Everyone talks about the technical talent crunch in Boston (and other hubs). Few do anything about it.
But today is all about the “launch.” More specifically, Launch Academy. And, secondarily, LearnLaunch.
Those companies have a chance to get directly involved with Launch Academy. The program will have a “hiring day,” which is analogous to a “demo day” for startup accelerators; companies there will get to recruit students as junior developers. Some money issues: The course costs $10,000, and the program will pay a student up to $5,000 if he or she goes to work with a participating company. In turn, the company will pay Launch Academy a recruiting fee of 20 percent of the graduate’s first-year salary. That helps cover six months of post-grad support and structured mentorship after the 10 weeks are up.
This looks to be an important addition to the non-traditional education cluster around Boston, which has seen the likes of Boston Startup School, Intelligent.ly, and General Assembly sprout up in the past year (focused on entrepreneurship), as well as efforts at MIT, Harvard, and other top universities. Together with accelerators such as MassChallenge and TechStars, these efforts seem to be reshaping the paths that people from all walks of life can take to become engaged in the local—and national—tech scene.
As for LearnLaunch, the Boston ed-tech nonprofit has unveiled the content and structure of its inaugural conference. The event is happening Feb. 1-2 at MIT, and its keynoters include Anant Agarwal of MIT’s and Harvard’s edX and John Katzman of Noodle (and founder of The Princeton Review). Some topics up for discussion: ed-tech adoption, selling to K-12 vs. higher education, new learning models, and investment trends.
All in all, there is a lot of activity in educational entrepreneurship around town. The traditional constructs of the field could end up changing a lot faster than we thought.


CRAIG Joubert, the referee at the centre of the controversy over Scotland’s narrow Rugby World Cup quarter final loss to Australia last year, has revealed why he ran off the pitch at the final whistle.
South African official Joubert awarded a last-minute penalty to Australia for a Scottish player being offside at a lineout., with Vern Cotter’s men on the verge of making the semi finals for the first time.
But the penalty was converted, handing Australia a 35-34 victory, and Joubert was lambasted for racing off the pitch at full time, avoiding handshakes with any players and heading straight for the tunnel.
Joubert was branded ‘disrespectful’ following his actions, banned from speaking to the media and was eventually hung out to dry by World Rugby, who stated that the official had made the wrong decision and should have awarded a scrum for a knock-on, rather than a penalty.
Joubert revealed that he wanted to ‘avoid confrontation’, adding: “In my head was a desire to avoid any possible unseemly confrontation that would mar what had been a wonderful occasion.
“I had it in my mind somewhere that there had been an incident between the official and the England coaches in their match against Australia and I just didn’t want any of that to happen, not because I don’t understand the emotions of the moment for players and coaches, their desire for answers to questions, but just because I did not want that to become another possible incident.
Joubert, who didn’t participate in the rest of the tournament, said that he met with Scotland head coach Vern Cotter and team captain Greig Laidlaw at the Six Nations match with Ireland in Dublin, and insisted there were no hard feelings.
“They were very natural and typical interactions which I enjoyed,” Joubert added.
This week, Joubert was appointed to the referees’ panel for the Sevens tournament at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics - just two months after he blundered at the Sydney Sevens by allowing eight players on the pitch for New Zealand.


A murder convict who had jumped parole has been arrested by Thane police from his home town of Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, a police officer said here Friday.
Ashok Kumar Singh was among the three accused convicted for the murder of Ramnarayan Singh in Carvalho Nagar area here on December 5, 1994.
The murder had taken place over a property dispute.
Senior police inspector Nitin Thackeray of Thane crime branch said that Singh was serving life sentence at Nashik Central Jail since 1997.
He was granted parole in 2000 and did not return to the prison after being released, Thackeray said.
After receiving a tip-off, a police team led by Thackeray and Special Task Force of UP police raided his house in Sultanpur Thursday and nabbed him, he said.
A mob of locals, including a large number of women, tried to prevent police from taking Singh in custody and some policemen were injured in the scuffle, the senior police inspector said.


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Does the literary practice of John Dryden correspond with his critical theory?
dc.description Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1933. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive.
dc.title Does the literary practice of John Dryden correspond with his critical theory?


Dr. Rahul Gupta is the senior vice president and chief medical and health officer at March of Dimes.
If some state lawmakers have their way, pregnant women who misuse opioids or other drugs will soon face criminal charges if their babies are born exposed to drugs – making Tennessee among a handful of states to impose punitive measures that can have dangerous and lasting consequences for moms and babies.
In February, state Rep. Terry Lynn Weaver and state Sen. Janice Bowling introduced HB1168/SB0659, which would allow the state to prosecute pregnant women using drugs illegally if her child is born “addicted to or harmed by” her drug use.
It’s an impractical approach to tackling the disturbing number of babies entering the world with neonatal abstinence syndrome or NAS, a tragic condition in which newborns go through drug withdrawal in the first days or weeks of life. Unfortunately, this is not the first time some Tennessee lawmakers have pursued this misguided approach.
As our nation grapples with a growing opioid epidemic, NAS is clearly on the rise and March of Dimes, like so many others, is deeply concerned. In 2017, NAS cases represented 1.35 percent of all live births in Tennessee, an increase of 15.4 percent since surveillance began in 2013. NAS can result from the appropriate use of prescriptions, such as opioid-based painkillers, as well as from use of other legal or illegal drugs, such as heroin.
Research shows that babies exposed to opioids in utero have increased risk of poor birth outcomes, such as low birthweight and prematurity. Not all babies develop NAS, regardless of their exposure levels.
It’s critical that patients are able to talk openly with their providers during prenatal care visits. In doing so, providers can assess whether there’s a potential problem related to substance use disorder and link women with effective treatment. Under this bill, drug-dependent pregnant women will shun the critical care they need to avoid being stigmatized, prosecuted and having their newborns taken away.
That’s exactly the scenario that played out in 2014 when Tennessee became the first state to criminally charge pregnant women using narcotics under Public Chapter 820. Years earlier, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated that incarceration or the threat of it has “proved to be ineffective in reducing the incidences of alcohol and drug abuse,” in pregnant women.
Warnings from doctors and others like us were ignored. Only after vigorous effort from maternal and child health advocates, including March of Dimes, was the law allowed to sunset in 2016.
State lawmakers must understand that addiction is a chronic brain disease for which people need treatment, understanding and compassion. Pregnant women suffering from substance use disorder are often suffering from other psychosocial risk factors that need to be addressed in order to ensure that they are able to receive the most optimum treatment. Once pregnant, these therapeutic interventions are most successful when a woman receives them in the due course of her prenatal care – intended to improve the bond between her and her child without the threat of facing criminal charges.
The Safe Harbor Act – which allows prescription drug dependent moms to retain custody of their child by remaining in treatment – represents a good public health approach to a serious problem.
We need more policy initiatives like this that are aimed at providing care and support for mother and baby. Pregnant women need access to comprehensive services, including prenatal care, drug treatment, and social support services. We should also provide pregnant women priority access into drug treatment programs, and immunity during prenatal visits. Additionally, providers should be educated on the most updated substance use screening tools and the standard of care for all obstetric patients.
The health of mothers and their babies are intertwined, and drug addiction threatens them both. Let’s avoid repeating the mistakes we already corrected and ensure that Tennessee is on the right side of this issue so every woman can have the support she needs to have a healthy baby.
Dr. Rahul Gupta is the senior vice president and chief medical and health officer at March of Dimes. He previously served as assistant professor of medicine at Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University.


It's easy to dump shortcuts, files and other miscellany on to your desktop for quick access or for convenience's sake, but before long you can be left with a forest of icons and thumbnails obscuring the wallpaper beneath. If your desktop could use a clean up, we're here to tell you how to go about it.
These tips are primarily written with Windows in mind, though you can apply some of the same general principles to Mac OS or Linux to suit your setup.
The desktop is often the go-to place to store email attachments, photos and downloads, but once you've opened or dealt with a file then it can sit there gathering virtual dust. Instead of using your desktop as a temporary store, create a temp folder specifically for that purpose—use it for files that are only needed for a few minutes until they get uploaded or sent elsewhere.
Don't save anything that's important to this folder, like a cherished holiday photo that you only have one copy of. Use it for stuff that's duplicated elsewhere or that you can easily find again on the Web—basically anything that you can live without—that way you can erase everything in this folder on a regular basis, without having to pick through each file and worry about its relevance.
In my case, the temp folder is filled with images downloaded from one place ready to be uploaded somewhere else, documents to email (like .doc downloads of Google Docs files), installation packages and numerous press kits. It keeps my desktop clear but can be safely wiped at the end of every day or week.
Open up your desktop in File Explorer, as it's easier to navigate without the distraction of a wallpaper image, then identify files, folders, and shortcuts that you don't really need. Uninstall applications you don't use any more and erase documents and pictures you no longer require. If you must hoard your digital junk, drag it into a new archive folder to sort through later—a folder that works like the temp folder, but which isn't cleared out as often.
Using File Explorer to clean up your desktop also lets you order your files and shortcuts by date. Choose Date modified from the Sort by menu on the View tab and work out which files have been there the longest. You might come across some files you'd forgotten you had or a job you've not got round to finishing.
Once you've decluttered your desktop, resist the temptation to save anything new to it. That might involve changing the default download directory for your browser or setting a better-looking wallpaper backdrop that adds extra motivation to keep the screen clear. If you're after some new desktop images, Desktoppr and Wallbase.cc are a couple of my favorite resources.
Desktop cleanup programs aren't quite as ubiquitous as they used to be—Microsoft had an application of its own which hasn't survived to Windows 8—but there are still some useful tools out there. Take a look at Stardock's Fences for example, which lets you drop your icons into buckets that can be resized and moved as required (it works a little bit like the sub-folder system on your Android or iOS home screen). The application costs $9.99, but there's a free 30-day trial so you can see if it's worth it.
Alternatively, add another desktop or two to the mix. A virtual desktop manager such as Dexpot lets you spread your files and shortcuts out across multiple screens to keep everything tidier—perhaps you could have one desktop for working hours and one for leisure time, if you take your laptop between the office and your home. You can also spread out your application windows at the same time. Dexpot is free for non-commercial use.
If you're on a Linux machine, Compiz is by all accounts a very stylish tool to do the same job as Dexpot, while Mac OS users can of course feel very smug that Spaces is already integrated into the operating system to take care of all your virtual desktop needs (it's in Mission Control if you've never used it).
You may well use the desktop as a place to dump shortcuts to games, folders and applications for easy access—wherever you are in Windows, it's only a couple of clicks away. But there are other convenient places you can pin these shortcuts without having your desktop overrun with thumbnails.
There's the new-fangled Start screen, of course. Head to the Apps list (via the down arrow on the Start screen) then right-click on any entry to pin it to the collage of live tiles you see whenever Windows boots up. Your shortcuts are still only a press of the Windows key away, and your desktop stays tidy. From the same right-click menu you can pin apps to the desktop taskbar too, which makes them even more accessible than they are on the desktop itself.
You can right-click folders and files in File Explorer to pin them to the Start screen, or drag them to the taskbar to add them to the File Explorer's jump list. If you really must keep items on top of your desktop, make sure they're well organized by right-clicking the desktop and enabling Auto arrange icons and Align icons to grid from the View menu.
Hopefully that's enough to help you start creating some kind of order out of the chaos of your desktop. Leave a note below if you have a tip or method of your own that you'd like to share with the wider world.


Nicola Sturgeon has assured the family of Sheku Bayoh, the Sierra Leonean man who died on a pavement in Kirkcaldy, Fife, minutes after being detained by police in May, that she will give “serious consideration” to holding a public inquiry into his death.
The family of the 31-year-old trainee gas engineer and father of two spent over an hour discussing the case with Scotland’s first minister and the cabinet secretary for justice, Michael Matheson, on Tuesday. The family believe that post-mortem evidence suggests Bayoh died of positional asphyxia after being brought to the ground by four police officers.
They asked the Scottish government to consider the possibility of holding a public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005, for which there is already legal precedent in Scotland.
Aamer Anwar, Scotland’s leading civil liberties lawyer, who is acting for the family, has previously described how within seconds of confronting Bayoh on the street at 7.10am on 3 May, officers had sprayed him with CS gas and pepper spray, even though he was unarmed and had not initially resisted arrest – despite eyewitness reports suggesting he had been wielding a knife.
The Bayoh family has previously met with the PIRC, the Scottish police misconduct watchdog, whom they have criticised because of a 32-day delay before the officers involved were interviewed or forced to hand over their notebooks.
Anwar noted that, while a fatal accident inquiry into Bayoh’s death will be mandatory, the family did not believe that such an investigation would have sufficient remit to cover the wider issues of deaths in custody, use of restraint techniques, racism, lack of police accountability and the insufficient powers of PIRC. Nor would its findings be binding on Police Scotland.
Anwar added that the family welcomed Sturgeon’s “compassion and support” and her assurance that the Scottish government “will not shy away from learning lessons and bring about fundamental change if necessary”.
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One of the most popular features on our website yesterday was a picture gallery of revellers photographed over the years at popular Portsmouth nightclubs.
Countless people would have clicked through on the off-chance of seeing themselves or their friends enjoying a great night out, dressed up to the nines and enjoying life.
But times and habits have changed in the past 20 years, it seems. Along with the shops on our high streets, we have become used to seeing pubs and nightspots close down with alarming regularity.
But according to new statistics, Portsmouth has seen a steeper decline in the number of nightclubs and social clubs than the national average.
In 2001 there were 50 nightclubs in the city but by 2018 there were only 25.
In contrast the number of licensed restaurants rose dramatically — 85 to 150 — and across the country eateries that can serve alcohol increased by 52 per cent.
So with fewer bars to spend the time in it appears that restaurant culture has replaced pub culture as one of the city’s most popular pastimes.
There is no doubt that the city’s remaining nightclubs remain popular, and still offer a good night out, but the change in social habits is interesting to say the least.
Perhaps it’s a sign that people are drinking less. Maybe they are becoming more health conscious, or just willing to spend less on booze.
On the other hand, perhaps it’s a sign that people that people are drinking just as much, or maybe even more, in the privacy of their own homes.


It’s been six years since Jean Dujardin improbably charmed his way to an Oscar for a sparkling star turn in “The Artist”, and since then, even the French film industry has struggled to make optimum use of the funnyman’s outsize, old-school screen presence. Drug thriller “The Connection” was a solid enough play-it-straight vehicle, but by the time Dujardin showed up as a digitally modified little person in the dubious 2016 romcom “Up for Love”, Michel Hazanavicius’ beguiling silent-film pastiche itself seemed ancient history. That “I Feel Good” finally hands Dujardin a role he can wrap his arms around is perhaps the greatest of its many offbeat pleasures; he repays Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern’s ultimately sunny anti-capitalist comedy with a performance of x-factor charm, yes, but also wounded human complexity.
Dujardin’s urbane star quality isn’t the likeliest of matches for Delepine and Kervern, a cheerfully eccentric auteur duo who specialize in gently antic postcards from France’s socio-economic fringes: He’s a long way from the earthiness of their regular collaborator Gerard Depardieu, for example. Yet that makes the him ideal for the tragicomic character of Jacques, a middle-aged, mentally unstable ne’er-do-well with perennial delusions of grandeur – and a lousy business plan to make fellow losers feel good from the outside in, with a little help from cut-rate Bulgarian plastic surgeons. In his head, Jacques is the leading man of a considerably sleeker, more aspirational star vehicle than this rough-and-ready misfit tour of France’s rural southwest. The loopy, irony-tinged character study that results should give the filmmakers their biggest crowdpleaser to date at home; with a title that lays out clear marketing instructions to buyers, meanwhile, “I Feel Good” should secure healthy international distribution.
As in the “OSS” superspy parodies he headlined to star-making effect, Dujardin has a winning knack for playing the dashing dunce: Having spent much of his adult life restlessly hopping from one harebrained scheme to the next in an attempt to escape his working-class origins, Jacques has the outward swagger of the suave entrepreneur he believes he’s destined to be, but none of the inner smarts or savoir-faire to make the dream happen. That conflict is visually encapsulated in a terrific opening shot, as Jacques is introduced pacing purposefully, in a plush white spa robe and slippers, along the shoulder of a busy freeway.
The circumstances behind this apparent fall from grace trickle out gradually – though any grace he managed to attain, it seems, was strictly and briefly on credit. It turns out Jacques has been more or less AWOL for three years, since draining his parents’ life savings on an obvious internet investment scam. In the interim, they have passed away, while his long-suffering sister Monique (Yolande Moreau, in her third Delepine and Kervern joint) has seen her own marriage and finances crumble. Now managing an Emmaus commune – one of an international network of not-for-profit settlements providing accommodation and employment for the homeless – in the sticks, Monique contentedly shares the socialist worldview of her parents, though her charity is sorely tested when Jacques, flat broke and back from thin air, comes begging for shelter.
For her younger brother sees no point in a life not lived in pursuit of wealth, beauty and status, and believes a change in image to be the starting point of all success. With little more than a spray-on tan, some ill-fitting thrift-store tailoring and a pile of business cards cheaply printed in Comic Sans, Jacques fashions himself as a surgery-peddling life coach of sorts, selling Monique’s most vulnerable commune residents on outlandish promises of self-improvement – and setting up a fundamental clash of principles with his sister, who loves him too tenderly to bluntly say, “Quack physician, heal thyself.” Delepine and Kervern’s loose-limbed screenplay takes Jacques’s hustle to riotous farcical extremes – a road trip to Bulgaria in a succession of slipshod vehicles is on the cards, for one thing – yet the film’s political point of view is as crisply focused as its storytelling is amiably, colorfully shaggy. There’s a hint of Preston Sturges to their critical but loving scuppering of their hero’s quest, an honest concern with morality that rarely slips into moralizing.
Much of the credit for that tricky balance is also owed to the limber magnetism of Dujardin, who keeps this oddly lovable doofus more fragile than he will ever either know or admit, and his sweetly crackling chemistry with the ever-wonderful Moreau, who plays Monique with a heavy-gaited, world-on-her-shoulders mixture of concern for everyone around her and sporadic, silently guilty hope for her own ship to come in. Together, they’re the sympathetic human core that keep Delepine and Kervern’s tumble of zany asides and bright sight gags spinning, even in a denouement that, in tidily knotting its frayed ends, pushes a little too hard for emotional uplift – we don’t quite need the dialogue, for example, to point out that Jacques is “trying to sell beauty when it’s already here.” There’s enough genuinely benevolent spirit in “I Feel Good” to sell the sentiment anyway.
A jaded cop in Singapore investigates the disappearance of a Chinese construction worker in Yeo Siew Hua’s predictable noir “A Land Imagined”. Set in the city’s underbelly and shot almost entirely at night, the film privileges style over coherence, indulging in pointless time shifts and giving short shrift to too many characters. Any discussion of the quasi-slave-like situation for most of the country’s external laborers is important, and Yeo adds some good lines about how the city-state is literally built from foreign soil, yet “Land” will feel overly familiar to those looking for more than well-intentioned musings on the horrendous treatment of guest workers. Locarno’s jury clearly thought otherwise by giving it their top prize, but it’s hard to imagine the movie going beyond the usual indie festival destinations.


The men relied on a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that the land was private when they decided to buy, revamp the old.
PALMYRA, Wis. — Beth Martineau might be rolling in her grave, the one at nearby Oak Knoll Cemetery marked with a stone reading, "I fought the DNR and I won."
In the late 1960s, Martineau lived and worked as an artist on Upper Spring Lake, an idyllic spot created by a 19th-century dam. She defended her privacy with fences, signs, trespass complaints and even gunshots.
In 1970 after the state tried to add the property to the Kettle Moraine State Forest, she ultimately got the Wisconsin Supreme Court to declare that the Conservation Commission — the predecessor to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources — had no power to condemn the lake.
Now the fate of Upper Spring Lake, about 35 miles southwest of Milwaukee, is back in court. The current owners say they relied on the legal conclusions of Martineau's victories when they bought the property out of bankruptcy in 2008 and spent about $1 million rebuilding the dam that creates the lake and protects downstream areas of Scuppernong River.
“We’d never have made this effort if we didn’t think we owned it," said John Taylor of Glenview, Ill. He and his friend Dave Porter of Chicago, both semi-retired commodities traders from Illinois, created Row Boat LLC to buy the property, which they hoped to use as a nearly private getaway for their families.
But those plans are on hold until the legal boundaries dispute gets settled. Taylor said title insurance is covering most of the legal costs.
After Martineau died in 1993, the property remained in a trust she created and was then sold to another owner who had planned a resort but went bankrupt. That's when Taylor, who owns a farm less than 10 miles away in Rome, Wis., got interested.
During the negotiations to buy the property out of bankruptcy in 2008, heavy rains washed out the dam. Row Boat went through with the deal anyway and then worked closely with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources on permitting to rebuild an improved, modern dam.
"If (the DNR) had even just said they were interested, we’d have backed off," Porter said, because they wouldn't have risked such an investment if a clear title was in doubt.
As part of the dam permitting, Row Boat conceded that the creek was navigable, and provided a means for canoers and kayakers to portage past the dam.
“We thought we’d be good neighbors by rebuilding the dam and give boat access that they never had,” Porter said.
After the dam was completed in 2010, the lake had visitors, Taylor and Porter said. Then, state natural resources officials began informing people that it was part of the forest, and more people began making their way in, including some fishermen in motorized boats.
Some didn't respect the land, the men said. During a recent tour, a black piece of plastic the size of a barrel marred the weedy edge of the pond. The owners say they often had to clean up other trash from around the lake's edge.
So they mounted signs over the entrance from the upper Scuppernong River and at the road entrance to Martineau's old house, which is now boarded up and unoccupied. They read, in part, "WARNING THIS IS NOT DNR PROPERTY. You are entering PRIVATE LANDS. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE."
Row Boat claims it owns what a judge said in 1972 that Martineau owned: as much land as the water covered when the water at the old dam was 13 feet, 4 inches deep. Because it was somewhat lower in 1972, the judge said Martineau also had a strip of dry land varying from 6 to 50 feet around the water's edge.
Row Boat — and all previous owners going back to the original grist mill owner in the 1850s — only ever owned "flowage rights," or the right to impound water over others' land, according to state natural resources officials.
William O'Connor of Madison, Wis., a lawyer for Row Boat, said more than 65 deeds and other documents have been recorded regarding the land since the 1840s, and some basis for claiming legal ownership on other grounds.
"They're all very complicated questions," he said.
A Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources spokesman would not comment on pending litigation.
But in an answer to the Row Boat lawsuit and a counterclaim, the state denies it is claiming any rights to land that Row Boat owns. The two to three acres at and below the dam, where the house, studio and crumbling stone mill are located are not in dispute.
It says that Martineau's case was about condemnation, and nothing in the decisions ever settled who exactly had title to which land. Neither she nor the state ever filed a specific action to address that.
The state's position is that all historical deeds are basically correct, and that the only error in the title history came in 2008 when the bankruptcy trustee deeded the property to Row Boat. But none of that mattered to the dam application process anyway, the natural resources officials said.
Taylor and Porter still feel like the state took advantage of their willingness to rebuild the dam and when it was all done, ambushed them with a new claim to lands abutting the lake, where, in theory, the state could build a boat landing and park.
That would have a much greater effect on their potential use of their property than a few kayakers and fishermen occasionally coming into the lake via the creek, Taylor and Porter said.
"We tried to just negotiate a new, clear boundary, but DNR won’t really say what they want," Taylor said.
In its counterclaim, the state contends Row Boat is exceeding the 13-foot-4-inch water level behind the dam, meaning more water is impounded and trespassing on state forest land that surrounds the lake.
Row Boat contends it owns the land by either record title or through adverse possession because of Martineau's "hostile, open and notorious" occupation for an uninterrupted 40 years, which the state never contested.
O'Connor, the Row Boat lawyer, said the dozens of recorded deeds and other instruments in the recorded chain of title have errors.
"We hope to avoid a complicated and esoteric battle over interpreting the deeds, based on longstanding actual possession of the property in question," he said. "You have probably heard the saying, possession is nine-tenths of the law."
April 23, 2019, 12:49 p.m.
April 23, 2019, 9:01 a.m.
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Today we examine the XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X video card, comparing it to a fiercely priced custom GeForce GTX 770. Sporting new aesthetics this video card has the appearance of a truly professional looking video card. We'll find out if the overclock and Double Dissipation GHOST2 thermal technology justify its price.
On our test bench today is the XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X video card (R9-280X-TDFD).
AMD's R9 280X video card is a simple re-branding of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. It is based on the 28nm Tahiti GPU. The streaming processors are the same at 2,048, the ROPs are the same at 32 ROPs, the TMUs are the same at 128. The GPU architecture is based on GCN (Graphics Core Next) 1.0. The clock speed on the AMD Radeon R9 280X will run at 1GHz. The memory will run at 6GHz on a 384-bit bus with 3GB of GDDR5, just like the 7970 GHz Edition. The TDP is exactly the same at 250W.
What truy separates the AMD R9 280X from the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is the price tag. The AMD R9 280X has a base MSRP of $399. This is $100 less than the launch price of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, which sold for $499. Basically, AMD is providing the same performance as a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition for a much more cost efficient price.
XFX offers several custom R9 video cards. The XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X is a baseline video card as far as operating speeds go. The XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X's GPU runs by default at 1GHz, while the memory is 1500MHz or 6GHz GDDR5. XFX did not apply an overclock to this video card, however it is still built on custom PCB with quality components, and the GHOST2 thermal design which features Double Dissipation technology.
There are a few things that XFX incorporate into the XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X (DD from here on) that make it unique from other vendors and the reference video card. XFX has outfitted the board with high quality Solid Capacitors and Ferrite Core Chokes. The custom PCB also features a 2oz copper layer, and the I/O panel has a custom bracket with the XFX logo cut into it for increased airflow. The overall look of the video card is aesthetically pleasing. The matte black fan housing and silver trim go great together, and give you a cool look at the guts of the cooling system.
The point of the XFX DD R9 280X is the Double Dissipation and GHOST2 cooling technologies. These are essentially one in the same. Double Dissipation refers to the two heatsinks that are mounted on the video card. One is directly above the GPU, which has two copper heat pipes also running into its finned array. The second heatsink towards the rear end of the video card is connected to four copper heat pipes. The heat is then exhausted by the two light-weight glossy fans. These will ensure proper airflow without excessive noise. The fans are also specially designed to stay dust free. That is huge considering and dust is one of the largest killers of computer components.
Unfortunately after the first round of R9 280X's flew off the shelves, the $399 price point has seemed to struggle. The XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X is currently selling for a ridiculously high $489. It was at $439 just a week ago when this evaluation was finished. The pricing seems to be fluctuating drastically, and currently, for the worse. You can read more about the XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X's specifications and features here.
Our particular XFX DD R9 280X did not come with the normal out-of-store packaging, however retail sales will include a 6-pin to dual-Molex connector, a 6-pin to 8-pin PCIe connector, one CrossFire bridge, a drive installation disk and quick installation guide, and a card with the XFX DD R9 280X's serial number.
The XFX DD R9 280X as we mentioned looks very professional. The matte black plastic fan housing contrasts nicely against the glossy black fans. The fan housing when looking along the edge of the video card is actually split in two, and separated by some silver trim that makes this video card look nice. The custom PCB is also black to fit the running color scheme. There is one design flaw, we found the PCIe power connectors face inward towards the heatsink. It makes getting your finger in to release the clip implausible.
The rear I/O panel houses a dual-link DVI-I connector and a single-link DVI-D connector. It also has an HDMI connector and two mini-DisplayPort connectors. It will take up two PCIe slots in your computer. The XFX DD R9 280X measures 11.25 inches long, 4.5 inches tall, and 1.5 inches wide. It requires you have a 6-pin PCIe and an 8-pin PCIe power connector, and a 750W or greater power supply in order to deliver proper power.


ZANESVILLE - The Zanesville Community Theatre will open its 56th season this weekend with the award-winning drama, "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck.
The play is the story of two drifters during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. George will be played by Albert Brown and his companion, Lennie, will be played by Kevin McCarthy. As these two travel aimlessly, hoping to “live off the fat of the land” they encounter others, ultimately with tragic results. Those others include John Lowe as Candy, Jan Smith as The Boss, Scott Robison as Curly, Monica Van Nort as Curly’s Wife, Lew Woodward as Slim, Daniel Warne as Carlson and Jay Shaffstall and Steve Stewart as Crooks. The play does use some adult language and situations.
The production is directed by Phil Palmer with assistance from Val Gahagen. Steinbeck wrote the play based on his novel of the same name. It won the 1938 New York Critics' Circle award for best play.
The 2014 Broadway version was nominated for two Tony Awards, including best lighting and Chris O'Dowd as best actor for playing Lennie. The 1939 film adaption was nominated for Oscars for best picture, best sound recording, best musical scoring and best original score. A 1992 movie starred Gary Sinise as George as John Malkovich as Lennie.
Performances will be at 8 p.m. Sept. 14, 15, 21 and 22 and 2:30 p.m. Sept. 16 and 23.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, military and students, and $5 for those 12 and younger. The theater is located at 940 Findley Ave. in the McIntire Historic District.
Information and photos submitted by Amy Underwood for the Zanesville Community Theatre.


Only two reports against members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) were made to the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) last year, but JDF commanders say several other soldiers were disciplined or fired following altercations with civilians.
INDECOM reported last week that there were 699 civilian reports against members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) last year and 42 involving members of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS). Routinely, the police force interacts with citizens far more regularly, and in denser numbers, than do soldiers.
There was only one report of civilian violation by security forces carrying out joint activities – including those in the recently concluded zones of special operations (ZOSOs) in Denham Town, Kingston, and Mount Salem, St James.
“We have had very few cases, but we have dealt with them very strongly. I recently dismissed three soldiers for operating while on duty in a way that I did not find acceptable in terms of their interaction with a citizen of Jamaica,” said Lieutenant General Rocky Meade, chief of defence staff of the JDF, during a recent Gleaner Editors’ Forum.
Launched in July 2017, the Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations) (Special Security and Community Development Measures) was introduced to contain crime, and at the same time, to safeguard the rights of citizens through community development and social intervention.
Under the ZOSOs, which ended this year, soldiers were given special powers, including that of arrest, which they do not possess outside of the SOE Act. That does not change the high level of professionalism and respect for human rights that is expected of JDF members, Meade said.
“Although the SOE Act has set a bar, we have adopted it across the force. So they all get the training and the guidelines as to how to treat with our citizens, and I want it applied across the board to every citizen in ZOSO or not,” said Meade.
“I had a situation where someone was on the road and acted in a way that I was not happy with based on the evidence, and in addition to our internal discipline, they are no longer serving,” he added, noting that undisciplined soldiers face both punitive and administrative sanctions.
“You may do something and it calls for a certain punishment, but then you have further told me something about your character, and based on your character, I may not think that you are worthy of wearing the uniform any further. We are very firm about it,” Meade said.
In March last year, there were complaints by residents of Denham Town and Mount Salem that following ZOSO, gunmen would return to the area with a vengeance as some JCF and JDF members were having sexual relations with women in the communities.
There were reports that at least one woman was impregnated by soldiers in Denham Town while a resident of Mount Salem noted, “When you pass some yards, a pure soldier clothes you see on the line” as she argued that some soldiers were living with women in the zone.
Meade, however, debunked those allegations last week.
“No facts have come to me with respect to that. I have heard the anecdote, and I, last year, put out a policy about sexual relations within the force and also with civilians and persons who we have a duty to protect in an operational area,” the army chief said.
INDECOM said it received 706 reports against the police in 2017 while there was only one against the JDF that same year. There were 55 reports against members of the DCS.


Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton looks over his team during the game against the Heat. Miami Heat vs. Los Angeles Lakers. AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, FL. 3/1/18. Staff Photographer Jim Rassol.


It was poignant sitting opposite the man whose ambition it had been to remake capitalism for an age of austerity.
During the World Cup, I wrote a cover essay about Englishness and on the day of the semi-final against Croatia I kept receiving invitations from broadcasters to talk about it. If you are not desperate to appear on television or radio or have nothing to sell, broadcast punditry can be tedious: you are poorly paid (if you are paid at all), the broadcasters thrive on outrage and polarised opinions, and it takes up too much time. However, on this occasion, I agreed to do a slot on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show, because I like its editor, Phil Jones, and it has an audience of more than seven million. Except there was a slight problem: after I had agreed to appear I was told that Vine was away and the guest presenter would be none other than Ed Miliband, who has reinvented himself as a podcast host.
I had not spoken to Miliband – or, perhaps, more accurately he had not spoken to me – since I published a column in the New Statesman in November 2014 criticising his leadership and warning that he would lead Labour to defeat. The column caused a lot of trouble for him and, in the days after its publication, there was hysterical chatter about a possible coup against Miliband.
After a period of turmoil, he “relaunched” his leadership with a speech in which he cited Nietzsche’s dictum that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. He followed this declaration soon afterwards with a visit, accompanied by the BBC’s political editor, to Harlow in Essex – my home town. I had accused Miliband of having no understanding of the aspirations of Essex Man and Woman, among other failings of leadership.
After the publication of my piece one of his henchman passed a message to me, via my political editor, to the effect that there would be no way back for the New Statesman. By the time of the 2015 election campaign, my politics team were not allowed to interview or have access to Miliband. And then he lost, calamitously, as we predicted. Yet right up until the exit poll Miliband believed he would become prime minister: when he saw the projections he proclaimed with incredulity that they must be wrong. He never contemplated a Conservative victory in what was a “progressive age”.
Why isn’t ours a progressive age? Why didn’t the financial crisis create Miliband’s social democratic moment, as he hoped and expected? One answer is that the centre-left parties in Europe fully embraced or were fellow travellers of neoliberalism. Blair, Clinton, Schröder and others consolidated rather than challenged market fundamentalism. Blair proselytised for free markets and free movement and liberal globalisation.
My view back then was that Miliband had misread and misunderstood the present moment. As John Gray wrote, he was aspiring to lead a country that did not exist. He underestimated the Ukip insurgency and had little interest in or understanding of the forces driving Scottish nationalism, a fateful error as Labour would be routed in Scotland in 2015. Nor did he anticipate that the financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed would empower the right, including the nativist or populist far right. He believed Ukip and Farageism were a greater threat to the Tories than to Labour.
Was I wrong about Ed Miliband? That’s what I was wondering as I was reintroduced to him at Broadcasting House on that recent summer afternoon – he was warm enough, his voice was animated but his dark eyes were cold as he peered at me over his microphone. It was poignant sitting opposite the man whose ambition it had been to remake capitalism for an age of austerity as he asked me questions about the political significance of Gareth Southgate’s England.
Talk to Labour MPs and you will discover they are generally furious with Miliband. Many of them are demoralised and they blame him in large part for their misfortune – for losing the election in 2015, for introducing the new rules by which the party elects its leader, for failing to honour the achievements of New Labour. Nor can they understand why Labour’s only Jewish leader has not intervened during the party’s protracted anti-Semitism crisis.
The left is more forgiving of Miliband, however, and one senses he would be welcomed back into the shadow cabinet, even though he called for Jeremy Corbyn to resign in 2016. John McDonnell, whom I profiled last week, believes Miliband was broadly correct in his analysis of the financial crisis but was doomed by excessive caution. “He gave us austerity-lite,” McDonnell told me.
Ten years on from the crash, the consequences of the financial crisis are still working themselves out, still yet to be fully understood. One reason the far right are rising in so many European countries is that people are turning to the nation state or strong men to protect them against the havoc being wreaked by the forces of globalisation. The radical left are rising, too, because they never made peace with neoliberalism and desire fundamental economic and political transformation. Emmanuel Macron is often cited as a source of inspiration to centrists – but he won only 24 per cent of the vote in the first round of the French presidential election and owes his position as much to the vagaries of the voting system as he does to any great fondness for his ardently pro-EU worldview.
What is certain is that moderate social democracy is in retreat – just this week the Social Democrats in Sweden (whose power was once hegemonic) recorded their worst election result in a century. And those MPs who aspire to take back control of their party will have an interminable wait: Labour is now a party of the radical left. I wonder what Ed Miliband thinks about that.


Heritage proponents in Southampton are upset that Bruce County intends to sell the 124-year-old former St. Paul’s Anglican rectory intact or for salvage to make room for expansion of the adjacent Bruce County Museum Cultural Centre — and maybe something else.
The Southampton Residents’ Association issued a statement Thursday that calls on the county to instead incorporate and repurpose the old rectory at 254 High St. into “a more imaginative design” for the expansion of the museum.
“We believe that a core mission of a museum is to preserve our history and interpret it for future generations,” said the statement from Bill Bowden, president of the residents’ association.
Bruce County issued a request for proposals to purchase and relocate the old rectory on Jan. 8. Proposals are due Jan. 29 and the building is to be moved between April 1 and April 15.
Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau in an interview maintained he couldn’t say what the property was needed for exactly. But he said that it will require “the removal” of that house.
Charbonneau said he couldn’t say what options are being considered.
Charbonneau also is chair of the Bruce County Museum Committee. He noted more than $1 million in the county’s draft budget is for “designs for the community-wing expansion at the museum,” which is to cost more than an $11 million dollars.
“My view is the broader community supports the extended institutional use of that use in an institutional neighbourhood,” he said, referring to the churches on the three other corners at that location as institutional land uses in the area.
A group of citizens, separate from the Southampton Residents’ Association, has hired a lawyer to stop the sale and possible demolition of the old rectory.
It alleges money from a $500,000 Bruce and Howard Krug endowment fund, dedicated for the storage and display of archives of the county, was used to buy the rectory property. The archives are part of the county museum.
“Absolutely improper,” Laura Robinson, one of about 10 local residents who she said are pursing this legal route, said in an interview.
“The Krug reserve fund was only for the archives build. And then they pretended they had to buy and demolish the rectory, when they don’t have to at all,” she said.
“Everyone is so up-in-arms about this, I can’t tell you,” Robinson said.
Two 2017 consultants’ studies for the county, of the financial feasibility of the expansion and the feasibility of expansion, never required removal of the house, Robinson said. They suggested a First Nations post-secondary academy could use the house though, she said.
Another objection to the plans to remove the home comes from Jill Taylor.
She’s a heritage conservation expert, Toronto architect, a former chair of the Conservation Review Board of Ontario and a former president of the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals.
“It’s totally contrary to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Recreation policy that a museum would demolish or be part of a scheme to demolish a heritage resource . . . that has an importance to the community and the townscape since the 19th century,” she said by phone Thursday.
She said the plan to remove the building runs contrary to preservation of cultural heritage principles in both the county and municipal official plans as well.
She noted the old rectory has no heritage designation but its importance to the community was made clear during the public protests voiced last fall over a proposal to use the site for a nuclear innovation institute. Bruce Power withdrew its support for the property, citing the controversy the plan for using the location stirred up.
Regarding the group alleging the property was purchased contrary to restrictions on the Krug endowment for the archives, Charbonneau said he didn’t have information about where the money came from to buy the old rectory property.
He wasn’t on county council at that time and “I wasn’t part of those negotiations and wasn’t on council at the time.” When told about the existence of a group pursuing legal action, he declined to comment on the matter.
The residents’ association supports the need to expand the museum and archives to accommodate growth, its statement said.
The group said it has told Charbonneau its concerns.
The residents’ association said it told Charbonneau the building project does not require removal of the rectory at this time. Originally the county was only interested in buying the north end of the rectory lot, roughly extending to an old garage, it said.
Charbonneau was told the timetable for removal is too tight “making it difficult, if not impossible for potential bidders to respond.” And the lack of publicity means not everyone who might consider relocating the house would learn of the opportunity in time.


Cloudflare presents a primer on "anti-patterns" that have transformed IoT devices into ghastly security nightmares.
This JSON request instructs the alarm clock on every “alarmSound” event to send a HTTP request to the coffee machine. Whilst this may seem a simple and effective way of implementing the Pub/Sub pattern in HTTP, this poses a significant security risk.
By not being able to validate if the receiver of the subscribed message wants the message or not, there is effectively a DDOS vulnerability. An attacker with the ability to set subscriptions on the alarm clock can effectively send HTTP messages to any device or internet property they want. If this is done across enough devices, a DDOS vulnerability is created.
Toast popping out of a toaster or a car driving across a road traffic sensor could be the trigger of a future large scale DDOS against a web property.
Vasile Savu is accused of walking into a Western Union in Hollywood, Florida and asking the clerk to print out his flight itinerary, a pretense he used to get the clerk to insert a thumb-drive loaded with malicious software into his computers, which allegedly allowed Savu to steal $32k from the business.


HEIST, Belgium (AP) — An injured sperm whale has drifted ashore on the Belgian coast and died before it could be rescued.
The whale was likely making a seasonal migration and ended up in the North Sea by accident. It measured 13 meters (45 feet) and weighed some 30 tons.
Jan Haelters of the Natural Science Institute tells the VRT network that "it is treacherous out here for sperm whales since the North Sea is not deep enough."
Despite the freezing cold on the windy beach, it soon was an attraction for local schools and tourists.
The whale drifted ashore early Wednesday still alive but scientists were unable to treat its injuries.


Israel Air Force is due to receive F-35 stealth fighters from manufacturer Lockheed Martin beginning in late 2015.
Israel might accept deliveries of the new F-35 fighter jet later than planned to make sure the planes have the capabilities the air force requires.
The Israel Air Force is due to receive the planes from manufacturer Lockheed Martin beginning in late 2015. But the current development speed means that if Israel takes the planes on schedule, they will be from the first batch of production, lacking the advanced electronics, communications and radar functions that Israel demands.
Third-batch jets that feature these capabilities will not be delivered before late 2016. Teams from the IAF and the Defense Ministry have left for the United States in the past two weeks to take part in discussions between Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force. The sides will plan production and the various delivery dates.
The Israel Air Force now believes that timing must be considered against capabilities. The IAF wants to acquire the jets as soon as possible to increase its technological lead over other countries in the region. This would bolster the air force's deterrent capabilities.
However, the IAF also fears that even at the price of $100 million per unit, it may eventually end up with a jet lacking the advanced capabilities it needs. A meeting headed by the director-general of the Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Udi Shani, is scheduled to take place in two months to sum up the work of the teams that visited the United States and to decide whether the purchasing agreement of 25 jets already signed needs to be changed.
Lockheed Martin, for its part, wants to deliver the planes as soon as possible to boost its marketing efforts with an Israeli endorsement.
The Defense Ministry said yesterday that it had signed letter of agreement to receive stealth jets in late 2015. "We do no intend to comment on financially-motivated speculation," the ministry said in a statement.
Lockheed Martin said it remains convinced it will provide Israel with fully battle-ready F-35 jets on the schedule discussed by the U.S. and Israel governments. "All jets received by Israel will have full battle capabilities," the company said.


The Peoria Rivermen came back to tie the game twice against the Rockford IceHogs but fell 4-2 before 5,521at the MetroCentre Friday night.
Goaltender Corey Crawford helped kill off all six Rivermen power plays and stop Peoria from completing its comeback bid.
The Rivermen rallied to score twice in the final four minutes of the second period to tie the game at 1-1 and again at 2-2. Crawford made 27 saves to secure Rockford’s second win in as many Fridays against the Rivermen.
Playing on pink ice, to help raise awareness for breast cancer research, the Rivermen got second period goals from Chris Porter and Jonas Junland. Jack Skille and Kyle Greentree connected for the hosts.
Jake Dowell scored the eventual game-winner just 3:14 into the third period. Simon Danis-Pepin’s slapshot from the right point was redirected by Dowell under the arm of Ben Bishop for his fifth of the season.
Both team’s special teams missed chances to score with time running down as Peoria’s failed to convert on 1:52 of 4-on-3 and Rockford came up empty on 1:54 of 5-on-3. The IceHogs finished 1-for-5 on the power play. Bishop made 31 saves in the loss.
Matt Keith secured the game with an empty-net goal at 19:12. The Rivermen are now 4-2-0-1 against the IceHogs this season.
ICE CHIPS: Peoria returns home to face the Houston Aeros at 7 p.m. tonight. ... Trevor Baker will become the 32nd member of the Rivermen Hall of Fame when he is inducted during the first intermission. ... Arby’s will also give away oversized playing cards of Yan Stastny to the first 1,000 fans.


Digital consumers are being bombarded with one kind of messaging or another. Today, Kahuna announced a new tool designed to avoid driving consumers crazy.
“Marketers were stuck in this world where they send billions of messages to get” a small rate of return, Kahuna founder and CEO Adam Marchick told VentureBeat. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company provides an automated platform for messaging mobile users through such means as push notifications, in-app messages, web messages, and email.
A key target for the new tool, called RevIQ, is the mobile marketer’s continuing headache: shopping cart abandonment, which some reports say is about 70 percent on mobile devices.
RevIQ sends out messages to groups of users who have just abandoned a brand’s shopping cart. Each group gets up to five reminders at different time intervals, such as one at 5 minutes, another at 30 minutes, and so on. RevIQ then chooses the interval with the best response rate, following by testing of up to five different kinds of messages that the marketer has basically written and the system has personalized.
The winning combo of message and timing is then employed for the brand’s reminder messaging, which Marchick said can result in a “major revenue lift” of 30 to 60 percent.
It’s “testing, analysis, optimization,” he said. Previously, marketers could test, change, and optimize, but Kahuna says RevIQ uses sophisticated artificial intelligence to automatically choose the best timing for the best message.
In its recent announcement of real-time marketing capabilities for the Campaign solution in its Marketing Cloud, Adobe similarly noted “the spookiness factor” of hitting up a user with messaging too soon after, say, a shopping cart has been abandoned. In Adobe’s case, however, the optimal timing was not determined in such an automated fashion.
Marchick told us that “no one else is doing real-time distribution analysis to understand the optimal distribution” of message timing, specifically comparing Kahuna’s RevIQ to the kind of messaging control offered by key competitors Swrve and Urban Airship.


Warning shot to the City as trader Tom Hayes’ conviction over Libor scandal upheld | City A.M.
The City was sent a stark warning yesterday that authorities will continue to crack down on financial crime as Court of Appeal judges upheld Tom Hayes’ conviction for Libor rigging.
Hayes, who was found guilty on eight charges of conspiracy to defraud and sentenced to 14 years in August for his role in the manipulation scandal, had his jail time cut to 11 years by the Court of Appeal.
The message to the City was that misconduct will not go unpunished. Ben Rose, white collar crime expert and a founding partner at law firm Hickman & Rose, said: “Those watching hopefully from the Square Mile will no doubt be disheartened by [the] result. Eleven years is still a substantial sentence for a financial crime.
When handing down his sentence in August, Justice Jeremy Cooke said Hayes’ conduct “must be marked out as dishonest and wrong and a message sent to the world of banking accordingly”.
In reducing the sentence, the judges took into account Hayes’ relative youth, the fact he did not hold a managerial position at the two banks he worked for and his mild Asperger’s syndrome. Once these mitigating factors had been accounted for, the judges determined that the original sentence was longer than needed to punish Hayes and deter others.
Proudlock added that those awaiting trial on similar charges could probably take comfort in the sentence reduction, but noted that it was still high by UK standards and "has arguably raised the bar".
Yesterday I lost a battle to have my conviction in relation to Libor overturned. Whilst I am immensely disappointed with this result, I am relieved and grateful that the extremely long sentence imposed on me has been reduced.
The judges hearing the appeal were the Lord Chief Justice John Thomas, head of the judiciary for England and Wales, Sir Brian Leveson – well-known for his role in the inquiry into media industry ethics – and Lady Justice Gloster.


The Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) has decided, like the Center Party and Reform Party, to expel party members who are running against the party in next month's local elections, daily Postimees reported.
The Center Party and Reform Party have already begun expelling party members who have chosen to run against them in the Oct. 15 local government council elections. EKRE is now likewise planning on clearing its lists of members who are running on election lists competing with the party.
As of Sept. 19, EKRE had 96 members running on lists other than those of the party. According to MP Jaak Madison, a member of EKRE's board, the party has reminded its members on several occasions that it is against the party's statutes to run in elections on a competing candidate list.
"The members who run against the party will be expelled," Madison told the paper.


Following Hurricane Sandy, members of the New York startup community have extended offers of help fellow entrepreneurs and other residents of the tri-state area caught without power and Internet by the storm.
Social discovery startup Mirror Media, based out of Lower Manhattan's Flatiron neighborhood, opened its offices Wednesday to entrepreneurs seeking power, Internet and workspace.
"As a startup founder and CEO, I understand how important it is to be productive. Each day is critical in the life of a startup," said Mirror's Daniel Mattio. "We have the available space to help New York entrepreneurs who may not have power in their homes or current workspaces. It's the least we can do to help out fellow entrepreneurs in the New York area."
Providing much-sought charging stations, Moxy is offering free cellphone charging and Wi-Fi to New Yorkers in need. Chase Bank invited Moxy to set up shop inside of one of its branches, to create a hub for lower Manhattan residents, who are still without power.
Zaarly launched a virtual marketplace where people from around the country can purchase local services for New Yorkers, such as a basement cleaning, cooked meals or room painting. The startup is donating all proceeds toward the American Red Cross.
"People were asking if you know anyone in New York who needs help," Bo Fishback, CEO of the San Francisco-based company told Mashable. "We spent a year and a half building a platform for the most talented and skilled people in New York, so we reached out to our sellers and many said they were able and ready to help out."
AirBnB, which matches travelers with accommodations, is waiving fees on all properties in the areas affected by the hurricane. The startup was inspired when one seller offered her rooms for free to victims of the storm.
The New York Tech Meetup created a Google Doc where small businesses, non-profits, schools or government entities can ask for technology assistances following the devastation. The group will try to match requests with volunteers able to help.
Have you heard of any other startups helping in the wake of the storm? Let us know in the comments.


TONIGHT: Mostly clear overnight, patchy fog is possible late with lows in the mid 60s.
MONDAY: Fog possible early and then partly to mostly sunny and warm with highs in the low to mid 80s.
MONDAY NIGHT AND TUESDAY: Bands of heavy rain with a chance of thunder. Highs Monday in the upper 70s to 80.


Joey Bada$$ has been working hard all year to push his creativity, and we're seeing more of his skills as a director in his new "Temptations" music video. The All-Amerikkan Bada$$ rapper's new visuals take us back to his hometown of Brooklyn, where he journeys through his old neighborhood.
The new video, which was released exclusively to Tidal, represents the New York native's experiences in the borough during his childhood, taking us through a house with two children, while he soon follows around a little girl. Bada$$ narrates some of the different people in the household before making his way outside into the neighborhood. The visuals end with the rapper dropping off the little girl with her mother before joining others inside of a church.
Towards the end, the song also features a speech made by 9-year-old Zianna Oliphant back in September 2016 in front of Charlotte City Council.
After releasing his anticipated sophomore album this year, Joey Bada$$ was recruited to join Logic for his Everybody Tour, which they are currently embarking on around the country. The "Devastated" star also starred in Pony's fall 2017 campaign ad, as he was tapped to help celebrate the relaunch of PONY’s signature silhouette, the Topstar sneaker.
Watch the official visuals for Joey's "Temptation" record on Tidal below.


The Royal Canadian Navy will hold a retirement ceremony for Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Algonquin On Thursday.
Rear Admiral Ron Lloyd, Deputy Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, will preside over the ceremony. Many current and former sailors, soldiers, airmen and airwomen are expected to be in attendance to give HMCS Algonquin a final cheer and salute during this important occasion to commemorate its service.
The ceremony will take place at A1 Jetty, Her Majesty’s Canadian Dockyard, Esquimalt, BC.


COGNAC, FRANCE — I have a lot of faith in my ability to taste and evaluate. I’m the dude who sniffs and sips and opines, and I’m arrogant enough to think that my palate should be heeded by others.
So it felt weird to be, literally, on the other side of table. Here, inside the white-walled tasting room at Remy Martin, I recently fidgeted nervously as cellar master Pierrette Trichet nosed the cognac I’d just blended.
This was no small judgment. Trichet has 36 years experience in the cognac business, and has been Remy Martin’s cellarmaster since 2003. Sure, this was a friendly challenge, but for me it felt like a matter of professional pride was at stake.
I undertook an exercise similar to what a master blender would face on a daily basis. I’d been given bottles of five-year-old, 15-year-old and 30-year-old eaux de vie (what they call the spirit before it’s officially called cognac) and told to blend them into an XO (or “extra old”) cognac — one that would sell for $80 or more.
As I measured out various ratios of eaux de vie into beakers and flasks and started blending, I thought about how rarely this aspect of the spirits business is discussed. Sure, we hear a lot about raw ingredients, and distilling techniques and barrel aging, but when it comes to spirits, blending is an essential and often misunderstood aspect of production. Aged rums from the Caribbean, bourbons from Kentucky, and, of course, blended scotches like Johnny Walker, all rely on a blending to find the right recipe to bring about a consistent product.
Mostly, though, American drinkers don’t want to hear about blending. We love to talk about singular things: single-malts, single vineyards, single barrels, certain vintages singled out for their singularity. Blending? You may as well be speaking French. For instance, it’s a widely accepted fact within the wine industry that Americans prefer labels listing a single grape, rather than a blend from a geographic region.
Blending often removes an easy shortcut to connoisseurship: citing age. Is this a six-year-old? A 12-year-old? A 30-year-old? Drinkers just love to know the number. An age statement on the bottle becomes like a seal of approval to drop more cash. People will shell out more for a 25 year old whiskey than they will for a 12-year-old, even if the older one has simply turned to oak-flavored juice. If the label says the older spirit comes from a single cask, you can bet people will pay even more.
Blended spirits are more of a leap of faith, and one a lot of aficionados won’t take. Ron Zacapa for instance is a wonderful blend of aged rums that includes some 23-year-old spirits. I’ve heard spirits geeks grumble because Zacapa puts the number “23” on its bottles, suggesting they are somehow being “duped” into drinking younger rum. Eye roll.
Another eye roll for me was when the excellent High West Rendezvous Rye was challenged by bourbon nerds a couple years ago after it won an award from the American Distillers Institute. Purists insisted High West hadn’t “made” the rye whiskey, it had “only” blended six- and 16-year-old whiskeys. In the world of trendy spirits, distilling is seen as an art, while blending is just, you know, following a recipe.
That would come as a shock to a cellarmaster like Trichet, and her 18-member tasting panel, who manage a warehouse of thousands of barrels, many dating back decades. A barrel is a living environment, sensitive to temperature and other elements, with different floors aging differently. Additionally, cognac comes from distilled wine, which has it own variations from year to year.
“The important thing with blending is to, as we say, ‘close the gaps between the ages,’ ” Trichet says. This means Trichet and her team are tasting all the time, year-round, so they know which barrels they can tap for young, fresh fruit aromas, where to find dried fruit and spice, where to find intensity, and where to find the older, sought-after notes of nuttiness, baked apple pie, and toffee you find in fine, balanced cognacs.
Because I was creating an XO cognac, that meant the youngest brandies in the finished cognac must be aged at least six years. Most good XOs seek a “tasting age” of about 20 years.
Given that I was working with five-, 15-, and 30-year old eaux de vie, I assumed whatever I created would hypothetically be need to go into the barrel again for at least another year.
In my first attempt, I used 50 percent of the 15-year-old, which was the most concentrated and intense. Of the remaining half, I used two parts 30-year-old eau de vie to one part five-year-old. Because the alcohol level was at cask strength (around 100 proof), I added a tiny amount of distilled water to bring the mix down to 80 proof — which is what most cognac is bottled at. The result, in my humble opinion, was delicious.
More expensive than Remy Martin’s XO? I asked, knowing that costs about $120.
On my second attempt, I used about 60 percent of the five-year-old, with its fresh apricot aromas and buttery mouthfeel; 30 percent of the 15-year-old; and just about 10 percent of the 30-year-old. Trichet told me I was much closer to Remy Martin’s XO blend on this one.
This was eye-opening to me. I always imagined that expensive cognacs had much more older eau de vie in the blend. But doing the exercise, I began to see how a small amount of the older spirit went a long way.
For a moment, I allowed myself to daydream. Would she consider using my cognac in a new product launch? Would she release my cognac in a special-edition crystal carafe, like the one I saw in the gift shop priced at $16,000? Would Chinese billionaires and Russian oligarchs start clamoring for Le Jason XO?
Trichet quickly brought me back to Earth. “Very nice,” she said, and scribbled a little star on my tasting sheet. I guess that will have to be validation enough.
Follow Wilson on Twitter: @boozecolumnist.


Tottenham Hotspur striker Son Heung-min was overwhelmingly chosen as the athlete of the year among Korean sportspeople.
Son finished on top with 63.3 percent support in a Gallup Korea poll, which was released on Tuesday. He also topped a similar poll last year.
Gallup Korea conducted the poll asking 1,700 people aged 13 or older nationwide from Nov. 7 to 30 to name two athletes who they think had the best performance this year.
Son has had a busy schedule this year shuttling between his duties as a national team member and Tottenham player. He participated in the FIFA World Cup in Russia and the Asian Game in Indonesia, where Korea won the gold medal, earning him an exemption from military service. He scored the 100th goal of his European career just last week.
Coming in a distant second was Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin (19.2 percent). Ryu came back from injury to make 15 starts last season, going 7-3 with an ERA of 1.97 and becoming the first Korean pitcher to start a World Series game.
In third place was national football team goalie Jo Hyeon-woo (8.8 percent), who saved 13 of 14 shots on goal in the group stage of the World Cup earlier this year.
Ranked fourth was national team striker Hwang Ui-jo (8.4 percent), whose Asian Games haul of nine goals in seven matches, including two hat tricks, helped Korea claim the gold.
Rounding out the top five was Kim Eun-jung (7.9 percent), who led the Korean women's curling team to a surprise silver medal at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Her squad upset heavy favorites Sweden and Canada to finish first in the round-robin standings. Korea went on to beat Japan in the semifinals but lost to Sweden in the final.


In the pantheon of Santa Barbara artists, perhaps no star shines brighter than Ray Strong (1905-2006). Prolific, diverse and influential, he left a beautiful legacy of work, much of which celebrates the wild lands of Santa Barbara County, and northern California. For Strong, painting was both documentation of an area and his personal communion with nature.
One collector, David Parker, is sharing his Ray Strong paintings with us, as well as his stories of how he built his collection of over thirty pieces. The collection has an admirable range of artworks (stylistically and geographically) and was guided by Parker’s passion and determination, as well as advice from other collectors and galleries.
Humans have been collecting art for millennia and today, for some wealthy people, it can be a business investment, with collections being warehoused as they grow in value. But for Parker it’s all about his passion for Ray’s vision of the landscape and now, sharing that with the general public.
Our exhibition will also celebrate Strong’s artistic legacy, through his influence on other area artists and in co-founding The Oak Group with Arturo Tello. This network of artists shares Ray’s passion for the outdoors. By raising funds through benefit sales of their work, The Oak Group has helped preserve tens of thousands of acres within parks, preserves and open spaces throughout California.


The Facebook data privacy and Russian election interference scandals show that artificial intelligence is still not up to many critical jobs in the technology sector.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this week the social media company will be adding another 5,000 jobs before the end of the year, on top of 5,000 recently created positions.
A significant number of jobs are in content review, where A.I. still needs a lot of human help in protecting the company from what Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg called "bad actors."
Facebook already employs 7,500 content reviewers, which is a larger number of workers than the entire workforce of most companies.
More Americans may be deleting Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, but the social media giant is adding people to its ranks in a way that does pay: through thousands of new jobs.
Facebook's struggles to contain the privacy and linked Russian election interference headlines underscore a big trend in technology careers that is still being sorted out and spent heavily on by major players. As smart as artificial intelligence gets, it is still not up to many critical job tasks that are required to protect companies from risks that can destroy not only bottom lines but reputations. The number of new jobs being created by Facebook reflects the scope of the challenge.
Facebook is adding 5,000 jobs before the end of the year in security and community operations. That is on top of 5,000 new positions already added this year. By year-end Facebook jobs in these areas will have increased from 10,000 to 20,000 (the teams involved are at 15,000 currently).
One position, content reviewer, is already staffed by Facebook with 7,500 workers. That's roughly the same number of employees as the entire workforce of Twitter and Snap combined. The 5,000 Facebook workers still to be added this year is a larger number than either of those companies, and represents 20 percent of Facebook's reported total employee level of approximately 25,000.
An employee waits for an elevator at a Facebook office.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told CNBC on Thursday, "We need to do more; we continue to do more. We are massively ramping hiring. We are going to continue to ramp even faster."
It was Facebook CEO's Mark Zuckerberg's comments to the New York Times and Wired, though, that laid out the limitations of A.I. and the need for human hiring. "One of the big things we needed to do is coordinate our efforts a lot better across the whole company. It's not all A.I., right? There's certainly a lot that A.I. can do. We can train classifiers to identify content, but most of what we do is identify things that people should look at. So we're going to double the amount of people working on security this year. ... So it's really the technical systems we have working with the people in our operations functions that make the biggest deal," he told the Times.
The Facebook CEO told Wired that when he started Facebook in 2004, "People shared stuff and then they flagged it and we tried to look at it. But no one was saying, 'Hey, you should be able to proactively know every time someone posts something bad,' because the A.I. tech was much less evolved, and we were a couple of people in a dorm room. ... But now you fast-forward almost 15 years and A.I. is not solved, but it is improving."
He also said, "As A.I. tools get better and better, will be able to proactively determine what might be offensive content or violate some rules, what therefore is the responsibility and legal responsibility of companies to do that?"
Sandberg told CNBC that A.I. can catch "99 percent" of the "bad actors" in some content areas, but internet watchdogs are less sure, and after a week that was the worst for Facebook shares since 2012 — and saw tens of billions in Facebook market capitalization erased daily — it seems like the "responsibility" of companies merits more spending on human talent. Simply put, algorithms are not as good as people at context.
"What we are learning is that you can't just throw more A.I. at a lot of these problems. You need people who understand how to train these systems so that they have the insight they need, and then how to monitor them," said Natasha Duarte, a policy analyst at the Center for Democracy & Technology. "They have to review flagged content and see what the tools might be missing, and understand how to go back and add training and data and try to improve the tools accuracy."
Facebook is looking for workers to fill jobs in content moderation — "content reviewers" — who are tasked with taking correct action on a reported piece of content based on the company's Community Standards. The focus in hiring for this type of role is language and market knowledge to ensure the company has the most appropriate cultural context to cover content coming from all over the world, according to information provided to CNBC.
These people work to detect fake accounts, improve authentication, reduce harassment and scams and promote child safety, among other tasks related to safety. Facebook moderators are paid above average in the industry, according to information provided by Facebook to CNBC, and are offered additional benefits, which include resiliency training (stress-related training) and support.
Diversity in hiring is also key, a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC.
Duarte said diversity in hiring is critical. "If you ask me what I think is the most important, whoever tech companies hire, they need people from diverse backgrounds, racially diverse and diverse in terms of gender, and especially when we are talking about content moderation, there is a cultural element to that. You want to make sure people working on automated solutions for content are not just all from one cultural background."
The exact number of Facebook hires to be made in content review is not known and will be a part of the 5,000 new jobs spread across security and safety. The broader team includes experts in enforcement in areas like child safety, hate speech, counterterrorism and legal specialists. So it would include roles such as engineers or those who work directly with law enforcement. Not all of the new jobs are full-time with Facebook. The 5,000 jobs number includes a mix of full-time employees, independent contractors and outsourced positions managed by vendor partners, at least in part driven by the need to match the work with Facebook's needs across global time zones, languages and markets.
Samantha Wallace, who leads the technology practice for Korn Ferry's division that focuses on mid-level search, said the Facebook hiring drive reflects the difficulty companies are having in figuring out how to best take advantage of A.I. and how to not become overly confident in it at the same time.
"It is a topic of conversation that comes up with increasing frequency," Wallace said. "It's bleeding edge, A.I. and machine learning and analytics and data scientists, and all of it wraps into this one space with lots of buzzwords, which leads to lots of ambiguity."
Wallace said that she can't speak to Facebook's hiring specifically, but the search firm has found that outside of the core competencies related to A.I., which require advanced degrees in science and math, traits like curiosity and persistence and creativity are important for hiring in roles related to the massive amount of data. "Harnessing it is one thing, and there's a technical role, but to make it something useful and strategic in decision-making requires non-technical traits within the A.I. world."
Wallace said there is an ocean of data that creates security and content issues, and that requires the subjective perspective from a human being to decide which pieces of data or content make it to the smaller pool that is widely shared. Google has in the past year been hiring more workers to filter terrorism-related content, but this isn't just an issue for social media companies, though they may feel it most acutely.
"Across industries the content-management question is real for all organizations," Wallace said. "In social media there is wide audience interacting with the platform on a daily basis, but others could be web-based or product descriptions disseminated through other channels. The content piece is important. ... These challenges are true for any organization, the integrity of data and security."
"We're a successful enough company that we can employ 15,000 people to work on security and all of the different forms of community [operations]," Zuckerberg told the Times.
The Korn Ferry recruiter said there is a huge movement to fill these positions, but there is also ambiguity about the responsibilities of the positions because it's an emerging field.
"I think across industries there is a tidal wave of need coming and there is an ongoing shortage of talent coming into the space," Wallace said. Companies aren't only playing catch-up but "over-resourcing" for these positions, she said, because they know they will have to "upscale" certain workers and create new skill sets in the future.
"They know there will be a need and know there will be a shortage, so they build a team ... to make sure they have the resources in place when risks materialize in a critical way," Wallace said. She added, "Organizations are moving to the 'We have to add these people now, even if we don't know what they will do, what we will do with them.'"
"You can't just build an algorithm to police the algorithm," Duarte said.
Companies need to have a diverse human pool with different academic backgrounds to come together and decide what a platform is really about and how a company wants it to serve users. Duarte said that if that task is left to A.I. and the engineers who build the code, they will invariably get it wrong.
"Hate speech and sarcasm can be confused," Duarte said. "It takes humans who understand the full scope and context to spot issues where we should be worried about an [A.I.] classifier going wrong."
"Ideally, you have integration between policy and engineers, so policy goals are then informing tool builds," Duarte said.
Even when companies like Facebook try to get it right in response to failings, the responses still have a history of failing themselves. Duarte pointed to her group's efforts to get Facebook to crack down on affinity targeting in ads, for example, routing ads related to homebuying away from minority groups — a social media ad version of the unfair mortgage and real estate industry practices that made homebuying for African Americans difficult for much of the 20th century.
In 2016 the Center for Democracy & Technology advocated for more rules and guidance around how advertisers could target those ads. Facebook said it was fixing the problem and put out a blog post on its efforts. A subsequent investigation by ProPublica found that the Facebook fix didn't fix the problem — ProPublica was able to serve ads in the exact way it shouldn't have been allowed to do anymore.
"We can't just throw A.I. at it, and we don't want to have policy team and engineers siloed separately while building tools," Duarte said.
One option for Facebook suggested this week by one of the New York Times reporters who interviewed Zuckerberg was to cut down on data and content issues by opting to go smaller — Facebook veering away from its free ad-supported model that makes malicious bots' manipulation more possible. Comments from the company's top brass shows that while it continues to consider a version of its platform that could be offered on a paid basis, there are few signs it thinks that's the way to go for the majority of its global audience.
Sandberg's comments on A.I. could seem to express overconfidence in it, or in the least, highlight the tension between man and machine. In addition to "massively ramping" hiring, she told CNBC, "we are massively investing in machine learning and automation. ... There are areas where we've had great success. We take down 99 percent of ISIS or that kind of terrorist content before it even hits the platform. Machines make that possible and our commitment is clear."
"Right now A.I. tools need to be thought of like a student. That is where you get the most value," Wallace said. "But right now many actually operate like a 5-year-old. You are getting some benefit and insight but need to teach them, so they are a ways away from full impact. How we teach them will affect what happens to jobs subsequently."


A small town in Ontario, Canada, has prompted fresh scrutiny of the bottled-water industry after its attempt secure a long-term water supply through the purchase of a well was outbid by the food and drinks multinational Nestlé.
Using a numbered company, the municipality submitted what Linton described as an “aggressive bid” for the five-hectare site. “We put in more money than they did and we removed all conditions.” He declined to specify the exact amount of the bid.
An agreement forged with Nestlé after its initial bid, made 18 months earlier, gave the company the right to respond. “They had the opportunity to match our offer and that’s how we lost on that on that one,” said Linton.
Nestlé Canada currently has permits that allow it to extract up to 4.7m litres of water a day from sources in Ontario. On its website, the company noted that its latest acquisition – the well also sought by Centre Wellington – would be a source to supplement other operations in the region, as well as support future business growth.
In a statement to the Guardian, Nestlé Waters Canada said it wasn’t aware that the counter-offer was from the township of Centre Wellington until well after the purchase was made.
The company, added the statement, would continue its “ongoing dialogue” with the community of Centre Wellington.
Wellington Water Watchers, a volunteer-run organisation dedicated to the protection of water resources, said it would seek to block the company as it moves forward with its plans. “We are fighting tooth and nail to not allow that pump test to go ahead,” said Mike Nagy of the group.
The water in the well is artesian spring water, he said, making it particularly valuable to consumers outside of Canada.
The failed bid comes amid growing calls for the Ontario government to reevaluate how it grants permits to the bottled-water industry. Last month, after a severe drought triggered questions about the millions of litres a day of water being sold to bottled-water companies in the province, Kathleen Wynne, Ontario’s premier, promised a government review into the practice.
Government policies, she noted, had failed to keep up with the times. “Thirty years ago, we wouldn’t have envisioned an industry that took water and put it in plastic bottles so that people could carry it around,” she said.
On Friday, she reiterated her view that bottled water companies should be considered differently from other industries that use water, such as mining or construction. “I think we have to look very closely at what those companies are paying, what they’re allowed to take, and that’s exactly the work the ministry of environment and climate change is doing right now,” she told reporters.
The province currently charges C$3.71 for every million litres of water, along with a permit fee of up to C$3,000 depending on the risk of environmental impact.


The 3-year-old boy squirmed in his mother’s arms, an IV drip unspooling from his wrist, his skin flush with a pale pink rash.
As a doctor struggled to put an inhaler between the boy’s blistered lips to calm his coughing, his mother, Norayah Cabugatan, explained how she had resisted vaccinating her son and his two siblings against measles.
The measles virus, with its rash and often high fever, may cause dangerous complications. But Cabugatan had been spooked by the idea of a vaccine, having heard it could have fatal side effects.
The boy, Andrew, is among more than 20,000 people, mainly children, who have been infected during a measles outbreak in the Philippines. As of mid-March, about 315 people had died from measles since the start of the year, according to the Philippine Red Cross, compared with 202 people who died of the disease in the country last year.
A driving force behind the outbreak, according to some doctors, health workers and government officials in the Philippines, has been a 2-year-old, politically charged scandal involving a government-led dengue vaccination program that cratered an already wavering confidence in vaccines.
Although it remains unclear whether the program caused any deaths, many parents stopped showing up at medical centers for vaccinations and began turning away health workers offering at-home vaccines. The spread of misinformation and rumors about vaccines was aided by social media, according to some doctors.
Other countries have also seen increases in measles cases, officials said. In the United States, where there is a fervent movement against vaccines, there were 268 recorded cases of measles in the U.S. this year as of March 14, compared with 372 cases during all of 2018, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The number of cases of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases has been going up while vaccination rates are going down. The reason that it is measles first is because measles is the most contagious of the vaccine-preventable diseases,” said Edsel Salvana, an infectious diseases physician at the University of the Philippines, Manila, who has written extensively about the recent outbreak.
“With all the stuff that is going on with anti-vaxxers in the U.S., that kind ofgets exported all over the place,” he said in an interview.
The root of the anti-vaccine scare in the Philippines dates to April 2016, whenthe previous government launched a program to provide a mass vaccine for dengue, a tropical mosquito-borne disease. The government, just a month from a nationwide election, chose Dengvaxia, produced by the French drugmaker Sanofi, for the immunization drive.
The following year, in November, Sanofi announced that the vaccine could lead to severe cases of dengue for people who had not previously contracted the disease. The announcement alarmed parents whose children had been vaccinated, and some politicians and the media linked deaths to the vaccine with little or no evidence.
The vaccine program, under which about 830,000 schoolchildren had received at least one dose of the vaccine, was halted, and the vaccine was later banned.
“People started to panic. There was hysteria andchaos,” said Lulu C. Bravo, executive director of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination.
At a health center in south Manila, a sprawling city with about 13 million people, vaccination researchers who were not part of the government investigations collected testimony from community health workers describing the hostility they faced when trying to discuss or administer vaccines in light of the Dengvaxia scandal.
In one video testimonial, a health worker nervously recounted being confronted by members of a neighborhood where she had worked for years. When she would show up, residents would shout warnings, telling one another other to run away. Some called health workers the “murderers of children,” she said.
The University of the Philippines and Philippine General Hospital investigated the deaths of 14 children linked to Dengvaxia. The formal investigation, which was not connected to the testimony collected by vaccination researchers, found no direct evidence that the vaccine caused any of the 14 deaths. Six cases require further review, investigators said.
Philippine Sen. Richard Gordon, who led an investigation into the dengue vaccine and serves as chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, said Sanofi didn’t have “a sterling record” and accused the company of improper contacts with the past administration.
The Senate investigation last year found former President Benigno Aquino III and other officials from his government liable for violating numerous laws in connection with the procurement and distribution of the Dengvaxia vaccine. The previous government maintained the vaccine program was handled properly, and Sanofi denied any wrongdoing.
The Philippines banned the vaccine on Feb. 19.
Karen M. Fresco-Tadina, a pediatrician at the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, a government-run hospital on the east side of metropolitan Manila where Cabugatan’s son was being treated, said doctors there noticed a surge inmeasles patients beginning in late December and continuing into January.
Fresco-Tadina said the hospital struggled to find space to house patients. An isolation ward meant to house six patients was soon filled with 53 people.
By mid-February, the hospital appealed to the Philippine Red Cross to set up treatment facilities in tents outside, which they did. From the start of the year to March 14, the medical center treated 925 measles patients; 19 of them died. During a normal year, Fresco-Tadina said, doctors would see about 30 measles cases.
In a Red Cross tent, which is where Cabugatan obtained treatment for her son, children lay listlessly on cots; others wailed. Cabugatan had gotten her other two children, an 8-month-old daughter and 4-year-old son, vaccinated after Andrew fell ill on March 8. She pleaded with other parents to do the same.
McLaughlin is a special correspondent.


The work Jefferson Davis in blue : the life of Sherman's relentless warrior represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Boston University Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.
"Besides his illustrious name, Jefferson Columbus Davis, who fought for the Union, is best known for two appalling actions: the September 1862 murder of General William "Bull" Nelson - his former commanding officer - and the abandonment of hundreds of African American refugees to the mercy of Confederate cavalry at Ebenezer Creek during Sherman's march through Georgia in 1864. Historians have generally dismissed Davis (1828-1879) as a reckless assassin, a racist, a journeyman soldier at best, and an embarrassment to the Lincoln war effort. But as Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr., and Gordon D. Whitney demonstrate in the first biography of the unredeemed general, such smoke of notoriety obscures the real story of a complex military leader."