Time is running out on America's ability to protect Israel from itself.
In response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress, Democratic and Republican legislators leapt to their feet in applause so often they risked incurring repetitive stress injury. But as Akiva Eldar, one of Israel’s shrewdest political commentators, observed in Haaretz, “the strength of the applause bears no relation to the genuine interests of the State of Israel.” And those interests—as well as the fundamental human and national rights of Palestinians living under occupation—are dangerously threatened by Netanyahu’s extremist policies.
As Henry Siegman demonstrates in this issue, the Netanyahu government, like too many Israeli governments before it, is adamantly opposed to a two-state solution to the conflict. The prime minister’s insistence in his speech on abandoning the 1967 lines as the basis for negotiations, on retaining sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, on long-term Israeli military control over the Jordan Valley—to cite just a few problems—is a blueprint for eternal occupation and conflict.
It is precisely that rejectionist posture that has led the most conciliatory leader in Palestinian history, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the tattered “peace process” and seek reconciliation with Hamas as well as a UN General Assembly resolution in September recognizing a Palestinian state in accordance with countless previous resolutions and long-established international law. As President Obama noted in his speech before the AIPAC lobby on May 22, there is growing impatience with the moribund negotiations not just in the Arab world but in Latin America, Europe and Asia, which is reflected in the increasing momentum behind the Palestinian push for a UN resolution.
Netanyahu may be following an extremist path, but he has keen political instincts, and his address to Congress is part of a broad Israeli offensive to kill the UN démarche and forestall even the tentative steps Obama has taken to reset American Mideast policy along more realistic lines. But as Obama made clear in his May 19 speech on the revolutions roiling the Arab world, which are inspiring fresh activism among Palestinians, time is running out on America’s ability to protect Israel from its own policies. The choice, now more starkly posed than ever, is between a new peace initiative that offers a realistic chance of success, and further isolation from the world community, and with it greater insecurity for all.
Congress may be craven in its submission to lobby pressures, but even Congress will not be able to stop growing world condemnation of an Israeli occupation that is an intolerable affront to basic human dignity. And the Arab revolts have demonstrated that America and Israel will no longer be able to rely on the collusion of corrupt Arab despots to further that occupation. If the uprisings continue and bring about a full democratic flowering, the Arab people will exert increasing pressure on their governments to stand with the Palestinians in their struggle for justice and self-determination.
In much of his May 19 speech, Obama was eloquent in affirming American support for “all who embrace genuine and inclusive democracy,” and opposition to “an attempt by any group to restrict the rights of others, and to hold power through coercion and not consent.” For these words to have meaning, he must apply them as consistently to Israel and Palestine as to Egypt and Tunisia, Bahrain and Syria. He went part of the way; in his insistence on a peace “based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,” he was—contrary to the howls of outrage from Netanyahu and his right-wing echo chamber here—restating longstanding US positions on a just solution to the conflict. But in failing to take a stand on the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, and in his rejection of what he peevishly called “symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations,” Obama signaled continued willingness to follow the Israeli government line even when it is not in America’s—or Israel’s—interests to do so.
Obama is at a crossroads: will he have the courage to withstand domestic political pressures and shortsighted Israeli policies? If he does, he will have the support not only of a growing domestic lobby for peace with justice—including an American Jewish public that is far more progressive than the hidebound AIPAC—but also that of the Arab world, as expressed through the nearly ten-year-old Arab Peace Initiative, in which all twenty-two nations of the Arab League offered full recognition of and peace with Israel if it would agree to a fair two-state solution. If he doesn’t, the consequences will be disastrous for Israel and Palestine and deeply damaging to America. Siegman makes a powerful case for Obama to enlist the support of former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush in such an effort. Whether he does or doesn’t, it’s up to Americans who seek real security and a durable peace to counter the lobby and move Obama’s administration, as well as Congress, in the right direction.


The Libyan secret agent convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing must serve a minimum of 27 years before he can apply for parole, Scottish judges ruled on Monday.
Abd al-Basit al-Migrahi is serving a life sentence in a Scottish prison after being found guilty of murdering 270 people with a bomb that blew up a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie just before Christmas 15 years ago.
Three judges from the original trial - which took place at a special court in the Netherlands - gave the minimum term ruling at the High Court in Glasgow, a court official said.
Lord Sutherland, one of the judges, said in the ruling: "Quite clearly this was a wicked act carried out in the full knowledge that the plan, if successful, would result in slaughter of many entirely innocent persons."
Al-Migrahi was originally sentenced to life in January 2001 with a recommendation that he should serve 20 years.
But under human rights laws introduced in late 2001, criminals sentenced for life must be told exactly how many years they have to serve before they can apply for parole.
Al-Migrahi's lawyer, Eddie MacKechnie, said outside the court: "As far as the future is concerned, all this has done is accent the need for us to marshal our forces to establish the innocence of this man."
"I have no doubt we will have the opportunity for a fresh appeal in due course, though it may be months away," he told Sky news.
But relatives of the victims said the minimum term was not long enough.
Kathleen and Jack Flynn lost their son John Patrick on the flight. He would have celebrated his 36th birthday on Monday.
"Twenty-seven years is one month per victim. I mean really, when you look at it, that's how short it is," Jack Flynn said.
His wife said: "We're not vindictive people, we're not looking for vengeance - we're looking for justice and justice is not 27 years."
The court official told Reuters that the judges, Lords Sutherland, McLean and Coulsfield, said the prison term would be backdated to April 1999.


Imagine a simple triad, its three notes sounded in succession, irregular in rhythm, as though their individual sounds were activated by a gentle breeze. Attracted by this sonic electromagnetic plate, other seemingly random pitches begin to agglomerate. At the end of scarcely two and a half minutes of music, you feel that you have experienced something profoundly beautiful, but also that your perceptions have been enhanced through the simple act of listening to it.
The piece is called “Fugitive Thoughts About the Alberti Bass,” drawn from a series that might best be described as a composer’s notebook, kept over a period of decades. Collectively titled “Games,” it is the work of György Kurtág, widely considered the most important Hungarian composer since Béla Bartók. “Fugitive Thoughts” and another 42 pieces for solo piano or piano duet were recorded by Hungarian Radio between 1955 and 2001 and re-engineered and released by Budapest Music Center to mark Kurtág’s 90th birthday, on Feb. 19.
When I met Kurtág nearly 45 years ago at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, he was a strikingly tall man, his pleasant countenance and easy, deferential manner giving no hint of the passionate intensity that burned within.
The respect of his colleagues was unanimous and his pupils regarded him with a blend of dread, because of the near-impossibility of meeting his lofty standards, and adulation for all he had to impart.
Some YouTube clips convey something of the rare alchemy that results when Kurtág and his brilliantly talented wife of nearly 70 years, Márta Kinsker, play the piano together.
The longest piece recorded here is 3 minutes 19 seconds, but the vast majority last less than a minute.
These highly condensed morsels seem to contain all of music, or perhaps human imagination itself, reduced to some elemental minimum. And within each is the expressive wealth we might expect from an entire symphony or opera.
Listening to them has an uncanny effect. It as though, walking through a forest, you notice a tiny seed pod and pick it up. Suddenly you become aware that what you hold between your thumb and index finger is the genome for expressing life’s experience.
L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra had not recorded any music by Johann Sebastian Bach before this new release of cantatas for solo soprano.
Under violinist and leader Michi Gaigg, this historically informed performance ensemble has focused on accompanying opera, performing regularly in several theaters in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.
The lightness and fluidity of these performances, technically impeccable without revealing any of the considerable effort behind that perfection, make one hope that more Bach sacred works will be on the group’s studio docket.
Soprano Dorothee Mields’s intonation is impeccable across the flexible range of her voice, and she has the lightness of tone for her limpid sound to hang in the air, almost evanescing into the undulating texture of the instruments on an impossibly long held note in the first aria of “Ich bin in mir vergnügt” (BWV 204).
While she does not sing in a truly straight tone, which can become grating on the ear, the vibrato is controlled enough so that each pitch of the vocal part is clear, even in the faster runs.
At the same time she has a dramatic ability to surprise, which makes the recitatives of the same cantata full of unexpected detours. Gaigg and her musicians turn on a dime to move with her as Bach paints each little contour of BWV 204’s text, a moral cantata about the joys of humble self-contentment.
L’Orfeo, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, gives a lithe performance of Bach’s often florid parts, with a rarefied sound from just 10 string players.
The mellow transverse flute has a beautiful solo outing in BWV 204, and the oboe gives mournful voice to the sighing soul in the first aria of “Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut” (BWV 199).
The realization of the continuo parts is shared among lute, harpsichord and organ to subtle and varied effect.
An excellent booklet essay by Bach scholar Klaus Hofmann describes the rediscovery, by Bach scholar Michael Maul, of the last piece recorded on this disc, an aria Bach created for the 51st birthday of Duke Wilhelm Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar in 1713.
The music can be used for all 12 verses of the dedicatory poem, each of which begins with a German translation of the Duke’s motto, “Everything with God and nothing without him.” Mields sings just four verses, with slight variations of instrumentation on each one.


Instead Of A Plastic Toothbrush, Now You Can Brush Your Teeth With… A Twig?
An old tradition is being repackaged as a sleek new startup product. We might stick with our trusty Oral-B, thank you very much.
Before the modern toothbrush existed, people cleaned their teeth by chewing on twigs–and in some parts of the world, the practice is still common. Now, a startup is trying to popularize a modern day stick-as-toothbrush in the U.S.
The small stick, called a miswak (in Arabic, it’s literally a “tooth cleaning stick”), is trimmed from a particular species of tree. The fibers happen to contain sodium bicarbonate and silica–both of which are abrasive enough to help remove stains–along with natural antiseptics, a resin that supposedly forms a protective layer over the teeth, and essential oils that can freshen breath.
To use the stick, you have to trim the end, chew until it forms bristles, and then soak it in water to create a small brush. Every few days, you trim it again.
Still, he thinks it can appeal to customers looking for something a little more natural than plastic bristles. The twigs aren’t completely environmentally-friendly–to keep them fresh and sterile, Bashar packages them in small pen-like tubes made of plastic.
They also aren’t cheap: A single miswak last 20 days, and a package of two from Miswak Club is $14.99.


Lee Mason has left Whitby Town after more than two years at the club.
The former Blyth Spartans man has signed for Northern League side North Shields, after Blues boss Chris Hardy confirmed on Tuesday evening that the midfielder had departed the Turnbull Ground.
“I haven’t seen an awful lot of Lee since I came to the club as he is one of the players who is based a bit of a way outside of the area,” Hardy told the Whitby Gazette.
“He’s one who has struggled at times to make the training commitments that I’m asking of the players.
“We’re now going to twice-weekly training and the lads who can’t make it to every session aren’t considered for match days in the same way as those who do attend.
Mason was signed from Blyth by Darren Williams early in the 2013/14 season and went on to make 102 appearances for Town, netting on 16 occasions.
He made his debut from the substitutes’ bench in a 3-0 away win at Trafford in September 2013, while his last outing in a Blues shirt was also as a substitute, in the 86th minute of the 1-1 home draw with Frickley on December 28.


Chairman Tom Mathers likened the Craig community’s feelings about the changes in the coal industry to feelings whalers had years ago when kerosene began lighting people’s lanterns.
According to Craig City Council member Ray Beck’s “unofficial count,” 562 people attended the meeting at Moffat County High School with EPA Region 8 Administrator Shaun McGrath.
Moffat County Commissioner Chuck Grobe serves on the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment’s Air Quality Control Commission. Grobe said the AQCC would work with the EPA to set the air quality standard for the state of Colorado.
The EPA’s open-comment period on standards for existing coal-fired power plants ends Dec. 1 (see cover).
Strengthening Economies Together: Danner introduced three guests, Pattie Snidow and Bob Koenen from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Peggy Schlechter from South Dakota State University’s extension office, who all work on the SET program, which focuses on strengthening regional rural economies.
The SET group focuses on areas of economic interest that stretch across county borders, including education, coal and energy, tourism and broadband.
Danner said the group met over the last 14 months to develop a regional economic plan and are now in the process of hearing comments from Craig and surrounding communities about the plan.
Danner said the plan will be dynamic to the communities they developed it for.
Maybell Store: Mary and Joe Schminkey bought the Maybell Store from Lynn Haskins. Commissioners approved a motion 3-0 to transfer the store’s liquor license to its new owners.
Youth Services Department: Commissioners approved a motion 3-0 to elect three new members to the 14th Judicial District Juvenile Services Planning Commission.
Browns Park School: Kathy Bower and Bill Leonard, who are brother and sister and both attended Browns Park School, proposed a plan to replace a rusty outside door at the school with a solid wood door. Commissioners approved a motion 3-0 to provide the Alumni Association with funds to replace the door.
Mathers said the Browns Park Alumni Association hasn’t used all of the $10,000 commissioners gave them to refurbish the school, but periodically returns to the commission to keep them abreast of developments with the project and ask for money out of that fund when necessary for improvements.
Contact Janelle O’Dea at 970-875-1795 or jodea@craigdailypress.com.


The Young and the Restless (Y&R) spoilers tease that Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) will find herself backed into a corner. Nothing is working out like Chelsea expected. She thought she could scam her way to some extra cash by stealing from Chelsea 2.0, but that plan’s falling apart. As a result, Chelsea’s relationship is also crumbling. She’ll feel the need to take drastic action as the chaos continues.
Chelsea is normally great at developing long-term strategies. As a con artist, she’s learned the tricks of the trade and knows how to play the game. However, Chelsea’s dealing with a different set of circumstances this time around. Y&R spoilers say there’s far more at stake than usual. Chelsea actually cares about Nick (Joshua Morrow), so she’s trying to keep her romance intact.
Nick and Chelsea have built a family together, but Christian’s (Jude and Ozzy McGuigen) paternity revelation could blow it all up. That could spark outrage from Victor (Eric Braeden) and put a target on Chelsea’s back. She’s fighting for the people she loves as well as trying to save her own bacon.
Since Chelsea’s whole world is in jeopardy, she’s starting to get sloppy. Chelsea’s letting her nerves get the best of her and people are starting to notice. Phyllis (Gina Tognoni), Sharon (Sharon Case) and Nick are all suspicious at this point. It won’t be long until Chelsea’s forced to face the music.
In an effort to stop the bleeding, Chelsea will do something crazy. At first, Nick’s bound to think Chelsea’s lost her mind. The Young and the Restless spoilers say Chelsea will pop the question! That’s right. Chelsea will ask Nick to marry her and we’re willing to bet she’ll want to rush the nuptials.
Perhaps Chelsea will push for quickie wedding so they can get out of town ASAP. She might think she can form a new plan on the honeymoon. Since Nick’s pretty gullible, Chelsea might even believe she can convince him to make their vacation permanent.
Bottom line, Chelsea will want to rope Nick into a commitment and figure the rest out later. She’s not thinking clearly. Chelsea’s desperation is driving her to try anything! Nick will undoubtedly be suspicious of Chelsea’s motives, but she’ll probably gush about her love for him. She could suggest she’s ready to start the next chapter together.
Will Nick get on board with the idea? Regardless, Chelsea and Nick’s union obviously isn’t meant to be! The Young and the Restless spoilers say their relationship is on the verge of destruction, so stay tuned. We’ll give you updates as other Y&R news comes in. Stick with the CBS soap and don’t forget to check CDL often for the latest Young and the Restless spoilers, updates and news.


PENTICTON, BC -- Goaltender Stuart Skinner said he was living his dream Saturday morning but he was far from asleep against the Winnipeg Jets rookies later in the day.
The goaltender stayed woke, making big save after big save and stopping 26 shots to backstop the Oilers to a 3-0 win as Edmonton improved to 2-0-0 at the 2017 Young Stars Classic in Penticton, BC.
The Oilers Rookies play again Monday here in Penticton against the Vancouver Canucks Rookies. Puck drop is 3:00 p.m. MDT.
"I'm always living the dream hanging out with these guys," Skinner said after his teammates gave him a rousing applause in the dressing room. "Just having the Oilers jersey on and every time I go on the ice, I'm living the dream."
Luke Coleman, Chad Butcher and Joe Gambardella were the goal scorers, and Evan Polei served as the energizer. He dished two crushing checks in the opening shift to set the tempo for the rest of the game.
"All the coaches tell me that's how I need to play," Polei said. "It gives other guys confidence on the ice, gives them energy and that's the role I need to play."
But Skinner, who posted the goose egg and made several brilliant saves, was the backbone of the victory.
"He made some timely saves for us at critical points of the game," said Head Coach Gerry Fleming. "Any time there was any situation where we were scrambling a little bit in our zone he killed the play which allowed us to take a breath and regroup."
The Oilers fired 38 shots on Jets netminder Jamie Phillips, killed every penalty they were handed and at the end of the day, got the job done.
"I thought it was a good game," said Fleming. "I thought our forecheck and positioning was good tonight, and I thought guys competed again tonight."
It started at drop of the puck with Polei's massive hits.
From there, it was all Oilers in the first half of the opening frame. Edmonton out-shot the Jets 6-1 at one point and was finally rewarded when Coleman scored at 6:50.
Brandon Saigeon wrapped the puck around the net, with his attempt hitting Phillips' left pad and kicking out to Coleman at the top of the key. He made no mistake, splitting the biscuit through the netminder's wickets.
Winnipeg would wake up, though, and Oilers keeper Skinner was forced to make some big saves, including what could be the save of the tournament.
With the Jets circling around the Oilers zone, a wide-open Skyler McKenzie was fed on the doorstep. Skinner stretched to his left, making an amazing glove save to keep Edmonton up by one. He ended the period with 10 saves.
"I'm feeling really good," said Skinner about his many stops. "I can't get too high, I can't get too low."
The Jets flipped the script in the second period, jumping out the gate with plenty of energy despite starting the period down a man.
After the Jets killed a Cristiano DiGiacinto penalty, Davis Koch was called for interference. The Jets did work on the ensuing power play, barraging Skinner with point shots, bodies in front and scrums. The Oilers netminder, who was clearly feeling it, stopped everything that came at him, allowing Edmonton to tilt the ice the other way with a goal by Butcher.
The tournament's leading scorer - after his three-point effort against Calgary - skated into the Jets' zone with linemates Gambardella and Kirill Maksimov joining. The three worked the puck down to Winnipeg's net, where a fortunate pass from Butcher hit a Jets defenceman's skate and bounced right back to him. Butcher slammed the puck past Phillips for an easy goal to give the Oilers a two-goal lead, despite being outshot in the period 8-3 at one point.
Gambardella later added an unassisted marker with less than two minuts to play in the game.
"I was very privileged to be put with these two guys (Maksimov and Butcher)," said Gambardella. "I thought we did a really good job of getting the puck down low and just wearing and tearing on their D."
The Oilers play the Vancouver Canucks rookies on Monday at 3 PM MDT. Watch the game live on EdmontonOilers.com.


A June 24 front-page story and photo caption misstated the name of the organization that sponsored a St. Hans' Day picnic at Lutheran Church in the Foothills on June 23. It is the Edvard Grieg Lodge of the Sons of Norway.
A photo caption with the June 24 calendar misidentified the image. The photo showed players in La Cañada High School's production of “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” not VanguardRep's La Cañada Flintridge Shakespeare Festival.


As the BSES team checked meters in some houses and detected power theft, a mob gathered and protested aggressively, they said.
A BSES team was attacked as it checked meters in some houses and detected power theft.
New Delhi: A Delhi police sub-inspector and three BSES employees were injured in a stone-throwing incident by a group of people during a raid to check power theft in Ranhola area of outer Delhi. A team of 15 BSES officials, including three women, accompanied by policemen were carrying out a loss-reduction exercise in Ranhola when the incident occurred yesterday.
A case has been registered and two persons have been arrested in connection with the attack, police said.
"Three BSES employees and sub-inspector Parveen Kumar posted at Ranhola police station were injured during the attack. The SI was hit on his head. Two accused Hari Prakash Lakra and Jogender Lakra have been arrested while other accused are absconding," said the officer.
A BSES spokesperson said it was not an isolated incident.
"Efforts of discom teams to check irregularities are often thwarted by law-defying people who function like organised gangs," he said.
Despite intensive efforts to reduce power theft, Ranhola, a village in Mundka division, continues to record massive losses of around 40 per cent, the BSES spokesperson said.
In the last two years, around 450 cases of power theft having a connected load of around 1,200 KW have been recorded in the area, he added.


TOKYO (Reuters) - Suzuki Motor Corp will shelve a plan to launch large-sized cars in 2010 and delay the start of overseas factories amid a sharp deterioration in the global auto market, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.
Suzuki and other automakers are under growing pressure to cut output and scrap capital investment plans as auto demand worldwide, including in India where Suzuki commands around half the market, declines sharply.
Suzuki had planned to introduce a big car based on “Kizashi” concept model that would have had an engine of up to 3.6 litres, in a bid to attract customers looking to upgrade from smaller vehicles.
In an interview with Reuters in September, Suzuki CEO Osamu Suzuki had flagged the likelihood for the project’s cancellation, saying it made little sense to launch a car into a shrinking segment of the market.
The Nikkei said the firm also plans to postpone plants in Thailand and Russia in 2010.
Suzuki officials were not immediately available for comment.
Shares of Suzuki rose 3.4 percent to 1,270 yen, underperforming a 4.3 percent gain in the Tokyo stock exchange’s transport equipment subindex.


What Do I Need to Lose Fat?
With so much advice and so many different diets out there, it can be confusing to figure out the easiest and most effective method for losing fat. Fitness trainer and fat-loss coach Ivica Fridrih (@ivicafridrih on Instagram) said in a recent post that most people who want to lose weight "overcomplicate the process by thinking they have to follow a specific diet or have to quit all of their favorite foods or some third unsustainable BS…" He added that it's not your fault for being confused with all the misinformation out there, especially for those just getting started on their weight-loss journeys.
If you have a couple of pounds to lose (or more), Ivica said to keep things simple, and do these three things. You'll get the best results while still enjoying life and without having to follow restrictive diet nonsense.
Consistently be in a calorie deficit: ACE-certified personal trainer Susan Niebergall (@susanniebergallfitness on Instagram) said you can calculate your calorie deficit by multiplying your bodyweight by 10 to 12. Your caloric intake should fall somewhere within these numbers. (For a more accurate target calorie number, use this formula). Eating fewer calories than your body needs will help you lose fat. You can do this by measuring your food and counting calories or with intermittent fasting.
Consume enough protein: This is important to maintain muscle mass, recover from workouts, and keep you feeling satiated. Your other calories can come from healthy carbs and fats. Aim to consume 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.
Lift: Weight training coupled with eating enough protein will help you maintain (and maybe even build) muscle so you are almost exclusively losing body fat, explained certified strength and conditioning specialist Sohee Lee. Focus on two to five sessions per week. NASM-certified personal trainer Sam Altieri said usually three to four is a sweet spot for most people. And don't be afraid to lift heavy — it won't make you bulky unless you eat too many calories.


“I AM NOT in hiding, kuya,” restaurateur and junket operator Kim Wong told this columnist on the phone Wednesday.
Wong and this columnist have known each other for three decades, the reason why he addresses me “kuya” (older brother).
Wong is one of two Chinese businessmen the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) has charged in the Department of Justice with money laundering $81 million through the country’s financial system.
The huge amount was stolen by hackers from the account of the Bangladesh central bank at the New York Federal Reserve.
Facing the same charge is Xu Weikang.
Wong called up this columnist to say he is attending the Senate hearing set March 29 at 11 a.m.
He said he arrived on Philippine Airlines flight PR 510 at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday from Singapore where he had an executive medical checkup.
“Sasabihin ko lahat ng nalalaman ko, kuya. Wala akong itatagong sikreto (I will tell everything I know. I will not keep a secret),” he said.
Wong denies the allegation of Maia Santos-Deguito, Jupiter (Makati City) branch manager of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), that he opened the accounts of four persons who turned out to be fictitious.
Deguito also claims Wong opened another account with RCBC-Jupiter for businessman William Go.
He and Go are friends, Wong admits, but he says that they have not seen each other for about 10 years.
“Granting William Go withdrew part of the laundered money from RCBC, how come Deguito didn’t report the huge withdrawal to the AMLC?” Wong said.
He said the P1.374 billion, supposedly part of the $81 million that went to Solaire casino was brought in by one of his clients, a high-stakes gambler from China.
Wong, a big-time junket operator, hosts high rollers during their stay in the country.
He said the P1 billion that was wired to the account at Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd., which he owns, eventually ended up at the casino in Midas Hotel on Roxas Blvd., Manila.
Again, Wong said he had nothing to do with the money wired to Eastern Hawaii Leisure because it was brought in by a Chinese gambler.
When I asked him why he reportedly uses many passports in his travels abroad, Wong said that they were investor passports in the Republic of Vanuatu, China and Taiwan.
“Please take note, kuya, that all those passports have only my name, Kim Wong, on them. If I were a criminal I would have had a different name for each passport,” he said.
Why Sen. Grace Poe should not be elected president was shown at the second presidential debate on Sunday.
Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte, a rival presidential candidate, asked Poe what she would do as president if she was roused from sleep after China had blown up two Philippine Coast Guard ships.
Poe said she would first get out of her bed!
The right answer would have been for her to convene the National Security Council.


The Finger Lakes Museum last weekend hosted a Boy Scout Camporee at its Branchport Discovery campus.
The Finger Lakes Museum last weekend hosted a Boy Scout Camporee at its Branchport Discovery campus. Hundreds of scouts from the Finger Lakes region participated in lacrosse, pioneering activities and a history lesson on the Civil War by presenters dressed in period garb and exhibiting genuine artifacts.
The highlight Saturday was a visit from Liberty, a female bald eagle, and her handlers, Paul and Ann Schnell from the Institute of Environmental Learning in Hilton, Monroe County. Paul relayed the story of the successful recovery of the bald eagle population after it was reduced to a single nesting pair in all of New York state less than 50 years ago. The effects of DDT, a pesticide in common use at that time, had weakened their eggshells, which were then broken by the parents during incubation. As a result, the eagle population plummeted.
The redevelopment of the former elementary school into the Discovery Campus was one of ten transformational projects recommended by the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for state funding last fall. A $2.3 million grant was awarded by the state in December. That it will all go toward the reconstruction project. The museum’s main campus is slated to break ground in nearby Keuka Lake State Park beginning in 2013.


Science fiction and fantasy take us into the unknown, which is inherently somewhat scary — but sometimes, they go way further. Last week, we shared part one of our list of the top 50 scariest science fiction and fantasy TV episodes. But now, here are the 25 scariest television episodes of all time!
To compile this list, we spent a lot of time searching, and also asked on our Facebook page. We ended up with a massive list of candidates, which we debated at great length — read the whole extensive list here. Let us know if we left out your absolute favorite, and what order you'd have ranked these in!
What it’s about: The Fringe team investigates an organ thief and discovers that he is reclaiming the donated organs of a ballerina he was obsessed with in order to bring her back to life.
Why it’s scary: Body snatching is an old fear, and one that Fringe plays off well in this episode. In one eerie scene Roland rigs up the dead woman like a marionette and makes her dance. Later in the episode he brings her back to life, and when he looks into her terrified/terrifying eyes he knows that what he’s brought back isn’t the woman he knew.
What it’s about: Based on the Damon Knight short story of the same name, this twisted episode deals with aliens who invite the human race over for dinner... except that we're on the menu.
Why it's scary: The fact that whole thing rests on a pun, which everybody knows about by now, doesn't change how creepy it actually is when you watch it. The aliens' deceptive generosity is as unnerving and terrible when you see it coming, as when you don't.
23) Star Trek, "Wolf in the Fold"
What it's about: Mr. Scott is accused of murdering a woman on the peaceful planet of Argelius II — but when he's put on trial, Kirk and Spock soon realize they're dealing with something older and deadlier: the incorporeal entity that was once known on Earth as Jack the Ripper.
Why it's scary: This episode gets justly criticized for its plot holes and misogyny, but the good old-fashioned scares still work just fine, including the unnerving end sequence where the Enterprise itself is possessed by the terrible spirit of Redjac.
What it's about: The sixth episode of the series has the Torchwood crew investigating the disappearances of seventeen people in the rural Brecon Beacons.
Why it's scary: Torchwood struggled a lot with tone in the first few episodes, but things really seemed to click in "Countrycide." The rural setting creates an isolated tone, and contrasts the natural beauty with the horror of the events. The characters actually seem developed and three-dimensional. And the reveal is both grisly and shocking — perfectly subverting expectations.
What it’s about: The Doctor tries to take a trip to a waterfall made of sapphires, but his tour-shuttle stalls, and something nasty gets inside. It takes over the body of a woman passenger, mimicking everyone on board before settling on the Doctor himself.
Why it’s scary: This is psychological horror at its best. We never actually see the episode's monster, and the really frightening part of the episode is how the people on the shuttle behave. Panic and hysteria take over and everyone argues over what to do, with the majority wanting to throw the Doctor out onto the airless, deadly planet's surface.
What it’s about: Directed by Martin Scorsese, this 1986 episode follows a cynical horror writer (Sam Waterston) who appears on television and claims to be immune to being scared by any supernatural creatures. But after the writer snubs an over-eager young fan, he starts seeing a terrifying phantom (Tim Robbins) in every mirror — and it seems to be coming closer and closer each time.
Why it’s scary: As Dinosaur Dracula writes, the scares in this episode do not stop — it's a relentless roller coaster of terror from beginning to end, and it plays with both visceral and psychological fears. The final twist is both bleak and unnerving.
19) Twin Peaks, "Lonely Souls"
What it’s about: This is the one where we find out who killed Laura Palmer. And we finally glimpse the true horror of BOB, the nightmarish figure at the heart of this series.
Why it’s scary: As Seriable notes, Ray Wise's performance as the Bob-possessed Leland is in some ways more disturbing than seeing Bob himself. This episode is brutal and unnerving — quintessential Twin Peaks.
What it’s about: Sam leaps into a horror novelist in 1964, and finds himself in the middle of a gothic nightmare as people around him begin to die in mysterious circumstances.
Why it’s scary: Unlike your usual Quantum Leap episode, this is one where Sam doesn't save everybody — and there are some disturbing twists, including the revelation that something is not quite right with Sam's buddy Al. It all leads up to a confrontation with capital-E Evil.
17) Punky Brewster, "Perils of Punky"
What it’s about: Yes, really. Punky Brewster. That 1980s TV show about a supercute precocious little girl. Just like with the Garfield Halloween episode we mentioned last week, this is a piece of supernatural horror that scarred the psyches of a whole generation. Punky's friend Alan is killed and turned into a wall-zombie, and everybody else is slaughtered by some kind of evil spirit... including Punky's dog.
Why it's scary: This post over at Strange Famous Records more or less covers it: this episode is scary because it's so surreal and unexpected. "There was a David Lynch quality about it which turned our safe, morally-supreme Punky Brewster universe on its head."
What it’s about: Better known as "the one where William Shatner sees a gremlin on the wing of his airplane."
Why it's scary: There are so many harrowing Twilight Zone episodes — people we asked mentioned "Time Enough At Last," and "The Masks" gave some of us nightmares as kids. But this one is justly famous, because of Shatner's utter conviction, and because it plays on two basic fears: fear of flying, and the awfulness of being the only one who sees something, and not being believed.
What it’s about: A computer virus causes the power to go out, as Cylon Centurions board the Galactica.
Why it’s scary: Seeing the large, armored Centurions stomp and shoot their way through the dark Galactica is enough to freak anyone out. This is one of the closest calls in the entire series, as the Centurions nearly blow all the air out of Galactica, and the always-atmospheric ship looks like it really could become a death trap.
What it's about: You don't think of the disco-fied Buck Rogers TV show as being scary or even thrilling — but this episode terrified legions of kids and a lot of adults. Basically, it's about a space vampire stalking people on a deserted space station.
Why it's scary: It's a surprisingly solid Dracula homage, including the epistolary elements of Bram Stoker's novel as well as a lot of Dracula's powers of mind control and transformation... and when the space vampire turns the station crew into his undead minions, that's kind of insane. There is some really intense horror camerawork, including the slow pan when we first see the "Vorvon." The ending, where Wilma Deering is left sobbing by her ordeal, is kind of insane.
What it's about: A comic-book fan is obsessed with a supervillian, the Ghastly Grinner (basically, the Joker), and accidentally brings him to life by microwaving his comic-book. Soon the Ghastly Grinner is running rampant in the real world, turning people into his minions with blue teeth.
Why it's scary: This episode regularly appears on lists of the show's scariest episodes, largely on the strength of the horrifying evil clown and his ability to turn people into drooling idiots with his gaze. When Ethan gets trapped inside a comic book by the Grinner, that's just the sick icing on the cake.
What it's about: A crewmember aboard the Moonbase struggles with madness and PTSD over an encounter with an alien creature five years earlier — and he's convinced the invisible tentacle monster is back.
Why it's scary: The fantasy magazine Black Gate proclaimed it to be the scariest hour of television ever broadcast. The portrayal of space madness, the fact that Helena won't believe Tony's story, and the sudden appearance of the tentacled creature all add up to intense scares.
What it's about: Bobcat Goldthwait plays a young ventriloquist looking for a mentor in Don Rickles' veteran, but then learns his secret.
Why it's scary: First of all, it's got a stellar cast in Goldthwait and Rickles, who essentially do their regular acts, but as ventriloquists. Second: ventriloquist dummies are always freaky. Third is the reveal, which takes what had been an episode showcasing some great comedians right into the scary. Because Rickles' Mr Ingles isn't a ventriloquist, he's got a vicious conjoined twin. Possibly a magical one, since it doesn't just ruin Rickles, it merges with and takes over the arm of Goldthwait, too.
10) The Walking Dead, “Days Gone Bye"
What it's about: The very first episode of the series, it created a level of terror that the rest of the series is rarely able to match, as sheriff Rick Grimes wakes from a coma into the middle of the zombie apocalypse.
Why it's scary: What the show does is let the mystery and terror of the zombie apocalypse slowly build up as Rick wakes in an empty hospital, slowly discover the pools of blood, the mysterious “DON’T OPEN DEAD INSIDE” sign on a door, then reaching outside to discover there’s absolutely no one there. All of this done is without a word of dialogue, and Andrew Lincoln conveys Rick’s ever-growing sense of confusion and horror perfectly. For pure suspense, TWD has never been better than its pilot!
What it's about: This miniseries focuses on a monster that lives in the sewers of a small town, surfacing to feed on the children of the neighborhood — and then the creature decides to take the shape of Pennywise the clown.
Why it's scary: Stephen King, a monster that feeds on fear (and children), bullies, Tim Curry in clown makeup... IT is the perfect storm of horror. And we all know there's nothing scarier than a clown, with razor-sharp teeth.
What it's about: Dean visits an old flame, and discovers that all of the children in a small town have been replaced by evil changelings, with the real children hidden in a scary basement.
Why it's scary: The episode hooks your emotions by teasing you with the possibility that Dean might be a father — while also forcing you to confront the primal fear of your child being kidnapped and replaced with a monster.
What it's about: The crew of the Serenity encounters a ghost ship, which has been attacked by Reavers — and it turns out one of the survivors is becoming a Reaver himself.
Why it's scary: The handheld camerawork turns in some stylish horror moments, but the real fear at the heart of this episode is the dread of being swallowed up by a savagery that is beyond the comprehension of civilized people. The episode underscores this with a running dialogue about the nature of civilization, and the madness that is its opposite — with the Serenity crew smack dab in the middle.
What it's about: A stepfather disapproves of his wife buying a "Talky Tina" doll for his stepdaughter... and then the doll starts talking to him, with its taunts escalating to threats of murder.
Why it's scary: Dolls, man. There's just something incredibly creepy about dolls, and this episode capitalizes on that raw fear brilliantly.
What it's about: Special Agent Dale Cooper heads into the Black Lodge in search of kidnapped Annie, but inside he finds BOB, the evil spirit with a penchant for disguise, and a scene straight out of his own nightmares, complete with evil doppelgängers of Annie, his murdered wife, and himself.
Why it's scary: Doppelgängers, prophetic dreams, eerie birds, and the Black Lodge. But what it's really all about is Dale Cooper's (or is it his doppelgänger's?) maniacal grin as he bangs his face against the mirror in the closing scene.
What it's about: Aliens from the planet Zanti — basically ants with human heads — arrive on Earth and demand to turn a small town into a penal colony for their criminals and undesirables. But when two humans randomly stumble into the town, the Zanti turn out to have a different agenda.
Why it's scary: The stop-motion alien creatures are just horrifying, and the idea of Earth becoming a penal colony for alien criminals is nightmare-inducing.
What it's about: This episode, which barely features the titular Doctor and his companion Martha, introduces the Weeping Angels, statues which can only move when you're not looking. Writer Steven Moffat uses the quirks of time-travel to heighten the sense of weirdness and suspense.
Why it's scary: It's the combination of the statues with their covered faces slowly uncovering, and the Doctor's cryptic warnings from a DVD player which slowly become clearer and scarier. And the fear of what you can't see. Moffat's saga about children in gas-masks from season one, "The Empty Child," is also super-scary — but he's never topped this.
What it's about: Everybody in Sunnydale loses his or her voice, in a nearly silent episode, as the creepy gliding Gentlemen begin to stalk the town.
Why it's scary: Like a lot of the other episodes at the top of this list, it's the combination of super-creepy imagery (the Gentlemen's sepulchral faces and gliding motion) with a primal fear: not being able to speak, let alone scream.
What it's about: When a the body of a deformed baby is found in Home, PA, Mulder and Scully investigate how the four Peacock brothers were able to produce an inbred child without anyone seeing a woman living with them.
Why it's scary: This was the first ever X-Files episode to get a viewer discretion warning AND was the only episode Fox refused to air in repeats. The initial mystery heads straight for horror with a baby being buried alive, and then Mulder and Scully initially believe the inbred Peacock brothers must have kidnapped and raped a woman AND THEN murdered their child. But no, in fact, it's their quadruple amputee mother kept under the bed who is also the mother of their children. Once seen, this episode will never leave you.


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Ontiveros recovered to pin Armijo’s Jorge Perez in his first consolation match, but an 8-5 loss to Clovis East’s James Quintana ended the tournament for the Merced junior.
Ontiveros’ teammate, heavyweight Tony Lopez, also had a tough draw, starting the day against Clovis High senior Nick Nevills, who is aiming for his third state championship. Nevills needed 1:26 to pin Lopez.
Lopez bounced back with a three-match win streak, pinning Servite’s Cameron Amador, Archbishop Mitty’s Daniel Mendoza and Laguna Hills’ Jose Ballesteros before the run came to an end with a 1-0 loss to Glendora’s Ryan Padilla.
The only Merced-Area wrestler to survive to the second day was Atwater’s JoJo Ochoa, who won his first two matches (5-4 over Paramount’s Noe Sandoval and 5-3 over Bakersfield’s Travis Yarbrough) before falling 6-4 to Sanger’s Cornelio Sanchez. Ochoa won twice in the consolation bracket to survive, ending his long day with a double-overtime 2-1 victory over Leland’s Jack Loumena.
Of Dos Palos’ three wrestlers, Nathan Pimentel made it the furthest, losing his final match of the night to Bishop Amat’s Nigel Ruiz.
Los Banos junior Tyler Felix went 2-2 in the 113-pound bracket, losing his last match 9-7 to Jared Luty of American High. Felix nearly turned him for a reverse in the last seconds after a comeback victory the match before.
“I had a single right at the end, and my coach was yelling to go to the head, but he had my wrist locked,” Felix said. “I tried to get it out and lock the cradle hopefully, but he was holding on tight. I was right there, and time ran out.
Though Felix is disappointed to be watching second day, he was happy to do better than last year’s 0-2 performance, and is already making plans to make the second day next year.
Antonio Melo, Hilmar’s first state qualifier in 21 years, lost by pin to Royal High’s Deric Ginther, then defaulted out of his consolation match with an aggravated shoulder injury sustained last week.


Deborah Raffin is shown in 1983. She appeared in such films as “Forty Carats” with Liv Ullman and “Once Is Not Enough,” based on the salacious novel by Jacqueline Susann.
Deborah Raffin, a film actress, veteran of television miniseries and entrepreneur whose company, Dove Books-on-Tape, became a major force in the audio book industry, died Wednesday of leukemia at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. She was 59.
She was diagnosed with the blood cancer about a year ago, said her brother, William.
The blond, California-born actress first came to attention in the mid-1970s playing "pretty girl" roles in movies such as "Forty Carats" with Liv Ullman and "Once Is Not Enough," based on the salacious novel by Jacqueline Susann.
She later tackled more substantial parts in television miniseries, playing legendary actress Brooke Hayward in "Haywire" (1980) and a businesswoman in "Noble House" (1988), based on the James Clavell saga of love and intrigue in Hong Kong.
In the mid-1980s, she and her then-husband, Michael Viner, launched Dove as a hobby in the garage of their Coldwater Canyon home, but it blossomed into a multimillion-dollar business with a mix of high- and low-brow titles, from Sidney Sheldon's bestseller "The Naked Face" to physicist Stephen W. Hawking's opus on the cosmos, "A Brief History of Time," which was Dove's first bestseller.
"I enjoy acting," Raffin told the Riverside Press-Enterprise in 1996, "but I've never been driven to just act. I've always had a desire to produce, to be in control of my own destiny, to be able to find material and develop it."
The daughter of Trudy Marshall, a contract player at 20th Century Fox in the 1940s, and Philip Raffin, a meat broker and restaurateur, she was born in Los Angeles on March 13, 1953, and grew up in Beverly Hills and Bel-Air. After graduating from University High School, she attended L.A. Valley College and was in her second year there when she was discovered in an elevator by a talent agent.
She met Viner, a music producer, on a blind date in 1974 and married him four months later. They launched Dove Books-on-Tape in 1985 and later expanded in book publishing and movie and television production.
The books-on-tape venture had its origins in a backgammon game in which novelist Sidney Sheldon had lost $8,000 to Viner. Viner did not want to take the money and arranged instead to produce two of Sheldon's bestsellers as audio books. The name of the company was inspired by Raffin's 1974 film "The Dove," which was her second movie and co-starred Joseph Bottoms.
Her job in the audio books company was lining up performers such as Burt Reynolds, Elliott Gould, Roger Moore and Ruby Dee. Among the first tapes she and her husband produced were "Anatomy of an Illness" and "The Healing Heart," the nonfiction bestsellers by their neighbor Norman Cousins. They were read by Jason Robards Jr. and William Conrad.
Raffin also compiled celebrities' Christmas anecdotes for a 1990 book, "Sharing Christmas," which raised money for groups serving the homeless. It included stories from Margaret Thatcher, Kermit the Frog and Mother Teresa, whose contribution Raffin obtained by traveling to the Nobel Prize winner's mission in Calcutta.
Raffin and Viner sold the company in 1997 after some ill-timed expansion efforts and controversies stemming from some of the more sensational book projects favored by Viner. These included two books by figures in the O.J. Simpson murder case, including Faye Resnick's "Nicole Brown Simpson: The Diary of a Life Interrupted" (1994).
Raffin's marriage to Viner ended in divorce in 2005. (He died of cancer in 2009.) In addition to her brother, William, of Malibu, Raffin is survived by a sister, Judy Holston, and a daughter, Taylor Rose Viner, both of Brentwood.
Services will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City.
Through Dove, Raffin and Viner also promoted American movies in China, where the actress was a major star thanks to the popularity there of her early TV movie "Nightmare in Badham County" (1976), an exploitation flick about two coeds whose car breaks down in a small Southern town.
On a visit to the country in the early 1980s, Raffin's Chinese fans reacted to her by pointing and shouting "nightmare, nightmare, nightmare."
"It's funny now," she told the Orange County Register in 1988, "but it wasn't funny then."


Bump, the flagship contacts, photos and file sharing application from the company by the same name, is today getting an upgrade on both iOS and Android in order to support file-sharing to and from your computer. The ability to “bump” your phone with your computer was first introduced in May 2012, but at the time it only supported photos. With the new release, users will be able to share any file from their phone to computer, and vice versa.
For those of us who are earlier adopters of new technology, the USB analogy may seem a bit “old school” – after all, many of us have long since moved on to cloud services. But it speaks to the kind of users the company is targeting with its technologies.
“What we try to do is build products that ‘normal’ people can really engage with,” Lieb explains. “So yeah, you can do all these things if you’re set up on some cloud-syncing solution, but what we find is that normal people don’t really know how to set all that stuff up…we want to build stuff that has low cognitive overhead,” he adds.
In terms of the new file-sharing capabilities, Lieb predicts some fairly “normal” use cases, like backing up your phone’s contacts or saving videos from your phone to your computer, for example. These files are actually stored on Bump’s servers, though not publicly. Instead, users are given a URL if they want to share the files or photos with others. Most don’t do that, though – they simply click the save button to download the item they transferred to their computer.
Lieb says there’s no plan to turn Bump into a hosting service for files and photos, but it will continue to work with partners to integrate options for saving files to the wider web. Currently, Dropbox is the only one that has been integrated so far, but he says some users are now asking for Evernote, too.
Expanding upon Bump’s phone-to-web solution goes after another pain point the company has faced – the need to know other people with the Bump app installed in order to find a use case for the app. Originally, Bump offered a way for two people to share data between phones. With this Bump to computer feature, however, you can take advantage of the service all on your own.
While today, only around 5 to 10 percent of Bump’s users are “bumping” with their PC, that traffic is trending upwards, growing by 50 percent over the past couple of months. Bump to date has seen 125 million downloads, but it won’t reveal its current install base or active users. Lieb would say that a “large number” of those still have the app installed, and when the company pushes an update, over half of those users would relaunch Bump to see what’s new.
For what it’s worth, the app is still in good standing on the iOS App Store, where it’s currently ranked #24 in the “Social Networking” category. On Android, it’s #19. (source: Distimo).
The updated mobile app is available now for both iOS and Android, from the Bump homepage here.


The hip-hop legend gets right to the point in discussing his status, the state of music today & rap culture.
Grease certainly lives up to his throne.
March 28, 2018 | Dame Grease is damn near untouchable. His legacy is well-known within the hip-hop world, but his greatest hits include essential work with DMX (It's Dark and Hell is Hot) and The LOX (Money, Power & Respect), and his influence has stretched two decades and can be felt within much of today's new breakouts. His pedigree also includes producing for Jay Z, Riff Raff, Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J, T.I., Max B, Nas, Harlem World, Fat Joe, and countless others. He's built the kind of magnificent kingdom that's allowed him the luxury to explore music in deeper, richer contexts -- and it sure helps that he's sold millions of records, too.
Earlier this year, Dame Grease took a time out to chat with Popdust host Deascent about his icon status, how producing differs today, what he listens to today, strength in energy, and building tracks. Watch the engaging, wide-ranging interview above.
Out of Harlem, Dame Grease's gifts in the recording studio were evident early on. He has not only cultivated a sound all his own but helped the street sound of late '90s and early '00s hip-hop, extending beats to hit harder and longer and building erupting moods through his craftsmanship. He lent his talents to Mase's 1997 studio record Harlem World and later mentored Swiss Beatz, who became a force of his very own. His mark cemented in the pantheon of music history, Grease expanded his horizons in the early '00s by dabbling in composition for film, scoring Exit Wounds (2001), Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) and Never Die Alone (2004).
Grease's latest release, an instrumental album called King of Beats, Vol. 1, draws upon his vast musical knowledge of classic soul, funk, and classically-structured hip-hop. Essential cuts like "Crack Babies," "Silver Surfer," and "It's Quiet" rely on thoughtful crescendos embedded in the music, allowing the grooves to sit and shift on the eardrums to enrich the listener's experience.
It's no surprise Dame Grease has kept his pulse on what is happening in the mainstream. He's had to keep his head above water his whole life. He explains, "To tell the truth, I never inducted myself all the way into the industry. I stay half in and half out, mainly closer to the streets and with my family. You know how I could be 70-years-old and can stay connected to what's going on because it's like I'm looking at it like that. I come from the hard life and no parents and you have to take care of yourself when I was 13-years-old. So, a lot of things people couldn't tell you that you can't do, I couldn't believe in none of that."
Over the years, Dame Grease has amassed countless superstar credits, including putting his stamp on Riff Raff's 2013 studio set, Hologram Panda, "one of the best projects to date," says Dame Grease. "He's cool and he's talented. He did seven songs in one day. I actually hooked up with him after I did a track with the 3 Locos, which consists of Riff Raff, Simon Rex, and Andy Milonakis. I did a song with them called 'Off With Your Head,' so we [were] in the studio and Riff was like, 'Yo, Grease you got some more beats, let's do something.' I'm like, 'Well, s****, that's all I have are beats.' So, we hooked up while I was mastering DMX's Undisputed album and played 20 beats for him. He chose seven of them, put his headphones on, wrote them, and we went to the next studio to knock them out."


Most ethnic minority groups also tended to describe more barriers putting them off going to the doctor to discuss an unexplained symptom. South Asians were most likely to report embarrassment and a lack of confidence to talk about their symptoms. But White British people were most likely to report that worry about wasting the doctor’s time would put them off going to their GP.
Maja Niksic, PhD student at King’s College London, and lead author of the research, says: “This study highlights the need to develop more targeted health messages in order to encourage people with symptoms suspicious of cancer to visit their GPs sooner. It’s essential that we tailor these messages to address the specific population needs and gaps in cancer awareness that exist between different ethnic groups.
The research was presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool. The full abstract can be read here.
*The Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) is the first validated tool to assess awareness of cancer including questions about signs and symptoms, risk factors, cancer screening programmes, barriers to seeing the doctor, anticipated time to seek help and awareness of common cancers. The CAM can benchmark public awareness at a national, regional and local level, make international comparisons and track awareness over time. It identifies gaps in knowledge, of particular symptoms, risk factors, or among specific population groups, helping to inform the development of more targeted interventions. It is also used to evaluate the impact of awareness-raising initiatives that aim to improve awareness, such as the Department of Health’s Be Clear on Cancer campaigns.


Microsoft announced that Lync and Skype would soon be able to share video, as well as voice and IM. So how will it work?
One of the main news stories from last week's Lync Conference in Las Vegas was that the next release of Lync would support not just Skype audio and IM, but also video.
The intention is to provide tools that will allow the millions of Skype users to interconnect with Lync, providing new channels for businesses to connect with customers, users and partners. The big question, then, is how will it work?
In the original Skype/Lync federation architecture, both signalling and media followed the same paths through the cloud federation service. That's all very well for relatively low bandwidth services like voice and IM, but it's likely to form a bottleneck for video.
That's why in the second generation federation architecture, signalling is still passed through the federation service, while media are delivered peer-to-peer — even for Lync clients and servers that sit behind the firewall.
Client software is currently being tested, as getting the two to work together will entail delivering new codecs to Lync; specifically giving Lync Skype's SILK audio codec. While video will be carried using the familiar H.264, SILK will give Lync access to Skype's HD audio capabilities.
As Skype's Barry Castle told us, improved audio means longer calls, and more interaction in meetings. It's easy then to imagine a meeting where home attendees log in via Skype, and who then remain part of the meeting rather than dropping out due to poor call quality.
Skype used to be famous for the ways it would find to get across networks, and back in my consulting days I would rely on its skills to stay in touch with colleagues when working on client sites — in one case watching it use an open FTP port to get around the firewall protecting a rather paranoid client's network. With a peer-to-peer connection for media, getting across the firewall to connect Lync to Skype could have remained an issue. However things are now very different.
That's because future versions of Skype and Lync will support the standard STUN, TURN and ICE protocols for media traversal. Using standard protocols will make it easier for admins to control access, and to manage bandwidth. They'll also make it much more acceptable for staff to use Skype, if they're installing it on their own BYOD devices.
At the Lync Conference Microsoft demonstrated Skype calling into Lync.
Getting your Lync system set up to communicate with Skype is as simple as setting up public internet messenger connectivity (PIC) — so if you'd configured Lync to work with Live Messenger, you're already set up to work with Skype, even if you're using Office 365 and Lync Online.
Users will be able to add Skype contacts to their contact list, as long as they are using a Microsoft account to use Skype. Skype users will be able to search for Lync users by their SIP address — which should be their Lync account address.
There's another bonus to version 2 of Lync/Skype federation: support for encrypted conversations. You'll be able to secure conversations with TLS or sRTP, making it possible to use Skype and Lync in regulated businesses; letting medical and financial services allow customers to call in via Skype while ensuring that they meet their PCI and HIPAA requirements.
Bringing Lync and Skype closer together makes a lot of sense. One is a secure, managed communication tool that's designed for enterprise desktops, the other a widely available consumer app that can be installed on pretty much any desktop, laptop, phone, and tablet.
Making it easy for one to connect to the other means that those 300 million plus Skype users are now able to talk directly to the person they need to talk to, without having to pay a penny — and with video and HD audio.


A Robot Named 'Tappy': Huawei Conspired To Steal T-Mobile's Trade Secrets, Says DOJ In an indictment that reads like a spy caper gone awry, the Justice Department alleges that the Chinese device maker urged its employees to sneak intel about T-Mobile's brilliant testing robot.
A Justice Department indictment unsealed on Monday details an alleged conspiracy by the Chinese device maker Huawei to steal the details of a T-Mobile robot. Here, a woman uses her smartphone outside a Huawei store in Beijing on Tuesday.
The Justice Department unsealed two separate indictments of Chinese telecom device maker Huawei on Monday. But only one of them reads like the script of a slapstick caper movie.
That would be the one that describes the U.S. government's case alleging that Huawei stole trade secrets from T-Mobile, the wireless service company.
In the indictment, the government says that between June 2012 and September 2014, Huawei repeatedly made efforts to steal information about the design of a T-Mobile robot. The robot's name, adorably, is "Tappy."
We would like to include a photo here of Tappy, but photographing the robot is expressly prohibited by T-Mobile, and Tappy is kept under very tight security in a lab at T-Mobile headquarters in Bellevue, Wash.
Tappy's job is to test devices before they go to market. With a rubber-tipped robotic arm, it touches the device screen, imitating a human using the phone — while at the same time tracking problems, measuring how long tasks take to complete, and monitoring how much battery is drained by each task.
At least at the time of the events in the indictment, Tappy was apparently the envy of other mobile companies, and only T-Mobile employees were allowed to operate Tappy. But eventually the company allowed employees from its phone suppliers to access and operate the robot – so long as they signed nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements. Those agreements specifically barred suppliers' employees from attempting to reverse engineer Tappy, or to take photos or videos of it.
Meanwhile, Huawei China was reportedly trying to build its own device-testing robot — named, less cutely, "xDeviceRobot" — and it was not finding much success. And Huawei's devices weren't faring well on T-Mobile's Tappy tests, failing more often than devices made by competitors.
In May 2012, Huawei USA asked if Huawei China could license the Tappy technology, and T-Mobile said no.
That's when Huawei began attempting to steal the design secrets of Tappy, according to the indictment.
On a June 2012 conference call, a Huawei China engineer made a list of questions for Huawei USA employees to answer, including technical specifications, photos from multiple angles, and component serial numbers.
Two months later, T-Mobile granted access to Huawei USA's engineers so they could test Huawei's phones before releasing them. Those engineers started asking questions about Tappy's workings to the T-Mobile engineers, who weren't forthcoming.
Huawei China allegedly continued to pester Huawei USA employees to dig up the intel, and they in turn continued to ask T-Mobile folks about Tappy's design. One of the Huawei engineers, known in the indictment only as "A.X.", took and sent unauthorized photos of the robot to Huawei China, but it wasn't enough, and they asked for more.
Huawei USA's Director of Technical Acceptance, identified as "R.Y.", wrote back to Huawei China: "Once again, we CAN'T ask TMO any questions about the robot. TMO is VERY angry the questions we asked." R.Y. suggested Huawei China send its own engineer to Bellevue to see Tappy in action.
An engineer, "F.W.", arrived from China. A.X. and another U.S. counterpart sneaked the visiting engineer into the lab to see and photograph Tappy. They were caught – twice, and F.W. was ordered out of the facility.
T-Mobile then banned Huawei employees from the lab, but relented and allowed A.X. access.
Then, in May 2013, A.X. allegedly made a very bold move, removing Tappy's arm and putting it in his laptop bag. T-Mobile employees confronted him about the missing arm. He denied having it, and that night he and F.W. measured and photographed the arm. The next day, A.X. said he had "found" Tappy's arm in his bag. It was then that T-Mobile finally revoked A.X.'s credential to the lab.
You might think the alleged hijinks end there. But they do not.
Huawei was very nervous about having been caught. Just a year before, the House Intelligence Committee had put out a report finding that Huawei was a potential threat to national security, with a "pattern of disregard" for U.S. intellectual property rights. And it had been sued by Motorola and Cisco for stealing IP.
Do Chinese Tech Firms Pose U.S. Security Threat?
Huawei China told T-Mobile that internal investigations in the U.S. and China "confirmed" that A.X. and F.W. had acted alone in the arm-borrowing episode, and that both employees were terminated for cause. Huawei then sent T-Mobile a redacted version of the investigation report, which allegedly contained false information intended to show that Huawei China had not asked for or orchestrated these events.
A civil lawsuit over the Tappy incident awarded T-Mobile $4.8 million in damages in 2017, The Associated Press reports. "Huawei said in an emailed statement Tuesday that it denies any violations of U.S. law, and that the Tappy allegations were already a settled matter between it and T-Mobile," according to the AP.
Huawei now faces ten counts in federal court: conspiracy to steal trade secrets, attempted theft of trade secrets, seven counts of wire fraud, and obstruction of justice.
The Justice Department evidently has a juicy pile of Huawei emails with which to argue its case. But one detail from the indictment is perhaps the most telling of all.
In July 2013, even as it argued that the Tappy incident was the result of a couple rogue employees, Huawei China launched a formal policy of awarding bonuses to employees who stole confidential information from competitors. It emphasized, the indictment says, "that no employees would be punished for taking actions in accordance to the policy."


CUTTACK: It's that time of the year when the air is filled with the aroma of pithas, beautifully decorated jhulas(swings) adorn households and young girls dressed in their best enjoy a gala time. The three-day Raja festival began with much fanfare across the state on Thursday.
The agrarian festival, which is celebrated mostly in the coastal districts, also holds significance for girls as it celebrates womanhood. Adolescent girls wear new outfits and spend the day savouring pithas and Raja paan(betel). In a nod to tradition, they also sit on swings and take part in games such as puchi.
Looking at the rising demand of pithas, many restaurants in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar have opened special counters to sell the snack. Cashing in on the opportunity, the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation has also opened special counters at Pantha Niwas hotels to sell pithas, including the Raja-special podapitha.
"Due to lack of time and expertise, many women are not able to make pithas at home. To cater to their needs, we have opened counters to sell pithas," said A K Rout, a salesman at Pantha Niwas.
Many social and cultural organizations in the twin cities have organized pitha-making and doli-playing competition. "Raja celebrates earth's fertility and the onset of womanhood. During these three days, we are pampered like queens in our houses. I just love the festival," said Smita Das, a banker.


TopStyle has many nice features to make a developer's life easier. For example, there is a color picker which produces the hex code for a given color. That's pretty much boilerplate, but it also includes a palette of harmonious colors to let you easily create an effective, balanced, color scheme for your design. As you select elements in the editor (for example, H1), all the possible properties are displayed in a list to the right (the list can be moved, of course), and edits made in that list are quickly reflected in the main editor. The reverse is also true--edit the text, and the property list updates.
TopStyle is a focused program, but a well done one. Anyone who edits or creates Cascading Style Sheets would do well to download the full-featured trial to determine if this program should be part of their toolbox.


HERO OF THE HOUR: Yorkshire Vikings' Adam Lyth thanks the crowd after he was out for 87. Picture: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com.
AT the start of July, Yorkshire’s T20 hopes looked dead in the water.
One win from seven games had left them bottom of the North Group and facing yet another season of failure in the game’s shortest format. Four wins from five matches later, however, and Alex Lees’s men are a side reborn.
A 49-run win over Durham sent them fifth in the table, level on points with Durham in the last quarter-final position with two games to play. What a transformation it has been.
Prior to the win over Lancashire on July 1, which kick-started the revival, Yorkshire had looked as poor in T20 as in most previous years. One of their biggest problems was an inability to clear the boundary and a general lack of composure with the bat.
To watch them on Wednesday night, however, was to see a side striking the ball with renewed confidence, conviction and clinical power.
After Lees won the toss on a hot and humid evening, with a crowd of 8,076 making the most of the mini-heatwave, Yorkshire scored 223-6 from their 20 overs.
It was their highest T20 total, beating the 213-7 they made against Worcestershire at Headingley six years ago, and it was founded on a fabulous innings from Adam Lyth, who made a competition career-best 87.
The left-handed opener is in purple form, having hit a double hundred against Surrey in the County Championship last week, which followed some particularly impressive contributions in the Royal London Cup.
And on a night when Yorkshire found the boundary no fewer than 31 times, striking 20 fours and 11 sixes, Lyth hit 11 of those fours and three of the sixes as he powered the hosts to a total well beyond the range of the visitors, who managed 174-8 in reply, Usman Arshad top-scoring with 43.
Lyth, whose previous T20 best was 78 against Derbyshire at Headingley in 2012, looked as though he was going to make Yorkshire’s fifth hundred in the format only to fall in the 17th over, caught on the long-off boundary off Chris Rushworth.
Lyth was no doubt thinking of Travis Head, who struck 34 from 24 on his home debut; David Willey, who returned from illness to smash 32 from 14, and Jack Leaning, who savaged 32 from 11.
In prime batting conditions, Lyth and Willey gave Yorkshire a scintillating start with an opening stand of 64 in 4.4 overs.
Lyth injected impetus with three boundaries in the second over, bowled by Jamie Harrison, a feat emulated by Willey in the next over when Arshad was taken for successive offside fours and then straight driven for six towards the Football Stand.
KEY INGREDIENT: Yorkshire's David Willey hits out against Durham. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com.
When Willey sent the first of those boundaries scuttling along the ground through point, Vinny the Viking, the Yorkshire mascot, dived theatrically over the ball as it crossed the rope to great cheers from the sun-drenched North East Stand.
Willey was dropped on 21 by Phil Mustard off Rushworth, the wicketkeeper unable to cling on to a skier towarads square leg.
But Willey was not so lucky when he sliced off-spinner Ryan Pringle to mid-off, Michael Richardson taking the catch on a night when Durham spilled seven chances of varying difficulty.
Yorkshire ended the six-over powerplay on 77-1, Lyth enjoying a couple of reprieves before completing a 32-ball half-century, his third in T20.
Lyth and Head added 83 for the third-wicket inside nine overs before the Australian hit Harrison to long-on, leaving Yorkshire 165-3 in the 16th over.
Leaning – sent in ahead of Tim Bresnan and Liam Plunkett –hammered three leg-side sixes off Arshad and was dropped twice in a whirlwind innings. Arshad leaked 63 from his four overs, equalling the most conceded by a Durham bowler in the format.
After Bresnan conceded 17 from the first over of the Durham innings, the visitors were never in the hunt.
Forced into mistakes by fine bowling and fielding, plus an escalating run-rate, they lost wickets at regular intervals - five of them to spinners Karl Carver and Azeem Rafiq, who did a grand job, while Plunkett returned parsimonious figures of 1-13 from four.


It's easy to go to Audubon Zoo or take a local swamp tour to catch a glimpse of an alligator. It's also common to cross paths with area wildlife — sometimes too close to home.
Pelicans are found in abundance the closer you get to the Gulf of Mexico. Lawrence Berthelot, 69, of Schriever, said you usually find pelicans on Grand Isle or Last Island.
Raccoons are harder to spot from a local highway, but Berthelot said they are entrenched in the wooded areas where there is water. He said a fool-proof way to see a raccoon is to go walk by a crawfish pond. Berthelot said raccoons like to stay close to water because they don't have salivary glands and have to wet their food before they eat it.
Berthelot said herons come and go throughout the year, but said there are two types you can see locally, blue and green herons. He said they mainly stay inland.
fresh water than salt water," he said.
seen virtually anywhere there is water, including canals. Berthelot said if you drive along La. 20 from Schriever to Amelia, you can see alligators near the side of the road. “You can see all the gators you want,” he said. “They have gators swimming all over the place. Just about any country road you go on, you'll find gators, if they got water.” Berthelot said alligators hibernate in the winter months because they can't digest food, so they come out en masse in the summer months, which is why he said you typically see alligators on the bank of a bayou in the sun — to warm themselves and digest their food.
“You got all kinds of different types of turtles,” Berthelot said.


GREENSBORO, N.C. – Police are looking for two men accused of robbing a CVS pharmacy in Greensboro at gunpoint.
Officers were called to 2042 Rankin Mill Road shortly before 8:15 p.m. Sunday where police said the suspects entered with handguns, took the cash and left in a white van. Nobody was hurt.
The suspects were described as two men with their faces covered. One wore a dark sweatshirt, black jeans and black gloves. The other had a grey shirt, a dark hooded sweatshirt, dark sweatpants and gloves, according to police.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with any information can call Crime Stoppers at (336) 373-1000 or text the tip to 274637 using the keyword badboyz. Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward.


The stock markets are tanking today, one day after President Obama's election victory. The S&P 500 is down over 2 percent.
However, this may be an opportunity to invest in the companies that stand to benefit from an Obama-led administration.
UBS's equity research team recently published two lists of 'victory basket' stock recommendations depending on the outcome of the election.
"Some of the greatest Obama beneficiaries would be Hospitals, Specialty Pharma, Green Energy and Infrastructure names," write the analysts.
We pulled the 14 stocks that UBS strategists believe have the most to gain under Obama.
Infrastructure spending, a priority for President Obama, accounts for 20% of the company's revenues, according to UBS' Steven Fisher.
UBS' Suneet Kamath notes that tax cuts to middle and lower-income individuals should increase Aflac's customer base.
Sales of top products should increase as health insurance coverage expands, according to UBS' Ami Fadia.
UBS' John Hodulick calls tower companies, which will see less consolidation, the biggest beneficiaries in light of Obama's win.
UBS' David Strauss says a surge in firearm and ammo purchases, which happened after Obama's 2008 win in anticipation of gun control legislation, would help ATK.
UBS' Strauss echoes his recommendation that tower companies stand to gain the most from an Obama victory.
UBS' Alex Kramm believes that financial regulation will transfer activity from OTC markets to regulated exchanges.
With President Obama's reelection, UBS' Stephen Chin sees less risk of cuts to the DOE's loan program -- which funds about 60% of First Solar's business.
According to UBS' A.J. Rice, HCA will benefit from the ACA -- more than 50% of its revenues come from Florida and Texas, which are two of the top three states with the most uninsured individuals.
UBS' David Goldberg believes a continuation of accommodative monetary policy in order to sustain the housing recovery will translate into higher sales for Mohawk.
According to UBS' Brian Meredith, the complex regulatory environment will help Marsh & McLennan's consulting business.
UBS' Ross Nussbaum cites Tanger's strong balance sheet and high growth prospects in his recommendation of this defensive stock.
UBS' Amitabh Passi says TE stands to benefit to the extent that Obama invests in broadband infrastructure.
UBS' Henry Kim also sees URI as a beneficiary of increased infrastructure spending, which generates 15% of the company's revenues in North America.


Is the “invisible hand” always benign? Or can it be bad? Free-market fans love the idea that “spontaneous order” emerges from local decisions. But what prevents “spontaneous disorder”? Does prudence reliably trump profit? Disorderly superbug and climate change situations say no.
Adam Smith launched spontaneous-order thinking about markets. “The rich,” he said ”are led by an invisible hand to...without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interests of the society." Smith rightly separated intentions from effects, since markets aren’t simple systems. But today’s “markets in everything” crowd ignores a class of problems that local incentives can’t solve.
Tyler Cowen calls climate change “a problem we are failing to solve.” With other prominent economists he says clean-energy can’t work unless it’s as profitable as unclean energy. Sounds reasonable? Let’s translate: many economists think we can’t save the planet unless it’s profitable. Does that sound prudent?
Superbugs (antibiotic-resistant bacteria) are another example. Overuse of antibiotics contributes to 23,000 superbug deaths annually in America. Despite the fact that the more an antibiotic is used “the greater the likelihood that resistance to” it will develop, drug companies, and patients (requesting medically unneeded antibiotics), and doctors (routinely over-prescribing) have all abetted overuse. Leading the CDC to warn: "We’re in the post-antibiotic era." Profits before prudence again.
Partial superbug fixes fail. If anyone overuses, an avoidable risk of resistance continues. As with climate change, a self-defeating cycle operates: If not everyone switches to the known to be more prudent behavior, why should I? Problems like this need coordinated agreement, managed transitions, and enforcement. Otherwise, many will continue to benefit individually while making the collective situation worse. Cowen and company acknowledge, in effect, that free markets don’t coordinate like that.
Economists have labels for parts of these coordination problems—externalities, tragedy of the commons, property rights—but seem unable to assemble solutions. Externalities don’t fix themselves. And no property rights tweaking can fix the superbug or climate problems. No fence can separate your interests from the climate or bacterial commons.
Spontaneous-order thinking assumes that we wouldn’t voluntarily damage our own long-term interests. But many often do. Beyond the above, consider diet and money management. And imprudence is profitable. Markets—the most powerful social forces on earth—will “efficiently” and “rationally” create and exploit imprudence as much as they’re allowed.
Superbugs, climate change, and the tragedy of the commons are all Darwin’s Wedge scenarios, where individual incentives diverge from group goals. In such cases, the “invisible hand” makes mischief. When disorders arise we must seek fitting treatment, including if necessary, centrally administered cures. Free-marketeers, it’s time for your medicine.


(NNPA) After ceremonies wrap up Sunday in Alabama commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a group of die-hard demonstrators will re-enact the full march.
In Shelby V. Holder, by a margin of 5 to 4 in June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to gut Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which required jurisdictions with a proven history of racial discrimination to pre-clear any election law change with the U.S. Attorney General or the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The case grew out of a decision by Calera, a small city in Shelby County, Ala., to implement a redistricting plan that led to the defeat of the city’s lone African American City Council member. Under the plan, a district that was 71 percent Black was redrawn so that its Black population was reduced to 23 percent. The plan was never submitted for pre-approval.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, more than 40 bills have been introduced in 17 states that would restrict access to registration or voting.
In view of these politically motivated efforts to suppress the Black vote in particular, I am hereby proposing a Shelby County, Ala. to Washington, D.C. March, with the goal of getting Congress to protect the integrity of voting in the U.S. Just as the Selma-to-Montgomery March led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a Shelby County to D.C. March could pressure Congress to act again to protect the sacred right to vote.
The march would kick-off in Calera, about 30 minutes south of Birmingham, and address the relevant voting issues along the march route.
After Calera, Ala., the next stop would be in Georgia, where marchers could express support for proposed legislation that would expand opportunities for eligible citizens to vote, and provide for or expand the electronic transfer of voters’ information between state agencies.
In South Carolina, demonstrators could support a bill that would relax voter ID or citizenship laws and legislation that would make it easier for people with disabilities to cast a ballot.
Crossing into North Carolina, demonstrators can join an effort to overturn the Voter Information Verification Act, a voter suppression bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. The controversial measure requires government-issued voter ID, ends same day voter registration, bans Sunday voting and discontinues pre-voter registration for 16- and 17-year-olds. Several organizations, including the NAACP State Conference of Branches, have sued to overturn the law.
Marchers might want to spend some extra time in Virginia before moving on to D.C. to oppose a bill that would restrict access to registration and voting and support a competing one that would increase access to voting, oppose a bill that would require proof of citizenship (such as a birth certificate) to register or to vote, support proposed legislation that would expand early in-person voting, back a proposed legislation to reduce waiting times for voting, endorse a bill to expand opportunities to vote by absentee ballot, support a bill to protect voters from having their name wrongfully removed from voting lists, and back a proposed bill to increase the likelihood of contested provisional ballots being counted.
In Washington, demonstrators should underscore the embarrassing reality that D.C. is the only capital of a democratic country in the world that does not enjoy voting representation in its national legislative body or true home rule.
We must block those measures.


They just really need to make a new one of these. With an unlockable Storm Trooper on speeder bike.
Now this is Pod Racing.
Too bad Disney and EA dont give a crap about Star Wars games.
Apeiron had the problem of showing their game too early and it looks like this has as well.
Especially remakes. You're asking to be shut down by the big corporations.


Defender Ben Barclay admitted Southampton’s late winner in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening took the gloss off his Albion debut.
Charlie Austin headed home the only goal two minutes from time to send the Saints through to the third round.
Both sides made ten changes from their Premier League matches at the weekend and Barclay made his debut alongside goalkeeper David Button and fellow under-23 players Will Collar and Viktor Gyokeres. Club record signing Alireza Jahanbakhsh also started for the first time.
Asked if the late goal took the gloss off his debut, Barclay said: “It does. If it’s your debut, whether you have a good game or not, if you concede at the death it’s going to be frustrating.
“It was good to make my debut and I was reasonably happy with my performance. It was a good test, especially for us young lads.
“To concede in the last five minutes of any game is a bit annoying but us young lads especially are proud of ourselves as we played against some good players.
Barclay was in the Albion party which travelled up to Liverpool on Saturday but was not included in the final 18-man squad and he admitted it helped making his debut alongside Collar and Gyokeres.
He said: “If you’re all playing together, it settles the nerves a bit before the game. Pre-match you’re with your usual team mates and you can chat to them.
“I had most of my nerves going up to Anfield on Saturday. I missed out on getting on the bench there but that was a good experience.
On potentially going out on loan, the 21-year-old said: “I think it depends how close I am to the first team squad. There were a couple of injuries last week, which helped me out.
Albion are back in Premier League action on Saturday when they entertain Fulham at the Amex (3pm).


The Norwegian singer and film and theatre composer Sidsel Endresen can touch the emotions of listeners who usually run a mile from abstract improv and experimental electronica. She's in concert here with guitarist Stian Westerhus at the 2011 Nattjazz festival in Bergen – a set that unfolds lyrical confessions like wordless folk ballads; quiet, speech-like musings; spooky gabbles and gasps; and a guitar palette of astonishing depth. Westerhus sounds as if he's ringing bells behind Endresen's bluesy growls on The Rustle of a Long Black Skirt, he lays hammer-drill clatters and clashing-metal noises behind her on Barkis Is Willing, and cushions gentle pieces such as Drawing an Arc or Hedgehumming. The singer's wounded sounds skid over drones and slaps on Wayward Ho, the standout track. Didymoi Dreams takes no prisoners, and the audience reaction says much about its power, originality and fearlessness.


A new BBC One thriller may soon be available for American audiences. Netflix is looking to partner with the UK network for the series. Deadline reported that Requiem is at the center of a detail between the two entities.
Would you check out Requiem on Netflix? Tell us what you think.
More about: BBC One TV shows: canceled or renewed?, Netflix TV shows: canceled or renewed?, Requiem, Requiem: canceled or renewed?


Perkiomen Bridge Hotel, Main Street and R.29, Collegeville, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, the nation's official record of buildings, structures, sites, districts, and objects deemed worthy of preservation by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Its listing accurately indicates much of its significance in its name. The original inn dating from as early as 1706 marked the ford of the Perkiomen Creek on the Main Philadelphia to Reading Road. It was constructed by Edward Lane, holder of the original land grant from William Penn and founder of the neighboring town.
The building, by its growth, marks the evolution of the transportation systems of the region, expanding with the construction of the permanent cut brownstone bridge (1798) and the completion of the Perkiomen and Reading Turnpike (1815).
The railroad with its excursion trips made the region a resort area in the 1870's which is reflected in the addition of the hotel's porches. Later it was adapted to the automobile tourist.
It is an example of its building type which shows forms and motifs from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The announcement was made by Dr. Larry E. Tise, state historic preservation officer and executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.


Rumors that China will start to impose import bans on certain coal types could bring relief to the much beleaguered coal industry.
Basically any recent news related to American coal has been roughly equivalent to getting round-house kicked in the face by Chuck Norris. The slow decline in metallurgical coal prices, the increasing scrutiny on coal-fired power plant emissions, and clean coal looking more costly than burning $100 bills for power has made major coal producers Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU), Arch Coal (NASDAQOTH:ACIIQ), and Alpha Natural Resources (NASDAQOTH:ANRZQ) assume a financial fetal position and keep spending to an absolute bare minimum to weather the storm.
Source: Peabody Energy Investor Relations.
There is a recent development that could have a profound impact on the coal market, but this time, it's actually good for a change. Let's take a look at what it is and how it could potentially impact these new players.
China isn't completely oblivious of the impact its coal reliance has on the country, but it is awfully difficult for the country to completely pivot away from coal without taking some huge economic hits. One way to help change that, though, is to change the type of coal it uses. Coal is classified based on both its moisture content and its calorific value -- basically how much energy you can get from a fixed weight, measured in Calories per kg. Coals with lower calorific values are considered low-quality coals and generally produce high levels of ash as well as other pollutants, such as sulfur.
According to a recent article from Platts, the Chinese parliament is working on rules that wold ban the import of low-quality coal that has a calorific value of less than 3,900 Calories per kg and a sulfur content greater than 2%. This would mean the country would need to find a new source of coal to replace the 57 million tons of coal it consumed in 2013 that did not meet these standards. Just about all of the coal that did not meet this threshold was imported from Indonesia, and it represents about 34% of all coal imported to China.
China is trying to wean its way off of coal through increased production of domestic natural gas as well as major investments in nuclear power facilities, but it would be next to impossible to replace 60 million tons of coal consumption in a matter of months. So, it is highly likely China will need to rely more heavily on other sources of coal.
Domestic coal has been on a steady decline for quite some time. Between 2007 and 2013, total U.S. coal consumption has declined by nearly 18%. With the rise of cheap domestic natural gas and the increased efficiency of alternative energy, it will be extremely challenging for coal to gain any of this ground back. It also doesn't help that between 2012 and 2013, total coal exports declined by 6.4%. Both of these two issues have led to near unprofitable level prices for coal. During this past quarter, all three of the companies mentioned above saw coal prices just barely outpace cash costs, and both Arch and Peabody had negative operating margins on coal from their most prolific mines in the Powder River Basin.
If China were to move away from low-quality coals, U.S.-based coals could stand to benefit immensely. U.S. coal meets the requirements for improved coal quality, and with over 200 million tons of coal capacity not used in the United States, it is capable of handling a major uptick in demand.
Of all the coal producing regions, companies with large operations in the Powder River Basin would likely be the candidates to benefit the most from increased Chinese coal demand. Not only does it have a low sulfur content that would be attractive to Chinese customers, but it is also closest to West Coast ports and would likely be the cheapest to export. This would obviously play well to Peabody, Arch, and Cloud Peak Resources (NYSE:CLD) since they are the three largest producers of coal in this part of the country. The one hitch to this plan is that there has been strong resistance to constructing coal export facilities on the West Coast, which would be required to move Powder River Basin coal -- or any other coal for that matter -- to China.
Indirectly, though, increased demand could help boost prices for thermal coal in the U.S., which would be a positive for just about every company in the U.S. coal business.
Unfortunately, these coal companies can't bank on this development yet because this Chinese regulation has not been put in place, and even if it does, it will take some time for the physical infrastructure to export the additional coal to actually get built. Also, U.S. coal producers will be compete with other coal producing nations such as Australia to fill that Indonesian-sized hole in China's coal demand.
Still, any good news for coal companies will be well received by these companies. With most companies tied to fixed pricing contracts for almost all of their production for 2014 and a large part of 2015, it will likely still be some time before Peabody, Arch, or Alpha dig their way out of their financial woes, but if coal can start making its way onto Chinese-bound ships, it could be the shot in the arm the industry needs.