. In fact, the value of Berkshire's Wells Fargo stock makes up more than 7% of its total market cap as of this writing.
In his latest letter to Berkshire shareholders, Buffett emphasized that the company's willingness to invest large amounts of money in non-controlling stakes (like Wells Fargo) is a big advantage over peers. Not only does this broaden the company's potential investment pool from the companies it can buy in full to include any publicly traded stocks, but it also gives Berkshire more liquid assets that it could sell quickly if necessary. For example, if a massive and lucrative acquisition opportunity came up, Berkshire has more than $100 billion worth of stock it could potentially sell to finance it.
My point is that if you're building a long-term stock portfolio, an investment in Berkshire can get you into a diverse assortment of great businesses and stocks with a single investment. And with Warren Buffett and his expert stock-pickers making the company's investment decisions, the company should continue to produce market-beating performance for decades to come. For these reasons, I feel that Berkshire Hathaway is a great foundation on which to build your portfolio.


WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - New U.S. single-family home sales fell to near a one-year low in September after two straight months of gains, suggesting a temporary cooling in the market for new houses.
The Commerce Department said on Monday sales dropped 11.5 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 468,000 units, the lowest level since November 2014. August's sales pace was revised down to 529,000 units from the previously reported 552,000 units.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for 7.8 per cent of the market, slipping to a rate of 550,000 units. Sales were up 2.0 per cent compared to September of last year.
The moderation in new home sales is likely to be temporary as other housing reports have painted an upbeat picture of the sector. In addition, new home sales tend to be volatile month to month because they are drawn from a small sample.
September data on existing home sales, home builder confidence and housing starts have been fairly strong.
A sturdy housing market is supporting consumer spending through an increase in household wealth, which is helping to soften the blow on the economy from faltering global growth, a strong dollar and weak capital spending in the energy sector.
Efforts by businesses to reduce an inventory bloat also have weighed on growth, leaving gross domestic product growth estimates for the third quarter running below a 2.0 per cent annualized rate.
The economy grew at a 3.9 per cent rate in the second quarter. The government will publish its advance third-quarter GDP estimate on Thursday.
New home sales tumbled 61.8 per cent in the Northeast to the lowest level since April. Sales declined 6.7 per cent in the West and were down 8.7 per cent in the populous South. In the Midwest, sales fell 8.3 per cent.
With sales weak, the stock of new houses for sale increased 4.2 per cent to 225,000 last month, the highest level since March 2010. Still, supply remains less than half of what it was at the height of the housing boom.
At September's sales pace it would take 5.8 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, up from 4.9 months in August. The median price of a new home rose 13.5 percent from a year ago to US$296,900.


U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
What if there are no structural flaws? What if the market is working as it is supposed to?
That’s certainly the evidence in the U.S. from the last two years. Over this time, the benefits of economic growth have been shared more widely.
In 2015, median U.S. household incomes rose by 5.2 percent. That was the fastest surge in percentage terms since the U.S. Census Bureau began keeping records in the 1960s. Women living alone saw their incomes rise by 8.7 percent. Median incomes for American Hispanics rose by 6.1 percent. Immigrants’ incomes, excluding naturalized citizens, jumped by over 10 percent.
The numbers for 2016 have just been released by the U.S. Census Bureau, and the trends are pretty much the same. Median U.S. household income rose another 3.2 percent, after inflation, to its highest level ever. The poverty rate fell some more. The share of national income going to labour is now rising, while the share going to capital is falling.
The evidence from the past two years strongly supports those who have argued all along that income has not decoupled from productivity. A wide range of economists, including Martin Feldstein, Stephen Rose, Edward Lazear, Joao Paulo Pessoa, John Van Reenen, Richard Anderson of the St. Louis Fed, and a team from Goldman Sachs, have produced studies showing wages tracking very predictably with productivity.
If anything, wages are a little higher than you’d expect from looking at the productivity and inflation numbers alone.
The problem of the American middle-class squeeze, in short, may not be with how the fruits of productivity are distributed, but the fact that there isn’t much productivity growth at all. It’s not that a rising tide doesn’t lift all boats; it’s that the tide is not rising fast enough.
For those interested, Shawn Sprague has a good summary of the data at the U.S. Labor Department’s “Beyond the Numbers.” He shows conclusively that during this recovery we’ve endured a historically low labour productivity growth rate of 1.1 percent. By some estimates, if productivity increases had kept pace with the mid-20th-century norm, median incomes would be US$40,000 higher than they are today.
Today politics is polarizing to the populist left and the populist right. But if productivity is the problem, what we actually need is a resurgence of the moderates. The moderate-left policies of Barack Obama must have had something to do with the middle-income gains of the last two years. Moderate Democrats can plausibly argue that government should not be interfering in the markets, but it should be addressing the inequalities that are the result of deeper social forces. There is still a yawning gap dividing the median Asian-American household, which makes US$81,000 a year; the median white household, which makes US$65,000; and the median African-American household, which makes US$39,490.
Moderate Republicans can argue that while government should be active in boosting human capital, and in helping rural America, most of what’s needed is more dynamic capitalism—more trade, more immigration, more free competition, fewer regulatory burdens, more growth.


The clocks go back this weekend, marking the transition from sun-speckled autumn dusks to several months of dark nights.
The end of British summertime, and the arrival of gloomy mornings and evenings can leave many in an equally miserable mood - which is why lighting at home becomes crucial at this time of year. 2016, after all, has been the year of hygge - the Danish concept of cosy living - of which lighting is a critical element (Danes burn more candles per head than anywhere in Europe).
Turning your home into a ‘hygge’ winter haven might mean rethinking the distribution of your lamps and shades, or simply getting rid of old bulbs.
“There’s no doubt that our needs change as winter sets in, and given light affects our mood so much, it’s something you need to get right,” says George Clarke, the architect best known for his renovation series Restoration Man and Amazing Spaces.
Choosing larger lampshades can create soft, indirect light, and placing light sources in the corners of the room helps to avoid shadows.
Exposed bulbs, and crystal, glass or metal shades and stands can give a harsh light, she says, so experiment with mixing materials.
Warm colours such as yellows and golds - see Matthew Williamson’s gold pineapple lamp for Debenhams, £80 - can enhance a cosy glow.
Battling wintry nights isn’t a pursuit limited to the indoors - lighting up the home should start at your porch. A “really nice light hanging over the doorway on a sensor is perfect - it’s a more welcoming way of returning home,” says Clarke. Careful consideration should also extend to the garden, as “just because it’s winter, you don’t want to look out of your doors and see a black mass of space.” Positioning uplights in trees, and low level bulbs to cast out a flood of light across the grass can help to “bring the garden to life during the darkest five months of the year,” he advises.
Choosing the right lightbulbs can also be surprisingly transformative to the feel of a room, says Clarke.
He says the first place to start is replacing any old bulbs with LEDs, which are significantly more efficient but have shed their reputation for giving off a cold blue light.
The days of bog standard bulbs are over - most now come in a range of different colour temperatures, making the warmth of your home more malleable. A lower temperature of about 2700k gives a warm white light. Clarke says the optimum mixture for the post-summer months is warm light with “a touch of cooler, bluer light” and warns against “blasting yellow light as if you’re in the Mediterranean” as the contrast with the weather outside will be too stark.
Paparozzi says Tala’s Minerva LED bulbs offer a blue-tinged light that is not only “fantastic in terms of saving on your energy bills,” but creates the right balance of cold and warmth. The range is also E27, which means that the bulbs can be housed in fittings from spotlights to table lamps.
Lighting decisions must be made with consideration of how a room will be used - full blast may be fine for the kitchen, for example, but will kill the atmosphere over the dinner table.
Dimmer switches can help with versatility, but if you don’t have these, smoked glass, as in House Doctor’s Note table lamp (£180, amara.com) can provide the same warming effect.
Meanwhile, increasing numbers of us are now using ‘smart’ lighting systems which allow us to control the mix of temperatures and brightness in our homes wirelessly from our phones.
The new Philips’ Hue system involve replacing your existing bulbs with their internet-enabled versions, featuring 16million colours that can be set and changed with a tap of a button.
Some four million UK households are now ‘smart homes’, according to 2015 research - no wonder given our every day lives are getting busier, says Clarke. “Using connected lightbulbs allows you to have the full spectrum of white light at your fingertips, and making artificial lighting part of your daily routine can work wonders for how you feel,” says Clarke. Setting bulbs to grow gradually darker at night, and slowly brighter in the mornings is another way to make the adjustment to winter weather a little less severe.


The state has achieved a sanitation coverage of 73.75 per cent and 4800 villages in Gujarat have declared themselves as ODF, Ravi stated.
A team headed by Parameswaran Iyer, secretary, Union ministry of Drinking and sanitation visited Gujarat to conduct a review about the progress made under the mission.
A total of 4800 villages in Gujarat have been declared as Open Defecation Free, stated Jayanti Ravi, Gujarat’s Principal Secretary, Sanitation, while apprising a central team Friday about the various steps been taken by the state under Swachh Bharat Mission.
A team headed by Parameswaran Iyer, secretary, Union ministry of Drinking and sanitation visited Gujarat to conduct a review about the progress made under the mission. He met chief secretary and principal secretary (sanitation) and discussed the progress made by the state towards achieving open defecation free (ODF) status, stated a government release here.
The state has achieved a sanitation coverage of 73.75 per cent and 4800 villages in Gujarat have declared themselves as ODF, Ravi stated. An exhibition showcasing various innovative IEC (Information-Education Communication) or interpersonal tools was organised by the state on the occasion. The state also made a presentation highlighting the state strategy. It was decided that 20 virtual classrooms will be set up in the state to further support this purpose.
The secretary later met with Gujarat’s chief secretary GR Aloria and held a video conference with all District Development Officers of the state, where they expressed readiness to achieve the goals of the mission soon, the release added.